Preparing Engineers to Do Good in the World: Barabino Creating Supportive Environments

Abstract

In 1981, only 15 years after Rice University admitted its first undergraduate and graduate African American students, Gilda Barabino entered Rice as a graduate student in chemical engineering, making her the first African American in the department. Barabino's goal was to apply engineering to medicine, and she quickly focused her research on sickle cell disease, the most common inherited blood disorder that disproportionately affects African Americans.