Kevin Beckford is a doctoral candidate in the electrical and computer engineering (ECE) at Rice.
He is a GEM (Graduate Education for Minorities) associate fellow and earned his B.S. in electrical engineering technology from Farmingdale State College in New York in 2021.
Beckford is one of the first in his family to earn a college degree and is on track to become the first to earn a doctorate. He hopes to inspire family members to pursue higher education.
As the son of Panamanian immigrants,” he said, “I was driven to become the first in my family to attend college and pursue a career that would allow me to make a difference. Completing an AP Physics course sparked my interest in science and set me on my current path.
At Farmingdale, Beckford joined the Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program (CSTEP), which eased his transition to Rice. CSTEP is intended to increase the number of historically underrepresented and economically disadvantaged students who enter and complete undergraduate study in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
“The program gave me the opportunity to do internships and research that opened my pathway to Rice,” he said.
Beckford began his research as a sophomore at Farmingdale. It focused on developing alternative energy solutions using hydroxide compounds. “This work inspired me to investigate optics and spectrometry, which have multiple applications, he said.
He was selected to participate in the Mini-Semester Program at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) as a junior. The program gives undergraduates interested in STEM the opportunity to work with scientists at Brookhaven.
After earning his B.S., Beckford participated in the Summer Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) program at BNL. It permits interns to work on projects relevant to the U.S. Department of Energy's mission to ensure the nation’s security and prosperity by addressing energy, environmental and nuclear challenges with technology solutions.
Beckford at first planned to enter industry after graduation, but his exposure to research moved him to pursue a Ph.D.
“All my research experience helped me find my passion, which I wanted to follow in graduate school,” he said. “I want to be an expert in optics and imaging and to use that expertise to develop imaging devices that can help improve lives.”
Beckford applied to Rice as a GEM Associate Fellow last fall, and soon went to work in the Modern Optical Instrumentation and Bio-Imaging Laboratory. His research centers on optimizing and designing systems to utilize 3D volumetric optical coherence tomography for biomedical applications.
The lab is led by Tomasz Tkaczyk, professor of ECE, and focuses on development of optical instruments in healthcare.