I feel grateful to be part of a program that allowed me to tackle a new scientific problem by fusing the in vitro biochemistry and imaging techniques of an NIH laboratory with the purely in vivo work of a cell biology laboratory at Cambridge – over the course of my doctoral work, I have grown in my knowledge of these diverse fields and have watched my British and American mentors learn from each other!

The NIH-OxCam Program is giving me the chance to work with some of the best systems biologists and microbiologists in the field of innate immunity and is already enabling me to utilize both of these resources to take on questions that a single approach itself would not be able to.

In the NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program students have a unique advantage completing important scientific work, in a globally informed scientific method. I think this is particularly important in psychiatric research. One of the other aspects of the Oxford NIH program that I find so incredibly unique in PhD training is the opportunity to interact within the historic colleges at Oxford, with people pursuing professional degrees outside of the life sciences.

Being a part of the NIH OxCam program has allowed me to experience a range of very different global health research settings. From designing my project in a department in the hectic center of London (where most people never touch a pipet), to sorting intestinal worms by hand in rural villages in western Kenya, and now working in a lab at the NIH. Happily, the opportunity to learn about different cultures and worldviews has not decreased since I moved to Bethesda for the NIH portion of my project.

Rarely can a student claim to have more than one advisor for her doctoral research, much less four educated and enthusiastic ones from four different fields, three different institutes, and two different continents. The NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program was interdisciplinary, international collaboration in action for me.

The NIH-Oxford Cambridge Graduate Partnership Program accelerated my career progression and empowered me to transition into an independent faculty research position quickly. This was done in part though the training I received through the program, namely the ability to shape my own PhD thesis project, learn to manage a multi-national collaboration, and hone my leadership and communication skills.