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The Magazine of Rice University
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New Colleges Tracking Music Downloads Focus on Transnationalism Far Afield
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No. 5 | 2010
in the Sciences and Engineering
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Contents 9
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Nanoshells target cancer cells.
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What effect does gender have on donating to meaningful causes?
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Rice drivers now have something to hoot about thanks to a new custom license plate.
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Forget shag, flat weave and twisted tuft. The latest word in carpets is nano.
The way to increase voter turnout may be simpler than anyone suspected.
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Compounds with novel magnetic properties are scarce. Emilia Morosan’s solution? Create new ones.
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The kudos continue for the Rice MBA program in entrepreneurship.
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Oil Speculators and the Future of Oil Futures
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No one knows exactly how much Earth’s climate will warm, but current predictions about global warming might be incorrect.
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What if high-tech surgical tools, designer drugs and diagnostic gadgets could make health care cheaper and save lives at the same time?
Students
Students
Features
17 Protecting art from the ravages of time can be almost as easy as putting together Tinkertoys. 18 For most people, doing something on a lark means buying a lottery ticket or going out for ice cream. For others, it’s protecting a computer system under attack.
20 Spotlight on Women in the Sciences
18 This fall, Rice welcomed a record number of smiling new faces to campus. Learn a little bit about who they are.
and Engineering
Women seeking careers in the natural sciences and engineering at Rice have faced challenges inherent in traditionally male-dominated fields of academia, but many have more than overcome them to earn world renown and become role models for aspiring young researchers.
19 The Graduate Student Association at 40
Arts
32 Cybertracker
“You really don’t get it, do you?,” Eric Garland told the music industry back in 1994. “This isn’t about Napster, and it isn’t over. It’s only just begun.”
40 A young symphony conductor discovers that the most valuable lesson he learned at Rice applies to life as much as it does to music.
by David Menconi
42 Sharing the joy of dance requires openness, creativity and, above all, the performer’s best effort.
34 Welcome to the Chao Center
The new Chao Center for Asian Studies focuses on transnationalism, with an eye toward collaborative research.
by Merin Porter
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44 Before Henry David Thoreau took up residence at Walden Pond, he accidentally set fire to more than 300 acres of forest.
36 Far Afield
When it comes to digging up the dirt on humankind’s past, nothing beats hands-on experience.
by Christopher Dow
Bookshelf 44 In this day of huge agribusinesses, niche agriculture is making a comeback across Texas. 45 Joyful, optimistic and unflinchingly honest poems help a renowned physician deal with personal grief.
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45 Desegregating private universities in the South was far more complex than simply mandating change.
Sports 46 Running, swimming and cycling are serious fun for the new Rice University Cycling and Triathlon club.
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48 When the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London roll around, Mauro Hamza will be the coach behind the foils.
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Rice Magazine
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Vol. 66, No. 5
Welcome to a new decade — the decade in which Rice celebrates its 100th anniversary as a premier institution of higher learning. Many elements have contributed to Rice’s excellence, not the least of which is our outstanding faculty. Though Rice’s initial faculty had only 12 members, it has, from the beginning, provided students with the in-depth knowledge not simply to succeed in the world, but also to make significant contributions to it. Today, that faculty has even greater depth, and its numbers have grown to 647 full-time, 143 part-time and 274 adjunct members. But quality isn’t about numbers. It’s about depth and breadth. Rice has consistently proved resilient in recruiting individuals to its faculty who provide a wide range of disciplines, experiences and perspectives. Recent years have seen groundswell changes in faculty demographics, particularly in the recruitment of women in fields that have been predominantly occupied by men. Because this has been especially true in the sciences and engineering, we wanted, in this first issue of the decade in which Rice will celebrate a milestone anniversary, to honor the many ways that our women scientists and engineers have contributed to the university’s growth and stature, from research that expands human understanding and well-being to diversity and leadership. When we decided to devote so many pages to female leaders in the sciences and engineering, I worried that the variety we strive for in the magazine might be missing from this issue. I needn’t have. One story that’s sure to interest our readers is a tour of Rice’s newest colleges: Duncan and McMurtry. Not only are they two of the most innovative and attractive buildings on campus, they also are among the most environmentally conscious, both in design and construction. We also visit the Barbara and David Gibbs Recreation and Wellness Center. The facility, as I can attest from my daily visits, rivals the best commercial health clubs in Houston with its bright, airy, well thought-out spaces and state-of-the-art exercise equipment. Even better, it’s staffed by the same friendly, helpful personnel from the old Rec Center. (Hats off to my friends at the front desk: Deirdre, Rudy and Lupita.) Our other features continue the variety, beginning with “Cybertracker,” a profile of Eric Garland ’94, one of the world’s leading authorities on digital piracy. “Welcome to the Chao Center” provides a look at the most recent addition to Rice’s impressive list of research centers, which focuses on transnationalism, and its founding director, Tani Barlow. “Far Afield” unearths the history, aims and training program of the Rice Archaeological Field School. And “Dance” waltzes us around the Rice Dance Theater. We also introduce you to one of Rice’s newest and most exciting athletic clubs, Rice University Cycling and Triathlon. We hope you enjoy these and the many other articles in this issue. And be sure to stay tuned for future issues because you won’t want to miss any of the exciting developments at Rice in the decade ahead. Christopher Dow cloud@rice.edu
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 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 of Trustees James W. Crownover, chair man; 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; Randa Duncan Williams. 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, TX 77251-1892 Fax: 713-348-6757 E-mail: ricemagazine@rice.edu
Corrections In the last issue, the article “Touch the Sky” contained two errors. The name of the tower on the Humanities Building should have been spelled Russ Pitman Tower rather than Russ Pittman Tower. Also, the caption for the photo of the Crystal Campanile lists Michael Graves & Associates as one of the architects, but Graves served as a consultant only, not as an architect on the project.
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Postmaster Send address changes to: Rice University Development Services–MS 80 P.O. Box 1892 Houston, TX 77251-1892 © J a nua ry 2 0 1 0 Rice Unive rsit y
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“Some of the most essential questions in nanomedicine today are about biodistribution — where particles go inside the body and how they get there.” —Naomi Halas
Nanoparticle Could Combine Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment Researchers at Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) have created a single nanoparticle that can be tracked in real time with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as it homes in on cancer cells, tags them with a fluorescent dye and kills them with heat. The all-in-one particle is one of the first examples from a growing field called “theranostics” that develops technologies physicians can use to diagnose and treat diseases in a single procedure. Tests so far involve laboratory cell cultures, but the researchers said MRI tracking will be particularly advantageous as they move toward tests in animals and people. “Some of the most essential questions in nanomedicine today are about biodistribution — where particles go inside the body and how they get there,” said study co-author Naomi Halas. “Noninvasive tests for biodistribution will be enormously useful on the path to FDA approval, and this technique — adding MRI functionality to the particle you’re testing and using for therapy — is a very promising way of doing this.” Halas, Rice’s Stanley C. Moore Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, and professor of chemistry, biomedical engineering, and physics and astronomy, is a pioneer in nanomedicine. The all-inone particles are based on nanoshells — particles she invented in the 1990s that are currently in human clinical trials for cancer treatment. Nanoshells harvest laser light that would normally pass harmlessly through the body and convert it into tumor-killing heat.
The image shows breast cancer cells after treatment with light-activated nanocomplexes. The live cells are shown in green, and the dead cells, shown in red, are within the white-circled area where a laser was applied. Photo: R. Bardhan
In designing the new particle, Halas partnered with Amit Joshi, assistant professor in BCM’s Division of Molecular Imaging, to modify nanoshells by adding a fluorescent dye that glows when struck by near-infrared (NIR) light. NIR light is invisible and harmless, so NIR imaging could provide doctors with a means of diagnosing diseases without surgery. In studying ways to attach the dye, Halas’ graduate student, Rizia Bardhan, found that dye molecules emitted 40–50 times more light if a tiny gap was left between them and the surface of the nanoshell. The gap was just a few nanometers wide, but rather than waste the space, Bardhan inserted a layer of iron oxide that would be detectable with MRI. The researchers also attached an antibody that lets the particles bind to the surface of breast and ovarian cancer cells. In the lab, the team confirmed that the fluorescent particles targeted cancer cells and
destroyed them with heat. Joshi said the next step will be to destroy whole tumors in live animals. He estimates that testing in humans is at least two years away, but the ultimate goal is a system where a patient gets a shot containing nanoparticles with antibodies that are tailored for the patient’s cancer. Doctors would then observe the particles’ progress through the body, identify areas where tumors exist and kill the tumors with heat. “This particle provides four options — two for imaging and two for therapy,” Joshi said. “We envision this as a platform technology that will present practitioners with a choice of options for directed treatment.” The researchers hope to develop specific versions of the particles that can attack cancer at different stages, particularly earlystage cancer, which is difficult to diagnose and treat with current technology, and to use different antibody labels to target specific forms of the disease. Halas said the team has been careful to choose components that already are approved for medical use or are in clinical trials. Bardhan and BCM postdoctoral associate Wenxue Chen are coprimary authors of the paper. Additional Rice co-authors include Emilia Morosan, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, and graduate students Ryan Huschka and Liang Zhao. Additional BCM co-authors include Robia Pautler, assistant professor of neuroscience and radiology; postdoctoral associate Marc Bartels; and graduate student Carlos Perez Torres. The research was sponsored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Welch Foundation and the Department of Defense’s Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative. —Jade Boyd
View the paper in the journal Advanced Functional Materials: ›› › ricemagazine.info/39
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Space Rock
Left to right: Pete Olson, David Leebron and Mike Coats
At halftime during the Rice–Navy football game on Oct. 10, NASA’s Johnson Space Center Director Mike Coats presented President David Leebron with a moon rock and the Ambassador of Exploration Award, originally bestowed posthumously to President John F. Kennedy last July on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon. NASA gave the award to Kennedy for his directive, articulated in his famous 1962 speech at Rice Stadium, that humans would reach the moon by the end of the 1960s. Recipients of the Ambassador of Exploration Award are asked to select an educational institution or museum where it can be displayed and appreciated by all, and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the former lieutenant governor of Maryland and daughter of Robert Kennedy, presented the award to Rice on behalf of the Kennedy family. Also on hand during the presentation was Congressman Pete Olson ’85 of the 22nd District of Texas, which encompasses Johnson Space Center.
Nanocarpets Take Flight With creations ranging from carpets to kites, you’d think Rice chemist Bob Hauge was running a department store instead of a revolution in the world of carbon nanotechnology. In a paper published in Nano Research, Hauge’s research team described a method for making “odako,” bundles of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) named for the large traditional Japanese kites they resemble. Hauge’s method creates bundles of SWNTs that are sometimes measured in centimeters, and the process could eventually yield tubes of unlimited length. Large-scale production of nanotube threads and cables would be a boon for engineers in almost every field. Hauge, a distinguished faculty fellow in chemistry at Rice’s Richard E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, said the SWNT bundles could be used in lightweight, superefficient power-transmission lines for nextgeneration electrical grids; ultrastrong and lightning-resistant versions of carbon-fiber materials found in airplanes; batteries and fuel cells; and microelectronics. To understand how Hauge makes these nanokites, it helps to have a little background on flying carpets and printing money. Hauge and his team — which included senior research fellow Howard Schmidt ’80 and Professor Matteo Pasquali, both of Rice’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering; graduate students Cary Pint ’09, Noe Alvarez ’08 and Sean Pheasant ’06; and Kent Coulter of San Antonio’s Southwest Research Institute — used the same machinery the U.S. Treasury uses to embed paper money with anticounterfeiting markings to deposit manufacturing elements onto a sheet of carbon substrate. The top layer consisted of tiny iron particles that cause nanotubes to grow under proper conditions. Under that was a layer of flaked aluminum oxide, and beneath that was a release layer the team could activate with a solvent to loosen the aluminum oxide and iron. The process took off in a mesh cage placed into a furnace, where the flakes lifted off and “flew” in the chemical breeze of hydrogen Top photo: Microscopic bundles of “odako” grown at Rice and acetylene flowing through the producUniversity shows single-walled nanotubes lifting iron and tion chamber while arrays of nanotubes grew aluminum oxide “kites” as they grow while remaining firmly vertically in tight, forest-like formations under rooted in a carbon base. them. The resulting mats of tubes looked remarkably like the pile of a carpet. Bottom photo: Odako grow from carbon fibers treated with While other methods used to grow SWNTs iron and an aluminum oxide catalyst. The bare fibers at left have yielded a paltry 0.5 percent ratio of nanowere covered during the catalyst deposition process. tubes to substrate materials, Hauge’s technique brought the yield up to an incredible 400 percent. Pint said that the process will likely facilitate large-scale SWNT growth. Photos show that the odako follow the rounded form of the fibers even while growing to great lengths, though the researchers note that shorter may be better for the manufacture of composite materials. Odako growth may even be possible on other materials, such as quartz fibers and a variety of metals. “If we could get these growing so that we can pull one end out of the furnace while the other end is still inside growing, then we should be able to grow meter-long material and start weaving it,” Hauge said. The key is the holy grail of nanotube growth: a catalyst that will not become depleted, enabling furnaces to churn out continuous threads of material. “You have to make that catalyst stay alive indefinitely,” Hauge said. “That’s a very difficult thing to do, but it’s not impossible.” —Mike Williams
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McDevitt’s lab is all about miniaturization. It combines the latest technology from microcomputing, nanotechnology and biotechnology to shrink all the functions of a state-of-the-art clinical laboratory onto a microchip the size of a postage stamp.
Health Care: Helping Africa Can Pay U.S. Dividends Technology often is blamed for the rise in U.S. medical spending from 5 percent of the U.S. economy in 1960 to 16.5 percent today. But what if the steady stream of surgical tools, designer drugs and diagnostic gadgets coming out of university laboratories could make health care cheaper — and save lives in underdeveloped countries at the same time? It’s already happening in Houston’s Texas Medical Center, where engineering researchers from Rice University and Austin-based start-up LabNow are putting the finishing touches on a toaster-sized machine that is designed to diagnose virtually any disease or medical condition for a fraction of the cost of modern U.S. clinical assays. The machine already works for HIV monitoring and heart-attack screens and soon will be used to diagnose various kinds of cancer. Rice bioengineer John McDevitt originally designed the device for use in rural Africa. McDevitt recently moved his laboratory from Austin to Rice University’s BioScience Research Collaborative, home to Rice’s Department of Bioengineering, one of the top 10 biomedical engineering programs in the nation as ranked by U.S. News & World Report. “Typically the developing world gets the leftovers when it comes to medical technologies,” said McDevitt, Rice’s Brown-Wiess Professor in Bioengineering and Chemistry. “For HIV immune-function testing, which is one of the most significant humanitarian problems on the planet, we went to Africa first. Tens of millions of people need these tests in sub-Saharan Africa, but only about 30 percent of the population is now being served.” The remaining 70 percent of the population lives in rural areas without the stable electricity, refrigerators and trained lab personnel needed to run the complicated tests now in use. In addition, the current tests require a flow cytometer, a refrigerator-sized device that costs as much as a new car.
McDevitt’s lab is all about miniaturization. It combines the latest technology from microcomputing, nanotechnology and biotechnology to shrink all the functions of a state-of-the-art clinical laboratory onto a microchip the size of a postage stamp. These lab-on-a-chip elements contain tiny chambers where “biomarkers” react with proteins and cells in a patient’s saliva or blood. The microchips are mounted on disposable, plastic cards that are slotted into a battery-powered analyzer that determines whether the patient is sick and how sick he or she is. LabNow is currently field testing the new analyzer in Africa, and McDevitt said the field tests will determine how well the analyzer works in the rural areas for which it was designed. Early results showed the analyzer functions as well as a flow cytometer, but McDevitt’s analyzer is expected to cost about one-fifth as much to produce. Trials of a test for heart attacks also began this fall at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM). That test, which McDevitt is conducting in collaboration with BCM Professor of Medicine Christie Ballantyne, uses biomarkers in saliva to tell whether a patient is having a heart attack. “Electrocardiograms miss up to 30 percent of heart attacks, delaying treatment for hours until lab tests can be completed,” McDevitt said. “Preliminary research found our saliva tests could be a great complementary test to what’s already available. Safely moving false alarms out of the ER would have a major impact on U.S. health care costs for chest-pain patients.” McDevitt said the disposable cards used in the saliva-based heartattack screens presently are manufactured using silicon fabrication methods from the computing industry. The cards cost about $5 each, but McDevitt’s laboratory is testing alternative materials that can be used to produce the disposable cards for just pennies. Any biomarker that’s specific to a type of cancer or other disease can be added to these disposable cards to create a new type of test. Now that the analyzer is nearing commercial availability, McDevitt’s lab is making the transition from creating the technology that reads the tests to creating the tests themselves. “Finding and applying biomarkers for these tests is going to be our new focus,” he said. “It’s akin to creating software for a computer rather than the computer itself. Up to now we’ve been like Dell, but we’re going to be the Microsoft of biomarker signatures from here on out.” —Jade Boyd
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Who’s More Generous, Men or Women? Donating to meaningful causes is an important facet of American life, but how do individuals choose where to spend their charitable dollars? A recent study co-authored by Vikas Mittal, Rice University’s J. Hugh Liedtke Professor of Management, showed that men and women take different approaches to donating based on their gender and moral identities. A series of three studies, published in the August 2009 Journal of Consumer Research, examined whether men and women would donate to victims of natural disasters, including Hurricane Katrina and the South Asian tsunami, and to terrorism victims in London and Iraq. “Men and women are different, but the caricatures of how we differ are wrong,” Mittal said. “This and other new research give us insight into how the genders make decisions about money.” Research over the past several years has found that individuals with a feminine gender identity — predominantly women — are motivated by communal goals such as the welfare and nurturing of other people, while those with a masculine identity are driven by “agentic” goals, including assertiveness, control and a focus on the self. The study authors describe “moral identity” as the extent to which notions
of being moral are central and important to one’s self-identity. The studies found that women who placed a high importance on being moral gave equally to victims of the South Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. Men who believed strongly in morality, on the other hand, were more inclined to donate to Katrina victims only. When it came to victims of terrorism, women gave to victims in both London and Iraq, while men donated only to the London group. “In terms of donations, we found that women expand their circle outward,” Mittal said. “They tend to view victims of the tsunami as much a part of “Men and women the ‘in-group’ as people suffering after are different, Katrina, who are actually much closer but the caricato home. Men were willing to donate to Katrina victims but considered the tsutures of how nami victims members of the ‘out-group.’ we differ are With the terrorism studies, women conwrong. This sidered victims of both London and Iraq and other new attacks as members of their circle, while men expanded their group only as far as research give us those injured in London.” insight into how The findings could be particularly the genders relevant for fundraisers and nonprofit leaders. “Although it would mean more make decisions time and effort,” Mittal said, “creating about money.” communications pieces that target men and women separately should have a –Vikas Mittal positive impact on donations.” Mittal has long been interested in examining how men and women make financial choices and how new science helps us understand the differences in psychology between the genders. A 2008 study he co-authored on gender and investing found that women are generally more conservative and seek to minimize losses, while men tend to take greater investment risks, with the hope of maximizing gains. “Women are more nurturing,” Mittal said. “This orientation creates differences in how they take risks, communicate, donate and approach other aspects of their lives. These are not biological differences. They are based on psychology and on the different things that women learn to value in socialization processes.” — Julia Nguyen
Rice MBA Program Places Fifth in Entrepreneurship
Owls on Wheels Now Rice drivers have something to hoot about thanks to a new custom license plate developed by the Texas Department of Transportation in conjunction with the Rice Office of Public Affairs. Learn how to purchase your own Owl license plate: ››› ricemagazine.info/36
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The kudos continue for the Rice MBA program in entrepreneurship, recently ranked No. 5 among U.S. graduate entrepreneurship programs by the Princeton Review. It was one of 25 undergraduate and 25 graduate programs selected from a pool of more than 2,300. During the last two years, the Rice entrepreneurship program has moved up a total of 17 spots, from No. 22 in 2007 to No. 16 in 2008 to its current position in the 2009 rankings. For more on the rankings, visit: ›› › entrepreneur.com/topcolleges Learn more about the Rice MBA: ›› › business.rice.edu
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No one knows exactly how much Earth’s climate will warm due to carbon emissions, but a new study this week suggests scientists’ best predictions about global warming might be incorrect.
different,” Dickens said. “This has been documented time and again at sites all over the world.” Based on findings related to oceanic acidity levels during the PETM and on calculations about the cycling of carbon among the oceans, air, plants and soil, Dickens and co-authors Richard Zeebe of the University of Hawaii and James Zachos of the University of California at Santa Cruz determined that the level of carbon The study, which appears in Nature Geoscience, found that climate dioxide in the atmosphere increased by about 70 percent during models explain only about half of the heating that occurred during a the PETM, not quite a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide. well-documented period of rapid global warming in Earth’s ancient Since the start of the industrial revolution, carbon dioxide past. The study, which was published online, contains an analysis levels are believed to have risen by about one-third, largely due to of published records of a period of rapid climatic warming about the burning of fossil fuels. If present rates of fossil-fuel consump55 million years ago known as tion continue, the doubling of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal carbon dioxide from fossil fuMaximum, or PETM. els will occur sometime within “In a nutshell, theoretical models cannot explain “In a nutshell, theoretical the next century or two. what we observe in the geological record. models cannot explain what Doubling of atmospheric we observe in the geological carbon dioxide is an oft-talkedThere appears to be something fundamentally record,” said oceanographer about threshold, and today’s wrong with the way temperature and carbon Gerald Dickens, a co-author climate models include acceptare linked in climate models.” of the study and professor of ed values for the climate’s senEarth science at Rice University. sitivity to doubling. Using these —Gerald Dickens “There appears to be something accepted values and the PETM fundamentally wrong with the carbon data, the researchers way temperature and carbon are linked in climate models.” found that the models could only explain about half of the During the PETM, for reasons that are still unknown, the warming that Earth experienced 55 million years ago. amount of carbon in Earth’s atmosphere rose rapidly. For The conclusion, Dickens said, is that something this reason, this period of climatic warming, which has been other than carbon dioxide caused much of the heating identified in hundreds of sediment core samples worldwide, during the PETM. “Some feedback loop or other prois probably the best ancient climate analogue for presentcesses that aren’t accounted for in these models — the day Earth. same ones used by the Intergovernmental Panel on In addition to rapidly rising levels of atmospheric carClimate Change for current best estimates of 21st bon, global surface temperatures rose dramatically during the century warming — caused a substantial PETM. Average temperatures worldwide rose by about portion of the warming that occurred 7 degrees Celsius — about 13 degrees Fahrenheit during the PETM.” — in the relatively short geological span of —Jade Boyd about 10,000 years. “You go along a core and everything’s the same, the same, the same, and then suddenly, you pass this time line and Read the study: the carbon chemistry is completely › › › ricemagazine.info/ 35
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Her Honor Annise Parker, a 1978 graduate of Rice University, defeated former City Attorney Gene Locke in the Dec. 12 runoff for Houston mayor. The first openly gay mayor of one of the nation’s largest cities, Parker teased her supporters as she began her victory speech. “I am proud, very proud, to have been elected the first [pause], the very first graduate of Rice University to be mayor of Houston.” She did not make an issue of her sexual orientation during her campaign. “We’re united in one goal, and that is making Houston the city that it should be, could be, can be and will be,” Parker said in her victory speech. “Houston is a city built on dreams, but these dreams have always been powered by hard work, creativity, common sense and cooperation.” A native Houstonian, Parker attended Rice from 1974 to 1978 and was a member of Jones College. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and sociology. She was elected city controller in 2003, 2005 and 2007 following a stint on the Houston City Council as Houston’s first openly gay elected official. As mayor, Parker will work closely with fellow Rice alumnus Harris County Judge Ed Emmett ’71, who is the presiding officer of Harris County Commissioners Court. Other Rice alums currently holding elected office are Texas Rep. Scott Hochberg ’75, Texas Sen. Eliot Shapleigh ’74, and U.S. Reps. Pete Olson ’85 and John Kline ’69. Former Harris County Judge and former Mayor of Houston Roy Hofheinz ’32 attended Rice but did not earn a Rice degree. —Franz Brotzen
Rice condensed-matter physicist Emilia Morosan, who uses furnaces in her lab to create compounds with novel magnetic properties, has landed a highly coveted Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). CAREER awards support the research and educational development of young scholars who are likely to become leaders in their field. Among the most competitive grants awarded by the NSF, which gives out only about 400 per year across all disciplines, each comes with a five-year grant of up to $550,000. For her CAREER grant, Morosan has an ambitious goal: discover and perfect the synthesis of compounds that are not normally magnetic but that can become “itinerant ferromagnets.” Only two such unusual compounds are known to exist: scandium-indium and zirconium-zinc. Unconventional superconductivity and possibly other exotic phase transitions are believed to occur in these compounds, and Morosan is confident that physicists can learn much from the materials if they have more of them to study. When itinerant ferromagnets are cooled below a critical temperature, they go through a phase transition — changes of matter from one state and set of characteristics to another, such as ice to water and water to steam. By appropriately manipulating these compounds, the phase transition can be tuned to absolute zero temperature. These changes are fundamentally different from more familiar phase transitions, such as a liquid freezing. In the case of the zero-temperature phase transitions, quantum and not thermal fluctuations take over, and they are therefore called quantum phase transitions. In ferromagnetic materials — such as common refrigerator magnets — the magnetic “moments” of each atom are perfectly aligned. The reason that other materials, like plastic or silver spoons, don’t stick to the refrigerator is that they have no magnetic “moments.” In itinerant ferromagnets with no magnetic constituents, magnetism occurs even though there are no magnetic “moments” to be aligned. “This is the result of a collective behavior that cannot be traced back to any single atom’s moment,” Morosan said. “The theories that attempt to explain this behavior are incomplete at best. It would clearly help to have new materials to study.” Utilizing the partial theories available, Morosan plans to systematically create and test crystalline compounds containing two or more transition metals in search of new itinerant ferromagnets that could help physicists better understand the underlying physics of quantum phase transitions. It may sound like hunting for a needle in a haystack, but Morosan is confident that she has a good chance of finding undiscovered itinerant ferromagnets during the course of her research. “The worst thing that can happen is that I end up discovering new compounds that I wasn’t looking for to begin with,” she said. “I will take that failure mode anytime.” —Jade Boyd
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Vote Centers May Help Get Out the Vote People have been trying to increase voter turnout for decades, using a variety of reforms that would ease the challenges would-be voters face each election. The answer may be simpler than anyone suspected. It hinges on the creation of Election Day vote centers (EDVCs), which are nonprecinct-based locations for voting. The sites are fewer in number than precinct-voting stations, are centrally located to major population centers (rather than distributed among many residential locations) and rely on countywide voter-registration databases accessed electronically at each polling site. Voters in a given jurisdiction are provided ballots appropriate to their registration address. Working with a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts, Bob Stein, the Lena Gohlman Fox Professor Their findings of Political Science, and Greg Vonnahme ’04, now an assistant professor at the University of Alabama, indicate that have studied EDVCs. Their findings indicate that EDVCs increase EDVCs increase voter turnout in general and among voter turnout in infrequent voters in particular and that they are general and among more effective than previous efforts, like relaxed infrequent voters absentee voting, voting by mail and in-person early voting. The research was published in the Journal in particular and of Politics. that they are more To study the effectiveness of EDVCs, Stein and effective than Vonnahme examined polling data from counties in previous efforts, Colorado and Texas to understand voters’ feelings like relaxed about the entire voting process. Larimer County in northern Colorado dropped its 143 precinct-based absentee voting, polling places in 2003, and replaced them with 22 voting by mail and vote centers. It was the first county in the country in-person early to move to EDVCs. Weld County, which is adjacent voting. to Larimer, continued with precinct-based voting. From 1990 through 2000, voter turnout was higher in Weld County than in Larimer County. “Turnout in Larimer County, however, increased at a faster rate than in Weld County after Larimer County’s adoption of Election Day vote centers in 2003,” Stein and Vonnahme noted. The increase in Larimer County came despite the fact that many voters actually had to travel greater distances to vote at the EDVCs. “The convenience of voting might not directly correspond to the distance between where people live and their polling site,” the authors hypothesized. “For example, a person might prefer to vote at a polling location that is two miles from their house but on the way to work rather than at a polling site that is only a mile away from their house but in the opposite direction.” In a separate study, Stein and Vonnahme conducted exit polls of 538 voters at 10 EDVCs in Lubbock, Texas, in November 2008. For comparison purposes, they also interviewed 251 voters at six precinct sites in Potter County and 402 voters at five precinct sites in Randall County. “The results,” they wrote, “tentatively suggest the EDVCs increase voter turnout, particularly among less engaged voters.” In addition, the Lubbock survey results “also show that EDVCs seem to increase voters’ satisfaction with polling place operations,” which may help explain the higher turnout. The exit polls found voters were generally pleased with the length of lines, the availability of parking and the helpfulness of poll workers. The researchers cautioned that the findings are far from conclusive. The areas studied are small and may have unique characteristics, and the studies cover only a short time frame. However, they concluded that EDVCs are the first reform that seems to have led to higher voter turnout overall and, perhaps more importantly, among infrequent voters.
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Rise to the Challenge
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Why I Giv e
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#61
Name: Stephanie Taylor Graduation year: 2005 Major: Civil engineering
Recent graduates like Stephanie Taylor ’05 are supporting Rice’s world-class education and influencing its national ranking through the Centennial Challenge to Young Alumni. If you graduated between 1999 and 2009, Karen ’79 and Rich Whitney ’80 will match your gift to the Rice Annual Fund 2-to-1 until March 20, 2010. Rise to the challenge and fill out your questionnaire at:
www.rice.edu/centennialchallenge
—Franz Brotzen
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Construction @ rice
Good as Gold This year, Rice University is going for the gold.
Not only did the campus welcome the largest freshman population in university history, but it also is housing around 150 of them in two new residential colleges that outshine the competition in energy efficiency and innovation. In the near future, Duncan College is expected to go where only a handful of other college dormitories have gone before by earning gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. Rice also will apply for LEED gold certification for McMurtry College. The opening of McMurtry and Duncan colleges — respectively the 10th and 11th residential colleges at Rice — marks only the second time since 1971 that the university has added new colleges. With 324 beds each, they are Rice’s largest residences and have equalized the student populations on the north and south sides of the campus, with each side now capable of housing approximately 1,400 students each. Fresh Faces At the beginning of the fall 2009 semester, Duncan and McMurtry each welcomed 75 freshmen, as well as students from the two south colleges that are currently under renovation. McMurtry College’s population was rounded out with 236 students from Will Rice College, while 226 Baker College students moved into Duncan. Most are slated to return to the south side of campus when renovations are completed this fall, but several Will Rice and Baker students will stay on at the new colleges as part of a group of 350 current Rice sophomores and juniors who were invited at random to populate Duncan and McMurtry in the coming academic year.
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The new Duncan and McMurtry students are in the process of forming their own college traditions — such as drafting constitutions, designing crests and hosting social events — by studying those of the other nine colleges. These responsibilities also include selecting the masters, resident associates, college coordinators, college officers and O-Week coordinators who will begin serving in fall 2010. Sister Colleges Packed with thoughtful, sustainable details, the colleges are mirror images of each other with only a few exceptions. Both are built with the wood-molded St. Joe brick that hallmarks the Rice campus, although in slightly different colors, and both feature cypress siding on the first floor. However, the iconography at Duncan College will have a sustainability focus, and Duncan houses a classroom finished with green materials and furnishings and will feature displays to help teach Rice students about sustainable living. The colleges also differ in the design of their masters’ houses — which were planned to be identical until the design of Duncan’s house was altered to save a 52-inch live oak — and in the design of each commons. Though they were built of similar materials, the Duncan College Commons was constructed in a traditional rectangle, while the McMurtry College Commons’ circular shape was inspired by the prospect of accommodating arena theater. Sustaining a Lifestyle With features such as thick walls, double-paned windows, efficient lighting and smart thermostats, the new residential colleges are two of the most energy-efficient buildings on campus and reflect Rice’s commitment to environmental responsibility. “We estimate that these colleges will use half as much energy as they would have if they had just been built to the minimum code,”
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said Rice Director of Sustainability Richard Johnson, who also is a professor in the practice of environmental studies in sociology. He added that the colleges would use approximately 40 percent less water due to their front-loading washing machines and low-flow toilets and showers. Both colleges offer many other sustainable features, as well. Vegetated “green” roofs help reduce the buildings’ energy consumption, minimize storm-water runoff, limit damage from hailstorms, and provide a habitat for songbirds and other native animals and insects. Low-emitting indoor finishes such as concrete flooring contribute to indoor environmental quality. And both colleges provide extensive bicycle storage and are close to public transportation and Rice’s Zipcar services. During construction, as much as 95 percent of construction waste was recycled. In addition, many of the building materials used were manufactured within 500 miles of Houston — which reduced transportation-related environmental impacts — and fly ash was used extensively as a substitute for Portland cement, which yielded a stronger concrete with a substantially smaller carbon footprint. Chic, innovative prefabricated restroom pods reduced construction waste, traffic to worksites and the number of on-site subcontractors. The ultramodern pods made even more headlines when they were featured in the Museum of Modern Art in New York’s Cellophane House exhibit last year. “For me, these colleges represent a living laboratory for how to design buildings that respond to the environmental challenges of the 21st century,” Johnson said. “Students will be able to learn about issues concerning energy, water and climate change in their classes and then return to their rooms in buildings that are physical manifestations of how to respond to these issues. In that way, these new buildings offer both education and inspiration.” —Merin Porter
Feeding the Night Owls One of the most inspired features of the new colleges’ design can be found at Duncan and McMurtry’s West Servery: a late-night service window that students will run as a business after campus serveries have closed. The service will begin in spring 2010, and the success of its inaugural semester will play a large role in determining how it — and potentially a similar operation in the East Servery, which is under renovation — will be run in the future. Tentatively, the window will operate from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., Monday through Saturday. Students will set the price points for the menu, which likely will feature salads, heat-and-serve foods such as Quiznos sandwiches and pizza, and drinks. “We’ve never done this before, so we’re just going to see what happens,” said Rice Director of Residential Dining David McDonald, who will be paying for the operation’s food and supplies out of the Office of Housing and Dining budget until the business is able to turn a profit. He also will advise the students on best practices. “If it’s popular, we’ll expand it, and if it’s not working, we’ll initiate some marketing campaigns. We don’t want to give the students too much structure, so I’m giving them quite a bit of leeway on this.”
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Getting Physical
When Rice students, faculty and staff want to exercise more red cells than gray cells, the new Barbara and David Gibbs Recreation and Wellness Center offers the perfect solution. With everything from weight machines, swimming pools and ping-pong tables to basketball and racquetball courts, the 103,000-square-foot center provides a host of fitness options for Rice community members.
“It is a fabulous addition to our campus in every sense,” said Rice University President David Leebron. “It will help us reinforce our sense of community as we bring students, faculty and staff together, and it will enable all members of our community to stay physically fit while they pursue their intellectual endeavors.” The two-story building, which opened Sept. 25, features an industrial-style interior with lofty ceilings, exposed ductwork, and concrete floors and beams. A freestanding concrete staircase serves as a lobby centerpiece, and pinewood benches, handrails and other accents add warmth to the interior. In addition, Rice has commissioned a hanging sculpture by former Rice Gallery artist Aurora Robson to fill the vertical space created by the lobby’s 36-foot ceiling. The artwork is scheduled for installation in January. The recreation center’s first floor offers 9,000 square feet of state-of-the-art cardio and weight machines, as well as four racquetball and two squash courts, an activity area that includes ping-pong and pool tables, and men’s and women’s locker rooms. In addition, an outdoor-adventure center allows members to rent equipment for camping, rock climbing, whitewater rafting and other excursions. Just outside the building are two basketball courts, and 15 Florida sabal palms surround a 2,400-square-foot recreation pool and a 50-meter competition pool. The second floor features two basketball courts, four multipurpose rooms for group fitness and dance classes, a practice and performance studio specifically designed for Rice Dance Theater, and a large multipurpose activity court for indoor soccer and other sports. The facility, which also features a personal-training and fitness-assessment center, adjoins a new
The new recreation center is part of a major construction initiative fueled by the Vision for the Second Century’s goal of increasing Rice’s student body and raising its international profile.
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two-story office building that houses recreation center staff and Rice’s Wellness Center. Located at the northwest corner of Alumni Drive and Laboratory Road, the new recreation center is part of a major construction initiative fueled by the Vision for the Second Century’s goal of increasing Rice’s student body and raising its international profile. Like all other recently constructed buildings on campus, the center adheres to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards developed by the U.S. Green Building Council. It was designed by SmithGroup (formerly F&S Partners), Lake/Flato Architects and the Office of James Burnett and is named in honor of Rice alumni David ’71 and Barbara Jenkins Gibbs ’73, who made the lead gift for the $41 million facility. “Rice University and its gym were defining influences in my life,” said David Gibbs. “Whenever I would get in a funk or a solution to a problem failed to present itself, I headed to the gym, and after a good workout, I was ready to get back to my studies with the juices flowing. This has worked for me my entire life. I’m a believer in lifelong fitness.” Another believer, Student Association President Patrick McAnaney, raced to be the first person to use the new weight room when the recreation center opened its doors. “This is the most anticipated day during my time at Rice,” McAnaney said. The replacement of Rice’s 1950s-era gymnasium with the new recreation center makes Rice “perfect,” he said. Memberships to the new facility are currently available to Rice students, faculty, staff, retirees, Rice trustees, and their spouses and domestic partners. —Merin Porter and Jessica Stark
Learn more about the center: ››› rice.edu/recreation
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When the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) eased regulations in the oil futures market through the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, the commission reasoned that speculation wasn’t influencing oil futures markets. According to a study by energy experts at Rice University’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, however, the commission’s action was based on inappropriate analysis. The authors of the study are Kenneth Medlock, an energy and resource economics fellow at the Baker Institute and lecturer of economics, and Amy Myers Jaffe, an energy studies fellow at the Baker Institute and associate director of the Rice Energy Program. In “Who Is in the Oil Futures Market and How Has It Changed?” they present new evidence that shows a clear increase in the size and influence of noncommercial traders, or “speculators”: about 50 percent of those holding outstanding positions in the U.S. oil futures market, compared with only about 20 percent prior to 2002. The report also finds that the correlation between oil and the dollar has strengthened significantly over the past several years. Jaffe and Medlock note that, while the question of what has produced sharp swings in oil prices since 2005 is a complex Amy Myers Jaffe one that requires further and deeper study, there are “inescapable facts” that need to be part of the debate about regulating the activities of institutions betting on movements in oil price purely for financial gain. Specifically, speculators, which the CFTC designates as any reportable trader who is not using futures contracts to hedge, have increased their footprint in the marketplace dramatically since the late 1990s. Hedgers are typically producers and consumers of the physical commodity who use futures markets to offset price risk. By contrast, speculators seek profits by taking market positions to gain from changes in the commodity price but are not involved in the physical receipt and/or delivery of the commodity. “To protect the U.S. economy and American consumers, there needs to be greater market oversight,” Medlock said. “The tremendous increase in the market presence of speculators by fifteenfold speaks for itself.”
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As noted in a 2007 U.S. Government Accountability Office report, the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 made it easier for financial players to obviate speculative limits and made it more difficult for the CFTC to regulate oil futures markets. Changes at London’s International Petroleum Exchange (now ICE Futures, a subsidiary of IntercontinentalExchange) regarding U.S. deliverybased contracts also created problems with monitoring and limiting speculative activity because these contracts were outside the jurisdiction of the CFTC. While there were short windows of time before 2001 when the price of oil and the value of the dollar were correlated more strongly, a dramatic sustained period of high correlation emerged during the 2000s, according to the study. Given this new strong interconnection, the authors note, the threat to the United States’ economic health and national security is that the dollar risks getting caught in a vicious cycle where continually rising oil prices feed the U.S. trade deficit, leading to increased U.S. indebtedness and thereby an even weaker dollar, which further drives oil prices higher. The authors conclude that new policies are needed. When oil prices rose in 2007–08 from $65 per barrel to $125, governments around the world, including the United States, built strategic stockpiles. This policy signaled to oil market participants and the Organization of the Kenneth Medlock Petroleum Exporting Countries that governments would not use strategic petroleum stocks to ease prices under any circumstances except major wartime supply shortfalls. This allowed speculators to confidently expand their exposure in oil market futures exchanges without fear of repercussions or revenue losses from a surprise release of U.S. or International Energy Agency strategic oil stocks. “We need to re-evaluate our policies for how we utilize strategic oil stocks in light of the oil/dollar linkages,” said Jaffe. “Clearly, our government needs to fashion a better response.” —David Ruth
Download a PDF file of the complete study: › › › ricemagazine.info/33
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“Randa has developed a distinguished record of business accomplishments, community service and philanthropic leadership. That combination of skills, experience and passion will be a tremendous asset to our board.” — Jim Crownover
Randa Duncan Williams Elected to Rice Board Local businesswoman and Rice University alumna Randa Duncan Williams was elected to the Rice Board of Trustees at the Dec. 10 board meeting.
Rice President David Leebron said Duncan Williams offers a wonderfully broad vision and passion for Rice. “Randa chaired the Houston Museum of Natural Science board at a time when the museum was experiencing great growth,” Leebron said. “Rice, too, is undergoing growth in many ways — in our student body, our research endeavors and our engagement with our home city, among others — and Randa’s record of leadership during times of great opportunity and challenge will serve our vision for the university well.” Duncan Williams is a 1985 graduate of Rice with a B.A. in political science and economics, and she was a member of Hanszen College. She received a J.D. from the University of Houston Law Center in 1988 and then practiced law with Butler & Binion L.L.P., where she handled toxic tort cases. In addition, she worked on maritime and property
Duncan Williams is co-chairwoman of EPCO Inc., the private holding company for three public partnerships that form one of North America’s largest midstream transportation and energy networks: Enterprise Products Partners L.P., Enterprise GP Holdings L.P. and Duncan Energy Partners L.P. She also serves on the board of directors of Enterprise GP Holdings L.P. and is president of DLD Family Investments, a family asset management company. Active in the Houston community, Duncan Williams is a former chairwoman of the Houston Museum of Natural Science board, and she chaired the museum’s gala last year. “Randa chaired the Houston Museum of Natural Science board at a She has been highly involved with the Children’s Learning Institute time when the museum was experiencing great growth. Rice, too, is at the University of Texas Health undergoing growth in many ways — in our student body, our research Science Center at Houston, where endeavors and our engagement with our home city, among others — she has served in an advisory and fundraising role. She also has served and Randa’s record of leadership during times of great opportunity on the boards of the Houston and challenge will serve our vision for the university well.” Zoo, the Girl Scouts of San Jacinto —David Leebron Chapter and the River Oaks Baptist School, among others. Randa Duncan Williams “Educating kids and getting them excited about all the possibilities available to them is important to me,” Duncan Williams said. liability cases at the firm Brown, Sims, Wise and White P.C. She joined At Rice, Duncan Williams is a member of the School of Social EPCO in 1994 and became the company president and CEO in 2001. Sciences Advisory Council and a former board member of the In 2007, she was elected group co-chairwoman of EPCO. Shepherd Society. She serves as a nonboard member of the Academic The EPCO family of public companies provides services to proAffairs committee of the Rice Board of Trustees. ducers and consumers of natural gas, natural gas liquids, crude oil, re“Randa has developed a distinguished record of business accomfined products, liquefied petroleum gases and petrochemicals. EPCO plishments, community service and philanthropic leadership,” said also has an indirect significant equity interest in Energy Transfer Jim Crownover ’65, chair of the Rice Board of Trustees. “That combiEquity L.P. and owns Enterprise Transportation Co., one of the top 10 nation of skills, experience and passion will be a tremendous asset tank truck companies in the country. to our board.” Including Duncan Williams, the Rice board consists of 22 trustees. —B.J. Almond
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Jun Yao, left, and Noe Alvarez stand at the electron scanning microscope they used to capture images of their nano-scale owl and Rice wordmark.
Tiny Owls Take Flight You might want to fly this Rice Owl and wordmark at Rice’s next baseball game, but since each is only about twice the width of a human hair, you’d need a very tiny pennant. The images are made of carbon nanotubes grown in carpets by means of a process developed at Rice. (See article on Page 4.)
Jun Yao, a graduate student in the labs of James Tour, Doug Natelson and Lin Zhong, drew the Rice Owl and wordmark at the behest of his friend and colleague Noe Alvarez, who recently earned his doctorate at Rice. He used a mouse to
Alvarez said that he and Yao made the nano-owls for fun, but they still wanted to get a good look at their creations. When Alvarez later noticed that the microscope had been repaired and was sitting idle, he grabbed the opportu-
of liquid poly(methyl methacrylate), aka PMMA. “We bake it at 180 degrees centigrade for two minutes to crystallize the liquid,” he said. “We already had the image in the computer, so we just had to program the electron beam to trace the pattern into the PMMA.” They used a developer to wash away the PMMA that had been exposed to the electron beam, followed by deposition of a .5-nanometer iron catalyst film and then an acetone bath to remove the catalyst outside the nano-owl pattern. “Then we put it in the reactor, where the carpet grows in
The images consist of more than 10 mil ion nanotubes – each of which is about 1/50,000th the diameter of a hair – and appear to the naked eye as barely visible dots. painstakingly trace the images into a computer program that controls the electron beam of an electron scanning microscope. “I really wanted to use the Rice logo made of nanotubes on one of my slides for the Ph.D. defense committee,” Alvarez recalled. “We finished the drawing in time, but the electron scanning microscope we needed to create the image at the nanoscale was broken.”
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nity to make a few portraits of the tiniest owl ever. The images consist of more than 10 million nanotubes — each of which is about 1/50,000th the diameter of a hair — and appear to the naked eye as barely visible dots. Yao explained that the process of creating the images involved layering a silicon wafer with a 10-nanometer-thick alumina substrate and a slim coating
about 15 minutes,” Alvarez said. Alvarez, who worked in the labs of co-advisers Tour and Robert Hague, a pioneer in the growth of nanotube bundles, will leave Rice soon for a postdoctoral position at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. —Mike Williams
Students Room with Many Views Protecting art from the ravages of time can be almost as easy as putting together Tinkertoys, thanks to a group of Rice students who have developed a system that may revolutionize the way museums handle complex storage issues. The four undergraduates and their mentor, Matthew Wettergreen ’08, came up with the modular system over the course of nine intense weeks. Wettergreen, who holds a doctorate in bioengineering from Rice, said that museums have depended for decades on the old-fashioned method of building plywood boxes around things they want to store. But when conservators at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) approached Rice’s Sallie Keller, the William and Stephanie Sick Dean of the George R. Brown School of Engineering, and Gary Wihl, then dean of the School of Humanities, about finding a better way, they inspired the creation of the Engineering Design for Art and Artifact program. “We wanted visible storage,” said Wynne Phelan, conservation director at the MFAH. “We wanted materials that were not harmful and did not produce acid that would attack artworks. And we wanted a modular system that was easily assembled.” Maria Oden, director of the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen and professor in the practice of engineering education, recruited Wettergreen to run the program, and he in turn chose the participating students: Nicole Garcia, Rhodes Coffey Jr., Caleb Brown and Kristi Day. The students received fellowships from Rice’s Center for Civic Engagement to spend the summer brainstorming, building and learning business planning through the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship. “We took a week and a half to come up with as many solutions as we could,” said Wettergreen, who still has the 500 three-by-five cards containing their ideas. Packaging was only part of the problem, he explained. “Some of the design constraints were that the art had to be visible and that it had to interact with the environment, because some of the pieces are made of harmful chemicals that give off gas. In a concealed and enclosed environment, that off-gassing will accelerate the degradation of the artwork, so the piece has to remain open to the air.” The team’s elegant solution incorporates interchangeable elements of steel tubing, vented Plexiglas panels, snap-on casters and myriad connectors that link all the bits together. The tubes are 30, 60 and 90 inches long and can be combined to make containers of any
multiples of those dimensions. That makes the system remarkably versatile. “They’re still cuboidal, like the plywood boxes, but you don’t have to cut new wood each time you make one,” Wettergreen said. “You can arrange them into many configurations.” Part of the solution’s out-of-the-box inspiration can be credited to the diversity of the project team. “I love the fact that our team had students in humanities and art history as well as engineering,” Keller said. “This project went beyond my wildest imagination in terms of what they accomplished. I didn’t think they’d end up at a place where the MFAH would actually use their prototypes to store precious artifacts.” The museum is using the system to store several pieces. One is a 15-foot piece, “La sordidez,” by José Antonio Berni. “It’s fairly light for its size,” Wettergreen said of the piece, which is made of found materials. “But that also means it’s fairly fragile.” Two other pieces — a bronze titled “The Bronco Buster,” by Frederic Remington, and a wax-and-plaster bust — also were packaged. The team used standard engineering procedures to solve a problem not usually addressed by engineers, and that opens doors to a world of possibilities Keller is eager to explore, starting with a fall course taught by Wettergreen on engineering for art conservation. “It’s a really exciting time to build a strong programmatic connection,” Keller said, “not only in the storage of artifacts, but also in this whole interplay between art, science, engineering and technology.” —Mike Williams
From left, Nicole Garcia, Rhodes Coffey, Kristi Day and Caleb Brown. RiceMagazine Magazine • • No. No.55 • • 2009 2010 17 17 Rice
The Coder Is a Champ For most people, doing something on a lark means buying a lottery ticket or going out for ice cream. For Michael Dietz, it means untying the knots bogging down a computer system under attack — for fun, glory and even a little bit of prize money. The Rice University graduate student in computer science went to the 18th USENIX Security Symposium in Montreal last fall, intending to take in sessions and do a bit of networking, and he did all that. But in the evenings, he and two impromptu teammates coded their way to victory in the Security Grand Challenge. Dietz arrived with no plan to compete, but he was intrigued when the grad student he was sharing a room with, Sunjeet Singh of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, suggested they check out the challenge. The event gave five teams responsibility for virtual servers into which organizers had programmed all kinds of bugs. Competitors had to find the bugs, squash them and make the systems as unhackable as possible. Dietz and Singh found a third willing conferee, grad student Justin Cummins of the University of California, Davis, and the team spent two days uncovering the diabolical traps that contest organizers had set for them. “Our virtual machine had five computer programs critical for a medical application,” Dietz said. “We had about three hours on the first day to try to harden the servers against attack.” At the end of the first day, he and his teammates were surprised to find themselves in first place. “Suddenly, there was incentive,” he said. “We could win this.” On the second night, Dietz and his colleagues worked into the wee hours and found programs embedded within other programs that would trigger attacks by even more programs. “The organizers were very tricky,” Dietz said. “They were doing things I hadn’t seen before, just to try to trip us up.” Between sessions, he said, organizers would run specially designed bots to try to find holes in their work. But a final coding tweak by Singh assured the team a narrow victory over runners-up from the University of Washington. Dietz was low-key about the victory and his share of the $5,000 prize. “It was an interesting diversion,” he said.
This fall, Rice welcomed a record number of smiling new faces to campus. The 896 freshman students were selected from the largest applicant pool — 11,173 — in the university’s history. The incoming class is almost 14 percent larger than last year’s class, putting Rice’s Vision for the Second Century plan for a 30 percent expansion of the undergraduate student body ahead of schedule. “It’s not just the quantity of students entering Rice this year that is impressive, but also the quality and the diversity, ethnically and geographically,” said Chris Muñoz, vice president for enrollment. “We have students from foreign countries that have never been represented at Rice. They bring unique cultures and histories to the university and enrich the educational experience for all.” Among other distinguishing characteristics of Rice’s Class of 2013: • Underrepresented minorities make up almost 20 percent. • The number of Mexican-American, Chicano, Hispanic and Latino students increased by almost 20 percent over last year. • More than 7 percent of the students are African-American, which sustains the growth from the previous year. • Thirteen percent are foreign nationals, an increase of 67 percent from last year that supports Rice’s V2C goal of becoming a more internationally focused university. • The number of U.S. students from outside of Texas is up by almost 17 percent over last year. About 44 percent of the entering class is from Texas, and more than 40 percent comprises students from other parts of the U.S. and U.S. citizens living abroad. —Jennifer Evans
—Mike Williams
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Students A Grand Day for GSA If one can measure success by the number of friends a person has, Tom Nichols is an extraordinarily successful man. The Houston dermatologist and Rice alumnus was pleased to be in the company of many friends when the university hosted its 40th-anniversary celebration of the Graduate Student Association (GSA) in October. Nichols’ hard work and foresight were driving forces behind the GSA’s formation at the close of the turbulent 1960s, when the number of graduate students at Rice doubled from 400 to 800 at the behest of then-president Kenneth Pitzer. Since then, Rice’s doctoral and master’s candidates — including the university’s current graduate student population of about 2,300 — have had Nichols and his associates to thank not only for the GSA, which has historically stood up for students on the issues that matter to them, but also for Valhalla, the graduate student lounge that Nichols founded. “Many, many people made a tremendous effort back in the sixties to have the GSA and Valhalla come together and form better means of communication between graduate students, between the students and faculty, between the students and administration and, ultimately, between the students and trustees,” Nichols said. Partly as a result, the university’s work on behalf of graduate students in recent years has included the construction of the Rice Village Apartments, a reduction in the cost of medical care, new graduate programs in sociology and art history and increased stipends. “Many, many people Other speakers at the event also addressed made a tremendous the importance of graduate students to the life of effort back in the sixties the university. Paula Sanders, dean of graduate and postdoctoral studies, noted that the first graduate student to have the GSA and at Rice earned a doctorate in mathematics in 1918 — and stayed to teach. “Graduate students are now, as they Valhalla come together have always been, a fundamental part of this university and form better means and an essential part of this intellectual community,” she said. of communication Julia Smith Wellner ’01, former GSA president, curbetween graduate rent chairwoman of the Graduate Alumni Committee and an assistant professor at the University of Houston, students, between the told current graduate students assembled at the celebrastudents and faculty, tion that it’s important to maintain a connection to Rice. “Please stay involved with us, whether that means joining between the students the Friends of Fondren, the ‘R’ Society or the Graduate and administration and, Alumni Committee,” she said. “Join Rice in whatever way is appropriate for you — but don’t disappear.” ultimately, between the Last year’s GSA president, Michael Contreras, raised students and trustees.” a toast to Bob Patten, the Lynette S. Autrey Professor in Humanities, who has worked diligently on GSA’s behalf —Tom Nichols since he was appointed to a three-year term as Graduate House master in 1993. Even now, Patten works to maintain a sense of community among graduate students in ways that go above and beyond the call of duty. Current GSA President Kristjan Stone, a graduate student in physics and astronomy who rose through the organization’s ranks, noted that the GSA has worked hard in recent years to bring international students into the fold by creating clubs and networking events designed to coax them away from their research and into the larger community. Alison Contreras, who coordinated the anniversary event and has served as the GSA’s secretary and historian, said the organization has aided her greatly in navigating the complexity of earning a Rice degree. “It has helped me understand the inner workings of the administration,” the environmental engineering student said. “You have to be able to work not just with the research side, but also with the administration. Along with the social aspects, that’s what I’ve gotten most out of the GSA.” At the celebration, the GSA introduced a history of the association by graduate student Laura Renée Chandler that will be available on the association’s Web site.
Kristjan Stone
Michael Contreras
Top photo, from left, Tom Nichols, the GSA’s founding president; President David Leebron; Julia Smith Wellner ‘01, chairwoman of the Graduate Alumni Committee; Paula Sanders, dean of graduate and postdoctoral studies; and Michael Contreras, last year’s GSA president, who served as master of ceremonies. Learn more about the Graduate Student Association: › › › gsa.rice.edu
—Mike Williams
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Spotlight on Women in the Sciences
and Engineering By Christopher Dow
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Women seeking careers in the natural sciences and engineering at Rice may have faced challenges inherent in traditionally male-dominated fields of academia, but many have more than overcome them to earn world renown and to become role models for aspiring young researchers — both women and men.
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ice’s charter called for “a thorough polytechnic school, for males and females,” and the inaugural student body reflected that in its composition of 48 men and 29 women. From the beginning, the university encouraged women in the sciences and engineering despite early criticism about the lack of stereotypically “feminine” courses such as home economics. One mother called the school to find out what the curriculum would be, and when she was told her daughter would study science and math, she commented that those did not sound like subjects a girl might like. President Edgar Odell Lovett disagreed and proclaimed his pride in the “unusually fine group of young women” who bore “their full share in making and maintaining the good name of the Rice Institute.” Students — women or men — who wanted a thorough education could find it at Rice. Rice’s inaugural faculty of 10 was entirely male, however, and while Alice Crowell Dean ’16 was Rice’s first female instructor following her graduation — a teaching fellow, interestingly enough, in mathematics — it wasn’t until 1950 that Katherine Fischer Drew ’44 (history) joined Rice as the first woman to hold a full-time, tenuretrack faculty position. In 1965, Krystyna Ansevin (biology) became the first woman faculty member in the natural sciences, and Mary Fanett Wheeler ’71 (computational and applied mathematics) was the first woman hired in engineering. By the mid 1990s, women at Rice comprised 32 percent of the faculty in the humanities and 23 percent in the social sciences, but only 9 percent in the natural sciences and 7 percent in engineering. Today, those numbers have grown, and women account for 42 percent of the faculty in the humanities, 35 percent in the social sciences, 17 percent in the natural sciences and 19 percent in engineering. Women also serve in a number of top academic and administrative roles. Sallie Keller is the dean of the George R. Brown School of Engineering, and Cindy Farach-Carson is Rice’s first associate vice provost for research. Kathleen Matthews served as dean of the Wiess School of Natural Sciences for 10 years until stepping down at the end of 2008. Rice women faculty chair four Rice science and engineering departments and serve as directors of several research centers and institutes, and many are elected members of professional societies or are editors of professional journals. This year, women comprise about 48 percent of Rice’s overall undergraduate enrollment, including 50 percent of the students in the natural sciences and 34 percent in engineering. Among graduate students, women make up 34 percent of the sciences and 28 percent of engineering. That’s good news since graduate students are the pipeline that produces the researchers and university faculties of the future. Even so, experts say, all too often cultural biases disadvantage women from fulfilling their potential in the sciences and engineering. Overcoming those disadvantages is important to the country’s future economic health, according to “Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering.” The report, published by the National Academies Press in 2007, found that women have the ability and drive to succeed but still face barriers at every educational transition, from high school on up. Those obstacles include discrimination, implicit bias from both men and women, and evaluation criteria that disadvantage women.
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Stellar Achievements Rice, along with many other universities, is making special efforts to overcome those barriers. One such effort is Rice ADVANCE, a fiveyear program funded by the National Science Foundation. (See related article on page 30.) Just as important as any program, however, are people: the women among Rice’s natural sciences and engineering faculty who were not deterred from realizing their goals and are now making some of the most important discoveries and advancements found anywhere on the planet. Naomi Halas is a perfect example. Her efforts in nanoscale science and technology span applications in manufacturing, materials technology, nanophotonics and, perhaps most important, bioengineering and biomedicine. Over the past several years, she has worked to develop nanoshells that can be used to deliver medicines to targeted areas of the body, and that research recently has taken a dramatic turn with layered nanoshells that actually seek out cancers then light up under particular wavelengths of radiation to allow physicians to literally target the diseased tissue with lasers. (See related article on Page 3.) Halas’ incredible range of research has earned her professorships in four Rice departments (electrical and computer engineering, chemistry, bioengineering, and physics and astronomy) and recognition by many professional societies. She has received the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program Innovator Award from the congressionally directed Medical Research Programs, and she has been named a National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellow by the Department of Defense. Last fall, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Another member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences is biologist Joan Strassmann, one of the world’s foremost experts on the evolution of social behaviors, such as competition, cooperation and altruism, and the genetics that underlie them. Earlier in her career, she was known for her work with wasps, but for the past decade, she and longtime research partner David Queller have studied the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum. They have found that the presence or absence of a single gene can influence the likelihood that an individual amoeba will sacrifice itself for the good of the colony. Strassmann’s work earned her a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in 2004, and in 2009, she was elected president of the international Animal Behavior Society. Rebecca Richards-Kortum was already a rising star for her research on the diagnosis and treatment of cancer in women, but she vaulted into the elite ranks of the faculty when she became both the first Rice woman and, at age 43, the youngest Rice faculty member ever elected to the National Academy of Engineering. The NAE also recognized her leadership in bioengineering education and global health initiatives, such as Beyond Traditional Borders, which takes a multifaceted approach to health in the developing world and includes a focus on the underrepresented role that women’s economic and social empowerment play in global health.
These women are just a few of the many at Rice who are making world-class discoveries and leading the way in their various fields.
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In a one-month span this past fall, Richards-Kortum helped land a $2.4 million grant from the National Cancer Institute, won a National Institutes of Health stimulus grant to develop a cancer-diagnosing camera small enough to fit inside a needle, secured Rice’s first grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a needle-free technology for diagnosing malaria, and won additional funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute for an innovative biomedical training program she established in 2006. When Vicki Colvin, another renowned Rice researcher, was named to Discover magazine’s list of 20 Young Scientists to Watch in 2000, most people had never heard of nanotechnology. The following year, she took the reins of Rice’s federally funded Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology, the only academic center in the world dedicated to studying how nanomaterials interact with living organisms and ecosystems. Two years later, when the public voiced concerns over nanotechnology in the environment, Colvin was called to testify before Congress as the world’s leading academic expert on nanotechnology risks. Colvin has co-authored dozens of studies about ways to mitigate the environmental risks of nanotechnology and use nanotechnology to clean the environment. In 2004, for example, she and colleagues found a simple method to reduce the toxicity of watersoluble buckyballs by a factor of more than 10 million. Nanorust, a pollution-cleaning nanoparticle she co-discovered, made Forbes magazine’s list of Top Five Nanotech Breakthroughs of 2006. As government regulators search for the root causes of the global financial crisis — and for the means to prevent future crises — they are asking for help from Rice statistician Katherine Ensor. Ensor, chair of the Department of Statistics, has spent more than a decade developing computational models of world financial markets. She helped found Rice’s Center for Computational Finance and Economic Systems seven years ago, and she spearheaded the effort to create an undergraduate minor in financial computation and modeling — the first undergraduate minor offered by the university — in 2007. Ensor recently was asked by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency — the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s principal banking regulatory agency — and the National Institute of Statistical Sciences to help organize two workshops on financial modeling. The ultimate goal is a computer program that lawmakers can use to test how new banking regulations will play out in the market. Another theme of Ensor’s work is environmental modeling, and she was asked by then-Houston Mayor Bill White to work with city regulators to develop computer models that more accurately explained the causes of the city’s air pollution — work that Ensor hopes to carry over with the new administration of Mayor Annise Parker ’78. New Generations These women are just a few of the many at Rice who are making world-class discoveries and leading the way in their various fields. Those fields cover the entire spectrum, from the nanoscale to astronomical distances, from the creation of novel materials to the development of computing systems, and from an in-depth understanding of the earth to insight into ecology and evolutionary biology. But despite their diverse interests and methodologies — and status ranging from senior researcher to assistant professor — these women have one notable thing in common: They serve as role models and mentors to younger generations of women who come to understand that they, too, can attain similar levels of achievement. This goes beyond ADVANCE’s formalized Triad Mentoring Program to the fact that female students have the opportunity to work daily with other female researchers in labs led by women. In the following pages, we celebrate Rice’s women in the sciences and engineering — many of them pioneers in their fields — as they tell us about their academic careers and groundbreaking research. With reporting by Jade Boyd and Mike Williams
Roundtable Discussion
Rice University may be small among America’s tier-one universities, but it’s a giant among schools with top women researchers in the sciences and engineering — not to mention the humanities and social sciences. For this issue on women in science and engineering, Rice Magazine brought together five who are among the best in their respective fields to talk candidly about their lives as academics and how they’ve succeeded in endeavors traditionally dominated by men. Here is some of that lively conversation, moderated by Linda Thrane, Rice’s vice president for Public Affairs. Linda Thrane: How did you all become scientists, and how did you find your research areas? Marjorie Corcoran: My field of research picked me. I became interested in particle physics when I was in the seventh or eighth grade. I was reading about it and said, “Wow! This is so amazing.” It went on from there. Yildiz Bayazitoglu: I had a heat transfer teacher in my third undergraduate year who was very strong and very well known at that time. He influenced me. Cindy Farach-Carson: economics!
I
failed
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Corcoran: My mom was a home ec teacher and was chagrined that I could never do very well in it.
Farach-Carson: I wanted to be a paleontologist. I loved dinosaur bones and all that stuff and still have a collection, but I became a bone biologist instead. I think the common thing is that your path finds you. My dream is to go back now and look at all my favorite molecules in dinosaur bone marrow. Bonnie Bartel: I was actually in premed. I realized I could take all this biology, but then I would have to go to medical school. It would be interesting, but at the end I would be a doctor. That was not at all appealing to me. Julia Morgan: Apparently my mother knew I would be a geologist when I was 8. We traveled quite a bit to the mountains, and I would complain about all the work you had to do to climb to the top. I was miserable, which made my parents very unhappy. Once, while
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Bonnie Bartel
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Bonnie Bartel, Rice’s Ralph and Dorothy Looney Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, researches the molecular mechanism of plant growth, specifically how growth is influenced by the hormone auxin. A member of the Rice faculty since 1995, she uses a variety of methods to study how auxins, which promote root growth and are widely used by commercial growers, are regulated in Arabidopsis, a small flowering plant native to Europe. Her work has extended to the study of plant microRNAs — regulatory molecules that dampen gene expression in both plants and animals. Currently, she is using genetic approaches to understand how proteins enter and exit the peroxisome, which are subcellular organelles that house enzymes implicated in auxin production. She received Rice’s prestigious Charles W. Duncan Jr. Achievement Award for Outstanding Faculty in 2005. Bartel considered studying medicine during her undergraduate days at Bethel College, but her love of research led her to study biology as a graduate student at MIT. She has enjoyed working with numerous students in her lab at Rice, and in 2006, she received a four-year, $1 million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to develop programs at Rice that combine undergraduate teaching with research and focus on bringing freshmen and sophomores into research laboratory settings. Bartel and her husband, Seiichi Matsuda, who also is a professor at Rice, have “one perfect child,” Ella, age 12.
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Yildiz Bayazitoglu
“There’s no question that, being female in a department that’s dominated by men,
you play a unique role.” — Julia Morgan
Yildiz Bayazitoglu, Rice’s Harry S. Cameron Professor in Mechanical Engineering, has been at Rice since 1977. The first woman to earn a mechanical engineering Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, she studies heat transfer, radiation, energy and fluid flow as they relate to the manufacture and processing of materials. She and her students conduct groundbreaking work in the containerless processing of carbon nanotube-embedded materials; the heating by electromagnetic radiation of nanoparticles in biological systems; and the thermal transport of nanoscale-altered surfaces, materials and fluids. Her work with her students could lead to new ways to cool electronic devices, create nanoparticleenhanced materials with unusual thermal and mechanical properties, and advance cancer therapy that uses lasers to heat nanoparticles in tumors. In addition, she wants to determine the magnitude of near-field radiative heat exchange between nanoparticles. She serves as an editor-inchief of the International Journal of Thermal Sciences and was the first woman in the half-century history of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers to receive the organization’s Heat Transfer Memorial Award. She also served as chair of the society’s heat transfer division and has authored an undergraduate textbook, “Elements of Heat Transfer.” Bayazitoglu has three adult sons, all Rice graduates. She enjoys mentoring minority and international graduate students.
they were looking out at the beautiful view, I found a green rock, and I spent the next hour picking up every piece of green rock there was. I guess that was a manifestation of my curiosity about the Earth. On
M e nt o rs
Thrane: Many of you refer to having wonderful mentors. Were they all male? Bartel: Mine was. Corcoran: Mine, in graduate school, was male. There were no women. But he was black, and he understood prejudice.
Morgan: There’s no question that, being female in a department that’s dominated by men, you play a unique role. Farach-Carson: Were you the first?
Morgan: Mine was my mother, who was a physicist. And my father was, too. The good thing is, I’m not a physicist. Corcoran: What kind of physics did they do? Morgan: She was more in the mechanics side of it. My father did materials science. She tried very hard to have a faculty career and didn’t succeed because she had children. But I saw her try, and more importantly, I saw her curiosity. She actually had interests in many of the things her kids got into.
Morgan: No, but I was the first woman with tenure. Many students feel it’s easier to talk about things with another woman, so I play that role independently of being on their committees. We’re visible evidence that one can succeed. On
F amili e s
Thrane: How do you handle family life issues? Farach-Carson: Marry well.
Corcoran: Definitely. I’ve been at Rice 30 years, and it’s only recently that I’ve come to realize how much impact I have on women undergraduates. One who’s now tenured at
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Bartel: I’ve had maybe 13 graduate students, and two of them have been male. Our graduate students are slightly less than 50 percent female, but there are two things going on: Some women seek out a female adviser, and there may be some males who seek out a male adviser. Those two things have led to a big skew in my lab.
Farach-Carson: All white males.
Thrane: Do you see mentoring as part of your role?
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Princeton came back and gave a colloquium, and she told me it made a huge difference to her to have a woman on the faculty. I never really appreciated that.
Corcoran: You need to have somebody who has his own work and understands your passion and how you’re driven because he has the same passion. Bayazitoglu: I think you have to be lucky,
Bartel (to Corcoran): We’re both married to professors, right? I don’t know how it was for you, but when we had our one perfect child, we could bring her into work. For the first four months of her life, she was at Rice. If we both had a meeting at the same time, she went with him because it was like, “Look at him. He’s so caring.” Corcoran: Yeah, if a woman brings a baby to a meeting, they don’t say that. Bartel: So you have to be lucky there, too. Not all kids are going to be amenable to that kind of upbringing. Bayazitoglu: It goes a little bit further. I have three boys, and they were healthy. But if one had had health problems or a learning problem or something else, my work would have suffered. Morgan: There are a lot of challenges and stresses that go with being an academic. It’s not a 9-to-5 job, five days a week. Children do require a family life. It’s doable if the circumstances are right. Corcoran: I think Julia had the key. It’s not a 9-to-5 job. Even now, I still work weekends. You just have a certain number of things you have to get done, right? Farach-Carson: Research and parenting: They’re both more than 40 hours a week. But
for me, the lines between what I call work and what I call … Corcoran: … fun! … Farach-Carson: … are really blurry. If you do what you love, it doesn’t feel like work. It’s what I tell students: Choose something you love, and it’ll work out. Corcoran: Sometimes I’ll be in my office on a Saturday or Sunday, and my youngest son will call me and ask, “Why are you working on a Sunday?” Well, Connor, because it’s what I like to do. Farach-Carson: I was a spectacular failure at partitioning my life, so … Corcoran: Now you don’t have to. Farach-Carson: I have an empty nest now. It’s nice. It’s weird. My youngest just started college. At about 4:30, I have this thing that starts ticking, and I think, “I have to … oh, no I don’t.” For 30 years, I’ve been running home and trying to pick up somebody from soccer or something. Bayazitoglu: I had a Ph.D. student, a professor at the University of Florida who retired recently — my students are retiring! — who had two sons. One day she asked the oldest one, “What do you want to become?” He said, maybe a policeman or fireman. And she said, “Why don’t you become an engineer?” He said, “No, only girls become engineers.”
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Cindy Farach-Carson
a little bit. Actually, the unlucky ones are likely not around. If you have problems at home, you just cannot be a good performer at work.
Mary “Cindy” Farach-Carson joined Rice in 2009 to take on several roles. As the university’s first associate vice provost for research, she focuses on building collaborations between Rice and local biomedical research and educational institutions centered on the new BioScience Research Collaborative. She is also a professor of biochemistry and cell biology, with a second appointment in bioengineering. The Galveston native began her career as a bone biologist and segued into cancer research. She’s currently part of a National Cancer Institute research project to study how and why prostate cancer metastasizes to bone. After receiving her Ph.D. at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center (then the Medical College of Virginia), Farach-Carson was a postdoctoral fellow there and at Johns Hopkins University before moving to Texas, where she joined the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and taught at Baylor College of Medicine for a year. She achieved the rank of associate professor with tenure at the UT Health Science Center at Houston and then joined the University of Delaware in Newark, where she taught biological and materials sciences, coordinated a five-year renovation project and planned the building of a laboratory for the Center for Translational Cancer Research. Even during her years away from Houston, Farach-Carson, a mother of four, would return every summer to teach part of a tissue engineering course at Rice. She’s delighted to have returned for the long term with her husband, Dan Carson, who succeeded Kathleen Matthews as the dean of Rice’s Wiess School of Natural Sciences.
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Marjorie Corcoran
Marjorie “Marj” Corcoran, a professor of physics and astronomy, studies experimental particle physics at Rice’s T. W. Bonner Nuclear Laboratory, where she and her colleagues work to understand the most elementary constituents of matter. In recent years, Corcoran and her students have worked at Fermilab, the particle accelerator near Chicago, where they studied the W and Z bosons, the particles responsible for the weak nuclear force. She currently is co-convener of the Fermilab physics group that studies particles containing the b-quark. Corcoran earned her bachelor’s degree at the University of Dayton and her Ph.D. in 1977 at Indiana University and is a fellow of the American Physical Society. She joined Rice in 1980 but already had begun her research at Fermilab while a graduate student. In earlier work at Fermilab, she worked on the KTeV experiment, which searched for an explanation to the matter–antimatter asymmetry of the universe. Her current work in the B-Physics group continues the theme of seeking an understanding to this asymmetry. Corcoran has three children; Colleen, 28; Craig, 21 and a Rice student; and Conner, 18. Her husband is a geophysicist with Shell.
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On
B ias
Morgan: I like to tell this story: I went to a reading downtown and walked into a room where about 70 percent of the attendees were women, and I realized that had never happened in my entire life. If I’m at a conference, it’s predominantly men. So I was overwhelmed. I didn’t know what to make of it. Bartel: You notice when you’re in a situation where there’s a majority of women. When I was a graduate student and a postdoc, my advisers were all males, but also my peers were mostly males. So it was really weird for me to come and start this lab and have it made up almost entirely of females. Bayazitoglu: When I go to a meeting, I notice I’m less defensive when there are more females in the room. Morgan: This is an interesting point. Some studies about how men and women do science reveal that men are very competitive by nature, so if someone is tackling a problem from one perspective, then the appropriate way to respond is to tackle the same problem from another perspective and then argue about it. Women, in contrast, tend to be much more cooperative and/or avoid conflict. We tend to define new and unique problems in a field that’s less competitive. I think this is a general observation, and I think I reflect it. Farach-Carson: I’ve been looking at the language we use to describe our work. If you look at the things we write, they’re careful, they’re precise. When we’re not sure, we say we’re not sure. We qualify the conclusions.
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Whereas these guys are, “I’ve just solved this! I’m going to cure that!” Bayazitoglu: This is very true. Corcoran: I would say women graduate students tend to view themselves in a much lower light than the guys. Most of the women students I know are much better than they think they are, whereas most of the guys are not nearly as good as they think they are. Some of them are not as smart as they think they are. I think it’s reflected when they write their grants. On
A DV A N C E
Farach-Carson: What can we do to create an even healthier environment for women in science at Rice? Thrane: We’ve already answered part of it in terms of helping women … Corcoran: … have confidence in themselves. Farach-Carson: Skill building and confidence building. Thrane: Do programs like ADVANCE help? Morgan: One of the key things ADVANCE has done here is community building. The fact that I know people’s names in this room really comes from ADVANCE. It puts you in touch with people outside your department, as there aren’t many inside who can provide advice on problems your male colleagues may never encounter. That, to me, is extremely valuable, especially for the more junior people.
M o ti v ati o n
Thrane: What will motivate more young women to enter science and engineering? Morgan: Science and math. That’s the problem. We don’t get enough. Bartel: In the high schools and junior highs, there’s a lot of peer socialization — whether it’s okay to be the smart one. I think there’s a cost to that.
not the best time of my life, but I could see most of my life was ahead of me. Morgan: That’s extraordinarily perceptive at that age. I certainly didn’t see it that way. Bartel: I was very conscious of, “These are not the people I’m going to be spending my life with.” Thrane: Was it worth the struggle to do what you do?
Bayazitoglu: Yes. Corcoran: Oh, yes! Corcoran: A little danger. My oldest child is a girl, and I really saw this. She was the superstar student, and when she hit middle school, it was almost like she was afraid.
Bartel: We couldn’t do anything else, right?
Thrane: How did you all get here? Were you just lucky?
Bartel: What if we had a boss?
Morgan: I was a geek. Bartel: I was a geek. Bayazitoglu: I came from an all-girls high school. Corcoran: I was a geek. In fact — and this has been really true for me over the years — when I was in high school, I really didn’t care what people thought about me. I still don’t care. It’s been a great strength. I took great glee in always getting the highest scores on a math test. Bartel: I looked around in high school and said, there are people here who think this is the best time of their lives. I knew this was
Morgan: I have no job skills!
Bayazitoglu: I think Cindy had a really good point. She said, “I don’t think of anything else to do on the weekend.” People should do what they like, regardless. Bartel: I would never try to convince somebody that a career track is really right for them. You just have to love it and be unable to do anything else.
Julia Morgan
On
Julia Morgan, a professor of earth science who joined Rice in 1999, studies the mechanics and deformation of the planet’s shallow crust and specializes in the tectonics of convergent plate boundaries, mountain belts and oceanic volcanic islands. While she spends time in the field studying fold and thrust belts, volcanoes, avalanches, and landslides, both above and below the oceans — “A wide range of geologic structures capture my attention and provide entertaining research targets,” she writes in her online bio — a great deal of her work happens in the lab, where she and her team build computer simulations of the forces that act on and mold the Earth and extract the resulting patterns of deformation. Her studies are not limited to her home planet. Last year, in a paper co-authored with colleague Patrick McGovern, a staff scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute and adjunct associate professor at Rice, Morgan drew national attention for her numerical modeling of Olympus Mons, the largest volcano on Mars. Her research suggested that water — and perhaps even signs of ancient life — could be trapped under the great mountain’s flanks. A graduate of Vassar College, Morgan earned a Ph.D. from Cornell University. She came to Rice by way of postdoctoral positions at Cornell and the University of Washington and work as an assistant researcher at the University of Hawaii. She was named a fellow of the Geological Society of America in 2004.
Morgan: You have to be a self-starter. You have to be motivated. Bayazitoglu: Hopefully, what you love will be your strength. Work on your strengths rather than your weaknesses.
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Kathleen Matthews: This Path Is Possible
When it comes to gauging the progress of women in science at Rice, Kathleen Matthews
has a unique viewpoint. Among the first five women hired to the science and engineering faculty at the university, she was the first woman in her department, the first woman to chair her department and the first woman at Rice to become a dean of science or engineering. She also helped lead Rice’s efforts to land a prestigious ADVANCE grant from the National Science Foundation in 2006 to transform Rice into a more welcoming and equitable place for women in the sciences and engineering. (See accompanying article on Page 30.)
“Now we’re doing a pretty good job of moving forward, and we have more resources and personnel to do things that are almost impossible to do without strong support, given today’s demands on faculty.”
“My awareness of women’s issues is far keener now than it was when I arrived here,” said Matthews, who joined Rice in 1972. “I was used to being the only woman or one of the few women in a class or in a professional setting. Things that today seem so inappropriate to me were simply the norm then.”
Kathleen Matthews
Matthews recalled being invited, during her first months on campus, to a dinner at the home of a college master. Upon greeting her, one of the faculty members present immediately asked which department her husband worked in. On another occasion, a faculty member struck up a conversation with Matthews as they walked across campus. “He assumed I was an incoming freshman,” Matthews said. “I had to say, ‘No. I’m an assistant professor of biochemistry.’” Both men eventually became good friends and colleagues. They didn’t act out of maliciousness, any more than did the student who called her “Mrs. Matthews” in the 1970s. “I told him he was free to call me Mrs. if he intended to address his male professors as Mr.,” Matthews said. “I didn’t find any of that behavior discouraging,” Matthews said. “I think that was because my dad was a professor, and I grew up on a university campus. I worked for him in the summers from the time I was 12, so the academic setting felt normal.” Matthews said she considers herself fortunate that she didn’t get caught up in being angry, upset and resentful about the way she was treated in the 1970s. “While I was growing up, it was important that I had female role models around me who were scientists. The late Lorene Rogers was one of them — she went on to become president of the University of Texas at Austin. So I knew anything was possible.” That belief gave her the boldness and tenacity to rise to the top of her field. The year Matthews earned her bachelor’s degree from UT–Austin, scientists isolated the lactose repressor protein — the first example of a protein that directly regulated a gene by binding with DNA. Matthews began studying the lactose repressor just four years later, in 1970, and she published her latest paper on it in September. Her investigations of the repressor and other DNA-binding proteins have propelled her to the forefront of her field. In 1996, she was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Today, Matthews is among the many role models available to women. “The opportunity to have a robust, extended community of women in science did not exist back then because there just weren’t enough of us,” Matthews said. “Now we’re doing a pretty good job of moving forward, and we have more resources and personnel to do things that are almost impossible to do without strong support, given today’s demands on faculty.” Matthews said the goal is not to give women special breaks but to increase awareness of the issues. “It’s about evening the playing field,” she said. “And the things we do to help women — mentoring for example — are things that we hope to learn to do well and implement to help men, too.” Matthews said it also is important to pay special attention to drawing more women into academia, particularly those who weren’t lucky enough to grow up on a university campus like she was. “Those are the people I care about,” she said. “The ones who may be the first in their families to go to college and who don’t even know about graduate school. We have to get out the message that this path is possible — that you can do it if you choose to and that there is a growing and dynamic community of support.” —Jade Boyd
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Sallie Keller: Keeping the Communications Open
It’s
not Sallie K eller’s job to bring women into engineering. As the William and Stephanie Sick Dean of Rice’s George R. Brown School of Engineering, her job is to put together an outstanding team and create an environment that fosters great engineering education and research. But Keller is well aware of the status of women in engineering, and as co-principal investigator on Rice’s ADVANCE program (see accompanying article on Page 30), she’s happy to report the steady rise of women researchers among her faculty.
Keller’s perspective is unique. While a tenured professor of statistics at Kansas State University, she spent a number of summers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where she went from a department where she was the only female to one split evenly between genders.
Sallie Keller
“There was a huge disparity at Los Alamos in general, but in the statistics group, half the Ph.D.s were women,” she recalled. “It was an anomaly, but it was the first time I was in an environment that had so many professional women. I realized there was something that felt different about this group.” Keller left Kansas State to lead the Los Alamos Statistical Sciences Group in 1998, and she found that it wasn’t hard to maintain that trend. “The group had this interesting environment where people shared a lot of responsibility,” she said. “I had single fathers, single mothers, and you didn’t see unrealistic expectations put on those people. If they had a deadline or family issues, somebody would step up and help them meet the challenge.” She joined Rice in 2005 with that experience as a model and was glad to find at least enough women among her faculty — 12 percent at that time — to help attract more candidates. “When you get a critical mass of women — or underrepresented minorities in general — the environment is different,” she said. “So when women come here to interview, they don’t have to be convinced it’s going to be a good place for them. It just feels right. Often it feels a lot different from anywhere else they’re interviewing.” Keller said that having a diverse faculty automatically broadens the pool of candidates when jobs open up. “I’m really proud that, in engineering, we’ve gone from 12 percent to 19 percent women, and it’s been in a very natural way,” she said. “We’re getting good pools and bringing in a lot of people to interview.” She acknowledged that women thinking about careers in academia face challenges. “I don’t think we should underrate the potential childbearing years, which lead women in different directions,” she said. “Particularly in the sciences, and in some of the engineering areas, you get your Ph.D. at 27 or 28, you do postdoctoral research for four or five years, and then you’re in your mid-30s. If you’re thinking about an academic position, it’s going to be seven years until you’re tenured, so now you’re in your low 40s. When women confront that, they frequently will choose a career route rather than research or academia, particularly after the postdoc.” Keller credits ADVANCE for helping keep women among the junior faculty at Rice on track, and although the program ends in 2011, she would like to see its initiatives remain in place here and expand. “We’ve had adequate time to test different kinds of programs. There are certain things I’d like to see continue, like having Jan Rinehart, executive director of ADVANCE — or someone in her type of position — keep the communications open and engage with junior faculty in a way that’s safe and comfortable, and not just for women.” That means incorporating more opportunities for men as well. “We need to build more networks between men and women,” Keller said, “and we’re starting to work on that.”
“I’m really proud that, in engineering, we’ve gone from 12 percent to 19 percent women, and it’s been in a very natural way. We’re getting good pools and bringing in a lot of people to interview.”
—Mike Williams
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ADVANCEing Women
in the Sciences and Engineering Historically, science and engineering have been fields dominated by males, but things are changing. That’s good for Rice as well as for science and engineering.
The transformation of gender issues in science and engineering at Rice received a big boost in 2006 through a $3.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create its own version of the NSF’s ADVANCE: Increasing the Participation and Advancement of Women in Academic Science and Engineering Careers program. The goals of Rice ADVANCE are bold: to recruit a more diverse faculty and to build a culture that provides support to each member of that faculty. “A lot of ADVANCE programs opt for a signature feature like a women’s research center, but Rice is taking a different approach,” said Carol Quillen, vice provost for academic affairs and principal investigator for Rice ADVANCE. “We are really trying to change the basic processes through which the institution organizes and manages itself. That’s a longer process, and success is harder to measure, but if your goal is institutional transformation, you want to shape how the institution functions on a daily basis.” Women always have been underrepresented on science and engineering faculties, but the long-term societal and economic implications of this gap are becoming apparent. In 1990, the National Research Council formed a standing committee on the topic — the Committee on Women in Science and Engineering. NSF established its ADVANCE initiative a decade later, and as recently as 2007, the National Academy of Sciences found that “women face barriers to success in every field of science and engineering.” The academy’s report, “Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering,” came to a sobering conclusion: “Without a transformation of academic institutions to tackle such barriers, the future vitality of the U.S. research base and economy is in jeopardy.” Rice ADVANCE is answering that call with a wide-ranging approach. One theme is recruitment. ADVANCE conducts search committee workshops for faculty that show how implicit biases can subtly disadvantage women, minorities and others. Quillen said strategies as simple as using a standard set of questions for all applicant interviews can help level the playing field. Another Rice ADVANCE recruitment-themed program is the
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annual “Negotiating the Ideal Faculty Position” workshop, a two-day session that attracts women from across the U.S. who are preparing to interview for faculty jobs. Created by bioengineering’s Rebecca Richards-Kortum, the workshop has sessions covering everything from recommendation letters and interviews to lab start-up negotiations and family life issues. “One thing the workshop has done is dispel the myth that there aren’t qualified women in the pool,” said Jan Rinehart, executive director of Rice ADVANCE. “I no longer hear that there isn’t a pool of women, and that’s partly because, each year, we have 1,000 applicants for the workshop.” Changing Rice’s culture and climate to better support female faculty members is an equally important goal of Rice ADVANCE. When Rinehart arrived to lead ADVANCE in 2006, she found that many of Rice’s female scientists and engineers were isolated. “A couple of departments had just hired their first female, and five departments had one-and-onlys,” she said. “A year before that (2005), three departments had never had a woman. Research on minority status has found that if you’re the one-and-only, you’re a token. You have to speak for the whole gender, which puts you in a horrible position. If one of the department’s goals is to diversify committees, that person ends up on every single committee.” Jennifer West — Rice’s Isabel C. Cameron Professor of Bioengineering and chairwoman of the Department of Bioengineering — experienced that firsthand. “When other women came aboard,” she said, “there was a shift in some of the dynamics of how the department functioned, and it instantly felt like a friendlier place.” West’s lab blends the most advanced methods of materials research and bioengineering to create biomaterials that can help diagnose and treat the nation’s three biggest killers — heart disease, cancer and stroke. Her group is using, for example, innovative technology that could one day eliminate the need for doctors to remove veins from a patient’s leg for heart bypass surgery. It also is creating materials that can be coated onto arteries to reduce clots and promote healing for stroke victims, and it is using gold nanoshells to kill cancer cells without harming healthy tissue. Other of West’s research efforts include the development of a polymer that will aid in healing fractures by serving not only as an internal cast, but also
as an ossification promoter, prompting damaged tissue to regrow bone in seven to 14 days. “Now there are no departments that have only one female faculty member,” Rinehart said. Women hold 18 percent of tenure or tenure-track science and engineering positions, up from 12 percent in 2003. Equally important are improvements in the climate for women as reported in an annual ADVANCE survey, though it also shows the need for more training for men and women to make them aware of the biases that accumulate against women over time. “The survey told us that women teach larger sections, teach
departments, aims to boost retention by creating a stronger sense of community among female faculty members across campus. Quillen and Rinehart said ADVANCE is looking at how to continue these programs and sustain ADVANCE’s success after NSF funding ends in 2011. Quillen, a historian, said the experience of her own discipline shows that failure is not an option. “All you have to do is pick up a history article written 60 or 70 years ago to see that the stories we told ourselves about our own national past weren’t just incomplete, they were distorted,” she said. “And they were distorted at least partly because the people asking the questions, framing the hypotheses, gathering
“We are really trying to change the basic processes through which the institution organizes and manages itself. That’s a longer process, and success is harder to measure, but if your goal is institutional transformation, you want to shape how the institution functions on a daily basis.” —Carol Quillen
more new classes, and mentor more undergraduates and master’s students,” said Rinehart, who also noted that women are asked to serve on more committees but asked to lead them less often. “We need chairs to be very thoughtful about how they balance the workload in the departments.” ADVANCE sponsors the creation of mentoring initiatives within departments, but just as significant is its unique Triad Mentoring Program. This program, which joins one senior female faculty member with two junior faculty members, each from different
the evidence and then going from the evidence to conclusions were very similar to each other. “The same process occurs in the physical and applied sciences. And that means that cultivating a diverse community of inquirers is not just icing on the cake. We can’t be the university we claim to be if we don’t make it a priority.” —Mike Williams and Jade Boyd
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Eric Garland ’94 remembers the moment when the record industry thought it had won the war on piracy. It was March 2001, and he was at a music industry convention when word came down that Napster — the online file-sharing service that allowed users to illegally trade songs over the Internet — had been shut down by court order. And that was supposed to be that. There would be no more stealing songs, and everyone would go back to buying $17 compact discs.
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Garland wasn’t directly involved, but he was hardly a disinterested observer. As co-founder of BigChampagne, a company that tracked file-sharing, he had a vested interest in the online revolution taking hold. “Friends from the industry were commiserating and saying, ‘Sorry, man, it was such a cool dream, but it’s over!,’” Garland recalled, seated at his desk in his Beverly Hills office. “And I remember thinking, ‘Wow, you really still don’t get it, do you? This isn’t about Napster, and it isn’t over. It’s only just begun.’” History has borne out that prediction. Nearly a decade later, illegal file-sharing is more pervasive than ever, and authorized sales aren’t what they used to be. More and more people buy single 99-cent tracks from iTunes rather than those $17 CDs, and the market has fractured into countless microniches. As BigChampagne’s public face, Garland helps media companies make sense of this confusing landscape. He regularly makes lists of the entertainment industry’s most influential figures, and he’s a familiar voice preaching a gospel of change: Evolve or die. He calls himself “the guy who shows up to tell you what you don’t want to hear,” and he’s not kidding. “I’ve been telling major labels for years that they need to get leaner,” Garland said. “They can have a very profitable business one-third the size of what they were, but not spending what they’ve been spending. Napster came along in 1999, and the industry regarded that as an unfortunate blip they’d get rid of then go back to making money hand-over-fist. What we were telling them even then was, ‘This is just the first domino. What’s coming next is about to reinvent your business — perhaps catastrophically.’”
Making a Case BigChampagne subscriptions can cost from as little as a few hundred dollars to a hefty seven figures. Wired magazine likens the company’s data to television’s Nielsen ratings. BigChampagne can tell you how many times a song was downloaded last week in Peoria, Ill., and crunch numbers between that and plays on radio, MySpace, YouTube and other online outlets to give a complete picture of a song or an artist’s presence in the marketplace. “When I went around pitching this in 2000, the most common response was, ‘You’re asking me to pay you to tell me what’s being stolen from me?’” Garland said. “After I picked my jaw off the floor, I’d say, ‘Yes. Don’t you think GM or Chrysler would take a keen interest in which of their cars were being boosted from which neighborhoods?’ You should want to know everything about the marketplace. We’ve been accused of validating or endorsing piracy, but we’re simply tracking a consumer phenomenon and collecting good information about what people want to listen to.” Making his case, Garland is harshly judgmental of some of his best customers and frequently lambastes record companies in the media.
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“Eric works with record companies even while criticizing them,” said Rolling Stone magazine contributing editor Steve Knopper, who used Garland as a major source in his acclaimed 2009 book, “Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age.” “He has this unique access to go into boardrooms and say, ‘I have this data you should buy because it’s important. You’d better listen, or you’ll lose all your business.’ He’s been saying that for 10 years, and it used to seem futuristic. But a lot of it has come true.”
Unconventional Trajectory Garland comes by his passion for music honestly, and most conversations with him involve a fair amount of geek-speak about old records. A Houston native, Garland found himself among kindred spirits at Rice, where he earned a B.A. in English. “Rice was a great place to be geeky and self-directed,” he said. “I didn’t realize at the time how rare that is: this wild undisciplined creativity among socially disadvantaged people thrown together at age 18. I just loved the deeply ingrained celebration of the oddball there.” At Rice, Garland played in a student band called Bee Stung Lips. He took it more seriously than his bandmates, installing a second phone line in their off-campus house so they’d have a “world headquarters” for their do-it-yourself record label. Bee Stung Lips didn’t last beyond graduation. Garland worked at a management consulting firm before heading to California in 1999 to seek his fortune in the dot-com boom. Napster’s launch that year got him thinking about the intersec-
and offering advice on maximizing online revenues. Does Garland worry about getting too enmeshed in the record industry? “From day one of hashing this out on the back of a napkin, our disinterested third-party status has been our only real asset,” he said. “If that’s compromised, we have no value. We’re paid to call it accurately. If we fall down there, we’ve lost our business.” As to whether or not record labels can stay in business, that’s not assured. Two BigChampagne studies illustrate the size of the challenge. One concerned Radiohead’s pay-what-you-wish experiment, in which the group offered its 2007 “In Rainbows” album on its Web site at whatever price people wanted it — even free. But far more people still chose to download the music through unauthorized filesharing networks. The other study examined Chris Anderson’s “Long Tail Theory,” which posits that the online world’s numerous microniches can add up to as much collective business as old-fashioned blockbuster hits. But BigChampagne found that the opposite is true. Hits account for a larger percentage of sales than ever, even though hits are smaller — a double dose of bad news. “The depressing conclusion is that the Internet has been a depressive force on economic opportunity across the board,” Garland said. “It’s been even harder on the middle and upper-middle class of bands, just below the superstar level. They’re selling less and making less than they were. So who’s winning now? The entrepreneurial artists are winning.” Those entrepreneurial artists include Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails, who have released very profitable albums through unconven-
“From day one of hashing this out on the back of a napkin, our disinterested third-party status has been our only real asset. If that’s compromised, we have no value. We’re paid to call it accurately. If we fall down there, we’ve lost our business.” —Eric Garland
tion of music and technology, which led to BigChampagne. The name started as a joke, based on Peter Tosh’s song “Downpressor Man,” which is about someone quaffing “big champagne,” unaware that doom is about to strike. That’s a fitting metaphor for the record industry, which ignored the Internet for years. Napster was merely the opening salvo. Napster, which logged millions of users, was a centralized trading post, and a popular theory is that the past decade would have been very different if the record labels had gone into business with Napster instead of suing it. Garland’s contrarian viewpoint is that it wouldn’t have changed much. “Over the last 10 years, think of how many things were characterized as ‘the ultimate response’ to ‘the problem of the Internet,’” he said. “Ringtones, iTunes, paid-subscription services, DVD audio, MySpace and ad-supported streaming were all supposed to save the industry. But there was no magic bullet because this wasn’t about a problem that needed fixing. It was the evolution of the marketplace. Piracy didn’t kill the record business as much as frictionless distribution for pennies rather than tens of dollars.”
Evolution of an Industry Initially, record labels tried to stamp out file-sharing by suing people caught stealing songs. That turned out to be a public-relations nightmare, and it did nothing to decrease piracy. By now, the industry has no choice but to pay attention to what Garland’s been saying all along. One sign of the times is a deal BigChampagne struck last fall with Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music company. BigChampagne will serve an enhanced consultant’s role for Universal by standardizing the company’s online data
tional channels. As for the labels those artists have left behind, their easy-hit days are long gone. It’s the natural order of things. “As businesses evolve, major incumbent players come and go,” Garland said. “The introduction of cars mattered a great deal to buggy-whip manufacturers. But with enough distance, we call that progress. I don’t think the art form faces any threat. Music is as vibrant as ever now, perhaps even more so.”
Staying Alive If music labels want to survive, they have to give and get: They have to get smaller, and they have to give up control to the audience, which is in charge as never before. “It used to be that the audience took orders,” Garland said. “But the entertainment consumer calls the shots now. Record labels don’t like that, but it’s undeniably true.” There are lessons here for every media company. From deteriorating sales of movie and television DVDs to circulation declines for newspapers, magazines and books, every content-providing company is confronting the same issues as the record industry. In this world of iPods, Kindles and TiVo, no one knows what form new content-providing companies will take. Garland admits that coming up with smaller businesses that make sense is easier said than done. But that’s what has to happen. “I empathize with traditional media companies,” Garland said. “But crying in your beer won’t help. I’d say they need to move through the stages of grief more quickly, and you can trace them all over the last 10 years in the music industry: denial, rage, bargaining. Fast-forward through them all and get to acceptance, because that grieving time is so costly. Get to acceptance, and go back to work.”
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With a focus on transnationalism and an eye toward collaborative research, the new Chao Center for Asian Studies nurtures Rice’s Vision for the Second Century. By Merin Porter —By Merin Porter
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pril 15 usually isn’t known for much besides tax deadlines. In 2009, though, internationally minded scholar and director of the Chao Center for Asian Studies, Tani Barlow, the T.T. and W.F. Chao Professor of Asian Studies and professor of history, took note of the day for a completely different reason. On a bridge spanning the Rio Grande between El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, U.S. “border czar” Alan Bersin addressed members of the Mexican press in Spanish, reflecting America’s growing commitment to a more sophisticated style of international relations.
It’s the same commitment to internationalism that Rice University echoes in its Vision for the Second Century — and a primary reason the Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Foundation pledged $15 million toward the establishment of a premier center for Asian studies at Rice in September 2007. “The Chao family’s investment at such an extraordinary level provides the catalyst for taking our Asian initiatives to the next stage,” said Rice University President David Leebron. “It provides substantial support for our goal to further internationalize Rice.” The George and Nancy Rupp Professor of Humanities and Professor of History Richard J. Smith served as the center’s acting director throughout its formative months, during which time Rice conducted an international search for the center’s founding director. Barlow stepped into that position Jan. 1, 2009, the same day the Chao Center for Asian Studies officially opened. A leading scholar of modern history and a critical theorist, Barlow came to Rice from the University of Washington, where she taught in the departments of History and Women Studies. She served for several years as that university’s director of the Project for Critical Asian Studies, which was funded by a Rockefeller Foundation grant in the humanities. When Barlow joined Rice, she brought with her “positions: east asia cultures critique,” an award-winning journal she founded 17 years ago and still edits. The journal now falls under the umbrella of the Chao Center, as does Rice’s long-established Asian Studies program, which offers an undergraduate degree, approximately 40 Asia-oriented courses and support for a variety of Asia-related activities across campus and in Houston. The Chao Center aims to distinguish itself from similar centers for Asian studies through its explicitly transnational focus, which places emphasis on how people, ideas, products and technologies travel across national and other boundaries. Barlow hopes to lead the center in establishing a “world-class, world-renowned research program” through: • Supporting faculty, graduate and undergraduate student research. • Collaborating with peer research institutes in Asia, Europe and the U.S. • Encouraging student and faculty exchanges among leading Asian research centers. • Promoting academic discussions through a program of visiting scholars, distinguished speakers, conferences, travel and international research. • Leveraging existing faculty strengths with strategic new hires, new visiting scholar positions, institutional partnerships and dedicated graduate fellowships to create and sustain multidisciplinary research communities that produce world-class work on transnational Asia. • Expanding Asia-related curricula for undergraduate students in all majors.
Tani Barlow
Currently, Barlow is expanding the Chao Center’s focus to include a serious examination of an ongoing debate about how Asia should be defined and what countries should be considered part of which continental region. For example, the U.S. government used to consider Vietnam a part of Southeast Asia but now considers it a part of East Asia. However, if you ask an economist, a diplomat or even the United Nations where Vietnam should fall on the regional map, you’re likely to come away with different answers. To begin addressing questions like these, the Chao Center hosted a workshop in May called “The University in the World, the World in Asia,” at which international scholars debated the topic “How Big Is Asia?” in closed meetings after the public portion of the workshop ended. “Ever since the end of the Cold War and the beginning of oil politics in a really severe way, nations have fought to be included in Asia for a variety of different reasons,” Barlow said. “Scholars and specialists have different ways of addressing that, but personally I would argue that if you can make a claim, and it’s a good argument, then why should you not be part of Asia?” Regardless of how it’s defined, South Asia is an area of study the Chao Center wants to address seriously. However, students across the university also have expressed interest in courses related to Southeast Asia, North Asia and the old “Orient,” in addition to the East Asian studies that are already a current focus of the center. To meet these demands, the center plans to hire three additional associate professors over the next several years. This faculty expansion will enable the center’s undergraduate and graduate courses to include a range of Asian specializations in the humanities, social sciences and preprofessional disciplines. The transnational coursework and basic language training that result will benefit students no matter what their majors are. “The major will always be something that a very devoted group of students will seek,” Barlow said, “but given the world now, anyone studying business, chemistry or engineering eventually will work in India and China. How much better it would be for them on every level if they understood the languages being spoken around them.” In addition to expanding its South Asian focus and in response to student requests, the Chao Center also is collaborating with other emerging centers at Rice to increase university course offerings in Asian-American literature and culture. In so doing, the center not only will support Rice’s Vision for the Second Century and nurture America’s tendencies toward internationalism, but also will provide additional opportunities for Rice students both to explore the vital Asian world and to discover their place in it. (Jessica Stark and B.J. Almond contributed to this article.)
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When it comes to digging up the dirt on humankind’s past, nothing beats hands-on experience. By Christopher Dow
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The stone ruins of the town are quiet and empty. They’ve been that way since the 16th century, when the people who built this place departed. But despite its age, the town remains remarkably untouched by time or the hands of scavengers and looters who frequently mar the integrity of sites that contain tantalizing clues to humankind’s past.
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his is Songa Mnara, located on an island off the coast of southern Tanzania, and, last summer, its quiet repose was finally disturbed. But the tramp of feet and excited voices that drifted down a path flanked by lush tropical growth did not herald the arrival of scavengers or looters. They were the sounds of the students of the Rice Archaeological Field School, a sixweek intensive training exercise in the techniques of archaeological excavation and the intellectual challenges of making sense of objects and remains from departed civilizations that often left no written clues to the complexities of their cultures. The team of young archaeologists were in Songa Mnara with Rice Assistant Professor of Anthropology Jeffrey Fleisher, who studies the Swahili, a group of people who today are scattered among many African countries. From the ninth to the 16th centuries, however, the Swahili dominated East African trade, acting as brokers between merchants who sailed the Indian Ocean and traders who bore goods to the coast from the interior of Africa. In the process, the Swahili grew wealthy, developed a rich culture and left their language as the lingua franca of East Africa. “The Swahili built a number of very elaborate, urbane, sophisticated towns, including Songa Mnara,” Fleisher said. “By the 12th century, the East African coast was a very interesting place, grounded in an African past but emerging as a cosmopolitan Muslim world. The towns were built of local materials but in styles that were very common around the rim of the Indian Ocean.” Two factors make Songa Mnara particularly interesting. The first is its condition. “The ruins of many Swahili towns can be found elsewhere on the coast,” Fleisher said, “but people either live on them or take the stones to construct other buildings. Others have been well studied. But Songa Mnara is so isolated that it’s been relatively untouched, even by archaeologists. Most of the rubble from the buildings remains, and walls stand all over the site. It’s a remarkable time capsule.” The second exciting factor about Songa Mnara is that it dates to the last century or so before the Portuguese assumed dominance over Indian Ocean trade. “Songa Mnara may not be as interesting regarding the long-term transformation of Swahili culture, but it
gives us a focused view of the 15th and 16th centuries,” Fleisher said. “Also, if you dig sites that have long histories, then you have to go down three or four meters. That’s a lot of digging. At Songa Mnara, the deposits are mostly in the first meter.” Beginnings Although this is the first year that the Rice Archaeological Field School has visited Songa Mnara and the first time that Fleisher has led the group, it’s not the first time the field school has visited Africa, and it’s no accident that Africa is its focus. The field school had its inception in the work of Rice Professor of Anthropology Susan Keech McIntosh, renowned for her co-discovery of Jenne-jeno in Mali, the oldest-known and most sophisticated African city south of the Sahara. Since then, McIntosh has continued her research into Africa’s past, both in Mali and in Senegal. “In Mali, I’ve excavated a tell site — a mound that people built above the flood plain over many centuries,” she said. “At the very top are structures from the French colonial period, and we’ve gone down about seven meters — really deep — to the 14th century. Other parts of the site probably go back to the 12th century. Another mound three kilometers away was a precursor settlement, and that goes down another seven meters to 200 B.C. So we have a whole sequence that is greater than 2,000 years long.” Because of McIntosh’s expertise in African archaeology, study and preservation of the continent’s many archaeological sites and treasures became a focus of the Rice archaeology program. “We’ve trained people who are in the countries where we do our work because we collaborate with these folks in the field,” McIntosh said. “They’re either in the universities or they’re employed in the government service that oversees archaeology, and they often become influential in the management of archaeological resources and heritage in their home countries.” A case in point is Ibrahima Thiaw ’99, who earned his Ph.D. at Rice and is an associate professor of archaeology at the Institut
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Archaeology serves as an independent test of the narratives that we have fashioned about the past, and it also allows us a view of a deep past before written narratives defined human histories.
Fondamental d’Afrique Noire, Université Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar, Senegal. For several years, Thiaw has been digging on Gorée Island, Senegal, which was one of the centers of the Atlantic slave trade. “Ibrahima is studying the diversity of the population living on Gorée at different points in time and learning about the interaction between the native peoples and the Europeans who built houses there and married Senegalese,” McIntosh said. “The most important people in that society were the wives and their offspring. These women arranged for the provisioning of slave ships and were slave owners themselves, so this was a very complicated setting in terms of the ethnicity of people.” McIntosh thought that working with Thiaw would be a great opportunity for her students, and in 2005, the Rice Archaeological Field School was born. Hands-On Experience Participating in a real excavation teaches students how archaeologists use material culture to fashion a perspective on the past. That perspective, McIntosh said, can be different from a historian’s. “When we deal with historical sites, you have several kinds of evidence,” she said. “There are written documents such as ledgers, decrees and other things that have mercantile and political purposes. And there are oral histories. People always have a self-interest in what they remember and why they remember it. Then there is material culture — the stuff that archaeologists find interesting — which consists of those things that people have thrown away — the things they have not chosen to remember.” Archaeology looks at these castoffs and asks how they add dimension to the picture that we have from written and oral sources. Sometimes it forms a different picture, and sometimes it will even contradict other sources. Archaeology, then, serves as an independent test of the narratives that we have fashioned about the past, and it also allows us a view of a deep past before written narratives defined human histories. Rice students with an interest in archaeology are introduced to excavation techniques in class. They then participate in ongoing work for the Yates Community Archaeological Project, a program sponsored by the Rutherford B. H. Yates Museum in Houston’s
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Fourth Ward, formerly known as Freedman’s Town. “Freedman’s Town is the only precinct in America where the descendants of freed slaves who settled it still live, so it has huge historic importance,” McIntosh said. “Working there is exciting because of the parallels with what we’ve tried to do in Africa, which is to examine standard histories in which certain topics are overlooked or not represented.” After taking the excavation class, students can then opt to participate in the field school. “Our students come to the field school well trained,” Fleisher said. “Because of that, even undergraduates have an opportunity to run an excavation unit and really get a sense of what it’s like to do field work.” Field schools in both Songa Mnara and Gorée have affiliated faculty and researchers who come in to do specialized studies, which give the students a chance to gain practical experience in a wide range of archaeological techniques and analyses. On the Gorée dig, for example, students worked with an archaeobotanist to learn how to collect, sort and analyze botanic material. And one of the students worked with a lab to do isotopic testing of teeth from individuals discovered in a grave site. “Most of the people in the graves showed the isotopic signature of people from Gorée,” McIntosh said, “but one adult male was clearly from somewhere else. The student produced an honors thesis out of that work.” Fleisher’s group was fortunate in being accompanied by a diverse international team that included Chester Cain ’92, an honorary research scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, who lent his expertise in analyzing animal bones; a geophysical survey team; a geoarchaeologist who studied soils and sediments; and a historical linguist. Learning the basics of doing archaeology allows students to
Learning the basics of doing archaeology allows students to market themselves as experienced field workers and can lead to the next step in their careers.
market themselves as experienced field workers and can lead to the next step in their careers. That might be in academia, but there also is a world of private archaeology in the United States, such as companies that do clearance and mitigation work for construction and development. “Any one of our students could start working for one of these firms as a field technician,” Fleisher said. On Site On Gorée, which is a small island with a large population, students live in a school, but they also stay for a week in the homes of local families. The experience gives them a chance to immerse themselves in a very different culture. “One of our Muslim students, for example, lived with a family who were Muslim religious leaders on Gorée, and she got to see how Islam is practiced in that part of world,” McIntosh said. “One of our Christian students lived with that same family, and it gave him a whole different view into a world where people live in very large families and where privacy is not a value that anybody holds. That’s very illuminating for Americans.” On Songa Mnara, which remains remote, there is a fishing village of about 500 people some distance from the dig site, but there is no fresh water, electricity or transportation. The students there learned that solving logistics problems and living in primitive circumstances often are as much a part of an archaeological dig as are excavation techniques. Everyone slept in tents, and all the water and other supplies had to be carried in. “It’s very intense for students,” Fleisher said. “But living in a different cultural milieu —Jeffrey Fleisher might be the most important thing they take away from the project. They are exposed not only to a dramatically different way of living, but also to people who are engaged in the global world in a different way than they are. It teaches them a lot about themselves as well as about other cultures.”
“It’s very intense for students. But living in a different cultural milieu might be the most important thing they take away from the project.”
Continuing Excavations For the near future, the two archaeologists plan to trade off every other year, moving back and forth between East and West Africa. Fleisher will return to Songa Mnara in 2011, but McIntosh is looking at sites other than Gorée Island for next year. “Ibrahima Thiaw led the excavations on Gorée,” McIntosh said, “but he recently was named director of the national museum in Senegal, so he’s become a very busy guy. We’re investigating other possibilities in West Africa or up on the north coast. It will be someplace interesting.” That’s a promise McIntosh and Fleisher have kept so far. The sites in Mali, Gorée and Songa Mnara are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and the area surrounding the Yates Museum is a National Historic District. “We’ve had the enormous privilege of being among the pioneers in investigating these sites that are deemed to be instructive and exemplary for the history of all humanity,” McIntosh said. “For students, it’s really exciting because everything that comes up is something that no one else has seen, and that leads to interpretations that no one else has advanced.” The archaeologists also feel fortunate to be able to actively research African and African-American history not only on both sides of Africa, but also on both sides of the Atlantic. “Having our American students working in Africa and our African students interacting with the African-American community in Freedman’s Town provides such interesting opportunities for examining assumptions each group holds about the other,” McIntosh said. “I don’t think there’s anyplace else in the United States that has that set of perspectives.”
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Hong has gotten his wish. He recently was named assistant conductor of two top-tier symphonies: the Pittsburgh and Seattle symphony orchestras. The appointments came on the heels of stints as assistant conductor of Orchestre National de France and associate conductor of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. Born in Incheon, South Korea, Hong came to the U.S. with his family in 1978. He began his musical training on the piano at age 15 and studied at Philadelphia Biblical University, Temple University and the Curtis Institute of Music. After four years of modest work in the Philadelphia music scene, Hong decided to go back to school. It was a decision that changed his life. “My education at the Shepherd School was an investment in every sense of the word,” Hong said. “It prepared me to pass auditions and to stand in front of the world’s best orchestras, but at the Shepherd School, you also learn about how to have a good career.” Hong credits his good career start to the faculty of the Shepherd School, particularly Rachleff, the Walter Kris Hubert Professor of Orchestra Conducting, with whom he studied. “I can’t say enough about Larry Rachleff. He is the complete package,” Hong said. “He’s a phenomenal conductor — second to none — and a unique teacher. When he takes on new students, he commits and invests not just in their talents, but in their lives.” During his time at Rice, Hong also worked with Richard Bado, professor of opera and director of the Opera Studies Program. Hong learned about staging, singers and the idiosyncrasies of opera, and Bado then invited him to conduct an entire opera. “That’s the thing about the Shepherd School,” Hong said. “The faculty here is unified and has one common goal: to teach and equip students to do well and excel. The environment that is created is one of collaboration of the highest order. Faculty members are constantly stopping by rehearsals and showing up during the course of preparation to offer insights. That just doesn’t happen at other schools.” As assistant conductor at Pittsburgh, Hong will assist with programming, conduct educational and community concerts, and lead preconcert talks. He has similar responsibilities in Seattle, where he also will conduct rehearsals and performances. Hong will split his time between both cities and continue to travel for guest opportunities. “A conductor is a spokesman for the composer,” Hong said. “As a conductor you have the chance to initiate the music-making process. It’s inspirational and rewarding in so many ways.” Hong hopes to embody the principles he learned at Rice during the next phase in his life. He also is looking forward to marrying and starting a family with his longtime girlfriend. “I know this sounds trite,” he said, “but she is my source of inspiration.” —Jessica Stark
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Thomas Hong
Thomas Hong ’08 said the most valuable lesson he learned from Rice conductor Larry Rachleff applies to life as much as it does to music. “Larry always says if you conduct great, great things will happen,” Hong said. “When I was younger I had all these lofty goals, but it’s much simpler now. I just want to enjoy every opportunity I have to work with great musicians and orchestras.”
“A conductor is a spokesman for the composer. As a conductor you have the chance to initiate the music-making process. It’s inspirational and rewarding in so many ways.” —Thomas Hong
Arts
Keeping a Cool Head
There was a giant disembodied head of George Jones in the middle of Rice Gallery.
Created by the Tennessee-born artist Wayne White, the enormous noggin was the centerpiece of his installation “Big Lectric Fan to Keep Me Cool While I Sleep,” and it was something only a Southerner like White could come up with. George Jones is the bad-boy country music icon who blended incredible talent with infamous booze-fueled antics — among them an eight-mile lawnmower ride for a drink after his wife took his car keys. White has a particularly Southern take on the performer and blends admiration with wry acknowledgment of the singer’s tragic flaws. White’s George Jones was a massive puppet head, a caricature
White conveyed that humid restlessness via a peephole in the back of Jones’ head. The viewer could peer into the unquiet inner workings of the musician’s brain, where a marionette in a rhinestonestudded suit danced continuously amid flickering stage lights while the sun endlessly rose and set behind it. Meanwhile, in an effort to conjure a cooling breeze, White turned a small side gallery into an “ice house,” pun intended. The walls were painted in a rustic, blue-tinged faux bois, and a cartoony Styrofoam “ice sculpture” rested in the center and little Styrofoam icicles collected on the walls. White painted the text of the title on the walls and floors of the gallery in giant, 3-D, billboard-style letters. It’s a device he uses in his
He kept imagining Jones in the city as a young man in those years before air conditioning, “full of crazy artistic passion and making music history.”
carved from Styrofoam and tilted on its side as if passed out. Deftly painted beard stubble covered Jones’ jaw, while his circa-1950s flattop was crafted from cardboard tubes sprouting from the top of his head. His bloodshot eyes slowly rolled in his head, and when you pulled a nearby rope, his mouth opened to waft booze and a recorded snore. The exhibition title “Big Lectric Fan to Keep Me Cool While I Sleep” was taken from the lyrics of Jones’ song “Ragged but Right.” According to White, the song was playing in his head when he visited Houston last summer. He kept imagining Jones in the city as a young man in those years before air conditioning, “full of crazy artistic passion and making music history.”
thrift-store paintings — cheesy mass-produced landscapes the artist alters by painting over them with amusing or absurd phrases and words like “Failed Abstract Paintings Seventies” or “Tinted Lard.” While the text was crisply executed, the sculptural elements of the installation were especially impressive, with good reason: White’s a pro. In addition to his fine art career, he’s renowned for his Emmy Award–winning work on the sets and puppets of Pee-wee’s Playhouse as well as for his art direction of Peter Gabriel’s classic stop-motion music video for “Big Time.” Jones, who is clean and sober now, reportedly called White to thank him for the exhibit. —Kelly Klaasmeyer
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Spirit of the Dance • By Leslie Contreras Schwartz
The dancers, grouped in pairs, spread out across the floor of the dance studio in Rice’s new Barbara and David Gibbs Recreation and Wellness Center. One member of each pair begins an impromptu dance, while the other — a human shadow — immediately repeats the steps. In moments, the large, brightly lit room is filled with figures leaping, spinning, contracting, rolling on the floor and performing ballet-style pirouettes. These are the members of Rice Dance Theatre (RDT), which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. The styles they employ span the array of contemporary dance: from ballet and jazz to unconventional moves — diverse training that allows students of all dance backgrounds to find a place within the company and provides the rigor that teaches students skills important to their success in Rice’s academic environment.
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Arts “Dance training is excellent life training,” said Leslie Scates, assistant director for dance and RDT leader. Scates expects her dancers to be open, not hold back and not resist. Above all, they must offer their best. Since joining Rice in August 2008, Scates has seen students change dramatically through the work they do for RDT. “As their confidence grows,” she said, “they are willing to try new things.” RDT held special appeal for mechanical engineering major and company president Emily Jacob ’10, who danced for a preprofessional company while she was in high school. Despite her technically oriented major, she “just wanted to keep dancing in college.” Her involvement in the preprofessional company required four hours of practice every day in ballet and jazz, but immediately after joining RDT, Jacob realized the Rice dance company was different. “I don’t have to stress out trying to be the best one there,” she said. “In my life, that helps a lot. It’s a fantastic outlet for emotions.” For fellow RDT president Prudence Sun ’10, a biochemistry and cell biology major, the company proved to be the right fit as well, even though she had less dance training than Jacob. “At a college with a dance major, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to join a company and dance,” she said. “I’m really grateful.” RDT trains under the mentorship and guidance of Scates, a Houston-based dancer who has choreographed pieces since 1989 for various companies. She teaches RDT members techniques in her specialty, improvisational dance, which is an experimental dance form that includes modern dance, wrestling and the Japanese martial art of aikido. It is a form of dance that has little or no choreography, but it does involve humor and one-on-one communication — aspects that Scates considers important parts of dancing’s benefits. RDT’s training is “more open” than other dance classes, said Stephanie Dunlop ’11, RDT vice president. “Leslie is really good at getting us to go outside our personal box. And there are a lot of good people in the company with me. We support each other as dancers and friends. Dancing is a great release after the rigors of homework. I don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t dance.” In addition to receiving training from Scates, the company benefits from visits by world-renowned guest artists throughout the year. At a September practice in the studio, students trained in speed choreography as part of a series of courses in composition and technique. The class, taught by Erin Reck of New York City’s Torque Dance, challenged students to use space and varying levels of control and dynamics to create their own dances. “This is not about the product but the process,” Reck told the class. “You are gaining solid tools to create a product in the studio.” Each fall, students audition for the company, which holds performances in the fall and spring. The company’s 21 dancers learn what Scates calls “the language” of dance through twicea-week intermediate modern dance technique classes. There also are weekly practices for choreographed dances. Dancers who have been involved with the company for at least a year get the opportunity to choreograph a dance for the fall or spring performances. Past student performances reveal an appreciation for an array of dance styles. RDT’s fall 2008 production, “Muscle Memories,” contained tango-inspired ballet, modern lyrical dance set to poems by Pablo Neruda and an avant-garde dance duet composed around chairs. The spring 2009 production, “Retrospection,” featured performances with a range of themes, including an interpretive dance set to the introduction of James Agee’s novel “A Death in the Family,” a ballet-like dance using Latin music, and a whimsical piece introduced by strange and dark verse. Students with a passion for dance began RDT three decades ago, and that passion remains one of the company’s core
elements. Originally part of Kinesiology and the recreation center program, RDT now is offered within the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts. Choreographer and dancer Linda Phenix was first to helm the company, along with fellow dancer Christine Lidvall, who served as dance coordinator until last year. Since the company’s inception, it has grown to garner much campus support, including Rice grants and its own state-of-the-art dance studio in the new Gibbs Recreation Center. At the center of the company’s purpose is an approach that includes dancers of all backgrounds, said Rebecca Valls, who served as director of RDT from 2000 to 2008 and now is assistant professor of dance at the University of Houston. “RDT is an inclusive organization meant to foster creativity and share the joy of dancing together both in class and on stage,” Valls said. “The company always has had a mixture of beginners and advanced dancers. It’s a democratic spirit that works at Rice.” It is that spirit of fellowship that keeps RDT going strong, Scates affirms. “In every piece of choreography,” she said, “it’s like a little family gets created.”
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Fire of Change Henry David Thoreau is famous for being one of America’s first environmentalists thanks to “Walden,” his reflection on simple living in natural surroundings penned while on a retreat at Walden Pond. He had much to reflect on. The year before he took up residence there, he and a friend lit a campfire to cook a simple meal and accidentally ignited a fire that burned 300 acres of forest outside of Concord, Mass. The fire and its catalyzing effect on Thoreau is the subject of “Woodsburner: A Novel” (Doubleday, 2009) by John Pipkin ’97. Prior to the incident, Thoreau is lost, plagued by indecision and attempting to resign himself to a career designing pencils at his father’s factory. He dreams of more important work, but the tension between artistic fulfillment and economic necessity will require a life-shaping change. Told through the viewpoints of Thoreau and several other sharply etched characters, the book portrays an America in transition from fledgling agrarian nation to major industrialized power. This transition is ironically apparent in a passage in which a fire-and-brimstone preacher looks over the 100 barrels of molasses in which the panes for his new stained-glass window have been suspended to protect them from shock during shipment. “Ingenious, he thought. There was no end to the clever feats man could achieve when guided by the hand of heaven.” Pipkin’s suspenseful, complex narrative is filled with impeccable period detail, and it provides a fresh perspective into both the life of an American legend and the ways we have chosen to utilize the opportunities presented by the New World. —Christopher Dow
Farm to Market Small-scale farming and ranching may seem like an anachronism in this day of huge agribusinesses, but niche agriculture is making a comeback — as you can readily see in the pages of “Growing Good Things to Eat in Texas: Profiles of Organic Farmers and Ranchers Across the State” (Texas A&M University Press, 2009) by Pamela Walker ’91, former assistant director of Rice’s Center for the Study of Cultures. In the book, Walker profiles 10 Texas farms and ranches specializing in organic food products, and from South Texas Organics in the Rio Grande Valley to Animal Farm in the Brenham area to Boggy Creek Farm, an urban farm in east Austin, the output of these operations is as diverse as the management styles of the men and women who run them. Walker devotes sections to two categories of agricultural products we don’t normally think of in terms of organic: dairy and meat. One of the two dairy farms she profiles is located in the Hill Country and the other in Northeast Texas, and their characters are as different as their locations. In the category of meat, ranches with a typical array of chicken and beef predominate, but more curious is Permian Sea Organics, home to a miniature ocean ecosystem pooled beneath the West Texas sun. This “ranch” harvests shrimp fed on plankton grown without chemicals or preservatives. The large-format book, which is filled with photos by landscape and documentary photographer Linda Walsh, amply demonstrates how organic farming and ranching operations can provide fulfilling lives for the people who own and run them. It also chronicles the trials and tribulations some of these operations have faced not only in delivering products that are certifiably organic, but also in dealing with the failures of federal and state agricultural agencies to provide technical and regulatory assistance. —Christopher Dow
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on the
Soular Energy Sharon “Shay” Bintliff ’57 has accomplished more in her life than most people. A renowned M.D. in Hawaii, she is director of the emergency department at Hale Hoòla Hamakua Hospital on the Big Island, and she has taught at the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s John A. Burns School of Medicine and served as director of the Birth Defects Center at Kapi‘olani Medical Center. She also is a well-known Hawaiian surfer, among many other accomplishments. But the one thing she couldn’t do was save the life of her granddaughter, Ileiana, who died at age 11 after a four-year battle with cancer. Bintliff dealt with her grief through her poetry, and the result is “Soular Energy: A Collection of Poetry” (Ho‘onanea Publishing Co., 2008), inspired by her g r a n d d au g h t e r. “ E ve n as an emergency room doctor, I had so much to learn,” Bintliff said. “I think of Ileiana and all that her life taught me, and yesterday seems less painful, and I am unafraid of tomorrow.” The poems are joyful, hopeful and unflinchingly honest and often carry deep currents. “I have used some of these poems to enable patients understand and deal with loss,” wrote her colleague, Dr. David Elpern, who calls Bintliff a treasure of Hawaii. “They are eloquent, direct, heartfelt and powerfully therapeutic.”
Bookshelf
Desegregating Private Universities in the South The growing civil rights movement in the two decades following World War II brought legislation and court orders mandating the desegregation of public institutions of higher education across the U.S. Private universities in the South, however, were another matter, and their boards often resisted the changes taking place at public universities, generally at the expense of academic viability. In “Desegregating Private Higher Education in the South: Duke, Emory, Rice, Tulane, and Vanderbilt” (Louisiana State University Press, 2008), Rice centennial historian Melissa Kean explores the pressures that prompted desegregation at five of the region’s most prestigious private universities. She also shows how leaders at these universities sought to strengthen their schools’ national position and reputation while simultaneously answering the call to end segregation. —Christopher Dow
—Christopher Dow
“Essentials of Contemporary Management,” by Jennifer M. George, the Mary Gibbs Jones Professor of Management and professor of psychology at Rice, and Gareth R. Jones (McGrawHill/Irwin, 2008)
“Windswept,” by Ann Macela (Fredericka Meiners ’63) (Medallion Press, 2008)
“Vital Statistics on the Presidency: The Definitive Source for Data and Analysis on the American Presidency,” by Lyn Ragsdale, the Radoslav A. Tsanoff Chair of Public Affairs, and dean of the School of Social Sciences at Rice (CQ Press, 2008)
“Bouncing Billy: A Learning Adventure,” by Ricky Pierce ’83 (Outskirts Press, 2008)
“Planting the Union Flag in Texas: The Campaigns of Major General Nathaniel P. Banks in the West,” by Stephen A. Dupree ’64 (Texas A&M University Press, 2008)
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By Christopher Dow
Most of us are content with pursuing one sport at a time, but not the ironmen and ironwomen of Rice University Cycling and Triathlon (RUCT). The club, which began in spring 2009, is woven of two strands of student-inspired athletics. The first is the Rice Cycling Team, revived from dormancy two years ago by Jasper Yan ’10 and Juan Zapata ’08. Yan said his interest in cycling began with Beer Bike. “I got into Beer Bike during my freshman year,” he said. “I went out to the track almost every day, and I loved riding fast. After I bought my own bike, though, I realized that there’s so much more to cycling than riding around a track.” Yan searched online for other cycling enthusiasts on campus and found Zapata. The two decided to re-form the cycling club to facilitate cycling for recreation, fitness and competitive racing. One of the first to join was Yuekai Sun ’10. “I got involved through Beer Bike, too, about a year later,” Sun said. “Basically, I was pulled off the stands on race day to fill a gap in the Baker College team. It was the first time I’d ridden a bike.” He liked it so much that he, too, bought a bike, and soon after, he went on his first ride with Yan, who told him he should join the club. “That first year, we weren’t very organized,” Yan said, “because we had to start from scratch.” Part of starting from scratch was attracting a faculty/staff adviser, and they found Ryan Moore, manager of networking for the Office of Information Technology. As an undergraduate, Moore had raced for the University of Colorado
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at Boulder cycling team, and after graduating, he raced mountain bikes as an amateur. “I’m not qualified to coach,” Moore said, “but I’ve tried to give them tips, share my experiences and go out on training rides. Eventually, the team will need a permanent coach, but for now, it has brought in coaches — such as the coach of the Woodlands Cycling Club and the staff of Bike Barn, one of the team’s sponsors — to do sessions.” Considering the team’s young age and minimal coaching, it already has made a strong showing. In spring 2009, it competed in its first intercollegiate competition — Division 2 of the South Central Collegiate Cycling Conference championships of the National Collegiate Cycling Association — and came away with first place. “Competitive cycling works like track,” Yan said. “Each cyclist accumulates points for the team, and collectively, we placed first. It was a shock, because we went in saying, ‘Oh, well, we’ll just see how we do.’” The cycling team is just as interested in recreational riding as it is in competition. “Hopefully we can draw some of the recreational riders to get into competition,” Yan said, “but if not, that’s fine, too. We try to get people from all sides of Rice, like faculty, staff, grad students and undergraduates. It’s cool because we get to know people we otherwise would not meet.”
riceowls.com The Sprint and Beyond Some of those people come from RUCT’s other thread — triathlon, an athletic event that combines swimming, running and cycling. Triathlon at Rice got its start in a Lifetime Physical Activity Program class taught in spring 2009 by Liz Harwood, assistant director for aquatics. “We had some very motivated students,” Harwood said. “Our final event was the Lone Star Triathlon in Galveston. After that, some of our students took it upon themselves to form a club.” Leading the group was Justin Lopez ’11, who formed the triathlon club with Russell Ehlinger ’09. “I’d done my first triathlon earlier that year in Sugar Land, and Russ and I decided to look into collegiate events,” said Lopez, who cites Harwood as an inspiration. “Liz has been a phenomenal resource. She taught us a lot in her course, which helped jump-start the club, and she has great workouts for us.” Rice triathletes compete in the USA Triathlon’s South Midwest Conference and have participated in a number of collegiate and community triathlons around Texas, leading up to the Collegiate National Championships, held in Lubbock, Texas. The nationals employ the “sprint” distance: a .75-kilometer swim, a 22-kilometer bike ride and a 5-kilometer run. Other distances are the Olympic (1.5-kilometer swim, 40-kilometer ride and 10-kilometer run), the half-ironman (1.2-mile swim, 56-mile ride and 13.1-mile run) and the ironman, which doubles the half-ironman distances. Collegiate events, however, can be hard to find because the sport is relatively new. “We’re gaining events, but we’re still a long way from having multiple regular collegiate triathlons,” said Amanda Reineck ’10, who ran track for Rice in her freshman and sophomore years and had a swimming background in high school. Reineck’s mother was a triathlete and encouraged her to get involved. Although the team did not have a stellar performance overall at the nationals, several members did well enough that the future looks bright. Part of the problem is that the team is just starting out, and while each of the men’s and women’s teams competing at the nationals can have up to seven members, last year there were only three men and five women on the Rice teams. That’s about to change. “We’ve had a lot of interest,” Lopez said. “It looks like we’re going to have to hold tryouts this spring.” The increased number of athletes vying for positions on the team will bring out the best. And those best are bound to get better. Lopez and graduate student David Kao, for example, spent five months training for a half-ironman, which they did last summer. “I was shooting for five hours,” Lopez said, “but it took six. I want to do another and try to get a better time.”
Sports
swim, bike and run full tilt for miles — and hours — on end. But despite RUCT’s status as a club sport, the triathletes practice every day. During the week, they alternate sports; on Saturdays, they cycle up to 50 miles; and on Sundays, they do long recreational rides around the Houston area. Houston is a difficult place for triathlon training because its flat terrain doesn’t provide runners and cyclists the challenges of hillier country. Nor is there a lot of open water to practice swimming. But the team makes do. “There are places in the city, like the bayou trails, where there are small hills,” said Cassie Lopez ’11, whose background is running. “Also, we run the stairs in campus buildings, and sometimes we go to Hermann Park.” For swimming, they utilize the campus pool and occasionally visit lakes near Houston to gain experience swimming in open water. “People ask me why I put myself through all that misery and pain,” Justin Lopez said. “For me, it’s about setting a goal and working toward it. If you put in the hard work, you’ll see the results. Achieving a goal I set for myself is what I get out of it.” Yan said that the club has become a real community. “We’ve bonded over our interest in cycling and triathlon,” he said, “and we’ve become more like a family than anything else.” The students are as excited about the club’s future as they are about its present. “We’ve seen a lot of progress in one year, going from having half a triathlon team to needing to hold tryouts,” Reineck said. “We’re a really good team together, and we feel like we’re going to get much bigger and much better.” Learn more about Rice University Cycling and Triathlon: ›› › cycling.rice.edu
Achieving Goals Another thing that will aid the triathlon team is its merger with the cycling club to form RUCT. “We decided that we had so much in common between the two teams that we might as well unite,” Reineck said. “We’ve been able to blend our practices and have people who are more experienced in one sport help the people who are into the others.” The combined team, which allows students to focus on any one of the three sports — cycling, swimming or running — or to do all three, has stirred interest among students. Separately, the two clubs had only about 10 members each, but since the merger, membership has jumped to nearly 50. It takes a lot of enthusiasm and determination to get through the rigorous training necessary to
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Sports
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He Won’t Be Foiled In the moments immediately following his July appointment as men’s foil coach for Team USA, Rice fencing coach Mauro Hamza could have relaxed and dreamed of Olympic glory. No one would have blamed him. Except himself. With the 2009 Senior World Championships looming in September and next summer’s Senior Pan American Zonal Championships right around the corner, Hamza could not afford to daydream. Qualifying his team for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London will require a commitment far greater than any effort previously spearheaded by Hamza. “I can’t cross a hurdle until I reach it,” Hamza said. “I know there is a lot of work to be done, and that’s why I take it a step at a time.” Hamza is one of six weapons coaches named by US Fencing. The national team appointment is the first for Hamza, although he helped coach the U.S. Junior & Cadet National Team to its first world championship in Poland in 2001 and served as coach of the Egyptian team at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. Those successes validated Hamza in international coaching circles, but he views his current challenge in a different light. Developing the juniors into an international power required painstaking persistence, but achieving a similar level of notoriety on the senior circuit will test the will of everyone remotely affiliated with US Fencing. “A lot of work needs to be done in order to achieve a medal in the Olympic Games,” Hamza said. “Our team is younger than most, but we’ve managed in the last couple of years to become a top “When you’re world contender, and last year we took the silver medal.” Hamza is grateful that he’s not building the Olympic team from an underdog, scratch. “It’s the same group I’ve been working with. We already no one knows have instilled in them the culture to become Olympic champions, but it will be difficult to transition them to competition at a very who you are. But high level. Even so, there is a good chance for us to do well.” when you move Hamza believes in blending physical training with mental reinforcement and video analysis. Many of his potential team up, everyone is members are young — either college seniors or recent graduwatching you. ates — so it is imperative that they follow a strict regimen. Hamza senses a shift of perceptions internationally regarding US We’re on the Fencing, thanks in part to the success of the junior team. spot now, and it’s “When you’re an underdog, no one knows who you are,” Hamza said. “But when you move up, everyone is watching you. definitely more We’re on the spot now, and it’s definitely more challenging.” challenging.” The first challenge came in Antalya, Turkey, at the 2009 Senior World Championships. There, Hamza aimed to give his team —Mauro Hamza some important experience as well as to improve its international ranking. While the results were not a resounding success, two U.S. team members made it into the top 16: Kurt Getz at No. 7 and Gerek Meinhardt at No. 16. From the Senior World Championships, Hamza will lead the way through a series of competitions designed to further prepare Team USA to challenge the international community for supremacy in London. Only eight teams will qualify for the 2012 games, and with the clock ticking, Hamza is hard at work. But taking the team to the Olympics isn’t Hamza’s only dream. He has re-established the fencing club at Rice, and he would like to see Rice fencing compete in the NCAA. He plans to do that by establishing a women’s team at Rice, and as the program expands and matures, he could further expand it to involve men’s fencing. —Moisekapenda Bower
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Students
“Big things happen at Rice. You don’t give to Rice — you invest in it.” — Howard Leverett
Seeds of Innovation Physician-Turned-Physicist Invests in a Brighter Tomorrow On Dr. Howard Leverett’s desk sits a vase of brilliant white roses illuminated by an LED lamp. The frequency of light emitted from the LED keeps the roses fresh, he explains. That observation comes naturally to the former physician who, since retiring 20 years ago, has dedicated himself to the study of physics. “It’s just fascinating the way the world works,” he said. “The harder you look at it, the more interesting it is.” Although he never attended Rice, Dr. Leverett has a connection to the university that spans more than 40 years. While attending Baylor College of Medicine in the early
1960s, he partnered with a Rice chemistry student to research pediatric cystic fibrosis. That initial collaboration led to decades of interesting conversations and friendships with Rice professors and students. Leverett is grateful for Rice’s contributions both to his own life and to the world through its research endeavors. Now, by means of charitable gift annuities, he will establish the Howard A. Leverett Innovation Fund in Physics to help Rice conduct basic-science research that could have far-reaching applications in the future.
To learn more about charitable gift annuities or about including the university in your estate planning, please contact the Office of Gift Planning. Phone: 713-348-4624
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E-mail: giftplan@rice.edu
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Web site: www.rice.planyourlegacy.org
Rice Magazine
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No. 5
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2010
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The snow that fell on Dec. 4 may have been gone by noon the next day, but for a few hours, it bestowed a rare seasonal look on Lovett Hall and gave students a fleeting taste of winter.
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