Alumni Scholars

Oxford Qatar Thatcher Scholar

MSc Integrated Immunology (2018)

Malak Al-Shaikhali became a doctor in Gaza in 2016, despite rolling blackouts, movement restrictions and security fears. Shortly after, she met a group of Oxford University doctors while volunteering with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, who encouraged her to consider Oxford. She duly won a scholarship to Somerville as an Oxford Qatar Scholar – but, having won her place, her journey was far from over. Denied permission to travel through Israel, Malak crossed the Sinai Desert by car, a journey which took 4 days through innumerable military checkpoints and terrorist strongholds. Not long after, Malak finally began her MSc in Integrated Immunology. With it, she ultimately plans to specialise in Gaza’s highly under-represented field of oncology, meaning that once again this exceptional scholar will be making all the difference. 

Since graduating, Malak has qualified to practice in the UK and worked on the frontline of the pandemic in London as an NHS junior doctor. She is currently working for East Cheshire NHS Trust, putting the skills and experience gained in London to use fighting the pandemic.

“Arriving at Somerville felt like a miracle. Without the generosity of the Margaret Thatcher Scholarship Trust and Qatar Fund for Development, there is absolutely no way I could have found this wonderful community.”

Oxford Thatcher Scholar
DPhil Medieval and Modern Languages (2018)

Mai-Britt is a medievalist from Germany. As an undergraduate, she studied History and Medieval Latin at Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, and progressed on to a master’s in Medieval and Renaissance Studies including History, German and Art History in the same faculty. Mai-Britt’s special fields of interest are the late medieval history of piety and devotion, Middle Low German literature and the history of the book.

In Michaelmas 2018, Mai-Britt started her DPhil project on early Low German book printing at the Faculty of Modern Languages. In her spare time, Mai-Britt likes playing sports, reading, playing music and doing all kinds of creative handicraft. In German, she was involved in her parish’s youth work for many years. Here in Oxford, she volunteers in the field of public history by working at a museum and conveying insights into late medieval everyday life as a historic interpreter at living history events.

Oxford Thatcher Scholar

BCL Civil Law (2014)

Among the first postgraduate Thatcher Scholars, Sean gained his Bachelor of Civil Law from Somerville in 2017. On graduating, Sean took up a summer fellowship at the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law, where he co-authored an analysis of the EU Withdrawal Agreement which has since been used as a basis for questions to the Government. Sean next spent a year as judicial assistant to the Master of the Rolls in the Court of Appeal, where he worked on high-profile cases such as Campaign Against Arms Trade v Secretary of State for International Trade. During the year 2020-21, Sean taught contract law at UCL while completing his Bar Professional Training Course under a Wilfred Watson Scholarship. He is currently undertaking a pupillage at Blackstone Chambers. 

“The financial security provided by the MTST let me pursue opportunities that would have been impossible had I needed to work alongside my studies.” 

Michael Bishop Foundation Thatcher Scholar

BA History (2019)

Second year historian Luca Webb, who received the 2020-21 Michael Bishop Foundation Thatcher Scholarship, is the embodiment of a Thatcher scholar. He is not only academically brilliant, being in the top 10% of historians in the University, but also passionately committed to social justice.

In his role as president of Schools Plus Oxford, Luca helps place Oxford students as volunteer tutors in economically disadvantaged schools. Drawing inspiration from the Development Programme run by Thatcher Scholarship Programme Director, Dr Claire Cockcroft, Luca also launched a new Schools Plus project this summer to create a free online textbook for GCSE English.

Luca grew up in South Buckinghamshire where he attended his local grammar school. He first came to Somerville as a teenager with his school and had no prior knowledge of higher education, let alone Oxford, being the first generation of his family to attend university. Participating in a taster session for History with one of the Somerville tutors when he visited confirmed that this was the subject he wanted to pursue, as well as the place in which to study it. Today, he is committed to sharing the same opportunities of which he is a beneficiary with other young scholars.

“To leave university debt-free will not only make further study a possibility, it will also give me the independence to choose jobs based on their capacity to effect change.”

Oxford Thatcher Scholar

Biology (2017)

Anna graduated in 2020 with a First Class degree in Biological Sciences, having achieved a First in all three years of her degree. Throughout her time at Somerville, she developed an interest in Plant Science and wrote her FHS Project on a metalloprotease involved in plant immunity and her FHS Coursework on the evolution of senescence in plants.
Anna believes that urgent action is needed to reverse biodiversity decline and avoid a climate catastrophe. Thanks to the support of the Thatcher Scholarship, Anna was also able to work with organisations promoting sustainability and the environment, such as Echo Bonaire, an NGO working to save the endangered Yellow-Shouldered Amazon Parrot. Passionate about the role of plant science in reversing biodiversity decline, Anna is now building a career at the research-implementation interface of conservation biology, most recently securing an internship at a marine conservation charity in Indonesia which she hopes to take up as soon as Covid restrictions loosen sufficiently.
“I’m incredibly grateful for the Thatcher Scholarship and feel privileged to be a part of a community that contains such interesting, intelligent people!”

Oxford Qatar Thatcher Scholar

DPhil Engineering (2017)

Originally from Malaysia, Kharthik spent four years in Imperial College London studying for an MSt in Mechanical Engineering before coming to Oxford to begin his DPhil. Building on his master’s research, which looked at the application of fluid and thermodynamic principles in a range of areas, Kharthik’s doctoral research is focused on the development of laser diagnostic techniques for use in thermofluid applications.

When the pandemic closed labs across Oxford in March 2020, doctoral students like Khartik found their research put on hold. Never one to sit idly by, Khartik used the time and the peculiar challenge presented by Covid-19 to create an entrepreneurial concept which promises to save the NHS over £1billion.

Khartik was an early adopter of the new Venture Builders seminar series introduced by the Thatcher Development Programme to facilitate the first steps towards entrepreneurship. Drawing on insights gained from Venture Builders’ lead tutor, the biomedical entrepreneur and Engineering tutor Dr Erfan Soliman Builders, Khartik noted how the NHS had come within days of running out of vital items of PPE during the early days of the pandemic. Clearly, effective resource management was key for both patient care and hospital budgets – and Khartik saw an opportunity to put his machine learning know-how to use in creating a revolutionary new platform for healthcare inventory management. The result is Zylem, the world’s first AI-powered predictive tool that analyses historical inventory usage, together with data points like demographics, seasonal demands and need history, to enhance forecasting of healthcare inventory needs and make smarter ordering decisions, potentially saving hundreds of millions of pounds.

The next stage for this exciting venture is to develop a working prototype of the platform with industry partners and Oxford University Hospital Trust unlocking funding opportunities. Industry experts predict that Zylem could save the NHS £1 billion every year, as well as improving care and patient outcomes through more informed inventory decisions.

“There is a mismatch between supply and demand when it comes to many healthcare services,” Kharthik says. “Having interviewed several key stakeholders from GP managers and inventory technology founders to pharmacists, we are confident that the NHS could make a 10-20% saving if they used machine learning to organise their procurement and inventory.”

Oxford Thatcher Scholar

MSt History (2021)

Matthew is a first-generation student who read for his BA in History at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. An exceptional scholar who received Corpus’ Bushell Prize for his undergraduate thesis on historical thought in Restoration religious and political culture, he came to Somerville in 2021 to continue his research into the political and religious culture of the seventeenth century.

Away from his studies, Matthew is a passionate supporter of Liverpool Football Club, as well as a keen enthusiast of music, films, and (unsurprisingly) books. During his years at Oxford, he was also passionate about improving educational access and broadening outreach. He worked for Humans of Oxford, as well as serving as Corpus Christi College JCR’s Access and Admissions Officer.

Ng Teng Fong Thatcher Scholar
Mst, DPhil Physics (2018)

Chuqiao grew up in an ordinary family in China, but was not educated in the same way as many of my peers. Instead of being forced to attend extra classes to outperform others in the highly competitive Chinese education system as many students are, Chuqiao’s parents fully supported and respected his ideas, allowing him to pursue his own interests such as classical guitar and ancient Chinese characters, as well as badminton and table tennis. It was an upbringing which, by Chuqiao’s admission, taught him to think independently and follow his inner voice.

Academically, Chuqiao’s passion has always been Physics, and this is the subject to which he devotes most of his time. Chuqiao empathises particularly with the sense of helplessness felt by 19th Century physicists when the crisis of classical mechanics began, and he is particularly moved by the efforts of many to change the postulates and develop quantum theory in order finally to conquer these eccentric particles. Ever since our ancestors first looked up at the stars, Chuqiao notes, humans have had the desire to explore and discover – and he would dearly love to be one of the pioneering intellectual explorers who conduct experiments, develop ideas and find those seemingly ineffable answers.

“I am still feeling a little dazed to even have a place to study at Somerville, and I am even more amazed to have been awarded the Ng Teng Fong Thatcher Scholarship. I regard the Ng Teng Fong Thatcher Scholarship as the greatest opportunity I have had since I first won my place at Oxford, and an encouragement to work ever harder.”

Oxford Thatcher Scholar

DPhil English (2017)

Talitha is a DPhil scholar in English, exploring the ideological and historical significance of the sea in the twentieth century among modernist writers like Joseph Conrad, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf. Her principal interests are how we think about meaning, and specifically, in how our myths and fictions – what Giambattista Vico called our “fantastic wisdom” – might serve as signposts whereby we can situate ourselves within the world, not only in relation to the other, and to our socio-political contexts, but also in relation to history and to the future.

Talitha considers the study of literature a remarkable mode in which to examine what, historically speaking, we have made, and continue to make of our own being-in-the-world. In her doctoral research, Talitha particularly hopes to study the way in which the images of sea voyage and of descent into the underworld operate together in the texts of Modernist authors such as Pound and Eliot, and the relation of these strangely paired images to the respective authors’ conceptions of meaning and hermeneutics.

Michael Bishop Foundation Thatcher Scholar

Philosophy, Politics and Economics (2018)

Telemi studied PPE at Somerville, where her greatest academic interest lay in international development. Motivated by the vast disparities we see in the world today, Telemi is keen to pursue a career dedicated to helping bridge the development gap, as she believes this is the key to providing genuinely equal opportunities to all people, regardless of their place of birth. To aid her in this career path, Telemi has undertaken a Master’s in Development Economics.

Outside of academia, Telemi’s main interests are dance, and volunteering at her local church. She started dance at the age of 8, and this passion continued with her to university, where she was co-founder of the Somerville Dance Society. Telemi also volunteers bi-weekly at her home church, serving as part of the visuals team and also as teacher of the youth group. Another keen hobby is baking, which Telemi loves doing at home with her younger brother, and she remains an avid football fan!

Qatar Thatcher Scholar 

BA English Language and Literature (2016)

A Qatar Thatcher Scholar 2017-19, Kate took up Law after finishing her studies in Oxford. Despite her relatively recent introduction to the legal profession, Kate is already making waves in the legal world. She completed her Graduate Diploma in Law with distinction and the Legal Practice Course in June 2021 before joining her new firm in October 2021.

“I hope one day to work in a global and political industry such as law or humanitarian aid. The Margaret Thatcher Scholarship has made these goals more of a reality, and it is inspiring to represent a scheme whose values and ambitions, with regard to access to education, align so seamlessly with my own.”

MSt Modern History

Oxford Thatcher Scholar

Victoria is studying for a Masters’ degree in Modern British History, with a particular focus on groups and events that have been traditionally marginalised in historical accounts. Her research considers both the development of political thought throughout the twentieth century and on the historicising of gender, BAME and LGBT+ communities, specifically with a view to the modern-day socio-political implications of omitting such communities from conventional narratives.

The study of Modern British History is an area that Victoria believes to be of vital importance to modern life, with history acting as a powerful vehicle for change, galvanising dialogue around contemporary issues of inclusivity and equality.

“I feel very excited to be studying for a Master’s degree at Somerville, and am very grateful for the opportunities opened up by the Thatcher Scholarship programme.”

Oxford Qatar Thatcher Scholar

MSc Modern Middle Eastern Studies (2019)

Mathew completed his MSc in Modern Middle Eastern Studies in 2020.

Mathew is a native of Los Angeles who graduated from UC Berkeley in May 2019 with Phi Beta Kappa honors and a bachelor’s degrees in History, Near Eastern Studies, and Global Studies. As a Haas Scholar, Mathew conducted historical research in Jordan on the experiences of Arab civilian communities during World War I.

Building on the work of his undergraduate thesis, which examined memory of the 1918 Exodus of Transjordan’s Christian families, Mathew completed an MSc in Modern Middle Eastern Studies under the supervision of Professor Eugene Rogan. During his time in Oxford, Mathew also served on the editorial board of the Oxford Middle East Review.

With a continued focus on American foreign policy and the history, politics, and societies of the Middle East, in addition to human rights, Mathew is currently an intern at the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

Qatar Thatcher Scholar 

BA Computer Science (2017)

In high school, Minh was given the chance to visit some of the mountainous regions in his native Vietnam, giving him a whole new perspective on the world. There he met children who had never had the benefit of an education, and people who were so badly off that they were struggling to survive. Today, Minh wants to use his studies to help raise the living standards of those people, to make the world a better place to live.

‘Perhaps my dream does look dreamy, but Oxford is a place where dreams come true.’

Qatar Thatcher Scholar

Margaret Thatcher Scholar

Graduate Entry Medicine (2015)

Will completed his Graduate Entry Medicine course in 2019, having always known he wanted a career in science. Will finally settled on medicine after completing an MSt in Natural Sciences at Kellogg College. With the support of his scholarship, Will was able to use his time outside term to focus on research. He worked with Professor Sally Collins at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, looking at a rare condition that can cause serious complications in pregnancy, as well as attending conferences to present that research and writing up the team’s findings for publication.

While in Oxford, Will also started training as a Reserve Officer in the Army, gaining the provisional Commission that will allow him to begin leading soldiers in training and on exercises. The experiences and challenges Will has had there are, he admits, far removed from those of medical schools, but he continues to enjoy the experience of being pushed and tested, and is confident that some of the skills learned there will serve him well in his medical career.

On leaving Somerville in 2019, Will began his rotation as a graduate-entry medic on the Infectious Diseases ward at Ealing Hospital. When the initial wave of the Covid-19 pandemic struck, however, he voluntarily transferred to Ealing’s respiratory High Dependency Unit, followed by rotations in A&E at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington and the ITU at Hammersmith. During this period, Will also found time to write a paper exploring whether chest X-ray severity correlates with clinical deterioration in Covid-19 patients, with the paper seeing publication in the January 2021 issue of Clinical Medicine.

“I’m immensely grateful that I have been given so many interesting opportunities and so much support. Much of it would not have been possible without the funding I received from the Thatcher Scholarship Programme.”

Oxford Qatar Thatcher Scholar

MSc Water Science, Policy and Management (2018)

Zineb completed her MSc in Water Science, Policy and Management in 2020. She was the first member of her family to graduate from High School and University, and in 2020 added to these firsts by gaining a Master’s in Water Science, Policy and Management from Somerville.

A self-confessed water enthusiast from Morocco, Sineb’s undergraduate thesis and applied research projects both focused on groundwater arsenic contamination in Bangladesh. At Somerville, Zineb was keen to tackle the water field from a multidisciplinary approach within the School of The Environment and Geography with a particular focus on the mitigation of urban water challenges and the importance of transboundary water management.

Since graduating, Zineb has started a new role with publisher Global Water Intelligence as a research graduate, and secured a Development Award to undertake a project in the labs at Oxford University’s School of Geography and the Environment, which she will carry out once coronavirus restrictions allow.

“Joining a revolutionary college that was established by the ambitions of outstanding, strong and fearless women is an honour that I shall never take for granted. I have embarked on a life-changing journey of education through this generous scholarship, and will be eternally grateful.”

Michael Bishop Foundation Thatcher Scholar

BA History and Economics (2016)

Ben completed his BA in History and Economics in 2019 and is currently making  exceptional progress within the financial sector. Ben, who was a Michael Bishop Foundation Thatcher Scholar, has leveraged a Masters in Finance from the LSE to become an Associate at Strategy&, the global strategy consultancy arm of PwC. The projects on which Ben is now working address the toughest problems businesses face, requiring Ben to facilitate complicated, risky change with speed, certainty, and impact. 

MSt Mathematical & Theoretical Physics

Oxford Thatcher Scholar

Osamah was born and grew up in rural southern Yemen, where his village secondary school barely offered science courses due to a shortage of teachers and the unrest in the country that began in 2012. Nevertheless, his love for mathematics and natural sciences was great, and Osamah taught himself the basics of physics and mathematics by candlelight.

After scoring highly in a national academic merit competition, Osamah was awarded a scholarship to study Physics in Germany. He completed his Bachelor’s degree at the Technische Universität Berlin, specialising in maths and theoretical physics. During that time, Osamah also worked as a teaching assistant in maths and as a student research assistant to Prof. Holger Stark for a project on soft matter theory.

Osamah’s Master’s at Somerville focused on mathematical physics and quantum field theory, and he was the course student representative for his cohort. In his spare time, Osamah enjoys listening to Yiddish and Hebrew music and reading Hebrew literature.

Michael Bishop Foundation Thatcher Scholar

BA Philosophy, Politics and Economics (2015)

Isobel completed her BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics in 2018. Having always been interested in current affairs, studying PPE was the natural first choice for Isobel, and she flourished during her time here at Somerville.

In addition to developing an abiding passion for modern British political history and her many contributions as JCR Sports Officer, Isobel developed a clear affinity for financial work. She undertook a ten-week internship at the Financial Conduct Authority which led to a place on their Supervision Graduate Training Programme. There Isobel completed six-month rotations with various departments, including the FCA’s Competition and Economics division, where she led on assessing the vulnerability of consumers who use Claims Management Companies, among other projects.

Isobel is currently on external secondment in the Equity Research department of investment bank Keefe, Bruyette and Woods. On completing her secondment, she will return to the Financial Conduct Authority where, having already completed their Graduate Training Scheme and passed the Level 6 Financial Services Professional Development Programme with a distinction, she hopes to sit Level 2 of the Chartered Financial Analyst programme.

“The support and encouragement I received from the Thatcher Development Programme has helped me increased my confidence and given me practical help with applications and networking. Having a Michael Bishop Foundation Thatcher Scholarship has maximized my opportunities and helped me focus on my long-term goal of having a beneficial impact on the world.”