John Oluseun Dabiri is a Nigerian-American aeronautics engineer and centennial chair professor on the California Institute of Expertise (Caltech), with appointments within the Graduate Aerospace Laboratories (GALCIT) and mechanical engineering.
The 44-year-old researcher is greatest recognized for his analysis on the hydrodynamics of jellyfish propulsion and the design of a vertical-axis wind farm tailored from education fish, following his first doctorate in 2005.
Dabiri’s profession follows a path to the board of administrators at NVIDIA in 2020 when it was valued at $323.24. In the present day, the corporate has a market cap of $2.314 Trillion and is the third greatest tech firm on the planet.
Youth and schooling
Dabiri was born in 1980, 5 years after his dad and mom immigrated to Toledo, Ohio from Nigeria. His father was a mechanical engineer and taught arithmetic at a area people faculty. His mom was a pc scientist who began a software program improvement firm.
He was educated at a small Baptist highschool, the place he graduated prime of his class in 1997, and was accepted by Princeton College the place he earned a BSE diploma summa cum laude in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.
Dabiri later pursued a Grasp’s in Aeronautics at California Institute of Expertise, Caltech the place he additionally earned his PhD in Bioengineering and Aeronautics.
His early work at Caltech concerned rockets, jets, and helicopter design, after choosing up a ardour for engineering whereas watching his father work.
Caltech, Stanford, and NVIDIA
Dabiri has amassed 28 analysis grants throughout his profession, specializing in unsteady fluid mechanics and circulation physics, and specific emphasis on subjects related to biology, vitality, and the setting.
At 25, Dabiri turned a Professor of Aeronautics and Bioengineering at Caltech the place he stayed for 10 years. Throughout that point, he embodied different roles, together with serving as Director of the Middle for Bioinspired Wind Vitality, Chair of the College, and Dean of College students.
In 2015, Dabiri joined Stanford College as a professor within the Faculty of Engineering the place he taught civil, environmental, and mechanical engineering till 2019.
In the course of the Covid pandemic in 2020, he joined NVIDIA as a director on its board. On the time, NVIDIA was valued at $323.24 billion. As of March 2024, NVIDIA has a market cap of $2.314 trillion, making NVIDIA the world’s third most valuable company by market cap.
The corporate just lately reported a document quarterly income of $22.1 billion, up 22 p.c from the earlier quarter and up 265 p.c from a 12 months in the past.
Dabiri’s pursuits lengthen to philanthropy, serving on the board of Gordon and Betty Moore Basis, an organisation that helps scientific discovery and environmental conservation.
Dabiri labs and wind options
Dabiri heads the Dabiri Lab at Caltech, which conducts analysis on the intersections of fluid mechanics, vitality and setting, and biology.
In 2011, he established the Caltech Area Laboratory for Optimized Wind Vitality (FLOWE), a wind farm which investigates the vitality change in an array of vertical-axis wind generators to resolve environmental issues.
He additionally began an organization, Scalable Wind Options, to commercialize the software program used to optimally place the generators. This has additionally led to the Navy funding improvement of an underwater craft that propels on these ideas which wants 30% much less vitality.
He’s the director of the Organic Propulsion Laboratory, which examines fluid transport with purposes in aquatic locomotion, fluid dynamic vitality conversion, and cardiac flows.
His work exhibits the potential of interdisciplinary analysis to bridge the hole between biology and engineering to resolve advanced issues.
Honours and recognition
In 2010, Dabiri was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship for his theoretical engineering work, receiving the “Genius Grant,” the Nationwide Science Basis Alan T. Waterman award.
His honours embody a Younger Investigator Award from the Workplace of Naval Analysis, a Presidential Early Profession Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), and being named considered one of Fashionable Science journal’s “Sensible 10” scientists in 2008.
In 2012, Bloomberg Businessweek journal listed him amongst its expertise innovators. As well as, MIT Expertise Overview journal named him considered one of its 35 innovators beneath 35 in 2013, and in 2014, he was elected a Fellow of the American Bodily Society.
Since 2021, Dabiri has been a member of President Biden’s Council of Advisors on Science and Expertise (PCAST) and Vitality Secretary Granholm’s Vitality Advisory Board (SEAB).
He additionally serves on the Board of Trustees of the Gordon and Betty Moore Basis and beforehand served as a member of the Nationwide Academies’ Committee on Science, Expertise, and Legislation.
Household ties
Dabiri is considered one of 3 kids born to his migrant dad and mom. His brother, Gabriel Yomi Dabiri is the New York Workplace Managing Accomplice at Polsinelli, a legislation agency within the US.
Gabriel was named by Crain’s New York Enterprise as considered one of their 2022 Notable Numerous Leaders in Legislation and was honoured by The American Lawyer as a part of the 2022 Northeast Trailblazers for management and innovation.
