UCL GBSH Student of the Week: Caitlin Lin

What inspired you to do your PhD at UCL GBSH?

What drew me to UCL GBSH was its institutional conviction that the most pressing health challenges of our time cannot be meaningfully addressed within the confines of a single discipline. 

This same ethos has shaped my own academic path since the very beginning. My undergraduate studies at UCL sat at the intersection of population health sciences and data science. 

Later, my master’s at the University of Oxford and work placement at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute expanded this foundation through computational modelling, medical statistics, pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamics, global health financing and health policy, always with an emphasis on producing work that is capable of moving from the theoretical to the applied. 

At present, my doctoral research examines antimicrobial resistance in pneumococcal disease through infectious disease modelling, health economics and policy. This topic felt very much like the continuation of a trajectory already oriented towards addressing complex, systems-level questions. 

As such, I sought a research environment that would allow me to conduct my research beyond the limits of a purely biomedical frame and instead as a dynamic problem shaped by healthcare infrastructure, human behaviour and resource constraints. UCL GBSH stood out because it offered precisely this kind of intellectual space, where cross-disciplinary thinking is regarded as essential to understanding and improving health systems at scale. More personally, I felt that GBSH was a place that would present me with both the challenge and the freedom to develop my own voice as a researcher.

Which skills have you gained here that you believe will make the biggest difference in your career?

During my time at GBSH, I have grown considerably in my ability to communicate complex ideas with precision and purpose. Alongside my doctoral research, I supervise master’s research projects and serve as a teaching assistant for the Programming with Python for Health Research, Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Business Project modules. 

Through these roles, I have been able to hone my ability to meet students with different levels of confidence and experience at the point of their uncertainties, listening carefully, identifying conceptual gaps and effectively guiding them through ambiguity to turn broad areas of interest into focused, researchable questions with practical value. This combination of analytical depth, metacognition, pedagogical clarity and translational thinking will, I believe, remain a lasting lesson from my time at GSBH and make a significant difference in my future career.

How has the programme’s structure supported your lifestyle and learning?

One of the aspects I appreciate most about GBSH’s PhD programme is the level of autonomy and independence it affords. In contrast to a taught programme, a doctoral degree is not organised around a fixed schedule of lectures, assignments and examinations. It requires you to create your own structure: to define your rhythms of work, set realistic milestones and assume full ownership of your progress. I have always valued this form of controlled freedom because it allows me to work in a way that is both disciplined and expansive. This degree of flexibility has also enabled me to continuously develop projects beyond my thesis. 

On top of my PhD, I serve as Director of Voiceroom, a student-led network founded with the purpose of bringing together the voices of today and the voices of tomorrow through curated discussions on the future of business, leadership and innovation. 

Through Voiceroom, I have had the privilege of moderating discussions with some of the world’s most prominent leaders, such as the CEOs of Ferrari, Audemars Piguet, Tom Ford Fashion and Selfridges Group. In creating rooms where fellow students and young professionals can learn directly from those shaping the business world at the highest level, I have come to appreciate more deeply the role of intergenerational dialogue in widening perspective and ambition. For me, the structure of the PhD programme at GBSH has therefore fostered more than academic development alone – it has given me the space to pursue rigorous research while simultaneously cultivating a broader practice of leadership and industry engagement.

What professional opportunities have been most valuable to you?

The most valuable professional opportunities have been those that allowed me to see firsthand how academic work can be transformed into high-stakes decisions with tangible consequences. 

In particular, my consulting work with Merck Group, undertaken alongside my PhD supervisors at GBSH, provided me with the chance to strategically apply economic evaluation and modelling methods to address healthcare problems beyond the university setting. This experience broadened my understanding of the purpose of research, positioning it as something active rather than abstract. Research does not have to remain confined to a thesis or a journal article: at its best, quality research can shape conversations, inform strategy and contribute to choices that fundamentally influence patients, clinicians, companies and healthcare systems at large.

How has your time at UCL GBSH shaped or accelerated your career goals?

I have always been drawn to work that sits between disciplines, and my time at GBSH has turned that instinct into a much more deliberate professional direction. GBSH is known for being the world’s first business school for health, and the university’s distinctive identity encourages students to approach global health challenges through a holistic lens rather than a purely health-oriented focus. 

In that respect, GBSH has shown me that some of the most significant contributions often come from people who are willing and able to move between worlds – between research and practice, evidence and strategy, theoretical abstraction and real-world application. 

Furthermore, it has helped me recognise that this interdisciplinarity is not simply a mere preference for variety but a way of thinking: keeping multiple frameworks in view, questioning the assumptions embedded in each lens and resisting premature certainty. In that sense, it requires courage as much as curiosity. After my PhD, I hope to build a career that brings these threads into purposeful alignment to make an impact beyond the boundaries of any single field or institution.

What support has made a meaningful difference during your studies?

The support I have received from my PhD supervisors, Dr. Sonila M. Tomini and Dr. Paul Expert, has made the most significant difference in my doctoral experience. To me, good supervision means more than direction or correction – it creates the conditions in which a researcher can think more deeply, question more searchingly and grow into the full demands of their work. I am incredibly fortunate to be working alongside supervisors with whom I share both an intellectual affinity and a generative rapport. Their guidance has refined my thinking, strengthened the methodological foundations of my research and given me the confidence to pursue an ambitious interdisciplinary project. 

I am also thankful for the continued mentorship of professors who have accompanied my academic journey since my undergraduate years at UCL, including through publications and thesis committee participation. There is something quite profound about being guided by those who have witnessed your development over time: they understand the work, the person behind it, the trajectory and the aspirations that give it purpose, and that carries its own kind of weight. 

More broadly, the wider GBSH community has offered a deep sense of belonging. Doctoral research is largely independent and can be quite solitary at times, so being part of a university where every student is made to feel seen, included and valued is a sustaining form of encouragement in itself. Finally, I am eternally grateful for my parents, whose steadfast belief in me has been a source of strength and motivation throughout the uncertainties of doctoral life.

What has it been like studying within such a global and diverse cohort?

At UCL GBSH, diversity is present in the way people frame problems, analyse evidence and imagine what substantive change should look like. Studying within a highly global and diverse cohort is a deeply formative experience as it exposes you to different perspectives and teaches the intellectual discipline of seeing beyond your own preconceptions. No single worldview has a monopoly on insight, and the solutions developed from one cultural or institutional standpoint may not necessarily translate elsewhere. 

This is especially the case in healthcare, where the same challenge can appear profoundly different depending on the country, health system, cultural norms, economic constraints and lived realities through which it is understood. Thus, possessing a kind of epistemic humility is extremely valuable because it encourages you to think in ways that are less insular, less self-referential and more capable of producing solutions that are genuinely responsive to different contexts. 

Being part of a cohort with such varied backgrounds has broadened my horizons and made me more attentive to nuance, more careful in discerning how I handle the information I am presented with and more willing to challenge the assumptions behind my own thinking. Ultimately, it has taught me how to listen across differences to become a more critical and culturally-attuned thinker overall.

What advice would you give someone who is considering applying for a PhD at UCL GBSH?

Approach the endeavour with curiosity, clarity and, above all, intellectual humility. Pursuing a PhD is not simply about choosing a research topic – it is about having a question that you are willing to live with deeply, with patience and genuine critical engagement. At the same time, it is equally important to recognise that a PhD rarely unfolds as a straight line towards a fixed destination. It is an evolving journey. 

Your ideas will sharpen, your methods may shift and your understanding of the field will become increasingly sophisticated as you are confronted with new evidence, unexpected complexities and formative critique. What matters most is learning to embrace the process itself, cultivating the discipline to think carefully whilst maintaining the willingness to allow your thinking to be challenged, refined and, on occasion, entirely transformed. 

In the end, the most meaningful achievements of a PhD are shaped less by the final thesis than by the habits one nurtures along the way, and I believe it is this quality of intellectual openness, more than any technical competency, which fundamentally distinguishes the finest doctoral scholars.