President: Leah Weiss

Leah is a Gates Scholar and PhD researcher in the Optoelectronics Group in the Physics Department at Cambridge. Her research focuses on using spectroscopic methods to understand energy generation and spin-dynamics in organic and hybrid materials. Before coming to Cambridge and completing her MPhil she received her B.A. from Harvard University. Outside of scientific research, Leah enjoys working in science outreach and is interested more generally in the intersection of science communication, policy, and education.

Co-Head of Lectures: Corinna Frey

Corinna is a PhD Researcher at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge and member of the Organisational Behaviour & Information Systems subject group. Her research focuses on Knowledge, Information Systems and Accountability in Global Refugee Crises, specifically data management and evidence-based practices in the humanitarian sector. She is interested in exploring Science-Policy interfaces in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies. Her educational background includes the Political Sciences and she has work experience with the United Nations which provided valuable insights into crises contexts such as Lebanon, South Africa, and Rwanda. In 2014, she organized a CUSPE lecture on ‘International Development: Where is the Evidence?’

Co-Head of Workshops: Karen Stroobants

Karen is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie post-doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Protein Misfolding Diseases at the Chemistry Department. With a strong background in biophysical characterisation of proteins, she recently engaged in the study of membrane protein aggregates and their potential role in neurodegenerative diseases. Before moving to the UK, Karen received a prestigious PhD fellowship at KU Leuven, Belgium, where she worked on the development of a novel biotechnological methodology for protein hydrolysis under ambiguous conditions. Apart from being a researcher, Karen has always been engaged in promoting the communication between different academic players, industry, policy makers and society in general.

Co-Head of Workshops: Ana Gonzalez Hernandez

Ana graduated with a first class honours MEng in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College London in July 2014. Shortly after, in October 2014, she started her PhD in the University of Cambridge in collaboration with Emerson Electric. The aim of her PhD is to evaluate the potential of coupling the use of Sankey diagrams for energy and material flow analysis to site-level process analysis in a factory. Data collected from installed process control systems will be used to perform thermodynamic analyses on the site’s process streams. In this way, headroom for potential resource efficiency improvements could be revealed, having a major impact on the industry sector and hence on how these industries themselves affect global consumption and emission systems.

Head of Finance and Fundraising: Harum Mukhayer

Harum is doing her PhD in Law at the Faculty of Law as a Gates Scholar. She holds an LLM in Natural Resources Law and Policy and has 8 years of work experience with the UN in Sudan, South Sudan and Somalia. Previously, she was a Fulbright Scholar as a Hubert Humphrey Fellow at University of California, Davis. Harum is this year’s CUSPE 2016-2017 Head of Finance and Fundraising, and is responsible for pursuing funding opportunities that promote the Science-Policy interface. She is also 2016-2017 President of the African Society at Cambridge University (ASCU) and a member of Pembroke College—where she is very committed to Sunday brunch. You’re welcome to join her!

Head of Publications: Victoria Plutshack

Victoria is a PhD Student in the Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance (C-EENRG) in the Department of Land Economy. Her research focuses on renewable energy use for rural electrification, focusing on solar projects in India. She has an MPhil in Technology Policy from the Judge Business School and a BA in History from the University of Chicago. Victoria is interested in the relationship between researchers and policy makers at all levels.

Treasurer: Ryan DuChanois

Ryan is a MPhil student in Engineering for Sustainable Development and a Gates Cambridge Scholar. Prior to Cambridge, he completed a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering at the University of Arkansas. Ryan is also a US National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. His research interests include the economic, social, and political factors that inhibit proper water technology implementation and access to sustainable potable water supply. In his spare time, he enjoys hiking, reading, and playing any sport.

Secretary: Emma Glennon

Emma is a PhD researcher and Gates-Cambridge Scholar in the Disease Dynamics Unit of the Department of Veterinary Medicine. She is interested generally in emerging infectious diseases, and her PhD research focuses on the ecology of bat viruses of significance to human health. She completed her bachelor’s degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University in 2015 and spent the following academic year on a Fulbright, working on antibiotic resistance with the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics, and Policy and the Public Health Foundation of India. Considering her work grounded in both the worlds of science and global health, she is interested in facilitating better communication between the two for more effective health policy.

Chairperson: Paul Clarkson

Paul Clarkson is a PhD student at the Nano Doctoral Training Centre, fabricating optoelectronic silicon waveguide devices for use in chemical and biological sensors. He previously worked as a nuclear research scientist at Rolls-Royce PLC and has undertaken projects from civil and defence nuclear, aero-derivative power-generation and nuclear fusion to multidisciplinary approaches in his PhD at the interface of physics, surface chemistry, micro-electronic engineering and medical sensors. He has worked in the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills with the UK Government and engages in scientific outreach. He is also a playwright.