By ANNE GREGORY
Media Relations, Manchester University

NORTH MANCHESTER — Groundbreaking researcher Frederick Balagaddé will bring his enticing story to Manchester University at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 20, in the Cordier Auditorium.

“Africa suffers the overwhelming brunt of global disease.” says Balagaddé, who graduated from Manchester in 2001 with degrees in physics and computer science. Balagaddé experienced this suffering firsthand in the 1990s, when his hometown in Uganda was swept over by HIV.

“What begins as a tragedy in a Third World country could easily become a global problem,” says the Manchester alumnus. Upon graduation, Balagaddé spent two years as a research scientist at Stanford University and did his doctoral studies in applied physics at California Institute of Technology.

While at Cal Tech, Balagaddé invented the microchemostat, a cellphone-sized device that mimics biological cell culture environment in a highly complex web of tiny pump and hair-sized water hoses, all controlled by a multitasking computer.

Today, Balagaddé is living his dream as an assistant investigator at Kwazulu-Natal Research Institute for Tuberculosis and HIV. “I am passionate about the future of Africa,” Balagaddé said. K-RITH is a key place for scientific discovery and translation of research into diagnostics and treatments for these global killers.

The Oct. 20, speech is part of the Values, Ideas and the Arts series. The University will award Balagaddé at Homecoming and Family Weekend, 2015, with the Young Alumni Outstanding Achievement Award.

The Alumni Honor Award Banquet will take place at 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23, in the Jo Young Switzer Center on the North Manchester campus. Tickets are $16 for adults, $8 for children ages 6-12 and free to children 5 years and younger. Contact the alumni office to purchase tickets for the banquet or open the events link on Manchester University’s alumni services page on their website.

Balagaddé will also speak at the Manchester University Fort Wayne Campus.