David Izuogu’s ambition is to establish a research institute in his home country of Nigeria. But he isn’t waiting until he realises his goal to help others get ahead. — Some people think that you need to climb up a staircase and get to the rooftop before you can begin to help others. But I believe that when you are climbing a staircase you can always help the people who are climbing with you. We were an average Nigerian family…

When Madeline Lancaster’s attempt to grow neural stem cells ‘failed’ she had no idea that the floating balls of cells she saw in her petri dish, resolutely not doing what she wanted them to do, were in fact miniature brain tissues. They would revolutionise our ability to study the early stages of brain development and take us closer to answering: what makes us human? — I’d set out to grow neural stem cells on the surface of a Petri dish but within a day, I’d realised something had gone wrong. …

Nikhil Krishnan, winner of a 2021 Pilkington Prize for outstanding teaching, says that what he loves about teaching is what he loves about philosophy: you can’t know in advance where it’s going to lead. Outside of the lecture hall he’s unravelling how philosophy came to be what it is today. — Philosophy isn’t about talking in a new language about a special class of ‘philosophical’ things. In philosophy, you talk about the everyday things we are very familiar with — like human life, love, friendship, politics — the sort of thing you’d talk about in the pub.

Against a global backdrop of rising energy demands and finite resources, Rihab Khalid set out to understand how buildings can become more energy efficient. As a result, she now advocates for building and energy policies that consider cultural differences and address the needs of women. — When I was first introduced to energy-efficient architecture I felt as though I’d found my calling. For me, energy is personal. I grew up in a community where for up to 12 hours a day we didn’t have access to electricity. It was the very absence of energy that made…

Tami Briggs didn’t want to apply to Cambridge but getting the right information made her change her mind. She became a volunteer for InsideUni, the student-led non-profit organisation that plugged the information gap for her at just the right time. — Studying for a degree at Cambridge seemed like an unobtainable goal — enough to make me not want to apply. The reality was that I simply lacked access to the right information.

Since childhood Stephen Baker says he had a grim fascination with poo. He caught the bug for microbiology and spent 12 years in Vietnam researching bacteria that cause diarrhoea. Stephen thinks that antibiotic-resistant bacteria is likely to be humanity’s biggest killer in the future. But says that if we keep doing the science, we have hope. — Infectious diseases are everywhere! We’ve learnt quite a lot more about them given the events of the last couple of years. Now everyone’s an infectious disease expert. This experience has shown how devastating they can be when they circulate.

Fitzwilliam College medical student Buraq Ahmed has had more than his fair share of challenges to overcome. Arriving in the UK from Iraq in 2005 for routine medical treatment, he became stranded when the conflict intensified. He shares how his experiences have shaped him — and what it’s like to start university during a global pandemic. — I was born with a medical condition called dysplasia of the hip. The treatment available in Iraq wasn’t great. But my family was in the fortunate position of being able to afford to send me to the UK for private medical treatment aged five. …

Bill Sutherland has started a revolution in conservation. Put simply he’d “like us to stop doing the things that we know don’t work and do more of the things that do” — and with global collaborators is building the tools to help people achieve this. — I’ve been an avid naturalist and birdwatcher since my teens. As a student I became involved in practical on-the-ground conservation projects and loved contributing something back to nature.

Nyandire Reinhard believes the key to protecting ecosystems is to foster a love of nature in the community. He shares the story of how social media sparked a revolution in the hearts of the public, journalists and politicians to preserve the freedom of Nairobi’s wildlife. I grew up in a…