Rita Colwell

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Dr. Rita Colwell, a former director of the US National Science Foundation, has worked in the public and private sectors. Her main research focuses have been health, water, and global infectious diseases including a large portion of her research being on cholera.

For over sixty years she has been researching this disease that is caused by a bacteria that naturally occurs in water, a fact discovered by her lab. Cholera outbreaks can be devastating to the population and there have been at least seven documented pandemics caused by the bacteria, including the seventh that is considered to be ongoing.

To combat the spread of the disease in developing countries, Colwell led an effort in 2003 to teach women in 50 villages in Bangladesh to use the saris they wore as a water filter. By folding the fabric about four times and passing the water through about 90% of the bacteria that was present in their water was removed and the rates of infection in these households dropped by almost half.

Returning five years later to see if the methods were sustainable, Colwell discovered that around 70% of the original participants were not only still using the method but they had also taught it to other members of their community. A surprising finding was that even in households that didn’t filter their water there was still a lower incidence of cholera due to the development of herd immunity. Colwell and her team were able to show a connection between filtration and the reduction of cholera.

Authoring or co-authoring nineteen books and over 800 scientific papers, Colwell’s work has been recognized both in the United States, where she is a recipient of a National Medal of Science, but also internationally; being awarded The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star by the Emperor of Japan and the Stockholm Water Prize.

In 2020 she published her memoir, A Lab of One’s Own, where she shared her over sixty years working in science and how systemic sexism in science is holding back not only women but science as a whole and she celebrated those pushing back.

Written by Angela Goad

Sources:

The link between saris and cholera

US National Science Foundation: Rita Colwell Biography

UMIACS: Rita Colwell

National Women’s Hall of Fame: Rita Rossi Colwell

See Also:

A Lab of One’s Own One Woman’s Personal Journey Through Sexism in Science

CosmosID

Rita Colwell to Receive the NCSE Lifetime Achievement Award

Wikipedia: History of cholera