Positive spin for Rice
Sally Centrifuge becomes a hit among Yahoo News readers

BY MIKE WILLIAMS
Rice News staff

What went around has come around again for two Rice University undergraduates riding a wave of media attention this summer.

Lila Kerr and Lauren Theis found their picture and a story about their invention, the Sally Centrifuge — a salad spinner modified to test for anemia in resource-poor settings — atop Yahoo’s home page this week.

Their story on the popular Internet portal was likely seen by millions, and within a few days, nearly 2,000 readers had posted overwhelmingly positive comments about their creation and about Rice. A feature story in the Houston Chronicle followed.

“The public’s response to our story has been really heartwarming,” Kerr said. “Perfect strangers have sent us messages of encouragement and offers to help, and we’re incredibly grateful to have their support. It’s given us further motivation to continue developing the device this fall so that it can get into the field as quickly as possible.”

Kerr spent part of her summer in Ecuador, where demonstrating the centrifuge was part of her work on behalf of Beyond Traditional Borders (BTB), Rice’s global health initiative, while Theis is still carrying out her duties for BTB in Swaziland. Before their departures earlier this summer, the undergraduates had already enjoyed considerable press, having appeared live on CNN and been interviewed by Public Radio International’s syndicated “The World.”

Beyond Traditional Borders
Learn more about Rice University’s initiative to address the pressing health needs of the developing world
Apply
Want to explore your research opportunities and receive a top-notch education? Apply to Rice University
“I’m happily surprised there’s been another wave of interest in our story at a time when we have gathered more feedback about the centrifuge,” Theis said.

Rice News first reported about the device in April. Kerr, who will be a junior this fall, and Theis, a sophomore, designed the centrifuge last year, together with their teammates, seniors Kelly O’Connor and Nazima Zakhidova, as part of their global health class with Rebecca Richards-Kortum, Rice’s Stanley C. Moore Professor of Bioengineering and director of Rice 360˚: Institute for Global Health Technologies.

”Lauren, Lila, Kelly and Nazima show what is possible when we harness the creativity, skills and idealism of students in the fight against ill health and poverty in the developing world,” Richards-Kortum said. ”As both an educator and a bioengineer, it has been a joy to work with these students as their brilliant idea took shape as the Sally Centrifuge.”

Reaction to the Yahoo feature was swift. Dozens of readers e-mailed Rice to compliment the students directly and even offer help.

“Bravo!!!!!!! Hats and horns to those brilliant students!” James Aikin wrote.

Dr. Cherylee Lisonbee’s comment was representative of many. “These young women are a true example of what their generation can be. Please let them know,” she wrote.

“The story brought tears of joy to my eyes … and the hope that other simple solutions to world problems using everyday devices may be just around the corner. How wonderful!” wrote Larry Pope of Kyle, Texas, who suggested the device be renamed the Theis-Kerr Centrifuge.

Another had a suggestion inspired by his young children: incorporate the centrifuge into a spinning top. “Perhaps the ingenious young women could use something like this to create an even less expensive and more portable centrifuge.”

Yet another offered more concrete aid: “I have a salad spinner I am likely to never use. Could I donate it to your centrifuge project?”

And Betty Londergan, an Atlanta blogger who decided to give $100 a day for a year to worthy causes that catch her interest, has pledged a donation to Beyond Traditional Borders. “The jury is out as to whether this $30 invention from the elastic, imaginative minds of two young women will hold up under the tremendous pressure of delivering a higher level of health care in the developing world,” she wrote. “But how can you not be inspired and deeply jazzed by a couple of women who at the tender age of 20 think so intuitively and globally?”

The Sally Centrifuge may not need electricity, but there’s nothing like the power of a good idea.