How AI can help detect disease and accelerate medical breakthroughs
As artificial intelligence plays an increasingly prominent role in decoding DNA, tracking pathogens and accelerating drug discovery, the line between real capability and hype can be unclear. Rice experts can provide clear, technically grounded perspectives on how these tools are meaningfully advancing disease detection, public health preparedness and treatment design.
Rice convenes global researchers to advance understanding of quantum geometry in materials
The Rice Center for Quantum Materials hosted a Workshop on Quantum Geometry and Winter School on Quantum Materials Synthesis, bringing together more than 100 researchers, students and scientific leaders from around the world.
Engineered randomness enhances connection speed and precision in next-generation wireless systems
Rice researchers and collaborators have developed a way to generate and control radio wave patterns that can identify a signal’s direction about ten times better than existing approaches, paving the way for next-generation wireless systems.
Rice and Houston Methodist researchers to study brain-implant interface with Dunn Foundation award
A team of researchers from Rice and the Houston Methodist Research Institute has received a John S. Dunn Foundation Collaborative Research Award through the Gulf Coast Consortia to study how the brain responds over time to neural implants.
Kono awarded American Physical Society’s Isakson Prize
Rice applied physicist Junichiro Kono has been awarded the American Physical Society’s 2026 Frank Isakson Prize for Optical Effects in Solids.
Study shows light can reshape atom-thin semiconductors for next-generation optical devices
Rice researchers studying a class of atom-thin semiconductors known as transition metal dichalcogenides have discovered that light can trigger a physical shift in their atomic lattice, creating a tunable way to adjust the materials’ behavior and properties.
Rice launches Brain Institute to accelerate discoveries in brain science and health
Rice has announced the creation of the Rice Brain Institute, an ambitious, interdisciplinary hub that unites faculty members across campus, including engineering, natural sciences and social sciences, to tackle one of humanity’s most complex and promising frontiers: the brain.
Collaboration without borders: Rice-PSL fund opens doors for faculty across campus
The PSL Global Seed Fund operates less like a grant program and more like a catalyst sparking collaborations that bridge disciplines and extend Rice’s reach across continents.
Richards-Kortum elected to the National Academy of Medicine
Rice's Rebecca Richards-Kortum has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), one of the nation’s highest honors in health and medicine. She is one of two Rice faculty who are the only Texas researchers to share membership across the national academies of medicine, science and engineering — an honor held by fewer than 35 researchers nationwide.
Rice, Houston Methodist developing soft ‘sleep cap’ to advance dementia prevention research
Rice researchers are working with physician scientists at Houston Methodist to develop a soft, wearable “sleep cap” designed to measure and improve deep sleep, a process critical for protecting the brain against dementia and related diseases.
Exploring links between AI and the brain as Texas weighs Proposition 14
LLMs and the Brain, a symposium featuring researchers from Rice, Baylor College of Medicine, the University of Texas, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Montreal and other institutions explored the intersection between neuroscience and AI. The conversation around brain research extends beyond the university and is unfolding at the state level. On Nov. 4, Texas voters will decide on Proposition 14, which would fund the Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (DPRIT) with $3 billion over 10 years, creating the largest state-funded dementia research program in the country.
New AI tool makes medical imaging process 90% more efficient
Rice researchers developed an AI tool that makes a medical imaging process 90% more efficient.
Rice faculty recognized for national awards in inaugural ceremony
President Reginald DesRoches and Provost Amy Dittmar welcomed winners of highly prestigious and prestigious awards to the Brockman Hall for Opera to celebrate Rice faculty excellence. On Oct. 6, Rice honored those faculty who have earned prestigious and highly prestigious awards, defined as such by the Organization of the National Research Council and the Association of American Universities.
Q&A: How Rice and Houston Methodist are building the future of digital health
Ahead of the Houston Methodist-Rice University Digital Health Institute Summit Oct.8, Rice News spoke with institute leadership about the institute’s vision, its distinctive assets and the opportunities it opens for the future of health care.
Scientists uncover room-temperature route to improved light-harvesting and emission devices
A team of researchers from Rice and collaborators have found a way to make two different phonons in thin films of lead halide perovskite interact with light so strongly that they merge into entirely new hybrid states of matter.
