Preview
Award Date
2018
Award Description
Debo Olaosebikan '06 is the chief technology officer and co-founder of Gigster, a smart software development service that combines top freelance developers and designers with automation tools. Gigster builds software for a stable of top enterprise clients including Staples, Airbus and MasterCard, and is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Redpoint and Y-Combinator. Debo came to IWU from Nigeria as a Presidential Scholar at 16, taking junior-level physics courses by age 17. In the IWU chapter of the Society of Physics Students, he was "the one" to turn to with difficult challenges. Debo was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and was named the IWU Anderson Scholar for 2005-06. In 2005, he worked on theoretical/computational frameworks for analyzing experimentally observed transitions in spin transfer devices at IBM. Debo went on to graduate work in physics at Cornell University, working in the nanophotonics group on light-matter interactions, electro-optics and non-linear optics. He was the Cornell representative in a collaboration with MIT, Stanford and Caltech, to build the world's first electrically activated silicon laser, a project supported by $6 million in grants. Debo has since demonstrated his dedication to promoting education through a variety of scholarships and educational opportunities for students in Nigeria, including CATCH AFRICA, a scholarship competition for secondary school students.