Inventor Helps Others Through Gift to UF

Khanh Dinh

When Khanh Dinh (MA '78) and his family fled Vietnam after the fall of Saigon in 1975, Dinh dedicated his life to making the world a better place. Throughout his career, he invented resources and devices that solved heat and humidity problems for NASA, Disney and the U.S. Department of Energy through his copper heat pipe technology. He remained dedicated to discovering ways to create infinite sources of energy. He went on to invent solar-powered, low-cost energy solutions that are used around the world today.

Today, Dinh is dedicated to helping UF Health researchers, like Dr. Norman Beatty, an assistant professor in the UF College of Medicine’s division of infectious diseases and global medicine, uncover solutions to help others survive and recover from Chagas disease, a neglected tropical disease transmitted by the kissing bug that is endemic to Latin America.

When Dinh first started experiencing fatigue, fever and body aches, and had trouble recovering, he sought out answers.

“I got sick, and nobody bothered to test me [for Chagas disease] because they said testing wouldn’t do me any good, and this disease is so rare in the U.S.,” he said.

That’s when Dinh came to UF Health and met Beatty. According to a recent UF Health article covering Chagas disease, an estimated 7 million people carry the disease, with most of those asymptomatic and unaware they are infected with the chronic illness. Beatty said fewer than 1% of the 300,000 people in the U.S. infected by Chagas disease have been diagnosed.

“We want to educate on the importance of screening for Chagas disease because it can be fatal,” Beatty said. “The fear is that patients would go without a diagnosis until it is too late.”

If patients and medical practitioners are unaware of the disease, diagnosis can be delayed many years until the infection is so advanced that the odds of survival are diminished. That was the case for Dinh.

“When you’re close to death, you become imaginative,” he said.

While Dinh has already beaten all odds, as he fell more ill, he found a new passion: continuing his legacy of finding solutions to build a better world for all.

“If I die, and my funds just go to each child, how far will that actually go? This way, my money goes a lot further and can do something good for society too,” he said.

With Dinh’s charitable remainder unitrust, he found a way to not only provide an income for his children, but to also fund research to ensure that others who contract Chagas disease have a fighting chance.

“I am doing a little bit like Dr. Cade and other famous inventors,” he said. “They know they cannot take it with them, so they want to give it back.”

To learn how you can help future generations through an estate gift to the University of Florida, contact UF's Office of Estate & Gift Planning at 352-392-5512, toll free at 866-317-4143 or giftplanning@uff.ufl.edu.