Meet 10 scientists who are making their mark
These early-career scientists are on their way to widespread acclaim
BRIGHT YOUNG MINDS Ten early-career scientists are devising technologies to explore the brain and detect cancer, upending long-held notions about the cell's interior, performing calculations on bizarre quantum phenomena and more.
Image credits: See individual stories below
Just as in baseball, politics and Hollywood, science has its up-and-coming stars. They just don’t always get as much publicity as, say, Bryce Harper or Lupita Nyong’o. Most scientists are lucky to get a media mention as a name attached to a discovery. But their personal stories and change-the-world goals are worth some attention.
To identify some of the early-career scientists on their way to more widespread acclaim, Science News surveyed 30 Nobel Prize winners to learn whose work has caught their attention. From those names, Science News editors chose 10 to feature in this special report. All have demonstrated high-caliber research leading to noteworthy achievements.
The good news is our list could have been longer. The researchers on these pages are representatives of a much greater number of young people likely to turn up prominently in a future issue of Science News as they pursue a diverse array of ambitious research questions.
Meet 10 Bright Young Minds
-
William Detmold
Theoretical physicist William Detmold probes the fundamental bits of matter that combine to form the nuclei of atoms.
-
Benyam Kinde
Benyam Kinde studies how genetic changes affect brain cells’ activity in Rett syndrome.
-
Isaac Kinde
Isaac Kinde helped create a technology that can spot cancers early to give patients a better chance at survival.
-
Priya Rajasethupathy
Neuroscientist Priya Rajasethupathy has discovered a tiny molecule that may turn off part of the genome to help the brain store long-term memories.
-
Steve Ramirez
Neuroscientist Steve Ramirez is manipulating memories in mice to one day erase fearful memories of PTSD.
-
Sarah Reisman
Chemist Sarah Reisman is trying to find new ways to build complicated chemical compounds found in nature.
-
Yasser Roudi
Physicist Yasser Roudi does the math on how the brain and other complex systems process information.
-
Shinsei Ryu
Physicist Shinsei Ryu navigates the confusing border between the quantum and everyday realms.
-
Gia Voeltz
Cell biologist Gia Voeltz has changed our view of the endoplasmic reticulum.
-
Feng Zhang
Scientist Feng Zhang has developed a system to easily and precisely edit genomes.
