Dr. Colwell, director of the National Science Foundation and former director of the Maryland Biotechnology Institute, shared her research of the last 30 years which has focused on cholera. What Colwell and her colleagues found is that vibrio cholerae have a genetic mechanism for surviving low temperatures, and that outbreaks of this deadly infectious disease are influenced by temperature, seasons and climate. She explained how scientists, using satellites to monitor sea surface temperature, turbidity and sea height, found a dramatic correlation between meteorological events and outbreaks of cholera in the Third World. Dr. Colwell also described an experiment being funded by the National Institutes of Health in 50 rural villages of Bangladesh. Women there are being taught to filter their drinking water through folds of sari cloth.
Preliminary results show that filtering is successfully preventing disease.
Later that afternoon, Dr. Benjamin S. Carson talked to students about the medical profession, managed health care and his work as a pediatric brain surgeon at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. In his brief convocation remarks, Carson talked about how he overcame dire poverty to become successful. What liberated me from being 'disadvantaged' was to realize that the person who was responsible for my success was me. He also talked about how he measures success. We are successful when we help our young people get in touch with their tremendous intellectual gifts.