When Rice’s newest residential college opened its doors this week, its first students didn’t simply move into a new building. They’re helping create a community — and an identity — that will shape the college for generations.
Rice's Office of Research has bolstered its commitment to foster collaborations and educational partnerships with health-related institutions of the Texas Medical Center by hiring Becky Hall Frenkel to lead its Educational and Research Initiatives for Collaborative Health office.
Rice employees took a major step toward more efficient project management during the university’s first-ever Asana Day, an immersive training event hosted by the Operational Excellence team from the Division of Operations, Finance and Support.
Seven student startups showcased their ventures at the Summer Venture Studio Preview Day hosted by Rice University’s Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The three-month intensive program is meant to provide equity-free funding and individualized support.
To help incoming students adjust to their new life, Rice will hold its annual Orientation Week — lovingly dubbed O-Week — to become acquainted with the university and the new parliament of Owls.
Rice is a double winner in the 47th annual Telly Awards, which honor excellence in video and television. The university won a silver Telly in the Education and Discovery category for a social media series titled “Discovering Materials Science and Engineering: Engineering Solutions for a Changing World,” which followed freshmen as they were introduced to how materials shape the world in a materials science and nanoengineering course of the same name. Additionally, Rice won a bronze Telly in the Educational Institution category for a nonbroadcast campaign titled “RAMI Undergraduate Research Fellows at Rice University,” which showcases cutting-edge undergraduate research.
Rice’s Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship has selected nine student-led ventures for the 2026 Summer Venture Studio, its flagship venture-building experience designed to help ambitious founders transform breakthrough ideas into venture-scale companies. The selected teams represent industries ranging from health care and artificial intelligence to advanced manufacturing, robotics, agriculture and defense technology.
A student-founded health care startup is fixing the busiest and most overlooked part of a dental clinic: the front desk. For co-founder and Rice University junior Adhira Tippur, it all started at her mother’s clinic in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley.
June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month, and Rice, along with campus partners and affiliates, will host a variety of events throughout the month to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community, foster inclusion and awareness and promote understanding of sexual and gender diversity.
The 2026 Digital Learning Symposium, an inaugural event for Rice, brought together faculty, students and thought leaders to explore a central question shaping higher education today: How do we preserve human-centered learning in an age increasingly defined by artificial intelligence?
Legacy at Rice is not just something to look back on — it is something actively built, carried and expanded. That idea that started with a few members of the Association of Rice Black Alumni led by past ARUBA president Angela Berry Roberson came into focus during the inaugural ARUBA Weekend, a recent four-day gathering that brought together alumni, students, faculty and university leaders for reflection, reconnection and a shared vision for what comes next.
Rice conferred 270 doctoral degrees during its 113th commencement May 9 at Tudor Fieldhouse. Doctoral candidates along with friends, family and loved ones gathered for the ceremony, which included the awarding of doctoral regalia and dissertation titles, congratulatory remarks, cheers and a few moments to reflect on this milestone.
Rice’s Shared Equipment Authority celebrated 25 years of operation with a Silver Anniversary Symposium April 29 at the BioScience Research Collaborative.