awards

Three from Rice elected fellows of the American Physical Society

Rice University faculty members Sibani Lisa Biswal , Kaden Hazzard and Andriy Nevidomskyy have been elected fellows of the American Physical Society.

Interdisciplinary Rice team tackles the future of semiconductors

An interdisciplinary team of Rice University scientists has won a $1.9 million National Science Foundation grant for research on materials that could serve as the basis for next-generation energy-efficient computing devices.

Rice alum Louis Brus awarded Nobel Prize in chemistry

Rice alumnus Louis Brus (’65) has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry alongside Moungi Bawendi and Alexei Ekimov for the “discovery and development of quantum dots.”

Two Rice bioengineers win NIH Director’s New Innovator awards

Rice bioengineers Jerzy Szablowski and Julea Vlassakis received the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award for their respective research projects. Szablowski’s work seeks to develop a noninvasive method of mapping gene expression, while Vlassakis is studying complex, single-cell level processes and interactions in pediatric bone cancer.

Rice sociologist elected president of Religious Research Association

Elaine Howard Ecklund, the Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences and director of Rice University’s Boniuk Institute for the Study and Advancement of Religious Tolerance, has been elected president of the Religious Research Association (RRA) for 2023-24.

NSF backs Rice processor design, chip security research

Rice computer scientists have won two grants from the National Science Foundation to explore new information processing technologies and applications that combine co-designed hardware and software to allow for more effective and efficient data stream analysis using pattern matching.

Rice graduate students win NASA Future Investigator awards

Rice graduate students Aindrila Pal and Gregory Szypko have won NASA FINESST Awards, merit-based future investigator awards that include three-year grants to conduct research in Earth and space sciences.

Preston, four others win Ig Nobel Prize for ‘necrobotic’ spider study

Mechanical Engineering’s Daniel Preston, three graduate students and a postdoctoral fellow have won a 2023 Ig Nobel Prize for their “necrobotic” robot arm that incorporated a dead spider.

Rice helps lead national quantum computing research efforts

A team of Rice University researchers have won a 4-year, $1.2 million grant from the Department of Energy to evaluate the strengths and limitations of different physical systems used to build quantum computers and inform strategies for achieving near-term advances in quantum computing.

Rice’s Mikki Hebl honored with Academy of Management’s Advancing Women in Leadership Award

​​​​​​​Michelle “Mikki” Hebl , the Martha and Henry Malcolm Lovett Professor of Psychological Sciences and professor in the Jones Graduate School of Business, is the 2023 recipient of the Advancing Women in Leadership Award from the Academy of Management (AOM).

Rice’s Jing Chen receives early career award from American Psychological Association

Jing Chen, an assistant professor of psychological sciences at Rice University specializing in human factors and human-computer interaction, has received the Earl Alluisi Early Career Achievement Award from the American Psychological Association (APA), the world’s largest association of psychologists.

Education program tackles race-based cancer health disparities

Rice U.’s Carolyn Nichol has won a competitive 5-year, $1,038,544 NIH Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) award to address race-based cancer health disparities by increasing underrepresented minority student populations’ engagement and participation in biosciences education.

Tiny, flexible spinal probe system could lead to better therapies

A $6.25 million National Institutes of Health grant supports Rice U. engineers optimizing a neural probe array that can record the activity of spinal cord neurons as bodies move and behave. Scientists would also develop an integrated data-processing and stimulation-feedback system.

Rice U.’s Kaiyu Hang wins NSF CAREER Award

Kaiyu Hang, an assistant professor of computer science at Rice University, has won a National Science Foundation CAREER Award to develop robots that can manipulate unfamiliar objects in high-uncertainty situations.

Rice’s James Pomerantz receives top honor in cognitive psychology

James Pomerantz , a professor emeritus of psychological sciences at Rice University, is a recipient of the Psychonomic Society’s Clifford T. Morgan Distinguished Leadership Award.