Neuroscientist Damien Fair and chemical engineer Paul Dauenhauer work in fields of study that not everyone understands. Neuroscience just, sounds complicated. And well, chemical engineering sounds no less daunting of a discipline. But that isn’t keeping Fair and Dauenhauer from doing work that we can all understand.
Neuroscience professor Damien Fair is working to see if current practices in brain imaging in young children can help identify conditions such as autism and ADHD. Watch this short video about professor Fair’s work. For professor Fair, this means new ways of teaching kids, and public policy built for children with atypical brains.
Neuroscience Professor Damien Fair.
Paul Dauenhauer is a chemical engineer researching different chemical reactions that can turn organic materials – potentially waste from forestry or agriculture – to produce plastics. Dauenhauer says his work could help make “things like rubber for car tires or we could make plastic coating for food or medicine or clothing fibers. Any of those kind of things that we use plastic materials for right now … but we can also make them with advanced properties that make them biodegradable and recyclable.” Watch a short video about what professor Dauenhauer is doing.
Both of these pursuits could have a huge impact on our society if they should be successful.
The prize is $625,000 for each winner, with no strings attached. Best of luck from SENA to these winners!