Rice research helps power safe return of astronauts in historic Orion splashdown
When NASA’s Orion capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean April 10, a critical piece of the spacecraft’s safe return traced back to research at Rice.
Rice bioengineer to lead national organization, advocate for research funding on Capitol Hill
The Rice bioengineering department helped host the annual meeting of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, where two Rice faculty were inducted as Fellows and Michael King stepped in as president.
Rice researchers redefine what we can build by 3D printing electronics with focused microwaves
In a recently published paper in Science Advances, a team led by Rice’s Yong Lin Kong describes a new 3D-printing process with focused microwaves that overcomes a fundamental constraint of electronics 3D printing.
Rice alumna plays key role in NASA’s Artemis II lunar mission
As NASA’s Artemis II mission marks a historic return to crewed lunar flight, a Rice alumna is helping monitor the spacecraft in real time from the ground.
Rice spinoff Helix Earth raises $12M to tackle energy efficiency in commercial buildings
A Houston-based energy technology startup with roots at Rice has secured a major funding milestone, underscoring the growing impact of Rice-driven innovation in the clean energy industry.
5 Rice researchers elected AAAS fellows
Five Rice professors, Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede, Volker Rudolf, Edward Knightly, Marcia O’Malley and Ed Billups, have been elected as fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Rice develops low-cost, high-performance plastic heat exchanger
A recent study in Advanced Science reports an innovative, low-cost polymer heat exchanger that could transform how industries manage heat.
Carbon nanotube fiber ‘textile’ heaters could help industry electrify high-temperature gas heating
A cross-disciplinary team at Rice has developed a new type of electric heating element — one that looks less like a traditional metal coil and more like a high-performance thread.
A new study from mechanical engineers at Rice describes a surprisingly straightforward fix for superhydrophobic surfaces: Instead of just engineering the surface’s chemistry and texture, they focused on engineering its heat flow.
From Honduras to Houston: Rice student engineering care, access and belonging
Graduate student Sofia Urbina is working to advance wearable rehabilitation technologies while ensuring they reach communities like those in Honduras, where she grew up.
Smart clothing coming sooner than you think and Rice engineers are helping build it
Rice professors of mechanical engineering Daniel J. Preston and Vanessa Sanchez are core partners in the New Frontiers in Research Fund project led by the University of Alberta, bringing breakthrough materials, soft-robotic actuation and human-centered design to the team.
Rice’s Spanos receives biennial medal for contributions to computational mechanics
Rice engineer Pol D. Spanos has been awarded the O.C. Zienkiewicz Medal, recognizing his outstanding contributions to the field of computational mechanics.
Rice and MD Anderson build patient-specific models to guide complex pelvic cancer surgeries
A new collaboration between Rice engineers and physicians at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is giving surgeons a powerful new way to plan pelvic reconstructions before they ever step into the operating room.
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 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.