Catz welcomes record-equalling numbers of Gates Scholars

St Catharine’s is proud to confirm that our most recent postgraduate intake included four students who have been awarded Gates Cambridge Scholarships ­– matching the largest ever group of Gates Scholars admitted back in 2016.

The Gates Cambridge Scholarship programme was established in 2000 by a donation of US$210 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to the University of Cambridge; this remains the largest single donation to a UK university. The programme continues to offer approximately 80 full-cost scholarships each year to outstanding applicants from countries outside the UK to pursue a postgraduate degree in any subject available at the University of Cambridge.

Dr Holly Canuto, Senior Tutor at St Catharine’s, commented:

“St Catharine’s has extended a warm welcome to all of our new students, including these four postgraduates with Gates Cambridge Scholarships. This year is particularly remarkable because we tend to admit one Gates Scholar each year on average – 27 in total between 2001 and 2022 – and the only time so many Gates Scholars joined the College was in 2016 when another group of four were admitted. I look forward to our Gates Scholars settling into the close-knit community at St Catharine’s and to strengthening the College’s connection with the programme now that Professor Eilís Ferran (1980, Law; Fellow 1987) has taken up her position as Provost for the Gates Cambridge Trust.”

The Gates Cambridge mission is to build a global network of future leaders committed to improving the lives of others. It aims to achieve this mission by selecting outstanding scholars, providing them with financial and non-financial support at one of the world’s leading universities and facilitating community building at and beyond Cambridge.

Meet our newest Gates Scholars

Nisita Dutta | PhD in Chemistry

Nisita’s research involves creating novel nanobody-drug conjugates to treat pancreatic cancer in an international collaboration between the University of Cambridge and the United States’ National Institutes of Health. Read our recent interview with Nisita.

Ryan Law | PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience

Originally from Malaysian Borneo, Ryan has followed in the footsteps of Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj, the first Prime Minister of Malaysia, who himself arrived at St Catharine’s exactly 100 years ago. Read our recent interview with Ryan.

Tatjana Schmidt | PhD in Clinical Neurosciences

Tatjana’s PhD research will explore whether advanced imaging methods, including the use of machine learning and multimodal MRI, can be used in a real-world setting in memory clinics for conditions such as Alzheimer’s Disease. Having been born in Russia and grown up in Germany, it was a chance family trip that prompted her to choose St Catharine’s when applying to study at Cambridge:

“I first visited Cambridge ten years ago with my mum and Catz is one of the enduring memories from our time in the city, with the view through the gates making the College look so inviting. When studying at Cambridge became a genuine possibility, I researched Catz and found that it was a friendly community that seemed to strike a good balance between tradition and modernity."

“I was introduced to imaging techniques during my Master’s degree and was drawn to the challenge of translating research technologies into clinical practice where they can make a difference to patients and the healthcare professionals treating them. Cambridge was one of the best places to continue my research at PhD level because not many institutions are taking a multidisciplinary approach like they do here, with clinicians, physicists and data scientists all working together."

When she isn’t in the laboratory, you can find Tatjana on the River Cam learning to row with our novices. She is also a board member of two non-profit organisations—the German Brain Bee (a neuroscience competition and outreach programme for high school students) and Blaupause Gesundheit (an organisation for mental health awareness/support for health professionals).

Seetha Tan | PhD in Sociology

Australian-born Seetha Tan (2020, Sociology) is already an alumna of St Catharine’s after choosing the College for her Master’s degree:

“Having completed my undergraduate studies at Sciences Po in France, I didn’t know much about the collegiate system in Cambridge and was drawn to Catz because it felt like an intimate community. Despite the pandemic lockdowns, I had a great experience during my MPhil year at Catz, largely due to the friendships I made in my College accommodation. I was delighted to return for my PhD as Catz is somewhere I feel comfortable – it is much less hierarchical and more inclusive than you might expect from a Cambridge College. It is also home to Professor Hazem Kandil (2012) who is supervising my PhD in Sociology.”

A Gates Cambridge Scholarship will allow Seetha to expand upon her MPhil research on solidarity protest movements in Lebanese diaspora in France. Using creative research methods such as visual, video and music elicitation, she will now examine identity construction in post-colonial diasporas in London and Paris. Alongside her research, she is also embracing being part of Indian and Malaysian-Chinese diasporas in Cambridge.

“Growing up in Sydney, I was always surrounded by diaspora communities, connecting to people and struggles occurring miles away and learning to navigate politics, identity and belonging beyond borders. Now I find myself far from home but part of a vibrant South-East Asian community at Catz – in part due to the Tunku programme – which has made me feel very much at home and offered me valuable opportunities to reconnect with my Indian and Malaysian-Chinese heritage.”

Seetha has volunteered to edit The Scholar, the magazine produced by the Gates Cambridge Trust, and is involved in the Decolonise Sociology movement at Cambridge.