PhD Student
College: Darwin
Supervisor: Staffan Mueller-Wille
Thesis topic: Curing Cacao: Plants, Pathogens and People 1880-2000
Prior education
2023: MPhil in History and Philosophy of Science, Cambridge (distinction)
2022: BA in Comparative Literature, Princeton University (magna cum laude)
Department Roles
2024–25: Convener of the Cabinet of Natural History
2024–: Co-Convener of AD HOC (History of Chemistry)
2024–2025: Co-Convener of Jokes in the Sciences
Teaching
2025–: History Paper 29: Sites of Knowledge 1750-1850; lecture "Tables of Taste"
2024–: Undergraduate supervisions for HPS Part II Paper 1: Early Science and Medicine
2024–: Undergraduate supervisions for HPS Part II Paper 3: Modern Medicine and Life Sciences
Grants, fellowships and awards
2024–2028: AHRC Science Museum Archives Consortium Collaborative Doctoral Project Funding (student initiated and designed project)
2024-: Darwin Landon-Sender PhD studentship in the Arts and Humanities, Darwin College Cambridge
2026: University of Cambridge Fieldwork Funds
2025: Herbal History Research Network Annual Graduate Student Poster Prize
2023: Jennifer Redhead Prize, HPS Cambridge
2022: Rausing, Williamson and Lipton Awards for MPhil study
2022: Asher Hinds Prize for best Undergraduate Thesis in European Cultural Studies
Selected Conference/Invited Presentations
April 2026: "Disease and Demand: Controlling Cacao's Capricious Biology in Twentieth Century Trinidad," John Innes Centre
March 2026: "Washing, Claying, and Dancing: Processing and Evaluating Theobroma cacao in the Early Twentieth Century," Seed Scenius Workshop
October 2025: "Seeking immunity: cacao research and the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture 1930–1940," Cabinet of Natural History
July 2025: "Roundtable: Using Natural History collections to answer the big questions of our time," British Society for History of Science, commentator
July 2025: "Washed Away: Quality and Colonial Knowledge in 19th Century Cacao Processing," British Society for History of Science, panel organised by Helen Curry
June 2025: "Cross-contextualisation as method: beyond the global history of science," co-organised with Gianamar Giovanetti-Singh
January 2025: “Profession and Purpose: Hugh Cuming (1791-1865) and nineteenth-century Philippine Flora,” Heidelberg University
December 2024: “Materials and Networks: William Heberden’s Eighteenth Century Materia Medica Cabinet,” Colonial Natures Workshop
November 2024: “Herbaria and Natural History Collecting,” co-presentation and workshop with Edwin Rose, Cambridge University Herbarium
October 2024: “Chocolate as Material Culture,” co-presentation and workshop with Hannah Landecker, Material Culture Forum, Cambridge
October 2024: “Opening the Box of Chocolates: a tasting introduction to the histories of chocolate,” Magdalene College, Cambridge
July 2024: “Profession and Purpose: Hugh Cuming (1791-1865) and nineteenth-century Philippine Flora,” BSHS Conference
