Rice has launched a transformational universitywide AI initiative to recruit 75 faculty members working across disciplines, invest in a new, state-of-the-art facility that advances research and industry collaboration, and expand AI-related courses and degrees, accelerating the institution’s emergence as a global leader in advanced computing and responsible AI.
The transition of the brain economy from theory to actuality is increasingly becoming a focus for Rice and its partners in Houston. Provost Amy Dittmar brought the conversation to the United Nations General Assembly and moderated a panel titled “The New Wealth of Nations: Brain Economy Leadership in Action.”
Rice continues its upward momentum in global higher education, rising two spots to No. 101 worldwide in the 2027 Times Higher Education World University Rankings released today.
Three experts from Rice will attend Brain Week at the United Nations General Assembly Sept. 21-25 to join an international conversation that reaches well beyond neuroscience and medicine.
Asha and Farid Virani Hall, a 112,000-square-foot building which now stands alongside McNair Hall, offering students a combined 300,000 square-feet designed to support the school’s expanding community of graduate and undergraduate students, faculty, researchers and alumni.
Rice President Reginald DesRoches has extended Amy Dittmar’s contract as the Howard R. Hughes Provost and executive vice president for academic affairs through the 2031 fiscal year with the support of the Rice Board of Trustees.
Rice is entering a new era of growth, fueled by record student demand, an expanding faculty and research enterprise, major investments in campus infrastructure and a growing global presence — all while introducing new programs designed to ensure that a Rice education remains accessible and deeply personalized.
Rice is once again among the nation’s leading universities, earning the No. 10 spot in Niche’s 2027 Best Colleges in America rankings while placing in the top 10 across 18 academic disciplines and university categories.
Rice has once again earned national recognition in The Princeton Review’s annual Best Colleges rankings, taking the No. 1 spot in the nation for Lots of Race/Class Interaction and placing among the country’s top colleges across measures of community, value and student experience.
Rice has received a $25 million gift from university trustee James “Jim” Whitehurst and his wife, Lauren Whitehurst, to establish the Sallyport Fellows Program, a comprehensive initiative supporting first-generation and limited-income undergraduate students throughout their Rice experience.
Rice has announced a major expansion of the Rice Investment, its signature financial aid program, offering free tuition to undergraduate students from families earning up to $200,000 annually.
Amy Dittmar brought an economist’s and higher education leader’s perspective to the Vatican for a global conversation on how health systems, labor markets and communities can be designed around human dignity.
The Brain Health for Economic Resilience Commission, convened in collaboration with Nature Medicine, was announced at the Texas Brain Economy Summit June 9–10.