President: Liz Killen
Before starting her PhD, Liz worked for the UK Government Office for Science. She has also worked for the Australian Government as a nuclear medicine chemist after graduating first in her class in her undergraduate in chemical engineering. She has completed an MSc in Science Communication at Imperial College London and is now undertaking a policy-focussed PhD in Education at the University of Cambridge. She maintains her connections between policy and science by continuing to work with UK Government Office for Science during her studies.
Vice President: Gabrielle McClymont
Gabrielle is a second year PhD student in Biochemistry researching the regulation of inflammation in innate immunity. She is a Gates Cambridge Scholar and member of Corpus Christi College. Gabrielle previously studied a Bachelor of Advanced Science Arts (Hons) and Masters of Science (Research) at the University of Sydney. Her aim is to maximise the benefit of scientific research through implementation in public policy and collaboration with industry. Gabrielle has been finalist at the World, Asia-Pacific, Australasian Women’s and Australian University Debating Championships.
Secretary: Ramit Debnath
Ramit Debnath is a PhD Candidate and a Gates-Cambridge Scholar in the Behaviour and Building Performance Group at the Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge. He has a long-standing interest in poverty alleviation, mainly through ‘good’ energy policy. In particular, he has used modelling to estimate the influence of slum rehabilitation on energy security in the Global South. In his PhD, he will derive a welfare policy framework from supporting energy sustainability in extreme low-income urbanisation through an energy justice lens. (https://www.arct.cam.ac.uk/people/r-debnath/)
Policy Challenges Coordinator: Orla Woodward
Orla is a second year PhD student at the Institute of Metabolic Science researching the gut-brain axis in the control of appetite and feeding behaviour. Orla previously completed an undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences at Durham University and an MRes in the Biology of Ageing. Through her role as Policy Challenges Coordinator, Orla aims to build relationships between Cambridge academics and Cambridgeshire County Council, and enable early-career researchers to gain experience working on real-world policy issues. Orla completed the 2019 round of Policy Challenges.
Chairman: Simon Davies
Finance & Fundraising
Treasurer: Akhila Denduluri-Marthi
Akhila is a third year PhD student in Chemistry, developing micron scale fluidic platforms to investigate electrical interactions in living systems. She has completed her Bacherlor’s and Masters in Biomedical Engineering from the US. As part of her Masters, she worked on commercialising nano-particle gene-therapy for brain tumour. Akhila is interested in addressing the wide gap between availability and accessibility of health care technologies and educational tools, and hopes to work on inclusive policy and socially-driven translational ideas. This has been partly informed by her upbringing in Southern India and her work with non-profits developing public health interventions. As the CUSPE Treasurer, she is focusing on financial and organisational sustainability to ensure CUSPE’s mission to facilitate exposure and interactions between students, researchers and policy makers.
Head of Fundraising: Open for Applications
Marketing, Web & Communications
Head of Marketing & Communications: Lily Cohen
Lily is a Research Assistant in the Centre for Pathogen Evolution. She is a recent graduate of Clare College, University of Cambridge (MPhil) and Brown University (BA). Lily’s research interests comprise the evolution, transmission and control of infectious diseases and conservation medicine (One Health). Highlights of her science policy work include interning with the U.S. Department of State in the Office of International Health and Biodefense and helping to organize last year’s annual CUSPE forum.
Marketing & Communications Officer: Harriet Downey
Marketing & Communications Officer: Andrew Preston
Marketing & Communications Officer: Jana Sadovska
Thinking of starting a new project? Jana is an endlessly motivated Undergrad Land Economist and a fresh member of our Marketing and Communications team…and the person who will help you to successfully kick-start your project. As a mature student, Jana had a chance to work in London and Spain in digital marketing and the third sector for two years. Moreover, she spent several years managing projects and events in Slovakia. In her free time, she enjoys doing aerial acrobatics, learning Spanish, Mandarin and French, and kick-starting community projects.
Webmaster: Sara Pita
Workshops
Head: Eleni Tente
Eleni is in her fourth year of studying for a PhD in plant science, working on the topic of molecular phytopathology. She previously completed a MSc at the University of Nottingham and spent a year as a researcher at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). She completed an internship at DEFRA. Eleni has a strong interest in evidence-based policy and the role academia and other stakeholders have in that process.
Workshops Officer: Flora Donald
I’m from the Scottish Highlands and originally trained as a botanist with an MSc from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Prior to starting my PhD in 2017, I worked as an Operations Officer for Scottish Natural Heritage on the Outer Hebrides where I liaised with crofting communities to manage environmentally designated sites. I’m fascinated by the interaction between human and plant communities. My current work aims to improve conservation of juniper, a UK native plant, using statistical models to identify factors underpinning its infection with a pathogen introduced by the plant trade.
Workshops Officer: Martin Ho
Martin is a MPhil student in Technology Policy, with research interests in evidence-based policymaking, innovation incentive systems, and competition policies. His academic background is in Biotechnology and Biochemistry, and published papers on the human microbiota. He aims to apply the lenses of science and economics in policy.
Workshops Officer: Daniella Wenger
Daniella Wenger is an MPhil in Public Policy student. She is interested in studying the relationship between policy, technology, and consumer decision making. She spent this past year as a Fulbright Scholar in Jerusalem and joined CUSPE in 2019/2020.
Lectures
Head: Konstantinos Kapetanos
Lectures Officer: Masami Ando Kuri
Masami is a PhD student at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute and a member of Fitzwilliam College. Her research focuses on cellular senescence and chromatin organization. She is very interested in the bridge between policy making/advising and research. She strongly believes it is an essential matter to address since it directly impacts society’s welfare. She joined CUSPE in 2018/2019 as Co-Head of the Lectures team.
Lectures Officer: Miriam Klaus
Miriam is a 2nd year PhD student in Biochemistry, working on ultrahigh-throughput technologies for enzyme discovery and engineering. Through CUSPE, she aims to contribute to the ongoing communication between scientists, policy makers, and the public. She is convinced that communicating – not only content but also methods, limitations, and potential conflicts of interests – is vital when it comes to building and maintaining mutual trust and confidence. This in turn is necessary for the successful implementation of ideas and research results into practice and policy.
Lectures Officer: Argyris Zardilis
Publications
Head: Michele Sanguanini
Michele is a member of Gonville & Caius College and a PhD student at the Centre for Misfolding Diseases (Department of Chemistry). His research involves the systems biology and biophysics underlying neurodegenerative processes and ageing, with a focus on protein aggregation in Alzheimer’s disease. Before coming to Cambridge, Michele received a Diploma in Biology from Scuola Normale Superiore and an MSc in Biology Applied to Biomedical Sciences from the University of Pisa. Michele is interested in the relationship between science and the law and how policy making might address the challenges arising from their interaction. He is among the founders and current editor-in-chief of the Cambridge Journal of Science and Policy.
Publications Marketing Officer: James Dickinson
James is a recent Philosophy graduate from Downing College. He has a keen interest in policy, having held multiple Model United Nations positions and recently completing an internship as Policy Researcher for the Centre for Social Justice. He looks forward to using his marketing and communications skills to garner submissions for the Cambridge Journal of Science and Policy.
Publications Officer: Timothy Arvan
Tim is an MPhil candidate in the Department of Land Economy, and a member of Girton College. His research interests include how environmental NGOs shape international climate change mitigation policy, and the “usability” of climate science for non-expert stakeholders. Tim completed his undergraduate degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics and Environmental Studies at the University of Michigan, where he directed a climate change education organization that oversaw the University’s COP24 delegation. When not thinking about science and policy, Tim enjoys crossword puzzles and table tennis.
Publications Officer: Rosie Bell
Rosie is a second year PhD student at the Centre for Misfolding Diseases. Her research focuses on understanding the impacts of post-translational modifications on amyloid proteins involved in neurodegeneration. Previously Rosie completed an MPhil in Chemistry from the University of Cambridge and a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Leeds.
Publications Officer: Emma Brown
Emma is a PhD student in Medical Sciences at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute. Her research focuses on the use of new imaging technologies to visualise breast cancer. She is new to CUSPE this year, and has joined the publications team. Through this role she wants to learn more about the intersection between science and policy and develop her writing/editing skills to communicate this information to a wider audience.
Publications Officer: Prashanth S. Ciryam
Prashanth is a third-year PhD student at the Centre for Misfolding Diseases (Department of Chemistry) and a member of St. John’s College. The focus of his research is the connection between protein homeostasis and mechanisms of toxicity in neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease and Huntington’s disease. Prashanth is interested in the role of scientific evidence in policy-making, especially in identifying the most effective methods of selecting and conveying evidence to law-makers in response to emerging public health concerns.
Publications Officer: Katie Cohen
Katie is a Research Assistant at the Centre for Science and Policy, working across a range of programmes that facilitate knowledge exchange between academics and policy professionals. She previously completed an MPhil in History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine at the University of Cambridge. As part of the publications team, she looks forward to contributing to the 2020 launch of the Cambridge Journal of Science & Policy.
Publications Officer: Jenny (L.) Jiang
Jenny Jiang is a PhD student at the Faculty of Education. Her research involves the exploration of language patterns in research articles in applied sciences and engineering using corpora and corpus software and also the use of corpus materials in teaching academic writing to science graduate students. She joined the CUPSE publications team in August 2019, aiming to use her knowledge about academic writing and journal articles to assist the launch of the Cambridge Journal of Science and Policy.
Publications Officer: Tom Spencer
Tom is an MSci student in the Department of Earth Sciences and a member of Emmanual College since undergraduate. Tom’s research is on Speleothem Palaeoclimatology and Geoarchaeology and he has a broad interest in the interface of human and natural systems which he hopes to pursue in climate change policy. Tom joined the CUSPE committee as a Publications Officer in 2019/2020.
Science & Policy Forum
Head: Lisa Hecker
Lisa is a PhD student at the EPSRC Centre for Sensor Technologies and has a multidisciplinary research background. Currently, she is working on the development of laser imaging methods to study molecular mechanisms of disease. Lisa has just completed a UKRI policy internship with the Joint Nature Conservation Committee where she worked with of Earth Observation methods to inform policy makers about habitat conditions. This is a topic close to her heart and she would like to make the role of science and technology in sustainable policy making a central part of CUSPE’s annual forum.
Forum Officer: Dr Mejd Alsar
Mejd is an alumna of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, where she completed a PhD in Physics. She is a postdoctoral researcher at the Cavendish Laboratory of the University of Cambridge working on Perovskite Photovoltaics. Beyond research she is passionate about science communication and science policy. Through CUSPE she looks forward to helping to establish a dialogue between scientists and decision makers to inform policy, particularly issues affecting the conduct of science.
Forum Officer: Rebecca Anselmetti
Rebecca is a student in the MPhil in Technology Policy at Cambridge Judge Business School, and a member of St.Edmund’s College. Her research interests focus on AI ethics and policy-making. Before Cambridge, Rebecca graduated from King’s College London with a BA in Digital Culture and worked as a Data product manager in AI-driven startups in London. With a background in digital technology, sociology, and policy, she is keen to contribute to the democratisation of current policy issues to the wider public and to the strengthening of policy-science relations.
Forum Officer: Simone Eizagirre Barker
Simone is a graduate student at the EPSRC Doctoral Training Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, focused on photonics, optoelectronics and functional materials. Beyond research, she is very interested in science journalism and policy, and is currently co-host of the Cambridge University BlueSci Podcast, and writes articles about the intersections between science, technology and society, which have been published on online platforms such as Massive Science and Salon.
Forum Officer: Thomas Freitag
Thomas is an undergraduate studying Nat Sci at Jesus College and joined CUSPE in 2019/20 as a forum officer. They are an American international student originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Thomas has a passion for health equity and research which examines the health disparities experienced by queer communities. When not focused on academics or research, Thomas enjoys running and singing with various groups on campus.
Forum Officer: Diego Rodriguez Mejias
Forum Officer: Ana Morgado
Ana is a PhD candidate in Engineering, studying resource efficient decision-making tools for the decarbonisation of industry. She has a Masters in Chemical Engineering, major in Energy and Environment, from the University of Porto, and an MPhil in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cambridge. Ana’s interest in policy-making spurred from her concern with the climate emergency the world is facing, and the global energy and systemic transition it requires, believing that such a transition can only be effectively achieved when society, policy-makers, academics and industry come together.
Forum Officer: Pranjali Gupta
Pranjali Gupta is a student in the MPhil in Technology Policy at the Cambridge Judge Business School. She has an undergraduate degree in engineering from IIT Bombay, India, and has worked in software engineering, research roles and the non-profit sector prior to her MPhil. She is interested in shaping the impact of growing digitalization on public and private institutions and plans to explore solutions to growing security and privacy concerns raised by the increased adoption of AI technologies through public-private partnerships.
