News Releases

A new wearable removes the guesswork from breastfeeding

While breastfeeding offers numerous benefits for both mother and baby, one challenge has persisted: It’s nearly impossible to know how much milk a baby is consuming.

Rice engineers tackle sunlight intermittency in solar desalination

A team of Rice engineers has developed a system that could transform desalination practices, making the process more adaptable, resilient and cheaper. The new system is powered by sunlight and uses a creative approach to heat recovery for extended water production ⎯ with and without sunshine.

2 Rice scholars earn Pulitzer Prizes

Two members of the Rice community, one current student and one alumna, are among the 2025 Pulitzer Prize winners recently announced, recognized for their powerful contributions to public service journalism.

About time: Rice researcher exploring how seasonal rhythms shape the hidden web of life

Volker Rudolf, a professor of biosciences at Rice, is investigating just how powerful seasonal rhythms, known as phenologies, can be.

Pasquali named fellow of The Society of Rheology

Rice’s Matteo Pasquali has been elected a fellow of The Society of Rheology (SoR).

Kinder Houston Area Survey to be released May 19 at annual luncheon

Findings from the 2025 Kinder Houston Area Survey, the nation’s longest-running metropolitan study of its kind, will be released May 19.

A night to remember: Rice celebrates the undergraduate Class of 2025

Rice conferred more than 2,900 degrees to its newest graduates — the most in the university’s history — during its 112th commencement weekend held May 9-10.

Rice University celebrates largest graduating class in history

Rice awarded more than 2,900 degrees to its newest graduates — the most in the university’s history — during its 112th commencement weekend, held May 9–10.

‘A new chapter’: Rice breaks ground on Moody Center Complex for Student Life

Rice marked a major milestone with the groundbreaking of the Moody Center Complex for Student Life, a bold step toward enhancing the student experience through connection, engagement and growth.

Machine learning powers new approach to detecting soil contaminants

A team of researchers at Rice and Baylor College of Medicine has developed a new strategy for identifying hazardous pollutants in soil ⎯ even ones that have never been isolated or studied in a lab.

‘Deeply meaningful’: Rice President Reginald DesRoches named ASCE distinguished member

Rice President Reginald DesRoches, a nationally recognized leader in resilient infrastructure and engineering education, has been elected to the 2025 class of distinguished members of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

Rice to host 2025 Carbon Hub Annual Meeting

Rice will host the 2025 Carbon Hub Annual Meeting May 12-13, marking the fifth anniversary of the Rice-led coalition of academia, industry and federal labs working to advance industrial decarbonization, electrification and hydrogen production.

Persona AI expands in the Ion as Rice and Ion District support growth of AI innovation

Persona AI, the Houston-based humanoid robotics startup that recently closed $25 million in pre-seed funding, is significantly expanding its operations at the Ion, the Houston innovation hub powered by Rice.

OwlSpark announces students, alumni and staff selected for its 13th cohort

OwlSpark, Rice’s startup and small business accelerator for Rice-affiliated ventures, brings together 11 companies in the program’s 13th year who represent a new wave of entrepreneurs tackling challenges across technology, consumer products, health care and more. Since 2013, the accelerator has supported 229 founders and launched 104 ventures with participants collectively raising more than $116 million in funding.

New roadmap advances catalytic solutions to destroy ‘forever chemicals’

A team of researchers from Rice, Carnegie Mellon University and other leading global institutions has outlined a bold new roadmap for harnessing heterogeneous catalysis to destroy per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), the so-called “forever chemicals” that have contaminated water supplies worldwide.