Lachlan Odlin

Hello! I am Olivia, an International Relations and Ethics, Society, and Law student at the University of Toronto. I am interested in how states relate to one another, how international diplomacy functions, and decision-making in states. This is why this summer I'll be looking at Legal Barriers to Self-Determination in Disputed Territories. This study looks at how states interact with independence movements, for example, to see if an overseas territory is worth retaining in the midst of claims for independence.  For fun, I like playing video games (come talk to me about Nintendo games!!) or reading, biking or walking through my neighbourhood, and browsing research. I love learning, I'm trying to read more non-fiction books, so please recommend any interesting research or novels! I am so excited to be a member of the Laidlaw community. I hope to learn more about all of you, and read as much of your work as possible! Please don't hesitate to reach out to me, either through the Laidlaw Scholars Network, or on LinkedIn. Let's talk!

Hi! I study Social Policy at LSE and am very, very passionate about intersectional liberation! This summer I did my LIA as a Commissioning Officer at Essex County Council doing participatory research to develop new domestic abuse early intervention services - an area I'm extremely passionate about. One day I hope to be a lawyer as I'm sure many other Laidlaw(y)ers do!  Always happy to chat about migration, dance, pole fitness, languages (currently learning 🇨🇳🇷🇺🇩🇪), and connect with like-minded people. (If you want to go to RBO to watch ballet or pole hire with me please get in contact!) Have the best day if you're reading this xx

Hi everyone, I'm Jasmine, and I'm studying BA Geography at LSE. I'd like to consider myself as an at least partially competent social scientist, but my particular interests are in modern history, gender, and urban studies. I'll happily waffle on about any of those things, and I'm always excited to meet people with shared interests. Outside of academics, I enjoy ballet, marvel, disney music and playing with my dog.  I wanted to become a Laidlaw scholar because I enjoy doing research, and I wanted to see if I could take my burgeoning skills outside of university to make a difference (an utter cliché, I know). I'm hoping to do that this summer with my LiA working for Variety, a UK-based charity that looks to support children with disabilities from disadvantaged backgrounds. I will be running a research project investigating where there are gaps in the capacity of these children to access assistive technology, and what we can do about it. If you're interested, if you have any ideas or knowledge, send me a message or an email! 

Hello! I’m Trisha, a graduate of Cornell University from Texas, USA. I majored in Environment and Sustainability with a dual focus on food systems and wildlife conservation, and minored 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, and returned to Oxford and Burunge in June and July 2025 to report my results.  As an aspiring conservationist, I am passionate about making technical scientific information more accessible to the general public. I speak Marathi, Spanish, and Swahili at varying levels of fluency and plan to continue to grow my language skills to communicate conservation challenges across continents and cultures.  The Laidlaw Scholars Program was an invaluable component of my undergraduate experience. The friendships I made, as well as the research and language skills I began to develop, encouraged me to continue to ask and seek answers to complicated questions about global affairs and environmental science. If anyone has questions about the Laidlaw Program, is interested in collaborating, or just wants to say hello, please feel free to email me at trisha.bhujle@gmail.com!

Hello! I’m a psychology researcher and the founder of HaHaHelps, a comedy-based psychosocial programme designed to support young people in residential care. I am currently completing an MSocSci in Psychology at the University of Cape Town, where my dissertation examines the feasibility of HaHaHelps with adolescents in South African child and youth care centres. My broader interests include youth mental health, psychosocial intervention development, implementation, participatory approaches, and the use of humour and play to support connection, emotional expression, self-efficacy, and coping with uncertainty. HaHaHelps grew out of my Laidlaw Leadership-in-Action project at SOS Children’s Villages in Cape Town, where I designed and facilitated an improv-comedy programme for adolescents. Since then, I have continued developing and delivering the programme with young people in residential care and am now studying how it can be refined, evaluated, and ultimately adapted for use in other communities and settings. Before this, my Laidlaw research at the University of Toronto examined relationships between childhood adversity, aggression, and self-regulation. I’d love to connect with other Laidlaw Scholars and alumni interested in youth mental health, social impact, intervention development, social entrepreneurship, or simply finding creative ways to turn research into something useful in the world.

Hi! I'm Sophia, an aspiring scientist and philomath. I love learning about everything and anything and delight in spending time with people who are passionate about the things they love! I am really interested and curious about how we can use chemistry to improve processes and products to help society. For example, my research project is looking into the possibility of turning struvite, a mineral which is a by-product of waste-water treatment processes into slow-release nitrogen and phosphorous fertilisers, which would be a green source nitrogen and phosphorous fertilisers and help achieve goals of zero-waste.  If you are researching something similar or are interested in learning more about the project, please reach out! I am super happy to talk about the project and meet other who are doing something similar and possibly collaborate!