Two Rice University professors elected AAAS fellows
January 31, 2023
Rice University professors Thomas Killian and Marek Kimmel are elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a distinction that honors scientists, engineers and innovators whose efforts on behalf of science and its applications are scientifically or socially distinguished.
Kory Evans wins NSF CAREER Award
January 30, 2023
Kory Evans, an assistant professor of biosciences at Rice University, has won a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Award to study shape change in the skull of spiny ray-fin fishes across their evolutionary history.
Researchers can ‘see’ crystals perform their dance moves
January 30, 2023
Rice University researchers already knew the atoms in perovskites react favorably to light. Now they’ve seen precisely how the atoms move when the 2D materials are excited with light. Their study this week in Nature Physics details the first direct measurement of structural dynamics under light-induced excitation in 2D perovskites.
Volcanolike rupture could have caused magnetar slowdown
January 27, 2023
In October 2020, a highly magnetic neutron star called SGR 1935+2154 abruptly began spinning more slowly. In a Nature Astronomy study this month, Rice astrophysicist Matthew Baring and colleagues showed the magnetar’s rotational slowdown could have been caused by a volcanolike rupture near its magnetic pole.
Naomi Halas named University Professor
January 23, 2023
Rice University has promoted nanotechnology pioneer Naomi Halas to its highest academic rank, University Professor. Halas, a 33-year member of Rice’s faculty, becomes only the 10th person and second woman to earn the title in Rice’s 111-year history.
New enzyme could mean better drugs
January 23, 2023
Biomolecular engineers at Rice University identified a new enzyme that catalyzes the Nobel Prize-winning Diels-Alder reaction.