Inspiring West Virginians

Using light, Linda Powers and her team develop technology to enable people working in remote areas to detect microbes on surfaces, contamination in water, bioterrorism agents or disease organisms. They are also developing simple devices to detect HIV, malaria and TB in the field. This is the story of a little girl growing up in West Virginia, a science nerd with few role models, who nevertheless went on to be among the top five in the nation to win the Westinghouse Science Talent Search. Today she is a bioengineer at the University of Arizona as well as mentor and role model to many women in science, engineering and technology.