The Yard

Bringing Science Home

Engineering Science Building,
40 Oxford Street

Inside a Harvard bioengineering lab, David Sengeh ’10 develops new health-care solutions for the least developed country in the world—his native Sierra Leone.

Galvanized by his personal experiences and encouraged by his mentor, David Edwards, Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Biomedical Engineering, Sengeh “translates” his own ideas into action. While working to identify the active molecule in an herbal treatment of malaria, Sengeh established a nongovernmental organization (NGO), Global Minimum, that distributed mosquito nets, house to house, to protect against the deadly disease.

“I feel very lucky to be here. Now my responsibility is to use the tremendous resources at Harvard to add to scientific knowledge back home,” Sengeh says. “It’s not enough just to be a good scientist. You have to bring science to the smallest village to produce real social impact. My goal is to improve the health of my country, one person at a time.”

This summer, Sengeh will collaborate with a team of Harvard students determined to “light” sub-Saharan Africa using biomechanical energy, like bike riding, to power electroluminescent technology. The team has been awarded a $200,000 grant from the World Bank to realize the project. Sengeh hopes his mutually respectful approach will yield positive interactions and practical results. “Westerners too often feel like they know the problem and the solution. But you can have a bigger impact on people’s lives if you say, ‘I believe in this idea; this is why I think it will work; I’m ready to learn and do this with you.’”

To learn more about Sengeh’s NGO, visit the website http://gmin.org.

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