Fola Olaleye

Hello! I'm Reuben, an Art History and Film student researching 'The Sonic Body: Technology, Embodiment, Gender' with the University of St Andrews and Trinity College Dublin. I am also a student filmmaker and illustrator, and host 'The Theory of Everything Podcast' for StAR Radio.

Graduate in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) from Durham University. Have conducted research on climate security in the Israeli-Palestinian context. Experience in public speaking in an academic context, journalism, and journalistic editing.

Iñaki Iriarte is a Laidlaw Scholar working with UCL's Institute of the Americas on researching political representation in Brazil.

I work in the field of feminist theology, and my main interest is the history of modesty in Christian thought. 

My research focuses on how people make sense of wearables, such as fitness trackers and smartwatches, in relation to wellbeing. Many of us wear these devices every day, but we know little about whether constant tracking helps or hinders lasting wellbeing. The data they collect also rarely reaches the NHS, which is built mainly to support people at the point of crisis. I am a first-year DPhil student in Primary Health Care, funded by the Haleon Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences studentship. I am particularly interested in how the features that make wearables popular or policy promises may sit at odds with sustained wellbeing. My earlier work asked how digital tools can support mental health. I led a systematic review of AI-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy for anxiety and depression, and also studied the promise of AI chatbots for young adults with anxiety against the realities of NHS implementation. I also co-lead the FLOWER Project, which brings technology-based mental health education to secondary schools in Hong Kong. I hold a BSocSc in Psychology from the University of Hong Kong and an MSc in Translational Health Sciences from the University of Oxford. I am a peer reviewer for BMJ Digital Health & AI and sit on the committee of the British Psychological Society Psychotherapy Section.

I'm currently a doctoral researcher at Cambridge, exploring how commoning practices can inform post-capitalist urban policy – drawing on years of environmental and human rights activism, an interdisciplinary academic path, and my former work as an art & sustainability researcher at Studio Olafur Eliasson. Along the way, I picked up an MSc in Sustainable Development at St Andrews, studied Chinese & French at Durham, and trained in Photography at Kisképző, the Hungarian University of Fine Arts.

I am a graduate of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering at the University of Rwanda. I am also the STEM Subject Lead. My Laidlaw research project is about bringing a system that could help minimize the number of high-school and primary students who bring cell phones to school since it's one of the major sources of distraction. I did my Master's degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University Africa, majoring in Cybersecurity and Data Science.

Hi! I am Hillary from The University of Hong Kong majoring in Biomedical Sciences with a minor in Chemistry. My research aims to create a compound that specifically targets a cancer-related protein, and to investigate its mechanism and efficacy.

I graduated from UCL (BSc Economics) and LSE (MSc Economic History Research) and now a PhD student in economic and financial history at Queen’s Business School at Queen's University Belfast, funded by the Centre for Economics, Policy and History. My research focused on the financial crisis and institutions in Asian economies. I'm also interested in industrialization and inequality.

I am an alumni of the University of York where I received a BA (Hons) degree in English Literature and Linguistics. I was the Arts and Humanities Subject Lead on the Laidlaw Scholar's Network and the 2020-22 Arts and Humanities Undergraduate rep at the University of York.  After graduating from York I went to the University of Oxford to read for an MPhil in Linguistics, Philology, and Phonetics. After 2 years of study at Oxford I work full time in a school and also work on the HEnabled podcast, which aims to showcase the experiences of people with disabilities and long-term health conditions within the British Higher Education system. If you study or have studied at a British University and have a disability or long term-health condition, then I would love to have you on as a guest! Email henabled@gmail.com to get in touch. 

Final-year Durham student studying Politics; President of Durham Laidlaw Scholars' Organisation; Incoming ESRC-funded MA-PhD student in NINE DTP. My research so far has covered ideological identity in left-wing student activism, examining the interplay of social movement theory and the philosophy of identity, and my general research interests include citizenship education, democratic theory and the occasional bit of political anthropology. Outside of my studies it's mainly twentieth-century literature, cocktails and cooking!

This prestigious programme at UCL makes available 25 generous bursaries as part of its package of training and research opportunities. The Laidlaw Research and Leadership Programme aims to create the leaders of the future. It is open to ambitious high-performing first year undergraduate students in any discipline who have a desire to undertake research at a high level.

I am passionate about literature and foreign languages. I love creative writing and hope to pursue a career in an artistic field. A lot of my research involved finding out about the horrific military dictatorships in Argentina and Uruguay towards the end of the 20th century. For this reason, I have become really interested in the notion of emotional trauma, how it can leave invisible scars on a population, and how it can haunt a nation. I'm also a huge fan of podcasts and hope to start my own one day! I'm in love with The Poetry Exchange podcast and the BBC Arts and Ideas!

Hello! I'm Emma, a 2017 Undergraduate Leadership & Research Programme alumna and one of the Founding Co-Presidents of the Laidlaw Alumni Society. My 2017 Undergraduate Research project focused on UK legislation which requires certain organisations to publish an annual statement about the efforts they are making to stop modern slavery in their supply chains. In particular, I looked at whether this legislation was really making a difference in the fight against modern slavery in supply chains. At the time, I concluded that the legislation was largely ineffective - however, you'll be pleased to know that, just a few years later, topics such as modern slavery in supply chains have risen much further up the corporate agenda (for various reasons largely unrelated to the UK legislation). These days, I work as a lawyer. For the first few years of my career, I advised corporate clients on ESG disputes and regulation (including matters relating to modern slavery statements!). I am about to start a new, exciting chapter of my legal career, working to develop two nuclear projects which will help the UK to achieve net zero by 2050 and ensure that its energy supply is secure.