Alumni

Rice Owls win big at Grammy Awards

Rice historian Doug Brinkley and alumna Germaine Franco took home the gold at the 65th annual Grammy Awards Feb. 5 in Los Angeles.

Rice’s Jamie Padgett wins Texas academy’s O’Donnell Award

Rice University structural engineer Jamie Padgett has received the 2023 Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Engineering from The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas.

Inner ear has a need for speed

Rice bioengineers and applied physicists, together with and colleagues at the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois Chicago, have unlocked the mechanism of the fastest synapses in the human body. A previously hidden mechanism in the inner ear that helps mammals balance via the fastest-known signal in the brain, and researchers from Rice University, the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois Chicago have modeled a hidden mechanism in the inner ear that helps mammals balance via the fastest-known signal in the brain.

People, papers and presentations for Dec. 19, 2022

Minjae Kim, assistant professor of management in organizational behavior at the Jones Graduate School of Business, was ranked one of 2022’s 50 best undergraduate business professors by Poets and Quants.

Rice alumna, astronaut Shannon Walker honored as namesake of new library

Houston city leaders broke ground Oct. 14 on the Dr. Shannon Walker Neighborhood Library, named after the three-time Rice graduate and NASA astronaut who has flown two missions aboard the International Space Station.

Owl Together 2022 — celebrating Rice’s past with an eye to the future

This year’s Owl Together festivities kicked off with the annual Rice Faculty Keynote Lecture Oct. 28. Douglas Brinkley, the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Professor in Humanities and author of “American Moonshot,” spoke to alumni in Tudor Fieldhouse about John F. Kennedy and the race to space of the 1960s, just a few weeks after the 60th anniversary of JFK’s famous speech at Rice Stadium in 1962.

Hispanic alumni celebrate 50 years of tradition at Rice University

The Hispanic Association for Cultural Enrichment at Rice (HACER) is commemorating its 50th anniversary with a gala at the River Oaks Country Club Nov. 5.

Rice U. alums share Fortune 500 experience during ‘Pioneers of Innovation’ chat

Two Rice alums were welcomed back to campus last week by Rice University’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at “Pioneers of Innovation: A Fireside Chat.” Maxfield and Walter Loewenstern ’58 ’59 engaged in a discussion moderated by Edward Knightly, the Sheafor-Lindsay Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a professor of computer science.

Remembering Charles Duncan Jr. ’47, former board chair, namesake of Duncan College

Charles Duncan Jr. ’47, whose graduation from Rice University foreshadowed a long career as an executive and director at major American corporations and a cabinet secretary serving the nation’s president, died Tuesday at age 96.

In first matriculation address, DesRoches encourages Class of 2026 to expand horizons

An eventful first day of O-Week for Rice’s Class of 2026 was capped off with yet another annual Rice tradition — the matriculation ceremony and accompanying slate of speeches that signal the official beginning of incoming students’ new lives as members of the Rice community.

Rice, TSU, Prairie View unite for Juneteenth event

Rice hosted a celebration of Juneteenth with a series of panels exploring ideas and questions relevant to the holiday.

Rice names James Hurley assistant vice president of alumni relations

James Hurley will join Rice’s Office of Development and Alumni Relations (DAR) as its assistant vice president of alumni relations. He will assume his new role Aug. 1.

Spinning is key for line-dancing electrons in iron selenide

Quantum physicists at Rice have helped answer an important question at the forefront of research into superconductivity.

Rice360 honors Virginia Sall ’71 with Global Champion Award

Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies honored Rice alumnae Virginia Sall and Dr. Tara Barry on May 6.

Casbarian, Doty, Leebron and Sun receive ARA’s Gold Medal at 2022 Laureates Awards

At the Association of Rice Alumni’s 2022 Laureates Awards ceremony May 7, the group bestowed its highest honor — the Gold Medal Award — to Rice Architecture’s John Casbarian ’69 ’72 and Janice Doty ’60. Rice President David Leebron and wife Y. Ping Sun were also awarded the ARA’s Gold Medal for their 18 years of service to the university.