The human geographer talks about her work with stateless groups, the importance of collaboration and why the stereotype of a map-wielding explorer is important in confronting her subject’s imperial legacies
The product of a warm and happy childhood spent tinkering with computers explains how soft expectations created a personal drive that startled lab colleagues
Biomedical engineer talks about problem-solving, the importance of monitoring foetal cardiac health and why no one has got it quite right on STEM education for women
Cambridge professor discusses swapping engineering for history, why researchers overlook the Indian and Pacific oceans, and what it means to offer ‘an environmental lens’ on imperial history
The Nottingham historian discusses founding a library in the Indian village where he grew up and the need for alternatives to the ‘false promises of neoliberal education’
The winner of this year’s Leverhulme Medal discusses what it means to be a feminist historian and how contemporary politics, and a surprising find in Jamaica, changed her research
Ashoka University professor and novelist discusses academic life in the US and India, as well as his next novel, which explores ‘the ethics of education’
The former Austrian molecular biologist explains how a boring childhood was an advantage, why he switched careers and how designing board games is like basic research
Chemical weapons expert turned Cambridge don reflects on conspiracy theorists in academia, making safe a 60-tonne bomb with science and breaking the world press-up record
Artist and researcher Anthony Schrag on the importance of interdisciplinarity, how university changed him and why art will be even more important in the post-Covid world
The LSE management expert describes how workers can gain confidence to speak up, the culture shock of academia and what she learned from a drag king workshop
Winner of award for women in science in the developing world discusses growing up in a family of eight in Ghana and ‘feeling like Christmas’ when she is on a podium
One of the world’s leading experts on the carbon cycle discusses campaigning for Joe Biden as a teenager, the magic of the Amazon rainforest and why she will never give up fieldwork
The epigeneticist and new Max Planck vice-president on a global childhood, the pleasures of buses running on time, and why young researchers are more stressed than ever
The human rights barrister and author reflects on his path into international law, the university course that changed history and what the UK’s ‘lazy’ and ‘narcissistic’ prime minister could learn from Keir Starmer
The ‘Thesis Whisperer’ discusses the computer revolution, PhD students finding their voice, and why people who write dissertations about doctoral candidates who don’t finish don’t finish
The war survivor with multiple degrees from universities around globe discusses her roles as advocate for refugees and for the understanding of Africa in HE
The secretary of higher education for the state of New Jersey talks about her path to a career in policy, family history and handling racist attitudes at college
The University of Cambridge’s inaugural professor of the psychology of education and mental health talks about switching from sport to science and why it’s so important to research education and mental health together
Observational astrophysicist opens up on why physics can be ‘unsatisfactory’ and how the coronavirus spotlights a valuable truth about our approach to climate change
