Researchers at Rice have developed a soft robotic arm capable of performing complex tasks such as navigating around an obstacle or hitting a ball, guided and powered remotely by laser beams without any onboard electronics or wiring.
Rice took center stage at the inaugural South by Southwest London, bringing Texas-sized ambition, pathbreaking innovation and global vision to one of the world’s premier gatherings of creative and intellectual leaders.
The Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disasters Center at Rice, in collaboration with a team of experts, has developed the Galveston Bay Park Plan, an in-bay barrier and park system designed to provide enhanced storm surge protection and navigation and environmental benefits for the highly vulnerable west side of Galveston Bay.
In a new study published in Nature Astronomy, researchers from Rice and the Planetary Science Institute used complex simulations to show that wide-orbit planets are not anomalies but rather natural by-products of a chaotic early phase in planetary system development.
Jonathan Ajo-Franklin, a leading mind in applied geophysics and Trustee Professor of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences at Rice, has been awarded the 2025 Reginald Fessenden Award by the Society of Exploration Geophysicists.
As the world races to address the climate crisis, a coalition headquartered at Rice is taking a radically collaborative approach to one of the toughest challenges: how to decarbonize industry while at the same time boosting manufacturing, improving infrastructure and securing the supply chains for the energy and materials we rely on every day.
Impaired neuromusculoskeletal function due to conditions such as stroke, osteoarthritis, cerebral palsy, Parkinson’s disease, limb amputation, spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury and cancer is a leading cause of disability.
In a landmark moment for Rice, renowned computer scientist Lydia E. Kavraki has been named a University Professor, the institution’s highest academic rank. She becomes only the 11th person and the third woman in the university’s 112-year history to earn this prestigious title.
Rice bioengineer Antonios Mikos has been elected to the European Academy of Sciences, an international body that recognizes excellence in scientific research and technological innovation.
Recently, a team of scientists and engineers at Rice discovered a phenomenon on a microscopic scale, where tiny magnetic particles driven by rotating fields spontaneously move along the edges of clusters driven by invisible “edge currents” that follow the rules of an unexpected branch of physics.
Rice's Gang Bao has been selected to receive the Robert Henry Thurston Lecture Award from the American Society for Mechanical Engineers for his sustained contributions to the mechanics of composites, cell mechanics and nanomedicine.