John Oluseun Dabiri is an American engineer and professor of Nigerian descent at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where he holds joint appointments in aerospace and mechanical engineering.[1][2] His academic research focuses on unsteady fluid mechanics and flow physics, with applications in biology, renewable energy, and environmental systems.
Dabiri studies biological fluid dynamics, including investigations of jellyfish propulsion.[3] He has also designed a vertical-axis wind turbine system influenced by the movement patterns of schooling fish to enhance the efficiency of wind energy.[4][5]
Early life and education
During his childhood, Dabiri was exposed to engineering concepts through his father's technical work.[4]
Educated at a small Baptist high school and graduating in 1997, Dabiri was accepted by Princeton. He was primarily interested in rockets and jets,[5] and spent two summers doing research that included work on helicopter design. The summer after his junior year, he accepted a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) in Aeronautics at Caltech,[6] which influenced his interest in the field of biomechanics and in studying the vortices of swimming jellyfish.[6]
Dabiri graduated with a B.S.E. in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton in 2001, after completing a senior thesis titled An Investigation of Small-Scale Rotor Blade Aerodynamic Phenomena Using Particle Image Velocimetry and Computational Models under the supervision of Professor Fred Dryer.[7] Dabiri then returned to Caltech for graduate studies. He was a finalist for both the Rhodes Scholarship and the Marshall Scholarship. He was awarded a Ford Foundation Graduate Fellowship in 2001, but declined it.[8]
Career
From 2005 to 2009, Dabiri was an assistant professor at Caltech in aeronautics and biological engineering. He received tenure in 2009,[9] and was promoted to full professor in 2010. In 2013-2014, he served as chair of the Faculty Board. During the 2014/15 school year, he was the Dean of Undergraduate Students.[8]
In 2015, Dabiri moved to Stanford University as a professor in civil, environmental, and mechanical engineering.[10] There, he was also a senior fellow in Stanford's Center for Turbulence Research and founding director of the Catalyst for Collaborative Solutions initiative.
In 2019, he returned to Caltech as Centennial Chair Professor in aeronautics and mechanical engineering.[8]
Dabiri serves or has served on the Board of Directors of NVIDIA Corporation, the Board of Trustees of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the United States Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (SEAB),[12] and as an advisor to X at Alphabet Inc. (formerly Google X). Additionally, he was the Chair of the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics, and a member of the National Academies' Committee on Science, Technology, and Law. He served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Fluid Mechanics in 2016 and the Journal of the Royal Society Interface in 2014-2023.[8] He was Co-Chairman at the U.S. National Committee for Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (USNC/TAM) in 2015-2018,[8] and was a plenary lecturer at the 2022 USNC/TAM congress.[13] He was part of the Defense Science Study Group in 2014.[8]
Research
In his first tenure at Caltech, Dabiri was the director of the Biological Propulsion Laboratory,[14] which examined fluid transport with applications in aquatic locomotion, fluid dynamic energy conversion, and cardiac flows, as well as applying theoretical methods in fluid dynamics and concepts of optimal vortex formation. He established the Caltech Field Laboratory for Optimized Wind Energy (FLOWE) in 2011,[15] a wind farm that investigates energy exchange in an array of vertical-axis wind turbines.
To further in situ digital particle image velocimetry measurements of propulsion in aquatic animals, Dabiri and his student, K. Katija, designed and patented a device to accurately measure the kinetic energy due to swimming.[2][16] The technique allowed for refinement and testing of previous models for vortex formation.
Noting constructive interference in the hydrodynamic wakes of schooling fish, his research suggested that extracting energy from flow vortices could aid more than locomotion.[17] His models of the energy extraction mechanism are applicable to the design and evaluation of unsteady aero and hydrodynamic energy conversion systems such as wind farms. The design of an array of vertical axis turbines led to about an order of magnitude increase in power output per area.[18] Dabiri partnered with Windspire Energy for the use of three of twenty-four turbines that stand approximately 30 feet tall and 4 feet wide. He started the company Scalable Wind Solutions to commercialize the software used to optimally place the wind turbines. Further research on wind farm design is being led by alumni of his lab working both in academia and in industry. Dabiri's research on jellyfish swimming led to the U.S. Navy funding development of an underwater craft that propels itself using up to 30% less energy than conventionally propelled craft.[19][20]
After returning to Caltech, Dabiri’s research has focused on the hydrodynamics of electromechanically modified jellyfish which he envisions for use in ocean exploration.[21][22] Because jellyfish do not have brains nor pain receptors, Dabiri and colleagues have shown that their swimming can be externally manipulated without causing harm to the organism. Moreover, both the speed and efficiency of swimming can be improved by robotic control.[23]
An additional area of research in Dabiri’s lab focuses on the physics of turbulence transition. His recent work is exploring the role of the fluid-solid interface in theoretical predictions of turbulence transition.[24] Additional research involves the development of new experimental techniques to measure the “no-slip condition” of fluid flow at walls bounding the flow, which recent theoretical work suggests might be relevant to the problem of turbulence transition.
His interest in motivating students considering STEM fields was recounted in an NPR interview:
"Having two parents who encouraged me and, in some cases, forced me to study and to really take academics seriously was very important at an early stage. And then going through school, the role of my teachers was always so important. I remember my fourth-grade teacher ... [she] made me believe that I was smart and so I took that and sort of owned that and tried to live up to the expectations that she had placed on me, even as a fourth grader. And so we really want to grab hold of the imagination of the first graders and the second graders at a very early stage, and get them excited about becoming scientists, as excited as they are about becoming a fire fighter or the next rap star."[5]
He has also been involved in his church's mentoring program, The Faith Foundation.[5]
In 2010 Dabiri was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship for his theoretical engineering work.[27] That same year, he gave the Convocation Address at Caltech.[28]
In 2021, Dabiri served as a scientific consultant for Jordan Peele's science fiction film Nope.[32] His role included advising on the biology-inspired design of the fictional creature, which drew on locomotion mechanisms observed in marine invertebrates such as jellyfish and squid. The goal of the collaboration was to create an undiscovered aerial predator with the ability to "hide in the clouds" (hence the scientific name of the fictional race: occulonimbus edoequus), "generate electric fields" and use "electric propulsion".[33][34][35]
References
↑ Dabiri Lab. John Dabiri. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
↑ EQuad, Princeton University School of Engineering and Applied Science. See here for honors awarded by the department. Summer 2001. Retrieved 06-08-12.
↑ Archived 2010-06-01 at the Wayback Machine Self-Contained Underwater Velocimetry Apparatus (SCUVA). Limnology and Oceanography: Methods. 2008. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
↑ Archived 2010-12-23 at the Wayback Machine Renewable fluid dynamic energy derived from aquatic animal locomotion. Bioinspiration & Biomimetics. IOPScience. Published 10 September 2007. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
↑ Archived 2011-09-04 at the Wayback Machine Whittlesey, R.W., Liska, S., Dabiri, J.O. Fish schooling as a basis for vertical axis wind turbine farm design. BIOINSPIRATION & BIOMIMETICS. IOPScience. Published 20 August 2010. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
↑ Weekes, Princess (July 25, 2022). "What Does the Gordy Subplot Mean in Jordan Peel[e]'s 'Nope'?". The Mary Sue. Archived from the original on July 25, 2022. Retrieved July 25, 2022. Gordy may have been a friendly chimp[anzee], but he was still an animal, who shouldn't have been on a soundstage with chaotic elements that could scare him. He got startled and reacted as his instincts told him to act. The murder of Jupe's family confirms to OJ that this flying saucer isn't a ship, but a predatory cryptid, one-winged-angel-style creature that acts when its dominance is tested when people look straight at it.
↑ Adlakha, Siddhant (July 20, 2022). "IGN: Nope Review". Polygon. Archived from the original on July 20, 2022. Retrieved July 20, 2022. (the design of this apparent saucer is, initially, shocking in its simplicity, but by the end, you may as well call it "Biblically accurate").
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