Dateline Rice for June 19, 2014

NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

Dubai, once a humble refueling stop, is crossroad to the globe
Visitors to Dubai have increased dramatically over the past decade. Jim Krane, the Wallace S. Wilson Fellow for Energy Studies at the Baker Institute for Public Policy, is quoted.
New York Times
http://nyti.ms/1lCqdS6
Dubai’s rise as the world’s crossroad
Financial Review (This article also appeared in NDTV and Columbus CEO.)
http://bit.ly/1icvbo8

The big Texas plan to copy Japan’s high-speed rail success
Texas Central Railway plans to build a Houston-Dallas rail line similar to the Shinkansen bullet train in Japan. Rice Kinder Institute’s Houston Area Survey is referenced.
City Lab
http://bit.ly/1pm6aYd

Polling on marriage: The American people continue to support preserving marriage as the union of one
An article explores the shift in attitude toward same-sex marriage among the public. Rice’s survey on same-sex marriage is referenced.
Washington Times
http://bit.ly/1qvGieg

Colleges in bottom 5 percent of access and student-success measures land on ‘tough love’ list
Education Trust issued a list of universities that enrolled less than 17 percent of Pell Grant-eligible freshmen in 2011. Rice enrolled 17 percent in 2012 but is included in the list because it enrolled 16 percent in 2011.
Chronicle of Higher Education
http://bit.ly/1yocin4

HOUSTON/TEXAS

Barnes and Coan: Failed energy-policy bills represent missed opportunity
Joe Barnes, the Bonner Means Baker Fellow at the Baker Institute, and James Coan, research associate for the Energy Forum at the Baker Institute, authored an op-ed about the recent failed bills in the U.S. Senate and the difficulty of passing U.S. energy legislation.
Houston Chronicle
http://bit.ly/1pj4SLO

Tax credits push many Texans’ health premiums below $100
Nearly 75 percent of Texans who bought health coverage under the Affordable Care Act are paying monthly premiums of $100 or less. Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy’s research on Texas’ rate of uninsured residents is referenced.
Houston Chronicle (Subscription required.)
http://bit.ly/UQ5kYQ

A time to make tough decisions
Alumnus Oliver Pennington ’60 authored an op-ed on Houston City Council’s annual city budget.
Kingwood Observer (This article also appeared in East Montgomery Observer, Atascocita Observer, Lake Houston Observer and Humble Observer.)
http://bit.ly/1pMqEek

ERJCC offers discounted tuition for new Melton students
The Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center of Houston will provide Judaism courses from the Melton Core Program. Melissa Weininger, a postdoctoral fellow in Jewish studies, will lead a course.
Jewish Herald-Voice
http://bit.ly/1vYoN6E

Dallas County private and charter schools valedictorians, salutatorians
St. Mark’s School of Texas graduate Vishal Gokani plans to attend Rice.
Dallas Morning News
http://bit.ly/1icsGm2

Nikirk named Preston Trail DAR scholarship winner
Sherman High School graduate Madeleine Nikirk plans to attend Rice.
North Texas e-News
http://bit.ly/1l6inz2

BROADCAST

Abbott’s Spanish-language TV commercial
Mark Jones, the Joseph D. Jamail Chair in Latin American Studies, professor and chair of political science and fellow in political science at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, is quoted about Greg Abbott’s Hispanic outreach.
KTRH-AM (This article also appeared on KPRC-AM.)
http://bit.ly/1oKWBnQ
http://bit.ly/1kRtBCJ
Texas Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott releases Spanish-language ad, reactions from opposition
Latin Post
http://bit.ly/1l6mRFZ
Abbott’s first statewide TV ad in race against Wendy Davis is in Spanish
San Antonio Express-News (Subscription required.)
http://bit.ly/SWevoR

KUOW-FM
Rice researchers will set off a series of underground explosions across southwest Washington to map the plumbing system beneath Mount St. Helens.
http://bit.ly/1lJQIzl
Scientists ready to study magma formation beneath Mount St. Helens
Washington.edu (This article also appeared in Phys.org and Science Daily.)
http://bit.ly/1kNZZpP

TRADE/PROFESSIONAL

Rice’s Thomann wins CAREER grant to study photocatalysis: Rice lab’s unique spectrometer will shed light on solar-powered CO2 reduction
Isabell Thomann, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, will spend five years exploring ways of using sunlight to reduce the carbon footprint of power plants, thanks to a prestigious CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation.
Nanotechnology Now
http://bit.ly/1pj8e19

Carbon nanotube film detects terahertz waves
Junichiro Kono, professor of electrical and computer engineering and of physics and astronomy, co-authored a study on terahertz detectors based on carbon nanotubes to improve medical imaging, airport passenger screening, food inspection and other applications.
Chemical and Engineering News
http://bit.ly/UQlKk3
Collaborative research team developing terahertz detectors with carbon nanotubes to potentially replace MRI technology
Dicardiology.com
http://bit.ly/1ioF8yO

Gold nanomatryoshkas kill cancer cells
Researchers at Rice and Baylor College of Medicine discovered that gold nanomatryoshkas with a diameter of 100 nanometers efficiently destroyed breast tumors in mice.
Nanotechweb.org
http://bit.ly/TauyzN

Una spugna artificiale per estrarre acqua dall’aria
Rice researchers built a device that harvests water from the air like the Namib Desert beetle. Graduate student Sehmus Ozden is quoted.
Galileonet.it (An English translation is not available.)
http://bit.ly/1uG5Tii

OTHER NEWS OF INTEREST

League celebrates at national convention
Steve Murdock, the Allyn and Gladys Cline Professor of Sociology and director of Rice’s Hobby Center for the Study of Texas, presented “Demographic Trends for the Country” at the League of Women Voters of the United States’ 51st biennial convention in Dallas.
Journal Review
http://bit.ly/1oKHpaf
League meets in Texas
The Paper
http://bit.ly/1oKS30P

Insiders sound an alarm amid a natural gas rush
Natural gas companies plan to deliver big profits and a new source of energy for the United States, despite the difficulty of extracting gas from shale formations. Kenneth Medlock III, the James A. Baker III and Susan Baker Fellow in Energy and Resource Economics and lecturer of economics, is quoted.
Axis of Logic
http://bit.ly/SWk2eW

Modi has chance to redefine Indian politics: US think tanks
Russell Green, the Will Clayton Fellow in International Economics at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and an adjunct assistant professor of economics, is quoted about India’s new prime minister.
Money Control
http://bit.ly/TayArU

Moguldom Studios to release ‘Black Church, Inc.’ June 30, a film tackling the controversial topic of financial abuse in the church
A new documentary called “Black Church, Inc.” investigates the relationship between churches and the community. Anthony Pinn, the Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities and professor of religious studies, is quoted.
MStarz.com
http://bit.ly/Tao0RL

Interview with design-duo El Ultimo Grito
Artists Rosario Hurtado and Roberto Feo are interviewed about their work. The article includes photos from the installation “Garden Object” in the Rice Gallery.
Design Boom
http://bit.ly/1nmPwV9

SPORTS

‘Stars of the class’: Dave Campbell’s magazine names Walter twins cream of the crop at Rice
Freshman Austin Walter is featured.
Baytown Sun (Subscription required.)
http://bit.ly/1rbKv4i

HS sports roundup: Bonus pool frees up money for George Ranch’s Stone Garrett
George Ranch High School outfielder Stone Garrett signed a scholarship with the Rice baseball team.
Fort Bend Herald
http://bit.ly/1iL2Wb0

UTSA student-athlete earns Conference USA postgraduate scholarship
UTSA football player Brandon Guerrero was awarded one of 15 Jim Castañeda Postgraduate Scholarships, named after the late former Rice faculty member.
UTSA
http://bit.ly/1rc4i3u

Rendon shows no mercy upon hometown team
Alumnus Anthony Rendon ’12 is featured.
Houston Chronicle
http://bit.ly/1pMerq7
Nationals rally to beat Astros 6-5
Comcast Sports Net
http://bit.ly/1lCcx9T

NEWS RELEASES

One step to solar-cell efficiency
Rice University scientists have created a one-step process for producing highly efficient materials that let the maximum amount of sunlight reach a solar cell. The Rice lab of chemist Andrew Barron found a simple way to etch nanoscale spikes into silicon that allows more than 99 percent of sunlight to reach the cells’ active elements, where it can be turned into electricity.
http://bit.ly/SWg7yU

Baker Institute expert weighs in on Mexican energy reform
Mexico’s energy reform, approved by Mexico’s Congress in December, has attracted great interest from global firms and investors and raised questions over the role of Pemex, the country’s longtime state oil and gas enterprise. According to Isidro Morales, a contributing expert and scholar in the Mexico Center at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy: Mexico was one of the very few countries in the world where a state energy monopoly prevailed in the hydrocarbon and electricity domains, and private participation was all but banned.
http://bit.ly/1pMBrFx

Rice’s Thomann wins CAREER grant to study photocatalysis
Thanks to a prestigious CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Rice scientist Isabell Thomann’s got the chance to focus her energies on a five-year quest to explore ways of using sunlight to reduce the carbon footprint of power plants.
http://bit.ly/SWfPry

New $1 million grant to fund Rice study on Houston-area urban development
A new $1 million grant from Houston Endowment Inc. will enable researchers from Rice University’s Hobby Center for the Study of Texas to embark on a three-year study of how urban development is affecting neighborhoods and residents in the Greater Houston metropolitan area, with emphasis on Harris County and the city of Houston.
http://bit.ly/1icJDfS