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Like a number of research institutions, Rice University is planning a major expansion for its bioengineering program. Starting this fall, the program will be led by Rebecca Richards-Kortum, who left an endowed chair at the University of Texas at Austin to become the Stanley C. Moore Professor of Bioengineering at Rice.

Richards-Kortum works on developing non-invasive ways to detect cancer. Last year, she was awarded an $8 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to develop miniature, disposable microscopes that may allow doctors to detect certain kinds of tumors without doing standard biopsies. Richard-Kortum will be bringing many of her research projects (she estimates them to be worth about $4 million a year) with her, along with 10 members of her lab from Austin.

Much of Richards-Kortum's work is done in collaboration with medical centers, and she says that part of the attraction of the Rice position was the university's proximity to the Texas Medical Center and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Richards-Kortum also wants to work in academic administration, so the opportunity to lead a growing department was exciting, she says.

At a time of national debate over the role of women in science, Richards-Kortum says that Rice offers "amazing support" for women and she considers the university unmatched in terms of having research programs at the highest levels and having women serve as deans of engineering (Sallie Keller-McNulty) and natural sciences (Kathleen S. Matthews).

Women starting their careers in science are looking for information and support, Richards-Kortum says. "Last year, I organized a special workshop for women graduate students and postdocs in engineering called 'Negotiating the Ideal Faculty Position.' Although we spent only $60 advertising the conference, we had over 350 applications to attend the workshop -- this number exceeds by 1/3 the entire national pool of women receiving Ph.D.'s in engineering last year." A group of Rice faculty members just applied for a large National Science Foundation grant to focus on new ways to help women in science, and Richards-Kortum says "the commitment to such activities was important in my decision to come to Rice."

Richards-Kortum has won numerous awards for her research (she was a Presidential Young Investigator), and also won several awards at Texas for undergraduate teaching. Among her continuing projects are internship programs for bioengineering undergraduates and special courses for non-science majors.

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Fifty years ago, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. earned his Ph.D. from Boston University, which is celebrating that anniversary in part through the appointment of the Rev. Dale P. Andrews as the Martin Luther King Jr. Chair of Homiletics and Pastoral Theology.

Andrews formerly held an endowed chair in homiletics (the craft of sermon preparation and delivery) at Louisville Seminary. An ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Andrews also is the author of Practical Theology for Black Churches: Bridging Black Theology and African American Folk Religion.

For Andrews, Boston University's connection to King made the chair quite a draw, but he was also attracted to the institution itself and "the prospect of teaching in a major metropolitan university featuring a highly diverse student body, thereby creating a more eclectic classroom encounter crossing social, cultural, and theological perspectives in a greater exchange of ideas and beliefs."

At BU, Andrews plans to develop a homiletic track in the theology school's doctoral program. As for his own research and writing priorities, Andrews says he will be "seeking to develop homiletic methodology and pedagogy grounded in the apprenticeship traditions of black churches, which will, in turn, translate traditional practices and customs into the classroom learning environment for both African-American students and those of other cultures or traditions."