A Global Network for Life

“LIYSF introduced me to my career path as a chemical engineer. I don’t think I would’ve discovered it had I not been at the forum - had my lightbulb moment where I finally found out that what I wanted to do had a name to it! On top of that, I made friends for life, even lived with one of them while at University. Having been a staff member for 7 years, LIYSF also opened doors to opportunities I wouldn’t have had as a young girl from Malta; from chairing lectures for Nobel Prize Winners to leading 50 students upto CERN and leading a team of 20 as chief of staff. - Simran Mohnani, Process engineer at the Cadbury chocolate factory, project manager for the digitisation of Covid vaccine manufacturing during the pandemic, and now working in ClimateTech innovation, leading a portfolio of research on decarbonisation solutions for manufacturing and supply chains. Also recognised as one of the UK TechWomen100, UK Asian Women of Achievement, 100 Future Role Models, JCI Malta’s Top 10 under 40, One Young World ambassador and World Economic Forum Global Shaper.”

- Simran, 2013 Participant

“Gave me the confidence to venture out of my comfort zone and pursue a career in medicine. Ignited my passion for working with people. I am now 2 months from completing my degree. It was a big part of my growth and transition from secondary to tertiary education. It was my first time travelling such a distance alone.”

– Anonymous, 2017 Participant

“LIYSF contributed to 'Civic Engagement' by providing me exposure to global challenges and discussions. It inspired me to become more civically engaged, advocating for science and technology solutions to societal issues. It also helped me to discover 'career opportunities and exposure to multidisciplinary topics.' At that time, I applied for a research internship in the fields to which I was exposed at LIYSF and got a chance to intern at the University of Geneva. This experience further shaped my research career to what I am pursuing today. All the credit for this goes to LIYSF.”

- Amit, 2017 Participant

“It was an eye-opener to both emerging and established fields of STEM, and as a university freshmen at the time, LIYSF painted a clear picture of what I could expect to strive towards. Also, it's not every day that you get the chance to meet people from literally everywhere around the globe. After LIYSF, I continued to pursue physics and went on to do a masters (in National Taiwan University as well), venturing into particle phenomenology. I've co-authored three papers - two published and one under review - and represented my group for a talk at the EPS-HEP conference just in august this year.”

- Sven, 2017 participant

“I think it provided a great trajectory of CVs and how people have managed to get to the place they are now, which was truly inspiring as someone who was born into a non-academic family that works in rather crafty jobs. It also had provided the first time a feeling of unity to meet other people with similar interest. Such a feeling is often not provided by class mates as it is considered nerdy in school(…) I also made friends for life; returned to places for my later scientific contributions that were visited and it provided an insight into the top-notch research places that I else would have never heard of.”

- Maximilian, 2014 Participant

“The impact LIYSF had on my life cannot be underestimated. In 2013 I was studying for my A levels and had only recently decided to pursue the sciences. LIYSF confirmed that the sciences were right for me and catapulted me into the career I have today. Outside of the impact on my career, LIYSF was also my first true taste of independence and first real exposure to other cultures. I gained friends who I am still in contact with today and have travelled widely to see them.My horizons were expanded on all fronts. I truly believe having LIYSF on my CV helped in almost of all of my initial subsequent achievements including; giving a TEDx Youth speech about women in STEM/ my time at LIYSF and being awarded a place at Durham University to study Biological Sciences. In terms of my career I have gone on to secure a 1st class degree from Durham University where I contributed to the VirusX project. Following my bachelors I was awarded my PhD in Cell Biology, alongside the Presidents Doctoral Scholarship, at the University of Manchester where I also contributed to the award winning Have You Heard public engagement initiative as their podcast founder and co-host and was an award winning PGR representative. Today I work as a post doctoral researcher in the Zanetti lab at the Francis Crick Institute.”

- Katie, 2013 Participant

It was a useful experience that made me more comfortable interacting in an international setting and it was nice to get to know Imperial in advance of uni applications (interviewing) and studying there. I'm currently a Product Manager working on autonomous pick & place robots for warehouses.

- Maciej, 2011 Participant

It was a great experience to know many fields of research, how they were advancing at that time and the many opportunities of new projects that could be done with science. The many students from abroad I met and their backgrounds brought me a better understanding of different countries and how big the world is. Overall I've really enjoyed the forum, it was fun and mind-blowing!! I have now a bachelor degree in biological sciences at Sao Paulo University and I am currently a PHD student at plant anatomy and development.

- Arthur, 2014 Participant

It was an amazing experience. It made me fell in love with London and ended up pursuing my bachelor's degree there. I met bright minds from all around the world and definitely made one of the best summers I had in high school. I’m currently a Silicon Valley-based Machine Learning Engineer at a semiconductor company developing the next LLM to optimize semiconductor manufacturing processes. I also led a research group at Santa Clara University to develop NLP solutions in assessing COVID-19 pandemics’ impacts on universities in the Bay Area.

- Daniel, 2017 Participant

LIYSF gave me the opportunity to challenge myself to travel to a new country without my parents, when I was in my final year of school. It gave me the confidence to move to a new city for my university studies and that has changed the course of my life forever. I also got the chance to see parts of the world I had never seen before and haven't had the opportunity to see since, making it a truly once in a lifetime opportunity for me. I got my Master of Governance and Public Policy and I work for the Queensland State Government, Australia. I get great purpose from my job!

- Rebecca, 2013 Participant

I come from a very ethnically homogeneous country (Taiwan) and this was the first time I was able to talk to people from a lot of different backgrounds. I remember it was interesting to see how people perceive things differently. It also improved my social skills as an introvert. I was a highschooler when I participated. Later on I majored in mechanical engineering and minored in computer science at Uni, went to US and got a master's degree in computer science, and became a software engineer at Google.

- Anonymous, 2015 Participant

I made some lifelong friends - whom I’ve subsequently travelled across continents to meet. I was already planning on studying STEM subjects at university but LIYSF contributed to expanding my interest in some areas I had not known so much about. I work at Gavi, the vaccine alliance and have worked in immunisation across Asia, Africa and now from Switzerland for 5+ years, including during the pandemic. I’m doing a PhD at the same time as working on related fields.

- Anonymous, 2012 Participant

I am a 4th year Medical student now and currently the Diversity, Equity, and Justice Lead of Gender Equity Initiative in Global surgery (GEIGS), a sister organization of Harvard PGSSC (Program on Global Surgery and Social Change). I am also an avid researchers and I have presented in two conferences as of yet (one National and one International). Additionally, I am International Trainer of Disaster Medicine, certified by CRIMEDIM Italy. Finally, I am also serving in the InciSion (International Students surgical network) Advocacy team and contributing as an author to a handbook we're writing called 'Foundations In Trauma'. I'm forever thankful to LIYSF for shaping me into the person I am today and If there's even the slightest chance for me to come and give back to LIYSF, I'll take it, a thousand times over.

- Rabbey, 2017 Participant

My experience at LIYSF really pushed me to look into science and research as not only a passion but also as a career. I'm now pursuing my doctorate at ETH Zürich in the geosciences, and I believe that LIYSF helped open the door for me for seriously considering research as a career.

- Anonymous, 2012 Participant