Rice launches Space Humanities Initiative to bring cultural inquiry into conversation about space
The initiative brings scholars across disciplines together to examine how culture, language, ethics and imagination shape space exploration, and how space exploration shapes them in return.
Researchers measure giant light-conversion effect in chiral carbon nanotubes
Rice scientists successfully assembled carbon nanotubes with the same chiral orientation into large high-quality crystals that can manipulate light with an efficiency two to three orders of magnitude greater than conventional materials.
Rice professor awarded Harvard Radcliffe Fellowship
Rice professor Qimiao Si has been awarded a Harvard Radcliffe Fellowship for the 2026-27 academic year.
Rice hosts global quantum experts in Paris for cutting-edge conference
A Rice-led conference in Paris convened global experts in cavity quantum electrodynamics to explore new approaches to controlling light-matter interactions and advancing quantum technologies.
Pengcheng Dai elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Rice professor Pengcheng Dai has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the oldest and most prestigious learned societies in the nation.
NASA grant supports Rice research on next-generation lunar dating technology
Rice University professor Bidong Zhang has received a grant to develop next-generation lunar radiometric dating techniques that will acquire more accurate ages for lunar samples.
Physicists find electronic agents that govern flat band quantum materials
Qimiao Si’s group at Rice University collaborated with researchers from the Weizmann Institute to visualize the building blocks of flat band quantum materials.
Replicating bacteria DNA relies on accordionlike folds to separate
Rice researchers discover that bacteria rely on repulsive forces, strengthened by the SMC family of proteins, to separate their DNA during replication.
Researchers at Rice recently convened an international group of scientists to explore how artificial intelligence and machine learning could transform one of the world’s most ambitious physics experiments: the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment.
Rice and IIT Madras announce recipients of Strategic Partnership Collaboration Awards
The three selected projects bring together faculty expertise from both universities in areas ranging from sustainable materials and entrepreneurship research to nuclear physics and detector technology.
Rice scientists unveil new tool to watch quantum behavior in action
Rice University researchers Jianwei Huang and Ming Yi have developed a new capability, magnetoARPES, building on angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) that allows researchers to study quantum behaviors they have been unable to resolve using ARPES alone.
Material previously thought to be quantum is actually new, nonquantum state of matter
A recent study found that the material cerium magnesium hexalluminate (CeMgAl11O19) was not actually in a quantum spin liquid phase despite evidence suggesting it was.
The NASA Reauthorization Act of 2026, sponsored by Texas Rep. Brian Babin (R-Woodville), moves tomorrow to consideration by the full U.S. House of Representatives following unanimous approval by the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. As lawmakers consider the legislation, Rice experts are available to provide perspective on the bill’s implications for space science, engineering and aeronautics, artificial intelligence, public-private partnerships and the future aerospace workforce.
Rice hosts inaugural Houston Space Galette in honor of Texas-France Space Hub’s first anniversary
The Texas-France Space hub's first annual Houston Space Galette, held Feb. 12, fostered dialogue within the Houston space community.
Before rockets, there were stories: Rice explores human meaning of space
Two Rice scholars are asking what it would mean to treat that long human relationship with space as not just a footnote to engineering but as a central intellectual pursuit.
