Toby Bonvoisin

Doing the first part of a DPhil at Oxford in modelling viral pandemics.

Toby applied for 7 months of funding for his tuition and living expenses during his DPhil at the Nuffield Department of Medicine at the University of Oxford. Toby’s DPhil offer came too late for him to access other sources of funding for these 7 months; this money meant he wouldn’t have to take out a loan or put off his studies.

Toby’s proposed DPhil topic is to model transmission of novel respiratory viruses within hospitals. I don’t think this is a particularly high-leverage strain of work for preventing global catastrophic biological risks (GCBRs), but I think in biosecurity, it makes sense to prioritize building career capital over having an immediate impact early on.

Funding career building means taking a bet that someone will ultimately go on to do longtermist work. I didn’t know Toby at all, so I had a call with him talking about his motivations, future plans, and the interactions between short-term-focused and long-term-focused work in biosecurity. He gave thoughtful answers to those questions that made me feel like he was likely to pursue longtermist work going forward.