Hey everyone! I’m Amna, born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan and currently an incoming third year at University of Toronto pursuing a Molecular Biology specialization. 

I was 14 when I realized that access to science, and more importantly, access to imagining futures, wasn’t equally distributed. So I started BloomED, a community initiative to get girls in underserved areas into tech and STEM. I didn’t have it all figured out, but I knew we deserved more than what we were being handed. That one decision spiraled into everything else: speaking at the UN, joining Teach the Future, and spending the last four years navigating the spaces between science, policy, and education.

Whether I’m working in a nanoimmunoengineering lab or writing about microbial systems, I keep circling back to the same question: how do we build scientific systems that look ahead, across borders, disciplines, and timelines, rather than playing catch-up?

This summer, I’ll be heading to Geneva to study how institutions like Geneva Science & Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA) , World Health Organization (WHO), and International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) think about the future, specifically in the context of cancer prevention. I want to understand: how are these global institutions using foresight (or not) to prevent disparities before they happen? How do they decide which futures are worth planning for? And who gets left behind in the process?

This project is messy, ambitious, and deeply personal. It’s not just about research, it’s about reimagining how science can serve people better, earlier, and more justly.

I’ve attached my full research proposal, feel free to give it a read. If you’re into science diplomacy, health equity, futures thinking, or just the sciences in general, I’d love to connect!

Warm Regards,
Amna Habiba