Science/AAAS and the NOMIS Foundation have announced the winners of the 2024 NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award. Jasmine Kwasa is the grand prize winner; Jason Griffin and Tian Christina Zhao are the finalists. The NOMIS & Science Award recognizes bold early-career researchers who ask fundamental questions at the intersection of the social and life sciences.
Prizewinner develops inclusive neuroimaging technology
by Walter Beckwith
For her work in addressing the underappreciated racial and phenotypic biases in neuroimaging methods by developing new, inclusive medical technologies, Jasmine Kwasa is the winner of the 2024 NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award.
The NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award recognizes bold early-career researchers who ask fundamental questions at the intersection of the life and social sciences.
Electroencephalogram (EEG) technology — a noninvasive method used to observe and record electrical activity in the brain through electrodes placed on the scalp — has become widely used in clinical diagnostics and neuroscience. However, it has faced limitations in accurately capturing data from individuals with curly or coarse hair, such as that commonly found in people of African descent. While straight hair can be easily adjusted, curly hair acts as a spring pushing the electrodes away from the scalp.
Because researchers often apply standard screening criteria that have historically excluded people with afro-textured hair, some populations are less likely to participate in research that involved EEG technology, in turn becoming underrepresented in neuroscience research.
In response to this “open secret in the field,” Kwasa’s work has focused on developing new EEG technologies that address this bias, namely the Sevo electrode adapter — a tool designed to enhance signal quality for individuals with afro-textured hair. The Sevo electrode adapter reduces electrode-scalp interface impedance by 18-fold in afro-textured hair.
Kwasa is also collaborating with other labs to develop similar adapters and algorithms to address bias in functional near-infrared (fNIRS) spectroscopy — an optical-based noninvasive brain imaging technology sensitive to hair and skin pigment differences.
In her prize-winning essay, Kwasa highlights that the issues underlying the bias in these technologies are not purely technological. Studies show that due to implicit biases, “colorblind” research practices and historical structural inequalities, neuroscience disproportionately represents white, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic (WEIRD) populations, leading to challenges in reproducibility and applicability in medical contexts.
Kwasa noted that exclusion criteria in human studies often systematically underrepresent individuals of African descent.
“I measure the impact of my work not just by how many units of EEG adapters we sell but by how many practitioners take my work to heart and assess the biases in their own laboratories and clinics,” writes Kwasa.
Kwasa received an undergraduate degree from Washington University in St. Louis, a master’s degree from Boston University and a PhD from Carnegie Mellon University, all in biomedical engineering. She is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at Carnegie Mellon Neuroscience Institute and a 2023–2024 US Fulbright Scholar in Nairobi, Kenya.
“Our fourth set of NOMIS prizewinners exemplify the range and diversity expected of a prize at the interface of social and life sciences. From a practical solution to increasing the diversity of participants in human brain research, to an exploration of the power of music to assist in language acquisition, and an approach to ameliorate reduced social attention caused by face processing differences across the autism spectrum, our winners inspire us with their ingenuity and attention to often overlooked or difficult to address problems,” said Stella Hurtley, deputy editor at Science.
“Our new winners join a growing group of young explorers set to increase the power and reach of interdisciplinary approaches to tackle scientific and social problems,” she added.
Hurtley co-chaired selection of the NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award winner and finalists with Science Associate Editor Ekeoma Uzogara.
“The Young Explorer Award is aimed specifically at young researchers who work in an interdisciplinary manner between the social sciences and the natural sciences,” said Markus Reinhard, NOMIS Foundation Managing Director.
“This is not easy especially for young researchers, as it often does not advance their careers, but rather has the opposite effect. We want to counteract this with the award and give visibility and thus support to these highly creative, excellent researchers.”
2024 finalists
Jason Griffin is a finalist for his essay “Capturing eye movements to better understand face processing in autism.” Griffin’s work investigates the visual and neural mechanisms that underlie social perception in individuals with autism. Griffin received an undergraduate degree from California State University Channel Islands and a Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University. After completing his postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University, he started his laboratory in the department of psychology at the University of Houston in 2024.
Tian Christina Zhao is a finalist for her essay “Greater exposure to music can benefit language learning in infants.” Zhao’s research focuses on how early auditory learning takes place in the infant brain and how it relates to language development. Zhao received an undergraduate degree from Pacific Lutheran University and a Ph.D. from the University of Washington. After completing her postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences at the University of Washington, she started her laboratory there in the department of speech & hearing sciences in 2022.
Learn more about the award and how to apply at www.science.org/nomis.
Go to this AAAS release
Feature image (from left to right): 2024 NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award grand prize winner Jasmine Kwasa (photo by Carnegie Mellon University), finalist Jason Griffin and finalist T. Christina Zhao (photo by Milenko Drinic).
