With years of research and numerous awards for her scientific contributions, microbiologist Rita Colwell shared her advice and knowledge about cholera during a lecture at the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium last night.
The lecture, entitled “Climate, Oceans, Infectious Diseases and Human Health” addressed the treatable and preventable disease, and how it still affects people in third-world countries, despite being rare in the first world.
Colwell and her colleagues devised a simple solution to a
complex problem — using old saris to filter the cholera-carrying copepods from the drinking water.
When Colwell and her colleagues tried to receive funding for this idea, they were denied, but they did not give up.
Colwell and her colleagues took their idea to Bangladesh and tested the theory. The sari idea soon caught steam and quickly spread across Africa and India.
“We always want a technological solution to all of our problems, but if a simple solution is available, I don’t know why research won’t pay for it,” said Scott Moody, an associate professor of biological sciences and the chair of the Frontiers in Science Lecture Series Committee. “I hope that Colwell’s lecture has planted a germ in the students’ mind that will lead them to finding simpler solutions.”
Colwell urged students to continue following their scientific goals in an effort to help the world become knowledgeable.
Amanda Lester, a sophomore studying forensic chemistry, said she admired Colwell because she is “a very intelligent woman making a huge difference in the science world.”
Due to funding cuts, Moody said Colwell will be the only speaker for the Frontiers in Science Lecture series.
“We’ve got two series (the Frontiers in Science and Kennedy Lecture series), but unfortunately only enough funding to bring in one speaker for the Science series, so we try to invite one individual who’s made incredible advancements in science and can communicate it well,” Moody said.
It cost $7,500 to bring Colwell to Athens. The money came from a Frontiers in Science Lecture endowment set up by Jeanette Brown, former director of corporate research for BP America and an OU alum, and Glenn Brown, her husband.
“I’m still in love with science, and the world today needs scientists,” Jeanette said.
ao007510@ohiou.edu
