Our people

Syjil Ramjuthan uses her activism to provoke positive change. She’s committed to using the power of the student voice to improve the University environment now and for the future.

In December 2023 Dr Claudia Colesie, a terrestrial ecologist in the University’s School of GeoSciences, travelled with a team of scientists to Antarctica. Their destination was the unexplored Zavodovski Island, said to be one of the stormiest places on Earth.

More than 2,000 Edinburgh care home residents receive cards at Christmas from Julie Ann Fooshee’s community wellbeing project. Her aspirations, to reach out to the city’s isolated and vulnerable individuals, go further.

Jay Choudhari founded Dhyeya in India’s rural Chandrapur. This non-profit organisation is tackling education inequality, helping children from marginalised sections of society aspire to and access education.

Nadine Barakat represents a community of postgraduate research students. Her efforts have been instrumental in bringing the students together, acting on their feedback and instigating change.

As the University’s Space Sector Business Development Lead, Kristina Tamane is on a mission to launch collaborations between academia and industry that are out of this world.

When hundreds of Ukrainian children arrived in Edinburgh’s schools Katia Popova and her students organised tutoring, translation and tunes.

A pioneering Twinning Initiative has boosted bonds between Edinburgh and Ukraine, strengthening the cross-border exchange of people and ideas.

For history graduate Blair Glencorse, a brief conversation in Nepal was the catalyst for an idea that has become a 25-million-strong global movement of people making the world fairer and more accountable for us all.

Author, poet and storyteller Martin MacIntyre will take up the new role for the next two years.

Edinburgh is celebrating some of its former students at the forefront of the global climate response.