Biophotonics Solutions to Global Health Challenges
Registration (webinar link will be sent to your email after you register):
https://riceuniversity.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ocihTpqiSIC2BltwCv1QGg
Abstract: This talk will examine the challenges of designing and translating new biophotonics technologies to solve real clinical needs, drawing from examples to improve early detection of cervical cancer for women in Texas and Latin America, to improve point-of-care diagnosis of COVID-19, and to improve newborn survival in African hospitals. The talk will summarize lessons learned to increase the diversity of innovation teams, and to increase the impact and sustainability of the resulting innovations.
Personal bio:
Rebecca Richards-Kortum, Ph.D. is the Rice University Malcolm Gillis University Professor of Bioengineering, the Director of Rice 360°: Institute for Global Health, and serves as the special advisor to the Provost on health-related research and educational initiatives. Her research has been instrumental in improving the early detection of cancers and other diseases, especially in low-resource settings. She is currently working with colleagues and undergraduate students to develop a Nursery of the Future to provide technologies necessary to reduce neonatal death in sub-Saharan Africa to rates equivalent to the United States.
Richards-Kortum’s research has led to the development of 40 patents. She is the author of the textbook Biomedical Engineering for Global Health (Cambridge University Press, 2010), more than 230 refereed research papers, and 11 book chapters. Her teaching programs, research, and collaborations have been supported by generous grants from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health (with more NIH grants than any other Rice professor), National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Defense, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Whitaker Foundation, and the Virginia and L.E. Simmons Family Foundation.
She is a member of numerous academic associations including the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. As a member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, she has the rare distinction of dual membership in the National Academies. In 2016, The American Institute for Medical and Biomedical Engineering (AIMBE) presented its highest honor, the Pierre Galletti Award to Dr. Richards-Kortum.
In 2008, she was named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor and subsequently received a grant for the undergraduate global health program at Rice. This program won the Science Prize for Inquiry-Based Instruction from Science magazine and the Lemelson-MIT Award for Global Innovation.
Malcolm Gillis University Professor
Director, Rice 360 Institute for Global Health
Department of Bioengineering at Rice University
Adjunct Professor, University of Texas Health
Science Center, McGovern Medical School