Undergraduate researchers showcase a summer of discovery
Rice’s 2026 class of summer undergraduate researchers gathered at the BioScience Research Collaborative last week for the Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium, hosted by the Office of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry.
Scientists uncover new clue to how protons maintain their identity
New results from the STAR detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) suggest that gluons, the gluelike particles that hold quarks together inside protons, play a central role in the conservation of baryon number, an essential part of a particle’s quantum identity.
Rice professor advises computational chemistry researchers to prepare for new AI tools
David Sholl, Rice’s executive vice president for research and professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, recently published an opinion piece in ACS Central Science, where he and co-author Andrew Medford, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, share their perspective on machine learning tools expected to bring radical changes to the field of computational chemistry.
Rice launches SCOPE, a new science communication center
The Center for Science Communication and Public Engagement (SCOPE) is now open at Rice.
Rice researchers discover new way to tune electron flow in altermagnet material
Rice’s Pengcheng Dai recently published a paper in Physical Review X describing the first successful efforts to put a proposed altermagnet material into a single magnetic domain state, allowing the research team to characterize the material’s intrinsic magnetic structure.
A small squeeze reveals new clues about an unusual kind of magnet
Researchers at Rice have found that gently squeezing a crystal of iron sulfide can change two of its unusual properties at the same time: its tiny magnetic signal and the way electricity moves through it.
Rice lab develops new technique for rapid production of advanced materials
Rice professor James Tour developed an ultrafast method for producing MXenes.
Rice and TMC partners secure climate health consortium grant to face climate change and human health
A team of climate and environmental scientists, educators, epidemiologists and infectious disease researchers from Rice University, Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas School of Public Health has been awarded the inaugural Burroughs Wellcome Fund’s Climate + Health Excellence award, an initiative designed to strengthen research, education and public engagement related to climate change and human health.
New controls allow researchers to incorporate thermal effects in quantum simulation
Rice physicist Guido Pagano unveiled a new, two-knob control for a trapped-ion quantum simulator that allows individual control of temperature and dissipation.
Shedding light on new type of magnetism in quantum materials
Rice's Ming Yi recently showed that the quantum material ruthenium dioxide potentially displays this new altermagnetism in its ultrathin film form in which the material is prepared as a very thin slice only a few atomic layers thick.
Humans to Mars and Moon Summit held at Rice
The 2026 Humans to Mars and the Moon Summit (H2M2), hosted by the nonprofit Explore Mars, was recently held at Rice’s BioScience Research Collaborative.
‘Experience like no other’: Rice professor serves as program chair for Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting
Rice professor Pernilla Wittung Stafshede recently served as a co-organizer of the 75th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, where she co-represented the field of chemistry.
New method opens cheaper pathways to increased drug stability
Hans Renata’s team recently developed a method that significantly reduces the cost of adding thiophosphate to chemical structures, opening up new pathways for drug design.
Rice spinout company receives Small Business Innovation Research award
LumiStrain, a Rice spinout commercializing a Strain Sensing Smart Skin (S4) for structural testing and health monitoring, has received a $1.55 million award through the National Science Foundation’s Small Business Innovation Research Fast-Track program.
New mechanoresistant cancer cells show how they survive high stress environments
Rice bioengineer Michael King and his team recently published a paper demonstrating that this ability to survive high-stress environments, or mechanoresistance, can be induced in prostate cancer cells.
