Current Scholars

Sir John Vickers Thatcher Scholar

BSc Biochemistry (2019)

Emer is a second year Biochemistry student at Somerville. She grew up in a small town in East Lancashire and, having always been fascinated with learning about the world through science, came to develop a particular interest in Biochemistry during her A Levels.

Emer is particularly interested in genetics and how it can be used to study and treat disease. In her spare time, she enjoys running and playing for the college netball team as joint captain. Her other hobbies include Irish dancing, which she has practised for more than ten years, and baking.

“I am honoured to be in receipt of this scholarship and I am excited and grateful for the opportunities that the scholarship will offer me in furthering both my academic development and my contribution to university access and outreach work.”

Qatar Thatcher Scholar

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.”

Michael Bishop Foundation Thatcher Scholar

BA Medical Sciences (2017)

Joe completed his BA in Medical Sciences in 2020. Having won the 2018 Gibbs Prize in Physiological Sciences in his first year (read the full story here), Joe was awarded a scholarship funded by the Michael Bishop Foundation for the remaining two years of his study. He was the first in his family to go to university, and hopes that his time at Oxford will enable him to pursue a career advancing healthcare in the developing world.

“Being awarded the Thatcher scholarship is a huge honour,” said Joe. “It’s a very pleasing reward following the hard work of my first year. I hope to make the most of my scholarship by pursuing new opportunities that will help my career in future.”

Oxford Qatar Thatcher Scholar

DPhil History (2015)

Born and bred in Northwest Africa, Hazim spent a great deal of time around the Mediterranean growing up. Over time, his bookish interests and love for the landscape converged on the historical relationship between humans and nature.

An environmentalist by training, he has worked in environmental NGOs and taught environmental subjects at an undergraduate level, both with a focus on climate change adaptation, plastic pollution, and the history of environmentalism. His DPhil in the History of Science, Medicine and Technology will synthesise all these interests as Hazim looks at the early centuries of Islam in the Mediterranean, particularly how technology and natural philosophy were influenced and informed by different world-views.

“I hope that my DPhil will be a stepping stone on the path to becoming an interdisciplinary researcher – a discipline which is of increasing importance as the environmental crisis gains momentum.”

Oxford Thatcher Scholar

DPhil Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics (2010)

Joshua is a linguist with a particular interest in Phonology and Historical Linguistics. 

After graduating from Oxford in 2014 with a BA in German and Linguistics, he completed a PGCE and spent time in teaching. He returned to academia and Oxford in 2018 for an MPhil in General Linguistics and Comparative Philology. Joshua’s MPhil thesis focused on the impact of Romance loan words on the Middle High German stress system, reflecting his interest in Germanic languages and Metrical Phonology. In 2020-21, Joshua began a DPhil in Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics at Somerville, in which Joshua hopes to build on his earlier research and provide a diachronic account of the changes to the word prosodic system of German between the mediaeval and modern periods.

Outside of his studies, Joshua can often be found in wellingtons, tramping through fields and over hills with his Scottish terrier, Bertie. He is also a keen skier and, closer to home, enjoys board games, knitting and music (in addition to the perhaps unsurprising love of reading!).

Oxford Thatcher Scholar 

DPhil Ancient History (2020)

Born and raised in Italy, educated in Australia and the Netherlands, and recently arrived in Oxford, Luca has always been a keen observer of multiculturalism and the ways in which people react to the exposure to different cultures. Luca brings this interest to bear in his research by investigating the relationship between culture, objects, cultural identity and cultural exchange in the ancient world.

Luca was exposed from a young age to the Roman past, as part and parcel of his Italian heritage. Always aware of the longstanding connection between past and present, it makes sense to Luca to study the past as a means of acquiring a better grasp of contemporary issues. After all, themes of multiculturalism, cultural exchange and identity formation are not the reserve of modernity. They interest us as much as those who came before us; perhaps, once again, they could teach us something new.

In addition to his passion for the ancient world, Luca enjoys spending his free time listening to Baroque Opera, reading, visiting museums and, if the weather permits, roaming the Italian countryside looking for unexplored archaeological sites.

Oxford Thatcher Scholar

DPhil Medical Sciences (2017)

Martin became fascinated by tumour biology during his undergraduate studies in Molecular Biomedicine at the University of Bonn. In particular, he was interested in how cellular mechanisms lead to the creation of these “immortal” cells.

Having completed a Master’s degree in Oncology here at Oxford, Martin spent a year on placement with Merck as an intern with their in-house consulting team before commencing his DPhil in Medical Sciences in 2019, supported by the Thatcher Scholarship. The analytical proficiency Martin developed at Merck equipped him with a stronger grasp of how best to confront the emerging challenges of modern healthcare, which he is now applying to his doctoral research in immuno-oncology.

In addition to his studies, Martin is also keen to maintain a good balance between work and extracurricular activities. In both his Bachelor and Master studies, he was elected as a student representative with responsibilities that include improving the academic experience for students, as well as organising social events and formal dinners.

Oxford Thatcher Scholar

DPhil Mathematics (2019)

Federico grew up in Lecco, a small town by the lake of Como in Italy. As soon as he started high school, Federico realized that mathematics was my path. On finishing high school, he enrolled at the University of Milan for an Undergraduate degree in pure mathematics with a focus on Analysis and Geometry. Federico then moved to ETH Zurich for his master’s degree, where Federico was able to define more precisely his research interests and improve his maths.

Federico’s general area of interest is Differential Geometry, which could be naively defined to be the study of differentiable manifolds (smooth curved spaces). The Euclidean plane, the surface of a ball (sphere) or of a doughnut (torus) are easy examples of two-dimensional differentiable manifolds. Even though it might look like Differential Geometry is very abstract, Federico feels it is closer to the “Real World” than we imagine, with striking links to Theoretical Physics. For instance, General Relativity and String Theory describe the universe as a differentiable manifold of “high” dimension.

Besides mathematics, Federico enjoys playing the violin, watching movies and going to the theatre.

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.”

Ng Teng Fong Thatcher Scholar

Mst 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 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

DPhil Physical and Theoretical Chemistry (2019)

Having graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2019 with 1st class MSci in chemistry, Edward Brewer is now a first year student reading for a DPhil in physical and theoretical chemistry thanks to the Thatcher scholarship.

As part of this programme of study Edward is currently attached to the Mackenzie group, who specialise in the dynamics and reactivity of metal clusters in the gas phase. Clusters are of  His project currently involves modification of a velocity map imaging instrument to accommodate a reaction chamber to allow the study of reactions of metal clusters with thermally excited molecules. In addition, he also carries out infrared experiments on metal-ligand complexes in the gas phase. After Edward graduates from his Doctor of philosophy programme he wishes to pursue a career in academia. In his spare time, Edward pursues a variety of different hobbies the most prominent of which being learning to code (specifically in python).

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.

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 Bachelors 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 is focused on mathematical physics and quantum field theory, and he the course student representative for his cohort. In his spare time, Osamah enjoys listening to Yiddish and Hebrew music and reading Hebrew literature.

Oxford Thatcher Scholar

DPhil in Politics

Born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt, Ashrakat Elshehawy is currently studying for a DPhil in Politics at Somerville. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Psychology from the University of Mannheim in Germany and was an undergraduate visiting student at Trinity College Dublin. She recently graduated with a Master’s degree in Political Science with a focus on Advanced Quantitative Methods also from the University of Mannheim.

As an undergraduate, Ashrakat worked as a research assistant at GESIS Leibniz-Institut for Social Sciences and at the Mannheim Centre (MZES) for European Social Research. During her graduate studies, she was a researcher at the Chair of Empirical Political Research and a teaching assistant at the Chair of Quantitative Methods in Social Sciences in the University of Mannheim. She also worked as a student editorial assistant for the American Political Science Review. After her Master’s she worked jointly on the project “Individual Responses to International Democratizing Action” as a Research Associate at the Mannheim Centre of European Social Research of the University of Mannheim and as a visiting scholar at the University of Houston, where she has spent several months in Houston, Texas.

Her research focus is multi-disciplinary and lies on economic aspects of institution-making, inequality, and resource distribution in authoritarian regimes, she is also focusing on methods of computational text-analysis of Arabic Text.