Caltech Professor Dabiri Receives National Science Foundation’s Waterman Award

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has honored John O. Dabiri, Centennial Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering, with the 2020 Alan T. Waterman Award. In this video, Dabiri describes his path toward a career in engineering; his research, which takes cues from nature to solve engineering challenges; and the need for greater diversity in science and engineering.

Waterman awardees each receive $1 million over five years for research in their chosen field of science. Dabiri says the funding will allow him to pursue research into some of the ways climate change challenges and threatens modern life. “It enables us to pursue some of our most ambitious ideas,” Dabiri says. “So, what we would like to use this grant to do is to better understand those threats in the ocean and to better help to develop strategies to mitigate those threats.” The Waterman Award will be presented at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. at a later date.