Rebecca Richards-Kortum, Ph.D.

Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1990)
Professor and Chair, Department of Bioengineering
Rice University

Research (Optical Spectroscopy and Imaging Laboratory)
Dr. Richards-Kortum is the Stanley C. Moore Professor and chair of the Department of Bioengineering at Rice University. Her research centers on new, noninvasive cancer detection technologies that use high-resolution, optical imaging; the use of fluorescent imaging agents for cancer detection; biophysical studies of the light-scattering properties of cells and tissues; and the use of fiber-optic sensors for in vivo detection of cancer. In addition to being named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor in 2002, her awards include the National Science Foundation (NSF) Presidential Young Investigator; the NSF Presidential Faculty Fellow; the Becton Dickinson Career Achievement Award; and the Y. C. Fung Young Investigator Award, Bioengineering Division, American Society of Mechanical Engineers. She currently serves on the National Advisory Council for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering for the National Institutes of Health and directs the Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training Grant in Optical Biomolecular Engineering funded by the NSF.

Education and experience
Dr. Richards-Kortum received a bachelor of science in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 1985, and a doctorate degree in Medical Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1990. That year, she joined the University of Texas at Austin’s Electrical and Computer Engineering department and was one of the founding members of university’s Department of Biomedical Engineering in 2001. She joined Rice in 2005.