RQI summer colloquium showcases student, postdoc research

26th annual event highlights applied research from more than 35 Rice labs

The summer doldrums were blown away from Duncan Hall Aug. 3 as hundreds of Rice faculty, students and postdoctoral researchers gathered to learn about one another’s work at the 26th annual Rice Quantum Institute Summer Research Colloquium.

The colloquium, one of the largest annual research meetings on campus, highlights multidisciplinary and applied physics research by undergraduates, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers from dozens of labs across campus.

More than 35 Rice laboratories were represented this year, with research talks spanning diverse fields such as advanced materials, quantum magnetism, plasmonics and photonics, biophysics, ultracold atomic physics, condensed matter and chemical physics, and many aspects of nanoscience and nanotechnology.

“Many of RQI’s research efforts are focused on the development of emerging technologies that were first seen here at Rice into useful applications to benefit society,” said RQI Director Naomi Halas, Rice’s Stanley C. Moore Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and professor of chemistry, physics and astronomy and bioengineering. “RQI’s 70 faculty fellows are spread across eight departments in science and engineering, and more than 300 students, postdocs and undergraduates are actively involved in RQI.”

In addition to daylong research presentations, the RQI summer research colloquium also featured two poster sessions, including one for undergraduates. Thirty-eight undergraduates participated, including a dozen participants from this year’s NanoJapan program and 15 undergraduate visiting students from RQI’s NSF-sponsored Research Experiences for Undergraduates program.

For more information about RQI, visit http://rqi.rice.edu/.