I am a 2nd Year PhD student at the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge. I work in Professor Oliver Shorttle's group, studying the atmospheres of hot rocky planets. In our solar system, Venus exemplifies the fate of a planet that orbits too close to its host star: a catastrophic runaway greenhouse effect leading to the loss of all liquid water and hellish surface conditions. Understanding the factors that led to this outcome on Venus helps us identify the conditions necessary for such processes to occur on exoplanets, refining our understanding of the inner edge of the habitable zone.
My recent work has focused on ozone production in Venus' upper atmosphere and the potential for ozone to present a false-positive biosignature on Venus-like exoplanets. Currently, I am extending my research on hot rocky exoplanets to include the sub-Neptune regime, particularly focusing on 'Magma Worlds.' There has been recent interest in Hycean worlds—planets with vast liquid oceans and hydrogen-dominated atmospheres—and their potential to support life. However, distinguishing observationally between Hycean worlds and sub-Neptunes with molten surfaces, or 'Magma Worlds,' remains a critical challenge.
Hi, I'm Polina and I'm a Biochemstry student at the University of St Andrews. I am interested in the properties of enzymes and mechanism of biocatalysis. It is really exciting to be part of the Laidlaw Network. I had the most amazing summer in my life last year, doing research in MacNeill Lab, St Andrews. Looking forward to my second summer as a Scholar, which I will spend volunteering in Ghana.
Pronouns: she/her, they/them
I am an undergraduate scholar and an International Relations and Social Anthropology student at St Andrews. Growing up in various countries across Asia and Europe, I have become particularly interested in global politics, postcolonialism, and social justice. I am also passionate about languages, and speak Chinese, Persian, Urdu, French, and Spanish to varying degrees, in addition to my native Hindi and English.
Hello! My name is Christalie Anor and I am a sophomore at Tufts University. I am majoring in Biopsychology on a Premed track and minoring in Child Studies and Human Development. I came to Medford, Massachusetts from sunny South Florida.
I am working with my supervisors, Dr. Shin and Dr. Sommers, to measure the physiological effects of recalling past instances of racial discrimination. The research will use script-driven imagery and correlate the physiological measures with self-reported psychological measures.
I'm passionate about research and improving the interface between technology and medicine. I also enjoy youth mentorship and am always looking for opportunities to educate and empower young people. Currently, I study the role of ion channel activity and electric fields in breast cancer metastasis. Outside of research, I teach martial arts to pediatric cancer patients and mentor elementary school girls with Strong Women Strong Girls. I also teach reading comprehension and grammar to refugee students. Please reach out to me with any research inquiries or with any teaching opportunities. I am very eager to help with youth outreach events, especially those geared towards girls in STEM.
I am a rising Junior at Tufts University studying Biology and Computer Science. I tend to get excited about Bioinformatics, computational biology, and data science. This summer my research involves using network propagation methods to determine genes that are associated with Alzheimer's Disease.
In my free time, I like to journal, explore nature, and travel to new places.
Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions or comments about my work, I am always happy to chat about it!
Hello fellow scholars!
My name is Thi (pronounced like tea) and I am a sophomore pursuing a degree in Biomedical Engineering and a minor in Computer Science. I look forward to learning more about my research, which is about traumatic brain injury, and connecting with you all this summer!
There are 25 annual Laidlaw Scholarships that provide funding to enable you to develop leadership and research skills through a range of personal development activities and two six week periods of project work throughout your time at Leeds.
👋 Hi there, my name is Georgina. I am a Laidlaw Alumni and a graduate from University College London. It's a pleasure to meet you!
I am an aspiring Clinical Psychologist, a second-year Psychology student at Tufts University, and a devotee of the arts. My interests consist of aiding in the destigmatization and reformation of mental health within Black and Brown communities. Another passion of mine is fighting for the prevention of child abuse as I continue to intern with Masskids, the Prevent Child Abuse chapter of Massachusetts. As a Laidlaw Scholar, my research coincides with my interests as I focus on how stereotypes, misrepresentation, and instances of erasure within the media impacts the socio-emotional and mental health of adolescents. The goal of this research is to further understand the problem then understand and navigate solutions. I hope to work with non-profits and other initiatives in the fight for mental health in underrepresented communities and would love to be contacted in support of these efforts.
Hi! I am a first-year student at Tufts University and am very excited to be a Laidlaw Scholar. I am conducting research on how we can better shape refugee camps in Greece to facilitate more pluralistic interactions among children from various backgrounds through recreational purposes.
As Associate Provost of Tufts University, Dr. Dawn Geronimo Terkla oversees the Offices of Institutional Research & Evaluation (OIR&E); The Center for Enhancement of Learning & Teaching (CELT), and the Tufts Laidlaw Scholars Program: serves on the USAID funded EPT2 One Health Workforce Project; provides guidance across the university on issues relating to institutional research, outcomes assessment, and evaluation; provides critical management information to senior administrators; and serves on university-wide committees (Academic Council, Administrative Council, Social Science IRB, Tufts IT Steering Committee, Information Stewardship Sub-committee, Student Information Steering Committee, as well as, co-chairing the University-Wide Committee on Teaching and Faculty Development.
Dr. Terkla is the University Accreditation Liaison Officer to the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE). In addition, she participates in school-level accreditations, providing support as needed.
She has held leadership positions in several organizations serving as President of both the North East Association for Institutional Research and the Association for Institutional Research, as well as the Chair of the US Department of Educational National Postsecondary Executive Committee (NPEC) Council on Postsecondary Education Statistics. In addition, she has served on the Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium Board of Directors, the UCLA/ACE Cooperative Institutional Research Program Advisory Committee, National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities Commission on Policy Analysis and the National Student Clearinghouse Advisory Committee.
Dr. Terkla earned a doctorate in higher education research from Harvard University, a Masters of Public Policy from the University of California Berkeley, and a bachelors degree from Ohio Wesleyan University where she majored in politics and government. In addition, she was awarded a management certificate from the Management Institute for Women in Higher Education.
Andrew Singleton has recently joined the Tufts-Laidlaw Undergraduate Research and Leadership Programme team as a Programme Administrator and is excited to continue to elevate the Laidlaw Programming for current and future scholars. He joined the programme from Venture Café, which connects and educates the entrepreneurial and innovation community in Boston through programs/spaces/events and many other cities around the world. He has a B.S. from MIT in Biology and a background in social-impact enterprises, wind-power, user-computer-interfaces, as well as computer network design. In his spare time, Andrew enjoys travel, hiking, and wildlife photography.
Hi! My name is Andra, and I am a graduate of the Laidlaw Scholars program in the 2021 cohort. I am currently working in clinical psychology research, which I also pursued during my time as a Scholar. For my first summer, I completed my research on a project studying racial discrimination as a traumatic stressor, and my second summer, I traveled to Dublin, Ireland to work with Youth Work Ireland on Dublin Pride arts programming. Happy to connect with current and past scholars :)
Hello! My name is Morgane Dackiw, I am a senior at Tufts University studying Biology from Montreal, Canada. I am super excited and honored to be a part of this Scholars program and this fantastic cohort! The research that I worked on with Laidlaw was on Primate Conservation and more specifically on extinction risk. I currently am doing my Senior Honors Thesis on Chimpanzee Ecology.