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Caltech Scientist Named One of "Brilliant Ten" by Popular Science Magazine
October 14, 2008
 Popular Science magazine has named Caltech bioengineer John Dabiri one of its "Brilliant 10" in its seventh annual listing of what it calls "the country's top young scientists to watch." Dabiri is listed as a scientist who is "poised to change the world."
An assistant professor of aeronautics and bioengineering in Caltech's Division of Engineering and Applied Science, Dabiri is the youngest scientist on the list at just 28 years of age. Dubbed "the jellyfish engineer" by the magazine, he garnered the award for his studies of the intricacies of jellyfish locomotion. Using a custom-built, high-definition video camera and a water-particle-illuminating laser, Dabiri and his colleagues are able to examine the fluid dynamics that determine how jellyfish propel themselves through their watery environment. Their hope is that those insights will be used to improve the designs of nonbiological systems as diverse as military submarines and onshore windmills.
"The starting point for our work is the fact that fish, and the jellyfish studied in my lab, can use vortices in the water to decrease the muscle activity required for locomotion," Dabiri explains. "It's an energy-saving process that is related to how the animal orients its shape relative to the flow. More specifically, it's how vortices in the flow are 'pushed' around by the animal and how the animal is pushed by the vortices. Exactly how they do this is still a bit of a mystery, and that's one area of current research interest in my group. Granted, this happens at the scale of individual fish, as opposed to the large-scale engineering devices we're used to. However, by arranging small-scale devices in an array, the mechanisms used by fish can be scaled up to larger devices."
After completing his undergraduate degree at Princeton University in 2001, Dabiri received his MS and PhD from Caltech in 2003 and 2005, respectively. He joined the Caltech faculty in 2005.
"The 'Brilliant 10' are the brightest researchers of 2008, making the breakthroughs of tomorrow," says Mark Jannot, editor in chief of Popular Science. "PopSci is paying homage to these young scientists, who explore the world with an altogether original eye."
In selecting the 10 recipients, the editors at Popular Science contacted hundreds of individuals, including heads of departments at universities around the country, professional associations, and award-granting institutions.
Professor Dabiri's research is supported by the Office of Naval Research, the National Science Foundation, and the Powell Foundation.
The full list of Popular Science's "Brilliant 10" will be published in the magazine's November issue and can be read here online. To learn more about Dabiri, see the story about him in Caltech News.
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