Cohort 2025
This page features detailed profiles of some scholars. For a complete list of Clarendon Scholars from the 2025 cohort, please visit this link (to be updated for the 2025-26 Cohort).
Alex works on the history of emotions, mental health, and suicide. Their current project examines methods of preventing suicide in medieval Europe, and aims to shift discussions around suicidal experiences through a proactive rather than retroactive perspective. Prior to beginning their DPhil at Oxford, they completed an MPhil in Medieval History at the University of Cambridge, and a BA in Liberal Arts at the University of Durham. They have also worked as a journalist in Berlin, writing for some of Germany's largest newspapers. Their research is funded by a scholarship jointly awarded by Clarendon and Merton College. When they are not doing research, you can catch them shooting hoops on the basketball court.
Alex Beste
College/Degree: Merton College/DPhil in History
Country of Origin: Germany
Cohort: 2025
Antonia is a DPhil student in Physics interested in quantum theory. Her research focuses on how principles from quantum information theory can help clarify the connection between quantum mechanics and general relativity. Besides quantum gravity, she is also interested in foundational problems in quantum information, as well as the potential role of quantum effects in biology and cosmology. Outside of physics, Antonia enjoys swimming and playing underwater rugby.
Antonia Weber
College/Degree: St Edmund Hall/DPhil in Atomic and Laser Physics
Country of Origin: Germany
Cohort: 2025
Armand Grollemund
Armand Grollemund
College/Degree: Christ Church/DPhil in Engineering Science
Country of Origin: France
Cohort: 2025
Austeja is a Medical Doctor and holds a Master's of Medicine degree from Vilnius University, Lithuania, where she specialised in Neurology, completing her residency in 2025 and obtaining a fellowship of the European Board of Neurology. During her time in Lithuania, Austeja was involved in clinical headache research supervised by Professor Kristina Ryliskiene. Austeja also graduated from the University of Bordeaux in 2023 with a Master's degree in Neuroscience and a thesis completed at Imperial College London, under the supervision of Dr Alexi Nott, investigating the function of enhancers containing Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease risk variants.
Austeja is currently undertaking her DPhil investigating microglial gene regulatory landscapes underlying prodromal Alzheimer's disease progression under the supervision of Professor Zameel Cader. She is supported by the Alzheimer’s Society Clinician and Healthcare Professionals Training Fellowship and a Clarendon scholarship.
Austeja Dapkute
College/Degree: Keble College/DPhil in Clinical Neurosciences
Country of Origin: Lithuania
Cohort: 2025
Caitlin is a DPhil candidate in Management, examining how different organisations’ views come into conflict when they try to collaborate and how this inhibits social change. She has built her career at the intersection of social innovation research and practice, with over a decade of experience in the nonprofit sector addressing issues such as polarisation, racism, and decolonising the Canadian legal system. Her research draws on her experience as both a practitioner and a researcher to explore how peacebuilding theory can inform collaboration and management practice, with the aim of helping organisations tackle urgent global challenges more effectively.
Caitlin MacDonald
College/Degree: Green Templeton College/DPhil in Management
Country of Origin: Canada
Cohort: 2025
Carle Gent is an artist from Bexhill-on-sea.
She received her MFA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths in 2015 and since 2022 has been lecturing in Studio Practice on the BA Fine Art, MFA Fine Art and MA Art & Ecology programmes at Goldsmiths.
In 2022 Monitor Books published their debut pamphlet 'The Balls of Alban'. Other recent publications include 'Felon Herb' from Kelder Press and 'All Us Girls Have Been Dead for So Long' from Arcadia Missa, a published iteration of their cli-fi musical co-written with Linda Stupart.
She is currently developing new sonic, sculpted and performed artworks looking at how artmaking can meaningfully expand our recognition of the queer and internal lives of nonhuman creatures.
Carle Gent
College/Degree: Queens’ College/DPhil in Fine Art
Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Cohort: 2025
Catherine is working on the migration of the Spanish harp to the reforming Netherlands, its roles there in psalm culture and in theatre, and the implications of all this for the ways in which Iberian Catholic and Jewish contributions to Dutch musical history are considered. She is supervised by Dr. Emanuela Vai and funded by the Campion Hirsh-Loschert Scholarship in conjunction with Clarendon.
Catherine is Director of Music, Bye-Fellow and Praelector at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.
She has worked widely in theatre, opera, liturgy, film and TV as a conductor, historical/electro harpist, recorder player and singer, with credits including RSC and Shakespeare’s Globe.
Catherine’s previous degrees are from Oxford University, the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and the Royal Academy of Music. She is mother to three daughters.
Catherine Horsewood-Groom
College/Degree: Campion Hall/DPhil in Music
Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Cohort: 2025
Chukwuemeka is pursuing an MSc in Integrated Immunology at the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Oxford, as both a Mastercard Foundation AfOx Scholar and a Clarendon Scholar. He holds a medical degree from Obafemi Awolowo University and a BSc in Microbiology from Covenant University, graduating summa cum laude in both. His interests lie at the intersection of immunology, gastroenterology, and health equity, with a focus on immune-mediated mechanisms in inflammatory bowel disease. As an Ethical Electives Scholar at the University of Cambridge, he explored innovative approaches to treating upper gastrointestinal perforations. He has co-founded a digital health platform, led open-access research initiatives, and mentored hundreds of students. Outside academia, he enjoys hiking, exploring art and nature, and watching movies and documentaries.
Chukwuemeka Obuekwe
College/Degree: Green Templeton College/MSc in Integrated Immunology
Country of Origin: Nigeria
Cohort: 2025
Daniel Ruin holds an MA in Greek from the University of Glasgow and an MPhil in Buddhist Studies from the University of Oxford. His research focuses on the French philosopher, comparative religionist, and Islamic studies scholar Henry Corbin (1903-1978), and examines Corbin’s engagement with Buddhism and wider currents in Indian religion. This project is supervised by Dr. Jessica Frazier and is generously co-funded by the AHRC. Outside academia, Daniel has a keen interest in jazz and as well as European, Persian, and Indian classical music, and has a modest collection of plucked string instruments from around the world.
Daniel Ruin
College/Degree: Mansfield College/DPhil in Theology and Religion
Country of Origin: Sweden
Cohort: 2025
Dilay is a DPhil student in the Department of Pharmacology, supervised by Professor Abhishek Banerjee in the Adaptive Decisions Lab. Her interests lie in the intersection of computational neuroscience and artificial intelligence, with a particular focus on the computations and brain circuitry that supports the kind of flexible learning that allows for intelligent and adaptive behaviour in animals (mice and humans). Her research also aims to contribute to efforts in bypassing current challenges in artificial learning. She previously studied for degrees and has broad research experience in cognitive psychology, AI and neuroscience at UCL, Imperial and Oxford. She is looking forward to combining her fields of interest for her DPhil research, jointly funded by The Clarendon Fund, the Oxford-The Queen's College Graduate Scholarship, and the Department of Pharmacology Studentship.
Dilay Fidan Ercelik
College/Degree: Queen’s College/DPhil in Pharmacology
Country of Origin: France
Cohort: 2025
Elisa is a DPhil candidate researching the solidity, depth and closeness of language and rhetoric, by applying the term ‘sculpture’ to a range of discrete things, braiding together three current fields in scholarship: new materialism, kinetic modernism, and genetic criticism. The broad shape of this research emerges from the sculptural interests of Walter Pater, Edmund Gosse, Anna Ladd, H.D., Joyce, and Samuel Beckett.
Elisa graduated with a BA in English Language and Literature from Oxford in 2024 and was subsequently awarded the Cambridge Masters & Downing Alf Monk scholarship to undertake an MPhil in English Studies. During her undergraduate and master’s research, she focused her attention on James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake.
As well as her Clarendon scholarship, Elisa has been awarded the AHRC OOC DTP2 Christ Church scholarship.
Elisa Moy
College/Degree: Christ Church/DPhil in English
Country of Origin: England
Cohort: 2025
Ellie is an MPhil student in Slavonic Studies at St Antony’s College, Oxford. She earned her BA in Slavic Languages & Literatures from Princeton University, where she worked on spatial readings of Soviet literature, dissident “kitchen culture” in post-Stalinist Moscow, and the prose of Vladimir Sharov. In the past year she lived in Leipzig, Germany, working at a school as a Fulbright ETA. Her research focuses on domestic memory, orality, apocalypticism, and spatial themes in 20th-21st century Russian literature. She’s currently learning Polish!
Ellie Makar-Limanov
College/Degree: St Antony’s College/MPhil in Slavonics
Country of Origin: USA
Cohort: 2025
Fred is training as a health economist at the Health Economics Research Centre. He previously studied at the University of Edinburgh and Oriel College, University of Oxford, and has experience working across academia, the private sector, and the non-profit sector. He is passionate about ensuring that health-improving medical innovations are accessible to patients, and his mission is to lead impactful research at the intersection of genomics, health economics, and decision science. In his free time, he is an enthusiastic cyclist and skier.
Frederick McElwee
College/Degree: Brasenose College/DPhil in Population Health
Country of Origin: USA
Cohort: 2025
Iryna Zamuruieva is a researcher and artist interested in human-environmental relations. At Oxford, Iryna continues to develop her project “A Field from Afar” – an interdisciplinary investigation into the environmental history and political ecology of agriculture in Ukraine. Focusing on rapeseed, Iryna’s research tells a long history of how trans-imperial, capitalist and multispecies relations shape life, labour and ecologies in central Ukraine. Iryna blends archival, ethnographic and statistical research with her own photography in an attempt to grasp why landscapes are the way they are today.
Prior to joining Oxford School of Global and Area Studies Iryna worked on environmental policy in Scotland, was an artist in residence at Street Level Photoworks and research fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM).
See Iryna’s personal website for more information: https://irynazamuruieva.com/
Iryna Zamuruieva
College/Degree: Oriel College/DPhil in Area Studies
Country of Origin: Ukraine
Cohort: 2025
Isabella's research explores how gender informs the creation of expertise as a source of power in international relations by examining the work and lives of five historic nurses between 1850 and 1950. This work is an expansion of her MPhil thesis, which analysed the pioneering work of early 20th-century nurse and social reformer Lillian Wald.
Before beginning her graduate work, Isabella worked as a research associate for global health, economics, and development at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in Washington, DC. During her undergraduate degree, she conducted and published research with the Center for Global Health Science and Security, the Bansal Lab, and as a Fellow with the Global Irish Studies Initiative. She has co-authored publications in the Lancet, Fire Ecology, and Brain & Behavioral Sciences, and has also written for Think Global Health and CFR.org.
Isabella Turilli
College/Degree: Merton College/DPhil in International Relations
Country of Origin: USA/Italy
Cohort: 2025
Isadora Pedro Neves Marques is a filmmaker, visual artist, poet, and writer researching how speculative fiction, a literary term spanning non-realist genres such as science fiction and fantasy, is being used in contemporary literature and film to complicate the role of autobiography in representational politics. Through select case studies that combine the autobiographical and the speculative, the research aims to explore the tension between genres based, respectively, on truth and on fiction.
Their films premiered at Critics' Week – Cannes Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, and the International Film Festival Rotterdam, where they were awarded the Ammodo Tiger Short Award in 2022. They were the Portuguese Official Representation – Portugal Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia in 2022 and their work has been exhibited globally, including at High Line, Pérez Art Museum of Miami, Castello di Rivoli, CA2M, Museo Reina Sofia, Gasworks, Wellcome Collection, Tate Modern, Palais de Tokyo, Inside Out Art Museum Beijing, and Kyoto City University of Arts Gallery. They were the recipient of a Pinchuk Future Generation Art Special Prize in 2022 and Artissima’s Present Future Art Prize in 2018. As a writer, they are the author of the poetry collections Biography of a Fiction (2025), A Campa de Marx (2025) and Sex as Care and Other Viral Poems (2020), and of the short-story collection Morrer na América (2017). They are a regular contributor on art and film theory to e-flux journal and have edited several anthologies, most recently "YWY, Searching for a Character Between Future Worlds: Gender, Ecology, Science Fiction” (2022). In 2020 they cofounded the poetry press Pântano Books, and in 2021 the film production company Foi Bonita a Festa.
Previously they completed an MA in Art&Politics from Goldsmiths University of London and a BA in Fine Arts from Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon.
Isadora Pedro Neves Marques
College/Degree: St John’s College/DPhil in Fine Arts
Country of Origin: Portugal
Cohort: 2025
DPhil candidate researching HIV/AIDS anthologies published in the UK. The impact of the epidemic on British poetry and publishing cultures is understudied and, through examining a select few anthologies, my research clarifies the role of poetry in coalescing, catalysing and challenging the community bonds which formed during the crisis.
I read English literature and language at Oxford (BA), and studied contemporary literature at UCL (MA).
Jesse Astley
College/Degree: Queen’s College/DPhil in English
Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Cohort: 2025
Jessica is a DPhil candidate in Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. Her research explores strategies for strengthening public service delivery in the education sector in low- and middle-income countries, with a particular focus on policies that advance girls’ and women’s education and empowerment.
Prior to her doctoral studies, Jessica served as a Pre-Doctoral Research Fellow at the What Works Hub for Global Education, a Research Assistant for the Mind and Behaviour Research Group, and a Policy Intern with the Girls' Education and Empowerment Team at J-PAL Africa. She holds a Bachelor of Social Sciences in Economics and Psychology and a Master's in Applied Economics, both from the University of Cape Town.
Jessica Nicklin
College/Degree: St John’s College/DPhil in Public Policy
Country of Origin: South Africa
Cohort: 2025
Jonny is a DPhil student in the Alsaleh Group, investigating novel therapeutic strategies for osteoarthritis and the effects of lifestyle on ageing. His research incorporates advanced experimental models, utilising the groups live experiments on the International Space Station.
He has broader interests in healthcare technologies and policies that promote healthy ageing and disease prevention. Previously, Jonny worked at Genomics Ltd., an Oxford startup developing cutting-edge genetic tests to predict individuals’ lifetime risk of common, complex diseases such as obesity and breast or prostate cancer.
Jonny holds a degree in Molecular Biology from Durham University and an MSc in Genomic Medicine from the University of Oxford, where he developed 3D organoid models for studying rare muscle diseases.
Jonny Gondzic
College/Degree: St John’s College/DPhil in Molecular & Cellular Medicine
Country of Origin: United Kingdom/Bosnia
Cohort: 2025
I am a PhD student in the Oxford Translational Neurostimulation Laboratory at the Department of Psychiatry. I am investigating the therapeutic potential of non-invasive brain stimulation methods, such as transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation (tFUS) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), for the treatment of depression in humans. My research is generously funded by the Clarendon Scholarship and the Rachel Conrad Scholarship for the Study of Clinical Depression. Before coming to Oxford, I studied a Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Science, and Master of Science in Neuroscience at the University of Otago, New Zealand. I also spent time in industry as a Clinical Trials Associate at Pacific Edge Cancer Diagnostics, and am co-inventor of a wearable neurostimulation device for asthma called the VentiMate. I am a huge fan of music, reading, sport, nature, and socialising.
Joseph Balfe
College/Degree: Wolfson College/DPhil in Pyschiatry
Country of Origin: New Zealand
Cohort: 2025
Josephine is an academic GP, working clinically in Sheffield. She recently completed an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship in General Practice based at the University of Sheffield and is Deputy Lead of the Deep End Research Alliance (DERA).
Her research focuses on racial equity in health and co-producing community led interventions to tackle structural racism within healthcare. Her research currently centres on dementia equity and the socio-cultural influences impacting access and uptake of services.
Previously, she worked with public health research teams in Jamaica (University of the West Indies) as a research assistant on studies exploring dementia care in the Caribbean, the intersection of faith and mental health in Caribbean communities and realist evaluation of a complex intervention to address non-communicable diseases. She earned a distinction from LSHTM during her MSc in Public Health for Development.
Dr Josephine Reynolds
College/Degree: Kellogg College/DPhil in Primary Health Care
Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Cohort: 2025
Josh is a physician-scientist and medical oncologist at CMC Vellore. He completed MBBS, MD, MRCP(UK), and a DM in Medical Oncology at CMC, where he now leads investigator-initiated studies in triple-negative breast cancer, immunotherapy dose-optimization, and cancer microbiome modulation. His translational focus spans early-phase trials, biomarker discovery, and AI-enabled pathology for diagnosis and prognostication. He received the ASCO Conquer Cancer IDEA Award (2023) and the ASCO Global Oncology Young Investigator Award (2025) and holds an Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) grant for TNBC research. He serves on the editorial boards of Scientific Reports and Technology in Cancer Research & Treatment. Beyond work, he enjoys playing guitar, traveling with his family, and reading science fiction.
Josh Thomas Georgy
College/Degree: Green Templeton College/MSc in Precision Cancer Medicine
Country of Origin: India
Cohort: 2025
Juliette is a socio-medical anthropologist with research interests spanning health and wellbeing, ageing, social care and theories of embodiment. After obtaining her first degree from UCL, Juliette completed a Masters in Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford. She was further awarded the Ann McPherson predoctoral fellowship from the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences in 2024-2025.
Juliette Foulon
College/Degree: Green Templeton College/DPhil in Anthropology
Country of Origin: France
Cohort: 2025
Kaila’s research investigates how lifestyle can prevent or delay dementia, with an emphasis on inclusive, cross-cultural cohorts. Born in Mexico, she focuses on incorporating cohorts that include Spanish speakers and other underrepresented groups, addressing the field’s over-reliance on English-speaking samples.
Before Oxford, she earned an MPhil in Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of Cambridge (Distinction) and a BSc in Psychology from the University of Bonn (First Class Honours equivalent).
She also spent a year in management consulting, translating longevity science into public-health strategy recommendations.
Kaila Borgards
College/Degree: Christ Church/DPhil in Psychiatry
Country of Origin: Germany
Cohort: 2025
I completed the MPhil in Economics at Oxford and the BSc in Economics at UCL before starting the DPhil. My previous works include applied economics of development and modelling climate tipping risks in macroeconomics. My current research focuses on how multiple layers of uncertainty in climate, geopolitics, technological transformation — and the heterogeneous way agents form and update beliefs about them — shape behaviours, financial volatility, higher-order risks, and the stability of macro-financial systems.
Kexin Wu
College/Degree: Nuffield College/DPhil in Economics
Country of Origin: China
Cohort: 2025
Kupakwashe is a public policy and human rights professional committed to social justice.
Her work experience ranges from working in the Australian public service, public sector and international NGOs such as UNICEF, Save The Children and Plan International. She developed a $45 million youth crime diversion policy, supported the creation of Australia’s National Anti-Racism Strategy, evaluated Australia’s first sick pay guarantee, and assisted in implementing the National Student Ombudsman. She contributed to Plan International’s climate finance negotiation strategy for COP29 and advises organisations including Australia’s national broadcaster, several climate change authorities and the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership. Since 2017, she has run a social enterprise focussed on youth civic engagement in Australia, with the proceeds funding girls education in Zimbabwe. Currently, Kupakwashe is undertaking an MPhil in Development Studies and explores the “just transition.”
Kupakwashe Matangira
College/Degree: St Antony’s College/MPhil in Development Studies
Country of Origin: Zimbabwe/Australia
Cohort: 2025
Leago is a South African medical doctor working at the intersection of health, technology, and society. She recently completed an MSc in Applied Digital Health at the University of Oxford, where her research examined the use of large language models to structure unstructured clinical text and explored their implications for clinical use cases.
She is now pursuing a DPhil in Clinical Medicine with the Health Systems Collaborative, focusing on how technologies are shaping service delivery in South African district hospitals. Her work spans clinical input in digital health, academic research, and collaborations with industry.
Leago Sebesho
College/Degree: Jesus College/DPhil in Clinical Medicine
Country of Origin: South Africa
Cohort: 2025
Magdalene Mawugbe has a rich background in Disability and Rehabilitation studies with a particular interest in Deaf Studies and Sign Language Communication. Her research in Oxford is focused on Health equity and technology as well as measures to improving communication between Deaf people and their hearing counterparts. Outside academia, she’s a music lover.
Magdalene Mawugbe
College/Degree: Green Templeton College/DPhil in Translational Health Sciences
Country of Origin: Ghana
Cohort: 2025
Malcolm Lim is pursuing a DPhil in Chemistry under the supervision of Professor Angela Russell, and is funded by the Clarendon Scholarship in partnership with Merton College. Malcolm's research interests within medicinal chemistry focus on exploring the induction of biased agonism in human GPCRs, namely FFA2 and FFA4, receptors with potential anti-diabetic properties.
Prior to his studies at Oxford, Malcolm previously graduated in 2025 from the University of Cambridge, UK with a Masters in Science (MSci) and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Natural Sciences, specializing in Chemistry. His Masters' project was supervised by Professor Gonçalo Bernardes, focusing on the development of prodrug scaffolds for covalent inhibitors.
Outside the laboratory, Malcolm enjoys experimenting with new recipes, often embarking on (quite often disastrous) culinary escapades, and fortunately learning something new in the process!
Malcolm Jun Ying Lim
College/Degree: Merton College/DPhil in Chemistry
Country of Origin: Singapore
Cohort: 2025
Marta (she/her) is DPhil student in Clinical Epidemiology and Medical Statistics. Her research focuses on using real-world, routinely collected healthcare data to improve the safety and effectiveness of medical devices. The aim of her PhD is to evaluate and develop methods for analysing observational data in ways that minimise bias and strengthen causal inference.
She earned her BSc (Hons) in Engineering Physics from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (Barcelona). Following her undergraduate studies, she joined the University of Oxford as a Research Assistant, where she contributed to the development of open-source analytical tools for large-scale epidemiological studies under the DARWIN-EU initiative, a project funded by the European Medicines Agency.
Marta Alcalde Herraiz
College/Degree: Wolfson College/DPhil in Clinical Epidemiology and Medical Statistics
Country of Origin: Spain
Cohort: 2025
Max Blansjaar is a musician and writer from Amsterdam. He holds a BA in Music from St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford, where he was awarded the Gibbs Prize by the Faculty of Music in 2024.
His work centres around cultural politics in popular music and the negotiation of social identities and relations through music and sound, with recent essays published in Sound Studies, the Journal of Popular Music Studies, and the Journal of Extreme Anthropology, as well as the popular magazines Dirt (USA), The Story (AUS), and Taalhelden (NL). His musical projects have been featured by outlets including Brooklyn Vegan, BBC 6Music, CLASH, Bandcamp Daily, and The Post.
His current research concerns aesthetics of independence in contemporary popular music.
Max Blansjaar
College/Degree: Jesus College/MSt in Music (Musicology)
Country of Origin: The Netherlands
Cohort: 2025
Maya FarrHenderson is pursuing her DPhil with the Cancer Epidemiology Unit in Oxford Population Health. Her research in social epidemiology seeks to understand how social, environmental, political, and economic factors shape the way disease spreads. She will study potential associations between chronic disease risk and providing informal care to family members among UK women.
Before arriving in Oxford, Maya worked at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, as a Behavioral Health Researcher studying the health of astronaut crews and producing knowledge on countermeasures to support future long-duration human spaceflight missions. Maya earned her BA in Sociology from William & Mary and her MPH in Global Health from Emory University while funded as a Gates Millennium Scholar. When she is not staring at datasets, Maya enjoys long-distance hiking and running.
Maya FarrHenderson
College/Degree: Wolfson College/DPhil in Population Health
Country of Origin: USA
Cohort: 2025
Mihir is a DPhil candidate in the Physics Department at the University of Oxford, working with Prof. Amalia Coldea on developing a foundation model for crystalline materials. He previously completed his undergraduate degree in Physics at Oxford and has represented the UK at the International Physics Olympiad (IPhO). He has research experience at Fractile and Prior Labs, where he worked on the design, training, and deployment of frontier foundation models. His research interests lie at the intersection of AI, science, and technology.
Mihir Manium
College/Degree: New College/DPhil in Superconductivity (CDT)
Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Cohort: 2025
Mikael Maritz is from South Africa but completed his bachelor’s degree in physics from Saint Olaf College in the USA. At St. Olaf, Mikael became member of the Phi Beta Kappa society and was awarded the Rossing Physics Scholarship. He graduated summa cum laude, with distinction. During his summers he interned at Consulting Engineers Group, an electrical engineering company in Minnesota. He developed a battery degradation tool to forecast the capacity fade of Li-ion batteries operating on the ERCOT and CAISO wholesale energy markets.
Now, Mikael is a first-year DPhil student in the Materials department. His research will focus on simulating the energy yield of perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells, with a particular focus on incorporating a degradation model. His work will provide system-level energy forecasts, informing industry and policy decisions for future energy markets.
Mikael Maritz
College/Degree: Lincoln College/DPhil in Materials
Country of Origin: South Africa
Cohort: 2025
Nathaniel Z Counts, JD is a part-time DPhil student in Population Health studying the upstream drivers of declining youth mental health in certain countries and potential policy solutions to address these drivers. Under the supervision of Professors Jennifer Dowd, PhD and Charles Rahal, PhD in the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science, Nathaniel will be applying machine learning methods for causal inference to identify and model the forces likely shaping youth mental health, as well as how this feeds back into other outcomes of interest, such as macroeconomic growth. Nathaniel seeks to apply his findings directly to his advocacy work by advancing high-impact policies for improving youth wellbeing.
Nathaniel also serves as the Chief Policy Officer for The Kennedy Forum, a national mental health non-profit, as well as Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. In his position with The Kennedy Forum, he advances a public policy agenda aimed at ensuring equitable access to effective and responsive services and supports, within a population health framework that focuses on prevention and social determinants of health. In previous roles, Nathaniel served as Senior Policy Advisor for Mental Health to the Commissioner of Health for the City of New York, where he advised on innovative financing, policy, and research strategies for achieving the city’s mental health goals. He received his JD cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was a Student Fellow at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, and his BA in biology from Johns Hopkins.
Nathaniel Z Counts
College/Degree: Kellogg College/DPhil in Population Health
Country of Origin: USA
Cohort: 2025
A medical doctor from South Africa with an interest in population health, health systems, and large data sets.
Nicholas Makins
College/Degree: Kellogg College/MSc in Global Health Science and Epidemiology
Country of Origin: South Africa
Cohort: 2025
Pei Rong is a DPhil student at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine (WIMM), investigating the interplay between iron biology and B cell immune function. She obtained a BSc (Hons) in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Dundee, graduating with First Class Honours and the Biomedical Sciences Honours Stream Prize. Her research combines basic immunology with translational perspectives, reflecting her interest in bridging fundamental science with clinical application. Outside the lab, she enjoys bouldering and other sports.
Pei Rong Toh
College/Degree: Wolfson College/DPhil in Medical Sciences
Country of Origin: Singapore
Cohort: 2025
Rebecca holds a BA in Spanish and Philosophy from the University of Wuppertal and an MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management from Oxford University. She is particularly interested in Environmental and Digital Humanities, especially in the context of National parks. Outside of academia, she enjoys climbing, playing violin and cello as well as spending time outdoors and with her cats.
Rebecca Frik
College/Degree: Worcester Hall/DPhil in Medieval and Modern Languages
Country of Origin: Germany
Cohort: 2025
Rishi is a passionate medical student from Chicago, USA, currently enrolled in the BS/MD program at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. As an undergraduate, Rishi distinguished himself as one of only ten global recipients of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Undergraduate Scholar Award, in recognition of his research on the role of ACKR1 in breast cancer metastasis. At the University of Oxford, Rishi is expanding his research interests at the intersection of molecular oncology and translational medicine. Outside of class, Rishi enjoys traveling, socializing with friends, and participates actively in the Oxford Union and the Oxford Economics Society.
Rishi Patel
College/Degree: Trinity College/MSc in Applied Cancer Science
Country of Origin: USA
Cohort: 2025
Sami is a global health researcher dedicated to advancing health equity through data-driven, community-engaged, and interdisciplinary approaches. Prior to Oxford, he studied at the University of Toronto as a Lester B. Pearson Scholar and worked across four continents on projects addressing inequities in access to care and the social and environmental determinants of health. His experience spans public health intelligence at the World Health Organization, migrant-health fieldwork in India with the Reach Alliance, and bias mitigation in clinical decision-making at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
He is particularly interested in the intersection of climate change, migration, and health, with a methodological focus on spatial epidemiology. Outside academia, Sami enjoys cycling and travelling, having visited over 50 countries and learned seven languages.
Sami El Sabri
College/Degree: Kellogg College/MSc in Global Health Sciences & Epidemiology
Country of Origin: Morocco
Cohort: 2025
Sebastian Oliver Eck is a DPhil student in Music (Musicology) at the University of Oxford. His interdisciplinary doctoral research examines the posthumous publication of Max Reger’s (1873-1916) early works, combining historical musicology with computational social network analysis, co-supervised by the Oxford e-Research Centre.
Prior to his DPhil, Sebastian completed an MSc in Digital Scholarship at Oxford, receiving the Voltaire Thesis Prize. He holds a BA in Musicology from the University of Music Franz Liszt Weimar, with study periods at Waseda University, Tokyo. His undergraduate and master’s studies were supported by the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes. At Oxford, his DPhil is funded by Clarendon and the Hélène La Rue Scholarship in Music. Alongside his academic work, he is a Choral Scholar at Wadham College and active in Oxford’s digital scholarship community.
Sebastian Oliver Eck
College/Degree: St Cross College/DPhil in Music
Country of Origin: Germany
Cohort: 2025
Shiuli is pursuing a DPhil in Materials at Exeter College, Oxford. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Cambridge, where she was awarded BA and MSci degrees in Natural Sciences. During her time at Cambridge, she was elected to scholarship of Christ’s College and shortlisted as a national finalist for the Female Undergraduate of the Year Award.
Shiuli has a particular interest in experimental metallurgy and enjoys exploring the relationships between processing conditions, microstructures and mechanical properties. Her DPhil research will focus on characterising lightweight aluminium alloys and identifying promising candidates for additive manufacturing.
Shiuli Banerjee
College/Degree: Exeter College/DPhil in Materials
Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Cohort: 2025
Tejas is a DPhil student in Mathematics, specialising in Geometric Group Theory. This means that he is interested in using tools from geometry and topology to understand the structure of discrete groups, algebraic objects encoding symmetries. Previously, Tejas completed his Undergraduate Masters in Mathematics at St. Hugh's College, Oxford and is excited to spend four more years in this beautiful city. Outside mathematics, Tejas enjoys playing the piano and has recently taken up bouldering.
Tejas Mittal
College/Degree: Kellogg College/DPhil in Mathematics
Country of Origin: India
Cohort: 2025
Ha (Joey) Do graduated from the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy, where she majored in Public Policy and Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences. Her research interests focus on post-colonial politics, political economy, and public goods distribution. Joey has conducted research for the U.S. Department of State and worked as a research assistant at MIT, Emory University, and the University of Arizona, analyzing education policy using quantitative methods. Passionate about cross-cultural dialogue, she served as the Asia Regional Editor for the Michigan Journal of International Affairs. In her free time, Joey enjoys visiting museums and exploring Hanoi’s hidden coffee shops.
Thanh Ha Do
College/Degree: Kellogg College/MSc in Politics Research
Country of Origin: Vietnam
Cohort: 2025
Ting Wei is passionate about inventing technologies to help reach net-zero emission and scale those findings in the lab into the market and real world, mitigating the influence of climate change on Asian Pacific Islands, areas deserve more attention in the climate change as the weakest part in the system. Prior to Oxford, Ting-Wei worked on increasing the energy efficiency of the turbomachinery system at University of Minnesota, the high power electronic at ASUS technology and solar system at National Cheng Kung University as well as a an international carbon credit project for the production industry in Taiwan. Beyond work, he enjoyed exploring traveling around the world, exploring different history and cultures.
Ting-Wei Chen
College/Degree: St Catherine’s College/DPhil in Engineering Science
Country of Origin: Taiwan
Cohort: 2025
Utkarsh Gupta is pursuing a DPhil in AI for Environment at the University of Oxford as part of the Intelligent Earth Centre for Doctoral Training, where he is a Clarendon Scholar. He earned his master’s degree in Computational and Data Science from the Indian Institute of Science, completing his dissertation in collaboration with Shell Technology Centre Bangalore, for which he was awarded the Gold Medal for the best master’s thesis. He also has professional experience as a Machine Learning Researcher at Qualcomm.
His research lies at the intersection of machine learning, inverse problems, and sustainable technologies. At Oxford, he focuses on developing intelligent systems to enhance understanding of climate, sustainability, and the planet we live on. He is also interested in applications of inverse problems in areas such as medical image reconstruction and astronomical imaging.
Utkarsh Gupta
College/Degree: Brasenose College/DPhil in AI for Environment (Intelligent Earth CDT)
Country of Origin: India
Cohort: 2025
Valentina is a DPhil student in Astrophysics working on the detection and characterisation of Earth-like planets beyond the solar system. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin as a Dean’s Honoured Graduate in Physics and completed her Master’s degree at New York University, where she published work on applying machine learning techniques to exoplanet detection and planet formation. During her time at NYU, she taught courses in observational astronomy and general physics laboratories, receiving a departmental award for excellence in instruction.
Valentina Tardugno
College/Degree: Pembroke College/DPhil in Astrophysics
Country of Origin: Venezuela
Cohort: 2025
Louis is a DPhil candidate in Engineering Science at the Stevens Group, Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery. He completed an MEng in Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College London, where he received the Bioengineering Departmental Scholarship and the Imperial UROP Award. During his studies at Imperial, he undertook multiple research internships, including as a Visiting Student at the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, under Professor Dame Molly Stevens, and as a Visiting Master’s Student at the Centre for Craniofacial & Regenerative Biology, King’s College London, under Dr Ciro Chiappini.
At Oxford, Louis is supported by a Clarendon Fund Scholarship and an Engineering Science Studentship. His research focuses on the design of smart materials and structures to interface with neural organoids, aiming to advance accurate and efficient physiological monitoring.
Xiangrong Louis Lu
College/Degree: Lady Margaret Hall/DPhil in Engineering Science
Country of Origin: China
Cohort: 2025
David’s affinity for plant science stemmed from being born and raised in subtropical Florida, where the native flora is nothing short of spectacular, yet also where the agricultural, chemical, and plant trade industries are dominant. With his childhood backdrop of the Everglades and his passion for science, he has dedicated his life to understanding the natural world. Starting with landscape ecological issues, David’s research interests have progressively refined to the molecular mechanisms that guide plant physiology. His DPhil in Molecular Plant Biology will focus on synthetic oxygen-sensing mechanisms in legumes. Outside the lab, his research interests encompass science policy, environmental justice, and diplomacy. In his free time, David enjoys farmers’ markets (perhaps where there is the highest diversity of plant families per square meter), cooking, cats, second-hand stores, and drag.
David Baldwin
College/Degree: St Catherine’s College/DPhil in Biology
Country of Origin: USA
Cohort: 2025
Emily Grenon
College/Degree: Merton College/DPhil in History
Country of Origin: Canada
Cohort: 2025