Tracy Slatyer poses in front of blackboard covered in physics equations
Credit: Bryce Vickmark
Physicist Tracy Slatyer imagines different ways dark matter might interact with ordinary matter, helping researchers learn how to look for it.
Credit: Bryce Vickmark

Tracy Slatyer named as one of 2024’s SN 10: Scientists to Watch

In its ninth year, SN 10: Scientists to Watch is Science News’ list of up-and-coming researchers

PRESS RELEASE // SEPTEMBER 23, 2024

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Science News has unveiled its annual list of 10 early- and mid-career scientists who are shaping the future. Now in its ninth year, the SN 10: Scientists to Watch list showcases researchers doing leading-edge work in a variety of areas, including those who are devising ways to tap new resources for building electric vehicles and to track stealth movements of environmental contaminants. They are also investigating how physics governs the movements of cells and how dark matter could have shaped the early universe.

This year’s scientists come from a pool of more than two dozen researchers, nominated by Nobel Laureates and recently elected members of the National Academy of Sciences. A team of Science News writers — many experts in their fields — selected the scientists for their potential to shape the science of the future.

“With this year’s SN 10, we are not only recognizing talent. We are spotlighting the architects of our future,” said Nancy Shute, Editor in Chief, Science News. She added, “These visionary early- and mid-career scientists are challenging themselves to tackle big questions in new ways that are reinventing the process of discovery.”

Science News is proud to present this year’s SN 10:

  • Hawa Racine Thiam, Stanford University
  • Dionna Williams, Emory University
  • Tracy Slatyer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Nicole Yunger Halpern, National Institute of Standards and Technology
  • Freek van Ede, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
  • Andrea Gomez, University of California, Berkeley
  • Bhavin Shastri, Queen’s University
  • Jacqueline Gerson, Cornell University
  • Chong Liu, University of Chicago
  • Yotam Ophir, University at Buffalo

“The fresh perspectives and bold ideas researched by the SN 10 scientists are critical to progress, driving solutions we urgently need for a rapidly changing world,” said Maya Ajmera, President and CEO, Society for Science and Executive Publisher, Science News. “I am thrilled that we are able to celebrate and spotlight these extraordinary individuals.”