The Career Journey of The 29 Year Old Rwandan Researcher Named Professor at MIT

Aristide Gumyusenge, a US-based  researcher from Rwanda, has been appointed as a professor of materials science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The 29-year-old professor, is a researcher and materials science engineer with a background in polymer chemistry. He received his Ph.D in Chemistry from Purdue University in 2019 after his research on polymer-based high temperature organic electronics in the research group of Prof. Jianguo Mei. 

His research interests are the design and processing of new organic materials for bioelectronics and neuromorphic computing devices.

His research roles include funding research, guiding cutting-edge research projects, and guiding graduate and graduate researchers.

As an assistant professor at Tenure Track, Gumyusenge teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in the Department of Materials Science. He joined Stanford in January 2020 as the Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials (GLAM) Postdoctoral Research Fellow and runs a research group at MIT focused on developing new materials for biology-inspired electronics.

Commenting on his appointment during an interview with New  Times, Aristide said 

“It is a great honour, generally speaking, a dream coming true! But as a black faculty member, as a Rwandan, it speaks great volume. It means that someone like me from extremely humble beginnings can work hard and make it this far. I hope it inspires many more, especially the youth in Rwanda and elsewhere, to believe in themselves, to believe they can go very far, as far as the best institute of technology in the world,"

Start To Star Story Of Professor Gumyusenge 

Born on a small farm in the Camony district of Southern Province, his family survived the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi tribe. Contrary to all possibilities, he was straight-A student from the beginner level.

He attended Kabgayi’s Petit Seminaire St. Leon  high school, majoring in chemistry, biology and mathematics, and achieved excellent results in all subjects in the national examination held at the end of high school in 2010.

He got the second best score, especially in chemistry, and won the Rwandan President’s Scholarship to attend a university in the United States.

He listened to BBC and VOA broadcasters to learn how to speak English and, as a result, passed the interview as part of the 18 presidential scholarships accepted by the Hendrix Consortium.

After that, he attended Wofford College in South Carolina, majoring in chemistry and minoring in mathematics.

He leverages both materials science and engineering platforms and expertise to develop sustainable solutions to global challenges such as clean water scarcity, clean energy and medical advances, especially on the African continent. I am aiming for that.

In 2019, Gumyusenge worked with a colleague led by Professor Jianguo Mei to discover a polymer that can withstand extreme heat above 220 ° C.

Their findings were published in one of the most prestigious US journals called Science Magazine.

“So far, my PhD research has paved the way for new research in organic materials in high temperature electronics, which gives us a better idea of ​​how these materials work in harsh environments. It became easier to understand and led to a new electronic circuit design. In fact, the original design was patented for technological development and I am aiming to go further in that direction. ” He said.