Hello! My name is Abril Rodriguez Calle, and I am a student at Columbia University studying Medical Humanities with the goal of eventually becoming a doctor. My interests lie in the intersection between medicine, the healthcare system, and ethics, especially in understanding how healthcare decisions and policies affect both patients and communities. This summer, I will be working with Dr. Sandra Lee on an NIH-funded research project exploring the ethical, legal, and social dimensions of global genomics research partnerships. The project examines how institutions and communities negotiate issues such as data ownership, privacy, benefit-sharing, and decision-making in genomics research, with the goal of creating a practical “negotiation playbook” to support more meaningful and equitable collaboration. As part of the research team, I will help analyze policies and institutional practices while gaining experience in qualitative research, bioethics, and global health policy.

Hey everyone! My name is Rinaz Jamal, and I'm a rising sophomore at Columbia University majoring in Neuroscience & Behavior. I am passionate about helping individuals with mental health and neurodegenerative disorders feel seen, heard, and supported. This summer, I will be doing research at the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute under the supervision of Dr. Franck Polleux. My project aims to understand the activity-dependent regulation of mitochondrial protein expression in parvalbumin-positive interneurons, which are among the first neurons to fail in Alzheimer's disease (AD). I am excited to add to the scholarly conversation around Alzheimer's research by identifying the molecular pathways that would be most valuable to target for drug development in the future. Because PV-INs are among the first neurons to fail in AD, understanding these metabolic pathways and restoring levels of mitochondrial proteins has the potential to improve clinical outcomes much earlier in AD progression than current methods. At Columbia, I am involved as a Scientific Review Editor for Grey Matters, our undergraduate neuroscience journal; Blog Editor for the Journal of Global Health; Conference Committee member and Peer Buddy for Columbia Synapse, which advocates for patients with acquired brain injury; and volunteer with Brain Exercise Initiative, where I visit patients with Alzheimer's disease and dementia at a local assisted living home. I also play flute and piccolo in the Columbia University Orchestra. In my free time, I love to read and explore New York City. Please feel free to reach out; I would love to get to know you all!

I'm a current undergrad student at Barnard College pursuing a double-major in Theatre & Human Rights, with a minor in East Asian Studies. I'm often asked why I’m studying such seemingly divergent fields. For me, these subjects go hand in hand: my diplomacy and human rights practice are informed by an empathy uniquely cultivated from my experience in the arts; my acting on theatrical stages is enriched by my understanding of what is happening on the "world stage." Mastering both mediums is my answer to the seemingly unsolveable divisions we face today. My work bridges these fields in an innovative, urgent and radical effort to highlight our shared humanity at a time we need it most.

Hello! My name is Bhadra, and I am a third-year Law and Business student at Trinity College Dublin. I am part of the 2025 cohort of Laidlaw Scholars. My Summer 1 research topic was 'Motherhood on Trial: A Comparative Analysis of the Miscarriage of Justice in Infanticide Cases', and I took an inter-jurisdictional perspective in examining three notable cases - those of Joanne Hayes, Sally Clarke and Kathleen Folbigg. I look forward to spending this summer working on Makesense Americas' Central LiA in Mexico City with Genera Territorios AC. The organisation works on financial empowerment, social inclusion and gender equity, and I am excited to support their aims. Through my work, my overarching goal is to highlight how women exist and are perceived within inherently oppressive social systems. If you have any questions or would like to reach out, please feel free to do so!

I am an undergraduate student at Columbia University majoring Political Science and History. My interests lie in education reform, carceral reform and alternative justice methods. 

Hello! My name is Eleanor Campbell, and I am a 2021 Laidlaw Scholar. I am a student at Columbia University in the City of New York, and I am originally from Raleigh, NC, USA. I major in Economics and am particularly interested in Behavioral Economics. During my first year with Laidlaw, I worked with Professor Hitendra Wadhwa of the Columbia Business School in developing a leadership fellowship for aspiring young changemakers. For my Leadership in Action project, I worked with World Vision on a menstrual hygiene management campaign in West Gonja, Ghana.

I was a History undergraduate at Durham University, where I was part of the 2021-22 Laidlaw Scholars cohort (2020-23). Afterwards, I studied MSt in Global and Imperial University at Oxford University (2023-24) with a specialisation in postcolonial Anglophone African history and English-speaking Caribbean under the British empire. Now, I'm currently working in digital marketing. For my research, I investigated the use of the Crusades within far-right organisations and what it reveals about the readings of crusade history. During my second summer, I was a part of the ThinkPacific Youth and Community project in Fiji from June to July 2022.  If you have any questions about my research, LiA, or history stuff in general, feel free to contact me here! Also, I like music, video production, and photography.

I'm a rising third-year undergraduate at Columbia University majoring in Neuroscience and Behaviour. I was originally born in New York City, yet have lived for the majority of my life in Nigeria and England. I'm passionate about research in medicine and climate science, and am looking forward to sharing what I've discovered as well as learn from my peers on the Scholars Network.

Hi everyone! My name is William "Liam" Grugan, and I am thrilled to take part in Trinity's 2021 Laidlaw Cohort. In Dublin, I study Middle Eastern and European Languages and Culture (focusing specifically on German and Arabic) and, as a member of the Dual Bachelors Program between Trinity College Dublin and Columbia University, I will finish out my studies (majoring in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies) in New York. I love to cook, read, explore, play bass, and, pre-Covid, sang in a band!

I am from South Orange, New Jersey and I am currently studying Computer Science and Linguistics at Cornell University. I’ve always been fascinated by the interdisciplinary nature of technology and my goal is to find ways to connect technology with other fields to affect positive change. I’m incredibly excited to implement this technological approach in my research project, where I’ll be using data to analyze local effects of maquiladoras and international policies. Outside of academics, I’m an Arts and Sciences Ambassador and Peer Advisor, a member of the Cornell Blockchain club, and an avid rock climber.

Hi there! I am a psychology student interested in psychotherapy, computational psychiatry, trauma and stress-related disorders, and the prevention of domestic and sexual violence.  I am currently working with the Gillan Lab at Trinity College Dublin which has allowed me to explore my research interests further and led me to my research topic where I want to explore factors that may be of use for individualising treatment of psychiatric illnesses.

Hi there! My name is Angel (she/her/hers), and I'm first-year and a native New York City resident studying Neuroscience and Behavior. I'm passionate about all things STEM and medicine, and I hope to learn more through research over the next few years. When I'm not in the lab or having my nose stuck in a book, you can find me listening to music, volunteering, exploring the city, and baking too much!

Hi! My name is Ava (aw-va). I am a student at Columbia University studying Chemistry, originally from Miami, Florida. 

I am an alumna of the 2021-22 Columbia Laidlaw Scholars cohort, and graduated from Columbia (CC'24) with majors in History and Mathematics. My Laidlaw research centered on the women's movement in early twentieth-century British India. My first summer focused on the Indian writer, educator, and activist Mahadevi Varma, and my second summer focused on networks of women from across the British empire attending the Oxford in the 1910s-30s at the Unstable Archives Project.

I am a First Year in Columbia College interested in majoring in either History or Anthropology—my interests are pretty much exactly in between the two. I am interested in combining my two fields of interest while looking at the legacy of notorious urban planner Robert Moses and his counterpart Jane Jacobs. I am interested no in what Moses built, but looking at myth created around him, and in particular the debates created between him and Jacobs. Through this research, I wants to reexamine how this debate was constructed and how it informs modern day planning discussion.

This summer under the auspices of the Laidlaw Scholars Program I will be researching Hippocratic works and other texts from ancient Greek medical discourse in order to ask questions around female agency and challenges to the female body. How are female bodies governed? How are bodies feminized in medical discourse? If one can consider a body as an object from which forces of political, social, and psychological agency or governance emerge, how does a body’s female identity confound this? I am interested in how material bodies are formed and gendered, how they are a site of biological or social domains. It is through medical writings and interrogating perceptions of the ancient Greek body that one may more clearly understand what elements of the human experience are valued.