Dateline Rice for June 12, 2018

Correction: Rice’s David Alexander has been named an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. Yesterday’s Dateline described his appointment incorrectly. We apologize for the error.

FEATURED ITEM

A system purely for developing high-performance, big data codes
Rice research is featured in “Headlines” on the National Science Foundation’s homepage and in the June 12 issue of the NSF’s Science 360 newsletter. Computer scientists from Rice’s DARPA-funded Pliny Project developed PlinyCompute purely for high-performance, big data codes. Jia Zou, research scientist in computer science, and Chris Jermaine, an associate professor of computer science, are quoted in ScienMag.
National Science Foundation
http://bit.ly/2JA0oEU
A system purely for developing high-performance, big data codes 
ScienMag (This article also appeared in XinhuaNet.com, Follow News, the Jersey Tribune and Semiconductor Engineering, Infosurhoy and Technology Networks.)
http://bit.ly/2y5dhSj

NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

An outspoken epidemiologist becomes US science envoy
An article reporting that University of Minnesota epidemiologist Michael Osterholm has been selected as a U.S. science envoy by the State Department notes that another recipient of this honor is Rice bioengineer and global health pioneer Rebecca Richards-Kortum. She is the Malcolm Gillis University Professor, professor of bioengineering and director of Rice 360º Institute for Global Health.
Science 
http://bit.ly/2JHn8z8
Announcement of 2018 US science envoys
U.S. Department of State
http://bit.ly/2y5Pgun

Stop pretending women in politics are inherently better
An article addressing the call for more women in politics cites research from Justin Esarey, an associate professor of political science.
New York Daily News
https://nydn.us/2MmSlJt

From column to cultural phenomenon, follow the humble beginnings and rapid growth of ‘Sex and the City’
Alumna Candace Bushnell ’80, creator of “Sex and the City,” is featured and pictured.
Toronto Star
http://bit.ly/2Mi6LKW

Mexico addresses social impact as energy reform progresses
An article quotes Tony Payan, the Françoise and Edward Djerejian Fellow for Mexico Studies at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and director of the institute’s Mexico Center, and mentions a recent symposium hosted by the institute’s Center for Energy Studies.
E&P
http://bit.ly/2Jzu4SA

How Qatar weathered the Gulf crisis
Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, fellow for the Middle East at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, is quoted in an article about how Qatar has managed to weather the disruptive impact of the diplomatic and trade embargo by neighboring Persian Gulf nations. A related article from Doha Insight quotes Ulrichsen.
Foreign Affairs
https://fam.ag/2MjWfCM
1 year after the blockade, Qatar’s economy is strong
Doha Insight
http://bit.ly/2MmEWRB

How Trump is killing America’s alliances
Brett Ashley Leeds, professor and department chair of political science, is quoted in an article about potential conflicts with U.S. allies.
Vox
http://bit.ly/2y68dx4

Mars rover’s new discoveries hailed as ‘breakthroughs in astrobiology’
NASA’s Curiosity rover recently found organic molecules, potential building blocks of life, preserved in 3.5 billion-year-old bedrock on Mars. Curiosity also confirmed sharp seasonal increases of methane in the Martian atmosphere, and researchers cannot yet rule out a biological source because most of Earth’s atmospheric methane comes from animal and plant life and the environment itself. Kirsten Siebach, assistant professor of Earth, environmental and planetary sciences, is interviewed and quoted in two radio broadcasts and two articles.
MSN (This article appeared in 30 other media outlets.)
http://bit.ly/2MjkOjz

HOUSTON/TEXAS

UH starts data science programming with the basics: What, exactly, is a data scientist?
An article mentions Rice’s $43 million investment in a data science initiative.
Houston Chronicle (Subscription is required.)
http://bit.ly/2JzzzRe
http://bit.ly/2JzOriV

Texas has 254 counties. Beto O’Rourke has campaigned against Ted Cruz in each of them
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 in an article about the effectiveness of the campaign strategy of U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-El Paso, as he seeks to unseat incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Houston, in November. Jones is quoted in a Fort Worth Star-Telegram article about how Republicans expect their candidates to dominate in the November elections as well as in an article from WOAI about the political implications of removing the confederate plaque situated in Texas’ capitol rotunda. Jones is interviewed for a television broadcast segment about the growing number of Mexicans voting while living abroad.
Texas Tribune (This article appeared in KOXE.com, GatorPress, the Longview News-Journal, CW33 and MyHighPlains.com.)
http://bit.ly/2JCMKwY
Texas Republicans: Some want to nix red light cameras, property taxes, even officials
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
http://bit.ly/2MlN7xG
‘Children of the Confederacy Creed’ a political land mine for Republicans
WOAI.iheart.com
https://ihr.fm/2JDcp8B
Aumenta número de mexicanos que votan en el extranjero
Telemundo (An English-language version is not available.)
http://bit.ly/2y4ynQy

How do you know where your donations go during disasters?
Peter Rodriguez, dean of Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business, is quoted in an article about reliable nonprofit organizations.
Houston Chronicle (Subscription is required.)
http://bit.ly/2MmZpWn

‘They just took them?’ Frantic parents separated from their kids fill courts on the border
Alumna Azalea Aleman-Bendiks ’87, an assistant federal public defender, is quoted in an article about the representation of migrants in court.
The Texas Tribune (This article appeared in 10 other media outlets.)               
http://bit.ly/2JvjwUB

Could Democrats have the ingredients for 2 big upsets in Houston?
Alumnus Todd Litton ’01 is a candidate in the Democratic primary for U.S. representative in Texas’ 2nd Congressional District.
Houston Chronicle (Subscription is required.)
http://bit.ly/2MlZ5XX
http://bit.ly/2Mmijgi

Welcome to Boomtown. This city is now the 15th-largest in the country, Census says
Steve Murdock, the Allyn and Gladys Cline Professor of Sociology and director of Rice’s Hobby Center for the Study of Texas and former U.S. Census Bureau director, is quoted in an article about the slowing growth trend of Houston’s population.
Cedarville News
http://bit.ly/2MnJOpw

Rice University to offer master’s-level courses online this fall
An article mentions that 2U Inc. will partner with Rice for business-focused online, master’s-level short courses, which are expected to launch this fall. 2U currently partners with Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business to power MBA@Rice, an online MBA program.
Houston Business Journal
http://bit.ly/2Mi84tf

Educators attend Texas School Safety Conference in Corpus Christi
An article and television broadcast mention that Juan De La Garza plans to attend Rice.
KIIITV.com
http://bit.ly/2JybOcw

I always clashed with my father; now I wish I could chat with him
The author of an article mentions that his mother attended Rice.
The Dallas Morning News
http://bit.ly/2y6xyGV

BROADCAST

New legislation gives terminally ill patients the ‘right to try’ experimental drugs
Kirstin Matthews, a fellow in science and technology policy at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, is interviewed in an episode of “Houston Matters” about the new national “right to try” law.
Houston Public Media
http://bit.ly/2JAjdb9

Fox 26 News at 7 a.m.
Richard Stoll, the Albert Thomas Chair in Political Science and scholar at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, appears in a television broadcast discussing the meeting of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump.
KRIV-TV (Houston)
http://bit.ly/2Jv8Zc0 (Click the video button to watch the broadcast.)

‘House Hunters’
Rich and Lauren Spain, former Duncan College resident associates, were featured on an episode of HGTV’s “House Hunters” that included footage of the couple on Rice’s campus.
HGTV
http://bit.ly/2MjG3lj (Click the video button to watch the broadcast.)

Classical 89.5 (Salisbury, Md.)
Alumnus Bryan Anderson ’18 and Rice’s Shepherd School of Music are mentioned.
http://bit.ly/2JDHAk9 (Click the audio button to listen to the broadcast.)

Estrés postraumático, depresión y propensión al alcoholismo: los efectos de la separación de niños de sus padres en la frontera
An article that explores the long-term effects of separating immigrant children from their parents quotes Luz Garcini, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Psychology.
Univision
http://bit.ly/2MjwwKQ (An English-language version is not available.)

TRADE/PROFESSIONAL

DIY bioprocessing system for cheap ultrahigh throughput
An article features eVolver, a high-throughput, automated cell-culturing system that can run continuously for months and grow dozens of cultures simultaneously, developed by Caleb Bashor, assistant professor of biosciences and bioengineering.
Biocompare (This article also appeared in Bioscience Technology, ScienMag and Nanowerk.)
http://bit.ly/2JIMyMQ

Organizers should have cancelled conference after to MEA barred Pakistanis: Scholars
Tani Barlow, the Ting Tsung and Wei Fung Chao Professor of History, is one of more than 600 scholars who signed a letter to the board of directors of the Association of Asian Studies expressing their dismay for the exclusion of Pakistani scholars from attending the AAS-in-Asia conference in India.
The Wire
http://bit.ly/2y5dt3R

What Netflix and net neutrality could mean for slow internet in small towns
Dan Wallach, professor of computer science and of electrical and computer engineering and a Rice Faculty Scholar at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, is quoted in an article about the necessity of the internet in today’s world and the difficulty in providing it to rural areas of the U.S.
NET 
http://bit.ly/2JExRu9

What the happiest 2-career couples are doing differently
Research from Otilia Obodaru, assistant professor of management at Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business, is cited.
INSEAD Knowledge
http://bit.ly/2y2wjc3

US scientists develop scale for measuring perovskite energy
Rice researchers were able to create a scale by which labs can determine the binding energy of excitons, and thus the band gap structures, in perovskite quantum wells of any thickness. This could in turn aid in the fundamental design of next-generation semiconductor materials. Aditya Mohite, who will join Rice faculty, is quoted.
PV Magazine International (This article also appeared in ECN, Science Daily, the Jersey Tribune and ScienMag.)
http://bit.ly/2y5fJrZ

Uber Eats has grown into Texas’ most-used food delivery app
Utpal Dholakia, the George R. Brown Professor of Marketing at Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business, is quoted in an article about Uber Eats’ growing prominence within the food delivery industry.
512Tech
http://bit.ly/2y4EXXg

Grads to watch 2018
An article mentions a collaborative internship opportunity among Rice, the American Health Alliance and Jimma University in Ethiopia.
U of T Engineering News (A similar article appeared in Ibbme.UToronto.ca.)
http://bit.ly/2MkEBPv

OTHER NEWS OF INTEREST

Houston Community Land Trust Conference
An article mentions that Rice’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research participated in the inaugural Houston Community Land Trust Conference.
Houston Defender Network
http://bit.ly/2JDlPRv

Get to know West Islip High School’s val and sal for 2018
An article mentions that Melodi Doganay plans to attend Rice.
GreaterBabylon
http://bit.ly/2JElrCq

Stow to speak on OR cleanup history
An article mentions that Steven Stow attended Rice.
Oak Ridger
http://bit.ly/2JxMlQr

Real-time info makes campus maps more high-tech than ever
An article mentions Rice’s live transit feature on the university’s interactive campus map.
eCampusNews.com
http://bit.ly/2JFn7vi

Where in Houston? Rice University!
An image of a carving from Will Rice College is featured.
Big Kid Small City
http://bit.ly/2y6ZOt2

7 fun facts about Baylor’s first gent, Brad Livingstone
An article mentions Rice volleyball player Shelby Livingstone.
BaylorProud
http://bit.ly/2JBYzDz

Como gerar bons resultados com poucos recursos
Scott Sonenshein, the Henry Gardiner Symonds Professor of Management at Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business, is cited in an article about tips to be productive even in difficult times.
Supermercado Moderno
http://bit.ly/2Mk5hzP (An English-language version is not available.)

SPORTS

Boys Tennis Players of the Year — player profiles: David Wu, Steve Chacko
Rice is mentioned.
Peoria Journal Star
http://bit.ly/2JAXSP6

Former Kelly standout drafted 92nd by MLB’s Tampa Bay Rays
Rice baseball player Ford Proctor is featured.
The Examiner (Similar articles also appeared in Tampa Bay Online and TBO.com.)
http://bit.ly/2JwLOy8

Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns agrees to home-and-home football series with Rice Owls for 2022 and 2025
Previous and future matchups between Rice football and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette are mentioned.
BoxScoreNews.com
http://bit.ly/2Jv6Flr

Randolph the first to win 4 New Jersey mid-amateurs 
Former Rice golf player Trevor Randolph is featured.
AmateurGold.com
http://bit.ly/2JvNFDo

NEWS RELEASE

Rice’s David Alexander earns UK honor
David Alexander, a Rice professor of physics and astronomy and director of the Rice Space Institute, has been named an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for his efforts to link the United States and United Kingdom in the space industry and higher education.
http://bit.ly/2JBnkjc