Rebecca Richards-Kortum

Rebecca Richards-Kortum (born April 14, 1964) is an American bioengineer and the Malcolm Gillis University Professor at Rice University. She is a professor in the departments of Bioengineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering, and she is the Director of Rice 360°: Institute for Global Health, and the Founder of Beyond Traditional Borders.[1] She is the Director of the Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering, and serves as the advisor to the Provost on health-related research. Richards-Kortum is the recipient of the Pierre Galletti Award, the highest honor from the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), for her contributions to global health care and bioengineering technology.

Rebecca Richards-Kortum
Photograph of Richards-Kortum in 2016
Born (1964-04-14) April 14, 1964
Grand Island, Nebraska
NationalityAmerican
EducationUniversity of Nebraska at Lincoln (BS)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MS)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD)
AwardsNational Academy of Engineering,
National Academy of Sciences,
American Academy of Arts and Sciences,
MacArthur Fellow
Scientific career
FieldsBioengineering
InstitutionsRice University
Doctoral advisorMichael Stephen Feld

Early life

Richards-Kortum grew up in Grand Island, Nebraska.[2] She enjoyed math and science in elementary school and attended University of Nebraska-Lincoln after high school. Due to a dearth of women mentors and role models, she initially aspired to be a high school math and science teacher upon her graduation. Her trajectory changed after graduating with highest distinction in physics and mathematics, when she considered PhD programs after being exposed to undergraduate research. She attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received a Master’s degree in physics and a doctorate in medical physics.[3]

Photograph of Richards-Kortum in 2016 talking to a student in her lab

Career and research

Richards-Kortum began her academic career at The University of Texas in the electrical and computer engineering department, where she rose through the ranks from assistant, to associate, to full professor. She then joined the faculty of bioengineering at Rice University, earning the rank of University Professor, which means she can teach in any academic department and across disciplines.[3]

Richards-Kortum specializes in creating new technologies to provide health care to vulnerable populations, including methods for diagnosis of cancers, methods for treating jaundice in newborns, and a bubble continuous positive airway pressure machine for premature infants unable to breathe on their own.[4]

Publications

She is the author of the textbook Biomedical Engineering for Global Health (Cambridge University Press, 2010) and the author or co-author of over 315 research papers, 13 book chapters, and 40 patents.[1]

Honors and awards

In recognition of her work, Richards-Kortum received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2016.[5] She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2008 and the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015.

In 2016 she received the Pierre Galletti Award, the highest honor from the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), for her contributions to global health care and bioengineering technology. In her Pierre Galletti address to the AIMBE, she noted that the biggest career-transition gender disparity occurs at the graduate student/postdoc-to-assistant professor step, and she challenged the leaders in bioengineering to encourage women to pursue academic positions, especially at the "20th mile" of the academic "marathon."[6]

She was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2017.[7]

In 2014 Richards-Kortum was awarded the Michael S. Feld Biophotonics Award from The Optical Society for her "exceptional contributions to advancing the applications of optics in disease diagnosis and inspiring work in disseminating low-cost health technologies to the developing world."[8]

In 2008, she was named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor and 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 Global Innovation.

Rebecca Richards-Korum has received more grants than any other Rice University Professor.

References
  1. "Rebecca Richards-Kortum, Ph.D. | Bioengineering | Rice University". Rice University. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
  2. Undergrad work put alumna on 'genius' award path | Nebraska Today | University of Nebraska–Lincoln Retrieved 2017-08-06.
  3. Viegas, Jennifer (2016). "Profile of Rebecca Richards-Kortum". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 113 (44): 12341–12343. doi:10.1073/pnas.1616449113. PMC 5098615. PMID 27791194.
  4. "MacArthur Fellows: Meet the Class of 2016: Rebecca Richards-Kortum". MacArthur Foundation. Retrieved 2016-09-25.
  5. Beaubien, Jason (2016-09-22). "'Genius Grant' Winner Is A Genius At Inspiring Students" (Morning Edition). NPR. NPR. Retrieved 2016-09-25.
  6. Jeffrey J. Gray [@jeffreyjgray] (2016-04-04). "BME and ChE show largest gap between %women PhD grads and faculty. From @kortum's #GalettiAward Lecture @AIMBE" (Tweet). Retrieved 2016-11-04 – via Twitter.
  7. "American Philosophical Society: Newly Elected - April 2017". Archived from the original on 2017-09-15.
  8. "The Optical Society Feld Biophotonics Award".
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