A biophysicist who linked jellyfish hydrodynamics to blood flow now turns his attention to wind energy.

Credit: A. SUMMA/MACARTHUR FOUNDATION John Dabiri, a biophysicist at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, was named a MacArthur Fellow last September for his work on the hydrodynamics of jellyfish swimming. The award brings a US$500,000 research grant over five years.

What does this fellowship mean to you?

I don't get a lot of external feedback, because my field is small, and the award signals that at least some people out there appreciate my work. I hope it will encourage others to do unconventional research.

What are some applications of your findings?

The flow dynamics of jellyfish propulsion are similar to cardiac blood flow. In the heart, oxygenated blood enters the left ventricle and forms a vortex; that structure is important for efficient heart function. My colleague Mory Gharib, a bioengineer at Caltech, suggested looking at cardiac blood flow as an index for heart failure. Essentially, you would measure that vortex and determine whether the heart was approaching dysfunction — ideally, earlier than is possible now. We can use jellyfish hydrodynamics to model the heart.

What are you working on at the moment?

I'm making a foray into wind energy. Most wind turbines rotate on a horizontal axis, but I'm researching vertical-axis turbines. Conventional turbines can accept wind from only one direction, but these can take it from anywhere. The only problem is that they convert less wind into energy. But the total energy output of a group of vertical-axis turbines can be superior to the status quo.

Is this linked with your jellyfish work?

It's related more generally to fish swimming. We had done some modelling to work out how to arrange vertical-axis turbines for greatest efficiency, and it occurred to me that we could gain information from how fish swim. When fish arrange themselves in schools, they can interact with vortices created by the fish next to them. The question is, do certain arrangements minimize energy expenditure, and are ten fish more efficient on average than one? As my team and I set up our wind farm, we applied our knowledge of flow dynamics and fish schools to maximize the energy that turbines take out of the air.

How is this project progressing?

Last September we received a grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation in Palo Alto, California, to buy a parcel of land and create a research wind farm with 42 9-metre-tall wind turbines. This is an excellent opportunity to test our modelling and prove our ideas in the real world — we don't have to rely on a wind tunnel or computer simulations.

What advice do you give to new junior faculty members?

Academia can be a roller coaster of good and bad news. The same year that the US National Science Foundation rejected my grant application for the third and final time, the work that they had turned down was published on the cover of Nature. And a week after winning the MacArthur fellowship, I had a paper related to the relevant work rejected by another journal. Don't let praise or criticism get to you — it's a weakness to get caught up in either one.

What achievement are you most proud of?

In my field there are few black researchers, so having the opportunity to work and teach at Caltech and to demonstrate the promise of under-represented groups is exciting for me. I hope that I can inspire young students in the African American community and help them to realize that they have options.

Do you have a secret for scientific success?

I work hard and pray a lot, and I keep in mind that at the end of the day, there's a lot that's out of my control. You can't control the reviewer who isn't going to like your study, or whether your great idea will get scooped by another lab. But you can control whether you show up and put in the effort.

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