Centennial video series: The first physics building at Rice

David Ruth
713-348-6327
david@rice.edu

Centennial video series: The first physics building at Rice
Rice University’s weekly centennial videos run through Oct. 12

HOUSTON – (May 24, 2012) – Built in 1914, Rice University’s physics building, called Herzstein Hall, was the first structure to rise on campus after the original group of buildings opened in 1912. The Physics Department had grown so strong so quickly at the new Rice Institute that its accomplishments catapulted it to be the next big project. The Physics Department leader, Professor H.A. Wilson, took a lead role in the design of the building and ensured it would be built as a place for cutting-edge physics research and public service. The public service mission was so important to Wilson and the department that language was written into cornerstone of the building that states that the science taught and researched at Rice should be a service to the community.

Working with Centennial Historian Melissa Kean, video producer Brandon Martin takes a look at Rice’s original physics building. To learn more about Rice’s history, visit Kean’s blog at www.ricehistorycorner.com.

To help celebrate the university’s centennial Oct. 12, Rice University is producing weekly videos exploring the school’s unique history.

The video, available on YouTube at http://youtu.be/FRVJc8SUp_o, is also available to media in high quality and without music for editing purposes. For higher-quality video, contact David Ruth, director of national media relations at Rice, at david@rice.edu or 713-348-6327.

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Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is known for its “unconventional wisdom.” With 3,708 undergraduates and 2,374 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice has been ranked No. 1 for best quality of life multiple times by the Princeton Review and No. 4 for “best value” among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. To read “What they’re saying about Rice,” go to www.rice.edu/nationalmedia/Rice.pdf.