Nonsurgical treatment shows promise for targeted seizure control
Rice bioengineers have demonstrated a nonsurgical way to quiet a seizure-relevant brain circuit using a method that merges ultrasound, gene therapy and chemogenetics.
Rice’s Pedro J.J. Alvarez, a world leader in environmental nanotechnology and water sustainability, has been awarded the 2026 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Civil Engineering, one of the oldest and most prestigious science and engineering honors in the United States.
Maria Elena Bottazzi, an internationally recognized vaccine scientist and advocate for equitable access to global health innovations, delivered the Oct. 21 lecture in the Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies seminar series.
New recharge-to-recycle reactor turns battery waste into new lithium feedstock
A team of engineers at Rice has developed a cleaner approach to lithium recycling by recharging the waste cathode materials to coax out lithium ions into water.
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 researchers weigh in on graphite’s rise to critical mineral status, mapping out trajectories toward more resilient, clean and efficient supply practices and 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.
Rice brings together leading researchers to accelerate next-generation microelectronics
The Rice Advanced Materials Institute (RAMI) hosted a signature workshop centered on advanced microelectronics and photonics materials Nov. 3-4.
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.
Rice is partnering with researchers at the University of Washington, Columbia University and Louisiana State University on a $2 million award from the National Science Foundation to revolutionize how materials and microrobots can be designed, controlled and applied in real-world environments.
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.
Innovation for Healthcare Access Conference inspires new partnerships for sustainable change
At the 2025 Innovation for Healthcare Access Conference, held Oct. 27-28 at Rice, leaders from academia, medicine, public health and policy converged to tackle one of the most urgent challenges in health care: how to ensure that innovations not only reach the communities that need them most but also endure long after the pilot projects end.
Rice mechanical engineers turning everyday fabrics into new channel of communication
When Rice doctoral candidate Barclay Jumet first launched a high school business designing, making and selling bow ties — learning to sew on his mother’s college sewing machine — he never imagined that same skill set would one day help him reinvent how people communicate.
AI-powered alerts may cut kidney complications after heart surgery
A new collaboration between Rice and Baylor College of Medicine is using artificial intelligence to alert clinicians to early signs of kidney trouble giving them critical time to intervene before lasting damage occurs.
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.