Sustainable Development student at the University of St Andrews (Class of 2024) and UWC Alumna. My research focuses on exploring pathways to sustainability in the fashion industry, assessing the potential of circular economy models and thinking to address the unsustainability of current production and consumption patterns. 

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'm a student at the University of Toronto interested in neurological and ocular health, immunological mechanisms and self-immunity, as well as innovations and leadership within health care. I look to empower the aspiring youth through limitless, accessible education, and foster positive change in our dynamic reality!

I am the founder of buddhistphilosophy.co.uk where I currently host podcasts with expert guests in Buddhist philosophical practice and theory. With this project, I am to contribute toward correcting the entrenched Eurocentric bias in philosophy by creating an inclusive space for learning about Buddhist philosophy. As a Laidlaw Scholar, I have researched on researched philosophy of time, Buddhist philosophy, and philosophy of language. My research output includes a paper entitled Meaning in Gibberish (forthcoming in Aporia). I have presented this paper and discussed related issues in talks and workshops at the University of St Andrews and the University of Edinburgh. Language learning holds a high in priority in my studies and research. I have studied some Pali (OCBS levels 1 and 2) and I read French fluently. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me if you have any interest in the following: Buddhism, Buddhist philosophy, Ambedkar studies, women and Buddhist philosophy, cross-cultural philosophy, critical theory, French philosophy, Laruelle’s non-philosophy, non-Buddhism, philosophy of nonsense, philosophy of death.

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.

I am a second-year student at the University of St Andrews, pursuing a Joint Honours Degree in Economics and Sustainable Development. My vision is to enable more sustainability-oriented initiatives through financial tools and market-based solutions. One of my other interests is literature, that is why my summer research project is an attempt to understand the representation of nature in current children’s environmental literature and define the relationships between “nature literacy”, education, sustainability and social transition. Outside of my studies I enjoy staying active (water sports are my favourite) and baking.

I’m a proud care-experienced Neuroscientist. My research focuses on how serotonin and psychedelics shape neuroplasticity in brain regions greatly affected by early-life adversity. In my experiments, I measure how well brain cells can talk to each other during natural serotonin release and following the administration of classic psychedelics (e.g., magic mushrooms). Care-experienced young people represent one of the largest untapped STEM talent pools in the UK. They have all the potential required to succeed and yet, they are still eight times less likely to enrol in university and choose a STEM subject. Care-experienced young people don’t lack talent, they lack the opportunities to unlock it. In my early 20s, I migrated to the UK in search of a brighter future, when I still couldn't speak the language. During my time in care, I struggled at school and didn’t do well academically. But the Foundation Programme at Durham University gave me the chance to catch up and build the confidence I needed. Four years later, I graduated at Durham as the top student in my cohort - with an average mark of over 80%. Only when potential meets opportunity talent can thrive. Driven by this belief, I founded WISHFULICIOUS to give children in care and care-experienced young people the opportunity to see that STEM isn’t just for “someone else” - it’s for them too. To start-up this initiative, I’ve baked and sold cookies, run a small online fundraising campaign, and am now part of the The CareLeaders Fellowship where I’m working to lay the foundation for delivering our first STEM programme. If you share this mission or simply want to help open doors for care-experienced people, I’d love to connect and hear from you!

Hello! I am a penultimate year French and Politics student at the University of Leeds with the drive and tenacity to effect positive change on a global scale. My research focuses on identifying West African resistance fighters in the Second World War. I have also developed a keen interest in the Francophone world, French philosophy and Post-colonial Feminist security studies.

Ameya Marie is a 20-year-old artist from Portland, OR who deconstructs social injustice and biased behavior through art. As a social practice artist, she has worked extensively as an artist and organizer with Black Lives Matter Portland, connecting with families impacted by racialized violence and creating memorial portraits for protests, social media campaigns, and candlelight vigils. Ameya hopes to make art more accessible to all by bringing art to communities that would otherwise not have access and amplifying their stories to inspire more understanding, empathy and progress. Her protest art and work in youth advocacy and education has taken her to the White House for a confrontational visit as a 2018 US Presidential Scholar in Art. Her work has been profiled by Paper Magazine, NPR, the Washington Post, and Adobe Project 1324 and featured in publications like Hyperallergic, Whitewall Magazine and Bloomberg QuickTake. She was recently honored by the National YoungArts Foundation as a 2018 Finalist in Visual Art and announced a Top 6 Rising Art Star by the NY Post. Ameya is a 2019 Adobe Creativity Scholar.

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.

I'm an Ancient History and Archaeology graduate from St Andrews University, and Oxford University. My laidlaw research was in Medieval Heresy and Inquisition, combining practical GIS and mapping skills commonly used in archaeology, textual analysis, and data analysis, to experiment with alternative ways of presenting historical research. However, my current interests lie in studying craft networks and technological exchange in the Ancient Aegean, as well as the influence of marginalised people in the historical record on them.

I'm a third-year English student at the University of St Andrews! My primary research areas are Early Modern Literature and I am particularly interested in the intersection of religious beliefs and gender roles at that time. In my spare time, I'm a CV adviser with the University's careers centre and I manage the programming at St Andrews Radio - the only radio station in St Andrews!

Alex was the Programme Director of the Laidlaw Scholars Leadership and Research Programme from September 2021 - May 2024.  Prior to joining the Laidlaw Foundation Alex spent over a decade at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, where he most recently managed the university’s Laidlaw Scholars Programme. In addition, Alex taught leadership courses and guest-lectured internationally on the subjects of strategy and leadership. A bilingual speaker, dual national and keen traveller, Alex has lived, visited and worked in several countries around the world. During this time, he has had a unique opportunity to encounter and explore different cultures and working environments, experiencing first-hand what good leadership can achieve. His passion for this topic is driven by these experiences and a desire to challenge people to unlock their full leadership potential. Alex holds an MBA from the Open University and a Master of Research in Management from the University of St Andrews. He has also obtained Associate Fellow status with the Higher Education Academy. In his spare time, Alex is an avid skier and volunteers with a local guide dog organisation.

I'm a chemist at the University of St Andrews, but in my time here I've dabbled in several different subject areas: Spanish, Italian, Maths and Computer Science as well as Chemistry. Although these seem quite different fields, they share a commonality, in that there is some formal grammar underpinning each of them. If you understand the rules, you can manipulate these tools to accomplish a certain goal - be that synthesising a particular molecule or having a conversation. I'm a keen linguist, having spent time teaching English in one of the top private schools in Spain, and regularly attend evening Italian classes. I enjoy most areas of Chemistry, particularly organic mechanism and fluorescence - hence the focus of my project. I'm always looking for new opportunties inside or outside the lab, and would like to explore the field of patent law as I think it fuses my interests quite nicely. It'd be great to meet any like minded people, so feel free to send me a message!