美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Genius Grant' Winner Is A Genius At Inspiring Students

'Genius Grant' Winner Is A Genius At Inspiring Students 

play pause stop mute unmute max volume 00:0003:49repeat repeat off Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser¹ to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: 

The MacArthur Foundation unveiled its latest class of geniuses, so-called, for 2016. Each year, $625,000 grants go to 20 to 30 people who show exceptional creativity.

David, are you on this year's list?

DAVID GREENE, HOST: 

(Laughter) No, maybe next year.

INSKEEP: What...

GREENE: Thank you, Steve. Thank you for asking.

INSKEEP: ...David Greene is not on the list?

GREENE: Thank you.

INSKEEP: The man is an author. He's a broadcaster. David Greene should be on the list.

GREENE: Wow.

INSKEEP: He's not on the list. But this year's fellows do include a playwright², several biologists, a human rights lawyer, sculptors³ and a cartoonist, among others. NPR's Jason Beaubien reports on one of this year's winners.

JASON BEAUBIEN, BYLINE⁴: Rebecca Richards-Kortum teaches bioengineering at Rice University in Houston. And she's made a name for herself in global health, not for her own inventions but instead for the incredible creativity of her students. In her lab and classes at Rice, Richards-Kortum asks undergraduates to come up with practical solutions to medical problems in the developing world.

REBECCA RICHARDS-KORTUM: If it stays in the lab, it's not really innovation.

BEAUBIEN: Her students have come up with dozens of low-cost inventions that do everything from screen for cervical cancer to provide oxygen to premature⁵ babies. One group built a centrifuge in a salad spinner. Earlier this month, Richards-Kortum was at a hospital in Malawi where some of her students are working. Malawi has been facing a huge problem with power outages, so she'd asked her students to re-engineer common medical devices to run on very little or no electricity, and they came up with a new IV fluid pump system that they're distributing now to several district hospitals in the country.

RICHARDS-KORTUM: It's designed to deliver intravenous fluid at a very precise rate. And what we've done in our devices is we mostly powered it using a spring. And, in fact, it's the same kind of spring that most people have in their electric garage door opener.

BEAUBIEN: And by winding⁶ up the spring, the device can operate for days, even if the power is out. In naming Richards-Kortum as one of this year's 23 fellows, the MacArthur Foundation noted⁷ her commitment to, quote, "improving access to quality health care for all the world's people."

Mark Kline, the physician-in-chief at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, says he first met Richards-Kortum when he was treating AIDS orphans⁸ in Africa.

MARK KLINE: I've known Rebecca for about a decade.

BEAUBIEN: He mentioned to her that a lot of these kids were being cared for by a grandmother or other relatives and it was often a struggle to make sure that these children, many of whom were HIV-positive, were getting the right dosages of their medications.

KLINE: She and her students actually designed a syringe that locks out the ability of the person who's delivering the medication to give any more than the prescribed amount.

BEAUBIEN: Kline says the new syringe was brilliant in its simplicity⁹. In addition to teaching and overseeing projects in remote parts of the developing world, Richards-Kortum is also married and has six children.

KLINE: I don't know where she finds the time and the energy to do everything that she does. You know, her personal life is as busy as her professional life.

BEAUBIEN: She also runs marathons. She's planning to run the Marine¹⁰ Corps¹¹ Marathon next month.

RICHARDS-KORTUM: I am. I'm training right now. I'm doing the Hanson Method. And man, it is killing¹² me (laughter).

GREENE: Richards-Kortum says the toughest part of running a marathon is that final leg, from Mile 20 to 26. And she thinks about that in relation to her work teaching bioengineering, too. Those final steps in building a new medical device or deploying¹³ a new technology can be the most difficult.

RICHARDS-KORTUM: We all have times when we need to hear that voice of encouragement. And, you know, as an educator, my job is to be that voice.

BEAUBIEN: The MacArthur Fellowship grant will provide her with an additional $625,000 over the next five years to keep up that work, or, frankly¹⁴, to do with it whatever she wants. Richards-Kortum says she plans to use it to support her work with children in Malawi.

Jason Beaubien, NPR News.

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 playwright   

n.剧作家，编写剧本的人

参考例句：

• Gwyn Thomas was a famous playwright.格温·托马斯是著名的剧作家。
• The playwright was slaughtered by the press.这位剧作家受到新闻界的无情批判。

3 sculptors   

雕刻家，雕塑家( sculptor的名词复数 )； [天]玉夫座

参考例句：

• He is one of Britain's best-known sculptors. 他是英国最有名的雕塑家之一。
• Painters and sculptors are indexed separately. 画家和雕刻家被分开，分别做了索引。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 premature   

adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的

参考例句：

• It is yet premature to predict the possible outcome of the dialogue.预言这次对话可能有什么结果为时尚早。
• The premature baby is doing well.那个早产的婴儿很健康。

6 winding   

n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈

参考例句：

• A winding lane led down towards the river.一条弯弯曲曲的小路通向河边。
• The winding trail caused us to lose our orientation.迂回曲折的小道使我们迷失了方向。

7 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

8 orphans   

孤儿( orphan的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The poor orphans were kept on short commons. 贫苦的孤儿们吃不饱饭。
• Their uncle was declared guardian to the orphans. 这些孤儿的叔父成为他们的监护人。

9 simplicity   

n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯

参考例句：

• She dressed with elegant simplicity.她穿着朴素高雅。
• The beauty of this plan is its simplicity.简明扼要是这个计划的一大特点。

10 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

11 corps   

n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组

参考例句：

• The medical corps were cited for bravery in combat.医疗队由于在战场上的英勇表现而受嘉奖。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

12 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

13 deploying   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的现在分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Provides support for developing and deploying distributed, component-based applications. 为开发和部署基于组件的分布式应用程序提供支持。
• Advertisement, publishing, repair, and install-on-demand are all available when deploying your application. 在部署应用程序时提供公布、发布、修复和即需即装功能。

14 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。