Dean’s Lecture features Rebecca Richards-Kortum, PhD

Dr. Rebecca Richards-Kortum - 2022 Dean's Lecture
Rebecca Richards-Kortum, PhD

Rebecca Richards-Kortum, PhD, Malcom Gillis University Professor of Bioengineering at Rice University, will present the 2022 Dean’s Lecture at McGovern Medical School April 5.

The lecture titled “Developing and Translating Affordable Technologies to Improve Maternal and Child Health in Low-Resource Settings,” will be presented from 4-5 p.m. in MSB 3.001.

Richards-Kortum is the Director of Rice 360°: Institute of 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 early detection of cancers and other diseases, especially in low-resources settings. Currently, she is 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 referred research papers and 11 book chapters. 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 2017, The American Institute for Medical and Biomedical Engineering (AIMBE) presented her its highest honor, the Pierre Galletti Award.

In 2008, she was named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor and subsequently received a grant for the undergraduate global health program at Rice. The program won the Science Prize for Inquiry-Based Instruction from Science magazine and the Lemelson-MIT Award for Global Innovation.

Established in 1983, the Dean’s Lecture promotes and encourages professional development and sparks collaborative interest. Sponsored by the Research Committee, each year eminent scientists across various scientific disciplines are invited to present their work.