Rebecca Rae Richards-Kortum Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, Department of Bioengineering

Rebecca Richards-Kortum is the Stanley C. Moore Professor and Chair of Bioengineering at Rice University. Previously, she held the Cockrell Family Chair in Engineering #10 and was a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, where she was also a Distinguished Teaching Professor. After receiving a B.S. in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1985, she continued her graduate work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she received an MS in Physics in 1987 and a PhD in Medical Physics in 1990. That same year, she began her academic career at The University of Texas in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department as an Assistant Professor, (1990), Associate Professor (1995) and Professor (1999). She joined the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UT Austin when it formed in 2001.

In addition to being named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor in 2002, her awards include, Presidential Young Investigator, National Science Foundation (1991), Presidential Faculty Fellow, National Science Foundation (1992); Becton Dickinson Career Achievement Award, Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (1992); Outstanding Engineering Teaching by an Assistant Professor Award, College of Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin (1994); Y.C. Fung Young Investigator Award, Bioengineering Division, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (1999). In 2001, she was elected to the Academy of Distinguished Teachers at The University of Texas at Austin and received the Chancellor’s Council Outstanding Teaching Award for 2002. She also currently serves on the National Advisory Council for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering for the National Institutes of Health and directs an Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training Grant in Optical Biomolecular Engineer, funded by the National Science Foundation.

Dr. Richards-Kortum’s research group is developing miniature microscopes and spectrometers to enable early detection of precancerous changes in living tissue. Her research group is currently developing fluorescence-based techniques for the diagnosis of cervical pre-cancer in vivo, and in collaboration with Dr. Michele Follen has carried out clinical trials of this technique involving over 1,500 patients at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. In collaboration with Dr. Michael Descour at the University of Arizona, her group is developing miniature confocal microscopes to visualize the microscopic changes which accompany precancer. In collaboration with Dr. Konstantin Sokolov at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, her group is developing contrast agents for in vivo molecular imaging of changes associated with precancer including expression of epidermal growth factor reception. Also under study are spectroscopic techniques for improving and automating screening for precancer of the oral cavity in collaboration with Dr. Ann Gillenwater.

Rebecca is married and has three sons, Alexander, Maxwell and Zachary and one daughter, Katie. Spouse's Name: Philip Kortum