Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy has received a landmark $7.5 million gift from entrepreneur Claudio X. González, the largest individual contribution in the institute’s 32-year history. The gift endows and renames the institute’s leading research hub on U.S. and Mexico relations as the Claudio X. González Center for the United States and Mexico. The naming honors González’s long-standing leadership and generosity in promoting collaboration, understanding and shared prosperity across North America.
The Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (LILIE) at Rice has, over the past decade, become one of the country’s leading academic incubators, launching an array of inventive global ventures born in the Bayou City.
More than 600 investors, entrepreneurs and industry leaders gathered at Rice Business Nov. 11 for the 14th annual Texas Life Science Forum, co-hosted by BioHouston and the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship. The event highlighted Houston’s growing leadership in life science innovation, commercialization and venture investment.
The Rice Business School at has secured the No. 1 ranking in graduate entrepreneurship education for the seventh year in a row, as named by The Princeton Review in partnership with Entrepreneur magazine. This sustained leadership reflects the school’s enduring commitment to innovation, venture creation and the cultivation of an entrepreneurial environment to build talent.
The Financial Management Association International (FMA) has selected Rice Business professor Kerry Back as the recipient of its Innovation in Teaching Award. The honor recognizes outstanding teaching techniques in finance, emphasizing innovation, broad transferability and measurable impact on students, institutions and the profession.
The Virani Undergraduate School of Business at Rice celebrated its one-year anniversary on October 29, with coffee and breakfast for its students as they made their way to class. The undergraduate program is named after Houston business and community leaders Farid and Asha Virani ’89 thanks to their historic gift in 2024.
Now in its 26th year, the Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC) presented by Rice Business has officially opened applications and is calling on the next generation of world-changing graduate student founders to compete on the global stage. This is where tomorrow’s industry leaders get their start.
The Center for the United States and Mexico at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy has released its Mexico Country Outlook 2026, an annual forecast examining the major political, economic and social trends shaping Mexico in the year ahead. The data can provide a strategic edge to investors, businesses and policymakers as they navigate Mexico’s complex, ever-evolving political and regulatory landscape.
Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and The Carter Center will co-host their fifth annual elections conference, “25 Years After Bush v. Gore: Contested Elections Then and Now,” Dec. 8 at Rice in Houston.
The latest edition of the President’s Lecture Series brought Astro Teller and Rice alumnus Andy Karsner ’89 to the Rice Business Shell Auditorium to speak about technology and innovation for today’s challenges.
Ion District announced its next round of site-specific window art installations. Created by Houston-based artists Luisa Duarte and Joel Zika, the new installations were unveiled by the artists Oct. 29 during a public event hosted by the Ion and Piper Faust Public Art at Second Draught.
The 10th annual Sparking Success Conference is set for Oct. 31, when attendees can experience a forum full of industry professionals, leaders and experts to network and learn important skills in the ever-changing world of business.
Peter Rodriguez, the Houston Endowment Dean of the Jones Graduate School of Business and the Virani Undergraduate School of Business at Rice, has been named the 2025 Poets&Quants Dean of the Year, a national honor recognizing visionary leadership and outstanding contributions to business education.
Representatives from the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, Earth Carbon and the nonprofit BCarbon met at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy last month to sign a memorandum of understanding recognizing their collaboration in carbon sequestration. Since then, Since then, in accord with an MOU between BCarbon and Rice, the team has been in Mexico meeting with stakeholders and changemakers to create a carbon market that benefits the community.
Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy has named Dr. Heidi Russell as the director of the Center for Health Policy. She is also appointed as the L.E. and Virginia Simmons Senior Fellow in Health Policy and the Huffington Fellow in Child Health Policy. She will step into these roles at the Baker Institute Oct. 13.
