Dateline Rice for April 13, 2017

FEATURED ITEM

Today’s must-reads for entrepreneurs: Winning big at Rice Business Plan Competition
Forest Devices from Carnegie Mellon University emerged as the top startup company April 8 in the 2017 Rice Business Plan Competition hosted by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship and Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business.
Forbes
http://bit.ly/2oaAurT

NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

Synthetic biologists engineer inflammation-sensing gut bacteria
Synthetic biologists at Rice have engineered gut bacteria capable of sensing colitis, an inflammation of the colon, in mice. The research points the way to new experiments for studying how gut bacteria and human hosts interact at a molecular level and could eventually lead to orally ingestible bacteria for monitoring gut health and disease. Jeffrey Tabor, assistant professor of bioengineering, postdoctoral research associate Kristina Daeffler and alumnus Ravi Sheth ’15 are mentioned.
National Science Foundation (This also appeared in Laboratory Equipment.)
http://bit.ly/2nIioCn

For a German medical device startup, the road to being acquired went through Houston
Adhesys Medical, which won the Rice Business Plan Competition in 2014, has also been purchased by a German pharmaceutical firm.
Forbes
http://bit.ly/2p0zbRh

Rusia tomaría el control de una petrolera de EE.UU. por culpa de Venezuela
Francisco Monaldi, a fellow in Latin American energy policy at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, is quoted.
CNN (An English translation is not available.)
http://cnn.it/2oaJgWV

Can loneliness make your cold symptoms worse?
Suffering through a cold is annoying enough, but if you’re lonely, you’re likely to feel even worse, according to Rice researchers. Chris Fagundes, assistant professor of psychology, and graduate student Angie LeRoy are quoted.
Women’s Health
http://bit.ly/2oCW1NK

HOUSTON/TEXAS

Judge pushes Paxton’s trial date into heart of election season
Mark Jones, the Joseph D. Jamail Chair in Latin American Studies, professor of political science, fellow in political science at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and fellow at Rice’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research, is quoted about Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s upcoming trial and “bathroom bills.”
Houston Chronicle (Subscription required.)
http://bit.ly/2p0jJEA
1st Paxton trial set for Sept. 12 in Houston
Houston Chronicle (This also appeared in San Antonio Express-News, LMT Online and My San Antonio.)
http://bit.ly/2ovnEbj
‘Bathroom Bills’ beyond North Carolina: Here’s where 10 other states stand on public school legislation
The 74
http://bit.ly/2o9bL81

OPEC cuts, and the oil market shrugs
Jim Krane, the Wallace S. Wilson Fellow for Energy Studies at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, is quoted.
Houston Chronicle (Subscription required.)
http://bit.ly/2ov6x9w

Thursday letters: Tattoo policy, political power, the READ Act
Rice will replace the title “college master” with “college magister” at the beginning of academic year 2017-18
KTRK
http://bit.ly/2ovtwRO
Rice University is changing how officials are addressed because of this insane reason
Patheos
http://bit.ly/2oqOhfI

Gallery and museum listing: April 13-19
Rice’s Moody Center for the Arts will present Olafur Eliasson’s “Green Light — An Artistic Workshop” through May 6; Thomas Struth’s “Nature & Politics” through May 29; and teamLab’s “Flower’s and People, Cannot Be Controlled But Live Together — A Whole Year Per Hour” through Aug. 13. Rice Gallery will present Sol LeWitt’s “Glossy and Flat Black Squares” until May 14.
Houston Chronicle (Subscription required. This also appeared in My San Antonio.)
http://bit.ly/2oA5iq0
http://bit.ly/2o7rIuV

Pollution and possibility on the Ship Channel
Hanszen College senior Geneva Vest authored an op-ed about the Houston Ship Channel.
Houston Chronicle (Subscription required. This appeared in the Chronicle’s “Gray Matters” online magazine. This also appeared in the April 13 print edition.)
http://bit.ly/2o7tpIv

Houston writer Donald Barthelme was mastermind behind ‘Snow White’
An article mentions that Donald Barthelme taught at Rice.
Houston Chronicle (Subscription required.)
http://bit.ly/2otNlZC
http://bit.ly/2o7zyo5

Stage is set for experimental art to shine at CounterCurrent 17
Rice’s Moody Center for the Arts is mentioned.
Houston Chronicle (Subscription required. This also appeared in My San Antonio.)
http://bit.ly/2otQ71f
http://bit.ly/2nFQk2A

Harris County officials push to name courthouse in Baytown after Clint Greenwood
Harris County officials are pushing to name a courthouse annex in Baytown for Clint Greenwood ’83, who was killed April 3 in the line of duty as an assistant chief deputy constable for Precinct 3 in Harris County.
Houston Chronicle (Subscription required. This also appeared in My San Antonio and LMT Online.)
http://bit.ly/2puNPfY
http://bit.ly/2oYSUAM

What’s showing outside the megaplex?
Rice Cinema will show “La Nube,” “Velas” and “Nadie” April 14.
Houston Chronicle (Subscription required.)
http://bit.ly/2o7sCYm
http://bit.ly/2puUJll

BROADCAST

Rice students help NASA with human-robot interactions
A group of Rice students has created a convincing lookalike of NASA’s humanoid robots Valkyrie and Robonaut that the agency can use to easily assess human-robot interactions and help future astronauts develop everyday protocols with their artificial helpers on missions to Mars and beyond. Jane Grande-Allen, professor of bioengineering, and undergraduate students Rebecca Francis, Pedro Lozano, Pedro Regino, Christina Rincon and Grant Wilkinson are mentioned.
KHOU
http://bit.ly/2oCKyxY
http://bit.ly/2oCZyLX (Similar broadcasts aired on WUSA, KVUE, KIDY, KXVA and KYTX.)

KTRH
Joe Barnes, the Bonner Means Baker Fellow at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, discusses the relationship between the U.S. and Russia.
http://bit.ly/2p0Eq3z (Click on the audio button to listen to the broadcast.) 

New push made for safety along METRO’s light rail
An article mentions that Marjorie Corcoran, a professor of physics and astronomy who was killed Feb. 3 in a train-cyclist accident.
KPRC
http://bit.ly/2p0DGvl
http://bit.ly/2p0vaw6

KSAN (NBC)
A broadcast features Rice as the hardest college to get accepted into in Texas.
http://bit.ly/2pagpqn
KAVU (ABC)
http://bit.ly/2pxucUh

TRADE/PROFESSIONAL

Baraniuk elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Richard Baraniuk, the Victor E. Cameron Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He also has won a five-year fellowship from the U.S. Department of Defense, valued at up to $3 million for “blue sky” basic research that could produce new technologies.
Scienmag
http://bit.ly/2ovmaxO
Baraniuk receives DoD Bush Fellowship
Photonics Media
http://bit.ly/2oqYHfw

Bioprinting and tissue regeneration in focus: Center for Engineering Complex Tissues opens this weekend, thanks to NIH Grant
Bioengineers at Rice, the University of Maryland and Wake Forest University have received a $6.25 million National Institutes of Health grant to establish the Center for Engineering Complex Tissues (CECT). Antonios Mikos, the Louis Calder Professor of Bioengineering and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, professor of materials science and nanoengineering and director of the CECT, is mentioned.
3D Print
http://bit.ly/2p0wC1B
University of Maryland will be a research center for 3-D bioprinting
Technical.ly (This also appeared in CityBizList Baltimore and CityBizList.)
http://bit.ly/2pctxIt

How some battery materials expand without cracking
A team of researchers at Rice, MIT, the University of Southern Denmark and Argonne National Laboratory has figured out the secret to why fairly brittle electrode materials don’t crack under the strain of expansion and contraction cycles. Postdoctoral research associate Liang Hong and Ming Tang, assistant professor of materials science and nanoengineering, are mentioned.
iConnect007 (This also appeared in Science & Technology Research News, Scienmag and Health Medicine Network.)
http://bit.ly/2nIrYoL
Solving the mystery of how battery materials expand without cracking
Solar Thermal Magazine
http://bit.ly/2o9oS9x

Sky’s the limit for ‘fuzzy fibers’
To stand up to the heat and pressure of next-generation rocket engines, the composite fibers used to make them should be fuzzy. A Rice laboratory, in collaboration with NASA, has developed “fuzzy fibers” of silicon carbide that act like Velcro and stand up to the punishment that materials experience in aerospace applications. Pulickel Ajayan, the Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson Professor in Engineering and founding chair of the Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering, graduate student Amelia Hartand postdoctoral research associate Chandra Sekhar Tiwary are quoted.
Materials Today
http://bit.ly/2oqZ0Xx

Rice U. team cultivates indoor garden
A team at Rice, cleverly named Lettuce Turnip the Beet, has designed a produce cultivation machine — a hydroponic garden that grows plants without soil. Instead, a pump recirculates 55 gallons of water through tiers of PVC pipe, using little energy and no waste to grow lettuce, garlic and other vegetables. Undergraduate students Sanjiv Gopalkrishnan, Dominique Schaefer Pipps, Jared Broadman, and George Dawson are mentioned.
Precision Agwired
http://bit.ly/2pcCUbj

The effects of good looks on professional success: It’s complicated
Alumna Stefanie Johnson ’02 co-authored an op-ed about attractiveness in the workplace.
LSE
http://bit.ly/2o9muzC

Don Lincoln wins 2017 Gemant Award from AIP
Alumnus Don Lincoln ’90 won the 2017 Andrew Gemant Award, an annual prize recognizing significant contributions to the cultural, artistic or humanistic dimension of physics.
Bioengineer.org
http://bit.ly/2pcB2iE

Proton-nuclei smashups yield clues about ‘quark gluon plasma’
Findings from Rice physicists working at Europe’s Large Hadron Collider are providing new insight about an exotic state of matter called the “quark-gluon plasma” that occurs when protons and neutrons melt. Wei Li, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, and graduate student Kong Tu are mentioned.
Space Daily
http://bit.ly/2pcuPDw

OTHER NEWS OF INTEREST

What is nanomedicine? What are the applications of nanomedicine in the field of medicine or health
The late Richard Smalley is mentioned.
Hubmesh
http://bit.ly/2oCVdbM

LeTendre new historian at Museum of the Islands
An article mentions that Dennis LeTendre attended classes at Rice.
Pine Island-Eagle
http://bit.ly/2p0nZUS

Symphoria to perform at Smith Opera House
Jon Kimura Parker, professor of piano at the Shepherd School of Music, is mentioned.
Gates-Chili Post (This also appeared in Fairport-East Rochester Post and Daily Messenger.)
http://bit.ly/2o9so3D

Check out the lineup for the 4th annual Beyond the Professoriate
Rice is mentioned.
University Affairs
http://bit.ly/2pcrgx4

SPORTS

Rice athletics unveils new branding elements
Rice athletics unveiled new branding standard April 11. Rice Athletics Director Joe Karlgaard is quoted.
CBS Houston
http://cbsloc.al/2p9ZNz5
Check out Rice’s new look, which features a blend of the past and the future
Texas HS Football
http://bit.ly/2oawkAw
Rice unveils new Owl-centric logos, because owls are awesome
MSN Sports
http://bit.ly/2oD0al0

Video: James Harden’s high school coach discusses using hamburgers to get him to free-throw line
Rice men’s basketball head coach Scott Pera discusses coaching James Harden.
USA Today
http://bit.ly/2pcrIeU

Rice adds Alec Spence as basketball signing period opens
A Rice commit is mentioned. Rice men’s basketball head coach Scott Pera is quoted in the Houston Chronicle story.
Houston Chronicle (Subscription required.)
http://bit.ly/2oCOj6m
http://bit.ly/2p0nKsK
WJBF scholar athlete: Aiken’s Frelicia Tucker
WJBF
http://bit.ly/2oaAFDq
http://bit.ly/2pa9opi
http://bit.ly/2parjwm

5 things to expect during this year’s spring game
Assistant football coach Brian Stewart is mentioned.
Daily Nebraskan
http://bit.ly/2oCGQ7p

2 JMU men’s basketball players leave program
An article includes a photo from a Rice men’s basketball game.
The Breeze
http://bit.ly/2o95hpQ

Nibert resigns
Articles mention that Gregg Nibert and Louis Reynaud coached at Rice.
MyClintonNews.com
http://bit.ly/2pcBEoL
UCSB’s Joe Pasternack hires Louis Reynaud as basketball assistant coach
Noozhawk
http://bit.ly/2o9bVN0
Louis Reynaud named assistant basketball coach at UC Santa Barbara
Hoop Dirt
http://bit.ly/2oaBk83

Coach known for memorable quotes, speeches
Rice football is mentioned.
Daily Toreador
http://bit.ly/2pxbyw2
HP sports in depth: UTEP football to host spring game Friday
El Paso Herald-Post
http://bit.ly/2ovmSLp
Watch: Skip Bayless calls Myles Garrett potential ‘bust,’ would take Deshaun Watson No. 1 overall
SEC Country
http://sec.news/2o9ujFx

Putting it all together
Rice baseball is mentioned.
The Battalion
http://bit.ly/2oaNBt4
And the valley projects: March 12
And the Valley Shook!
http://bit.ly/2nIvu2y
McCann continues to rewrite his story at Texas
Daily Texan
http://bit.ly/2oqXy7A

Bailey Williams looks back on the season and her career
Rice women’s basketball is mentioned.
The Carolinian
http://bit.ly/2ovqcGc

Florida guard Eric Hester has decided to transfer
An article mentions Rice men’s basketball players who have announced intentions to transfer.
Scout
http://foxs.pt/2oCUuXW

Ole Miss sweeps season series from USM
Rice baseball will face the University Southern Mississippi April 14-16.
WAFB (This also appeared in WTVM, WSFA and WMC5.)
http://bit.ly/2pcMJ9l

Sports stars spotted playing a different sport
A slideshow includes a photo from a Rice football game.
MSN News
http://bit.ly/2or1C7T

NEWS RELEASES

Robot costume with a cause
It sounds easy: Build a robot costume that the wearer can use to convince someone the robot is real. But the task wasn’t so simple. A team of Rice University freshmen calling themselves NotBot took on the challenge and created a contraption they hope will suit NASA. The agency asked them for a convincing lookalike of its humanoid robots Valkyrie and Robonaut that it can use to easily assess human-robot interactions and help future astronauts develop everyday protocols with their artificial helpers on missions to Mars and beyond.
http://bit.ly/2p0yuYj

Simplest vision demo? The Eyes have it
A set of snap-together glasses designed by students at Rice University lets people with diabetes see into the future and know that without proper care, the future does not look good. The educational tool developed by the Eye See You See team will help doctors show patients how their vision could deteriorate over time due to diabetic retinopathy, an eye disease that can result from uncontrolled diabetes and lead to blindness. They hope the tool will encourage patients to follow their doctors’ protocols.
http://bit.ly/2ovANRp