People, papers and presentations

For the second year in a row, a Rice University chef will go to the national championships sponsored by the National Association of College and University Food Services. Cesar Tovar, sous chef at the South Servery, won the gold medal at the Southern Region 2012 Culinary Challenge in Nashville, Tenn., March 22. Competing chefs were required to create a dish on the fly with the main ingredient, flounder. He will represent Rice and the Southern Region at the nationals July 12 in Boston. Last year’s regional winner, Sarah Finster, is a sous chef at the West Servery.

Moshe Vardi, the Karen Ostrum George Professor of Computational Engineering, professor of computer science and director of the Ken Kennedy Institute for Information Technology, received a Distinguished Achievements Award from the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS). EATCS annually honors a respected scientist for their extensive and widely recognized contributions to theoretical computer science over a lifelong scientific career.