During half-term (15-19 February), members of the Gates Cambridge community are putting on free extracurricular educational programming for secondary school pupils. The aim is to provide additional programming in response to the partial school closures, as well as to inspire and motivate pupils. You can find details below:

At a glance:

What: Members of the Gates Cambridge Scholarship will be leading a series of 20 minute ‘taster’ sessions on a diverse array of topics each weekday during half-term. Sessions will be interactive and are meant to excite and inspire!

Topics (all designed with ages 13+ in mind):

• Monday: Biological Sciences (10:00 am - 12:00 pm)

10:00 – 10:20 Darius Kosmuetzky (PhD in Biochemistry): Why Photosynthesis is the Coolest Process of All

10:20 – 10:40 Vaithish Velazhahan (PhD in Biological Science): Seeing Life at the Atomic Level

10:40 – 11:00 Bailey Weatherbee (PhD in Physiology, Development and Neuroscience): How We're Made: Going from a Single Cell to a Whole Person

1:00 – 11:20 Michelle Ko (PhD in Biological Science): How the Nervous and Immune Systems Protect Your Gut

11:20 – 11:40 Mahlaqua Noor (PhD in Medicine): Viruses that Come to Stay

11:40 – 12:00 Aisha Yusuf (PhD in Medical Science): Diagnosing Cancer of the Oesophagus using a Sponge-on-String Device

• Tuesday: Arts & Humanities Part 1 (2:00 - 3:40 pm)

2:00 – 2:20 Nishant Gokhale (PhD in Legal Studies): British Colonialism and Legal Pluralism: Lessons from the East India Company

2:20 – 2:40 Roan Runge (PhD in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic): Medieval Irish Literature

2:40 – 3:00 Emma Gattey (PhD in History): The New Zealand History Wars: Māori Protest as Radical Revisionist History and Reclamation of Sovereignty

3:00 – 3:20 Stuti Pachisia (PhD in English): Finding Poems Everywhere: Poetry and Protest

3:20 – 3:40 Anna Guasco (PhD in Geography): History and Biology of Whales

• Wednesday: Arts & Humanities Part 2 (10:00 am - 11:40 am)

10:00 – 10:20 Davide Martino (PhD in History): Environmental History

10:20 – 10:40 Ronja Griep (PhD in Philosophy): Body Ideals and Feminism

10:40 – 11:00 Chioma Vivian Ngonadi (PhD in Archeology): The Archaeology of Food Production and Iron Working in Southeastern Nigeria

11:00 – 11:20 Roxane Noel (PhD in Philosophy): “That’s just like, your opinion, man”: On Knowledge, Opinion, and Utter Hogwash

11:20 – 11:40 Nicholas Swett (PhD in Music): Musical Borrowing: Homage, Appropriation, and Copyright Law

• Thursday: Physical Sciences & Engineering & Social Sciences (1:00 - 3:00 pm)

1:00 – 1:20 Yinuo Han (PhD in Astronomy): A Tour of the Solar System

1:20 – 1:40 Akhila Denduluri (PhD in Chemistry): ABC: A clump of proteins, Billion year old microorganisms, Charged entities for climate change

1:40 – 2:00 David Rousso (PhD in Physics): Particle Physics - Finding New Particles that may be Candidates for Dark Matter

2:00 – 2:20 Dr. Jonathan Miller (PhD in Engineering): Designing Passenger Cars

2:20 – 2:40 Emma Soneson (PhD in Psychiatry): The Mental Health Onion

2:40 – 3:00 Morgan Healy (PhD in Education): How to Build Your Brain for Your Future

• Friday: Interdisciplinary Topics (10:00 am - 11:40 am)

10:00 – 10:20 Olin Moctezuma (PhD in History and Philosophy of Science): Books, Notes, and Boxes: Renaissance Technologies for Learning

10:20 – 10:40 Lea Wenger (PhD in Clinical Neurosciences): Growing Mini Brains to Study how Cells Interact in Disease

10:40 – 11:00 Shalom Henderson (PhD in Medical Science): How Memory for Words and Objects are Stored in the Brain

11:00 – 11:20 Ariel de Fauconberg (PhD in Management Studies): Intrapreneurs and Social Activists: How do Corporations Change when it comes to Climate Change?

11:20 – 11:40 Yasemin Cole (PhD in Medical Science): Genetics and Personalized Medicine

Access Information: These sessions will take place in webinar-mode (i.e., cameras for participants turned off, polls and Q&A enabled) on Zoom. Live auto captioning will be provided through otter.ai. If you have any questions, please contact external@gatescouncil.org.

Disclaimer: The sessions may include topics that some people may find sensitive or uncomfortable, including mental health, reproduction, cultural appropriation in contemporary music, and references to violence, death, weapons, race, and negative body image. All sessions have been designed with pupils age 13+ in mind. If you would like more information, please contact external@gatescouncil.org.