John Dabiri, a 30-year-old Nigerian biophysicist and Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Bioengineering Division of Engineering and Applied Science with the California Institute of Technology has being named among 23 new Fellows of MacArthur foundation for 2010, with each receiving a $500,000 "genius" grant.
The funds will be provided as a "no strings attached" support for the next five years. The MacArthur fellowship offers an unusual level of independence without stipulations and reporting requirements and unprecedented freedom on how to use the fund, thereby allowing recipients to "reflect, create, and explore" to underscore the spirit of freedom intrinsic to creative endeavours. Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Adichie, was a 2008 recipient of the MacArthur grant.
His work
Mr Dabiri works on a wide range of fields, including theoretical fluid dynamics, evolutionary biology, and biomechanics to unravel the secrets of one of the earliest means of animal locomotion. His biography, according to the foundation, reveals that "he studies some of the simplest multicellular organisms, jellyfish, which propel themselves by contracting cells in their bell-shaped outer skin and generating jet forces in the tail end, with tentacles trailing behind..
"His research has invented a method that allows divers to use tiny reflective particles to visualize, with high speed and fine spatial resolution (the fluid dynamics of propulsion by jellyfish in their native habitats). The research is believed to have profound implications not only for understanding the evolution and biophysics of locomotion in jellyfish and other aquatic animals, but also for a host of distantly related questions and applications in fluid dynamics, from blood flow in the human heart to the design of wind power generators."
Mr Dabiri received a B.S.E. (2001) from Princeton University and an M.S. (2003) and Ph.D. (2005) from the California Institute of Technology, where he is currently an associate professor of aeronautics and bioengineering. His scientific articles have appeared in journals such as Nature, the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, the Journal of Experimental Biology, and PNAS.
John Dabiri is an Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Bioengineering Division of Engineering and Applied Science at California Institute of Technology. He recently won the prestigious $500,000 MacArthur fellowship!! Up Naija!