Emma is a geography teacher at The Perse School in Cambridge, appointed as Head of Department for the 2022-2023 academic year. She teaches 11-18 year olds, runs the school charities and leads a group exploring how students can contribute to building a better future. Outside of school, Emma also facilitates an introductory course exploring similar ideas at Effective Altruism Cambridge. Emma has a BA in Geography, an MSc in International Development, and a PGCE.

Emma enjoys netball and running but mostly spends her spare time looking after her children; they are 1 and 3 years old and a bit wild!

Patrick used to work in the UK government on foreign policy (war prevention) and development policy (getting rich countries to support poorer countries). Patrick has a first class degree in Mathematics and Philosophy from the University of Bristol and is currently studying for a Master’s in Artificial Intelligence at Queen Mary, London.

Patrick likes playing tennis, hanging out with friends in London, and visiting family back in Coventry. He is keen on being simultaneously ambitious and extremely kind to yourself with what you’ve achieved.

Jemima is a Chinese Studies student at Durham University, and originally comes from around Windsor. She got straight A*s at A-Level, firsts in university exams, and won the prize for top in her degree subject last year. She runs a group at her university that supported over 100 people to take part in an 8-week seminar programme on tools and concepts for doing good more effectively.

She's also been involved in animal advocacy and climate protection movements. Jemima likes reading, vegan desserts, and languages - she's studied more than 7!

Conor has travelled to 40 countries and worked with amazing students in England, Poland, Taiwan and China. He has worked as a university lecturer, language teacher, and as a tutor on several pre-university summer programmes. He completed a master’s degree in neuroscience at University College London (UCL), and once spoke with President Bill Clinton ‘live’ on international television.

Conor takes great joy in finding things out, as well as throwing Ultimate frisbees.

Frederik is a Master's student of biotechnology and engineering with a special interest in developing alternatives to conventional food protein. He is very interested in ensuring the future has enough to eat when transitioning from more animal-based food to sustainable sources or in the case of emergency.

Frederik loves meeting people to discuss ideas and does so as a radio host, a teacher and as a discussion group facilitator for people who want to make a positive impact on the world.

Chana Messinger is a longtime teacher, speaker and writer. She taught maths for 9 years, and has been giving workshops and coaching for learning how to think better for the last year.

She has blogged about and helped edit a book about rationality.

Peter works for the Effective Altruism & Consulting Network, which supports consultants — professionals who work to improve organisations — in finding the best ways to improve the world. He also co-wrote an ebook that featured in national newspapers on 2 continents. He likes playing music and going for long walks with friends.

Peter holds a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University.

Jenny is a biologist with degrees from the University of Oxford and the Natural History Museum. She has an active interest in rewilding, protein biochemistry, evolutionary genetics and the use of AI in biology. She chairs the London Schools Eco Network alongside teaching Biology at Highgate School. She is interested in ending factory farming, and the welfare, health and sustainability benefits associated with alternative proteins and cellular agriculture.

In her spare time, she is a hula hoop and poi performer, studies BSL and Spanish and loves playing strategy games.

Jason is currently studying in Singapore, working with the Future of Life Institute on international AI policy. He's written about the psychology of group composition, data ownership, supply chains and Singapore's economic development.

Jason enjoys ultimate frisbee, long podcasts, romance novels and taking weird ideas seriously.

James is the founder of Social Change Lab, an organisation conducting social movement research applied to the world's most pressing problems. Previously, he completed the Charity Entrepreneurship course on how to launch high-impact nonprofits, and spent two years building a campaigning organisation focused on reducing animal suffering and mitigating climate change. James has a first class Master's degree in Physics from University College London.

In his spare time, he enjoys rock-climbing, surfing, and being out in nature.

Anna has just finished her A Levels and plans to study geography at university this Autumn. She participated in Leaf's Building a Better Future programme last year and enjoyed the experience; so much so that she is back to help out this summer! Anna is particularly interested in climate change solutions and the environment and recently wrote a piece for Leaf's essay competition on case studies of successful international environmental cooperation.

Anna enjoys spending time with friends, playing netball, and any outward bound activities; she is about to embark on a backpacking trip across Europe but will be back in time for the programme in August!

Duncan is a former participant at Leaf’s Building a Better Future programme, who was awarded the highest prize in the subsequent essay competition for his paper forecasting the size of the space tourism industry over time. He is very interested in open borders (free movement between all countries) and institutional design (improving government decision making).

Duncan enjoys playing board games, taking long walks, and discussing ideas with friends.

Sam is an A-Level student who loved the Leaf programme so much last year that he has gone on to do lots of personal research into philosophy, physics, and computer science with the lens of building a better future. In particular, he has written essays for competitions on AI and misinformation.

Outside of school, he loves reading, films, tv, dungeons and dragons, video games, musicals and pretty much any other storytelling format!

Cillian is a co-founder of Training for Good, an organisation that upskills people to tackle the most pressing global problems, such as through developing careers in policy. He enjoys long distance running, reading non fiction and drinking far too much coffee.

Cillian holds a joint honours degree in Mathematics and English Literature from Trinity College Dublin where he was awarded €35,000 in scholarships for academic performance. He has previously worked as a teacher and as a data analyst.

Anders is a Senior Research Fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford, where his research centres on management of low-probability high-impact risks, estimating the capabilities of future technologies, and very long-range futures. Anders has a background in computer science, neuroscience, and medical engineering. His publications have been cited over 5,000 times by other scholars.

His talk and Q&A left Leaf’s participants equal parts confused, curious, and inspired!

Avital is a Research Scholar at the Future of Humanity Institute. Her research interests include longtermist institutional design, representation of future generations, and AI policy. Avital loves writing short stories, hosting dinner parties, cats, and fighting (recreationally). She holds the dubious honor of being the smallest person in the Oxford University Mixed Martial Arts Club. Before FHI, Avital worked in US Senator Wyden’s Office and for the Partnership on AI. She is a Rhodes scholar and holds a BA in Political and Social Thought from the University of Virginia.

Michael does research on nuclear weapons risk and AI governance at Rethink Priorities and the University of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute. Before that, he had an exciting career in web design (i.e., made a site about his pet hedgehog when he was 10).

Michael holds a first-class BSc in psychology from the University of Western Australia.

Bella works as a marketer at 80,000 Hours, an organisation that helps people work out how to use the roughly 80,000 hours in their career to best help others, and to take action on that basis. Bella previously worked on programs to help talented university students pursue impactful careers and researched how to improve the lives of farmed animals. She loves talking about weird parts of philosophy and playing video games.

Bella studied Classics at Oxford, where she was Vegsoc president, and wrote her thesis on consequentialism, animals, and longtermism.