Graduate Scholarships & Financial Support

I am a third year DPhil student working on Artificial Intelligence (AI) within the Engineering Department. I primarily focus on generalisation in reinforcement learning and out-of-distribution robustness. I am supervised by Prof. Nick Hawes, Dr. Bruno Lacerda and Prof. Jakob Foerster.

Reinforcement Learning (RL) is a subfield of Machine Learning where agents learn through trial and error. By interacting with an environment, an agent receives feedback in the form of rewards or penalties and iteratively adjusts its strategy to improve future outcomes (i.e. maximise cumulative reward). This works well when you have a specific problem instance in mind, e.g. solving a specific maze, but current RL approaches often struggle to generalise. This refers to a model’s ability to perform well on unseen tasks similar to the tasks it was trained on. This is a crucial problem as models which are unadaptable often fail when deployed in the real world. My current research looks at learning curricula for RL agents, aiming to determine how best to give tasks to the learning agent in order to maximise its final generalisation ability across a space of similar tasks.

Outside of my studies, I help organise the Tolkien Lecture and teach part of the first-year mathematics course to undergraduate engineering students at Pembroke.

I am a fourth year DPhil student based in the Department of Engineering working at the intersection of robotic hardware and microbiology to convince bacteria to behave the way we want them to. Bacterial processes are the foundation of many facets of our modern lifestyle, from our medicines (e.g. insulin) to our water (e.g. wastewater treatment) and foods (e.g. second dessert cheese). My work seeks generalised methods to improve the productivity and robustness of these integral bioprocesses.

Specifically, I focus on controlling microbial behaviour in the context of co-cultures and biofilms. Co-cultures (where >1 species are grown together) can be cheaper, more productive, and more robust to contamination compared to monocultures. However, the competitive exclusion principle means that over time, the fastest growing species takes over, losing any potential benefits. I work on 'cybergenetic' methods that interface computers and cells, using automatic hardware that constantly measures and tweaks the environment to control the ratio of bacteria, enabling long-lasting coexistence and cooperation in co-cultures to help unlock their potential.

In addition to co-cultures, I also use hardware to alter bacterial behaviour in biofilms, 3D structures adhered to surfaces. Biofilm formation is an integral step in some bioprocesses and I use bioreactor-based directed evolution approaches to improve it, possible because bacterial generations are measured in minutes rather than decades. Together, these hardware approaches of directing microbial behaviour contribute to making bioprocesses more efficient and sustainable.

I am a third-year DPhil student researching messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics at the Department of Biochemistry. I am supervised by Prof. Andre Furger and collaborate with Prof. Simon Draper’s Lab (Department of Paediatrics).

Since the success of mRNA vaccines in the COVID-19 pandemic, mRNA has emerged as an exciting new modality to control infectious diseases. My research focuses on harnessing mRNA technology to prevent malaria. This strategy consists of injecting mRNA encoding a potent antimalarial antibody into the body. The mRNA provides cells within the body with the blueprint to produce this antimalarial antibody and secrete it into the blood. Inside the blood, the antibody blocks the Plasmodium falciparum parasite from invading red blood cells, preventing the symptomatic phase of the disease. Beyond malaria, this research may pave the way to allow other therapeutic antibodies to be produced inside the body using mRNA as a vector.

Within the Furger Lab, I am also supervising a fourth-year biochemistry undergraduate’s research project. In addition to my research, I teach biochemistry undergraduates in tutorials at multiple colleges including Pembroke and help run bioinformatics practicals at the department. Outside of my work, I enjoy contributing to the Pembroke community by serving on the MCR Committee as the Food Rep.

I am a fourth-year DPhil student in English. My research brings together archival material and literary works to examine the ways in which Victorian print culture challenged conventional public opinion on cultures of embodiment and movement, and thus helped change the cultural norms and expectations of late Victorian society. 

I aim to call attention to perceived changes in physical self-expression arising from machinery and labour, modes of transportation and mobility, dress and freedom of movement, cross-cultural encounter, travel, and imperialism, and the effects of an ever-widening worldview on representations of regional 'corporeal styles'. Amidst these developments, writers such as Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Ménie Muriel Dowie, Joseph Conrad, and Margaret Brooke captured the complexities of the day while pushing for reform on labour conditions, women’s rights, and ideas on freedom, convention, and social mobility in pluralistic societies. 

Ultimately, my research contributes to an ongoing interest in diversifying the sensory frameworks used when trying to comprehend the lived experiences of a society. By proposing a framework to examine the portrayal of bodily movement, I hope to encourage closer examinations of the kinaesthetic and proprioceptive senses in literature.

I am a fourth year DPhil student in law. My research focuses on the extraterritorial application of EU law and is supervised by Prof. Dorota Leczykiewicz.

Increasingly, the European Union applies its laws extraterritorially – it addresses obligations to persons and conduct that lie beyond the EU’s borders. For example, the EU often asserts its power to review a merger between two non-EU companies and, unfailingly, it imposes regulatory obligations to any company that wants to offer its product to the EU market. My project focuses on the Court of Justice of the EU. It examines the Court’s reasoning in cases that bear on the reach of EU law to identify the legal standards that the Court relies on to render the application of EU law beyond the EU’s borders ‘legal’. By presenting a fuller account of how the Court validates the reach of EU law, the project then facilitates a discussion on how the Court’s jurisprudence constructs the ‘autonomy’ of the EU legal order.

As a final year medical student on the Graduate-Entry course, I have a strong interest in pursuing a career in academic plastic surgery. The Horlock Studentship will enable me to engage in transformative experiences that will be instrumental in helping me achieve this goal. Specifically, the funds will help cover the costs of a medical elective, which I am tentatively planning to apply for at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, among other institutions. This invaluable opportunity will deepen my understanding of plastic surgery and allow me to observe differences in how the field is practiced outside the UK. Additionally, it will give me invaluable insight into training opportunities that may shape my future path. 

The scholarship will also help with key costs crucial to my studies, particularly the substantial USMLE exam fees, which are a prerequisite for participating in a U.S. elective. With this support, I am able to focus more intently on my studies and make the most of the unique opportunities available to me in my program.

I am a final year medical student on the Graduate-Entry course, with an interest in pursuing surgery. I am very grateful to receive the Horlock Studentship, which opens a lot of opportunities to further explore my interest. This studentship will allow me to undertake a two-month medical elective abroad with a surgical team, which I am hoping to do in orthopaedic or vascular surgery. This elective gives me an amazing opportunity to experience a different healthcare system and spend an extended period with a surgical team. The Horlock Studentship will also allow me to expand my research career. I am working on a systematic review on global maternal suicide with the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, and this studentship means I will be able to travel to present my research at conferences.