Hello! I recently graduated with an Honours Bachelor of Science in Psychology Research from the University of Toronto. I’m passionate about youth mental health and how humour can be used to support resilience after adversity. My Summer 1 research project explored the relationship between childhood adversity, aggression, and self-regulation — deepening my understanding of the psychological impacts of early trauma. In Summer 2, I led a Leadership-in-Action project at SOS Children’s Villages in Cape Town, where I designed and facilitated a comedy-based mental health program for teens. That experience led me to found HaHaHelps — an organization that uses improv comedy to support youth mental health through accessible, community-led workshops. I am currently conducting a feasibility study of the program in South Africa as part of my master’s dissertation in Psychology at the University of Cape Town, with plans to expand to more communities globally. Please feel free to connect :) Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/younessrobert-tahiri Email: youness@hahahelps.org

Hi everyone! I'm a rising sophomore majoring in Neuroscience and Behavior. My research at Columbia University Irving Medical Center's Troy Lab investigates how retinal vein occlusion (RVO) — a leading vascular cause of vision loss and blindness — affects the lateral geniculate nucleus, the thalamic structure that relays visual information from the retina to the cortex. RVO is typically treated as a disease of the eye, but vision depends on the entire pathway, and damage at the retina may drive changes deeper in the brain that go unrecognized in current care. I'm interested in characterizing those downstream effects on the LGN and identifying neurological markers that could help explain why some patients lose vision permanently while others recover, ultimately informing earlier intervention before blindness becomes irreversible.  Outside the lab, I love singing a capella with Columbia Sur and exploring the city. I'm excited to meet everyone and please feel free to reach out!

Hi everyone! I’m Donna, and I have just completed my second year studying Molecular Bioengineering at Imperial College London. I’m interested in how research can move from scientific ideas into real-world healthcare impact. I enjoy learning about the biology behind disease and technology, but I’m also curious about what happens after a discovery is made: how it can be translated responsibly into something useful, accessible, and meaningful. This summer, my Laidlaw research project will focus on wearable muscle-signal interfaces for assistive control after spinal cord injury. More broadly, I’m excited by healthcare technologies that are not only technically impressive, but also practical enough to make a difference in people’s daily lives. Through Laidlaw, I hope to better understand the role leadership plays in helping research move beyond the lab, from shaping ideas thoughtfully to connecting them with people and communities who may benefit from them. I’m looking forward to learning from people across the Laidlaw community, especially those working in bioengineering, healthcare innovation, neural engineering, or protein de novo design. Please feel free to reach out. I’d be very happy to connect.

I'm a second year MEng Chemical Engineering student at Imperial College London. My Laidlaw project compares electrification and CCUS pathways for industrial decarbonisation, supervised by Dr. Bakkaloglu at Imperial. Last year I coordinated a project across four universities with Rolls-Royce SMR on integrating high temperature gas reactors with desalination and ammonia production.  Before Imperial I took a gap year and backpacked through 50+ countries solo, mostly on overland routes. That is where my emerging markets focus came from.

I’m a Speech and Language Therapy student at Trinity College Dublin and a member of the 2026 Laidlaw Scholars cohort. I returned to education as a mature student and single parent after experiencing firsthand the impact that Speech and Language Therapists can have on people’s lives, which inspired me to pursue the profession myself. My research interests focus on socioeconomic inequality, access to education, inclusion, and student belonging within higher education. Through the Laidlaw Programme, I’m exploring how historically elite institutions such as Trinity engage with class and socioeconomic diversity, and how universities can move beyond widening access towards creating genuinely inclusive environments for students from all backgrounds. Alongside my studies, I’m involved in student representation work as the TAP representative on the Students’ Union Equality and Welfare Committee, where I advocate for equity and inclusion within university life. Outside of academia, I’m also a DJ with a love for garage and jungle music, and a very dedicated bird mother 🐥