Hi everyone! My name is Zoe (she/her). I am from Co.Louth, Ireland. I'm in my fourth year studying Medicine at Trinity College Dublin. My Laidlaw research project is about exploiting the relationship between LPS and capsule for therapeutic benefit against E.coli UTI in sepsis. Sepsis has a mortality rate of 1 in 5 and the majority of sepsis infections originate in the urinary tract (from UTIs). I hope with this research to expand the available therapies for sepsis infections derived from UTIs. In my free time, I like to run, play gaelic football, and I also volunteer with Streetdoctors and Dublin Homeless Awareness. This year I am also the Chairperson of Trinity Med Day, a charity that aims to raise money for projects across our teaching hospitals. One thing about me that surprises people is that I'm slightly married to my Google calendar.  I'd love to connect with someone who is doing research in similar areas and is open to a collaboration! But also I'd love to connect with anyone and am so excited to meet new people! :)

My name is Fathia Fasasi, and I am a rising sophomore at Georgetown University with hopes of majoring in Global Health and minoring in sociology. A fun fact about me is that I was hit by a motorcycle at five years old (I'm fine now, lol!). I am involved in a faculty project called The Black Central Americas (BCA) this summer. I am primarily engaged in the first phase, "Constellating Black Central America," where we focus on researching cities and documenting their histories, cultures, and migration patterns. Our primary aim with this project is to fill in the historical gaps of these cities and create a valuable resource for future researchers interested in this history.

My name is Fiona and I'm a member of the Class of 2026 at Georgetown University in the US. I'm majoring in Culture and Politics with a concentration in International Labor Policy and minoring in English and French. My research focuses on the intersection between artificial intelligence and labor exploitation. I aim to chronicle the ways that the tech industry would not function without the contract labor performed by millions of workers in the Global South, and to analyze new models of tech worker organizing to strengthen their power and autonomy. I also hope to situate this "last mile" of digital automation within historical trends of piecework, mechanization, and labor displacement under capitalism. For my summer 2025 Leadership in Action project, I'm interning at a labor union in the capital of Tunisia.

Hello! I’m Trisha, a fourth-year student at Cornell University from Texas, USA. I’m majoring in Environment and Sustainability with a dual focus on food systems and wildlife conservation, and minoring in International Relations. My interests in combining my enduring passions for writing and wildlife conservation have driven me to explore multiple perspectives on highly-controversial issues such as trophy hunting, retaliatory animal killings, and illegal wildlife crime. Thus, during my first summer as a Laidlaw Scholar and as a member of the Morally Contested Conservation team, I wrote a literature review on the interconnectedness of climate change and human-wildlife conflicts in East and southern Africa. In June and July 2024, I furthered this research by traveling to the University of Oxford and to the Burunge Wildlife Management Area in Tanzania. I will be returning to Oxford and Burunge in June and July 2025 to report my results.  As an aspiring environmental policymaker and journalist, I am passionate about making technical scientific information more accessible to the general public. At Cornell, I am an Institute of Politics and Global Affairs Scholar, through which I interact with policymakers monthly to discuss pervasive issues in international politics. I also speak Marathi, Spanish, and Swahili at varying levels of fluency and plan to continue to grow my language skills to communicate environmental issues across continents and cultures.  For fun, I love to turn even the most mundane materials into recycled art, spend hours on end working through jigsaw puzzles, and go for runs while listening to podcasts. And as a diehard foodie who loves to travel, I’m always looking for recommendations of places to visit or new recipes to try!  The Laidlaw Scholars Program has been an invaluable component of my undergraduate experience. The friendships I’ve made, as well as the research and language skills I’ve begun to develop, have encouraged me to continue to ask and seek answers to complicated questions about global affairs and environmental science. If anyone has questions or feedback about the Laidlaw Program, is interested in collaborating, or just wants to say hello, please feel free to email me at trb238@cornell.edu. I hope we can meet in person someday!

I'm a first year student at Columbia University studying Biochemistry. 

Hi everyone! I am a rising Senior at Columbia College majoring in Cognitive Science and Visual Arts. As part of the 2024 Laidlaw cohort, I am deeply interested in the intersections of psychology, social anthropology, and the arts. My first summer specifically focused on understanding the role of forgiveness within Korean American communities.  This second summer, I am working at the Gardens, Libraries, and Museums (GLAM) at the University of Oxford to support with their community engagement team. My work includes creating more accessibility for the elderly and people with disabilities, and also using the archives to spotlight individuals who overcame adversity to promote mental well-being amongst youth.

Hello! I'm Hannah Smith, a first-year student at Columbia University studying Mathematics and East Asian Languages and Cultures. My interests in diasporic communities and media have led me to conduct research on the differing portrayals of the Chinese-American immigration experience through history, literature, and film.  

My name is Tara Lago, and I am a Rabi Scholar and Laidlaw Scholar at Columbia University pursuing a major in neuroscience and behavior with a concentration in chemistry. With more than 3 years of research related to social science, depression, animal behavior, and computational neuroscience, I aim to study and apply the basic neural mechanisms that underlie human health.  I am passionate about helping my community, inside and outside of the lab. Whether that be creating inclusive programs for my first-year residents as a Resident Advisor or advocating for the freedom to read with the New York and Brooklyn Public Library, I seek to create supportive spaces that encourage intellectual, emotional, and social growth. After my undergraduate education, I plan to work in academic medicine, with the ambition of obtaining an MD-PhD in the future. 

Hi, I am a member of Columbia University's Class of 2027. I am passionate about topics at the intersection between economics and political science, my scope is usually focused on the U.S. but I am excited to gain a more international perspective! I have lived most of my life in the South of the U.S. and I am very proud to come from a Hispanic cultural background. In my free time, I enjoy exploring New York City or relaxing in my room with a good book (my current favorite author is Ocean Vuong).  Please reach out if my work interests you! I would love to discuss it and any related topics. 

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. 

Hi! I am a rising junior at Columbia University studying Economics and Human Rights. My interests are on public policy, education, and immigration. In my free time I love crocheting, watching movies, and exploring the city with my friends!

Reese Taylor is a rising junior majoring in Philosophy, History, and Human Rights on a pre-law track. As a Laidlaw Scholar, she spent her first summer researching the role of labor in the economic and social uplift of Black Americans in the wake of Reconstruction. She was selected to present this research at Johns Hopkins University, The University of Pennsylvania, and the Global Laidlaw Scholars Conference. In her second summer, Reese founded The Voices in Action Initiative which is a program developed to empower and mobilize youth voices by providing them skills and practice in speech and debate. She enacted the program in Nassau, Bahamas with sponsorship from both the Laidlaw Foundation and The Kiwanis Club of Nassau.

I am a junior at Columbia University, majoring in Urban Studies with a specialization in Public Health, and a 2024 Laidlaw Scholar. My first summer research was with the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Preservation and Planning Mapping Historical New York Initiative. I digitized historical maps and census data, contributing to a digital atlas of early New York settlements, focusing on Queens and the Bronx. For my second summer, I worked with WeCanMake, a community land trust, on a mixed-use housing microsite in the UK.