Wick man recognised as one of the ‘most outstanding early-career scientists in the world’
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Wick scientist Tomi Baikie is preparing to move to the United States for a specialist research programme that has the potential to help with certain debilitating conditions.
Having attained his PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2022, Tomi is now heading to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) after gaining a prestigious fellowship this week.
“The gist of the matter is that I’ve been awarded a Schmidt Science Fellowship,” said Tomi.
“These are extremely competitive scientific fellowships in the name of the Schmidts, who were closely involved in Google for a number of years. I’ll be moving to MIT to carry out the work.”
This year’s class of 32 fellows have all recently gained a PhD and have been identified as some of the “most outstanding early-career scientists in the world”, according to American business magazine Forbes.
Considered one of the most prestigious scientific postdoctoral awards in the world, Schmidt Science Fellows are awarded support for either one or two years in a field of study that represents a pivot from their PhD concentration.
As a 2024 Schmidt Science Fellow, Tomi will pioneer new understanding of how the body works through non-contact electrical measurements.
Our skin has a map of different electric potentials but it is unknown why these exist, primarily because they are very difficult to measure. By translating techniques from the world of semiconductor physics, Tomi aims to measure these maps without even touching the skin.
The work has direct implications for people who suffer from the death of small nerve fibres. Small fibre neuropathy develops due to the selective damage of the thin fibres of peripheral nerves. Many common diseases can cause this condition, including diabetes, infections, autoimmune and endocrine disorders, but it can occur due to genetic alterations, as well.
On Wednesday (April 24), Tomi and 31 other early-career researchers were named members of the 2024 cohort of Schmidt Science Fellows, joining a community of scientists and supporters who “seek to drive sector-wide change by pursuing interdisciplinary research”.
Their areas of study range from creating intelligent materials and designing algorithms that combat fake news to understanding how gut bacteria influence anxiety and depression and mitigating the effect of climate change through evolutionary approaches.
Tomi previously authored a university research paper detailing how living plant cells could be utilised to provide clean fuel and renewable energy.
