Biography

Dr. Frederick Balagadde is the founding head of the bioengineering laboratory at K-RITH—a partnership between the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the University of KwaZulu-Natal, located in Durban, South Africa. He graduated summa cum laude from Manchester University, located in North Manchester, Indiana with a dual-degree in Physics and Computer Science in 2001. He then joined the California Institute  of  Technology,  located  in  Pasadena,  California,  where he obtained his PhD in Applied Physics in 2007. While a graduate student at CalTech, he invented the microchemostat–the first implementation of a microfluidic chip that cultures live bacterial cells in perpetuity—which was featured on National Public Radio and published in the journal Science. Upon receiving his PhD, he joined Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory located in Livermore, California and became a Principle Investigator in the Engineering Technologies Division. In 2010, he relinquished this position and moved to Stanford University as a Consulting Assistant Professor to embark on an entrepreneurial odyssey involving the creation of a biotechnology enterprise based on lab-on-a-chip technology towards affordable medical testing solutions for the Developing World. During the same year, he was awarded the prestigious TED Senior Fellowship.  In June of 2012, he was funded to start a bioengineering laboratory at K-RITH, the first of its kind in Africa, to develop microfluidic systems for medical testing to help control the TB and HIV epidemics in South Africa and beyond.

In 2015, he was given Manchester University’s Young Alumni Outstanding Achievement Award, which recognizes outstanding individuals with ability and conviction that have demonstrated outstanding leadership in their career and are contributing to the betterment of their community and its citizens.