June 5, 2008
Bioengineering’s Rushmer Lecture set for June 6
Dr. Rebecca Richards-Kortum, an expert in integrating global health and engineering in educational programs, will deliver the 20th annual Rushmer Lecture, sponsored by the UW Department of Bioengineering. The event will be held at 4 p.m., Friday, June 6, in Turner Auditorium, D-209 Health Sciences Center.
Richards-Kortum is the chair and the Stanley C. Moore Professor of Bioengineering at Rice University in Houston. She recently joined the elite ranks of engineering when she was named a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Richards-Kortum, 43, was the youngest person from Rice, and the first woman from the university, to be named to the NAE.
Richards-Kortum is the founder and principal investigator of the Beyond Traditional Borders initiative at Rice University, which is aimed at spurring the development of globally appropriate health technology. The initiative relies on multidisciplinary education that encourages students to think beyond geographic and disciplinary boundaries in order to solve challenges in global health.
Her lecture is titled Integrating Bioengineering, Education and Policy Research to Create Sustainable Innovations to Prevent Disease. The lecture will be followed by a reception and student poster session, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., in the Bioengineering Seminar Room, N-130A, and the lobby of the Foege Building. For more information contact Shirley Nollette, peters2@u.washington.edu or 206-685-2002.
Bioengineering’s annual lecture was endowed in 1985 to honor Dr. Robert F. Rushmer, an extraordinary mentor and trailblazer who founded the UW Center for Bioengineering in 1967. The Center became the Department of Bioengineering, administered through the School of Medicine and the College of Engineering, in 1997. Rushmer’s efforts also affected the local biomedical industry, the UW technology transfer process, and the Washington Research Foundation.
Rushmer was widely recognized for his groundbreaking work in ultrasound, physiology, and cardiac research. He died in 2001 at the age of 86.
