Dr. Anika Osei

Background

Anika's doctoral work on quantum decoherence in warm biological systems led her to a provocative hypothesis: that certain neural timing mechanisms might exploit quantum effects previously thought impossible in the brain's wet, noisy environment. Her Schmidt year at the McGovern Institute gave her the neuroscience grounding to test it.

The leap story

“Everyone told me it was a career risk. My quantum physics advisor said "brains aren't computers." My neuroscience collaborators said "this isn't how we do things." They were both right, which is probably why nobody had tried it.”