May 1, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 71 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E519]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




CONGRATULATING DR. REBECCA RICHARDS-KORTUM, DR. JAMES TRUCHARD AND JEFF 
  KODOSKY, ON THEIR INDUCTION INTO THE NATIONAL INVENTOR HALL OF FAME

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Wednesday, May 1, 2019

  Ms. JOHNSON of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Dr. 
Rebecca Richards-Kortum of Rice University in Houston and Dr. James 
Truchard and Jeff Kodosky of National Instruments in Austin for their 
induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame on May 2, 2019.
  Dr. Rebecca Richards-Kortum is the first woman and the youngest Rice 
faculty member to earn the rank of University Professor. Early in her 
career, as a biomedical engineering professor at the University of 
Texas at Austin, she learned that early screening programs for cancer 
were out of reach for many and began creating a low-cost imaging system 
to detect precancerous cells. This technology was further developed to 
detect oral cancer. Studies later showed that her system could improve 
early detection of cancer while drastically reducing costly and 
unnecessary biopsies. In her travels to Malawi, she witnessed an issue 
with under-equipped neonatal wards, and thus in 2005 after moving to 
Rice, Dr. Richards-Kortum cofounded the Rice 360 deg. Institute for 
Global Health where she began working with students on low-cost, low-
power devices to save newborn lives. Her work has improved medical care 
for millions of newborns and saved thousands of lives in low-income 
countries. Her and her team's successes to date include systems that 
help babies breathe and that help caregivers detect jaundice and 
accurately dose children's liquid medication. For this work, she was 
the first Houston scientist and first Houston woman to win a coveted 
``genius grant'' from the MacArthur Foundation.
  Dr. James Truchard and Jeff Kodosky, who will also be inducted into 
the National Inventor's Hall of Fame, conceived a better method of 
high-end testing using computers instead of the inefficient data 
collection methods they employed as researchers at the University of 
Texas Applied Research Laboratories in the 1970s. With their colleague 
Bill Nowlin, they founded National Instruments to develop a concept 
called virtual instrumentation, where software and hardware combine to 
perform the functions of traditional instruments, through a product 
called LabVIEW. LabVIEW became the flagship product of National 
Instruments and is used today by engineers, scientists, academics and 
students around the world. Having been adopted across many industry 
sectors, its applications are as wide-ranging as controlling the CERN 
Large Hadron Collider to facilitating navigation of the FDA regulatory 
process. LabVIEW created a new paradigm for programming and has been 
honored with more than 100 national and international awards, while 
National Instruments--with its global headquarters in Austin--has grown 
to become a multinational, billion-dollar company.
  I ask my colleagues to join me in congratulating these outstanding 
Texas inventors. Their induction into the National Inventors Hall of 
Fame speaks volumes for the culture of invention, innovation, and 
entrepreneurship that exists in the great State of Texas.

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