Skip to content

Engineering student Nandini Shiralkar wins VC’s Social Impact Award 2022

Trinity Engineering student Nandini Shiralkar has won a Vice-Chancellor’s Social Impact Award 2022 for founding the Cambridge Existential Risks Initiative (CERI), which brings academics and students together to raise awareness of and promote research into threats to humanity.

CERI’s strapline embodies ambition: ‘Supporting students and aspiring researchers in safeguarding the future of humanity.’ Its founder is calm, quietly self-assured and determined.

From Surrey where she attended a selective academy school and then King’s College London Mathematics School, Nandini has involved herself in many extra-curricular activities including fundraising for Great Ormond Street Hospital, tutoring GCSE Maths students and encouraging young people to consider careers in STEM.

And that’s before she came to Trinity to study Engineering – just as the pandemic sent everyone home. During lockdown Nandini had time to think and plan. As she says on her website: ‘Driven by a desire to have as much of a positive impact on the world as I can, I often spend a significant amount of time exploring new research and entrepreneurial ideas.’

Nandini, photographed by Graham CopeKoga

Having founded CERI in April 2021, by July Nandini was welcoming 10 students from seven countries to participate in the first Summer Research Fellowship programme, which through mentorship and training equips them to conduct research into tackling the threats posed by pandemics, climate change, nuclear security and artificial intelligence.

The student leadership team at CERI is organised; they run regular seminar programmes and an online introductory course about existential risk, which is open to all. CERI has attracted the support of influential people and organisations in Cambridge and beyond.

Nandini has forged these relationships, including with Cambridge’s Centre for Existential Risk, its co-founder Lord Martin Rees, and with Executive Director, Dr Sean Ó hÉigeartaigh, who said:

In just a year, Nandini has built up a remarkable team and organisation. CERI’s 2021 summer research initiative was a great success out of the gate. I was deeply impressed with the calibre of the Fellows selected, and the quality of their research projects. The 2022 cohort promises to be even more impressive. I’m delighted that the Centre for the Study of Existential risk has been able to support her wonderful work.

Another supporter is Open Philanthropy, whom Nandini approached to support CERI’s flagship Summer Research Fellowship programme, leading to a £550,000 grant. CERI welcomed 24 Fellows to the 10-day programme in Cambridge this month. More than 650 students from around the world applied to the programme.

The 2022 CERI Fellows. Photo: Graham CopeKoga

Nandini said:

We were thrilled with the response to the programme! It’s great to see such keen interest from the global community of aspiring researchers. CERI Fellows gain support via mentorship from our network of researchers, policy makers, and grant makers, whilst contributing to actual existential risk research. Our aim is to equip tomorrow’s researchers with the knowledge and the skills that they need to make progress on existential risk research.

Nandini was inspired to build a community of people ‘who care deeply about these issues and who can go on to have a transformative impact on safeguarding the future of humanity.’

In an ideal world, all talented young undergraduates who want to work on mitigating existential risks are able and supported to take on this grand vision. And CERI exists to make that happen.

Nandini is ambitious about CERI’s future.

Humanity is akin to a miracle: together, we have already made stellar progress through research on many fronts, for example, we eradicated smallpox in the 1980s. I feel intrinsically motivated to ensure that we have a flourishing future. With CERI’s establishment and my plans for where we are heading next, I feel more optimistic than ever about the future of humanity and what’s to come.

In addition to her work on CERI, Nandini has been President of the Trinity Responsible Investment Forum, which has lobbied for and welcomed the College’s commitment to greening its endowment. She is a STEM Ambassador for young students and has been involved in a variety of fundraising initiatives since 2015.

This article was published on :

More on…

Back To Top
College Crest


Contact us

        MyTrin | Student Hub

Access and Outreach Hub