US Ambassador to Nigeria visits Rice

U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria W. Stuart Symington recently visited Rice’s BioScience Research Collaborative to tour the Rice 360° Institute for Global Health and learn about its work to engage students in the design and deployment of affordable, rugged technologies to solve real global health challenges in low-resource settings.

Every year, 1.1 million newborns die in Africa alone, mostly from preventable causes — pre-term birth, complications of labor and delivery and infections — which Rice 360°’s Newborn Essential Solutions and Technologies project will address through a model for comprehensive neonatal care done in a sustainable, scalable and collaborative way. Symington learned about the Rice 360° team’s background and mission and their current work to scale-up in Malawi and expand the effort to Nigeria in the near future. Pictured, from left, are Rice 360° co-director Maria Oden and Symington.