About the author:

My name is Eric Lagally, and I have a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the joint UC, Berkeley - UC-San Francisco Bioengineering Graduate Group.  My expertise is in the engineering of microfluidic systems for clinical diagnostics, particularly molecular methods for disease detection.  When I started in graduate school, like all bioengineering students my stated aim was "to help people". This seemed particularly relevant to my line of work, which results in systems that one can imagine being used for remote detection of any of the diseases afflicting the developing and the developed world. However, my recent career path took me further into academics, which although good for developing new systems, takes me further from helping people directly. Further, the systems I developed rely on national funding agencies, which are not designed to fund the sort of technology development needed for the developing countries of the world. To ameliorate these disadvantages, I am pursuing a certificate in International Development at the University of British Columbia, where I worked, as well as running this site.

My hobbies are many and varied, but include woodworking, running half marathons (a full soon!), and electronics.

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About the website:

I started this website as a way to catalog and analyze the rapid progress in technology for international development. In particular, I am focused on analyzing these technologies to see how effective they might be in various development scenarios. Can the technology be distributed effectively?  Are there cultural issues that might impede successful implementation?  What are the policy issues surrounding the uses of these technologies? A successful implementation of any technology must address these issues and many more.  An approach integrating governance, economics, policy, politics, culture, migration, psychology, and more with technology is, in my opinion, the only way to ensure the best chances for using technology to improve the health of all humans.

About the logo:

The crane is a Chinese symbol of health and longevity, and light blue is a color associated with health. "Convergence" is a term often associated with the poorest countries progressing faster in their growth than the developed countries, until eventually all countries are similar in their state of development.