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

Omicron mutations may help SARS-CoV-2 evade antibodies
Software under development at Rice University and its partners reveals mutations in the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 that may help it evade antibodies, including those from vaccinations.

To herald the second night of Hanukkah, Rice students and community members gathered Nov. 29 in the Graduate Commons courtyard by Valhalla for an evening of fellowship, song and tasty treats at the 2021 menorah-lighting ceremony.

Rice profs among historic Greek heroes
Two Rice professors are among physicians and biomedical researchers honored on the Greece bicentennial.

Welch Institute names Sir Anthony Cheetham, Kristin Persson to Scientific Advisory Board
The Welch Institute for Advanced Materials names Sir Anthony Cheetham and Professor Kristin Persson to its Scientific Advisory Board.

Rice volleyball team makes NCAA Tournament field again
The Rice volleyball team received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament and will face the University of San Diego at 4 p.m. Dec. 2 in the first round in Austin.