Rice Magazine is published by the Office of Public Affairs of Rice University and is sent to university alumni, faculty, staff, graduate students, parents of undergraduates and friends of the university.

1. 26 THEGULFCOASTSINCEIKE
30 COOKINGUPTHEFUTURE
38 REDEFININGACADEMICPUBLISHING
40 MIXINGSCIENCEANDBUSINESS
Rice’s towering
achievements
Touch theRice’s toweringRice’s towering
Touch thethe
Sky
3|NewArchitectureDean • 7|ImpactEarth • 13|UnzippingtheFuture • 20|RockyRoad

2. Contents
Cover photo: Tommy LaVergne
7 Patricia Reiff returned
to Houston just in time
to destroy the city.
12 It’s made of tiny cups.
It redirects light. It’s
invisible.
9 An economist looks at
the effects of insuring
America’s children.
3 An expert in urban and
architectural theory has
been named the new dean
of architecture.
6 Once again, Rice is in the
top 20 of U.S. News &
World Report’s “America’s
Best Colleges.”
It’s made of tiny cups.
ContentsContents
24
A tough, electrically conductive material is being unzipped in a lab near you.
10 Department of DefenseDepartment of Defense
awards to Rice top $100awards to Rice top $100
million for the decade.million for the decade.
6 She keeps powerful company.
16 Rice’s state-of-the-artRice’s state-of-the-art
BioScience Research
Collaborative opens for
business.
18 Brockman Hall for
Physics benefits fromPhysics benefits from
federal stimulus funds.federal stimulus funds.
11 When it comes to qualityWhen it comes to quality
of student life, Rice is tops.of student life, Rice is tops.
6
13
Brockman Hall
8 A Rice physicist is on
a quest to understand
death — or at least a
little part of it.little part of it.
4 Managing a name
change is good business.change is good business.

3. Rice Magazine • No. 4 • 2009 1
Students
Features
24 Owlmania
It’s all about the Owls.
b y D a v i d L e e b r o n
26 Coastal Watch
Hurricane Ike wrought great changes to the Texas
coast, but geologist and oceanographer John
Anderson thinks human development may be
hastening destructive coastal processes.
b y C h r i s t o p h e r D o w
30 Cooking Up the Future
In the year since it opened, the Oshman
Engineering Design Kitchen has given students the
means to develop a surprising range of innovative
creations.
36 Touch the Sky
As a premier research university, Rice is known
for its towering academic achievements — but the
campus has a few towering achievements of its own.
P h o t o s b y To m m y L a Ve r g n e
Te x t b y C h r i s t o p h e r D o w
38 Publish, Not Perish
The resurrected Rice University Press is redefining
the parameters of academic publishing.
b y C h r i s t o p h e r D o w
40 The Business of Science
An unconventional career track at the intersection
of science and business opens a world of
possibilities.
b y C h r i s t o p h e r D o w
Students
20 It’s a rocky road from Marrakech to
Casablanca, and for Rice geology
students, that’s a good thing.
21 A paleontology graduate student’s
first sea voyage is a core
experience.
22 What do you get when you combine
Rice students’ innovation, Project Row
Houses and the Solar Decathlon?The
ZEROW HOUSE, of course.
23 Sometimes there’s no hard-and-fast
rule for concrete construction.
Arts
42 Where most people saw old,
peeling plywood, Henrique Oliveira
saw a new artistic medium.
43 Rice art students help bring a sense
of history to the resurrected Mexican
ghost town of Mineral de Pozos.
44 Walk softly and carry a big
instrument.
45 Everything is big inTexas, and that
includes Rice student art.
Bookshelf
46 It’s hard to second-guess the Lone
Star State, but one thing you can
say for sure is that it’s going to
flood.
47 Hoaxes, scams, forgeries and
fabrications say something not just
about those who perpetrate them,
but also about our media culture.
47 There is really only one pertinent
question managers need to ask
when filling empty positions: Who?
Sports
48 And the winner of the Conference
USA Institutional Excellence Award
for the fourth straight year is … .
48 Olympic training isn’t just for
athletes.
20
42
44

4. Rice Magazine
Vol. 65, No. 4
Published by the
Office of Public Affairs
Linda Thrane, vice president
Editor
Christopher Dow
Editorial Director
Tracey Rhoades
Creative Director
Jeff Cox
Art Director
Chuck Thurmon
Editorial Staff
B.J. Almond, staff writer
Jade Boyd, staff writer
Franz Brotzen, staff writer
Merin Porter, staff writer
Jenny West Rozelle, assistant editor
David Ruth, staff writer
Jessica Stark, staff writer
Mike Williams, staff writer
Photographers
Tommy LaVergne, photographer
Jeff Fitlow, assistant photographer
The Rice University
Board ofTrustees
James W. Crownover, chairman; J.D.
Bucky Allshouse; D. Kent Anderson; Keith
T. Anderson; Subha Viswanathan Barry;
Suzanne Deal Booth; Alfredo Brener; Robert
T. Brockman; Nancy P. Carlson; Robert L.
Clarke; Bruce W. Dunlevie; Lynn Laverty
Elsenhans; Douglas Lee Foshee; Susanne
Morris Glasscock; Robert R. Maxfield; M.
Kenneth Oshman; Jeffery O. Rose; Lee H.
Rosenthal; Hector de J. Ruiz; Marc Shapiro;
L. E. Simmons; Robert B. Tudor III; James
S. Turley.
Administrative Officers
David W. Leebron, president; Eugene Levy,
provost; Kathy Collins, vice president
for Finance; Kevin Kirby, vice president
for Administration; Chris Muñoz, vice
president for Enrollment; Linda Thrane, vice
president for Public Affairs; Scott W. Wise,
vice president for Investments and treasurer;
Richard A. Zansitis, general counsel; Darrow
Zeidenstein, vice president for Resource
Development.
Rice Magazine is published by the Office of
Public Affairs of Rice University and is sent
to university alumni, faculty, staff, graduate
students, parents of undergraduates and
friends of the university.
Editorial Offices
Creative Services–MS 95
P.O. Box 1892
Houston, TXHouston, TXHouston, T 77X 77X 251-1892
Fax: 713-348-6757
E-mail: ricemagazine@rice.edu
Postmaster
Send address changes to:
Rice University
Development Services–MS 80
P.O. Box 1892
Houston, TX 77251-1892
©OCTOBER 2009 RICE UNIVERSITY
F O R E W O R D
Christopher Dow
cloud@rice.edu
There are many ironies inherent in our passage from the
Industrialized Age into the Age of Information, not the least of
which is that much of our path is littered with information that is
trivial, paltry, erroneous or deliberately misleading. An even greater
irony is that much of this clutter and rubbish is spread via the great-
est information tool ever invented: the Internet.
It certainly doesn’t help that there is much we simply don’t yet know, from deciphering the nature of
subatomic particles or effectively dealing with cancer, to developing better ways to generate energy
or comprehending what constitutes great art. There are, though, places dedicated to making sense of
the world and bringing order to it — places such as Rice University, where discoveries by committed
researchers are filling gaps in our understanding of the world and of ourselves with knowledge that
will impact us profoundly in the years to come.
In this issue, for example, you can read about John Anderson’s research into natural and hu-
man-generated coastal processes; the growth of the Professional Science Master’s Program, which
produces graduates who combine scientific expertise with business acumen; and how the recently
resurrected Rice University Press is advancing a new paradigm for academic publishing.
Our shorter articles also demonstrate the breadth and depth of the research going on here at
Rice. They include an analysis of the economic benefits of insuring America’s children; the identifi-
cation of a property of cell membranes that is responsible for cell death and that may play a role in
cancer; and the invention of the I-slate, an electronic device designed to bring educational technol-
ogy to remote rural regions. And, as is to be expected from an international leader in nanotechnol-
ogy, there are major developments on the ultrasmall scale, such as nanoribbons, which are sheets
of tough, electrically conductive material that could be incorporated into aircraft, electronics and a
host of other products.
Our students — the leaders and researchers of tomorrow — are doing amazing things as well.
You can read about some of them in the student section, but also be sure to check out our feature
on the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen, where students are taking advantage of one of Rice’s
newest facilities to create innovations that are then tested in real-
world settings.
Across the board, Rice is an international leader in the pro-
found scientific, social and cultural changes that are taking place
worldwide. But you don’t have to take our word for it: The U.S.
Department of Defense puts its money where its mouth is. DOD
funding to Rice last year totaled more than $32 million and pushed
Rice well over the $100 million mark for DOD awards during the
past decade.
And, as always, Rice is tops in rankings from a number of other outside sources. We are a Fiske
“Best-Buy School,” a perennial U.S. News & World Report top 20 national university, ranked No. 1
by the Princeton Review for the “Best Quality of Life” for students, and rated a best place to work
by both the Houston Business Journal and the Chronicle of Higher Education. And PayScale, a Web
site that scores companies and universities based on salary data, reveals that Rice alumni have the
highest median salaries among graduates of any Texas institution of higher education and that they
hold their own against graduates of our peer institutions nationwide.
As these rankings and the stories in this issue show, Rice is a place where rigorously examined
information is being generated and put into the service of humankind. Even better, it’s the kind of
information you can rely on, whether you read about it in Rice Magazine, on www.rice.edu or in the
national media. In this day and age, some people might call that kind of trustworthy information
uncommon. We simply call it unconventional wisdom.
Correction In the last issue of Rice Magazine, the review of David Eagleman’s book, “Sum: Forty Tales From the Afterlives,” incorrectly listed Eagleman
as assistant professor of psychology at Rice. His correct title is former adjunct assistant professor of psychology at Rice. We apologize for any inconvenience.

5. Rice Magazine • No. 4 • 2009 3
SallyportT H R O U G H T H E
Naomi Halas
Whiting will take the helm Jan. 1 from John
Casbarian, the school’s longtime associate
dean who has been serving as dean since 16-
year veteran Lars Lerup stepped down from
the position earlier this year. Lerup will return
to Rice in 2010 as a professor.
“Sarah Whiting’s strengths as a teacher,
author and architect are clear, and she brings
abundant energy and intellect to Rice,” said
President David Leebron. “Her aspirations for
the School of Architecture align perfectly with
the goals we set for Rice in the Vision for the
Second Century — in particular our commit-
ment to broaden and deepen our interaction
with our home city of Houston. Under Sarah’s
leadership, we expect our already acclaimed
school to be at the forefront of innovation in
architecture education and enterprise.”
Before joining Princeton in 2005, Whiting
served for six years on the faculty of the
Harvard University Graduate School of Design.
Prior to that, she taught at the University of
Kentucky, the Illinois Institute of Technology
and the University of Florida. She earned her
Ph.D. in the history, theory and criticism of
art, architecture and urban form from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
As a principal of WW Architecture, a firm
she co-founded with her husband, Ron Witte,
Whiting currently is working on projects
both for the drama division of the Juilliard
School in New York and for the Golden
House, a private residence in Princeton,
N.J. Before forming WW, she worked with
Rem Koolhaas at the Office for Metropolitan
Architecture in Rotterdam, Netherlands,
where she was involved with a number of
architectural, urban and writing projects, in-
cluding the master planning of Euralille, a
business center in Lille, France, that opened
in 1994. Witte also will join the architecture
faculty, and Whiting and Witte will relocate
WW Architecture to Houston.
Perhaps best known for her professional
criticism, Whiting has published dozens of
articles on urban and architectural theory. In
addition to editing several journals, she has
edited books on Ignasi de Solà-Morales and
James Carpenter and is the series editor of
“POINT,” a new architectural book series to
be published by Princeton University Press.
She also is the author of the forthcoming book
“Superblock City.”
Whiting is no stranger to the Rice School
of Architecture. She has served on end-of-
term project reviews many times over the past
decade. She also has lectured at the school
several times, most recently at the Paul A.
Rice Names Architecture Dean
Kennon Memorial Symposium last spring.
“Sarah has a distinguished record of
achievement in the profession and in the his-
tory and theory of architecture,” Casbarian
said. “Based on my initial conversations with
her, she has a very compelling vision for the
future of the school.”
Whiting said she brings to the School
of Architecture a strong commitment to the
humanities, to emerging developments in
science and technology, and to the overlap
between these realms that architecture is
uniquely able to exploit. “Architecture’s com-
bination of form and space affects the public
by forming an aesthetic realm,” she said, “but
it also fosters new experiences, relationships,
economies and possibilities.”
It is a “happy coincidence,” Whiting said,
that her views mesh so well with Rice’s Vision
for the Second Century: “Two of the school’s
strongest attributes are its historic commit-
ment to innovative practice and its focus on
the contemporary city. Cities like Houston, in
particular, often have been ignored in urban
studies, even though they are the paradigmat-
ic cities of the 21st century.”
These strengths, Whiting said, form a
terrific basis for moving the school forward.
“Everything felt just right — poised for new
possibilities,” she said. “I can’t wait to take on
those new horizons come January.”
—Mike WilliamsNaomi Halas—Mike WilliamsNaomi Halas
Sarah Whiting, a member of the Princeton University School of Architecture fac-
ulty and an expert in urban and architectural theory, has been named dean of the
Rice School of Architecture.
Sarah Whiting
“SarahWhiting’sstrengthsasateacher,authorandarchitectareclear,andshebringsabundantenergyandintellecttoRice.”
—David Leebron

6. 4 www.rice.edu/ricemagazine
It’s official: Rice’s Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management is now
the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business.
Research shows that the majority of the top MBA programs use the term “business” rather
than “management” in their names and logos, and that online searches for the Jones
School predominantly incorporate “business” as well as “Rice MBA” and “Rice.”
“The update better reflects our association with Rice University and provides clearer
branding for the Jones School’s exciting programs and initiatives,” said Bill Glick, dean of
the Jones School. “Everyone already knows us as a business school. The ‘business’ desig-
nation in our new name better captures the breadth of our current offerings.”
Those offerings have expanded during the last two years. New programs include an
undergraduate business minor and the Rice Education Entrepreneurship Program, which
is geared toward aspiring K–12 principals. In fall 2009, the school launched a Ph.D. in busi-
ness as well as a new weekend option for the Rice MBA for Professionals program. The
new name also better incorporates Rice Executive Education courses, which have been a
part of the Jones School for more than 30 years.
—Julia Nguyen
Learn more about the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business:
››› business.rice.edu
Rice’s reputation as a first-rate educational
institution has again been complemented by
its reputation as a great place to work. Twice.
The Chronicle of Higher Education named Rice
one of this year’s “Great Colleges to Work For.”
The publication ranked colleges for specific best
practices and policies, such as compensation and
benefits, faculty–administration relations and
confidence in senior leadership. The ranking was
based on a random survey of faculty, adminis-
trators and staff and an audit of demographics
and workplace policies and practices from more
than 300 two- and four-year colleges. Rice was
honored in 16 of 26 categories among four-year
schools with 3,000 to 9,999 students. Rice also
was named to the Chronicle’s honor roll, which
recognizes the 10 colleges that were cited most
often across all categories.
The honor came just a few weeks after the
Houston Business Journal lauded the university
as one of Houston’s “Best Places to Work” for the
fourth year in a row. Rice was named in the cat-
egory of businesses with more than 500 employ-
ees. The winners were determined by responses
of employees who completed an online survey
measuring a variety of attributes associated with
employee satisfaction and involvement with the
workplace. Participating institutions were consid-
ered for the rankings only if the percentage of
their employees who took the survey was high
enough to represent a statistically valid sample
based on the size of their workforce.
“These recognitions mean a lot to all of us
at Rice because the primary factor in deciding
whether an institution was honored was favor-
able feedback from faculty and staff,” said Mary
Cronin, associate vice president for Human
Resources. Rice’s consistent ranking as a best
place for employment helps the university recruit
and retain the best faculty and staff, she said.
“It’s particularly gratifying that their positive
comments spanned so many aspects of life at
Rice, from job satisfaction to work–life balance
to pride in the university,” Cronin said. “They are
the best.”
Learn more:
››› ricemagazine.info/08
See the Chronicle of Higher Education’s survey results:
››› ricemagazine.info/07
That Rice Is One of
the Best Places to Work?
We Knew.
Mexico’s Top Business Magazine Ranks Rice MBA Best in Southwest
“The Best Global MBAs for Mexicans, 2009,” an international MBA ranking by
Mexico’s leading business magazine, Expansión, named Rice’s Jesse H. Jones
Graduate School of Business the best in Texas and the Southwest. The ranking also
placed the Jones School 14th nationally and 26th globally.
The ranking evaluated the educational experiences of Mexico’s students at full-time for-
eign MBA programs, including the programs’ academic quality, their international popula-
tion and the return on student investment. The schools’ reputations in the Mexican market
also factored into the ranking as assessed by the corporate leaders, decisionmakers and
top executives who make up Expansión’s readership base.
The Jones School has strong business connections in Latin America that include part-
nerships with the Graduate School of Business Administration and Leadership, based
in Monterrey, Mexico, and an exchange program with INCAE Business School in Costa
Rica. Over the past few years, Rice has recruited extensively in Mexico, Argentina, Chile,
Columbia and Peru, and the university recently partnered with the Princeton Review
GMAT prep centers in Latin America.
—Julia Nguyen
GivingtheJonesSchooltheBusiness
That Rice Is One ofThat Rice Is One of

7. Rice Magazine • No. 4 • 2009 5
SallyportT H R O U G H T H E
The funds raised by the campaign will be
used to prepare Rice students for leadership
roles in their workplaces and communities,
enhance the university’s scholarship and re-
search capabilities, and expand Rice’s com-
munity and international outreach.
“A year ago we were about nine or 10
months ahead of schedule,” said Darrow
Zeidenstein, vice president for Resource
Development. “Although we lost that cush-
ion during the economic slump, this fiscal
year has been the third-largest fundraising
year in Rice’s history, thanks to the generos-
ity of our donors.”
One of the key messages of campaign
fundraisers is that during periods of econom-
ic uncertainty, the vision of Rice University
becomes even more important. “Access to
well-educated, talented and innovative peo-
ple is in the long-term interest of the United
States,” Zeidenstein said.
Rice’s supporters, including faculty, staff
and students, responded over the prior year
with an increased number of gifts to the Rice
Annual Fund, which brought in more than
$6.9 million to the campaign.
Bill Kazmierski ’09 contributed to the
Annual Fund even before he graduated in
May. “Rice was a truly life-changing experi-
ence for me,” he said. “Rice made it easy to
get involved and make a difference around
campus, and the professors made a notice-
able effort to make sure that I got the atten-
tion I needed. I see contributing to the Annual
Fund as a way to express my gratitude.”
About 1,600 other recent graduates
also expressed their gratitude to Rice by
donating more than $176,000 in response
to the Centennial Challenge to Young
Alumni. Their gifts brought in another
$487,000, thanks to a matching program
offered by Cathryn Rodd Selman ’78 and
two anonymous board members that end-
ed on June 30.
Geared toward supporting students, the
Centennial Scholarship Initative is another
important campaign highlight. So far, it has
received $55 million in commitments toward
its $100 million goal.
Several buildings funded by campaign
gifts already are in operation. The Oshman
Engineering Design Kitchen, for one, opened
last December, enabling engineering stu-
dents from different specialties to collaborate
on projects — just as they will in their ca-
reers. (See story on Page 30.)
Tudor Fieldhouse, which opened last
fall, provides a modern facility for men’s and
women’s basketball and women’s volleyball
games, and the Youngkin Center, housed
in the fieldhouse, includes a study area for
student–athletes and offices for the Athletics
staff. The Rice community also has access
to state-of-the-art workout facilities with the
opening of the Barbara and David Gibbs
Eye onthe Goal
AsofthecloseofthefiscalyearonJune30,2009,thecampaignhasraised
a total of $555.8 million, of which $84.7 million came in during 2008-09.
Recreation and Wellness Center.
Another popular campus destination is
the Raymond and Susan Brochstein Pavilion,
which opened last year. Located in the
Central Quad, the pavilion quickly became
a popular hangout for students, faculty, staff
and visitors to campus.
This fall, Duncan and McMurtry colleges
opened to help house the largest freshman
class in Rice’s history. The increased fresh-
man population is part of the Vision for the
Second Century goal to expand the under-
graduate student body.
The campaign, the largest fundraising ef-
fort in Rice’s history, is scheduled to continue
through the end of the university’s centen-
nial year in 2012–13.
—B.J. Almond
Despite the setbacks caused by Hurricane Ike and the prolonged economic downturn,
Rice’s $1 billion Centennial Campaign is on target.
Support the Centennial Campaign:
››› giving.rice.edu

8. 6 www.rice.edu/ricemagazine
RicealumnaLynnLavertyElsenhans’78
is in some pretty powerful company.
The chairman of the board and CEO of the major petro-
chemical company Sunoco, she earned the No. 10 spot on
this year’s Forbes list of the “World’s 100 Most Powerful
Women,” keeping such notable company as German
Chancellor Angela Merkel (No. 1) and Federal Deposit
Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair (No. 2). Elsenhans
was listed ahead of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor
(No. 54) and U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama (No. 40).
The Forbes recognition is based on a combination of two scores: visibility
and the size of the organization or country the women lead. Elsenhans joined
Sunoco as its CEO and president in 2008 and was named chairman of the board
this year. Her earlier career was with Shell, where she climbed the management
ranks in national and international posts. She has remained active with Rice
as a member of its board of trustees, and she has been a major contributor to
scholarship funds and to the renovation of Autry Court.
In an interview published last year in Rice Magazine, Elsenhans said her
decision to attend Rice was because of its reputation in math, engineering and
science.
“For me, [Rice] was the total experience, both inside and outside the class-
room,” she said. “I have a tremendous passion and deep love for Rice. I had a
fantastic experience here as a student. It prepared me extremely well and is a
part of my success.”
—Dwight Daniels
PowerfulPowerful
Company
See the complete U.S. News & World Report rankings:
››› www.usnews.com
U.S. News also compared schools on the basis of specific
features, and Rice appears on a number of those lists:
• No. 5 on the list of national universities whose students
have the least amount of debt. Based on the Class of 2008,
this list shows 42 percent of Rice students with debt, and
an average debt of $11,108. Only the top two schools on
the list have average debts of less than $10,000.
• No. 11 on the “Top Up-and-Coming Schools” list.
Schools on this list were singled out as having recently
made promising and innovative changes in academics,
faculty, students, campus or facilities.
• No. 11 on the “Focus on Undergrads” list. This list fea-
tures schools where the faculty has an unusual commit-
ment to undergraduate teaching.
• No. 12 on the “Great Schools, Great Prices” list. This
best-value list relates a school’s academic quality to the
2008–09 academic year net cost of attendance for a stu-
dent who received the average level of need-based finan-
cial aid.
• No. 14 on the “Economic Diversity” list. This list is
based on the percentage of Rice undergraduates receiv-
ing federal Pell Grants, which are awarded to low-income
students.
• No. 19 on the list of best undergraduate programs at en-
gineering schools whose highest degree is a doctorate. Two
specialties in Rice’s George R. Brown School of Engineering
are highlighted among undergraduate engineering special-
ties. Rice is ranked ninth in biomedical engineering and
19th in electrical engineering.
—B.J. Almond
U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges
2010” guide ranks Rice University No. 17 among 262
schools classified as national universities — institu-
tions that offer a full range of undergraduate majors
and master’s and doctoral degrees and are committed
to producing groundbreaking research.
U.S.News&WorldReportRanksRiceintheTop20

9. Rice Magazine • No. 4 • 2009 7
SallyportT H R O U G H T H E
Actually, the culprit is an imaginary comet, and the razing of Rice’s
home city is only make-believe. For now.
Reiff, professor of physics and astronomy and director of the Rice
Space Institute, was in India to install two
Discovery Domes — completely immersive
domed planetariums that utilize digital tech-
nology and can be installed in fixed facilities
or in mobile, inflatable domes. The domes,
which can bring lessons about the heavens
to some of the most remote places on Earth,
have been delivered to 75 locations on six
continents since Reiff and her partners at
the Houston Museum of Natural Science
(HMNS) built the first digital fixed dome in
1998 and the first portable one in 2003.
The imaginary destruction of Houston
was part of the somber message of Reiff’s
latest production: a planetarium show titled
“Impact Earth,” which premiered at Burke
Baker Planetarium at HMNS in May and
currently is in worldwide release. The show,
funded by NASA and produced by Rice and
HMNS, demonstrates the dangers asteroids
and comets pose to the planet. In the cli-
max, viewers get an up-close-and-personal
look at what would happen if a comet the
size of Shoemaker-Levy 9, which slammed
into Jupiter in 1994, landed in the Gulf of
Mexico. Let’s just say it wouldn’t be pretty.
Asteroids hitting Earth are the stuff of
B-movie legend, but that makes the peril no less real. “There have
been Hollywood movies about comets and asteroids hitting Earth, like
‘Deep Impact’ and ‘Armageddon,’ but they were not fully scientific in
their explanations and animations,” said Carolyn Sumners, director
of astronomy at the museum and an adjunct professor of physics and
astronomy at Rice.
Reiff said “Impact Earth” sets the record straight. “Our program
has been vetted by numerous experts on asteroids, and even though
they don’t always agree with each other, they agreed our presentation
is accurate.”
The show explores major impacts in Earth’s history and recreates
a meteorite fall on the Great Plains 10,000 years ago, the explosive
Tunguska event in Siberia in 1908 and the impact that contributed to
the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million
years ago. The production also takes view-
ers to visit asteroid hunters at the museum’s
George Observatory to see how they lo-
cate asteroids that might pose a threat to
the planet.
One such space rock is already raising
concerns. On Friday, April 13, 2029, the
asteroid Apophis will come within 18,000
miles of Earth — closer than the geosta-
tionary satellites that monitor the weather
and carry television signals. The impact of
an asteroid the size of Apophis could wipe
out a city or cause a devastating tsunami.
That gave Reiff and her crew the per-
fect excuse to visualize just such an event
for the finale of “Impact Earth.”
She also expects Rice and HMNS to
continue to impact the globe through
their collaboration. “This is a partnership
that’s been very, very deep over the years,”
Reiff said. “Twenty years ago, I helped
design the sundial that’s at the museum,
and Rice helped the museum get George
Observatory. There’s a long history of coop-
eration between Rice and the museum.”
—Mike Williams
Learn what Rice is doing to explore our planet — and beyond:
››› rsi.rice.edu
Find out what Rice researchers are working on in physics and astronomy:
››› physics.rice.edu
Houston in the Cometary Crosshairs
Patricia Reiff returned from India just in time to destroy Houston.
“Our program has been vetted by numerous
experts on asteroids, and, even though they
don’t always agree with each other, they
agreed our presentation is accurate.”agreed our presentation is accurate.”
—Patricia Reiff

10. 8 www.rice.edu/ricemagazine
The hole is important because it’s a trigger
that kicks off a process known as apoptosis.
Scientists want to understand apoptosis
because of the role it plays — or fails to play
— in cancer. In healthy bodies, defective cells
are marked for an orderly death by apoptosis.
These cells commit suicide and even have
the courtesy to package their remains for
convenient recycling. Why this happens is a
mystery. Cancer cells, however, avoid apop-
tosis. How they do that is perhaps the bigger
mystery, and one reason scientists want to
crack the code on apoptosis is to find better
ways to fight cancer.
Unfortunately, apoptosis is not well
understood. Huang, Rice’s Sam and Helen
Worden Chair of Physics and Astronomy,
opened a leading cell biochemistry text-
book to the chapter on apoptosis, which
amounted to only a handful of pages. “This
is all,” he said. “We really understand very
little about it.”
But breakthroughs in Huang’s lab are
helping change that. Thanks to Huang,
scientists now know the shape of the hole,
or pore, that triggers apoptosis. The hole
occurs in a membrane that walls off the
mitochondria inside a cell. The mitochon-
dria are the cell’s internal power centers
— the places where the cell produces the
energy necessary to live. In cells marked
for suicide, an unknown signal creates a
protein called Bax that punches the holes,
and molecules leak out, kicking off a pro-
cess that ends with “executioner” proteins
systematically dismantling the entire cell.
Knowing that Bax forms pores and
understanding how it forms them are two
different things. In 1996, Huang and his
graduate students proposed a new idea
about the way proteins might form pores
in the bilayered mitochondrial membranes.
They suggested that certain proteins, includ-
ing Bax, react with the bilayered membrane
in such a way as to cause it to curve,
forming a rounded hole like the one in a
doughnut. Late last year, Huang, his gradu-
ate students and his longtime colleague Lin
Yang of Brookhaven National Laboratory in
Upton, N.Y., used the National Synchrotron
Light Source at Brookhaven to take
hundreds of painstaking X-ray diffraction
images of pores formed by pieces of Bax.
They confirmed the toroidal, or doughnut-
shaped, hole, settling the debate about how
Bax forms holes in membranes.
Huang said the group is now turning its
attention to a more difficult investigation.
The group is trying to work with the entire
Bax protein to find out what causes it to
start making holes in the first place.
—Jade Boyd
Rice physicist Huey Huang is on a quest to understand death — or at least a
little piece of it. Huang has spent the past 15 years studying the properties of
cell membranes in an effort to unravel the mystery of cell suicide, a mystery that
starts with a tiny hole.
Rice physicist Huey Huang pioneered the use of bromine atoms (red) as
markers in membrane studies. Last year, the technique helped Huang
confirm the toroidal shape of pores that trigger cell suicide.
Huang’s team was the first to predict that certain proteins would react
with cell membranes in such a way as to cause them to curve and
form the rounded, doughnut-like hole.
ThankstoHuang,scientistsnowknowtheshapeofthehole,orpore,thattriggersapoptosis.
Huey Huang
The “Hole” Story of Cell Suicide

11. Rice Magazine • No. 4 • 2009 9
SallyportT H R O U G H T H E
Extending health insurance coverage to all children in the United
Stateswouldberelativelyinexpensiveandwouldyieldeconomic
benefitsthataregreaterthanthecosts,accordingtonewresearch
conducted at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy.
The researchers — Vivian Ho, chair in health economics at the Baker Institute,
professor of economics at Rice and associate professor of medicine at Baylor
College of Medicine, and Marah Short, senior staff researcher in health eco-
nomics at the Baker Institute — based their findings on recent studies that
examined evidence regarding the economic impact of failing to insure all
children in the U.S. Ho and Short compared children’s health care in the U.S.
to the care provided in other industrialized countries and found that, despite
the highest per-capita spending on health care among 30 member countries
of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the U.S.
ranks third-highest in the percentage of the population lacking health insur-
ance, with one in seven people uninsured. They estimate the number of
uninsured children in the U.S. to be more than 8 million.
Studies clearly indicate that this lack of coverage leads to “lower access to
medical care and lower use of health care services,” the researchers wrote in
their report, titled, “The Economic Impact of Uninsured Children on America.”
It may even be reflected, they argued, in relatively high child morbidity rates
in the U.S. Moreover, lack of health care for children has long-term effects —
some of them economic — as those children become adults.
Children who receive better health care and enjoy better health are gen-
erally more productive as adults, the researchers said. The cost incurred by
providing universal coverage to children “will be offset by the increased value
of additional life years and improved health-related quality of life gained from
improved health care,” they wrote. “From a societal perspective, universal
coverage for children appears to be cost-saving.”
The report concludes that there is compelling evidence that covering all
children in the United States with health insurance will yield not only im-
mediate improvements in the health of children, but also long-term returns of
greater health and productivity in adulthood. “The up-front incremental costs
of universal health insurance coverage for children are relatively modest,” said
Ho, “and they will be offset by the value of increased health capital gained
in the long term.”
—Franz Brotzen
Read “The Economic Impact of Uninsured Children on America”:
››› ricemagazine.info/20
[ W H Y I G I V E
]
2009–10 Centennial
Challenge toYoungAlumni
Last year, more than 1,600 young alumni rose to the
challenge for Rice and demonstrated why our gradu-
ates are among the most elite and supportive in the
nation. Now Rich ’80 and Karen Waggoner Whitney ’79
are issuing an even greater challenge for 2009–10.
They will match every gift from young alumni (Classes
of 1999–2009) made to the Rice Annual Fund through
June 30, 2010.
Gifts received Sept. 1–Dec. 31, 2009, will be matched
3-to-1.
Jo Ling Kent ’06, who currently works as an associ-
ate producer for CNN’s Beijing bureau, is one of many
recent graduates who have risen to the challenge by
making a gift to the Rice Annual Fund for Student Life
and Learning. After earning a B.A. in history, policy
studies and Asian studies from Rice, Jo earned master’s
degrees in international affairs from Peking University
and the London School of Economics and Political
Science. As a journalist, she has covered stories rang-
ing from the 2008 Taiwan elections to the Beijing
Olympics.
NewYear,Even Greater Challenge
Tell us how you are rising to the challenge at:
www.rice.edu/centennialchallenge
“Rice provides unparalleled
opportunities for its undergraduates
that extend far beyond graduation.”
—Jo Ling Kent ’06
A (Health Insurance)A (Health Insurance)A (Health Insurance)
Stitch in TimeStitch in Time
Might Save …

12. 10 www.rice.edu/ricemagazine101010 www.rice.edu/ricemagazinewww.rice.edu/ricemagazinewww.rice.edu/ricemagazine
Rice is challenging Texans’ notion that bigger is better,
particularly when it comes to security-related research.
U.S. Department of Defense awards to Rice during fiscal year 2009 totaled more than $32
million, pushing Rice well over the $100 million mark for DOD awards during the past
decade. The awards come in areas where the university already has notable research
strengths — computation, digital signal processing, nanotechnology, quantum magnetism
and high-temperature superconductivity.
“If you do a per capita adjustment on the amount of funding we receive per faculty
member, I’m sure we are competitive not only in Texas but across the nation,” said Sallie
Keller, dean of Rice’s George R. Brown School of Engineering. “The depth of our offering
on security-related research covers everything from the evolution of influ-
enza and new treatments for breast cancer to improved chemical safety
and atomic physics.”
Dan Carson, dean of Rice’s Wiess School of Natural Sciences,
said that the key to Rice’s funding success is the quality of the
faculty. “That’s one reason you see such a wide array of research
getting DOD funding here,” he said. “We have great faculty across
the board.”
Rice’s breadth of security-related research may be a surprise
given the university’s size. With 5,339 students, Rice is the second-
smallest member of the Association of American Universities, an organi-
zation representing the nation’s top 62 research universities. But Rice held its
own against the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University, despite having
only about one-tenth the number of students.
—Jade Boyd
on security-related research covers everything from the evolution of influ-
enza and new treatments for breast cancer to improved chemical safety
Rice’s breadth of security-related research may be a surprise
given the university’s size. With 5,339 students, Rice is the second-
smallest member of the Association of American Universities, an organi-
zation representing the nation’s top 62 research universities. But Rice held its
Find out how you can help Rice University achieve its goals for the next century: ››› giving.rice.edu
Theimageofruralschoolchildreninunder-
developedcountrieschalkingtheirlessons
on old-fashioned blackboard slates may
soon change, thanks to an energy-stingy
computer chip invented by Krishna Palem,
Rice’s Ken and Audrey Kennedy Professor
of Computer Science and Electrical and
Computer Engineering.
Palem’s breakthrough chip, called PCMOS
(for probabilistic complementary metal-oxide
semiconductor), trades off precision in calcu-
lations for significant reductions in energy use.
Prototype PCMOS chips were found to use
30 times less electricity while running seven
times faster than today’s best technology.
Although PCMOS runs on standard silicon, it
breaks with current computing by abandon-
ing the set of mathematical rules — called
Boolean logic — that have thus far been used
in all digital computers. PCMOS instead uses
probabilistic logic, a new form of logic devel-
oped by Palem and his postdoctoral research
associate, Lakshmi Chakrapani.
A key to using the technology is find-
ing applications — like streaming video for
cell phones or low-powered video displays
— where error can be tolerated. The upshot
could be cell phones that have to be recharged
every few weeks rather than every few days.
The chips will find their first real-world use in
a solar-powered electronic slate, or I-slate, an
electronic version of the slates used by many
schoolchildren in rural India. The I-slate’s
developers are working with educational
technologists from the International Institute
of Information Technology, Hyderabad, in
India, to develop a visually based mathemat-
ics curriculum that allows children to learn by
doing, regardless of their culture, their native
tongue, their grade level or whether they have
a full-time teacher.
“We expect to begin testing prototypes of
the curriculum and the I-slates next spring,”
Palem said.
Inspired by microfinance, the I-slate’s in-
novators intend to use social entrepreneurism
to create a self-sustaining economic model for
the I-slate that both creates jobs in impover-
ished areas and ensures the I-slate’s contin-
ued success.
—Jade Boyd
ChipOfftheOldSchoolSlate
Research Funding Champ
What is Rice University planning for the next century? Find out here:
››› professor.rice.edu/professor/Vision.asp
Discover what innovations are being made at Rice:
››› natsci.rice.edu
Want to help out? Find out how:
››› giving.rice.edu

13. Rice Magazine • No. 4 • 2009 11
SallyportT H R O U G H T H E
A team of Rice researchers has been working
to discover the health risks of quantum dots,
which are molecule-sized semiconducting
nanocrystals that generally are composed
of heavy metals surrounded by an organic
shell.
Pedro Alvarez, Rice’s George R.
Brown Professor and chair of the Civil and
Environmental Engineering Department,
published a paper in Environmental Science
& Technology showing that under even mild-
ly acidic or alkaline conditions, the shells
can break down, releasing their toxic con-
tents into the body or the environment. He
co-authored the paper with colleagues Vicki
Colvin, the Kenneth S. Pitzer-Schlumberger
Professor of Chemistry and professor of
chemical and biomolecular engineering; re-
search scientist Shaily Mahendra; and post-
doctoral research associate Huiguang Zhu.
“We’re interested in the long-term implica-
tions of nanotechnology, and we recognized
that quantum dots are going to be produced
in large quantities,” said Mahendra, who did
the bulk of the research. “We thought we
should be proactive in studying their effects
so that we can take part in the development
of safety guidelines.”
The dots, 1/50,000 the width of a human
hair, were found to be safe in applications
with a neutral pH environment. However,
the study suggested that when such products
are discarded, they can eventually release
their toxins into the environment.
“In that way, quantum dots resemble
batteries,” said Alvarez, referring to common
nickel-cadmium cells people are warned not
to throw in the trash. “They’re often made
of coatings that are biocompatible and sta-
ble in water, but the moment we lose that
coating, which can happen through a vari-
ety of mechanisms, they can release toxic
compounds.”
Used in solar cells, quantum dots may
be quickly weathered by acid rain, he said.
Another concern is that acids in the body
could break down dots used in medical ap-
plications. On the positive side, the research-
ers found that certain proteins and natural
organic matter, such as humic acids, may
mitigate the effects of decomposing quantum
dots by coating them or by complexing the
metal ions released, making them less toxic.
“If the dots degrade faster than they can
be excreted, there’s the potential for heavy
metals to be released into the body,” Alvarez
said. “Then their impact becomes a question
of dose.”
The researchers cautioned that short-
term studies can’t easily predict whether tox-
ins released by quantum dots will build up
in the body over time. “We hope our work
will stimulate research by other labs into the
release dynamics,” said Alvarez.
—Mike Williams
Shaily Mahendra and Pedro Alvarez
display a sample of quantum dots.
Dash for ‘Dots’ Raises Questions
Quantumdotshavethepotentialtobringmanygoodthingsintotheworld:efficient
solar power, targeted gene and drug delivery, solid-state lighting, and advances
in biomedical imaging, for example. But they may pose hazards as well.
Rice =
‘Best Quality
of Life’
The Princeton Review may have
broadcast the news, but Rice’s
own students said it first: Rice is
No. 1 nationally for “best quality
of life.”
The ranking appears in the newly
released 2010 edition of Princeton
Review’s popular guidebook “The
Best 371 Colleges.” Rice has consis-
tently placed in the guide’s top 10 in
this category over the past several
years. This year, Rice also ranks No.
8 for “happiest students,” No. 11 for
“lots of race/class interaction” and
No. 19 for “great financial aid.”
The rankings are based on a
survey of 122,000 students attending
the 371 colleges named in the book.
They assessed their institutions on
food, dorm comfort, campus beauty,
ease of getting around campus, re-
lationship with the local community,
campus safety, surrounding area,
interaction between students, friend-
liness and happiness of the student
body, and smoothness with which
the school is administered.
“We are a genuine community
where every individual feels that
they matter, and they do,” said Rice
President David Leebron. “This is
also about the quality of our campus,
and it’s about having a campus with
numerous trees and open, green
space in the heart of a major city
where students can enjoy the best
of urban living. Mostly, though, Rice
received that ranking from our stu-
dents because they know that every
student is important.”
—David Ruth
Learn more:
››› ricemagazine.info/23
Read Rice’s complete Princeton Review
profile:
››› ricemagazine.info/24

14. Created by Naomi Halas, an award-winning
pioneer in nanophotonics, and graduate student
Nikolay Mirin, the metamaterial uses tiny, cup-
shaped particles called nanocups.
Mirin had been trying to make a thin gold
film with nano-sized holes when it occurred
to him that the knocked-out bits were worth
investigating. Previous work on isolated gold
nanocups had given researchers a sense of their
properties, but Mirin found a way to lock en-
sembles of nanocups into sheets that orient the
nanocups in a unified direction. The resulting
metamaterial — a substance that gets its proper-
ties from its structure and not its composition —
excels in capturing light from any direction and
focusing all of it in one direction. Redirecting
scattered light means none of it bounces off the
metamaterial back into the eye of an observer.
That essentially makes the material invisible.
This means that the observer does not see
the material, but what is behind it. “The ma-
terial should not only retransmit the color and
brightness of what is behind it,” Mirin said, “but
also bend the light around, preserving the origi-
nal phase information of the signal.”
Halas — Rice’s Stanley C. Moore Professor
in Electrical and Computer Engineering and pro-
fessor of chemistry, of biomedical engineering
and of physics and astronomy — said the em-
bedded nanocups are the first true three-dimen-
sional nanoantennas, and their light-bending
properties are made possible by electronic sur-
face excitations known as plasmons. Electrons
Learn more:
››› ricemagazine.info/25
“We’relookingatthe
fundamentalaspectsof
thegeometry,howwe
canmanipulateitand
howwecancontrolit
better.Probablythemost
interestingapplication
issomethingwehaven’t
thoughtofyet.”
inside plasmonic nanoparticles resonate
with input from an outside electromag-
netic source in the same way that a pool
struck by a drop of water ripples. The
particles act the same way radio anten-
nas do, with the ability to absorb and
emit electromagnetic waves that, in this
case, include visible wavelengths.
Because nanocup ensembles can
focus light in a specific direction, they
make good candidates for thermal so-
lar power. “Solar-generated power of
all kinds would benefit,” said Halas.
“In solar cells, about 80 percent of the
light passes right through the device.
And there’s a huge amount of interest
in making cells as thin as possible for
many reasons.”
In addition, a solar panel that fo-
cuses light into a beam that’s always on
target without having to track the sun
would save a lot of money on machin-
ery and the energy needed to power the
machinery.
Using nanocup metamaterial to
transmit optical signals between com-
puter chips has potential, and it also
might be used in enhanced spectros-
copy and to create superlenses.
“We’d like to implement the mate-
rial into some sort of useful device,”
said Halas of her team’s next steps. “We
also would like to make several varia-
tions. We’re looking at the fundamental
aspects of the geometry, how we can
manipulate it and how we can control
it better. Probably the most interesting
application is something we haven’t
thought of yet.”
—Mike Williams
12 www.rice.edu/ricemagazine
Nikolay Mirin and Naomi Halas
—Naomi Halas
Nanocups Brim with Potential
Superlenses. Ultra-efficient solar cells. Cloaking devices. Once the stuff of
science fiction, these may soon be possible, thanks to a metamaterial that
collects light and emits it in a single direction.

15. Rice Magazine • No. 4 • 2009 13
SallyportT H R O U G H T H E
Scientists at Rice University have found a simple way to create
sheetsoftough,electricallyconductivenanomaterialthatcanbe
used as basic elements for aircraft, flat-screen TVs, electronics
and other products. And the process begins with a zipper.
Discovered in the lab of James Tour, the technique — which uses a
room-temperature chemical process to split, or unzip, carbon nano-
tubes to make flat ribbons of graphene — can produce the ultrathin
ribbons in bulk quantities. Until now, making
such material in more than microscopic quan-
tities has involved a chemical vapor deposition
process at more than 1,500 degrees F. You’d have
to place thousands of the ribbons side by side to
equal the width of a human hair, but tests show
graphene is 200 times stronger than steel.
“If you want to make conductive film, this is
what you want,” said Tour, Rice’s Chao Professor
of Chemistry and also a professor of mechani-
cal engineering and materials science and of
computer science. “As soon as we started talking
about this process, we began getting calls from
manufacturers who recognized the potential.”
The unzipping action can start on the end or
in the middle, but the result is the same — the
tubes turn into flat, straight-edged, water-soluble
ribbons of graphene. When produced in bulk,
these microscopic sheets can be “painted” onto
a surface or combined with a polymer to make
it conductive.
Tour credited Rice temporary research scien-
tist Dmitry Kosynkin with the discovery. “Dmitry
came to me and said he had nanoribbons,” re-
called Tour. “It took a while to convince me, but
as soon as I saw them I realized this was huge.”
Also contributing were graduate students Amanda
Higginbotham, Jay Lomeda and B. Katherine
Price; postdoctoral researcher Alexander Sinitskiy,
and visiting scientist Ayrat Dimiev.
The basic process is the same for single or
multiwalled tubes. Single-walled carbon nano-
tubes convert to sheets at room temperature and
are good for small electronic devices because the
width of the unzipped sheet is highly controllable.
But the multiwalled nanotubes, which unzip in one hour at 130 to 158
degrees F, are a much cheaper starting material, and the resulting
nanoribbons would be useful in a host of applications.
“If a company wants to produce these,” Tour said, “it could prob-
ably start selling small quantities within six months. To scale it up and
sell ton quantities might take a couple of years — it’s just a matter of
having the right reactors. But the chemistry is very simple.”
Tour is excited by the possibility that conductive nanoribbons
could replace indium tin oxide (ITO), a material commonly used in
flat-panel displays, touch panels, electronic ink
and solar cells. “ITO is very expensive,” he said,
“so lots of people are looking for substitutes that
will give them transparency with conductivity.
There are thin films of nanotubes that fit the
bill, but when you stack two cylinders, the area
that is touching is very small. If you stack these
ribbons into sheets, you have thinner films with
very large areas of overlap and equivalent con-
ductivity or better.”
Tour envisions nanoribbon-coated paper that
could become a flexible electronic display, and
he’s already experimenting with nanoribbon-
infused ink for ink-jet printers. “We’re actually
printing electronics with these inks,” he said.
“This is going to be the new material for many
applications.”
Tour said discussions already are under way
with several companies looking into large-scale
production of nanoribbons and with others in-
terested in specific applications for nanoribbons
in their core product technologies. Formal indus-
trial partnering already has begun through Rice’s
Office of Technology Transfer.
The work, which was featured on the cover of
the April 16 issue of the journal Nature, was fund-
ed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency, the Federal Aviation Administration and
Wright-Patterson Air Force Research Laboratory
through the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific
Research.
—Mike Williams
16 April 2009 | www.nature.com/nature THE INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE
NATUREJOBS
Go with the wind
RISINGSEALEVELS
Afossilrecord
BIGBANGCOSMOLOGY
Insearchofinflation
EVOLUTIONARYTHEORY
Darwinonthemind
NANOTUBES
UNZIPPED
A route to graphene
nanoribbon electronics
Tourenvisionsnanoribbon-
coatedpaperthatcould
becomeaflexibleelectronic
display,andhe’salready
experimentingwith
nanoribbon-infusedinkfor
ink-jetprinters.
In the process developed by the Tour group, nanotubes open into nanoribbons sequentially, from the outer to inner layers.In the process developed by the Tour group, nanotubes open into nanoribbons sequentially, from the outer to inner layers.
Unzipping the Future

16. Nano-safety Journal Ratings Debut
The Rice-based International Council on Nanotechnology (ICON) has in-
troduced an interactive feature to its Virtual Journal of Nanotechnology
Environment, Health and Safety (VJ-NanoEHS) that allows users to post
ratings and comments about technical papers archived at the site.
The five-star rating system, which was developed with extensive input from
interested stakeholders, provides registered users an opportunity to acknowl-
edge the publications that best exemplify good research practice and effective
communication.
A survey of potential contributors found that, as the pace of nano-EHS pub-
lication rapidly increases, a rating system would help the highest-quality work
to be identified. That will allow such work to serve as a model to others moving
into the field and to better inform the public dialogue about nanotechnology’s
risks and benefits.
With the introduction of this new feature, ICON continues to extend the
utility of its comprehensive database on nano-safety. Other features include
a customized search function and an analysis tool that allows users to track
research trends over time.
Read the ICON Virtual Journal at:
››› icon.rice.edu/virtualjournal.cfm
Breaking News from the Future
In an era when newspapers are downsizing coverage of basic research,
how can universities get the word out about breakthroughs?
It’s a problem that puzzled University
of Rochester Vice President for
Communications Bill Murphy, who hit
upon a solution. Last March, Murphy
presented a beta version of a Web site
called Futurity.org at a meeting of the
Association of American Universities.
That’s where Rice Vice President for
Public Affairs Linda Thrane jumped
on board.
The site, a group effort by 33
universities, is dedicated to sharing
research breakthroughs directly with
the public in an era when traditional
news outlets are rapidly shrinking.
The site reports on discoveries in sci-
ence, health, society and culture.
Thrane said that Rice was a good fit for the pioneering project.
“We signed Rice up right away when we learned about this elite venue,”
she said. “This is one more option for us to share the tremendous work of our
faculty members in ways that reach and interest broad audiences. And that vis-
ibility builds respect and support for our faculty and our university.”
Rice already has had more than 20 stories featured on the site, and more
are in the works.
—David Ruth
Read breaking news from Rice and other research institutions:
››› futurity.org
J O U R N A L S I N T H E S P O T L I G H T
Thrane said that Rice was a good fit for the pioneering project.
Thanks to the Rice University-based journal
Feminist Economics, economists in China will
havegreateraccesstocomprehensiveresearch
about gender issues and economy.
The journal teamed up with graduate students in Peking
University’s China Center for Economic Research to publish
in book form a Chinese translation of its 2007 special issue
on gender, China and the World Trade Organization.
Like the special issue from which it was derived, the
book, which is titled “China’s Transition and Feminist
Economics,” examines the consequences of China’s open-
ing up to international trade
and its transition from socialism
to a market economy. It also
illustrates how the accession
of China to the World Trade
Organization and the growth
of the Chinese economy have
elevated the overall well-being
of many Chinese women but
adversely affected others.
“Traditional economic anal-
yses pay little attention to the
unpaid sector of the economy
and do not adequately theorize
how activities like unpaid child
and elder care are influenced
by government policies and
then feed back into decisions
about formal work, production
and consumption,” said Diana
Strassmann, editor of Feminist
Economics and professor in the
practice of humanities at Rice’s
Center for the Study of Women,
Gender and Sexuality.
“There is an interest and demand for such information,”
said Xiao-yuan Dong, who, along with Günseli Berik and
Gale Summerfield, guest edited the issue. “Many economists
just haven’t been introduced to feminist economic analysis.
With this book, we hope to train them to approach their
research with a more comprehensive outlook.”
The feminist economic outlook takes into account fac-
tors such as who household decision-makers are, gender
roles and quality of life. From that framework, the journal
research shows that minority women in China are now
working outside the home at much lower rates. This may
signal a return to traditional gender roles and indicate
that minority women appear to be losing out in the more
global economy.
—Jessica Stark
For more information on Feminist Economics visit:
››› feministeconomics.org
Feminist Economics by the Book
14 www.rice.edu/ricemagazine

17. Rice Magazine • No. 4 • 2009 15
SallyportT H R O U G H T H E
The mathematician, who earned his doctor-
ate here in 1969, holds a unique place in
Rice history as the first African-American to
be admitted and earn a degree — breaking
a whites-only barrier that had been part of
the Rice Institute charter since the founding
of the university.
Johnson, now Rice’s distinguished W.L.
Moody Jr. Visiting Professor of Mathematics,
spent a 40-year career at the University of
Maryland, where he was the first black fac-
ulty member. He taught in, and for a while
chaired, the mathematics department and
pursued research in harmonic analysis.
With retirement beckoning, Johnson
agreed to come to Houston two years
ago for an event called “Our History, Our
Present, Our Future” that honored the 40th
anniversary of the first African-Americans
to enter Rice as undergraduates and earn
degrees. Johnson’s own history, present and
future also came together that day.
“It’s purely a Rice story,” said Johnson,
sitting in his office in Herman Brown Hall.
“While I was here, I met my future wife,
Ava Plummer, who’s also a Rice grad, Class
of 1978. We started talking, then we started
dating, and we got married last December.”
Plummer, however, had no inten-
tion of leaving her position as a lawyer at
M.D. Anderson Cancer Center to move to
Maryland.
“I started looking for a position in
Houston,” Johnson said. “I knew I could
retire from Maryland, and the backup plan
was, in theory, to do that.”
Not so fast, said Rice officials, who
jumped at the chance to bring him aboard.
“He was well-known to the department for
his research, for the fact that he was our
first African-American graduate and for his
exceptional work mentoring doctoral stu-
dents, which brought him national recogni-
tion,” said Brendan Hassett, professor and
chair of the Department of Mathematics. At
Maryland, Johnson mentored 23 students
— 22 of them African-American and eight
of them women — who went on to earn
doctorates in mathematics, and his efforts
earned him the 2006 Mentor Award for
Lifetime Achievement from the American
Association for the Advancement of Science.
Rice President David Leebron recog-
nized the value of what Johnson brings.
“It’s especially poignant to have Raymond
here to greet our largest and most diverse
freshman class ever,” he said. “His perspec-
tive of Rice then and experience with Rice
now will help all of us better appreciate the
progress that has been achieved through
the work of so many. He is a pioneer who
helped us get to where we are today.”
Johnson modestly maintains he hap-
pened to be at the right place at the right
time. “There were a couple of bumps, but
it was very straightforward,” he said of his
education. “I hope one of the things I can
teach is that black students can succeed
here. If they’re qualified and they work
hard, they’ll complete the degree.”
—Mike Williams
WhenRaymondJohnsonsteppedtothefrontofaRiceUniversityclassroom
for the first time this fall, few of his students realized the significance of
the moment. In an extraordinary turn of events, the first black student to
earn a degree at Rice had returned as a professor.
“It’s purely a Rice
story. While I was
here, I met my
future wife, Ava
Plummer, who’s also
a Rice grad, Class
of 1978. We started
talking, then we
started dating, and
we got married last
December.”
A PioneerA Pioneer
Returns
—Raymond Johnson
Rice Graduates
Among Top Earners
Rice University graduates have the high-
est median salaries among graduates of
Texas colleges and universities, according
to the 2009 Education and Salary Report
by PayScale.com, a Web site that collects
employee salary data. Rice graduates earn
median starting salaries of $57,900 and
median mid-career salaries of $105,000
— at least $9,300 more and $8,100 more,
respectively, than graduates of any other
school in the Lone Star State. Among the
nearly 600 U.S.-based schools included in
the report, Rice ranked 23rd for salaries
of those with five or fewer years’ experi-
ence and 34th for salaries of those with at
least 10 years’ experience. The numbers
were based on more than a million us-
ers of PayScale.com who reported their
salaries and educational backgrounds in
a survey over the past year. All reports
were for graduates who work in the U.S.
and whose highest academic degree is a
bachelor’s.
The entire report is available at:
››› www.payscale.com
Rice a Fiske
‘Best-buy School’
Rice is one of the few elite private
colleges to make the list of “best-buy
schools” in the 2010 edition of “Fiske
Guide to Colleges.”
The book, which serves as a reference
tool for students, parents and high school
counselors, combined cost data with
academic ratings and quality of student
life on campus to determine which in-
stitutions offer remarkable educational
opportunities at a relatively modest cost.
The guide did not rank the 44 best-buy
schools in any order.
The Fiske rating complements two
other independent rankings of best val-
ues among private colleges that were
published this year. Kiplinger’s Personal
Finance magazine and the Princeton
Review “Best Value Colleges for 2009”
both ranked Rice No. 4 among private
schools.
Find out why Rice is a great value:
››› futureowls.rice.edu

18. 16 www.rice.edu/ricemagazine
For years, Rice University has explored the frontiers of research
and education. Now, it has started exploring another type of
boundary entirely — the physical seam between the university
and other Texas Medical Center institutions.
At the heart of this quest is the newly opened BioScience Research
Collaborative (BRC). The building, meant to serve as a hub for col-
laboration between researchers at Rice and other Texas Medical
Center (TMC) institutions, is located at the corner of Main Street and
University Boulevard — about a four-minute walk from medical pow-
erhouses like Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children’s Hospital
and the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
“Within this region around the TMC and Rice, and reaching out a
little bit farther to the University of Houston and the University of Texas
Medical Branch at Galveston, we have all of the capabilities necessary
to make very important advances in the biosciences,” said Rice Provost
Eugene Levy. “Still, in order to capitalize on these complementary
competencies, we need to bring together a variety of institutions to
produce the specialized capabilities that none of the institutions have
alone. That’s really the underlying idea behind the BRC.”
Rice faculty members have been transferring their laboratories and
offices to the new building since early July, and the entire Department
of Bioengineering will soon call the BRC home, along with several
members of the Department of Chemistry and the Department of
Biochemistry and Cell Biology. The Gulf Coast Consortia, an orga-
nization formed to help build interdisciplinary collaborative research
teams and training programs in the biological sciences, also is now
headquartered in the BRC, and in July, Texas Children’s Hospital be-
came the first TMC institution to lease space in the building. Talks
are ongoing with several other TMC institutions that have expressed
interest in leasing space.
Conceptualized and built by Rice, the 477,000-square-foot BRC is
equipped for cutting-edge laboratory, theoretical and computational
investigations and features eight floors of research labs, classrooms
and auditoriums. It is designed to eventually accommodate a visual-
ization center and an entire floor dedicated to biomedical informatics.
The building’s amenities also include a science marketplace that houses
scientific resources shared by the entire BRC community and an urban
plaza with 10,000 square feet of retail space for a restaurant and shops.
But while the building is full of thoughtful details, it’s what takes
place inside that will truly help foster advances in research.
“I would like to see the BRC become a vanguard for showing how
it is possible to bring the best basic science and the best clinical or ap-
plied science together for a smooth transfer of knowledge from ‘bench
to practice,’ which is even broader than the ‘bench to bedside’ so often
talked about,” said Mary “Cindy” Farach-Carson, Rice’s associate vice
provost for research. “We live in the Bio Age, and the opportunities
for integrating life sciences discoveries at Rice with world challenges
are enormous.”
—Merin Porter
Building forBuilding for
Breakthroughs
Conceptualized and built by Rice, the 477,000-square-foot BRC is equipped for cutting-edge laboratory, theoretical
and computational investigations and features eight floors of research labs, classrooms and auditoriums.

19. TexasChildren’sHospital
Joins Rice’s BioScience
Research Collaborative
Late in July, Texas Children’s Hospital be-
came the first Texas Medical Center insti-
tution to lease space in the BioScience
Research Collaborative (BRC).
Ranked among the top 10 best children’s hospitals
by U.S. News & World Report, Texas Children’s will
lease space on the eighth floor of the 10-story BRC
for 10 years, with an option to renew up to 40 years.
Because the space is still under construction, dates
for occupancy have not been finalized.
“We believe that this building and the collabor-
ative work that it will foster between Rice and other
institutions of the Texas Medical Center will provide
a new impetus to the center’s leadership in medi-
cal research,” said Rice University President David
Leebron. “Texas Children’s Hospital, with its strong
commitment to medical research as well as teach-
ing and health delivery, has become an increasingly
important partner for Rice, and we are immensely
pleased to enter this new and deeper phase of
working together.”
Texas Children’s president and CEO Mark
Wallace said that joining the BRC was a natural pro-
gression in the hospital’s journey from “excellence
to eminence.”
“The BRC is ideally situated to draw from a pool
of intellectual talent that is second to none,” said
Wallace. “We are proud not only to demonstrate
our unwavering commitment to research, basic sci-
ences and collaboration, but also to be the very first
partner of this amazing venture.”
Although patients will not be treated at the
BRC, they will benefit from new treatments devel-
opedtherebyresearchers,physiciansandscientists.
Nanobiotechnology, for example, is expected to be
used increasingly to design noninvasive treatments
for diseases that now require surgery.
—Jessica Stark
After spending a week packing up their
old lab and a week unpacking in their new
one, the researchers were ready to take full
advantage of what the new space offered,
including innovative workbenches, new
equipment and prime office space. They
also were looking forward to something
the BRC offers outside of the lab: the stu-
dent hub.
“It has a great view of campus, but
it will also be a really great space where
we get to know other undergrads, gradu-
ate students and postdocs working in the
BRC,” said Hema Puppala, a graduate stu-
dent researcher in the Colvin group. “It will
be a place where we can talk about what
we’re working on and hear about what oth-
ers are doing and maybe find ways to work
together.”
The BRC also has become home to a
host of Rice chemists, biochemists, bio-
engineers, biomedical engineers, cell
biologists, and electrical and computer
engineers. Other Rice groups and offices
are scheduled to make the move by the
end of January, including the rest of the
Department of Bioengineering, the Institute
of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Beyond
Traditional Borders, Rice 360°: Institute for
Global Health Technologies, the Texas-
United Kingdom Collaborative Research
Initiative, and the Center for Biological and
Environmental Nanotechnology.
“It will be fun once we get everyone
in here,” said Arjun Prakash, a graduate
student researcher in Colvin’s group. “The
facilities are definitely nice, and proximity
to other researchers in the building and
within the Texas Medical Center makes col-
laboration more possible.”
—Jessica Stark
A full list of Rice researchers relocating
to the BRC can be found at:
››› rice.edu/brc/researchers
See more photos of the Colvin Group’s
move into the BRC:
››› ricemagazine.info/27
SallyportT H R O U G H T H E
Mark Wallace, president and CEO of Texas Children’s
Hospital, signs an agreement with Rice President David
Leebron that makes Texas Children’s the first Texas
Medical Center institution to lease space in Rice’s new
BioScience Research Collaborative.
ThestudentsinthelabofVickiColvin,KennethS.Pitzer–Schlumberger
Professor of Chemistry and professor of chemical and biomolecu-
lar engineering, are used to pioneering nanoscale research, but in
July, they were pioneers of a different sort when they became the
first tenants of Rice’s BioScience Research Collaborative.
Rice Magazine • No. 4 • 2009 17
MovingOnUp

20. 18 www.rice.edu/ricemagazine
Construction@rice
One thing you don’t have to imagine is the
$11.1 million in federal stimulus funding
from the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) that will aid in the con-
struction of the new research facility.
“The NIST funding provides not only an
impressive and tangible demonstration of the
timeliness and importance of the Brockman
Hall for Physics building project, but also the
culmination of literally years of dedicated
work by former dean Kathleen Matthews,
Rice project manager Pat Dwyer and others,”
said Dan Carson, dean of the Wiess School
of Natural Sciences. “This highly significant
award will provide the Wiess School and
Rice University with much more flexibility
in planning and program development at a
critical time.”
The NIST funding also will help ensure
Rice’s preeminence in research concerning
atomic/molecular/optical physics, biophys-
ics, condensed-matter physics, nanomaterials
and photonics.
“It’s fantastic that NIST has recognized
the tremendous opportunities in physics-re-
lated research at Rice,” said James Coleman,
Rice’s vice provost for research. “This new
facility will enable Rice to remain on the cut-
ting edge of physical science research.”
The Rice University Police Department
(RUPD) will soon add public address
capabilities to the arsenal of weapons
it uses to ensure campus safety. The PA
systemwillbeaffixedtoapproximately
18 of the campus’s 54 emergency phones
andwillallowRUPDofficerstoalertthe
Rice community to environmental and
other types of emergencies, including
weather-related situations and fires.
The upgrade is part of a four-year initia-
tive begun in 2006 to bring Rice’s emer-
gency phones into compliance with the
Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA),
which was signed into law after the origi-
nal phones were installed approximately
20 years ago. So far, 32 of Rice’s first-
generation emergency phones have been
replaced with their ADA-compliant coun-
terparts, which also feature strobe lights
that operate when the phone is activated.
According to Facilities, Engineering and
Planning Project Manager Bob Flumach,
who has been working with Rice Chief of
Police Bill Taylor on the emergency phone
upgrades, the strobe light will alert other
people in the area that an emergency has
been reported and will also help guide se-
curity personnel to the location.
“The blue-light phones and public
address–system upgrades are really high
tech, and I’m very excited about them,”
said Taylor. “The new technology truly
brings Rice’s emergency phone system up
to speed.”
—Merin Porter
The 110,000-square-foot Brockman Hall
for Physics will support research and edu-
cation in fundamental and applied physics
that is of direct relevance to the missions
of the U.S. Department of Commerce and
NIST. Faculty from Rice’s Department of
Physics and Astronomy and the Department
of Electrical and Computer Engineering will
occupy the building, which is scheduled to
open in spring 2011.
“These are going to be absolutely state-
of-the-art facilities,” said Barry Dunning, chair
of the Department of Physics and Astronomy.
“We will be able to do research and not be
limited by the available space, vibration, hu-
midity — all the things we’ve had problems
with in the past.”
The building is expected to earn silver
status under the Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design standard developed
by the U.S. Green Building Council. The
architect is KieranTimberlake Associates
in Philadelphia. External project manage-
ment services are provided by Linbeck, and
Gilbane Building Company is the construc-
tion contractor. The building previously
received a naming gift from the A. Eugene
Brockman Charitable Trust.
—Jade Boyd and Mike Williams
New Home for Physics and Astronomy
Imagine your department being divided among six buildings or your researchers hav-
ing to conduct experiments in the dead of night to avoid disturbances from traffic on
nearby streets that could skew results from highly sensitive instruments. Now imagine
Brockman Hall for Physics, currently under construction, bringing an end to all that.
Safe and Sound
“ThisnewfacilitywillenableRicetoremainonthecuttingedgeofphysicalscienceresearch.”
—James Coleman

21. Rice Magazine • No. 4 • 2009 19
SallyportT H R O U G H T H E
South Colleges Get a Facelift
Theexplosionofnewcollegesonthenorthsideofcampusmay
have temporarily eclipsed the South Colleges, but that ended
in May as the South Colleges renovations and additions proj-
ect moved into high gear.
The project includes a new bed tower for Baker College and an-
other for Will Rice College. The 1955 wing of Will Rice will be
demolished, and a new kitchen/servery for Will Rice College and
Lovett College will be built. In addition, the Baker College kitchen/
servery will be completely renovated. Decorative limestone and
other materials have been salvaged from both Baker and Will Rice
to help match the renovations to the existing buildings.
The final phase of the project, which will be completed in time
for the beginning of the fall 2010 semester, will see a total of 82 new
beds added to the three renovated colleges.
Watch the work at Will Rice in progress:
››› ricemagazine.info/28
Learn more about Rice construction projects:
››› construction.rice.edu
Rice’sathleticteamshavesharedacommitmenttoexcellencefor
decades — now they share a front door, too.
Completed in spring 2009, the Audrey Moody Ley Plaza is a grassy
quadrangle featuring several concrete and decomposed-granite path-
ways that connect Tudor Fieldhouse and Youngkin Center, Jake Hess
Tennis Stadium, Rice Track Stadium and Reckling Park. A variety of
trees surround the plaza, including Washingtonia palms, Mexican
buckeyes and burr oaks, while underground infrastructure installed
during the construction phase sets the stage for a
future fountain.
But the plaza isn’t just common ground for
Rice’s athletic facilities — it’s also becoming a com-
mon place for students to relax.
“I am seeing students use the area more and
more often, maybe just putting a blanket down or
throwing a Frisbee,” said Assistant Athletic Director
for Sports Information Chuck Pool. “I think as the
plaza’s greenery matures, we will see it being oc-
cupied even more.”
In addition to connecting Rice’s athletic facili-
ties and providing students with a space to unwind,
the plaza brings Reckling Park into the public eye.
Rice’s baseball stadium has long been nearly invis-
ible from College Way, where most Rice visitors
travel.
“Before the plaza was built, people might have
caught a glimpse of Reckling Park’s scoreboard as they hit the ten-
nis courts,” Pool said. “But it’s no longer an afterthought. There are
so many signature architectural facades on campus, and I think that
Reckling Park now is visible enough to become one of them.”
—Merin Porter
Common Ground
Baker College

22. 20 www.rice.edu/ricemagazine
Led by Earth science professors André Droxler and Gerald Dickens, a group
of undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and profes-
sors about 25 strong traveled more than 2,000 miles during a two-week journey
through Morocco, one of the planet’s most unique geological regions. There they
were able to study geological formations from the northwest Sahara desert to
the Atlas and Rif mountains. These last, located along the Mediterranean coast,
contain rock that formed in the Earth’s upper mantle only to be pushed to the
surface by tectonic activity.
“The field trip gave students the opportunity to see a wide range of geol-
ogy as well as rocks that cover a great time span,” Droxler said. “The beauty of
Morocco is that we observed rocks from Precambrian times, about 700 million
years old, up to half a million years old. The
age, diversity and types of outcropping rocks
were all really astonishing.”
The lack of vegetation in much of the
country made it particularly easy to peer back
through the ages as the group traveled though
the mountains of Morocco in a bus and two
four-wheel-drive SUVs. “You get to observe the
completely uncovered outcrops, and the overall
landscapes are absolutely stunning,” Droxler
said. “Morocco gives you this great palette of
not only different types of rocks, but also differ-
ent formations and structures.”
The deep structures of the Atlas and Rif
mountains are at the heart of an international
project that involves Alan Levander, the Carey
Croneis Professor of Earth Science. The project
is investigating the ranges, which are part of
the line of demarcation where the Africa and
Eurasia plates meet, to determine what happens
when continents collide.
Droxler said Albert Bally, Rice’s Harry Carothers Wiess Professor Emeritus
of Geology, was an immense help in preparing students by teaching a spring
seminar on Moroccan geology, which he became familiar with when he worked
for Shell and did research with graduate students while at Rice. Droxler got
further help from his own former teacher, Professor Emeritus Jean-Paul Schaer
from the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland, who’d spent a lot of time
in Morocco. “He knew somebody who knew somebody who knew some-
body, and so on,” Droxler said. Three of Droxler’s colleagues doing field
research in Morocco — Francois Negro, Romain Bousquet and Lahssen Baidder
of Switzerland, Germany and Morocco, respectively — led the Rice students
through their journey of discovery.
Most of the people helping the students along the way were Berbers.
“Morocco is mostly inhabited by Berbers,” Droxler said. “Arabs moved to Morocco
a long time ago but never really established themselves in the mountains, where
the Berbers have lived forever.” The students could sense a disconnect between
Berbers and Arabs, and understanding the social organization and observing
the different living conditions in Morocco became part of a wider learning
experience for them.
“One reason the Department of Earth Science organizes these long field trips
every other year,” Droxler said, “is to give students the chance to learn to make
their way in the world, no matter where they go, not only as Earth scientists but
also as Earth citizens.”
—Mike Williams
Rocky RoadThere are a lot of interesting rocks along the road from Marrakech to
Casablanca, and a coterie of Rice students and their professors had a
good look at a lot of them during the summer break.
The students could
sense a disconnect
between Berbers and
Arabs, and under-
standing the social
organization and ob-
serving the different
living conditions in
Morocco became part
of a wider learning
experience for them.
“The beauty of Morocco is that we
observed rocks from Precambrian
times, about 700 million years
old, up to half a million years old.
The age, diversity and types of
outcropping rocks were all really
astonishing.” —André Droxler

23. Rice Magazine • No. 4 • 2009 21
Students
GraduatestudentLizetteLeonRodriguezhadneverbeenon
a boat for more than a couple of hours before embarking on
the voyage of a lifetime.
A paleontologist specializing in planktonic foraminifers, otherwise
known as forams, she was one of 27 scientists among a crew of 120 that
left Hawaii aboard the JOIDES Resolution, a research ship operated by
the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. As the vessel skirted the equa-
tor, the crew drilled hundreds of meters of core samples to give them a
glimpse at what the planet looked like in the Eocene Epoch, approxi-
mately 55 to 34 million years ago — core samples that Leon Rodriguez
analyzed for clues that may ultimately reveal something about the near-
and long-term fate of Earth’s ocean–atmosphere dynamics.
Sinking to the sea floor in a constant shower over millions of
years, forams and their calcium carbonate shells were buried in sedi-
ment, creating a fossil record that can reveal a lot about the Earth
during times when atmospheric carbon dioxide peaked and the planet
suffered bouts of global warming.
“What is interesting about the Eocene is there were periods very
similar to what we’re experiencing now in terms of global warming,”
said Leon Rodriguez, a native of Colombia who earned her master’s
degree at Florida International University before coming to Rice.
“There was a huge release of carbon into the oceans and the atmo-
sphere that increased temperatures.”
Her adviser, Gerald Dickens, a professor of earth science, and his
colleagues argued in a paper in Nature in late 2007 that a chain reaction
of events in the Eocene that probably started with a period of intense
volcanic activity led to the release of a massive amount of greenhouse
gases that warmed the planet. The paper was based on Eocene sedi-
ments from what was then the ocean floor but is now New Jersey.
Leon Rodriguez believes more evidence exists in the gooey sedi-
ments beneath the Pacific in the chemical composition of plankton’s
calcium carbonate shells. “We can look at isotopes and different chemi-
cal processes and know, for example, the temperature and the acidity
of the oceans at the time. We can track periods from the beginning to
the end and all of the processes that happened during that time. The
equatorial Pacific is a very productive place to get these samples.”
Collecting the core samples one after another from each of seven
target locations was hard work, and Leon Rodriguez put in 12-hour
shifts analyzing the samples, which one scientist on board described
as “white ooze, like toothpaste, and brown ooze, like crumbly brown
sugar.” Each 30-foot core was cut into manageable pieces, and samples
were extracted from the eras the scientists wanted to analyze.
“We had to cut the pieces in the right places, wash the samples
— sometimes a couple of times — and then go to the microscope
and check the forams to determine their ages by comparing them to
comprehensive fossil records,” Leon Rodriguez said. “It got stressful,
because we could see them drilling, and samples were coming, and
we had a bunch waiting for us to wash, and we were looking at the
forams — we were racing all the time.”
Now that a huge box of samples has landed in her Rice office,
Leon Rodriguez can begin detailed analysis to learn about ocean con-
ditions eons ago.
“This is the real thing in terms of my research. On the ship, you
have to know what you’re doing, but you’re more like a technician.
Here, I can run my chemical analyses and play with the samples.
We’re going to have different curves that will tell us how the tempera-
ture and carbon levels in the ocean fluctuated over time. It’s going to
be fun.”
—Mike Williams
Voyage toVoyage toVoyage to
the Bottomthe Bottom
of the Sea
Discover unique opportunities for Rice graduate students:
››› gradresearch.rice.edu
“We can look at isotopes and different chemical processes and know, for example,
the temperature and the acidity of the oceans at the time.” — Lizette Leon Rodriguez

24. 22 www.rice.edu/ricemagazine
ZEROW HOUSE is an entry in the U.S. Department of Energy’s up-
coming Solar Decathlon, a housing competition in which teams of col-
lege and university students vie to design, build and operate the most
attractive, effective and energy-efficient solar-powered house. The
Rice student team was the only one from Texas among the 20 teams
chosen from around the world to participate. This year’s competition
will be held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in October.
“Our students have worked
at the highest level to create this
house, which is on par with profes-
sional work,” said Danny Samuels,
the Harry K. Smith Professor in the
Practice of Architecture at Rice.
“Through working with Project
Row Houses, we have taken the
next step in providing affordable,
appropriate technologies for people
who need it.”
Like other Solar Decathlon
houses, ZEROW HOUSE will be able
to produce all the energy needed for
its operation on-site using photo-
voltaic solar panels and other green
technologies. The judges will look
at 10 specific areas of competition:
architecture, engineering, market
viability, communications, comfort, appliances, hot water, lighting,
energy balance and transportation. Each house should produce
enough electricity and hot water to perform all the functions of a
home, from powering lights and electronics to cooking and washing
clothes and dishes.
Unlike the other entries, however, ZEROW HOUSE was designed
with affordability and a specific site in mind. While other entries oper-
ate on half-a-million-dollar budgets, ZEROW HOUSE was created with a
building and material budget of about $150,000 in a way that will allow
its design and concepts to be replicated in six energy-efficient one- and
two-bedroom homes on two 50-by-80-foot lots in Houston’s Third Ward.
Design Challenges
Engineering a house for Houston
was a challenge. The team specially
tailored the house to withstand the
rigors of Houston’s Gulf Coast cli-
mate by limiting the number of win-
dows and using a high-reflectivity
roof membrane. Both reduced the
solar heat load during the day. For
the same reason, some of the walls
were thickened to limit the amount
of heat that might seep into the
house during the hot months. The
team also used a foundation and
materials that could withstand hur-
ricane-force winds.
“The Solar Decathlon offers the
challenge of providing innovation
and quality of design within a limited space,” said Nonya Grenader,
professor in the practice in the Rice School of Architecture. “By skill-
fully placing elements that provide all services — a wet core — and
natural light and ventilation — a light core — the students began to
define and transform the small building envelope into much more.”
ZEROW HOUSE
WhatdoyougetwhenyoucombineRicestudentinnovation;acommissiontobuildazero-energyhome;
and Project Row Houses, a neighborhood-based art and cultural organization that seeks to develop
housingforlow-to-moderate-incomeresidentsofHouston’sThirdWard?TheZEROWHOUSE,ofcourse.
Rebecca Sibley, Allison Elliott and Joseph Nash

25. Students
One of the most vexing design parameters had nothing to do with
energy efficiency or cost. It had to do with transportation. Aside from
the international competitors, the Rice team has the farthest to travel
for the competition. While the team members will have five days to
reassemble ZEROW HOUSE in the National Mall, they had to find a
way to transport it and make it roadworthy while taking into account
laws from each state they will travel through on their journey to D.C.
“The main challenge was designing within all these limits,” said
Roque Sanchez ’09, the environmental engineering student who en-
tered Rice in the competition. “We had great ideas, but we had these
boundaries to factor in. It inspired us to do more and push our own
limitations. I’m still shocked at how everything came together. We’ve
had so much support, and you can see that in the house itself.”
Sanchez said various sponsors from the Houston community
pitched in and offered services and supplies, though the costs were
figured into the home’s final price tag.
“Many of the energy-efficient materials and technologies featured
in ZEROW HOUSE, such as solar panels and solar water heaters, can
be implemented in almost any home,” said senior Allison Elliott, one
of the student leaders. “A house can be both environmentally friendly
and affordable.”
Collaborative Effort
The team worked on the house for about a year and a half, and its
efforts were aided by more than 100 people from disciplines across
campus.
“This was a great project to give our engineering students more
hands-on experience,” said Brent Houchens, assistant professor in me-
chanical engineering and materials science and engineering faculty
lead for ZEROW. “They had to learn how to optimize the systems such
as the solar array and solar water heater to make the house functional
but as cost effective as possible. The collaboration between them and
the architecture students and faculty has given them very rewarding
real-world experience.”
ZEROW HOUSE is just the latest project in an affordable hous-
ing initiative and long-term collaboration between the Rice Building
Workshop and Project Row Houses. In the past, Rice students have
designed and constructed other new housing on property owned by
Row House Community Development Corporation, including the Six-
Square House and a row of eight recently completed duplexes. The
direct inspiration for ZEROW was the 500-square-foot XS (extra small)
House constructed in 2003 at a cost of $25,000.
“The Rice Building Workshop allows students to experience ar-
chitecture at full scale, working in a spirit of collaboration,” Grenader
said. “The Solar Decathlon brought a talented mix of students together
who benefited greatly from the larger Houston community. Many in-
dividuals and companies gave their support and expertise in realizing
the project.”
After the Solar Decathlon, ZEROW HOUSE will be transported
back to its permanent location in Houston, where two local residents
will actually call it home.
—Jessica Stark
the architecture students and faculty has given them very rewarding
ZEROW HOUSE is just the latest project in an affordable hous-
ing initiative and long-term collaboration between the Rice Building
Workshop and Project Row Houses. In the past, Rice students have
designed and constructed other new housing on property owned by
Row House Community Development Corporation, including the Six-
Square House and a row of eight recently completed duplexes. The
direct inspiration for ZEROW was the 500-square-foot XS (extra small)
“The Rice Building Workshop allows students to experience ar-
chitecture at full scale, working in a spirit of collaboration,” Grenader
said. “The Solar Decathlon brought a talented mix of students together
who benefited greatly from the larger Houston community. Many in-
Rice Magazine • No. 4 • 2009 23
who benefited greatly from the larger Houston community. Many in-
dividuals and companies gave their support and expertise in realizing
After the Solar Decathlon, ZEROW HOUSE will be transported
back to its permanent location in Houston, where two local residents
—Jessica Stark
direct inspiration for ZEROW was the 500-square-foot XS (extra small)
“The Rice Building Workshop allows students to experience ar-
chitecture at full scale, working in a spirit of collaboration,” Grenader
said. “The Solar Decathlon brought a talented mix of students together
who benefited greatly from the larger Houston community. Many in-
To learn more visit: ››› solardecathlon.rice.edu
The team worked on the house
for about a year and a half, and its
efforts were aided by more than
100 people from disciplines
across campus.
Sometimes there’s no hard and fast rule for concrete
construction. Just ask Brantley Highfill and Zhan Chen.
The two are graduate students in the Rice School of Architecture,
and they recently were runners-up in the building element division
of the international student design competition Concrete Thinking
for a Sustainable World, sponsored by the Washington, D.C.-based
Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. More than 300 stu-
dents from 55 schools of architecture from around the world participated
in the competition.
The competition asked students to design innovative applications for
Portland cement-based materials to achieve sustainable design objec-
tives. Highfill and Chen’s proposal, Constructed Ecologies, made use of
permeable concrete planks called GeoPlanks to allow people more ac-
cess to water in environmentally sensitive areas — particularly along
bayous, seawalls and other places that land and water meet — than is
possible with traditional barriers.
The idea for GeoPlanks was born in a class on concrete taught by
Douglas Oliver, a professor in the practice of architecture who served
as the team’s adviser, when the students took a long look at Houston’s
bayous.
“Concrete often is used to cover these waterways for flood-control
purposes, but it also damages the existing natural environment,” Chen
said. “The resulting condition is miles of paved rivers that resemble
major highway infrastructure in terms of both cost and construction.
Constructed Ecologies offers a productive alternative to this hard
landscape.”
GeoPlanks, which are straight and angled interlocking sections of
concrete, can dip above and below the surface of a body of water and
are designed to blend into the earth. The porous surface of each plank
naturally collects soil and seed deposits to reduce the surface area of
exposed concrete and mitigate the “heat island” effect.
“We would love the opportunity to fabricate a system and test it
out,” Highfill said.
—Mike Williams
Concrete Evidence

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