Richards-Kortum Elected to Academy of Arts and Sciences

Rebecca Richards-Kortum, a bioengineering professor at Rice University who uses optics to help fight disease, has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

A member of the Rice faculty since 2005, Richards-Kortum directs the Rice 360° Institute for Global Health Technologies.

Her work focuses on translating research in nanotechnology, molecular imaging and microfabrication to develop optical imaging systems that are inexpensive, portable and provide point-of-care diagnoses for diseases ranging from cancer to malaria. Her research has produced 29 patents, more than 230 research papers, 11 book chapters and the textbook Biomedical Engineering for Global Health.

She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and an inaugural member of the National Advisory Council for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering for the National Institutes of Health. Richards-Kortum also is a fellow of The Optical Society (OSA), the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Biomedical Engineering Society and the National Academy of Inventors.

Her awards and honors include the 2013 Lemelson-MIT Award for Global Innovation, the 2014 Michael S. Feld Biophotonics Award from OSA, Rice’s George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching and the 2007 Chester F. Carlson Award from the American Society for Engineering Education. She was named a professor of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 2002 and 2006.

For more information, visit www.rice.edu and www.amacad.org.