(1913 – 1998)
Wallace H. Coulter
Wallace H. Coulter (1913 – 1998), the benefactor of the Foundation, invented the Coulter Principle, an electronic method of counting and classifying microscopic particles suspended in fluid.
Coulter Principle & Counter
This principle was incorporated by Mr. Coulter in an apparatus to count and classify blood cells, a process that was previously done manually. This device, which came to be known as the “Coulter Counter,” revolutionized the practice of clinical laboratory medicine. With the automation and standardization of the “CBC,” the complete blood count, clinical laboratories now had the capacity and throughput to increase the daily number of tests from 1,000 to 10,000. To date, the CBC remains one of the most widely performed clinical diagnostic tests. In addition, the Coulter Principle is the gold standard for quality control in the manufacturing process for over five hundred products from pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, paint, wine, chocolates and so many other consumables which impact our daily lives.
Engineer, inventor, entrepreneur, visionary.
The Company - Coulter Corporation
Mr. Coulter developed a global view of business as a result of spending time in Asia in the late 1930s as an engineer and salesman for General Electric X-Ray. This served him well as chairman of Coulter Corporation. The company became one of the largest privately held medical diagnostic companies in the world and remained dominant for the entire forty (40) years of Mr. Coulter’s stewardship. As an integrated global healthcare company, Coulter Corporation was able to achieve market dominance by being local in so many markets. The customers, hospitals and clinical laboratories, were always interacting directly with a Coulter company representative.
These strategies created an unprecedented level of customer loyalty that was vital to keeping the company in a leadership position.
The Wallace H. Coulter Foundation
The Foundation was established in 1998 with the entire proceeds from Mr. Coulter’s estate. As a limited life foundation, there has always been a sense of urgency to create impactful grant programs. The first phase of grantmaking focused on legacy organizations that Mr. Coulter supported throughout his lifetime. Also, since everyone at the Foundation came from the for-profit sector, this legacy period provided the opportunity to learn foundation best practices. Domestic biomedical societies that had longstanding associations with Wallace Coulter and the company were provided with substantial grants to reach beyond the United States and teach state of the art scientific and technological advances in less resourced countries. Its university-based translational research grant programs established a business-like process to accelerate academic innovations to the marketplace. The Foundation also supports Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) and American Indian Alaska Native (AIAN) organizations, promoting collaboration and partnerships.