Current News

12 questions for Nichole Ayers, Rice’s newest astronaut

Rice alumna and fighter pilot Nichole Ayers joins NASA's astronaut corps.

NSF grant supports study of cells’ early decisions

Rice University receives National Science Foundation support to build a model of cell differentiation during the earliest stage of life. The model could help improve researchers’ ability to direct stem cells to a given fate.

Should digital advertisers be taxed on the data they collect from us?

Is it legal — or even appropriate — for governments to tax digital advertisers on the user data collected from consumers? That’s one of the many questions public policy makers must grapple with as they look for new ways to collect taxes from the digital economy, according to a new policy brief from Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

Fútbol is life

The Europeans took home the trophy in the 2021 Mini World Cup held Nov. 20

Undergrads share research on Texas slave trade

Rice undergraduates presented alongside historians and experts on the intra-American slave trade at the “Bound Away” conference Dec. 3-4

O Christmas tree

The annual Baker College freshman camping trip to cut down a Christmas tree brought home a beauty this year

Team furry friends Wiess

The final “Team Family Wiess” get-together of the semester invited Wiess College associates to bring their pets to campus.

Rice reaches second round of NCAA volleyball tourney before bowing out

The Rice volleyball team advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament last week before bowing out against the Austin Regional host, the University of Texas.

Dhamaka explodes with energy

“Through the Ages” was the theme of this year’s Dhamaka, the annual cultural showcase for the Rice South Asian Society.

People, papers and presentations for Dec. 6, 2021

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas has appointed Peter Rodriguez, dean of the Jones Graduate School of Business, to its Houston Branch board of directors, and assistant professor of chemistry Julian West has won a Thieme Chemistry Journals Award for early career synthetic chemists.

Architecture studio wins honors in Seoul

With perseverance, a Rice Architecture studio landed a top prize in the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2021.

Patents as loan collateral can help businesses meet financial needs, study shows

Patents are becoming an innovative source of collateral for businesses borrowing money, and there’s a time-critical sweet spot for lenders trying to calculate how much those patents are worth, according to new research from Rice University experts and collaborators.

Audubon project wins D2K Showcase

Students whose computer vision system can classify birds by species and count them from the air won the Data to Knowledge Lab Showcase.

Owls on ice: Wildly popular skating event draws hundreds of students to holiday blowout

Rice freshmen Anya Gu and Alice Zhou became friends over Instagram when the two new students discovered they shared a passion for ice skating. After echoing their dismay that their university did not have an ice skating club, they joined fellow freshman Imaan Patel and launched one themselves.

Microplastic pollution aids antibiotic resistance

Microplastics dispersed in the environment may enhance antibiotic resistance. A study led by Rice University found the chemical-leaching plastics draw bacteria and other vectors and make them susceptible to antibiotic resistant genes.