Rebecca Richards-Kortum sees the engineer in everyone. It’s one way this Rice University professor of bioengineering helps undergraduates in many disciplines create solutions to global health problems.

She leads a program called Beyond Traditional Borders, which allows students to tackle specific challenges faced by health care providers in developing countries. One group, for instance, helped a community in Lesotho make low-cost incubators to improve hospital neonatal care. “It’s a great opportunity for students to learn science and put engineering into action to solve problems,” Richards-Kortum says. “It’s a real source of inspiration for me to see how engaged and enthusiastic they are and how much they want to make a difference in their careers.”

Making a difference fuels her own research. She has won numerous awards for her work in developing miniature microscopes to identify precancerous tissue without need for invasive procedures such as biopsies. This is particularly important in developing countries where expensive screening methods often aren’t available. Her lab is now collaborating with doctors in India to test battery-powered versions of the microscopes to detect oral cancer.

Traveling and seeing firsthand what life is like for impoverished groups has been a “humbling and inspiring experience,” she says. “It’s changed a lot about what I think is important in my career.”

Photo by Greg Kolanowski

Filed under: Biomedical, Explore Engineering

Tags: Biomedical, Bioscience, Biotechnology, Technology