WHERE ART MEETS SCIENCE
At the Moody Art Center, plastic waste meets bioscience.
PREDICTING AND PROTECTING
Rice social scientists launch a new center to protect coastal communities.
THE SPIRIT OF ASILOMAR
The return of a historic scientific summit reignites debates on the future of biotechnology.
DECADES IN THE MAKING, A TARGETED APPROACH TO PANCREATIC CANCER TREATMENT, DEVELOPED AT RICE, WILL SOON ADVANCE TO CLINICAL TRIALS.
Rice’s Center for Coastal Futures and Adaptive Resilience works to help coastal industrial communities adapt to climate change.
Researchers, policymakers and entrepreneurs debate questions about biotechnology amid threats to scientific funding.
A partnership between Rice and MD Anderson could transform treatment for pancreatic cancer.
DEPARTMENTS 29 10 13 30
A Rhodes Scholar, concussion research, innovation for social impact, the human side of medicine and an undergrad research roundup
CPRIT scholar Christina Tringides, NSF award winners, a statistician’s hobby, ChatGPT, Kinder Institute data, and music and the brain
Owlmanac 57
Classmates’ updates in Classnotes; profiles of a physician/entrepreneur, the time zone king and an all-Owl startup; plus, alumni books
Last Look 88
Materials scientist Franz Brotzen (1915–2010) with circa-1965 cuttingedge technology
HERE IN RICE’S Office of Public Affairs, we believe Rice has a wonderful story to tell and are proud to share many examples of our pathbreaking research efforts in this, the fourth annual research-focused issue of Rice Magazine.
We are also incredibly proud of Rice’s new research magazine, R3 (Rice Research Review), which is targeted to peer institutions and fellow researchers. As our flagship university magazine, however, Rice Magazine remains the premier channel for presenting Rice’s many accomplishments to our treasured alumni, donors and supporters in the general public as well as to our brilliant students, staff and faculty here on campus. And in today’s political landscape, it is more important than ever that we present a compelling picture of Rice’s missioncritical research and innovation.
During a time when so many people have questions about exactly what research looks like at institutions of higher education, we want to make our work both easy to understand and relatable. We want you to be just as proud as we are of the many trailblazing
discoveries and tremendous accomplishments happening here at Rice.
I’ve already had the opportunity to meet many of you alongside President Reggie DesRoches during the nationwide rollout of Rice’s Momentous 10-year strategic plan, and we look forward to continuing the conversation. You may have also seen our increased marketing efforts around the country as well as in our many other university communications. It’s all part of our mission to share Rice’s amazing story.
During a time when so many people have questions about exactly what research looks like at institutions of higher education, we want to make our work both easy to understand and relatable.
We also appreciate your many positive comments about our recent enhancements to Rice Magazine, which was outstanding before and now shines even brighter. I would like to thank the dedicated Rice Magazine team for its hard work on this remarkable issue, and I would also like to note the many contributions of the Rice news and media team. The continued collaboration of these talented Rice employees, all of whom are dedicated to advancing the Rice brand, is truly special.
Spring 2025
PUBLISHER
Office of Public Affairs
Melinda Spaulding Chevalier, vice president
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Alese Pickering
EDITOR
Lynn Gosnell
ART DIRECTOR
Amy Kinkead
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Jackie Limbaugh
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
Tracey Rhoades
COPY EDITOR
Jenny W. Rozelle ’00
PROOFREADER
Rebekah Kirkman
PHOTO/VIDEO
Jeff Fitlow
Brandon Martin
Gustavo Raskosky
INTERNS
Zeisha Bennett ’25
Nithya Ramcharan ’25
CONTRIBUTORS
Alex Becker, Andrew Bell, M. Scott Brauer, Silvia Cernea Clark, Marcy de Luna, Chris Gash, Laurent Hrybyk, Elena Lacey ’13, Jennifer Latson, Amy McCaig, Kyle Monk, Margo Moritz, Sarah Rufca Nielsen ’05, Carrie Noxon, Hugo Gerbich Pais ’25, Scott Pett ’22, Anthony Rathbun, Katharine Shilcutt, Brandi Smith, Chris Stipes, Kayt Sukel
Rice Magazine is published three times a year and is sent to Rice alumni, faculty, staff, parents of undergraduates and friends of the university.
©April 2025, Rice University
THE RICE UNIVERSITY BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Robert T. Ladd, chair; Elle Anderson; Bart Broadman; D. Mark Durcan; Josh Earnest; Michol L. Ecklund; Terrence Gee; George Y. Gonzalez; Jennifer R. Kneale; Patti Lipoma Kraft; Holli Ladhani; Elle Moody; Brandy Hays Morrison; Asuka Nakahara; Vinay S. Pai; Brian Patterson; Byron Pope; Cathryn Rodd Selman; Gloria Meckel Tarpley; Jeremy Thigpen; Claudia Gee Vassar; James Whitehurst; Lori Rudge Whitten; Randa Duncan Williams; Michael B. Yuen.
ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS
Reginald DesRoches, president; Amy Dittmar, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs; Stephen Bayer, vice president for Development and Alumni Relations; Paul Cherukuri, vice president for Innovation; Melinda Spaulding Chevalier, vice president for Public Affairs; Kelly Fox, executive vice president for Operations, Finance and Support; Kenneth Jett, vice president for Facilities and Capital Construction; John Lawrence, chief investment officer; Caroline Levander, vice president for Global; Tommy McClelland, vice president and director of Athletics; Paul Padley, vice president for Information Technology and chief information officer; Ramamoorthy Ramesh, executive vice president for Research; Yvonne M. Romero, vice president for Enrollment; Omar A. Syed, vice president and general counsel.
POSTMASTER
Send address changes to: Rice University
Development Services–MS 80 P.O. Box 1892 Houston, TX 77251-1892
EDITORIAL OFFICES
Creative Services–MS 95 P.O. Box 1892
Houston, TX 77251-1892
Phone: 713-348-6768
ricemagazine@rice.edu
ONCE A YEAR, our magazine team likes to go all in on stories about research at Rice — digging into faculty expertise, collaborations and discoveries. Most of all, we love the questions our smart, curious and highly engaged students are exploring through research.
We are thinking a great deal about these students, staff and faculty mentors as we prepare to send this issue to press amid risks to research funding for higher education institutions. We hope you read the message shared by President DesRoches in his note on Page 6, and we thank you for the many ways you support Rice.
In this issue, there’s something for every Owl, whether you’re paging through a print issue or scrolling on your phone while in line for groceries.
Let’s start with a point of pride — senior Jae Kim tells us what he’s looking forward to as he prepares to enroll at Oxford as Rice’s newest Rhodes Scholar. Go back to school with us via our popular Syllabus department. In this issue, we visit with a Rice Business class to learn how organizations innovate to make a social impact.
After stopping into that course, meet some Owls who created their own syllabi. We rounded up five examples of students doing unique independent research projects.
New this issue: We’re collaborating with the Office of Research’s new publication, Rice Research Review, to bring stories on a promising pancreatic cancer therapy, our new headlinegrabbing Center for Coastal Futures and Adaptive Resilience, the latest neuro-music investigations from the Shepherd School of Music and a new graduate student fellowship funded by Chevron in partnership with the Rice Sustainability Institute, to name a few. Lastly, research stories are fun! Don’t miss these three:
1. Rice’s enormous Library Service Center, which stores one-third of Fondren Library’s collection, gives serious Indiana Jones vibes.
2. An Owlmanac profile reveals the identity of the alumnus who maintains the accuracy of the world’s time zones.
3. A Rice statistician who raises sheep revealed that “the hardest thing about being a sheep farmer is staying awake during inventory.”
We love reader feedback and baaaaaad puns. Kindly write to us at ricemagazine@rice.edu.
Rice’s research funding supports an ecosystem of discovery.
THERE IS A LOT of discussion in the news lately about funding for research. We worked with Rice research experts — and a talented illustrator — to help explain how funding supports our scholars in the creation of new knowledge, scientific breakthroughs and critical insights. In this issue, readers can learn about the impact of research funding across many areas of campus.
The costs of federally funded research projects can be divided into two categories — direct and indirect costs. Direct costs are costs linked to one project. Indirect costs are related to critical infrastructure and resources that help support all research projects. Indirect costs are also called facilities and administrative (F&A) costs.
↑ Salaries, wages and benefits for researchers, staff and postdocs working on a research project
↑ Lab equipment and research supplies specific to a research project
Stipends for graduate students and undergraduate students with summer research positions working on a research project ↓
↑ Any travel costs for doing research and also travel to present project findings at conferences
Did you know that Rice’s graduate and undergraduate student populations are almost equal? Last fall, the Office of the Registrar reported that 4,104 graduate students were enrolled at Rice.* Of this total, 1,690 were seeking doctoral degrees. Today, about 50% of Rice’s Ph.D. students are funded directly through research grants — supporting scholarship in STEM, humanities and the social sciences. One example: Federal funding creates new knowledge for future bioscientists like Robyn Alba, whose NSF Graduate Research Fellowship supports her study of bacteria that make electrical currents in the hopes of engineering them to detect toxins. Our graduate students are also integral to the ability of Rice undergraduates to do research — helping to guide and oversee their work. And, over 62% of Rice undergrads engage in research. Advancing a vision for graduate education — especially at the doctoral level — is a central goal of Rice’s new strategic plan.
*By comparison, the registrar’s office counted 4,776 undergraduates in the same semester.
FACILITIES
Libraries, databases, and computing and data infrastructure integral to doing research ↓
FACILITIES
Utilities, heating and cooling, operations and maintenance expenses for the building where research takes place; highly specialized research spaces, such as the clean room and animal facilities that support multiple research projects; also, depreciation on research buildings and labs
ADMINISTRATIVE
↑ General expenses and salaries for department, central office and research administrators
Funded research often begins with a question: What problem needs solving? Seeking funding support for a robust program of research and discovery is a complex and rigorous process.
Project idea and development
From advancing STEM education to creating digital databases for humanities to developing better water treatment systems, Rice researchers are pursuing impactful discoveries. In FY2024, Rice faculty received funding for 924 awards.
Approximately 65% of Rice research funding comes from federal sources (National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, Department of Energy and NASA) as well as industry (5%), nonprofits (16%), state and local sources (6%) and universities (8%).
Proposal development and submission
Principal investigators (PI) draft a proposal to request funding for their projects, then share these with research development specialists for vetting and improving. Administrators complete required forms and prepare budgets, while grant specialists provide a final review of proposals and budgets — and submit proposals.
Depending upon the project’s scope and purpose, there may be additional regulatory compliance steps and approvals. Once the award is approved, the grant specialist assigned to the faculty or organization notifies the PI.
ADMINISTRATIVE
General expenses, equipment and salaries for compliance and safety
Sources: Rice’s Office of Research, Office of Budget and Finance, Controller’s Office, Office of Institutional Effectiveness, and Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies
The PI manages the project work, including analyzing the research data and writing and publishing the research results in scientific and scholarly journals. The PI makes sure there are clear roles and responsibilities for project and support staff and tracks costs. The PI also oversees the graduate and undergraduate students working on the project, helping to develop the next generation of researchers.
The closeout period requires several key steps. For example, in all grants, researchers will wind down the project and report their progress, prepare scientific reports, report on inventions, document financials and more.
AT RICE UNIVERSITY, RESEARCH isn’t just a key driver of our mission — it’s the heartbeat of our contribution to society’s progress. From groundbreaking medical discoveries to innovative engineering solutions, the research and scholarship performed by our talented faculty, postdoctoral fellows and students transforms lives, strengthens our nation’s competitiveness and addresses global challenges.
Consider the team of engineers and clinicians from Rice, MD Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. They are developing an affordable microscope that provides cancer surgeons with immediate imaging capabilities in operating rooms. This innovation could revolutionize cancer treatment by enhancing surgical precision and reducing infrastructure costs.
Another team at Rice is pioneering early detection technologies for cancers of the cervix, gastrointestinal tract and mouth. Early detection saves lives and reduces the financial burden of treatment. Likewise, one of our star
These projects underscore Rice’s commitment to tackling humanity’s most pressing challenges and shows that our research is not abstract — it has tangible, lifechanging outcomes.
social scientists is researching employment systems and labor markets and exploring how AI can enhance hiring practices. This work has profound implications for creating more efficient and profitable financial systems.
The work doesn’t stop there. We’re also discovering ways that will enable new, more sustainable recycling, manufacturing and energy use practices that impact national security. Our cutting-edge work in nanotechnology has enabled the creation of metal nanoparticles possessing structural features designed to interact with light in specific ways that can be deployed in a variety of contexts, including biomedicine, optoelectronics, chemical sensing, catalysis and water treatment. And our social scientists are addressing the rising challenges faced by dementia caregivers, a growing concern as our population ages.
These projects underscore Rice’s commitment to tackling humanity’s most pressing challenges and shows that our research is not abstract — it has tangible, life-changing outcomes. Without the necessary support, however, the potential to continue making these breakthroughs is at risk, which could hinder innovation and slow the pace of discoveries that have the power to cure diseases, improve lives and fuel economic growth.
I recently met with members of Congress in Washington, D.C., and state leaders in Austin to emphasize
Rice’s role in advancing research and innovation. These conversations are vital to ensuring that federal and state policymakers understand the importance of sustaining research funding. Our mission is clear: to advocate for policies that support our researchers and to continue fostering an environment where intellectual curiosity thrives.
Rice is not alone in this effort. We work alongside organizations like the Association of American Universities and the American Council on Education to advocate for the value of university research. Together, we highlight how cutting federal support would weaken the nation’s ability to remain a global leader in science, technology and education.
Our alumni and supporters are critical allies in this mission. Your dedication to Rice’s values makes it possible for us to continue to thrive and to reach our strategic goal of becoming the premier internationally recognized university that prepares leaders to address the world’s complexities and advances groundbreaking research across disciplines. We thank you for your dedication to Rice and the university’s research endeavors. Our commitment to research remains unwavering. The future of discovery lies in the resilience of our faculty, the brilliance of our students and the strength of our community. Together, we can ensure that Rice continues to drive innovations that cure diseases, transform industries and elevate all of society.
I am confident that, with your support, Rice will remain at the forefront of research and scholarship, advancing knowledge that benefits Texas, the nation and the world.
Senior Jae Kim will use his Rhodes Scholarship to study health and environmental policy.
BY CHRIS STIPES
RICE SENIOR Jae Kim ’25
has been awarded a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship, one of just 32 American recipients — and the sole representative from a Texas university — chosen to study at the University of Oxford in England this fall. Rice’s 13th Rhodes Scholar and first since 2015, Kim is pursuing an undergraduate major in integrative biology, an interdisciplinary field that studies the integration across all levels of biological organization — from biomolecules to cells, and from individual organisms to ecosystems — with a minor in environmental studies.
The Rhodes Scholars chosen from the U.S. will join an international group of scholars chosen from more than 70 countries. The Rhodes Trust covers all college and university fees, provides a stipend for living expenses during term time and vacations, and includes transportation to and from England.
“I’ve never been to England or Oxford before,” said Kim, who was born in Korea and grew up in New York. “I’m most excited to build relationships with Rhodes Scholars and Oxford students from around the world, learning from their fields of study and lived experiences.” Kim will spend two years at Oxford pursuing dual Master of Science degrees — one in environmental change and management and the other in evidence-based social intervention and policy evaluation. He ultimately plans to attend medical school, aspiring to become a physician advocate who helps shape environmental policy.
“Climate change is the defining issue of our time, as it threatens the future of life itself on Earth,” he said. “During my time at Rice, I realized I want to dedicate my career to advocating for the people, animals and
ecosystems most impacted — advancing the health of our societies and the health of our planet hand in hand.”
But before moving to Oxford, Kim has an unprecedented four-month summer break. “I plan on spending two months pursuing an internship at a climate justice-focused NGO or a research institute in Europe. For the remaining months, I’ll be traveling with my twin sister and visiting my extended family in Korea.”
Kim attributes his success in earning this prestigious scholarship to the many leadership opportunities he had at Rice. As the Rice Student Association president, he presides
over SA Senate meetings and collaborates with a variety of administrative offices and student leaders to improve the Rice experience. “Rice taught me how to build community and collaborate with others to drive meaningful change. That foundation in leadership played a key role in my success with this scholarship.”
“Jae exemplifies the spirit of excellence and commitment to societal impact that we strive to nurture in all our students. His passion for addressing climate change and his vision for a healthier, more sustainable world inspire us all,” said Rice President Reginald DesRoches.
Houston Methodist and Rice athletes have teamed up to conduct innovative research in concussion diagnosis.
EXPERTS ESTIMATE that approximately 10% to 20% of athletes who participate in contact sports, from football to soccer, suffer from head injuries — and many of those players will experience more than one concussion, a type of traumatic brain injury associated with neuroinflammation.
With research demonstrating that concussions are often associated with depression, memory loss and even, in some cases, long-term brain damage, it is imperative for clinicians to be able to quickly identify and treat such injuries.
Neuroscientist Sonia Villapol, who leads the lab at the Center for Neuroregeneration at Houston Methodist Research Institute, is searching for a biomarker to do just that. But she is not looking in the brain — she believes that marker likely resides in the microbiome.
The human microbiome is made up of the trillions of microorganisms that naturally live within the gut. It helps
facilitate the gut-brain connection, the complex two-way communication system that underlies good health.
In a recent pilot study looking at specific changes in 33 Rice football players, she and her colleagues at the Stanley H. Appel Department of Neurology at Houston Methodist and the Department of Athletics at Rice discovered that four athletes who suffered from a concussion showed significant decreases in two specific gut bacterial species, Eubacterium rectale and Anaerostipes hadrus. Yet, to determine whether such alterations could potentially be used for concussion diagnosis in the future, Villapol and her team wanted to do a larger study — and look at different profiles of athletes.
“We know, from animal studies, that females have different types of neuroinflammation and alterations in the gut microbiome after head injury. It is not the same kind of neuropathy
we see in males,” she says. “But we also don’t know the mechanism of how these changes in bacteria may lead to inflammation in the brain. We hypothesize it’s something to do with brain-gut communication, but we need to look at the different metabolites and neurotransmitters to understand how.”
She and neuropsychologist Kenneth Podell, director of the Houston Methodist Concussion Center, are now conducting an even larger study, recruiting more than 120 Rice athletes across a variety of sports. They will use more advanced techniques to look at how the gut changes over the course of a year of playing the sport, whether the gut can reestablish its normal makeup after a concussion and whether they can note any specific changes as the result of repetitive hits to the head that do not qualify as concussions. They will also note any differences between male and female athletes and type of sport.
Villapol says understanding microbiome changes may not only provide a new way to diagnose concussion, but also to potentially treat it.
“After doing this kind of sequencing to understand what is changing, I would love to try some interventions with specific probiotics,” she says. “It would be a type of personalized medicine.”
Rice Athletics’ Sarah Schodrof says this study helps Rice’s sports program increase its focus on the greater well-being of student-athletes. “This is a study that’s going to help their long-term health and their professional pursuits after their athletic careers have ended,” she says. — KAYT SUKEL
Sonia Villapol is assistant professor of neurosurgery at Houston Methodist Research Institute. Kenneth Podell is director of the Houston Methodist Concussion Center and of the Neuropsychology Section at the Houston Methodist Stanley H. Appel Department of Neurology. Sarah Schodrof is assistant athletic director for medical services and research at Rice Athletics.
The Library Service Center is the nexus for storing and maintaining invaluable Rice treasures.
DESPITE HOUSING 1,260,790 items, one-third of Fondren Library’s collection, the Library Service Center isn’t your typical library. There isn’t a head librarian, tables or reading carrels, but there are sky-high shelves of “book equivalents,” including videos, maps, rare model airplanes, NASA memorabilia, thousands of boxes of historical information and Fondren’s vinyl record collection.
Opened in 2003, the LSC is located just 5.2 miles from Rice’s campus. Its contemporary, utilitarian design doesn’t mimic on-campus buildings but boasts a flat roof and unique shade of green on the exterior. “The color was chosen out of five other colors by the Rice Board of Trustees who wanted a nontraditional Rice look for the building,” says James Springer, the center’s manager. Springer, who didn’t have a library background but did have extensive inventory control experience and forklift certification, possessed important skills to bring the facility online. In fact, in its first few years, the center’s staff processed 2,000 to 3,000 items each day. While the influx has slowed a bit, Springer and his staff pull and process 200 to 300 books a day, transporting items back and forth to Fondren.
“Before we opened, 60,000 books were stored in Rice Stadium,” he says, “something that had been going on since the 1980s.” To better protect
and prolong the life of treasured Rice material, the 13,000-square-foot building with 40-foot tilt-up concrete walls (once the largest in Texas) is maintained at 50 degrees Fahrenheit and 30% humidity, extending the life of print materials by 275 years. If power is lost, the insulated walls of the structure can maintain temperatures and humidity for several days — not a bad place to spend a couple hundred years.
— TRACEY RHOADES
DIGITAL HUMANITIES
Sarah Davidson brings a humanist’s perspective to a complex story about economic development and environmental justice.
WHEN A DAM FAILS , most would turn to scientists and engineers. But what happens when the problem isn’t concrete and steel? The interdisciplinary work conducted by senior Sarah Davidson illustrates that humanists play a vital role in understanding how economic development and the built environment can impact society.
The Ituango hydroelectric dam — the largest dam in Colombia — was not on Davidson’s radar when she came to Rice or when she was selected as an Elizabeth Lee Moody Undergraduate Research Fellow in the Humanities and
the Arts. It was Rice historian Laura Correa Ochoa who suggested that she consider researching the project. “I was very interested because I had been doing projects on environmental justice and infrastructure and how it affects people in the surrounding communities,” says Davidson.
The complexity of Colombia did not stop Davidson’s research, says Correa Ochoa. “[Studying] Colombia can be so tricky, and she seems so unfazed by it all. She was just like, ‘Yeah, I’ll go to the archive and figure it out.’”
The Moody Fellowship allowed
Davidson to spend last summer researching the dam, which included a visit to Medellin, Colombia. “Being there helped me to get a broader cultural perspective,” says Davidson. “Just talking to people there about what had been going on for the last 60 years and the conflict that had happened within the city and the surrounding area helped.”
Davidson says she wanted her project to be digital and public-facing. She settled on using ArcGIS StoryMaps, a software she discovered at Rice that allows its users to create interactive multimedia digital exhibits. “A lot of the [impact of the dam] is hidden in these lengthy government documents and reports, and [ArcGIS] allowed my findings to be more accessible to the public,” Davidson says.
Her StoryMaps project, titled “The War for Hidroituango: The history of violence, power, and hydroelectric energy in Antioquia, Colombia,” combines archival materials, government documents, newspaper articles and photographs. It traces the dam’s history and impact from its original conception in 1950 to its eventual opening in 2022 — a period that was marred by paramilitary activity, displacement, massacres, engineering failings, corruption and flooding.
Importantly, the phenomenon she investigated in Colombia isn’t unique. “There is this pattern that goes on. This happened in Ghana. It happened in Guatemala. It’s happening in so many different places,” Davidson says. “[Dams] are this sign of modernity — the sign of wealth being brought to the country. And at the same time, it often is only something that will benefit the wealthiest and the most powerful in society, rather than many of the marginalized individuals who live by these hydroelectric projects.”
— HUGO GERBICH PAIS ’25
Laura Correa Ochoa is assistant professor of history in the School of Humanities.
PHOTO BY JEFF FITLOW
DOUG SCHULER BELIEVES IN keeping students engaged with every aspect of his course. “I know everybody’s name, and I’m not afraid to ask some questions, so it’s not a course for people to hide,” he says. “But I think, generally, they don’t want to.”
Students in the class don’t shy away from tackling the commitments involved in working with organizations that focus on social services. Lectures, case studies and field projects partnering with community nonprofits in Houston instruct students in concepts including accountability, stakeholder theory and partnership assessment. Students are divided into small teams to work on off-campus projects.
“Most of the things that we do in class are not directly tied to our projects,” says first-year student Olutobi
Adeyeri. “It’s more about learning concepts that help you understand an organization and its needs, especially in relation to other organizations that they partner with.”
Adeyeri and her team — Nolan Connolly, Ashley Suazo Reyes and Amy Wang — are one of two groups in the class working with Alabama Gardens, a community garden founded 40 years ago in Houston’s Third Ward. The teams’ goals are to address challenges regarding garden maintenance, to build new, mutually beneficial partnerships and expand community involvement.
Terry Garner, the longtime community garden coordinator, encourages the students to get their hands in the dirt as well.
“[Garner] brought us to one of the plots that hadn’t been visited for a
BUSI 364/GLHT 364/ SOSC 364
Innovation for Social Impact
DEPARTMENT
Rice Business
DESCRIPTION
This course teaches business skills, innovative approaches and field techniques with the goal of social impact.
Students in groups collaborate with local organizations addressing food insecurity to assess their operations and develop solutions.
while by its owner. In his old age, the owner couldn’t really come to the garden very often, so we weeded it so that it would be ready when he comes back,” Connolly says.
On a recent Saturday morning, students Pablo Rascon ’27, Evie Gates ’25 and Bryant Huang ’25 joined Schuler at the garden, where they visited with Garner and made quick work of weeding one of the more than 50 vegetable plots assigned to community members.
Schuler was particular about having students participate in hands-on projects rather than work on assignments such as reports evaluating organizations they aren’t connected with.
“It’s given students a lot of perspective on the agency of people in the spaces because I think when we’re here at the university … we’re thinking about these ideas abstractly,” Schuler says about the communities the organizations serve.
— NITHYA RAMCHARAN ’25
Doug Schuler is professor of business and public policy at Rice Business.
Hamza Saeed’s bioengineering work considers the human side of medicine. MEDICAL HUMANITIES
JUNIOR HAMZA SAEED always planned to become a physician. It’s why he came to Rice and majored in bioengineering. Growing up in nearby Sugar Land, Texas, Saeed knew being at Rice meant being next door to the world’s largest medical center. What he didn’t know was that Rice’s medical humani-
ties courses would change his entire perspective on practicing medicine.
For Saeed, this paradigm shift began with several courses taught by former postdoc and course instructor Travis Alexander. But it was one course in particular — Medical Horror in Film and Literature — that prompted him to pursue a minor in medical humanities.
“It was interesting because typically you don’t see those two words [medical and horror] directly next to each other,” he says, adding that health professionals try to avoid characterizing the medical experience as horrifying. “Travis forced us to reckon with the films not just on a surface level, but with the questions those films brought up that didn’t have answers, like ‘What constitutes death?’” Saeed says.
Last summer, building on these experiences, Saeed signed up for a first-of-its-kind “clinical immersion and health care inequities program,” a practicum through Rice’s Medical Humanities Research Institute, which offered students observation rounds with physicians at the Texas Children’s Hospital and the Texas Heart Institute. During the eight-week course, Saeed and his student cohort examined issues around tracheostomies, pediatric hemodynamic monitoring and peritoneal dialysis as they worked to identify unmet needs that exacerbate disparities in patient outcomes.
“It let me see behind the veil in a way that just isn’t possible with a textbook,” Saeed says. “There’s nothing like an attending showing you how a child’s Berlin Heart pump works by letting you hold one in the palm of your hand.” Through summer rounds with physicians, Saeed learned more about the very human side of medicine — for example, interviewing parents of patients in the ICU about the challenges they faced along their child’s health care journey.
“At the end of the day, the human body is not just a machine,” Saeed says. “Patients are people, with thoughts, emotions, feelings.”
The problems encountered over the summer practicum were adapted into senior capstone projects for other bioengineering majors. Saeed helped create reference materials for those students — for example, asking whether or not a device used to treat atrial fibrillation in patients is designed with inclusivity in mind. How could it fail, for instance, when used in lower-resource institutions in a non-English-predominant region?
“I’m just addicted to the idea that I could make a difference in the field of medicine — and just an M.D. or just a Ph.D. wouldn’t have that same impact,” Saeed says. “Maybe I could be the next Denton Cooley.” —
KATHARINE SHILCUTT
BY JEFF FITLOW
In Los Angeles, recovering from wildfire destruction requires immediate assistance, community building and long-term strategies.
IN JANUARY 2025, Los Angeles was in the grip of fierce wind-fueled wildfires that destroyed thousands of structures, burned more than 50,000 acres and led to the deaths of at least 29 people. As the fires were brought under control, local architects began to organize a multilayered response to the disaster. We spoke with LA architect Greg Kochanowski to get an inside perspective on addressing the daunting tasks of recovery and rebuilding. Along with architect and educator Mohamed Sharif, he is co-chair of the Wildfire Disaster Response Task Force, commissioned by the Los Angeles chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The task force’s top goals are “to aid affected communities and advance wildfire resilience strategies” with immediate, midterm and long-term timelines. For Kochanowski, these efforts have been “professional, but also personal.” In 2018, his family and half their community lost their homes to the Woolsey Fire.
It’s been about two months since the fires were contained. What steps are top of mind? As architects, we’re always advocating for best practices and expediency. With city and county offices and other agencies, we’re addressing permitting processes and rebuilding protocols. That has gone from advocating for expedited permits to lobbying for “self-certification” in permitting. Self-certification allows architects to rely on their own professional licenses, as well as the licenses of structural
engineers, to approve drawings for new construction. Typical time frames for permits can take up to six months.
Tell us more about educating the architectural community. We started a series of panel discussions to help architects learn more about best practices in fire-resilient design — 13 sessions on topics such as home-hardening techniques, landscape and creating defensible spaces, community resilience, insurance issues, new and equitable development models, housing rights and more. These are for architects, but they are also for communities.
What are the needs at this early stage of recovery? While we’re in a recovery stage, we’re also in a period where people are still healing. They’re living off their insurance in hotels, trying to find rentals in a market that’s oversaturated and incredibly expensive. There’s a human toll here, a community toll that is not often voiced. So, there’s a lot of focus right now on community building. A lot of this effort is to try and bring communities back together, to reconstitute them, because social cohesion is what’s going to get people through the disaster. There have been a lot of community meetings, gatherings and listening sessions. As architects, we need to be there as community support.
How are you reaching out to those most affected? One thing we want to do is to start a podcast and record oral histories, kind of like StoryCorps. We want to help document not only this time and space, but the times before that. Right now, in Altadena, there’s something like 160 lots up for sale. You’re going to see massive transformation in these communities.
What issues are on the horizon? The coming demand on materials. People are going to be building simultaneously, and that will have a huge impact on the material costs. There’s a concern about what happens when new tariffs hit materials we use in buildings — primarily wood, asphalt shingles, concrete and steel. There’s nowhere to build yet — we’re still doing debris cleanup. I think that everyone’s focused on expediency, because people just want to get back home and get their lives back.
— LYNN GOSNELL
Mohamed Sharif is a founding partner of Sharif, Lynch: Architecture, and an associate adjunct professor at UCLA Architecture and Urban Design. Greg Kochanowski is a partner and director of design at Practice. Kochanowski completed a yearlong traveling urban studies course with Rice Architecture faculty member Richard Ingersoll in 1992.
BIOENGINEERING
Bioengineering grad students visit the Rio Grande Valley to learn about local health care challenges and assets.
RICE BIOENGINEERING graduate students in the Global Medical Innovation program recently visited the Rio Grande Valley to better understand the unique challenges faced by communities in the region.
This field trip experience highlighted the importance of addressing complex social factors when tackling health care issues. During the trip, the students encountered several pressing issues in the Valley, including food insecurity, high rates of obesity and diabetes, and less engagement in preventative care. They also gained valuable insight into public health initiatives already under-
way, such as farmer’s markets, efforts to create walkable neighborhoods, and even yoga classes.
“There are a lot of social issues here you probably would not see elsewhere,” says Dr. Fatimah Bello, an internal medicine physician at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. “We have people that cross the border, we have people without insurance, we have people who have not seen a physician in 50 or 60 years. … We do our best. We do what we can.”
At the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley campus, adjacent to the Mexican border, Rice students walked
the grounds and learned about the intersection of health and culture. The group also met with a local nutritionist, shared a meal with community members at Brownsville Wellness Coalition’s community garden, and participated in discussions about art, politics and health. The experience emphasized the need for health care innovations that are not only practical but also tailored for the communities they aim to serve.
“There’s a difference between making something that works and making something that actually serves others,” says bioengineering graduate student Olisaneme Okonkwo. “And I want to make sure I can make something that’s impactful.”
Led by Casey Howard, program manager for industry relations for Rice’s Global Medical Innovation program, this experience is designed to help students form an understanding that cutting-edge technologies alone
are not always the solution and that effective interventions often need to look upstream, addressing social determinants of health such as food access, education and safe environments.
“When they go back to Rice, they’re going to bring the local needs they discovered and work to develop health care innovations,” says Matthew Wettergreen, director of the Global Medical Innovation program.
“This is the reason why I’m doing the research that I’m doing — to serve communities that need it the most,” says bioengineering graduate student Gabby Lea. — ALEX BECKER
This field trip was made possible by funding from the UTHealth Houston Center for Clinical and Translational
Sciences and Rice’s Center for Innovation and Translation of Point of Care Technologies for Expanded Cancer Care Access, and a partnership with the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and the Brownsville Wellness Coalition.
Fatimah Bello is assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine. Matthew Wettergreen is associate teaching professor in the Department of Bioengineering and at the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen and director of the Global Medical Innovation program in Rice’s George R. Brown School of Engineering and Computing.
When they go back to Rice, they’re going to bring the local needs they discovered and work to develop health care innovations.
Rice computer scientist Lydia Kavraki has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering for her transformative work on robotics, “developing randomized motion-planning algorithms for robotics and robotics-inspired methods in biomedicine.” This research underlies Kavraki’s vision for a world where “robots are able to work safely and seamlessly alongside humans,” opening new frontiers in human-robot collaboration, from industrial automation to space exploration and robotassisted surgery. She is also a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions. At Rice, she has mentored over 30 Ph.D. students and 20 postdocs and supervised more than 100 undergraduates. The 128 newly elected members will be inducted during the NAE’s annual meeting Oct. 5, 2025
Lydia Kavraki is Rice’s Kenneth and Audrey Kennedy Professor of Computing and professor of computer science, electrical and computer engineering, mechanical engineering and bioengineering in the School of Engineering and Computing. She also is director of the Ken Kennedy Institute.
Ph.D. candidate Bruno Buccalon explores the intersection of history, visual design and cultural heritage to increase access to historical archives.
THE WAY BRUNO BUCCALON describes it, his daily commute to the Getty Research Institute is less routine and more of a rolling scholarly exchange. Every morning, a Getty Center shuttle stops on Sunset Boulevard near the apartment he’s leasing while on a graduate internship. The stop services Getty Scholar housing residents — a cohort of national and international scholars who are gifted time and resources to conduct research around an annual theme. “So, I often catch the shuttle and get to interact with all the scholars, and I meet people from all over the world doing very interesting research,” Buccalon says.
Buccalon is a Ph.D. candidate in history both at Rice and as part of a dual degree program at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp) in Brazil. As an undergraduate, he studied architecture and urban planning at the Escola da Cidade in São Paulo. Importantly, Buccalon is a techie. He brings significant skills in coding, software development and visual design to his work across the humanities. “What I’m particularly interested in is using technology to understand and visualize the past in new ways. The unique thing about Getty is that they are one of the largest cultural heritage institutions develop -
What I’m particularly interested in is using technology to understand and visualize the past in new ways. The unique thing about Getty is that they are one of the largest cultural heritage institutions developing such technology.
ing such technology,” he says.
“[Bruno] understands the need to interpret humanities scholarship and to make it accessible to the public, which is what they’re doing with the Getty Research Institute,” says Rice historian Alida Metcalf. Here are three projects Buccalon is working on this year.
For nearly 10 years, the GRI has led a massive research project called the Florentine Codex Initiative — creating a searchable, readable and accessible version of the 16th-century illuminated
manuscript credited to Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún and numerous Nahua artists and authors.
The manuscript’s Nahuatl and Spanish texts and detailed illustrations provide insights into the Aztec Empire and the Spanish invasion of Mexico. With greater access to this encyclopedia, the contributions of named and unnamed Indigenous artists and scribes are now coming into better focus. The Digital Florentine Codex launched in 2023, although updates continue. Last fall, Buccalon supported the launch of the new resources page, working on the
technical formatting of educational content that includes essays from the research team. He is now collaborating with software developers to improve the citations used across the website.
How did pre-Hispanic art and antiquities become such a big focus of museums and private collections in Europe and North America? Since 2019, GRI has been delving into practices of looting, commodification and circulation of Mesoamerican art through the lens of the Stendahl Art Galleries archives, which operated in Los Angeles for more than a century.
This is the current focus of Buccalon’s internship. “This project has the potential to reveal the network of people involved in art trafficking, expand the understanding of these
objects by adding historical and cultural context to their definitions, and contribute to current debates on restitution and repatriation,” he says. Buccalon is helping to improve research data management so that these networks of collecting can be analyzed and visualized, in order to tell a fuller story about how cultural heritage is consumed. A major exhibition about the Stendahl Art Galleries will open in 2026.
This newer initiative aims to foster archival research on Latin American art, especially Central American art, and includes a series of oral histories to document the lives and experiences of
Screen capture of the Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital available online at getty.edu
accomplished artists and curators. “I would say that my biggest contribution across the board to all these projects is project management,” Buccalon says. “Under the direction of Alicia Maria Houtrouw, who is the senior project manager for these projects at the Getty Research Institute, I help set up goals, understand the limitations and resources, and make choices about what can or cannot be achieved and plan out the phases.” While this project is just getting underway, Buccalon is excited to highlight the strengths of Latin America’s rich archives by making them more accessible. — LYNN GOSNELL
Alida Metcalf is the Harris Masterson Jr. Professor of History in the School of Humanities at Rice.
These Rice students turned their passions into unique for-credit research opportunities.
AT RICE , independent study courses give undergraduates the opportunity to take control of their education with faculty guidance and pursue ideas that matter to them. We rounded up a few recent examples.
MAJORS: POLITICAL SCIENCE, VISUAL AND DRAMATIC ARTS
Building Bridges Between Law Enforcement and Communities
Faculty Adviser: Craig Considine, sociology
Raised in Colusa, California, where her father has served as a police officer for more than two decades, senior Kelsea Whiting grew up in a world where law enforcement wasn’t just a job but a community pillar. However, in the wake of the George Floyd protests in 2020 and other high-profile police
brutality cases, she recognized that this dynamic isn’t universal.
A freshman-year course with sociologist Craig Considine inspired Whiting to explore what shapes negative perceptions of policing — and, more importantly, what can change them. Her independent study project culminated in a panel discussion in front of an audience of 50. Panelists included a clinical psychologist with
the Houston Police Department, a street photographer who documents policing, and an officer from Whiting’s hometown who lost a loved one in the line of duty. “For me, it was a successful event because people were engaged — we had to cut questions off at the end.”
MAJOR: PSYCHOLOGY
Human Factors and Handedness in Driving
Faculty Adviser: Philip Kortum, psychological sciences
Inspired by her own close call while driving, senior Rachel Ivany, who is left-handed, designed a study on whether left-handed drivers are at a disadvantage in a world designed for right-handed people. After building a driving simulator from scratch — with little more than a desktop computer, a gaming steering wheel and a $250 budget — she is spending this semester deep in data collection.
“You can take classes in different areas, but getting hands-on experience is what really matters,” Ivany says. “This project is my study, my design, my research. It gave me the chance to do exactly what I’ll be doing in grad school, just on a smaller scale.”
MAJOR: MATHEMATICS
MINOR: DATA SCIENCE
Curvature
Faculty Adviser: Scott Powers, sport analytics and statistics
Basketball coaches have been saying it forever — “the smoother the shot, the better.” What makes a basketball shot “smooth” is difficult to define, and most coaches just know it when they see it. Senior Judy Zhu had an idea to use data science to measure the concept of smoothness. Working with Rice statis-
tician Scott Powers and NBA shooting coach Dave Love via weekly video meetings, Zhu built mathematical models to analyze free throw curvature and velocity using in-season tracking data from 35 NBA players. Although players’ unique shooting styles make mathematical comparisons challenging, Zhu says her analysis indicates that curvature, not velocity, is the key to a smooth shot. “There’s so much potential in the sports industry, with more data becoming available,” says Zhu. “I want to use basketball as a platform to transfer my background in mathematics to something more applicable.”
MAJORS: HISTORY, FRENCH STUDIES, PSYCHOLOGY
MINOR: POLITICS, LAW AND SOCIAL THOUGHT Gender, Race and Identity in the Francophone World
Faculty Adviser: Jacqueline Couti, modern and classical literatures and cultures
For senior Sophia Brandon, independent study has been an opportunity to explore how French colonialism has shaped ideas about gender and race in its former territories, drawing from literature, film and other media. “I’m specifically looking at depictions of the Francophone world through French film and looking at how certain narratives have been constructed through this lens — how these depictions may not have been historically accurate,” Brandon says.
Having studied abroad in Paris, she experienced firsthand the differences between French and American historical narratives. “France is still trying to keep a cultural grasp on the places that they colonized. They are undergoing a cultural reckoning, and there’s a lot of nostalgia for when France was at its peak,” she adds. “Studying French has expanded my way of thinking and pushed me outside the boxes that I was raised in.”
MAJOR: COMPUTER SCIENCE
Faculty Adviser: Kaiyu Hang, computer science
Independent study gave senior Andrew Ondara the chance to push his passion for robotic manipulation and motion planning. He studied how “autonomous vehicle robots” move and interact from a software perspective, researching and testing various pathfinding algorithms in simulated environments. The research has broader applications in robotic automation and intelligent motion planning, which can include things like self-driving technology, robotic arms, and drones, he says.
Studying robotics while also learning about climate science inspired Ondara to combine the two to research a real-world problem — namely, improving the safety of residents and first responders in flood-prone areas, the kind of emergency we see all too often in Houston. Ondara wants to use drones to build real-time maps that provide a more accurate floodmonitoring system. He’s working with his adviser to scale the project through the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s Launchpad program. Ondara demonstrates that research doesn’t just stay in the lab — it moves the world forward.
— SARAH RUFCA NIELSEN ’05
Chevron partners with the Rice Sustainability Institute to support research in sustainable energy solutions.
SINCE THE DISCOVERY of the Spindletop oil field in 1901 that sent 100,000 barrels of crude oil per day gushing into the air for nine days straight — a discovery which also injected an estimated $235 million, or $7.9 billion in today’s money, into the Texas economy that year as a result — Houston has been widely recognized as the energy capital of the world. Over a century later, Houston is now posi-
2024–2025
Chevron Energy Graduate Fellows
Wesley Hungbui, an MBA student, develops financial models to encourage investment in sustainable energy projects.
Ahmad El Gazzar, a Ph.D. student in chemical and biomolecular engineering,
focuses on renewable fuels and carboncapture technologies.
Stan Kannegieter, a Ph.D. student in economics, explores the monetary and environmental benefits of investing in soil organic carbon sequestration on agricultural land.
Travis Seamons, a Ph.D. student in
tioned to become a new leader in this space as the energy transition capital of the world.
A new fellowship funded by Chevron in partnership with the Rice Sustainability Institute underscores that commitment by providing $10,000 each to 10 Rice graduate students for this academic year, supporting their groundbreaking research in energy-related fields.
The fellowship recipients are researching solutions to pressing energy challenges, from recycling lithium-ion batteries to producing ecofriendly hydrogen alternatives to fossil fuels. Their work focuses on creating real-world solutions to transform the energy landscape.
“This fellowship supports students working on a wide range of topics related to scalable innovations in energy production that will lead to the reduc-
systems, synthetic and physical biology, focuses on engineering soil microbes to enhance the removal and storage of greenhouse gases in the soil.
Alexander Lathem, a Ph.D. student in applied physics, researches carbon-free methods to produce ammonia, a key agricultural fertilizer.
tion of carbon dioxide emissions,” says Carrie Masiello, director of the RSI.
Masiello also highlighted the fellowship’s diverse group of applicants, which spanned 10 departments and four schools at Rice. “It’s important that we recognize the importance of intellectual diversity to the kind of problem-solving we have to do as we accomplish the energy transition,” she says.
Chris Powers ’02, vice president of carbon capture, utilization and storage and emerging at Chevron New Energies, is a Rice alumnus who recognizes both the importance of innovation and the importance of investing in young researchers whose work will transform not only Houston but the world.
“I’m excited to support emerging leaders like you all in this room, who are focused on scalable, innovative solutions, because the world needs them,” Powers said at a reception honoring the inaugural cohort last fall. “Innovation and collaboration across sectors and borders will be key to unlocking the full potential of lower carbon energies. And it’s groups like you, our newest Chevron Fellows, that can help move the needle when it comes to translating, or evolving, the energy landscape for the future.”
— MARCY DE LUNA
Carrie Masiello is the W. Maurice Ewing Professor of Biogeochemistry, Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences; professor of chemistry and biosciences; and director of Rice’s Sustainability Institute.
Xi Chen, a Ph.D. student in materials science and nanoengineering, uses microwave-assisted techniques to recycle lithium-ion batteries sustainably.
Enina Egiebor, a Ph.D. student in chemical and biomolecular engineering, works on solar-driven technologies to produce green
hydrogen, an alternative to fossil fuels.
Miriam Gammerman, a Ph.D. student in earth, environmental and planetary sciences, studies soil minerals’ role in the global carbon cycle to improve carbon storage.
Zina Deriche, a Ph.D. student in chemical and biomolecular
engineering, works on improving the efficiency and safety of solid-state batteries by using metalorganic frameworks.
Ziran Wang, a Ph.D. student in civil and environmental engineering, studies power grid resilience in response to natural disasters and system failures.
An installation at the Moody Center for the Arts harnesses creativity, biosciences and problem-solving to break down plastic waste.
BY BRANDI SMITH
TO RICE’S
Moody Center for the Arts
can view an installation by artist Xin Liu that merges bioscience and art in a fascinating experiment titled “The Permanent and the Insatiable.” The work is part of a multi-artist exhibition, “Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice,” on view now through May 10, 2025.
For this commission, Xin Liu worked in collaboration with microbiologist Erika Erickson to create a sculpture made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics that represents the Houston skyline and Rice’s campus. Throughout the duration of the exhibition, which opened Jan. 24, 2025, the piece will be submerged in liquid enzymes designed to break it down, mimicking the natural process
of plastic degradation. The result is a contest between engineered durability and biological intervention.
Liu, a former artist in residence at Rice’s Houston Asian American Archive, developed the concept after collaborating with scientists to send plastic-degrading bacteria to the International Space Station in 2018. “In materials science, we’re constantly creating materials that are indestructible,” she says. “They have super performance and are fire resistant and chemical resistant. At the same time in biosciences, we’re trying to engineer super organisms to eat exactly that material. We’re going to either end up with tons of these materials that can never be destroyed, or maybe one day we’re going to end up with a world that is consumed by some kind of super organisms.”
The sculpture’s enzyme is being produced in the lab of bioscientist George Phillips at Rice’s BioScience Research Collaborative, where Liu has worked closely with Erickson.
“We started brainstorming about what might be possible, and then slowly this opportunity to work here, find lab space and try to accomplish the goals of the project came together,” Erickson says. She explained that the bacteriaproduced enzyme used in the instal-
lation is a hydrolase, a type of enzyme that breaks down PET plastic by severing its chemical bonds. “Plastics are a polymer, which is just a repeating chain of similar compounds, so the enzyme is able to break those down into their starting components,” Erickson says. “The reason that this is exciting is that there’s the potential for this to be a way to do a better job of recycling than is currently available.”
Phillips, an associate dean of research at Rice, has worked extensively with enzymes that degrade polymers and says Liu’s installation could illustrate the
potential of biological solutions for plastic waste. “These complex polymers are pretty hard to digest, but nature has done experiments over billions of years to figure out how to eat almost anything,” he says. “If the enzyme is active on this particular plastic, which we think it will be, the bacteria and the enzyme will win. It’s just a matter of how fast.”
Phillips says he sees the installation as a perfect example of cross-disciplinary research in action. “I was very eager to have the lab be used to help Xin Liu and to have some kind of collaboration with the humanities and the arts, which I
Visitors to the Moody will witness a real-time battle between material resilience and enzymatic breakdown, raising questions about sustainability, human intervention and the future of waste management.
think is fun when you can branch out at a university,” Phillips says. “Universities shouldn’t operate in silos. I mean, we’re all humans. We’re all in this together. And I think when we share ideas and technologies, the whole becomes more than the sum of the parts.”
Visitors to the Moody will witness a real-time battle between material resilience and enzymatic breakdown, raising questions about sustainability, human intervention and the future of waste management.
“‘Breath(e)’ is an exhibition about climate change and social justice,” says Alison Weaver, the Suzanne Deal Booth Executive Director of the Moody. “These pieces explore the ways our changing environment — through fires, floods, rising temperatures and different climate events — have an impact on communities and their social, economic and mental health.”
Originally organized by the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the exhibition has been adapted for Houston to highlight the specific environmental concerns of the Gulf Coast, including the commission of Liu’s work.
Erika Erickson is a graduate student in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. George Phillips is the Ralph and Dorothy Looney Professor of BioSciences, associate dean for special projects and professor of chemistry at Rice.
Read more about the contributing artists at magazine.rice.edu/ breathe
Meet Rice’s newest National Science Foundation CAREER award recipients.
The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program supports faculty at the assistant-professor or equivalent rank who will serve as academic role models and show promise in their ability to lead advances in the mission of their department or organizations. Only about 500 of the five-year awards are given annually across all academic disciplines. In 2024, eight of Rice’s outstanding young faculty members received these prestigious grants.
Nai-Hui Chia Computer Science
Chia’s $788,220 NSF grant will help to develop a new theoretical framework to facilitate the development of efficient quantum algorithms for a range of problems in quantum physics and computer science as well as enhance the security of quantum cryptography.
Sylvia Dee Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences
The $642,396 NSF grant supports Dee’s research on Earth’s hydrologic cycle using new tools to better understand past and present climate change and to improve climatemodel projections of future water-related phenomena like droughts and floods.
Amanda Marciel Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Marciel’s $670,406 NSF award supports her work to create synthetic networks that have a gel-like softness and are elastic for use in such applications as stretchable electronics and biomimetic tissues.
Konstantinos Mamouras Computer Science
With his $547,555 NSF award, Mamouras aims to decentralize the Internet of Things, relieve network congestion and improve overall efficiency.
Megan Reiter
Physics and Astronomy
The research funded by Reiter’s $951,446 NSF grant will investigate the influence of neighboring stars on the formation of planets — and could significantly impact our understanding of how planets are born.
Santiago Segarra
Electrical and Computer Engineering, Statistics
Segarra studies AI tools that are used in domains such as climate and traffic data. His $599,138 NSF grant aims “to boost the utility of AI by leveraging structural properties often found in real-world data,” Segarra says. “One of the many applications for this sort of research is climate prediction.”
Mark Torres Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences
Torres will use his $612,930 NSF grant to unlock new insights in river water chemistry, including its implications for addressing environmental concerns.
Yonglong Xie Physics and Astronomy
The $888,555 NSF grant will support Xie’s research into harnessing magnons, quantum mechanical wavelike objects in magnetic materials, to create synthetic matter and develop next-generation quantum devices and sensors.
An $18 million ARPA-H grant will help surgeons develop a promising new cancer pathology system.
EVERY YEAR , nearly 2 million Americans are newly diagnosed with cancer. For solid tumors, surgical removal is often the first option. But, during surgery, it can be difficult to tell where a tumor ends and healthy tissue begins — an area referred to as the margin — due to a lack of contrast. The difficulty with identifying the margin can result in a patient undergoing multiple surgeries to remove an entire tumor successfully.
A new cancer pathology system from Rice and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center aims to make tissue margins easier to see and improve success at removing tumors
entirely the first time.
A Rice-led multi-institutional research collaboration won an award of up to $18 million over five years from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health to develop and validate a new system for improving tumor removal accuracy for two types of cancer: breast cancer and head and neck cancer.
Called AccessPath, the novel, affordable, slide-free cancer pathology system will help surgeons know whether they have completely removed tumors during surgery by enabling rapid, automatic tumor margin classification of resected tumors. It was one of several projects funded through the ARPA-H Precision Surgical Interventions program as part of a broader $150 million Cancer Moonshot initiative under the BidenHarris administration.
“Because of its low-cost, high-speed and automated analysis, we believe AccessPath can revolutionize real-time surgical guidance, greatly expanding the range of hospitals able to provide
accurate intraoperative tumor margin assessment and improving outcomes for all cancer surgery patients,” said bioengineering professor Rebecca Richards-Kortum, who co-directs the Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies and is the lead principal investigator on the project.
“The development of a new low-cost technology that enables immediate margin assessment could transform the landscape of surgical oncology — particularly in low-resource settings, reducing the number of repeat interventions, lowering cancer care costs and improving patient outcomes,” says Dr. Ana Paula Refinetti, an associate professor in the Department of Breast Surgical Oncology at MD Anderson and one of the lead surgeon PIs on the project.
AccessPath researchers include electrical and computer engineer Ashok Veeraraghavan, a co-PI on the project, and bioengineer Tomasz Tkaczyk. The team at large is working to solve key technical challenges in tumor removal, making care for surgical pathology patients timelier and more convenient, ultimately improving patient outcomes.
The AccessPath system is intended to be an affordable end-to-end system for immediate digital pathology of resected tumors, with the potential to greatly expand the range of hospitals able to provide accurate intraoperative tumor margin assessment and improve outcomes for all cancer patients treated with surgery. —
CARRIE NOXON
Rebecca Richards-Kortum is the Malcolm Gillis University Professor, professor of bioengineering and co-director of Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies. Ashok Veeraraghavan is professor and chair of electrical and computer engineering and professor of computer science at Rice. Tomasz Tkaczyk is professor of bioengineering and electrical and computer engineering at Rice. Dr. Ana Paula Refinetti is associate professor in the Department of Breast Surgical Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
$3.8
HOUSTON WAS ALREADY world famous as the home of the largest medical center on the planet. And now Texas is making history as home to the second-largest public funder of cancer research in the U.S. — the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. Since its inception in 2007, CPRIT has awarded over $3.8 billion across its various programs — second only to the National Cancer Institute in terms of research funding — which makes Texas one of the top 10 public financiers of cancer research in the world.
Thanks to a series of significant CPRIT awards over the last 14 years, Rice has been steadily advancing cancer research through funded projects, all while recruiting investigators who are discovering better ways to treat and prevent the disease.
“In addition to the kind of collaborative work that Rice specializes in doing with its Texas Medical Center partners, we know that artificial intelligence will also be critical to the future of cancer research,” said Ramamoorthy Ramesh, executive vice president for research at Rice. “Thanks in no small part to generous CPRIT funding, this means Rice is uniquely positioned to make the kinds of breakthroughs so desperately needed as cancer deaths are projected to increase globally over the next few decades.”
— SILVIA CERNEA CLARK
Learn about and follow the work of Rice’s research and innovation centers and institutes at magazine.rice.edu/CPRIT
BY
The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas scholar Christina Tringides researches innovative ways to remove tumors in the brain.
GLIOBLASTOMA , a type of insidious brain cancer, has tumors like octopus tentacles that can meander their way throughout the entire organ. That makes such tumors challenging to remove without potentially sacrificing healthy cortical tissue that plays an important role in cognitive functions.
The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas’ mission is to help Texas conquer cancer. The organization recently announced its newest scholar, materials scientist Christina Tringides, whose research focuses on novel materials and neurotechnologies specifically designed to interface with the nervous system.
“When I started my Ph.D., I worked in the Mooney Laboratory for Cell and Tissue Engineering at Harvard University, which was working on a lot of hydrogels for applications in mechanobiology, as well as a lot of work in developing cancer vaccines,” she says. “It made me consider ways that we could use hydrogels in tumor resections.”
As neurosurgeons carefully remove tumors from the brain — a vital step in successfully treating many types of brain cancer — they rely on electrodes to measure signals from the surrounding tissue. This helps them preserve what’s called “eloquent brain” — the parts of the brain that control specific functions, such as movement, language production and sensation, says Tringides.
Those electrodes, however, are very rigid. “Many surgeons say it’s like putting a spatula on top of the brain,” she says. “It does not conform to the tissue and the surgeon has to continually reposition it as they work. But we can engineer hydrogel electrodes that can do that same kind of recording. These materials are exactly as soft as the brain, and so deformable that you can put them on the surface of the brain, and they will flow and blanket whatever is underneath.”
By using hydrogels instead of traditional electrodes, surgeons are in a better position to protect a patient’s quality of life after resection.
“Having a device that can conform to the brain’s complex architecture, with a material that allows the electrode to flow into the ridges of the brain, allows access to more complex regions,” says Tringides. “You can see whether
a tumor is present, what the electrical signal is like and confirm that you are not near eloquent brain. Then you can make a more informed decision about how to proceed with the surgery.”
Tringides is excited to work in Houston, and with the CPRIT team, in a strong, multidisciplinary environment. “There are a lot of discussions, a lot of drawing on the whiteboard and a lot of planning out of new ideas as we work together to understand what is missing, what is most needed and how we can build new platforms to help in this space.”
— KAYT SUKEL
Christina Tringides is assistant professor of materials science and nanoengineering in the George R. Brown School of Engineering and Computing and a core member of the Rice Neuroengineering Initiative.
Materials scientist Christina Tringides’ research focuses on novel materials and neurotechnologies specifically designed to interface with the nervous system.
At home and abroad, Frederi Viens applies statistical approaches to improve agricultural ecosystems.
WHEN WE CAUGHT up with statistician Frederi Viens last June, he was making hay at his sheep farm near Lansing, Michigan. Within a week, Viens would be on a plane to Nigeria, where he would convene a symposium about sustainability in the Lake Chad Basin, where water accessibility is a significant challenge for local agrarian communities. For Viens, these distant pursuits are deeply complementary.
Viens’ academic field is probability, meaning that he’s an expert in prediction and uncertainty. “I think of it as a way to compute the odds of some event happening, whether in a future experiment or in the future of our planet,” he recently told Rice Engineering Magazine. In northeast Nigeria, Viens and Philip Ernst, a former Rice colleague now at Imperial College London, are leading a project to apply Bayesian statistical analyses to better understand the hydrology of the Lake Chad Basin — a vitally important water source to millions in the semiarid region. The research team interviews local constituents — including farmers, herdsmen and fishermen — to learn about their challenges firsthand and share them at symposia such as last summer’s meeting in Maiduguri, the capital city of northeast Nigeria’s Borno State. In the U.S., Viens lends his statistical expertise to agroecology projects, including calculating the economic benefits of improving soil health through sustainable farming practices.
Back on his Shetland sheep farm, Viens uses regenerative farming practices to convert the former corn and soy fields into healthy pastures and hay fields — the better to raise healthy sheep. — LYNN GOSNELL
Frederi Viens is professor of statistics in the School of Engineering and Computing at Rice.
Rice scholars are heading to Austin to share expertise with Texas legislators.
ON JAN. 14, 2025, the Texas Legislature began its 89th session at the state Capitol, and Rice’s scholars are sharing their research expertise on issues from brain health policy and energy to water infrastructure and public education spending.
“Our goal is to position the university and our research institutes and centers as trusted resources and called-upon experts to inform state elected officials, the Texas Legislature and state agencies,” says Joel Resendez, Rice’s state government relations director.
In November, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced a new major legislative initiative for the Texas Senate, the Dementia Prevention Research Institute of Texas. Harris Eyre, the Harry Z. Yan and Weiman Gao Senior Fellow in Brain Health at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public
Policy, shared expertise with state leaders on risk factors associated with dementia to help policymakers draft a bill proposal. Senate Bill 5, establishing DPRIT, was filed in February. Eyre also shared statistics with the lieutenant governor’s office and other state leaders on expected economic development growth related to neurodegenerative and mental health therapies.
A new report commissioned by Texas 2036 and written by Gabriel Collins, the Baker Botts Fellow in Energy and Environmental Regulatory Affairs at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, explores the opportunities for new investment in water infrastructure in the state. Texas Senator Charles Perry will propose Senate Bill 7 to increase the state’s investments in our water supply.
Ruth López Turley, director of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research, released a study last year correlating public education
achievement gaps with public education spending. López Turley began meeting with legislative offices and education stakeholders — including five legislative offices and the commissioner of the Texas Education Agency — to share and discuss research findings.
In Austin, Rice President Reginald DesRoches has met with several key Texas legislative leaders, the executive director of the Texas Space Commission, and the CEO of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas to share our state legislative priorities and to discuss the university’s new 10-year strategic plan and our state’s leadership in research, innovation and education.
Shalini Yadav, executive director of the Rice Synthetic Biology Institute, met with legislative staff in Austin to discuss the role synthetic biology plays in advancing research and development priorities in Texas. Yadav worked with the Greater Houston Partnership and other synthetic biology stakeholders to offer expert insight on the synthetic biology sector. Yadav is helping monitor legislative proposals that would be potentially disruptive for synthetic biology and research advancements.
New study finds ChatGPT boosts creativity in everyday challenges.
WE ALL KNOW ChatGPT has forever changed how we do business. It’s modified how we access information, compose content and analyze data. It’s revolutionized the future of work and education, and it has transformed the way we interact with technology.
New research contends that AI software like ChatGPT can enhance our problem-solving abilities, especially with everyday challenges. Jaeyeon Chung of Rice Business and Byung Cheol Lee of the University of Houston’s
C.T. Bauer College of Business recently published their findings in Nature Human Behaviour. Whether coming up with gifts for your teenage niece or pondering what to do with an old tennis racket, ChatGPT has a unique ability to generate creative ideas.
“Creative problem-solving often requires connecting different concepts in a cohesive way,” Chung says. “ChatGPT excels at this because it pulls from a vast range of data, enabling it to generate new combinations of ideas.”
Chung and Lee sought to answer a central question: Can ChatGPT help people think more creatively than traditional search engines? To answer this, they conducted five experiments. Each experiment asked participants to generate ideas for solving challenges, such as how to repurpose household items. Depending on the experiment, participants were divided into one
of two or three groups: one that used ChatGPT, one that used conventional web search tools such as Google, and one that used no external tool at all.
The resulting ideas were evaluated by both laypeople and business experts based on two critical aspects of creativity: originality and appropriateness (i.e., practicality).
In one standout experiment, participants were asked to come up with an idea for a dining table that doesn’t exist on the market. The ChatGPT group came up with suggestions like a “rotating table,” a “floating table” and even “a table that adjusts its height based on the dining experience.” According to both judges and experts, the ChatGPT group consistently delivered the most creative solutions. On average, across all experiments, ideas generated with ChatGPT were rated 15% more creative than those produced by traditional methods. This was true even when tasks were specifically designed to require empathy or involved multiple constraints — tasks we typically assume humans might be better at performing.
However, Chung and Lee also found a caveat: While ChatGPT excels at generating ideas that are “incrementally” new — meaning they build on existing concepts — it struggles to produce “radically” new ideas that break from established patterns. “ChatGPT is an incredible tool for tweaking and improving existing ideas, but when it comes to disruptive innovation, humans still hold the upper hand,” Chung notes.
For professionals in creative fields like product design or marketing, the study holds especially significant implications. The ability to rapidly generate fresh ideas can be a gamechanger in industries where staying ahead of trends is vital. —
SCOTT PETT ’22
Jaeyeon (Jae) Chung is the William S. Mackey Jr. Distinguished Assistant Professor at Rice Business. Byung Cheol Lee is assistant professor at the C.T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston.
Rice pioneers a biotech venture focused on delivering breakthrough therapies to patients.
TO BE ON THE cutting edge of biotech means creating something brand-new — and at Rice, that’s not just devices. Launched last fall, RBL LLC is committed to rapidly building companies based on the life-saving medical technologies developed at Rice’s very own Biotech Launch Pad.
RBL’s mission is to fast-track the journey “from bench to bedside” by leveraging a large portfolio of over 100 patents from Rice faculty, bringing together scientists and engineers with experienced business executives to launch companies in a thriving biotech innovation environment.
“This is a pivotal moment for Houston and beyond,” says Paul Wotton, executive director of the Rice Biotech Launch
Pad and RBL’s managing partner.
“Houston has rapidly emerged as a global life sciences powerhouse, blending cutting-edge research with early clinical applications at Rice and the city’s world-renowned hospital systems.”
Located in Houston’s Texas Medical Center Helix Park, RBL bridges the gap between academic biotech discoveries and the clinical care market. RBL’s location within the TMC provides greater opportunity to collaborate with premier clinical centers, corporate partners and global investors — all within the same complex — to rapidly bring groundbreaking therapies to patients by directly transforming Rice’s most promising life science technologies into high-impact ventures, company leaders said.
RBL was co-founded by an experienced team of scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs and investors, including Wotton; Omid Veiseh, Rice professor of bioengineering and faculty director of the Rice Biotech Launch Pad; Jacob Robinson, Rice professor of electrical and computer engineering and of bioengineering; and Dr. Rima Chakrabarti, a physician scientist and venture capital
investor with KdT Ventures.
“RBL provides a powerful platform to translate high-impact scientific discoveries into therapies that will dramatically improve patient outcomes,” Veiseh says. “Our goal is to rapidly bring Rice’s pioneering research into the clinic, delivering lifesaving solutions to patients around the world.”
The creation of RBL was spearheaded by Paul Cherukuri, Rice’s chief innovation officer, and Veiseh, who recognized the need for launching a commercial entity to create multiple startup companies faster from newly developed biotechnology.
“RBL is a game-changer for Rice, Houston and the global biotech community,” Cherukuri says. “This venture not only accelerates the commercialization of our innovations but also sets a blueprint for other universities looking to maximize the real-world impact of their discoveries. By combining scientific expertise with entrepreneurial support and strategic clinical partnerships in the TMC, we’re creating a model for driving large-scale biotech innovation that universities everywhere should aspire to replicate.” — SILVIA
A new report highlights local budgeting, saving and financial security trends.
COULD YOUR HOUSEHOLD budget withstand an economic shock, such as job loss or unexpected expenses? A report from Rice’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research and the United Way of Greater Houston finds that two-thirds of Houston-area residents are unable to cover three months of living expenses using savings alone, underscoring significant financial vulnerability within the region. The study is based on data collected from more than 5,500 Harris County residents in late 2023.
“Financial security is a critical determinant of health, education and overall well-being, yet the research highlights a substantial gap in residents’ ability to build the safety net required for resilience and prosperity,” says Dan Potter, director of the Kinder Institute’s Houston Population Research Center and one of the authors of the report.
“No matter how much a person earns, they can always have a budget because it will benefit them, even if it doesn’t lead directly to financial security,” says Jessica Davison, senior director of mission and strategy at United Way of Greater Houston.
The researchers write that saving increases the likelihood of residents being financially secure. Both people who saved regularly or put aside what was left over were more likely to be financially secure than those who did neither. Budgeting on its own was not related to being financially secure.
“Our research underscores the urgency of creating programs that not only encourage saving but also address systemic barriers to financial security,” Potter says. Kinder Institute researchers Joy Njeh and Aaron Niznik are co-authors of the report. — AMY MCCAIG
Financial security is a critical determinant of health, education and overall well-being, yet the research highlights a substantial gap in residents’ ability to build the safety net required for resilience and prosperity.
34% of Harris County residents are financially secure, meaning they are able to cover living expenses using only their savings for three months or more.
30% of residents are considered financially vulnerable, lacking savings to cover just two weeks’ worth of expenses.
64% of Houston-area residents save money each month.
31% of Houston-area residents saved money by setting aside a regular amount each month.
33% of residents saved money by setting aside what was left. Barriers to saving include paying emergency expenses such as home or car repairs, housing costs, health care expenses and credit card debt.
64% of residents use either a formal or informal budget. For residents not using a budget, the most common barrier is the belief that they do not earn enough to justify keeping a budget.
Data for this study came from the Greater Houston Community Panel, a project following adults living in Harris County, Texas, to learn more about their experiences, values and preferences. Read the full report at kinder.rice.edu/ dollarsandcents
Building Bonds Between Christians and Muslims
Craig Considine Polity Press, 2025
In “Beyond Dialogue: Building Bonds Between Christians and Muslims,” Rice sociologist Craig Considine presents a new perspective on fostering harmony between the two faiths, highlighting the deep historical and cultural ties between Western and Islamic societies.
“Cultivating a spirit of harmony and unity is not merely a moral imperative but a practical necessity,” he says. The book explores Christian-Muslim relations across seven regions marked by conflict and misunderstanding, presenting both challenges and opportunities for bridge building. Through a blend of historical analysis and contemporary insights, Considine underscores the mutual values shared by these Abrahamic traditions, emphasizing themes of compassion, justice and community.
Considine introduces a tool called the DEUCE framework — dialogue, education, understanding, commitment and engagement — intended to guide interfaith initiatives. This practical frame equips readers with strategies for nurturing unity in divided communities, particularly in regions plagued by fear and violence.
“In a world increasingly defined by division, the bonds between Christianity and Islam are not just historical artifacts but living bridges to a shared future,” he said.
— AMY MCCAIG
Craig Considine is senior lecturer in sociology at Rice.
Elaine Howard Ecklund, Denise Daniels and Christopher P. Scheitle Oxford University Press, 2024
For the past two decades, sociologist Elaine Howard Ecklund has dived deep into questions about religion, science and work. Her funded research has produced countless scholarly articles and nine books, including, most recently, “Religion in a Changing Workplace” with co-authors Denise Daniels and Christopher P. Scheitle. The book draws on more than 15,000 surveys and 300 in-depth interviews. The authors argue that embracing religious diversity in the workplace helps foster diversity of other kinds and that their data can show managers, organizational leaders and workers how to engage thoughtfully and respectfully
with religion in the workplace.
“The workplace in the midst of these fraught times is a place we need to turn to, a place we need to examine, if we want to understand what it really means to get along with each other while expressing our deepest differences — what, in effect, a healthy religious pluralism really looks like,” Howard says.
The interviews repeatedly showed that the workplace is one of the only sectors of society where people are likely to meet those who are different from themselves, the authors explained.
— AVERY FRANKLIN
Elaine Howard Ecklund is the Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences, professor of sociology, and director of the Boniuk Institute for the Study and Advancement of Religious Tolerance at Rice. Christopher Scheitle is associate professor of sociology at West Virginia University. Denise Daniels is the Hudson T. Harrison Professor of Entrepreneurship at Wheaton College.
Exploring Life Experience Through Color and Emotion
Marcia Brennan Routledge, 2025
Can a textbook written for middle school students find a home on a syllabus for premed college students? For Marcia Brennan, the answer is assuredly yes.
“There is literally nowhere you can’t take the subjects of color and emotion,” writes Brennan, an award-winning professor of religion and art history at Rice, in the introduction to her new textbook, “The Colors of Life: Exploring Life Experience Through Color and Emotion.” Brennan’s research and teaching ranges widely across topics in medical humanities, spirituality and art history, and she has published numerous scholarly works in these areas. This book, along with a companion guide for teachers and parents titled “Approaching SEL Through Emotion and Color,” is designed to support a pedagogical rubric called social and emotional learning — an integration of thinking, emotions and behavior.
Each of the 12 chapters is an invitation to a “school of color,” containing stories and poems about each color, exercises, and field trip suggestions for experiential learning, visualization and reflection. For example, “The School of Green” explores living systems and the natural world — there are stories about Earth’s abundance, renewal, community and vibrancy. The softcover textbook features many original illustrations produced by Rice students Madison Zhao ’25 and Hannah Li ’25.
Brennan’s textbook duo is a key component of her course RELI 142/MDHM 142: The Colors of Life and the End of Life. The course draws not only from humanities scholarship, but also from her work as a literary artist in the field of psychosocial oncology. The class is popular with STEM-oriented learners and students planning to enter the health care professions or who, one day, will serve as caregivers.
— LYNN GOSNELL
Marcia Brennan is the Carolyn and Fred McManis Professor of Humanities and professor of religion and art history. Since 2009, she has served as artist in residence in the Department of Palliative Care and Rehabilitation Medicine at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
We asked Rice’s head of research security to tell us about his job.
TAM DAO JOINED RICE’S Office of Research Security in 2023 as the assistant vice president for research security. His background includes both academia and security — he was a tenure-track professor in counseling psychology at the University of Houston before joining the FBI, where he served in several roles for 12 years, including overseeing the FBI’s counterintelligence task force. At Rice, Dao is in charge of a wide-ranging and collaborative effort to protect intellectual property. “Rice has produced great research for years, and something that
always amazes me is how smart people are and what incredible things they develop and accomplish here,” he says.
How do counterintelligence and espionage relate to research?
Espionage, as we know, has been going on forever — in many cases, it’s foreign governments targeting information kept at a confidential or classified level. There has been a slight transition within the last 10 or 12 years in that foreign governments continue to target confidential and classified information, but they’ve also started to target
research — which is not necessarily classified — including the fundamental research and cutting-edge research that’s often found inside academic institutions or health care settings.
What is research security?
It’s not a new concept, but it’s evolv ing. The goal of research security here is to protect the intellectual property of Rice, and that encompasses a number of things. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a tangible product that we put safeguards around, like a Coca-Cola formula. In the context of academia, a lot of times, our ideas are not tangible. Our job is to identify that IP and then try to protect it or safeguard it from both domestic and international threats.
Tell us more about the use of new generative AI tools to enhance research security.
Rice researchers developed a tool called PRISM (Preventive RISk Monitoring) to make identifying and analyzing research security risks more efficient and effective. It’s a groundbreaking advancement in research security designed to significantly reduce false positives — a persistent issue with many existing tools and software that I strongly feel contributes to racial profiling and targeting of individuals from China.
By employing a triangular algorithm, PRISM effectively minimizes false positives, mitigating the risk of reputational harm and ethical concerns. Our goal is to ensure that security evaluations are data-driven, objective and free from bias, preserving both research integrity and individual careers.
On the lighter side, who is your favorite fictional FBI agent?
My favorite fictional FBI character is Special Agent Fox Mulder from “The X-Files.”
— KATHARINE SHILCUTT
Composer Anthony Brandt investigates how and why the human brain responds to music.
IN OCTOBER 2024, classical music fans at Houston’s Miller Outdoor Theatre were treated to a concert unlike any other seen on the stage at Hermann Park. During a performance of Anthony Brandt’s “Diabelli 200” by Musiqa, both the conductor and pianist wore mobile brain-body imaging caps that captured their EEG data, which was displayed live on a large screen above the orchestra in visualizations created by multimedia artist Badie Khaleghian.
As the chamber musicians played, the audience could see exactly how the brains of the conductor and pianist were responding not just to hearing the music but to the act of directly performing and engaging with it.
“Neuroscience has learned more about the human brain from music than any other human activity, and one of the reasons is it literally uses every part of our brain, from physical motion to memory to emotion to the feedback loop between perception and action,” says Brandt, who teaches composition and music theory at Rice’s Shepherd School of Music and is artistic director of contemporary chamber music ensemble Musiqa. “All of those things are engaged by music, and so it is an incredible resource for science — for understanding our inner lives.”
Brandt has long worked with the University of Houston’s BRAIN Center, led by biomedical engineer Jose Contreras-Vidal, to develop new interfaces that allow the brain to communicate directly with external devices
like robots, exoskeletons or prosthetic devices like the EEG caps developed by Contreras-Vidal and his team.
The “Diabelli 200” collaboration, inspired by Beethoven’s “Diabelli Variations,” marked the first time a conductor wore full-scale neuroimaging equipment during a live performance, but Brandt and Contreras-Vidal have conceived other performances together, including one that debuted at the United Nations’ AI for Good Global Summit in May 2024.
Presented in Geneva, Switzerland, their “Meeting of Minds” was a blend of choreography, dance and scientific experiment. Once again, an audience was able to see how dancers’ brains responded throughout the performance through visualizations designed by Khaleghian, a doctoral candidate in composition at the Shepherd School, that deciphered live data from their EEG caps.
“The first generation of neuroscience was essentially about figuring out what all brains have in common,” says Brandt. “But in the process of doing that, scientists discovered that actually, brains are incredibly impacted by culture and experience, and the arts are one of the most exceptionally powerful and revealing ways of studying that.”
Recently, Brandt traveled to Indonesia thanks to funding from Rice’s Medical Humanities Research Institute
to investigate how traditional gamelan music and dance interacts with the mind, using those same EEG caps.
“Tony’s project is so exciting because he’s doing research that brings music and neuroscience together. One of his great insights is that music is very culturally specific, but a lot of neuroscience treats Western European classical music as if it’s universal,” says Kirsten Ostherr, the founding director of the MHRI.
“This is all part of a larger undertaking to understand the role of culture in how brains respond to music, creativity and other forms of stimulation, which could have all kinds of important impacts on understanding music as a tool for therapy, for regenerative medicine and just for understanding how the brain works,” Ostherr says.
— KATHARINE SHILCUTT
Kirsten Ostherr is the Gladys Louise Fox Professor of English in the School of Humanities and director of the Medical Humanities Program and the Medical Humanities Research Institute at Rice. Anthony Brandt is professor of composition and music theory at Rice’s Shepherd School of Music and the artistic director of Musiqa. Jose Contreras-Vidal is the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Houston.
AT RICE’S NEW CENTER FOR COASTAL FUTURES AND ADAPTIVE RESILIENCE,
HOUSTON SERVES AS AN INCUBATOR FOR TACKLING
COASTAL INDUSTRIAL CHALLENGES HEAD-ON.
BY KATHARINE SHILCUTT
In late October, catastrophic flash floods killed more than 200 people overnight in Valencia, a major industrial region and port city in Spain. It was the worst natural disaster in the country’s history, the result of a destructive weather phenomenon called DANA (depresión aislada en niveles altos) that’s growing more frequent due to climate change.
Meanwhile, the death toll from Hurricane Helene surpassed 230 people across Florida, Georgia, Virginia, Tennessee and the Carolinas, making it the deadliest mainland U.S. hurricane since Katrina in 2005. Milton came hot on Helene’s heels, intensifying to a Category 5 twice due to an overheated Gulf of Mexico. And just three months earlier, Beryl killed 22 people in Houston — a rare July hurricane, and the earliest Category 5 Atlantic storm on record. Estimated damages from these events, along with Hurricane Francine on the Gulf Coast, now hover at $95 billion and counting.
Rice’s new Center for Coastal Futures and Adaptive Resilience launched in the midst of these storms, and its co-directors quickly found themselves in national news conversations in The New York Times, Newsweek, PBS and The Atlantic. The topic? What the future holds for coastal industrial areas and, crucially, what can be done to advance and support more equitable forms of adaptive resilience in such areas in the years ahead.
“We’re trying to help coastal cities adapt to climate change, specifically coastal industrial communities,” says Rice anthropologist Dominic Boyer, who co-directs CFAR alongside Rice sociologist Jim Elliott. “Our colleagues in the natural and engineering sciences here at Rice have been pioneering new tools and hard infrastructures; we need to innovate equally in the social sciences to meet our climate’s growing social challenge.”
What sets coastal industrial communities apart from other coastal areas is the fact that, as in Houston, they’re home to both people and industrial facilities housing chemicals and other pollutants, which are just as vulnerable to flooding and hurricane strikes as low-lying housing.
“What happens if you have millions of people living next door to already quite dangerous industrial facilities that are now increasingly vulnerable to climate change?” Boyer asked. “Miami, for instance, will face all sorts of pain as the sea level rises — it’s a much more dire situation long term for them — but they don’t have to worry about petrochemical facilities exploding, or storms releasing millions of gallons of toxic materials onto local lands and into local waterways.”
WHAT SETS COASTAL INDUSTRIAL COMMUNITIES APART FROM OTHER COASTAL AREAS IS THE FACT THAT, AS IN HOUSTON, THEY’RE HOME TO BOTH PEOPLE AND INDUSTRIAL FACILITIES HOUSING CHEMICALS AND OTHER POLLUTANTS, WHICH ARE JUST AS VULNERABLE TO FLOODING AND HURRICANE STRIKES AS LOW-LYING HOUSING.
Coastal zones only occupy about 20% of the world’s land surface, but they are home to more than 40% of the global population. Currently, 2.15 billion people worldwide live in near-coastal zones and 898 million live in low-elevation coastal zones, and these numbers are only projected to increase.
Yet coastal areas also carry disproportionate risks for those who call them home, including the constant threat of hurricanes, storm surges, erosion and flooding — whether due to sea-level rise or other natural disasters. All of this is now exacerbated by climate change, but the consequences are not borne evenly.
Calculations by CFAR show that nearly 3,000 facilities registered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for having large amounts of dangerous chemicals on-site were located in the direct cones of impact during hurricanes Helene and Milton. CFAR’s goal is to advance and support more equitable forms of adaptive resilience emerging from the twin challenges of climate change and social inequality. These efforts include developing new projects and partnerships to address the spread of hazardous chemicals into nearby communities, disproportionately home to lowerincome residents and communities of color.
Creating these types of collaborations is crucial, says Elliott, and something that social scientists like himself and Boyer understand is truly vital for CFAR’s mission of improving the well-being of all groups and communities facing uncertain coastal futures.
“Our big thing is thinking about how to advance needed innovations from the social side,” Elliott says. “Effectively, we’re asking, ‘What if we put the social challenge of climate change in the center, and then reached out to architects, engineers and climate scientists, rather than the other way around? What might that do to help create and support more equitable tools for adaptive resilience?’”
One of the tools that’s already sparked attention nationwide is a map created by CFAR research scientist Phylicia Lee Brown that displays toxic industrial facilities at high risk for flooding. It spotlights the potentially devastating environmental and health impacts that rising flood risk can have on local communities by plotting every major polluter in the EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory estimated to be at elevated flood risk.
“Here is where the federal government has identified facilities that handle large amounts of hazardous chemicals known to be harmful to human health, and here you can see that each one has a flood risk score, showing the likelihood of its site flooding over the next 20 years,” says Elliott, pointing to the interactive online map. “So people can search and say, ‘OK, where do I live and are there flood-prone polluters nearby that merit attention during — but ideally before — the next storm?’”
Results from the tool show, among all U.S. counties, that Harris County is No. 1 in the nation in terms of the number of such flood-prone facilities. It is also No. 1 in terms of the average flood risk score associated with each facility.
Tools, of course, are one thing. Action is another. So CFAR is also teaming up to help imagine and advance solutions. Some of these partnerships
ONE OF THE TOOLS THAT’S ALREADY SPARKED ATTENTION NATIONWIDE IS A MAP CREATED BY CFAR RESEARCH SCIENTIST PHYLICIA LEE BROWN THAT DISPLAYS TOXIC INDUSTRIAL FACILITIES AT HIGH RISK FOR FLOODING. IT SPOTLIGHTS THE POTENTIALLY DEVASTATING ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH IMPACTS THAT RISING FLOOD RISK CAN HAVE ON LOCAL COMMUNITIES.
for flooding.
include collaborating with natural scientists and engineers to pursue large-scale grants to promote and fund equitable, interdisciplinary interventions alongside those living and working in at-risk communities. Other efforts include partnering directly with local community organizations to develop initiatives from the ground up.
These efforts are becoming even more important as the climate itself becomes more unpredictable. The day we sat down to discuss the new CFAR map of large industrial facilities with elevated flood risks, a Houston thunderstorm blew in unexpectedly — as swift and sudden as the May derecho that barreled into Houston with winds up to 100 miles per hour, causing the release of nearly 2,500 pounds of pollutants when plants lost power in the storm. Relentless rains trapped us inside a cafe on campus, giving us even more time to contemplate the uncertain future ahead.
Storms like the one we waited out that day make Houston an ideal incubator for such discussions, research and action. So, too, do its massive population and petrochemical complex, much of it situated along Houston’s ship channel, the largest port by tonnage in the U.S.
A high number of industrial facilities, hazardous materials and storage infrastructure in the Houston Ship Channel are uniquely vulnerable to our changing climate.
“There are unique hazards here with the ship channel, where we have an enormous concentration of industrial facilities, hazardous materials and storage infrastructure vulnerable to our changing climate,” Elliott says. “Exposed to these colliding futures are the residents living nearby, who face not only the rising risk of storms but also the toxic tides those storms potentially carry, deposit and spread over larger and larger areas of Houston.”
Boyer recalled a conference he’d attended not long ago in the Netherlands for the 150th anniversary of Rotterdam’s ship channel — the largest in Europe.
“Rotterdam is more or less the Houston of the Netherlands, where all kinds of industrial, chemical and petrochemical activity is happening in close proximity to residential populations. The conference organizers brought together community members, politicians, designers, architects, artists, social scientists — really, everyone — to ask, ‘How should our nearby coastal industrial communities evolve to meet the challenges of our times?’” Boyer says. “What should the next 150 years look like?”
Having a public dialog like this has never really happened in the U.S., he says. And this, too, is what CFAR now exists to help advance. “In Houston especially, it seems like it would be a good time to have that conversation,” Boyer says.
Dominic Boyer is professor of anthropology in Rice's School of Social Sciences. Jim Elliott is the David W. Leebron Professor of Sociology and chair of the Department of Sociology in the School of Social Sciences.
A HALF-CENTURY AFTER THE MILESTONE ASILOMAR CONFERENCE,
MET TO DEBATE NEW QUESTIONS ABOUT BIOTECHNOLOGY — AMID ATTACKS ON SCIENTIFIC FUNDING.
A GROUP OF RESEARCHERS, POLICYMAKERS AND MORE
BY SILVIA CERNEA
the
On a Sunday afternoon in late February, an unusual gathering assembled in a large redwood auditorium on the scenic grounds of a Northern California state park to commemorate a landmark event in the history of science.
The setting lent a majestic aura to the occasion. The Asilomar State Beach and Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove — a breeze-swept hillside shaded by pines and cypresses and dotted with early 20th-century buildings made of native stone and wood — rises gently above the Pacific, blending into protected dune habitat to the northwest.
Fifty years earlier, on these very grounds, the 1975 International Conference on Recombinant DNA Molecules had brought together leading molecular biologists, along with a few legal experts and journalists, to debate the potential risks of a new and powerful scientific tool — recombinant DNA.
In the early 1970s, scientists at two U.S. academic laboratories had figured out how to cut and fuse DNA from different species, such as viruses and bacteria, and then introduce the engineered genetic material into host cells, enabling them to not only modify their behavior, but also to pass down the new traits to future generations of cells. Shaping living forms had hitherto been a province of divine authority; now, it was a tool in the hands of man. Could mankind be trusted with such powers?
Stanford University’s Stanley Cohen and University of California San Francisco’s Herbert Boyer applied for a patent on the technology in 1974. That same year, Stanford scientist Paul Berg, along with 10 other leading researchers in the field, signed a letter calling for a voluntary pause on experiments deemed high-risk, until the scientific community could meet to discuss whether, and under what conditions, to resume work.
The 1975 Asilomar Conference was the stage where this unprecedented act of professional self-governance played out — shaping the design of biosafety levels for classifying the risks of recombinant DNA experiments, as well as the develop-
ment of fail-safe model organisms that could not exist outside of the laboratory. The summit had a direct impact on safety protocols governing how research would be carried out in laboratories across the country in the decades to come.
The Asilomar Conference of 1975 has become a touchstone, invoked whenever society faced the advent of a new technology ushering in unpredictable new powers — and potential dangers. Scientific and technological breakthroughs — from CRISPR-based gene-editing tools to artificial intelligence — have each served as an occasion to ask, “Is this another Asilomar moment?”
Luis Campos, a Rice historian who is the leading expert on the proceedings, prehistory and aftermath of the 1975 conference, was among the first to address the audience at the opening of the anniversary summit, titled “The Spirit of Asilomar and the Future of Biotechnology.” It was, as Campos described it, an “extraordinary and improbable assembly of people crafted in an effort to grapple with some of the challenges and criticisms of the summit in 1975.”
Together with colleagues at the Science History Institute and Stanford University, Campos, an esteemed historian of science, was the lead architect of the anniversary summit. In his welcome address, Campos outlined the three dominant and competing narratives that govern how the 1975 conference is remembered and invoked: as a model of self-governance and ethical responsibility; as an exercise that was detrimental to scientists and their craft, needlessly calling into question and disrupting scientific practice; or as an elitist, exclusionary and self-serving attempt to subvert regulation and oversight.
Despite all these different understandings, he continued, “I think we can appeal to and invoke a different kind of spirit of Asilomar, one that involves coming together face to face. … I want to encourage you to take advantage of this remarkable gathering in the same place where these discussions took place, to weave together past, present and future.”
“The Spirit of Asilomar” 2025 summit intentionally drew together a wider variety of constituencies, perspectives and expertise than its predecessor. The number of attendees was more than double that of the original, comprising researchers at different stages in their careers — undergraduates to Nobel Prize winners — and from a variety of backgrounds, disciplines, countries and institutions, as well as regulators and policymakers, social scientists and humanists, industrial entrepreneurs, artists and journalists. Notably, the summit included a cohort of 60 next-generation leaders.
The schedule vastly expanded the original debate around recombinant DNA by focusing on five overlapping themes: pathogens research and biological weapons; the advances and risks at the intersection of AI and biotechnology; synthetic cells, and the dangers and benefits of engineering living organisms from scratch; the deployment of biotechnologies beyond conventional limits, in bodies and environments; and framing biotechnology’s futures.
“The Spirit of Asilomar” summit upheld the expectation for tangible outcomes to serve as a reference for present and future biotechnology research and governance. Post-conference, participants are expected to review and revise the statements, called “entreaties,” and decide whether to add their names to the list of signatories. At least 30 summit participants must agree to be named as authors or endorsers for an entreaty to be published, archived and made publicly available.
The presence of Rice faculty and students at Asilomar in 2025 is a reflection of the university’s strengths in synthetic biology and computational research, complemented by work on science policy, ethics and history at both Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and the School of Humanities.
In the early 2000s, as synthetic biology was
coalescing as a discipline, Rice was already positioning itself at the forefront. A group of faculty from departments across the schools of natural sciences and engineering and computing helped establish the nation’s first dedicated Ph.D. program in synthetic biology. Among them were Rice bioscientists Yousif Shamoo and Joff Silberg, both of whom traveled to Pacific Grove for the summit.
“Asilomar was about concerns about the ability to put DNA together, and synthetic biology is about programming cells with synthetic DNA circuits,” says Silberg, who programs cells to function as living electronic sensors. “At Rice, we have a unique ecosystem of synthetic biologists spread across campus in different departments. We started the Ph.D. program to address the need for a specialized curriculum for synthetic biology.”
The Systems, Synthetic and Physical Biology Ph.D. Program grew from an initial cohort of seven in 2013 to over 70 today. It is a top destination for students in synthetic biology, regularly outcompeting the other leading synthetic biology programs in the U.S. for the best rising scholars.
“The SSPB program is now arguably the best in the nation,” says Shamoo, who researches how bacterial pathogens emerge from the environment and evolve and adapt over time, for instance, by developing antibiotic resistance. In 2024, the university launched the Rice Synthetic Biology Institute, which is working to translate synthetic biology research into real-world applications, from living therapeutics to selfrepairing materials and biological-electronic interfaces.
Shalini Yadav, RSBI’s executive director, participated in the summit to think through ways that synthetic biology could help shape “circular economies” to address challenges such as growing global waste, the toll of disease and food insecurity.
Elise Zimmerman, a Rice University Ph.D. student, speaking at the podium, and, to the right, Alicia Johnson, a postdoctoral associate, were two of the NGL cohort co-chairs.
‘THE NEXTGENERATION LEADERS HAVE GOT THIS.’
AMONG THE MANY VOICES present at the 50-year anniversary event, the cohort of younger researchers stood out — not just as participants, but as organizers, facilitators and catalysts for change. Their opening statement underscored a commitment to governance, innovation and collaboration in shaping biotechnology’s future.
“[T]he work we are laying out this week will take years to kick start, decades to implement and forever to maintain,” the statement reads. “We currently exist at a rare moment in time where extraordinary uncertainty creates opportunity for extraordinary creativity. … We must invest as much energy into supporting accessible, equitable, and democratic social structures surrounding our technology as we do the technology itself.”
An important area of focus is the ethical development of biotechnology in relation to bioprospecting — the extraction and commercial exploitation of biological resources, often from biodiversity-rich regions like the Amazon. Indigenous perspectives — often overlooked in traditional scientific spaces — offer alternative worldviews that emphasize holistic, communal and sustainable decision-making, prioritizing long-term ecological balance over short-term profit.
These next-generation leaders plan to integrate such frameworks in ongoing discussions, recognizing that biotechnology’s benefits cannot come at the expense of the communities and ecosystems that provide its raw materials. Their goal is to help shape a future where biotechnology serves not just the privileged few, but the world at large.
“I am particularly thrilled that RSBI was able to sponsor six graduate students and four scholars from institutions in the southern U.S. to attend the summit,” Yadav says. “Our next-generation leaders are a force to be reckoned with.”
When Campos was hired in 2022, Silberg recalls he and his fellow synthetic biologists rejoiced that a scholar who specializes in the history of their field was coming to Rice. “It’s very rare for a discipline to permeate that many schools on a campus,” Silberg says.
In 1975, only a handful of labs around the world could engage in the kind of research that came under debate at Asilomar, and the discussion was centered on containment and biosafety — how to ensure that potentially hazardous biological agents do not accidentally escape those labs. The question of biosecurity — measures to prevent or counteract the use of biotechnologies with the intent to cause harm — was considered outside the scope of the meeting. In 2025, taking a stance against bioweapons and working to strengthen cultural norms around this issue is an important outcome expected from the summit.
“I think having a clear statement that condemns the development of offensive bioweapons as a terrible idea is valuable,” says Shamoo, who was part of the working group on pathogens research and biological weapons.
In the lead-up to the 2025 Asilomar summit, the Nobel Prize awards for physics and chemistry recognized scientists whose research falls outside the traditional outlines of those disciplines, placing AI at the heart of discussions about the future of scientific inquiry, including with respect to biotechnology. AI is accelerating the analysis of
genomic and metagenomic data, offering insights into diseases and pathogen ecosystems, as well as potential solutions. At the same time, these capabilities raise the risk of misuse and bring up the question of where to focus risk assessment and mitigation efforts.
Rice computational biologists Todd Treangen and Vicky Yao led discussions on topics at the intersection of AI and biotechnology, such as data access and governance. Treangen works on computational solutions to emerging problems in pandemic tracking and synthetic DNA screening, and Yao uses computational methods to explore important questions about diseases such as neurological disorders and cancer.
“The discussion focused on guardrails but also on the potential benefits of this research,” Yao says. “As a scientist, I’m not usually part of conversations on policy and governance, so this was a unique and eye-opening experience.”
Photo archives from the 1975 conference were on view in the chapel where the original summit was held.
California State Parks also organized public tours of the history-laden grounds.
In 2025, the deployment of engineered organisms beyond conventional containment — in bodies and ecosystems — is at the forefront of debate. Bioengineered organisms are now used at industrial scales as part of drug production, such as insulin, and in agriculture, and could help address challenges like the accumulation of pollutants in the environment, resource scarcity, a changing climate and biodiversity loss.
Some conversations considered the development of environmental safety levels (modeled after the biological safety levels framework) for the deployment of engineered organisms in open systems, like soil or water. Overall, discussions focused less on drawing clear regulatory lines than on the need for an inclusive, deliberative process to address questions of deliberate release.
“Some were frustrated we didn’t get further, but for me, this was the first leg of a relay race,” says Silberg.
As with the original meeting, the 2025 Asilomar summit engendered frustration and disagreement. Nonetheless, disagreement is one of the faces of engagement, and making
room for dissent was part of the “spirit” of the meeting from the outset. However, Campos says he was “not expecting to convene a summit where the present moment itself would feel like a historic moment.”
The 2025 Asilomar conference took place as federal funding mechanisms for scientific research in the U.S. became the subject of dramatic budget cuts under a new administration. The profound effects of the looming withdrawal of public funding from the scientific enterprise was lost on no one at the meeting. These circumstances lent renewed urgency to the exercise of coming together and the value of disagreement as part of a deliberative process. They also rendered questions about the future of scientific governance more poignant: 50 years from now, what will Asilomar come to stand for?
“The Spirit of Asilomar” summit was sponsored in part by Rice’s School of Humanities, the Ken Kennedy Institute, the Rice Sustainability Institute, the Creative Ventures Fund and Rice Synthetic Biology Institute. Luis Campos is Rice’s Baker College Associate Professor for History of Science, Technology and Innovation; faculty scholar at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy; and co-director of the Program in Science and Technology Studies. Yousif Shamoo is Rice’s Ralph and Dorothy Looney Professor of BioSciences. Joff Silberg is Rice’s Stewart Memorial Professor of BioSciences. Shalini Yadav is executive director of the Rice Synthetic Biology Institute. Todd Treangen is associate professor of computer science at Rice. Vicky Yao is assistant professor of computer science at Rice.
Pigeonwing Dance, a New York City-based contemporary dance company, during a performance of a piece titled “The Choreography of CRISPR.”
ART PROVIDED A CRITICAL point of inflection for the technical and ethical dimensions of “The Spirit of Asilomar” summit.
The first day of the conference, attendees were invited “to pass down the boardwalk toward the beach” and participate in a ceremonial act of remembrance and reflection. The exercise was a way to acknowledge and grapple with the fraught legacy of the 1975 conference, but also to consider “what alternatives might be possible.”
“The Choreography of CRISPR,” a performance by Pigeonwing Dance, a New York City-based contemporary dance company, recast the mechanics of DNA editing in a surprising dimension by stripping the technique down to a series of verbs — twist, fold, cut, replicate and repeat, etc.
An installation featuring a vat of bioluminescent indigoidine — an indigo-like dye — produced by bioengineered yeast staged a reflection on the hubris and promise of synthetic biology. On the one hand, engineered organisms “toil in industrial bioreactors on gleaming factory floors and die by the trillions for our gain.” On the other, producing the dye via biosynthesis is more environmentally friendly and sustainable than chemical synthesis, which involves the use of “toxic chemicals, disproportionately impacting the Global South.”
Part of an installation titled “IndiGROW,” a flask containing bioluminescent indigoidine — an indigo-like dye produced by engineered yeast — draws attention to bacteria as workforce.
BY MARCY DE LUNA
Pancreatic cancer remains a leading cause of cancer-related deaths, claiming nearly 52,000 lives annually in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. The cancer’s location near critical organs such as the small intestine complicates treatment, as high-dose radiation therapy often leads to severe gastrointestinal toxicity.
A novel approach developed by scientists, including Rice chemist James Tour, could transform treatment for pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest cancers with limited therapeutic options. Researchers have introduced a targeted nasal delivery method that repurposes WR-2721, generically known as amifostine — a radioprotective prodrug (a type of medication that takes an active form after entering the body) historically administered intravenously. This advancement, now progressing to phase 1 and 2 clinical trials, aims to protect healthy tissue from radiation damage while improving outcomes for patients battling the disease.
Therapeutic options are minimal for pancreatic cancer patients with tumors that are not surgically removable. Building on earlier research by Tour and subsequent collaborations with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Xerient, a biotech startup founded with Rice and MD Anderson in 2019, scientists are taking a promising path forward.
“We’re pushing the boundaries of radiation treatment while safeguarding healthy tissue,” Tour said. “This breakthrough will hopefully soon help patients who previously had limited options in the treatment of pancreatic cancer.”
The journey began with Tour’s nearly two-decades-old research funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which explored nanoparticle solutions for radiation poisoning in nuclear fallout scenarios. Over time, this work inspired the repurposing of amifostine, originally developed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the 1970s and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for intravenous use to prevent damage to surrounding tissue when a tumor is treated with radiation.
While intravenous amifostine effectively protects healthy tissues during radiation therapy, its side effects, including nausea and hypotension, have limited its adoption. Tour’s team demonstrated that oral administration could selectively shield the gastrointestinal tract from radiation while reducing adverse effects. However, direct oral delivery posed challenges as stomach acids degraded the drug before it reached the intestines.
Progress on this discovery stalled due to funding constraints. It regained momentum through Tour’s partnerships at MD Anderson with Kathryn Mason, a retired researcher, and the late radiation oncologist Dr. Cullen Taniguchi.
Preclinical studies in mouse models revealed groundbreaking results: Mice treated with oral amifostine and simulated radiotherapy achieved a 100% survival rate after 10 days, while untreated mice succumbed to the radiation treatment. In a pancreatic tumor model, the combination of amifostine and stereotactic body radiotherapy nearly tripled survival time in mice, which if translated to humans could be an enormous breakthrough, adding years of survival to patients.
Expanding upon these findings, a new delivery method developed by Xerient and funded in part by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas uses either a nasoduodenal tube or a coated oral tablet designed to bypass stomach acids and deliver amifostine directly to the duodenum, the upper part of the gastrointestinal tract. This targeted approach delivers the drug to the exact location where it shields healthy cells from radiation damage without causing systemic side effects.
High-dose radiation has shown promise in improving survival rates for patients with unresectable pancreatic cancer, according to multiple studies at leading institutions. Doses above 45 Gy, the international system of units for measuring radiation dosage, can harm the gastrointestinal tract. However, the scientists found that significantly higher doses are often necessary to eradicate pancreatic tumors effectively.
“The duodenum is particularly vulnerable during radiation therapy for pancreatic cancer,” said Guy Yachin, co-founder and CEO of Xerient. “Our method protects this critical area while enabling aggressive treatment of pancreatic tumors.”
By safeguarding the duodenum, Xerient’s platform allows the safe delivery of high-dose radiation to pancreatic tumors, an option previously limited by the risk of gastrointestinal injury.
“High-dose radiation has always been an option in theory, but we’ve lacked the tools to protect the surrounding healthy tissues,” Yachin said. “This innovation could finally make that option a reality.”
With FDA approval, the research team plans to initiate phase 1 and 2 clinical trials to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the ND tube delivery method to ensure precise administration of the drug to the duodenum, expediting its clinical translation.
“The nasogastric delivery system offers several advantages, including precise drug delivery and activation and reduced idle radiation machine time,” Yachin said, adding that for future use and other indications, Xerient’s oral pill could also enhance patient convenience.
Beyond pancreatic cancer, amifostine could enable high-dose radiation therapy for other abdominal and pelvic cancers, including hepatobiliary tumors and metastatic abdominal diseases. Its potential extends beyond oncology, Tour said, including offering protection for astronauts against solar radiation and returning to its origins by serving as an emergency radioprotective measure during nuclear disasters.
“We’re repurposing a known drug to address an unmet clinical need,” Tour said. “This innovation can potentially extend cancer treatment and radiation protection, saving lives in scenarios where other methods are ineffective.”
James Tour is the T.T. and W.F. Chao Professor of Chemistry and professor of materials science and nanoengineering in the School of Natural Sciences at Rice. Kathryn Mason is a retired researcher and professor at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The late Cullen Taniguchi, M.D., Ph.D., was a radiation oncologist at MD Anderson Cancer Center with a focus on pancreatic cancer.
Physician and entrepreneur Thomas Lendvay builds innovative solutions to improve medical outcomes.
BY ALEX BECKER
Thomas Lendvay ’95, a practicing surgeon and professor in Seattle, co-founded a company that used methylene blue dye to help disinfect face masks.
THOMAS LENDVAY ’95 never set out to become an entrepreneur — much less sell his first company to Johnson & Johnson. But as he built a career as practicing surgeon and professor at the University of Washington, he noticed opportunities for improvement in training and performance in his field.
Driven by curiosity and a creative approach to problem-solving, Lendvay has founded multiple startups that have introduced bold ideas in health care — from using public crowdsourcing to improve urological surgery to integrating methylene blue into masks during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m interested in disruptive technologies that are hiding in plain sight,” Lendvay says. “And when someone says, ‘There’s no way this will work,’ that’s when I dig in.”
Lendvay had an early fascination with science and medicine, thanks to a pediatrician from his childhood, but it wasn’t until medical school that he discovered his true calling. Originally
planning to avoid surgery, he chose it as his first rotation “just to get it out of the way.” Instead, he fell in love with the field and was drawn to a surgical specialty that would not only allow him to work with children but to change their lives for the better for years to come.
“Kids give you energy when you go to work,” he says. “And it’s rewarding knowing that these reconstructive surgeries can positively impact a child’s life for decades.” Lendvay’s first major venture, C-SATS, was born from his recognition of a critical gap in surgical skills in the operating room.
“There is a huge variability in techni-
Lendvay and his wife, Kathleen Gilpin Lendvay ’96, are co-founders of Tend and Amend Pet, a startup focusing on treating human and pet GI distress via microbiome transplants.
I’m interested in disruptive technologies that are hiding in plain sight. And when someone says, ‘There’s no way this will work,’ that’s when I dig in.
cal performance among different surgeons in the operating room, and that directly impacts patient care,” Lendvay says. Because they perform a lot of their surgeries robotically, Lendvay recognized that he could record the surgeries as a first step for quality improvement. The unconventional piece was leveraging “the wisdom of crowds” and having nonmedical members of the public provide personalized feedback to the surgeons — which, to the surprise of almost everyone but him, vastly improved patient outcomes for the surgeons who were critiqued. The platform was so
successful that it garnered the attention of Johnson & Johnson, which acquired the company in 2018.
Lendvay founded Singletto during the pandemic, opting to bake methylene blue — a dye with antimicrobial properties — into PPE while the rest of us were kneading sourdough.
“Methylene blue is the oldest synthetic chemical in the world, and clinically it has been used as a treatment for brain cancer,” he says. But Lendvay and a colleague decided to try using the dye to disinfect face masks. Turns out, it effectively killed SARS-CoV-2
on contact. Together, they developed an antimicrobial brand ingredient, drawing interest from the World Health Organization and the U.S. military.
At the same time, Lendvay was also working on Tend, a medical treatment that focuses on the gut microbiome, leveraging fecal microbiota transplants to treat health issues like C. diff infections and Crohn’s disease and even support immunotherapy treatments for certain cancers. With a patented device that simplifies the transplant process, Tend aims to use the science of gut health to improve medical therapies for both humans and animals. Lendvay’s wife, Kathleen Gilpin Lendvay ’96, is the co-founder and COO of Tend and was instrumental in creating the company from the ground up.
Lendvay credits Rice for building a foundation that has helped him pursue big ideas. Its proximity to the Texas Medical Center also played a pivotal role, as did the opportunity to work in a molecular genetics lab at Baylor College of Medicine during his undergraduate years. One letter of recommendation from that experience became instrumental in his acceptance to the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University and, as he put it, “has followed him throughout his career.” To this day, his Rice diploma is the only one hanging in his office — displayed proudly for his patients, perhaps inspiring the next Owlturned-entrepreneur.
Alumnus Paul Eggert has spent two decades maintaining the internet database that synchronizes our digital clocks.
MODERN LIFE depends on a reliable system for tracking time around the world. Without it, we wouldn’t be able to schedule international flights, timestamp financial trades or coordinate military operations. Yet few people realize this precision relies on a single, meticulously maintained source — the time zone database, which Paul Eggert ’75 has voluntarily managed for the past 20 years.
Most people assume time zones are simple — fixed, logical, universal. Since 2005, Eggert, a computer scientist who
teaches at UCLA, has coordintated the database and untangled a web of political disputes, historical inconsistencies, social customs and even leap seconds. It turns out time isn’t just measured — it’s negotiated.
Take Morocco, for example. Eggert explains: “Morocco wants tourists to enjoy a longer day, so they normally run their clocks an hour ahead of where the sun would put it. Kind of like permanent daylight saving time. But during Ramadan, they set the clocks back an hour, so people don’t have to wait as long to break their fast at sunset. We have to predict Ramadan each year and update the database accordingly. And since it follows the Islamic calendar, which is based on astronomical observations rather than fixed dates, the process isn’t as simple as just looking at a calendar.”
When Eggert arrived at Rice in the early 1970s, the university did not have a computer science department, so he majored in electrical engineering
before heading to UCLA to pursue a Ph.D. in computer science. He taught at the University of California, Santa Barbara, for three years, before shifting to industry, co-founding multiple startups and working for System Development Corporation, one of the earliest software companies.
While doing business across multiple time zones, he noticed discrepancies in how different systems handled local time. At first, he tried to fix a few entries on his own, adding data for places like Taiwan and Indonesia. But the deeper he dug, the messier it became. “I thought, why don’t I just finish it off.” That decision led him to the UCLA library, where he began piecing together the history of global timekeeping — sometimes from sources as unexpected as astrologer almanacs. In the early 1990s, he became involved in the time zone database, which was started by Arthur David Olson, an employee of the National Institutes of Health.
“People assume time zones just work,” Eggert says, “but making sure they do takes effort and a lot of untangling history.”
He’s had to solve countless historical mysteries hidden in timekeeping records. When did a country first adopt standard time? Did a war, revolution or political shift cause an abrupt change? Were old newspaper reports accurate or were officials simply guessing? In some cases, time zones weren’t even recorded, leaving him to piece together clues from legal documents, archived government memos and vintage train schedules.
Eggert credits Rice with giving students then — and now — a big-picture view of whatever problem set needs solving and “to use that to gain leverage on the details.” It’s an approach he’s used when working in the time zone database. “That training helped me to see that I shouldn’t try to make the database do everything, because I could see the big picture right away and discover it before it was too late.”
— SCOTT PETT ’22
Submit news and updates to your class recorder listed below or owlmanac@rice.edu.
Class Recorders: Gene Langworthy ueee3ami@gmail.com George Laigle 713-705-3282 glaigleman1@gmail.com
Class recorder George Laigle (BA; BS, 1952) writes: This is to anyone still watching Rice Classnotes who is from the era 1947–1953. My wife was Elisabeth McGinty Laigle ’53 (BA). So, I knew lots of girls from
To see who these Martel College hipsters are, turn to Page 83. No Classnotes for your year? Become a class recorder and keep classmates informed. To volunteer, email owlmanac@rice.edu.
1953, even though I was gone, working, while Elisabeth was in school. Elisabeth and I married in August 1952, in Trinity Church, downtown. We promised her mother that she would not get pregnant during that school year, and we honored that request. So, I was at Shell Chemical ($381 a month) and coming home each evening to my lovely and loving Rice coed, finishing up her degree in French. Our firstborn, George Milton, arrived in 1954. I am now coming up on age 95 in late March 2025 and still working once a week (or twice) on my small ranch, 80
miles west of Houston, and living with my youngest daughter, Anne, in West University. My oldest daughter, Ruth Laigle Holmes ’81 (MA) (also in West U), went to University of the South in Sewanee (as did all four of our kids), and she got a master’s in English from Rice. I stay in close contact with my close friend and former business partner, who recently told me, “George, you have got to live to age 95!” I said, “Why is that?” He said, “Because we will have been friends for 50 years!” He is 30-plus years younger, a mechanical engineer from the
ALUMNI RELATIONS
The laureates recipients will be honored at a ceremony Thursday, May 8. Visit alumni.rice.edu/laureates for additional information.
Serving as the president of the Association of Rice Alumni this academic year has been an incredible honor and has renewed and deepened my appreciation for our incredible alma mater.
Rice alumni care deeply about Rice, and it’s been a joy to engage with so many of you at events throughout the year — from being with more than 2,000 other Rice alumni for Alumni Weekend to connecting through virtual cooking classes or the “Beyond the Hedges” podcast.
Alumni have an important role in the life of the university, and one question that I have often heard is about what alumni can do to stay meaningfully engaged with Rice. I encourage each of you to consider three ways to engage with the alumni community:
• Attend: Attend Rice events and alumni gatherings. Whether it’s a regional alumni event, a concert at the Shepherd School or a virtual alumni gathering, these moments offer invaluable opportunities to connect and learn, and your participation strengthens the Rice community.
• Give: Invest in the future of Rice. A gift to Rice directly supports the university’s ability to provide an exceptional education, to pursue groundbreaking research and to expand opportunity through efforts like the Rice Investment. Every gift strengthens Rice’s foundation for future generations, and alumni can support specific areas they feel most passionate about.
• Volunteer: There are many ways to give the gift of your time and talents. One way I find most rewarding is supporting and mentoring current students and recent graduates. As alumni, we have a unique role in helping the next generation of Owls navigate their early careers and growth. By offering your time and expertise as an externship host or mentor, you not only contribute to the success of younger Owls but also reinforce the strength of our alumni network.
Thank you again for the privilege of representing our alumni community this year.
Onwards!
David Mansouri ’07
The highest award given, the Gold Medal recognizes outstanding service in promoting Rice’s ideals, deep dedication to and advancement of academic excellence, and uncommon generosity of time and means in support of the university.
Recipients of the Distinguished Alumni Award are Rice alumni who have advanced the interest and standards of excellence of the university through distinctive professional or volunteer careers.
The Meritorious Service Award is given to those who have rendered significant and sustained voluntary contributions toward the advancement of the university, including employees of Rice.
University of Houston. I lost my Elisabeth to Alzheimer’s in 2021, one year before our 70th anniversary, and last year, in September, I lost my 70-year-old firstborn to a heart attack. I am still enjoying life, far more than I could have ever hoped, getting lots of laughs from the old classic movies available on TV. My youngest daughter takes care of me in her home, cooking, cleaning, laundry and meals, and Ruth handles all of my financial snafus, which occur occasionally (because I can’t hear on the phone), and gets it resolved. Plus, she handles all phone conversations to solve medical billing problems and makes doctor appointments, acting as my personal secretary. I have very serious heart and kidney problems and just had a 1 1/2-hour surgery on my back — skin cancer. I have lived with a heart pacemaker for over 10 years, and my heart doctor says the battery is good for another year, but, so far, I can still do lots of things I want to do, but it takes three or four times longer. The auto insurance companies will probably not renew my policy after I reach 95, and that will definitely slow me down.
Sadly, our Class of 1951 is just about all gone, and Gene Langworthy (BA; BS, 1952) and I don’t hear much from those very few still with us.
Lee Edwards submits the following obituary for his father: “ Marvin Bennet Edwards Jr. (BA; BS, 1953), known as Ben, passed away peacefully at his home in Coppell, TX, June 22, 2024, at the age of 93.
“Ben was born Aug. 2, 1930, in Port Arthur, TX, to Ruth and Marvin Edwards. He graduated from the Rice Institute with a degree in electrical engineering and went on to have a distinguished, 50-year career in engineering.
“Ben was a dedicated family man, a loving husband to Eleanor Allen Edwards ’53 (BA) for 62 years, and a proud father to Holly, Laurie and Lee. He was a committed member of the Episcopal church and taught Sunday school with Eleanor for decades. Some of his other church activities included attending weekly care group meetings, participating in a men’s Bible study, singing in the choir and serving communion to the homebound.
“Known for his kindness, intelligence, humor and integrity, Ben was liked and admired by everyone he met. He had a servant heart. He is survived by his three children; by his grandchildren, Nicole, Danielle, Joshua and Analiese; and by his great-grandchildren, Michael and Eric. He was preceded in death by his parents; his sister, Kathleen; and his wife, Eleanor.
“Donations may be made to American Red Cross, Salvation Army or World Vision in memory of Marvin Bennet Edwards Jr.”
Class Recorder: Peter Shannon 972-239-3227 newpeterb@gmail.com
Barbara Veyon Jones (BA) writes about the passing of M. Maurine Bell Bybee (BA) Aug. 14, 2024: “How to condense the aspects of a lifetime friendship? Our paths carried us to different parts of the globe, but we stayed in touch and visited back and forth whenever possible. Maurine and David Bybee (BA) were incredibly hospitable. They hosted us and others for every significant class reunion, including our 60th celebration after Pat Jones ’55 (BA; BS, 1956) had died and my son escorted me
to Houston. Maurine was devoted to her husband and children, to her church, and also to her many friends. She just quietly, modestly, got on with whatever needed to be done, and always with a sense of humor. To paraphrase Teddy Roosevelt’s famous quote, Maurine walked softly and carried a big heart. She was a blessing to everyone.”
Excerpted from her obituary:
“Mary Maurine Bell Bybee was born in Donna, TX, April 21, 1934. She graduated from Donna High School in 1952 and attended Rice, graduating in 1956. She married Joseph ‘David’ Davidson Bybee the same year and had four children, all surviving. Maurine and David were married 68 years.
“Maurine was an active member of First Presbyterian Church and served as a Sunday school teacher, deacon, elder, clerk of the session and active member of the Special Topics Sunday school class. She was one of the founders of the Nehemiah Neighborhood Center, an organization providing a safe haven for children in the local community, and served on the board as well as volunteered. She also served on the board of trustees and the advisory board of Mo-Ranch. Maurine was a dedicated blood donor. After her children were out of the house, Maurine went back to school and studied accounting and then worked for Draper and Associates for 15 years as a bookkeeper.
“One of the joys of her life was Bybee Blue River Camp, a family camp she and David organized for their grandchildren and hosted for one week every summer for 12 years. Camp was frequently in Breckenridge, CO, but also had sessions in Houston, Galveston and Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. All year was spent planning activities (hiking, horseback riding, mountain sledding, rafting), crafts, songs and awards for next year’s camp — the camp closing ceremonies were truly an event.
Her grandchildren were her pride and joy.
“Maurine and David enjoyed many wonderful trips to France, particularly Paris, as well as Turkey, Greece, Russia and all over the U.S. Frequent travel companions were their ‘dinner club’ group and her brother and his wife (the sister she always wanted), Charles and Carolyn Bell. In addition, Maurine and David took every grandchild to Europe when they turned 12, thereby passing along their love of international travel.
“Maurine loved to bake, and her baked goods were prized by her children and grandchildren alike; her pound cakes and Christmas fruitcake were legendary within the family and extended family.
“She is survived by her husband, David; her children Charles, Clinton and wife Christie, Joseph and wife Taffi, and Blanche and wife Leslie; 11 grandchildren; brother, Charles, and his wife, Carolyn; three nephews; and one niece.
“She was a caring and generous person and a wonderful wife, mother, grandmother, aunt and friend and will be greatly missed.”
Muriel Dean submits an obituary for her husband: “After earning his BA and MA in physics, Phillip Dean (BA; MA, 1958) enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and had obtained the rank of first lieutenant at the time of his discharge. In 1961, he became a staff member at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and worked there until 1974. He transferred his research as a biophysicist to the Livermore Laboratory until he retired in 1993 after 32 years with the University of California.
“He devoted his later years to fostering the visual and performing arts in his community and also the goals of Rotary International.”
CONTINUED ON PAGE 65
A parliament of Owls formed a company to make renewable power more reliable.
ENERGY RELIABILITY IS something most of us take for granted — until we don’t. Power failures can range from a minor inconvenience to a major crisis, especially when extreme weather strikes. Given the challenges of an aging grid and growing energy demands, renewables like solar and wind have the potential to not only cut emissions but also help keep the lights on.
But renewable energy sources have a well-known challenge: timing. We don’t control when the sun shines or the wind blows. and the demand for energy fluctuates throughout the day, often out of sync with supply. Developing a reliable storage system for capturing renewable energy when it’s abundant and then delivering it when and where it’s needed most is the challenge.
Tierra Climate, a company co-founded by Jacob Mansfield ’16 and Emma Konet ’24, is creating storage solutions that ensure renewable energy is both available and dependable.
“Renewables are like funky Tetris pieces,” says Mansfield. “They don’t slide neatly into the grid’s existing structure. And as demand skyrockets, it’s getting trickier to line everything up. Reliability is going to be the defining issue of our energy future — without better storage, we risk having too many gaps.”
“Our job is to make sure batteries step in at the right moments to keep things balanced, so renewable energy is always available when people need it,” says Konet.
Mansfield and Konet met years ago
on Citibank’s Houston trading floor, where they worked on adjacent power desks. Years later, in 2022, Mansfield reached out to Konet while exploring opportunities in energy storage. Their conversations quickly revealed a shared concern. “Batteries weren’t operating to reduce emissions like they should have been,” recalls Konet, a 2023 Forbes 30 Under 30 for Energy honoree.
“So, our software is designed to help large-scale batteries — the size of battery that could power up to 20,000 homes — decide when to charge and when to discharge — not just based on market prices, but based on when they can have the biggest impact.”
Founded in 2023, Tierra Climate’s AI-powered platform analyzes realtime grid conditions, optimizing when batteries store and release power. As CEO, Mansfield makes sure every decision aligns with their EARTH values: energy, authenticity, responsibility, trust and humility. That ethos
At the core of Tierra Climate’s work is a belief in building a grid that isn’t just reliable but also equitable — meaning cleaner, healthier and economically beneficial.
has helped their company to grow — and along the way, they’ve been joined by fellow Rice alumni Jason Goldman ’07 and Grant Boggess ’19.
At the core of Tierra Climate’s work is a belief in building a grid that isn’t just reliable but also equitable — meaning cleaner, healthier and economically beneficial. By helping batteries fulfill their potential as tools for emissions reduction, they’re making renewable energy a practical, scalable solution for communities around the world. “It’s about creating a future where everyone benefits,” Konet says. — SCOTT PETT ’22
BY JEFF FITLOW
Class Recorders: Anne Westerfield Brown brownaw57@gmail.com LaNelle Ueckert Elston elstonl@att.net
Shirley Dittert Grunert sdgrunert@sbcglobal.net
Class recorders Anne Westerfield Brown (BA), LaNelle Ueckert Elston (BA) and Shirley Dittert Grunert (BA) write:
Greetings, classmates of 1957. I believe that it’s always good to begin one’s correspondence with good news, so here goes:
In an article written in the Daily Montanan, we’re told that “Only one per cent [sic] of all people born in the world between 1930 and 1946 are still alive.” So, congratulations and continued good health to all of you “one percenters.”
I am writing as we welcome the new year, 2025. For me (LaNelle Ueckert Elston), this is always a time to reflect. This year I am remembering one of our outstanding classmates, our very own “piano man,” J. Philip Shannon (BA) (PhD, Northwestern), a special person in my “classmate history.” Phil and I first met at the age of 8, when we entered the third grade at Southland Elementary School.
On the first day of school, we were taken to a quiet room and asked to read several pages of a third grade “reader.” We were promoted from “low third” to “high third.” And from then on, we would remain “mid termers.” It made no difference then, but later this would be a problem. We both hoped to attend the Rice Institute, but Rice only accepted freshmen in the fall. So, Phil said, “Let’s go to summer school.” Problem solved. We spent the regular school year at San Jacinto High School and our summers at Austin High School. As it turned out, we
actually had fun. In fall 1953, we proudly became Rice freshmen, a year early.
After Rice, Philip went on to earn his PhD and enjoyed a long career at Exxon Research in Houston. He and his wife, Susan, were married for 50 years. In their later years, they lived at The Hallmark in the Galleria area. Other residents there were frequently entertained by Phil at the piano, playing the songs that they remembered and loved.
At his funeral in 2019, I said goodbye to my friend, my oldest schoolmate, the smartest and most talented person I had ever known. On days like today, I think of Philip Shannon, and it always makes me smile.
In September, Shirley Dittert Grunert hosted a meeting of OWLS (the Owen Wister Literary Society) at her beautiful home in west Houston. Among others of us who are still “active” OWLS members are Lannie Price Dawkins (BA), Mollie Edgar Hill and myself. With others, the four of us first joined OWLS in 1953. 71 years? Can’t be.
On Aug. 1, 2024, our classmate, Dr. Allen Johnson Dennis Jr. (BA), passed away at his home in Augusta, GA. Dr. Dennis, or “Jay” to all who knew him, completed medical school at the college of physicians at Columbia and married his classmate, Mary Louise Darvey. They moved to Augusta, GA, in 1963, where Jay became the first fellow in nephrology at the Medical College of Georgia. Known by many as “Dr. Jay,” he is remembered for his “contagious sense of humor that lifted the spirits of those around him.” And his gentle demeanor, coupled with his sense of humor, brought joy and comfort to all.
As always, your reporters invite you to send a note, letter, email, snail mail or Pony Express with news about how you are, where you are and what is going on in your lives.
Class Recorder: Jim Greenwood 713-898-2293 jmgrnwd@aol.com
Paul Brewer ’66 (Baker: BA) submits an obituary for his sisterin-law, excerpted here: “ Carolyn Satterwhite Brewer (BA), age 87, passed away peacefully in her sleep Feb. 8, 2024, at home in Houston, surrounded by family and friends.
“Carolyn was born Aug. 27, 1936. She lived in Fort Worth, where she attended Arlington Heights High School. Carolyn enjoyed trips to her grandparents’ farms, where she developed her soft heart for animals. Her love of bridge and birding began with childhood lifelong friends who eventually were known as the ‘Island Girls’ and ‘Fort Worth Foodies.’
“For college, Carolyn attended Rice, where she earned a BA in architecture. Once again, she forged lifelong friends at Rice, including ‘The Dinner Group,’ which is a group of foodies that met once a month until recently. Carolyn married Fritz Pfannkuche (BA and BS, 1959) shortly after graduation and traveled to San Diego, Key West, and Norfolk, VA, as the Navy deployed him there. Piper Turner, their first child, was born in Key West, where Carolyn drove an Austin Healey and began her lifelong love of sports cars.
“The family settled in Houston, and Andrew Pfannkuche was born three years later. The family later moved to Edinburgh, Scotland, where Carolyn learned to enjoy single malt whiskey, shortbread, antiquing and exploring European cathedrals. Once back from Europe, when the children started school, Carolyn took her place in the workforce. She was a key cog in the Rice Design Alliance. Later she worked in the design
department at Evans-Monical. She worked in the interior department at Lloyd, Jones and Brewer, designing lobbies and presidential suites for high-rise buildings in Houston and elsewhere.
“In the mid-1980s, Carolyn and Fritz divorced. Carolyn continued to work and eventually married Ben E. Brewer Jr. ’55 (BA). Many adventures ensued as they traveled to their island in Canada, duck and goose hunted on the Lissie Prairie and the eastern shore of Maryland, and explored ancient ruins in Mexico and South America.
“In 1994, Carolyn founded Sunset Settings, a classic modern furniture store in Houston. Until shortly before her passing, she was a regular fixture at the store. It remains under the direction of her daughter, Piper Turner.
“When Ben passed away in 2003, Carolyn continued to focus on the store and traveled to Salone in Milan and ICFF in New York City. Each summer and fall she would continue to travel to her island in Canada with numerous friends and family. Trips with the Traveling Owls from Rice to Egypt, Africa, China, Hong Kong and Singapore brought her great joy and strengthened her ties to Rice. She enjoyed trips with First Presbyterian Church to Greece and Turkey, to France and Switzerland tracing the roots of John Calvin, and Israel.
“Carolyn followed her father’s advice to learn something new each day. She was a problem solver and sought to improve the lives of others. In 1995, after tutoring students at McGregor Elementary, Carolyn and several of her close friends recognized a need for a safe haven with affordable after-school care, academic help and healthy meals. After many fundraising dinners and generous support of many friends, they located the building on Fannin, restored it and opened the Nehemiah Center in 1996. Carolyn
loved to see the powerful impact that her friends continue to have on Houston and the world.
“Carolyn was preceded in death by her husband, Ben Brewer. She is survived by her daughter, Piper Turner; son, Andrew Pfannkuche; and her granddaughters, Carolyn and Sarah Turner ’09 (Jones); sister, Liz Barber; nephews; greatnieces; great-nephews; and Fritz’s brother, Tony Pfannkuche (Carol).
“Carolyn and Ben were very close to his family. His children, Ben Brewer III (Barbara Aksamit) and Valerie Nelson (John), blessed their lives with another eight grandchildren: Alexander, Juliana, Melissa, Cooper, Austin, Cameron, Tyler and Louisa; seven greatgrandchildren; Ben’s brother, Paul Brewer (Bonnie); nephews; and great-niece.
“In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Presbyterian Children’s Home in Fort Worth and the Nehemiah Center in Houston.”
Class Recorder: Marilynn Revis Wait mwrice1959@gmail.com
Class Recorders: Barbie Scott McKittrick bmck4827@comcast.net
Trudy Abel Hester TrudyHester@alumni.rice.edu
Class recorder Barbie Scott McKittrick (Jones: BA) writes: Did our attorney classmates have more fun in their careers, or were they just workaholics? In September, I wrote about Harry Reasoner ’s (Baker: BA) and Polly Philbrook Lewis ’ (Jones: BA) retirement status. Harry Gee (Baker: BA), noted immigration attorney, still goes to the office most days and says that promotes marital
harmony. Harry told us that immigration law wasn’t taught when he and other classmates went to law school. A 1965 change in immigration law provided opportunity for attorneys outside New York and San Francisco to practice in the immigration field. So they learned on the job.
Harry and Antje visited their daughter Claudia Gee Vassar ’99 (Sid Rich: BA) and her family in Spain recently. Wanting their children to be bilingual, Claudia, a Rice alumna trustee, and her husband moved to Madrid for two years.
Sylvia Davis Ready (Jones: BA) writes that the devastation from Hurricane Helene finally prompted her to move from Asheville to Huntsville, AL, near daughter St. Claire and family. When power and water were knocked out, she went to Huntsville until services were restored. “I’ll miss my mountain views, my friends and Harmony, where I am now, but it will be an adventure.” Her new address will be 2815 Carl T. Jones Dr. SE, Apt. 106, Huntsville, AL 35802.
Barton Parks (Hanszen: BA) died Oct. 12. Galloway Hudson (Wiess: BA; BS, 1961) writes: “Barton Parks and I spent our first 12 years living about one mile from each other in Corpus Christi, but neither of us knew that until many years later. In 1950, just before we would have both attended the same middle school, the family moved to San Antonio.” Galloway forwarded a lovely essay Barton wrote about life in Corpus Christi as part of a large extended family and the effect of moving to San Antonio. An excerpt: “One day in June 1950, Mom and Dad put Barbara, Chico and me into a car and drove away to a new home and new life in San Antonio. In that one day, everything changed. We left a neighborhood where we knew everyone, had for years been embedded in a secure, intimate familiarity — a taken-for-granted world. The next day we moved into
a neighborhood where we knew absolutely no one, in which there was nothing to feel part of. Yes, we had a bigger home, but at first I lived in it paralyzed. I believe my first 12 years in Corpus, combined with the shock of that move, shaped much of my life. Through years as a teacher, I thought a lot about closely knit communities and what they mean to the people in them — and what it means to lose them. As an adult, I found myself working with people who were struggling with hardships in their communities. I helped to start organizations to resolve conflicts and help connect folks with each other. I was drawn to this: the sense of connectedness with others still is a big part of who I am.”
Three more classmates with accomplished lives and careers died recently. After graduation, Neil Anderson (Baker: BA) received a Rotary Fellowship to the University of Brussels and spent 13 months honing his French and traveling Europe on an extraordinary adventure cultivating his lifelong love for travel. He then graduated from Harvard Law School and practiced law for years. After retirement, he enjoyed his second home on Coronado Island, CA.
After graduation, Tom Whipple (Will Rice: BA) earned an MA at American University followed by doctoral studies at the London School of Economics. Tom spent most of his life in public service, serving in the Army Counter-Intelligence Corps, then spending 30 years as an analyst at the CIA. His happiest days were spent at the family cottage in Ontario, Canada, where he went nearly every summer of his life.
Dale Moseley (Baker: BA) came to Rice as a scholar-athlete. In high school, he captained the volleyball and basketball teams and excelled on the track team in long jump and the 440. His coach had hoped to include him on the football team until Dale’s protective mother, PTA president, quietly
intervened. Dale earned an electrical engineering degree while setting a Southwest Conference record in the long jump, a record that stood for many years. Later, he expanded his expertise at Harvard through its program for small business owners, demonstrating a lifelong commitment to learning and growth.
Class Recorder: Nancy Thornall Burch
713-781-3634
nburch2@juno.com
Class recorder Nancy Thornall Burch (Jones: BA) writes: I’m currently reading “Such Stuff as Dreams” by our classmate Judy Travis Copek (Jones: BA) and really enjoying it. She has written a number of books, and I plan to seek out another after I finish this one. Judy recently returned home after a stint in a physical rehab facility and says that her cat was happy to see her and forgave her for being gone so long. She complimented her husband and sons for overseeing the Christmas decorations. It comes with our age, but I’m always sad to report the loss of another classmate, David Rosenberg (Hanszen: BA; MS, 1963), in October. A native of Port Arthur, TX, he achieved both his undergraduate and master’s from Rice. He worked as a chemical engineer for more than 40 years in various locations all over the world before returning to Houston. David and Pat met on the dance floor at the Omaha Sports Club and were married for 44 years. She survives him, as do their two daughters, Katy and Liz. After retirement in 2004, they traveled the world. David also became an avid gardener and a frequent contributor of letters to the editor at the Houston Chronicle. He remained dedicated to Rice and a CONTINUED ON PAGE 69
ALUMNI BOOKS
In lively prose, scholar Angela Brintlinger invites readers to experience the enduring pleasures of Russian novels.
MANY READERS ARE DAUNTED by Russian novels, as Angela Brintlinger ’87 is well aware. A professor of Slavic and East European languages and cultures at The Ohio State University, where she has been teaching Russian literature for the past three decades, she regularly fields complaints from her students that the novels “require too much attention.” They’re long, convoluted, steeped in historical detail and often culturally alien to our experience as Westerners. In her new book, “Why We (Still) Need Russian Literature: Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov and Others,” Brintlinger makes the case that these novels are a uniquely rich source of intellectual provocation, aesthetic pleasure, psychological insights and emotional resonance.
What is so unique about Russian literature, and why is it worth reading despite the difficulties?
People are intimidated by the names in Russian fiction, but once you get past that barrier, you find fascinating depictions of a people who have muddled through epic weather, endured heartbreak and experienced everyday joys, and suffered horrific political regimes. Russian writers are known for their
insights into the human psyche and condition.
Which novel have you reread the most? How has your experience of that book changed with rereading?
Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” is a good example of a novel that draws people into Russian literature and that rewards those who read it again. The experience of this novel, as with so many others,
changes as you grow older, come across more of life’s ups and downs, and acquire a little wisdom. You notice certain things when you read “Crime and Punishment” as a teenager, and you notice completely different things when you read the book as an adult. I’ll add that you might not recognize how funny Dostoevsky is until you’ve read this murder novel quite a few times!
If we’ve never read any Russian literature, what do you think might surprise us about it?
I think that the reputation of the Russians as serious, deep and depressed (or depressing) is unfair. Much of Russian literature is very funny. The irony, the lack of expectation with which many Russians approach life often translates into absurdity in fiction. Russia also offers a treasure trove for those who love science fiction.
Why We (Still) Need Russian Literature
Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov and Others Angela Brintlinger ’87 Bloomsbury Academic, 2024
What do you hope readers will take away from your book? Honestly, I want the book to read like a conversation with a friend. I demystify a few things for people who find Russia foreign and forbidding, but I also delight in sharing my favorite things. I hope readers will put my book down and immediately grab some fiction. We can’t travel to Russia right now — certainly I cannot, and I don’t recommend it for anyone at the moment — but we can travel there through time and space in these books. — INTERVIEW BY JENNIFER LATSON
BY JENNIFER LATSON
How American Lobbyists and Lawmakers Threaten Democracy Around the World Casey Michel ’10 St. Martin’s Press, 2024
Ivy Lee, known to many as the father of public relations, gained prominence in the early 20th century for boosting the brands of politicians and industry leaders such as the Rockefellers, Charles Schwab and even Woodrow Wilson. Then, in the 1920s and ’30s, Lee began to offer his services abroad, where he built up a less savory clientele — including Benito Mussolini in Italy and the rising Nazi regime in Germany — and secretly worked to improve their image in the U.S. When this became public knowledge, Americans were outraged, and Congress passed the Foreign Agents Registration Act, requiring all Americans who were working on behalf of foreign regimes to disclose the details of their involvement.
But as Casey Michel reveals in his new book, “Foreign Agents,” the law has done little to curb the problem. American lobbyists, publicists, political consultants, and even nonprofit leaders and university administrators continue to advance the interests of authoritarian foreign regimes. If anything, writes Michel, the head of the Combating Kleptocracy Program at the Human Rights Foundation, the practice is more pervasive — and dangerous — now than ever before.
The Place of the Indigenous Past and Present in St. Louis Patricia Cleary ’84 University of Missouri Press, 2024
Before French settlers founded St. Louis in the late 18th century, it had been home for centuries to Native Americans, drawn by fertile soil, abundant animal life and access to major waterways. These Native occupants built a complex of more than two dozen massive geometric earthworks around a central plaza, earning the settlement the nickname “Mound City.” But this Indigenous culture was quickly erased after Europeans established a foothold in the vicinity, writes Patricia Cleary, a history professor at California State University, Long Beach. Today, few St. Louis residents have any knowledge of the settlement. In “Mound City,” Cleary sets out to rectify this historic oversight and explore why, and to what end, Indigenous peoples’ culture and history has vanished from the American landscape — and our collective memory. “I want non-Indigenous readers to think about how historical marginalization occurred and the role it has played in the political, economic, and cultural ambitions and agendas of earlier generations of westward-moving white Americans,” she writes.
The Life of a STEM Trailblazer
Sandra K. Johnson ’88 CRC Press, 2024
When she graduated from Rice in 1988, Sandra K. Johnson became the first Black woman in the United States to earn a Ph.D. in electrical engineering. On her journey from humble beginnings in Lake Charles, Louisiana, to the highest echelons of the technology sector, she’s achieved a number of other firsts — and navigated daunting challenges as a woman of color in a male-dominated field. In “Soft Power for the Journey,” she describes how she overcame those challenges during a career that began at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center (where she contributed to the design of the groundbreaking Deep Blue chess machine) and led her into global business leadership as chief technology officer of IBM’s Africa region. Upon her retirement, Johnson launched SKJ Visioneering and Global Mobile Finance, a financial services firm that provides safe, reliable and low-cost transnational banking services.
“I sense I am on the precipice of fulfilling a grand assignment in this new life, one with a significant global impact,” she writes. “I am excited about influencing at the highest levels. Yes, my work has just begun.”
faithful reunion attendee.
Another loss, Susie Gaston Eskin (Jones: BA, 1962; MA, 1964) succumbed to Lewy Body Syndrome in March in Decatur, GA. A fellow Lamar graduate, she obtained her BA and MA from Rice. Susie was a pioneer in the development of human cell culture models that could recapitulate important aspects of tissue response to injury and disease. She began her career at Baylor College of Medicine. While working there, she collaborated with Rice professor Larry McIntire for many years before marrying in 1997.
Susie held joint appointments to Baylor and to Rice’s bioengineering dept. In 2003, she and Larry relocated to Atlanta, where they joined the bioengineering department at Georgia Tech. She was an inspiration to her many students with her passion for science coupled with her humorous perspectives on a life dedicated to research.
I wish I had more news about our living classmates. As usual, I’m pleading for you to send me updates or give me a call. Let’s keep on moving.
Class Recorder: Eleanor Powers Beebe 713-526-5424 ebeebe@yahoo.com
Class recorder Eleanor Powers Beebe (Jones: BA) writes: I was delighted to receive an email from Sydney Nathans (Hanszen: BA) with the following news: “I write after the November 2024 publication of my final book and on the verge of a precipice — real retirement. Though I left Duke and 40 years of teaching in 2006, I turned immediately to unfinished projects: to completing books in endless genesis since 1978, each book focused on persons once
enslaved on one of the largest pre-Civil War plantations in North Carolina and the South. Happily, my wonderful wife of 30 years, Judith White, got me away from the writing desk intermittently, long enough for us to explore the wonders of our adopted state of Colorado and for travel to New Zealand in 2016, to Portugal in 2023, and this past May to Hawaii, making it my 50th state to visit. In 2012 and 2017, two books long in the works got published. I thought that would be the end of it, but terminal terror about retirement and what a colleague described as a friendly question — ‘What’s next, Syd?’ — provoked me to go to the same well once more and come up with ‘Freedom’s Mirage,’ the story of an exceptional enslaved man who became a plantation doctor, was freed but immediately exiled to Liberia with money and credentials, who returned in six months, and was last heard of headed for gold rush California in 1849 — a parable of the possibilities, high and low, of bondage and freedom in the 19th century. The 198-page book is a kind of detective story, seeking to account for how an enslaved man could become a doctor, to explain why he and his family alone were freed of a thousand held in bondage, to uncover what went wrong in Liberia, to pursue whether he made it to California and if so, how he fared when he got there. And finally, to address whether and what it tells us about our history. The trilogy done, the precipice beckons. Decompression? We’ll see.”
I have two of Syd’s books in my library already. In a recent account about “Freedom’s Mirage” from the blog site of the University of North Carolina Press, Syd describes his other two books as follows: “[They are] about persons whose lives began in bondage but took unusual turns. I probed both stories without preconceptions of where the evidence would lead me, hoping that I would come to
fathom the larger significance — and even find a transcendent representativeness — of each. In time and with luck, understanding came. Reluctant runaway Mary Walker was not alone in yearning for and seeking ‘To Free a Family’ she left behind when forced to flee bondage in 1848. Former bondsman Paul Hargis and his descendants were among the many — the majority I realized — who after 1865 had ‘A Mind to Stay’ in the South rather than join migrations to the North and West.”
Ed Ettel (Will Rice: BA, 1963) writes in a recent email: “Tooting my own horn, but recently, I was inducted into the Georgia Military Veterans Hall of Fame, along with 13 other veterans at a gala event in Columbus, GA. Among the 500 attendees were family, sponsors and members of the Atlanta Vietnam Veterans Business Association. Inductees included veterans of WW2, Korea and Vietnam Wars, and more recent Middle East conflicts. About a fourth of the veterans honored during the solemn and patriotic event were inducted posthumously.”
Ed and his wife, Mary, who are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary in 2025, have held sessions of their organization Project Mail Call in their garage, receiving groups of volunteers
who pack supplies for U.S. troops, for more than two decades. During the packing session of Nov. 9, 2024, Project Mail Call passed the milestone of 177,000 total pounds shipped over the past 20 years. 11,752 volunteers have packed 11,950 boxes weighing a total of 177,156 pounds for 200,276 military personnel deployed overseas. Congratulations to both Ed and Mary for this outstanding contribution!
1963
Class Recorder: Kathleen Much much.bookdr@gmail.com
1964
Class Recorder: Lucy Meinhardt 510-220-3459 lmeinhar@pacbell.net
Class recorder Lucy Meinhardt (Jones: BA) writes:
We enjoyed seeing those of us from our class who made it to our 60th reunion in early November. The Rice–Navy game was memorable for its lightning delays, with a deluge hitting the tailgate party. Before the game we ultimately won began in earnest at 8 p.m., we all gathered at Goode
Co. Barbeque just as we did five years ago.
Attendees included Albert Kidd (Hanszen: BA; BS, 1965) and his wife, Elizabeth. Albert for 2024 was given the Gold Medal Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Association of Rice Alumni. It recognizes outstanding service in promoting the ideals of Rice, deep dedication to and advancement of academic excellence, and uncommon generosity of time and means in support of Rice.
The following was written by the ARA about Albert for the May Laureates Award ceremony. “Albert Kidd ’64, ’65 has influenced almost every aspect of the university with his thoughtfulness, extensive service and dedication to excellence. As an undergraduate, he demonstrated his characteristic enthusiasm as a member of Hanszen College, the Rally Club and as a Rice cheerleader. He received his Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering.
“Even as he led a distinguished executive career at Exxon, Kidd always found time for extensive involvement at Rice. He served two terms on the Association of Rice Alumni Board, from 1973–76 and from 1993–96, serving one year as president. During both terms, he led initiatives to reconnect alumni to campus life through lectures and programs. From 1989 to 1993, he served on Rice’s Board of Governors as an alumni governor. In 1996, he was elected to the Rice Board of Trustees. As a board member and then trustee emeritus, he served on the Buildings and Grounds Committee for 31 years, having a major impact on the Rice campus and always pushing for excellence.
“Albert and his wife, Elizabeth, are known throughout the Rice community for their participation on campus and for their support for numerous programs, including the Shepherd School, Baker Insti -
tute, the Glasscock School of Continuing Studies, the Moody Center and the School of Engineering. In the School of Humanities, the Kidds established an endowed fund for art history. In 2008, they launched Rice Public Art with their donation to Fondren Library of an art installation by Italian glass artist Lino Tagliapietra. In 2009, they were the honorees at the Friends of Fondren Gala.
“Kidd was a longtime member of several additional committees and boards, including the Glasscock School of Continuing Studies, the Lynn R. Lowrey Arboretum and the Brown School of Engineering. He also served on leadership committees for Rice’s Next Century Campaign and the Centennial Campaign, among many other notable fundraising efforts. He received the Meritorious Service Award in 2004.
“As one nominator noted, ‘Albert’s unwavering dedication to Rice University, his boundless enthusiasm and his generous support embody the very essence of what the Gold Medal and Rice University stand for — excellence in all endeavors.’”
Cynthia Lyle (Jones: BA) had intended to attend our reunion. When she could not, she emailed us all the following: “Please pass along the news that I remain a staunch political activist with subscriptions to The Texas Tribune, New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Washington Post, Atlantic, Haaretz and several others. I’m utterly distraught over what Israel is doing in Gaza, Lebanon, etc. — particularly since I once knew and danced every Israeli folk dance there was and listened to an LP that I still own of Israeli songs and dances, all through junior high.
“ David Young (MS; PhD, 1970), of course, continues his lifelong devotion to running, giving talks to civic groups and university faculty about the instruments he has designed, climate change and environmental issues. He
designed the mass spectrometer, MASSPEX, that was just launched on the Europa Clipper from the Cape. He has worked almost continuously as a consultant to Southwest Research Institute ever since he retired 15 years ago.
“You might pass along that I have three bound volumes of The Rice Thresher that Doug Harlan (Hanszen: BA) entrusted to me when he died, that I’m interested in re-homing. Because Doug joined our class a year late, these volumes cover only the academic years 1961–62, 1962–63 and 1963–64.”
Class Recorder: Cordell Haymon cordell.haymon@pscgroup.com
Class recorder Cordell Haymon (Will Rice: BA) writes: I received the following note from Shirley Revis Redwine ’68 (Jones: BA), the spouse of our classmate Bill Redwine (Wiess: BA): “When Bill Redwine and I got married in 1969, he was the only guy I knew who shared my desire to travel in Africa. Beyond that, he had a definite idea how that might be done, given the fact that neither of us had any money. We’d both traveled on a shoestring before, a la Europe on $5 a day, but Africa would be a challenge.
“These were the days of the Vietnam War, and the Berry Plan was a government program that allowed doctors to complete their training before serving. The kicker was, every doctor had to sign up for one of the services before the deferment would take effect. Bill signed on as a Navy flight surgeon on the USS Roosevelt, known as the ‘Roach Coach.’
“It was a long story of bureaucratic rules and schedules in the military, but Bill’s tolerance for such enabled the dream of the Africa trip to come true during the
half year he would have been waiting for a new residency to open up.
“Our philosophy was, you don’t have to be rich, you just have to be able to make the next payment.
“That idea carried us through the next trip, wedged into the time between residency and reporting for duty at work: Kelsey-Seybold Clinic. We bought a sailboat in Sweden and navigated the canals in Europe down to Gibraltar, from whence Bill and another guy sailed the boat to the Caribbean. I joined up again in Antigua. We arrived in Houston just as our last installment of boat payments ran out.
“If I sound smug, congratulating ourselves on the sailing adventures, I should not. We had a 2-year-old son at the time we took off for Sweden. I should sound contrite. Our son still speaks to us, and we lived to tell the story. (Yes, he’s a sailor.)
“We’ve both had long careers (Bill a general surgeon at St. Luke’s for 30-plus years, and Shirley, a lucky woman who weaseled her way into law school and a great career just after Ruth Bader Ginsburg was denied the opportunity to work for a law firm).
“We never would have met and never would have had any of this fun without Rice.”
I (Cordell) have enjoyed being class recorder the past couple of years, and I appreciate the interesting submissions I have received. This is my request to all our classmates, that you consider sending me a submission, which can be short or long and about anything you are willing to share.
Since I have a bit of space available this month, I would like to reflect on the memory of my roommate J. Stanley McDonald (Will Rice: BA). Stanley was unfortunately killed in a household accident when he was about 39. While investigating a leak from an air conditioner in the attic of his home, he contacted a high-voltage electric line. He left behind two very young children and his wife,
Margaret.
Stanley was one of the most unforgettable people I have ever known. We first met at a summer science program at UH after our junior year in high school. Stanley was 6’3”, strikingly handsome, valedictorian of his class (of about 26) at Katy High School and All State in three sports. He attended Rice on a football scholarship and played center and linebacker. Unfortunately, he played behind our other roommate Malcolm Walker (Will Rice: BA) who was an All American. Stanley majored in biology and German. After Malcolm graduated, Stanley had a redshirt year of eligibility remaining, so he intentionally did not graduate and came back for a fifth year to play football. Unfortunately, in the first conference game, he broke his leg, ending his football career.
Stanley graduated from law school, but he never practiced because he became a partner in the Dubose Gallery, which was the preeminent art gallery in Houston.
Stanley’s untimely death was devastating to Malcolm, Bill Walker (Will Rice: BCom) and me, who had lived together throughout our four years at Rice. I am sure there are others in our class who also have fond memories of Stanley.
Class Recorder: Jim Bearden jbearden@ieee.org
Class recorder Jim Bearden (Will Rice: BA) sends the following: Paul Brewer (Baker: BA) writes: “After graduating with my BA in 1966, I started an academic career that would take me around the world. I pursued graduate work in American history at the University of Virginia (MA, 1968) and Washington University in St. Louis (PhD, 1974). I taught at the University of New Mexico and
the University of Texas at El Paso before joining in 1977 the faculty of the University of Maryland University College’s Asian Division, which served the U.S. military community abroad. UMUC is now known as University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) for its emphasis on distance learning (as seen on late-night TV ads), a development after my time. After teaching in the Asian Division and European Division, 1977–80, and moving every eight to 16 weeks on our accelerated term schedule to accommodate the schedules of our active-duty servicemembers, their spouses and family members, and teaching classes in Japan, Korea, Germany, Turkey, Greece and England — I left UMUC when my then-spouse determined that ‘life as a camp follower was not all it was cracked up to be’ so she could pursue her doctorate at Northwestern in learning disabilities.
“When she was nearing the end of her dissertation work, an administrative position opened up in Maryland’s European Division in Heidelberg, Germany. Having been radicalized by life and travel overseas, we jumped at the chance to return abroad. Over the next 20-plus years, I served in a variety of administrative positions (area director, director of student services, director of administration, director of undergraduate studies) in the European Division, while raising two sons, teaching an occasional class and traveling every chance we could. We even managed to acquire a weekend cottage in the Alsace region of France.
“In 2003, my then-partner and future spouse, Ruby Kelly(King)-Brewer ’70 (MA), and I transferred to Maryland’s Asian Division. We continued in our administrative roles at the AD’s headquarters in Tokyo, until we retired from UMUC in 2007 and returned to the States. Having been fortunate to live, work and travel throughout Europe, Asia and
the Middle East, our goal was to explore North, Central and South America. After building a home in ‘LA,’ lower Alabama as locals called it, we started on this quest with multiple trips to Mexico, Central America, Argentina, Peru and Chile. Unfortunately, pancreatic cancer overcame Ruby in 2015.
“Following Ruby’s passing and a major loss of balance (hydrocephalus) in the late teens, I fell into an extended depression. But with the help of longtime friends and family, I began to claw my way out of my funk, relocated to Boston in 2020 to be closer to my two sons, their families and my one grandchild (Elyse, 6); and with the help of a talented neurosurgeon who restored my balance, I had a new lease on life.
“And my wanderlust was back. In recent years, I have taken trips on the Columbia River, the Caribbean, the Baltic, Alaska, national parks in the American West, Southeast Asia, New Zealand, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Tanzania, Rwanda, Iceland, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and France (including the French Open). In 2025, I am planning travels through the Magellan Strait, kayaking in the Everglades, the Aegean area, old train routes in Colorado and New Mexico, Tibet and Bhutan, and Colombia.
“Wish me luck! Like many of you, just rising in the morning is a luxury I cherish. If you ever come to the Boston area, please contact me. And if you are looking for a traveling partner, you can email me at paulandruby99@gmail.com.”
1967
Class Recorder: Michele Stojan Roberts P.O. Box 271611 Houston, TX 77277-1611 owlmanac@rice.edu
Class Recorder: Bruce Morris blmorris46@gmail.com
Nancy Young sends the following obituary for her husband, Charles M. Young III (Baker: BA), logician and scholar of ancient Greek philosophy and language: “Charles ‘Chuck’ Young, longtime professor of philosophy at Claremont Graduate University, died at home Aug. 30, 2024, in the loving arms of his wife of 40 years. He was 79.
“Chuck was loved and admired by his family, friends, colleagues and students. They knew him to be generous with his time and knowledge, eager to learn, always ready with a joke, and happy to discuss everything from philosophy to chess, natural history, voting systems, track and field, politics, and cooking. His annual 2,400th Plato’s Birthday Parties in the 1970s–1990s brought the Claremont College’s philosophy community to his home for his Texas Mad Dog chili — which also won him the 1977 Claremont Chili Cook-Off. In his professional life, Chuck loved teaching above all. Students in philosophy, religion, psychology and other disciplines attended his classes and ancient Greek reading groups, and many later achieved distinguished academic careers.
“Chuck was born July 17, 1945, in Roanoke, VA, the first child of Dorothy Christopher Young and Charles M. Young Jr., a career U.S. Army officer who attained the rank of brigadier general, serving at the Pentagon. As an Army child, Chuck lived in several U.S. states and in Europe. Because the family moved frequently, Chuck had few friends, so he immersed himself in reading — a habit that lasted for the rest of his life — and in chess. He competed in chess tournaments on Army bases and later in high school and college. Chuck
graduated from Rice in 1968 with a BA in philosophy and mathematics. That same year, he won the Houston Chronicle’s ‘What Do You Think [the movie] 2001 Is All About?’ contest with a lyrical/ philosophical entry that included IBM computer punch cards and a 15-foot-long IBM line-printer printout. For his graduate training, Chuck moved to Baltimore to attend Johns Hopkins, where he completed his PhD in 1974 with a dissertation on Plato.
“Two years earlier, in 1972, Chuck joined the philosophy faculty at Claremont Graduate School (later CGU), in Claremont, CA, where he would teach Plato, Aristotle, ancient Greek language, ethics and logic for the next four and a half decades. He met his future wife, Nancy, when she entered the CGS philosophy doctoral program in 1974. Chuck held an Andrew Mellon postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh in 1975–76 and visiting professorships at the University of California, Riverside; Scripps College; Pitzer College; and the University of California, Irvine, over the following years. In 1988, he co-directed an NEH Summer Institute on Aristotle at St. John’s University in Collegeville, MN; there he and his wife also learned about and became lifetime supporters of the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library. In 1996, Chuck traveled to Kuwait to help establish a master’s program in philosophy at Kuwait University. For several years he served on the board of the Journal of the History of Philosophy in Claremont and edited the JHP’s Monograph Series. Always an animal lover, Chuck was also a member of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, CA, for over a decade.
“Over the course of his long career, Chuck published many articles and monographs on Plato and Aristotle, two co-authored
textbooks on formal logic, and papers on topics such as ‘An Architechtonic of Verbs’ and ‘Computation With Roman Numerals.’ In his later years he also contributed a translation of and commentary on Aristotle’s ‘Nicomachian Ethics, Book V,’ to the online database of ancient texts Archelogos.
“Chuck is survived by his wife, Dr. Nancy Young, of Claremont; his sister, Dr. Connie Young, of Gainesville, VA; his brother, Dr. Chris Young, of Richmond, VA; and several nieces and nephews.”
Charles M. Young III in 2014
Class Recorder: Linda Wald Gibson lindawgibson@gmail.com
Class recorder Linda Wald Gibson (Jones: BA) sends the following obituary:
“ Carolyn Janette Tribble Witt (Jones: BA) passed away peacefully under home hospice care Jan. 17, 2025, after a courageous 16-year battle with recurrent metastatic ovarian cancer. Following graduation from Rice, she moved to Virginia, where she worked as a city planner. She married Eric Witt in 1973 and moved to San Diego, CA. Carolyn earned an MS in accountancy from San Diego State in 1987. After passing the qualifying examination with
national honors, she launched a distinguished career as a certified public accountant, specializing in trust and nonprofit taxation. She also served as a campaign finance manager for several political figures at both the local and national level.
“She is survived by her husband, Eric Witt of San Diego, and cousins Carla Sparks and Jerry Colleps of Euless, TX. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance (ocrahope.org).”
Class Recorders: Ann Olsen ann.olsen@alumni.rice.edu Mike Ross 408-221-3359 mikeross2@prodigy.net
Class recorder Mike Ross (Baker: BA; MS, 1974) writes: Several Houston-area Baker College classmates, roommates and friends get together occasionally “to reconnect, swap lies, reminisce and wonder where the years went.”
Here’s a photo from their Nov. 12 lunch at Hearsay in Levy Park. Most had not seen each other in many years. Clockwise around the table, starting in the left foreground: Alex Sutton (Baker: BA and MCE) (wearing a hat), E. Doyon Main (Baker), B. Mike Journeay ’68 (Baker: BA), Rick Weber (Baker: BA), Rod Crowl (Baker: BA), Matt Hoffman (Baker: BA), Charles Szalkowski (Baker: BA; BS, 1971), Jules Laird ’71 (Baker: BA), Mike Tibbets (Baker: BA) and Jim Rollins (Baker).
Class Recorder: Ann Patton Greene 713-899-7433 annpgreene@gmail.com
Class recorder Ann Patton Greene (Brown: BA) writes: Mark Gross (Baker: BA) responded to Elaine Frank ’s (Jones: BA) obituary: “I haven’t seen or heard from her in 40 years or so, but I couldn’t believe that such a force of nature died before me.”
Mark writes: “I turned 20 in
Paris in August 1969 and looked up from breakfast one day to see Elaine walking by. She was traveling with a guy she met, and they would go to the station, ask someone for the next train anywhere and then board — unaware of where they were going. We said our goodbyes and they left. Life, totally random. Two years later, her parents gave her their old car for graduation. Elaine flew to Boston, learned how to drive a stick shift in a week and picked me up in New Haven, where I was visiting Charlie Duncan ’70 (Baker: BA). We drove to Baltimore to meet Dave Starr ’70 (Hanszen: BA), who was driving back to Texas in his Fiat. We caravanned with Elaine switching between as a passenger and sharing the driving with me. We agreed to stop at the first cheap hotel past Memphis but got separated. I stopped and rented a room. Two hours later, Elaine and Dave banged on the door having seen her car out front. The next day the Fiat developed car trouble, possibly a new fan belt, and Dave asked the old guy at the nearest gas station for one. He thought and then said, ‘Fiat, who makes that? Ford, Chevy?’ We got the car to a dealer who could fix it and drove back to Texas in Elaine’s car. We made it for graduation, and Dave got his car back, so everything was okay. It was a fun trip and a good time hanging with Elaine when she was my passenger/driver. She was funny, entertaining and insightful.”
I asked Mark about himself, and that story will appear next time due to my word limit.
Troxel Lynn Ballou (Baker: BA, 1972) died Sept. 6, 2024, in Bowling Green, KY. He was born in New Mexico but moved to Houston two years later. He lived in Houston until he and his wife moved to Kentucky to be closer to their children before he passed. Troxel was active in church all his life, serving as an elder of Alston Road Church of Christ for the
last 18 years. He graduated from Lamar High School (National Merit Scholarship finalist) and then from Rice with a math degree since Rice did not yet have a degree in his first love, computers. At Rice, he was involved with the Thresher, “Campanile” and MOB. In the 1970s, he worked as the first computer programmer for Stop ‘n Go, briefly for Fluor and then as an independent computer consultant. Troxel married Kelia in 1975, and together they homeschooled their children. He volunteered with Boy Scouts of America and received the Silver Beaver Award. He took numerous long walks in Europe, his favorite being the last 200 miles of the Camino de Santiago. He loved music and built instruments from scratch. Troxel is survived by Kelia; son Kennon (Chris); daughter Marla (Jonathan) Dalton; grandchildren Kilian, Florian and Mari Ballou; sister Marsha (Karl) Haas; and brother Kevin. A complete obituary is at Legacy.com.
Robert “Bob” E. Moore (Baker: BA) died of pancreatic cancer Dec. 2, 2024. A native of Mobile, AL, Bob was passionate about the history through which he lived and preserved his story in videos that he recorded after his diagnosis. He graduated from Rice (Phi Beta Kappa) and Duke, earning bachelor’s, master’s and PhD degrees in philosophy. He was fond of explaining his thesis: Do you raise your arm, or does your arm rise? Bob was a pillar of leadership at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Durham since 1983 and for years volunteered at the Holy Cross Anglican School in San Pedro, Belize. He loved sports and was blessed when his Astros won the 2022 World Series. He also loved philosophical conversations, jigsaw puzzles, infrastructure and sharing process improvements. In October 2019, he realized a lifelong dream of cruising through the Panama Canal. Bob is survived by wife Mary Jane; son John
Moore ’08 (Baker) (Christa); daughter Anne; and grandchildren Samuel and Lucia. Again, a complete obituary is at Legacy.com.
Class Recorder: Tim Thurston 614-486-4846 timthurston@hotmail.com
Class Recorder: Mike Alsup malsup2020@outlook.com
Class recorder Mike Alsup (Wiess: BA) sends the following: Deborah Harvey Delgado (Jones: BA; MA, 1976; PhD, 1982) writes: “After practicing law for decades, I retired in 2019. Abe Delgado ’71 (Baker: BA) and I have enjoyed spending time with our kids and grandkids after our retirement. We particularly enjoy spending summers in Estes Park, CO, where we bought a small second home shortly before we retired. While we are not able to hike as far and as high as we once did, we hope to continue enjoying summertime in the mountains with family for years to come.”
Dean Fisher (Baker: BA) writes: “After Rice, I went to law school, graduated and started with a small firm in Houston. I left to form a partnership with my P-chem lab partner, Marvin Readhimer ’74 (Wiess: BS), and practiced law with Marvin for 15 years before going inhouse with a client that eventually went public, making me general counsel of a NASDAQ company in the telecommunications field. I still practice law but have moved from dark fiber to satellites. I am looking for a good stopping point to eventually retire but need to decide where to do that first. Then the ‘when’ will be easy.”
Jerry Gallagher (Sid Rich: BA; MChE, 1974) writes: “Martha and I achieved our goal to retire before 60 and did it at 59.5. Since then, we continue to travel and live in the Heights area and tend to two properties — one in the Hill Country near Wimberley (raises bees) on the Blanco River and another one in central Texas (raising pecans). Still traveling and tending to six grandkids who all live fairly close by. Life has been very good.”
Rick Kessenich (Baker: BA) writes: “After graduating, I stayed in Houston for a couple of years working for the city in the Water Control Division operating their boat on the Houston Ship Channel. I was interested in law school, particularly in becoming a maritime attorney, so returned home to New Orleans to attend Tulane Law School. Practiced law in New Orleans in an admiralty and maritime litigation practice and retired in 2022 after 44 years. My Rice degree opened many doors for me as I practiced throughout Louisiana, the entire country, and particularly Houston and South Texas. Now, I am enjoying retirement, fishing, bird hunting, traveling, some golf, and training a new Labrador retriever (my seventh). Life is good!”
Gary (Wiess: BS and MChE, 1974) and Jan Koenig Philpy (Brown: BA) write: “After Navy duty, Gary worked for Eli Lilly in multiple manufacturing roles, then became a financial adviser for Thrivent, retiring in 2021. Jan was an operations analyst for TRW for five years after graduation. Since then, she has never retired or fully retired, depending on your perspective, pursuing multiple roles as a community volunteer, primarily in church, education and Girl Scouting. We spend our time playing bridge, hiking, golfing, snowshoeing, traveling, volunteering, reading and keeping up with our grandchildren, who unfortunately don’t live close by.”
Paul Tullar (Will Rice: BA) writes: “After medical school (MD, UTHSCSA, 1977), OB-GYN (residency in Dallas, 1981; ABOG, 1983), I practiced for more than 40 years while delivering babies in Texas more than 45 years, recently retired and moved to Lubbock to be closer to family. One family member who’s been with me through thick and thin is Margaret Morey ’72 (Jones: BA), (JD, St. Mary’s School of Law, 1977), beloved wife of 50 years.”
Jonathan “Jay” McKeage (Hanszen: BA) writes: “My wife, Emily, and I live in New York City, living in the same apartment for the past 37 years. Here we brought up two daughters, Lily Elise McKeage ’09 (Hanszen: BA) and Diana. Lily lives in Pelham, NY, with her husband, Matt Dollan, an attorney. Lily got an EdM in higher education at Harvard and has been working at Washington University in St. Louis for the past six years, until her family’s recent move to Pelham. She and Matt have two kids, Levi (3) and Simone (1). Diana got her BA at Harvard and an MBA at Columbia Business School, where she met her husband, Sanchit Ladha. They currently live in San Francisco, where Sanchit works at Adobe and Diana at the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University in impact investing.”
Class Recorder: Cathy Cashion cathy.cashion@gmail.com
Class recorder Cathy Cashion (Brown: BA) writes:
Our 50th class reunion was held at Rice Nov. 1–2, 2024. Over the course of the various events, over 100 of our classmates showed up. Here are some observations from those who attended.
Debbie Irvine (Jones: BA)
writes: “I went to our 50th class reunion hoping to reconnect with old friends and curious to see changes in the campus since my last visit 10 years ago. Reconnecting was a delight, and I only wish more people had come. The stories about the MOB’s (mis) adventures recounted by Bob Hord (Will Rice: BA) at our ‘panel’ were hilarious. And in view of my un-fond memories of the ghastly shrubs in the Academic Quadrangle circa 1974, I found the redesigned quadrangle to be wonderful, something that will only improve as the landscaping matures. However, I was surprised by and somewhat ambivalent about the massive number of new buildings blanketing the campus.”
David Whitney (Baker: BA) writes: “By far, the most fun Juliana, my wife of 40 years, and I have had at any reunion together was this past year’s 50th at Rice. We got to hang at the Houston home of fellow grads Bill Horwitz (Baker: BA) and his wife, Shelley Moore Horwitz ’75 (Baker: BA), along with Steve Boswell (Baker: BA; MAMS, 1979; PhD, 1983). We got to see a number of old friends and make some new ones; a fun consequence of this was that new friend and efficient genealogist, Duane Carter (Hanszen: BA; PhD, 1977), was able to dispel a longstanding family myth that I was related to that notorious defender of slavery, John C. Calhoun; I am related to a John Calhoun of that era, but not him! Icing on the cake of reunion weekend was attending the terrific, professional-level performance of the Handel opera ‘Alcina’ put on at the amazing new Brockman Hall for Opera by students from the Rice Shepherd School of Music. If you have any interest in classical music, you must find a way to attend an event at this center!”
Becky Russell Wheeler (Baker: BA) writes: “Walking into our 50th reunion luncheon, my roommate of four years, Susan Kessler
Rachlin (Baker: BA), and I were surprised to observe a room of predominantly men. Then we remembered that the Class of 1974 was comprised predominantly of men. We also recalled that these men had never been required to wear dresses to dinner nor to sign into their colleges before midnight, even during 1970–71. I am delighted that the composition of both the undergraduate classes and the faculty of Rice now approach a 50:50 female-tomale ratio.”
Tom Campobasso (Lovett: BA; MME, 1975) writes: “Had an amazing Golden 50th Reunion weekend. The luncheon, banquet and activities were exceptional, thanks to the great efforts of the Class of ’74 Reunion committee. Special thanks for the postgame party at the home of our evergracious hosts Robert Taylor (Hanszen: BA) and his wife, Amy Taylor. Of course, the highlight of the weekend was reconnecting with classmates. Most memorable was sharing recollections with my off-campus roommates J. Warren Robinett (Lovett: BA), Eliot Shapleigh (Lovett: BA) and Jim Carroll ’76 (Lovett) and other Lovetteers. We had an amazing time recounting stories about the MOB, the Aggie game, Beer Bike, the blackbird roost and die off, Streakers, building a Viking feast table out of possibly (?) illegally harvested trees, Big Bend float trips, getting caught skinny dipping and many more. Truly it’s the shared experiences that made Rice special.”
Tom Popplewell (Sid Rich: BS; MAcc, 1975) writes: “My 50th reunion was my first in 30 years. I had an exceptionally fun time. I thought the university did a fantastic job for our class, especially the excellent dinner Friday night at the Cohen House. I was amazed how far so many had traveled to attend. It was fun to renew friendships and talk to people I had not spoken to when I was a student.”
Class Recorders:
Sharon Readhimer Kimball 703-965-3360
sharonrkimball@gmail.com
Tom Gehring 619-206-8282 tom@tsgehring.net
Class recorder Sharon Readhimer Kimball (Jones: BA) sends the following:
Jesse Wilson ’78 (Will Rice: BS; MEE, 1979) submits the following obituary for his brother: “ William ‘Bill’ James Wilson Jr. (Will Rice: BS; MEE, 1976), passed away Oct. 14, 2021, in Kyle, TX, after a short bout with cancer. He was 68.
“Bill was born July 4, 1953, in Baytown, TX. Although born in Baytown, Bill spent the first 13 years of his life living in Venezuela, where his father worked for Creole Petroleum Corporation. The family moved several times while in Venezuela, spending time in small, out-of-the-way oil camps such as Caripito and Quiriquire. In 1966, Venezuela nationalized the oil industry and booted most foreign nationals out of the country. The family returned to Texas to live in Crosby for two years before permanently settling in Corpus Christi, where Bill attended W.B. Ray High School and graduated as the class salutatorian in 1971. He then left for college at Rice, graduating in 1975 with a BSEE and in 1976 with an MEE. After graduation, Bill spent a few years working at Texas Instruments in Houston. While at TI, he became interested in the stock market and soon realized investing was the path he wanted to follow as it would allow him to be independent and be his own boss. After leaving TI, he never looked back and was his own boss as a successful investor for almost 40 years. As an investor, Bill pioneered the work-fromhome concept starting in the mid-1980s, long before it recently
became popular.
“Bill was an incredible engineer. He put his Rice education to good use, first at Texas Instruments and then afterward when he was always tinkering with electronics and writing software. Bill had an insatiable curiosity, which moved him to figure out how things worked. He built from scratch stereos and speakers, radio receivers, telescopes (with home ground mirrors) and computers, which used his home-grown UNIXbased OS. Bill also developed and supported a couple of software open-source projects — GKrellM, a computer performance monitor, and PiKrellCam, a video security system.
“Bill very much enjoyed working with his hands. After years of living in Houston and Friendswood, TX, he bought land in Buda, TX, where he eventually built a house into which he moved in 2014. He did most of the interior work himself. He laid all the floor and bathroom tile, finished the plumbing and interior trim, made all the kitchen and bathroom cabinets including the granite countertops, and installed all the interior lights. He especially enjoyed woodworking. He mastered techniques for putting beautiful finishes on his work and sometimes surprised family and friends with gifts of furniture.
“Growing up, Bill always said all the fireworks on July 4th were a celebration of his birthday. Bill was also a bit of a practical joker, especially around Christmastime. He loved to make it a challenge for his gift recipients to figure out which gift was theirs. He would often mislabel presents or even not label them at all. He would sometimes also make it difficult to unwrap presents through copious use of duct tape and other difficult wrapping methods.
“Bill was fiercely loyal and dependable. His family and friends could always count on him to help no matter the problem. He would
always show up with a trunk full of tools ready to solve problems, help or just offer advice with his favorite beverage, usually a soda of some type, in hand.
“Bill was preceded in passing by his parents and his brother-inlaw, Rick Smith. Bill never married and is survived by his family of three siblings: Mary Anne Smith; Carolyn Wilson ’84 (Will Rice: BA); and Jesse Wilson and wife Jackie and their kids, Marshall Wilson ’16 (Will Rice: BS) and wife Christina Katsampes ’14 (Will Rice: BA), Madeleine, and Cornel; along with numerous cousins and friends. Bill’s untimely passing has left a very large hole in all our hearts. He will be dearly missed.”
Class Recorder:
Michael Hindman
615-370-3252 (office) 615-373-1450 (fax) mhindman@hmharchitects.com www.facebook.com/ groups/349670321737395
Class recorder Michael Hindman (Lovett: BA) sends the following:
Al “Buddy” Grazioli (Will Rice: BA) writes: “I have now been happily married to the great love of my life, Anna, for 15 years this July. I have two adult stepchildren for whom I dropped the ‘step’ designation from the description long ago. Anna and I now have three grandchildren and one more on the way. I play golf whenever I can, and we love great wine, great food and great company. Anna wants to retire in Florence someday, and I am inclined to agree. However, after many years with the real estate division of the Los Angeles School District, I did just join Brailsford & Dunlavey, a national development advisory firm, this past year.”
Matthew Brunson Martin (Hanszen: BA) writes: “I was on campus at Hanszen and was premed. I was accepted to UT
Southwestern after my third year and petitioned Dean Brown to allow a new BA/MD program at Southwestern (one already existed at Baylor). I completed this along with my MD in 1979 after enrolling in the spring semester at Rice and spending a very refreshing month with Frank Fisher, now Rice professor emeritus of biology, doing various field projects and course work. I completed six years of surgery training at Wake Forest and practiced general and bariatric surgery in Greensboro, NC, for 39 years before retiring in July 2024. During my years in North Carolina, I have enjoyed being a regional interviewer for Rice and enjoy visiting the campus when I come to Houston.”
Reminder to the Class of 1976: Be sure and join our Facebook group, “Rice University Class of 1976.”
Class Recorder: Connie Dressner Tuthill connie.tuthill@gmail.com
Class recorder Connie Dressner Tuthill (Baker: BA; MAcc, 1978) sends the following: Steve Hahn (Sid Rich: BA, 1978) writes: “Still using the Ricedeveloped skills I found outside of the classroom at KTRU. After a long career in public radio, I’ve
just started my second community radio station in rural northeast Oregon, in Baker City. We launched with a 24-hour schedule in spring 2024, sprinkling about 20 volunteer-hosted programs amidst our round-the-clock service. I am responsible for the entirety of our otherwise automated music schedule, with about 25% newly released music. Who says an old dog can’t learn new tricks? My own specialties are ‘Lollipops and Roses’ (Thursdays, 9–10 a.m.), a survey of mostly forgotten pop music of the ’60s, and a revival of my early ’80s groundbreaking ‘Ragged Edge’ (Tuesdays, 9–11 p.m.), the first-ever radio program exclusively devoted to the best of the avant-garde of jazz and creative improvised music. Check us out at kbzr.org.”
Class Recorder: Chris Lahart clahart@earthlink.net
Class recorder Chris Lahart (Lovett: BA) writes: October had this reporter venturing further north from his family’s summer home in northern Wisconsin to drive across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to land in Houghton, MI, on the Keweenaw Peninsula projecting out into Lake Superior to visit Charles
Closmann ’79 (Will Rice: BA), a man who had until then always lived south of Interstate 10. Charles had relocated from Jacksonville, FL, with his partner as she began work at the Keweenaw National Historic Park. Charles had expanded his flannel wardrobe and was getting ready for winter. Thanks to videoconferencing, Charles retains his faculty appointment in the history department of the University of North Florida. A beer was shared.
In November, a group descended upon MATCH Theater in Houston to see “Playhouse Creatures,” directed by C. Marshall Mays ’81 (Lovett: BA; BArch, 1983) and starring Christianne Mays Hagemann ’83 (Jones: BA). Those attending included Jeff Barnwell ’79 (Lovett: BS; MBA, 1987) and wife Mary, R. Bart Morey (Lovett: BS; MCE, 1980) and Andrea Spiering (Jones: BA), Matt ’81 (Sid Rich: BS; MBA, 1988) and Bess Bledsoe Wareing ’82 (Brown: BA), and Chris and Irene Lahart. Christi’s next performance was in “Seven Assassins Walk Into a Bar” at Main Street Theater in February.
For the first time since its initial manifestation as the Lovett Christmas Party in a Lovett dorm room in 1974 — better described in the Spring 2021 Owlmanac — an annual Christmas party was held in January. Many Owls gathered to celebrate the holidays, our good fortune and great memories. Among those celebrating were Mark (Lovett: BS; MEE, 1979) and Maureen Moore Scheevel ’79 (Jones: BA), Kirk Heyne (Lovett: BA), Martiel Luther (Jones: BS), Jeff Barnwell, Andrea Spiering and Bart Morey, Jesse Wilson (Will Rice: BS; MEE, 1979) and wife Jackie, Cathryn Lankford Rodd Selman (Jones: BA) and husband Doug, Jeff Taylor ’80 (Lovett: BA) and wife Lisa, John Casbarian ’69 (Baker: BA; BArch, 1972) and Natalye Appel ’80 (Jones: BA; BArch, 1982), Karen Ostrum
George ’77 (Jones: BA; MAcc, 1978) and husband Larry, Nicole Van Den Heuvel ’81 (Brown: BA) and Michael Williams ’82 (MArch; MBA, 1990), Paul Oliver ’77 (Lovett: BS; MBA, 1979) and wife Jill, Matt Muller ’80 (Lovett: BA) and wife Lillian, Melinda Clark ’77 (Brown: BA) and Clark Trantham ’80 (MA; PhD, 1981), Walter Murphy ’77 (Lovett: BA; BArch, 1979) and wife Cindy, Christi Mays Hagemann, and Chris and Irene Lahart. Apologies to those I have failed to list. Remembrances of traditional attendees Sidney Burris ’57 (BA; BS, 1958; MS, 1960) (RIP) and wife Mary Lee (RIP) and Tom Hagemann (Lovett: BA) (RIP) were shared.
The Class of 1979 needs a new class recorder. To learn more about this volunteer position, please email owlmanac@rice.edu.
Class Recorder: Kathy Behrens 909-307-1228 310-871-3791 kathybehrens@verizon.net
Class recorder Kathy Behrens (Will Rice: BA) sends the following: John Joyce (Will Rice: BA) writes: “My wife and I had the pleasure of welcoming my Will Rice 282 ex-roommates to our house in Stone Harbor, NJ. Tim Vala ’81 (Will Rice: BA), Keith Rind (Will Rice: BS) and their wives visited us in September. We reminisced over our Rice experiences while enjoying the annual Savor Stone Harbor street festival. We missed roommate Kendall ‘Buck’ Thomas (Will Rice: BA), with whom we have unfortunately lost contact.
“After graduation, Keith began a career in civil engineering with
Brown & Root, while both Tim and I attended graduate school. I received my MBA in 1982 and retired a few years ago from IBM and PricewaterhouseCoopers after leading the global energy consulting practice. Carol and I live in Dallas and love to travel. Keith has worked for a couple of engineering firms and is now with WO Grubb. He and wife Linda reside in Virginia.
“Tim graduated from Case Western Reserve’s dental school in 1985. He retired last year from a dental practice he built to be one of the largest in NE Ohio, with over 10,000 patients across three offices. He and wife Barb live on Lake Erie. Many do not know, but Tim held the Rice indoor shot put record for
40 years until it was finally broken in 2020. He was a highly recruited basketball player coming out of high school in Cleveland, OH, and chose Rice for its academic reputation. As the Owl’s starting power forward his freshman year, Tim was the team’s leading rebounder, third leading scorer and second on the team in assists. Unfortunately, knee injuries ended his basketball career, and Tim moved over to Rice track and competed in the shot put and discus. He broke the Owl indoor shot put record and finished third in the shot put at the Southwest Conference championships. I remember a coach telling me that if Tim had not had to endure all the knee surgeries, limiting his mobility, he would be competing in the
1980 Olympic trials. In retirement, Tim spends his time giving back to the community. As the president and board member of the NE Ohio chapter of the FCA, Tim took over an organization struggling with debt. In a few years, through charity events, fundraisers, and collaboration with Tim Tebow and other retired professional athletes, Tim eliminated the debt and built a solid cash reserve that the FCA uses to help those in need.
“In October, Craig Thigpen ’81 (Will Rice: BA) organized a mini Rice reunion in Dallas. Most of us had not seen each other in over a decade. Always interesting how you recall the things that didn’t seem funny in the old days but make you laugh today. In attendance (bottom, L–R) were me, Hagop Kuyumjian (Craig’s business partner), Randy Teakell ’81 (Lovett: BA, 1982) (mortgage adviser in Celina, TX), Craig, Brad Foster ’81 (Will Rice: BA) (Foster Realty Group in Dallas, or the ‘ghost’ as we call him) and David Vaughan ’81 (Will Rice: BA) (attorney in Dallas).
“David, a very talented pianist, received a few good-natured ribbings for not recognizing some of his old buddies initially and replying to their handshake with ‘And you are?’ Craig, the founder of the feast, offered one of his inspirational original poems to kick off the evening. He resides in Los Angeles now after living in Russia, Greece and many other exotic locations. Craig, or ‘Judd for the Defense’ as we know him, has been recognized as one of the top criminal defense attorneys with the designation of Super Lawyers by the National Trial Lawyers from 2019–2024. The morning of our dinner, he was in LA representing a well-known celebrity and his family who were being stalked by an obsessed fan. That might have caused others to cancel the trip, but not Craig. He got the restraining order and flew to Dallas just in time for dinner. I think he may be the definition of a ‘mover and a shaker.’ We were all glad Craig found the time to visit us and get us all together.”
Class Recorder: Gloria Meckel Tarpley 214-763-0008 gloriameckeltarpley@ricealumni.net
Class recorder Gloria Meckel Tarpley (Brown:BA) writes: It is with great sadness that I write you about the passing of our well-loved classmate, Jay Abramovitz (Baker: BS). Jay passed away this last August in Portland, OR, his longtime home. His passing was unexpected, and he left behind a son and a daughter from an earlier marriage. I know many of you will remember Jay from being one of the nicest people in our class, friendly to everyone and happily engaged in college and university volunteering efforts. An electrical engineer at Rice, he then went on to get an MSEE from Vanderbilt and successfully ran a project-oriented software company specializing in medical, motion and nanotechnology in Beaverton, OR. He was president and majority owner of Storage Technology Group, and he was a “talented and accomplished engineer with a passion for innovation and problem solving.” Those of us in our class would have seen Jay most recently at our reunion a few years ago and would have been reminded of how very likeable and friendly he always was. He will be missed when next we get together. Here is a photo
of Jay at a family vacation a few months before his death. RIP.
1982
Class Recorder: Susan Stone Woodard 270-303-1173 suz.woodard514@gmail.com
1983
Class Recorder: Jennifer S. Sickler 713-665-7469 j.sickler@hotmail.com
1984
Class Recorder: Gretchen Martinez Penny gretchen.penny@gmail.com
1985
Class Recorder: David Phillips 202-374-4787 (cell) 929-432-4453 (office) bigolpoofter@alumni.rice.edu david@agilelama.com
The Texas Trial Lawyers Association awarded Quentin Brogdon (Lovett: BA) the Don Bowen Distinguished Service Award for “meaningful and dedicated service to TTLA that has advanced the organization, its mission and the civil practice of law.”
1986
Class Recorder: Greg Marshall 713-666-RICE (home) 713-348-6782 (office) gm@rice.edu
The Class of 1987 needs a new class recorder. To learn more about this volunteer position, please email owlmanac@rice.edu.
1988
Class Recorder: Sonu Thukral Keneally 713-432-7668 sonuk@alumni.rice.edu
1989
Class Recorder: Sten L. Gustafson 281-701-4234 stengustafson@icloud.com
Class Recorder: Gilbert Saldivar 832-341-0694 saldivar@alumni.rice.edu facebook.com/ groups/294713521722
Class recorder Gil Saldivar (Sid Rich: BA) writes:
Since my fall 2023 update, building a life in the aftermath of my parents’ deaths, my children’s flight to college and the demise of my 25-year “marriage” has remained a challenge, as I found roles at Fluor and Outreach Strategists unsustainable. Today, beyond landing a supply chain analyst role establishing vendor agreements for Murphy Oil’s onshore U.S./Canada drilling and completions operations, I am reveling in the disillusion inspired by the “national political MRI” of the 2024 election. I am attacking the Jacksonian cancer by deepening involvement at Casa Juan Diego, Houston’s Catholic Worker house. By God’s grace, Rice alumni have answered Elvis Costello’s
question, “So where are the strong, and who are the trusted, and where is that harmony?” Over the holidays, Joe Carl White ’89 (Sid Rich: BA) and his wife, Anne, warmly gathered friends from Rice and Houston’s Gilbert & Sullivan Society, including Gary Woods ’88 (Sid Rich: BA and BS), who is teaching and researching photonics as Rice’s Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Chris Godinich (Sid Rich: BS), who — with ophthalmologist Dr. Anne Chang-Godinich (Sid Rich: BA) — is raising a brilliant family, cultivating a thriving business (veritrust.net) and savoring outflanking Iron Mountain every day.
The season climaxed with two more gatherings. First, on their way to Costa Rica, Ebrahim Keshavarz ’89 (Sid Rich: BA) and his family — wife Sara and children Sheila, Kevan and Eva — flew into Houston and broke tortillas de harina with Joe Carl White and wife Anne, their daughter Kate, John Tran ’89 (Sid Rich: BA, 1990) and wife Gail, and me. In the photo, L–R, are Sheila, Sara, Kevan, Eva, Eb, Gil, John, Gail, Kate, Joe and Anne.
The following day, Gabrielle Sternman Berger (Sid Rich: BA) and husband Rich, Alisa Acheson Max ’91 (Sid Rich: BS) and husband Oliver, Myra Rucker ’91 (Sid Rich: BA), and I warmly invoked
Liggy Chien ’89 (Sid Rich: BA), Ray Reynosa ’91 (Sid Rich: BA), Therese “Tracy” Nitzsche James (Sid Rich: BA), Emil Fernandez ’92 (Sid Rich: BA) and the late Greg Kahn (Sid Rich: BA), Esq., among many others, over an eggintensive breakfast.
Please consider contributing to the next issue!
Class Recorder: Phil Miller 612-385-5891 phil_miller_98@yahoo.com
Class recorder Phil Miller (Baker: BA) sends the following: Anureet “Anu” Bajaj (Brown: BA) writes: “I’m a plastic surgeon and am in private practice in OKC. When I’m not working, I
am cycling or painting — my two obsessions. My husband, Trevor, and I just returned from a week of hiking in Argentinian Patagonia, which was heavenly — the landscapes are beautiful, and it was so nice to get away. Oh, and we have four dogs and four grown boys (my stepsons).”
Keith Darby (Wiess: BA) and his wife, Michelle, are living the dream — residing on the Big Island of Hawaii. They own the Honoka’a Public House on the Hamakua Coast — swing by for refreshing libations and the best pizza on the island! Recorder’s note: Phil and Michele Kaminski Miller ’93 (Baker: BA) loved visiting several years ago. The pizza was great!
Kirsten Day (Jones: BA) writes: “I was an ancient Mediterranean civilizations and art and art history major. Now I am professor and chair of classics at Augustana College in Rock Island, IL, where I also contribute to the Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Augustana Prison Education Programs (teaching in the East Moline Correctional Center). My research/publication interests are in classical receptions. I married Sean Chapman and have two children, Harper (16) and Owen (13), and one cat (Hugo, 6).”
Lara Campbell (Hanszen: BA) writes: “I am honored to have just completed 2 1/2 years serving in the White House as the executive director of the President’s Council
of Advisors on Science and Technology. [Former] President Biden is tremendously interested in science and technology, so our meetings with him were always dynamic and ran well past the allotted time. It was an intellectually stimulating delight to facilitate the 28 esteemed members of the council in addressing the many diverse tasks they undertook, from semiconductors and biomanufacturing; to wildfires and extreme weather; to patient safety, public health and nutrition; to cyberphysical resilience, groundwater and, of course, AI; and more! I’m now looking forward to discovering my next opportunity — and having more time to connect with classmates and friends.”
Class Recorder: Alison Cohen 909-213-7789 (cell) ERISAgirl44@yahoo.com
Class Recorder: Jamie Nelson 646-505-9990 jnelson0612@hotmail.com
Kyle Henry (Baker: BA; BFA, 1994) writes: “My new ‘Time Passages’ feature film is on tour across the U.S. in theaters, with live Q&As with local eldercare, caregiv -
ing and grief experts talking about care, dementia and family caregiving. The film’s national impact partner is Caring Across Generations, working to elevate conversations around care, and you’ll be able to stream via Kanopy (available via most college, university and local library systems, love to libraries!) starting in April. The film features a section on my ‘coming out’ as a gay man at Rice in the early 1990s with some pics from that time — flashback! Find out all tour dates and info at www. timepassagesfilm.com.”
Class Recorder: Tom Harris 205-721-3713 wthmd@yahoo.com
Class recorder Tom Harris (Brown: BS) sends the following: Replicating their iconic headto-head photo from 1994, Randy Block (Wiess: BA, 1995) and Tom Harris again argue about who gave more to the Rice Class of 1994 homecoming drive ( Peter Howley [Sid Rich: BA], officiating).
Pictured right, also at our reunion, are Matthew Caffrey (Jones: BS), Shay Harrison (Jones: BS), Andy Irving (Jones: BA, 1995) and Rachel Hartline Christilles (Jones: BA).
Class Recorder: Francisco Morales texasliberal@hotmail.com
Class recorder Francisco Morales (Hanszen: BA) sends the following: Kevin Hudenko (Jones: BA) writes: “In early November 2024, Marty Makulski (Jones: BA) invited several Texas-residing classmates (and also me) to gather in Galveston in a house on the beach to catch up on old times, do some fishing and show off our not-quite-the-right-size-anymore old college T-shirts! Pictured on the next page are (L–R, back row first) Sean Elliott (Jones: BA), Juan Thurman (Jones: BS, 1997), Eric Ledman (Jones: BS, 1996), Marty Makulski, Ajay Vargheese
(Jones: BA), Kevin Hudenko, Scott Brasher (Jones: BA) and Nelson Fu (Jones: BS). Also pictured is an example of one of the fish caught, held up by Juan Thurman. A great time was had by all, and we even found several jellyfish on the beach to remind us of our own O-Week trip to Galveston some 30
years ago. Hope to see some more of ’95 at our upcoming reunion!”
1996
Class Recorder: Brooke Johnson Borden 919-455-1057 borden.brooke@gmail.com
1997
Class Recorder: Sara Chiu drsarachiu@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ RiceUniversity1997
1998
Class Recorders: Ria Papageorgiou Stella Hines ricegrad98@gmail.com
1999
Class Recorder: Stephanie L. Taylor 415-350-0467 whereisstephanietaylor@gmail.com
Class Recorder: Felisa Vergara Reynolds felisavr@gmail.com
Class recorder Felisa Vergara Reynolds (Will Rice: BA; MA, 2002) sends the following:
Jenny West Rozelle (Hanszen: BA) writes: “Our 25th class reunion is coming up this fall! I can’t believe how quickly time has flown. Joe Rozelle ’99 (Wiess: BA) and I attended his 25th reunion last November, and it was fantastic. I hope to see lots of familiar faces at our reunion so we can catch up and enjoy time together. I’m excited to be on the reunion committee with some of my longtime friends, including
Felisa Vergara Reynolds and Camille Vidal Boon (Will Rice: BA), pictured below at one of the fabulous birthday dinners we’ve shared together through the years.”
Class Recorder: Kristin Johnson Aldred kris.layne@gmail.com
Class recorder Kristin Johnson Aldred (Lovett: BA) sends the following:
Macy McBeth Ryan (Jones: BA) writes: “Rice grads and their families had a great time visiting in Austin for Labor Day weekend. Celebrating together were Macy McBeth Ryan, Renata Benjamin (Jones: BA), Rajul ’02 (Jones: BA) and Molly Heinz Shah (Jones: BA), Shay Gilmore ’98 (Jones: BA), Lee Nalle ’02 (Lovett: BA), Paul Aronson (Lovett: BA), James Radford ’02 (Brown: BS) and Brian Nash (Brown: BA).”
Bryan Hassin (Lovett: BS and BS; MCS, 2002) writes: “My startup, DexMat, was recently featured on the cover of Science! Based on patented IP from Nobel-winning scientists at Rice, DexMat produces a sustainable nanomaterial called Galvorn — a nerdy J.R.R. Tolkien reference — that is many times stronger than
steel, lighter than carbon fiber and as conductive as copper.
“The Science article is about a very niche Galvorn application (circularly polarized black body radiation), but we are already gaining wider spread adoption in aerospace, defense, automotive, power transmission and data centers, and we hope one day to render metals completely obsolete.
“If successful — which our investors are betting on — this can be an industrial revolution-scale innovation with gigatons of positive climate and environmental impact. An early-career mentor of mine once advised me to surround myself with people much smarter than I am, and I am certainly delivering on that — after all, that’s a skill I first developed a million years ago at Rice!
“On the personal front, my partner, Katie Barrett ’04 (Lovett: BA), and I are enjoying raising our two kids in the sun and snow of Boulder, CO. If you’re ever in Colorado, reach out and say hi!”
Class Recorder: Scott Berger csberger@gmail.com
Class Recorder: Julie Yau-Yee Tam 713-828-4062
julietam@alumni.rice.edu https://bit.ly/rice-class-2003
Class Recorder: Kate Hallaway katehallaway@gmail.com www.facebook.com/ groups/1425217191026994
Class recorder Kate Hallaway
(Lovett: BS; MBA, 2013) writes: A big thanks to everyone who contributed to our 20-year class gift. As of homecoming, we raised $725,905! While the game was a rainout, it was great to see everyone who came for the 20-year reunion celebration, including many of you I have not seen for 20 years. The highlight for me was getting to see over 50% of my civil engineering class, which at the time was 11 students. Even though they almost took away our major our senior year, it has come back strong and many of us are doing great things within and outside of the industry.
The photo includes Amy Barr Patrick (Sid Rich: BS), Owen Miller (Wiess: BA and BS), Kate Hallaway, Matt Swinehart (Brown: BA and BS), Jessica Kaminsky (Sid Rich: BS) and Dylan Hedrick (Martel: BS; MBA, 2011).
Class Recorder:
Alex Sigeda alex.sigeda@gmail.com
Class recorder Alex Sigeda (Hanszen: BA) writes:
Expanding the transcontinental boundaries of the “beyond the hedges” concept, Kaleen
Tison Povis (Brown: BA), who has recently moved to Brisbane, Australia, and Alex Sigeda, who has called Asia home for the past 15 years, had a mini Rice reunion in Singapore in November 2024, together with their respective families and next generation of Rice Owls — five in total between the two. Many fond Rice memories were shared, and plans were made to reconnect with the wider 2005 community for our 20th reunion this year.
Class Recorder: Hugham Chan hugham@gmail.com
Class Recorders: Clint Corcoran clintc@alumni.rice.edu
Becky Thilo Tuttle 713-412-4030 becky@alumni.rice.edu
Sarah Simpson (Will Rice: BA; BArch, 2009) writes: “This recent November, alumnae Linh Dan Do ’06 (Martel: BA, 2007; BArch, 2009), Jossie Ivanov (Will Rice: BA; BArch, 2009), Ashley Martin Mahne (Will Rice: BA) and Sarah Simpson — of Menlo Park, CA; Oakland, CA; San Francisco, CA; and San Marcos, TX, respectively — reunited in Calistoga, CA, to partake in hot springs, mud baths, picnicking and wine tasting. They recalled fond memories from their time at Rice together and spent time catching up on current goings-on in one another’s lives. It was a lovely weekend, and the group sends their regards to the Rice community and friends
within, wherever they may find themselves!”
The Class of 2008 needs a new class recorder. To learn more about this volunteer position, please email owlmanac@rice.edu.
Class Recorder: Gina Cao Yu 713-870-9218 ginacaoyu@gmail.com
Class Recorder: Emily Zhu Haynie emilyahaynie@gmail.com
2011
Class Recorder: Alex Wyatt 281-623-8438 awyattlovett@gmail.com
Class Recorder: Daphne Wert Strasert 832-986-3210 daphnestrasert@gmail.com
Victor Leyva (Duncan: BS) and his wife, Alexa Schwartz, of Houston, welcomed their first child and future Owl, Alan Leyva, on Oct. 14, 2024.
Class Recorder: Matt Mariani 908-328-6632 mmariani16@gmail.com
Class Recorder: Molly Richardson Krueger mollykrueger03@gmail.com
Class Recorder: Qizhong Wang qizhong.wang2011@gmail.com
Jay Yen (Lovett: BS) writes: “Nearly a decade since I graduated from Rice, I still feel the positive impact of being a Rice Owl wherever I go! Just in 2024 alone, I had the pleasure to reunite with my old Rice friends in settings like a wedding in Nicaragua and a coffee chat with Calvin Tsay (Wiess: BA and BS) in the UK. I am truly fortunate to be a part of this global Rice network in which I find many lifelong friends long after graduation!”
Class Recorder: Michaela Dimoff 414-629-5270 michaeladimoff@ricealumni.net
Class Recorder: Margaret Lie margaret.lie@ricealumni.net
Class Recorders: Meg Brigman 713-569-7015 megbrigman@alumni.rice.edu Haley Kurisky 713-817-6344 haley.e.kurisky@gmail.com www.facebook.com/groups/ rice2018
Class Recorder: Isaac “Ike” Arjmand 412-736-1596 isaac.arjmand@gmail.com
Class Recorder: Adria Martinez 713-459-4483 adria@texascres.com
Class recorder Adria Martinez (Duncan: BA) sends the following: Jacob (Wiess: BS; MA, 2023) and Ashley McDonald Kesten (Wiess: BA) got married July 15, 2022.
Andrés Martinez Murillo (Will Rice: BS) was recently promoted to GS12 as a biomedical engineer manager for Naval Health Research Unit — San Antonio. Within his career, he does human performance and medical equipment testing in extreme cold weather in the Arctic Circle, while even camping in the North Pole.
Lee Ann Cunningham (Duncan: BA) earned a master’s degree at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business while participating on the rowing team. After graduating, she joined BlackRock in Princeton, NJ, where she specialized in risk analysis. Lee Ann now works in private wealth management.
Richard (Lovett: BS) and Cailey Renken Appel (McMurtry: BS) welcomed their daughter, Charlotte, to the world in October 2024. They’re so excited to have a new little Rice Owl!
Class Recorder: Kevin Guo guokevin1@gmail.com
2022
Class Recorder: Ben Li Zaltsman zaltsmanben@gmail.com
Class Recorder: Jonathan Lloyd 914-217-5568 jonathan.sc.lloyd@gmail.com
The Class of 2024 needs a class recorder. To learn more about this volunteer position, please email owlmanac@rice.edu.
Sahar Sawani ’16 (Martel: BA)
Sanjana Puri ’16 (Martel: BA)
Cathy Hu ’16 (Martel: BA)
Charlene Thomas ’16 (Martel: BS)
Tanya Rajan ’16 (Martel: BA)
Submit news and updates to grad notes coordinator Jose A. Narbona at janv@rice.edu or owlmanac@rice.edu.
After graduating from Rice, Yanzhou Pan ’20 (MCS) embarked on a career in the tech industry, working as an engineer at several leading technology companies. Today, he is proud to be with Google, contributing to multiple innovative projects. Beyond his professional career, he has maintained a strong connection with the academic community, collaborating with PhDs and professors from Rice. Together, they are conducting several new research projects that they anticipate will publish by 2025.
Yanzhou is also serving as a paper reviewer for esteemed academic conferences such as ACL and EMNLP, continuing to contribute to the growth of the academic community. He attributes his current successes to Rice’s strong academic rigor and vibrant community, which broadened his horizons.
Kate Wall writes: “ Daniel Paschel ’23 (MBA) and I loved routinely meeting interesting businesspeople during his time at the Rice program. After Daniel finished his MBA (through the weeknight part-time professional program
at Rice) and I finished my PhD at UTHealth Houston, we married in Fort Worth, TX, in June 2024. We currently live in Washington, D.C. Daniel’s occupation is senior consultant at Deloitte, and mine is machine learning.”
Recently retired from Otterbein University in Ohio, Beth Rigel Daugherty ’82 (MA, 1978; PhD) taught for 36 years. Her majors courses included modernist English literature, Virginia Woolf, Appalachian literature and Latin American magical realism. She also taught writing courses for general education students thematically focused on reading for life, Appalachian, and Native American literature and culture. Falling in love with Virginia Woolf and her essays while at Rice,
she has been presenting and publishing on both ever since with articles in edited collections, editions of the “How Should One Read a Book?” holograph draft and Woolf’s fan letters in “Woolf Studies Annual,” and, with Mary Beth Pringle, the MLA teaching volume on “To the Lighthouse.” She is currently working on the next book in her two-book project, “Virginia Woolf’s Essays: Being a Teacher” for Edinburgh University Press, the first of which, “Virginia Woolf’s Apprenticeship: Becoming an Essayist,” is available now! Visit her website to find out more about Beth’s book, “Virginia Woolf’s Apprenticeship: Becoming an Essayist” (bit.ly/ beth-daugherty-book), and use discount code EVENT30 at checkout to save 30%.
Thanks to a Fulbright scholarship, Fernando Castro ’85 (MA) arrived at Rice in 1979 to do graduate studies in philosophy. While at Rice, he continued practicing the fine art photography for which he had already achieved a modicum of recognition. At the end of his graduate studies, he defended a PhD dissertation proposal about his favorite subject: photography, more specifically, of truth and intentions of photographic images. However, the research was more difficult and took longer than he would have liked, so he settled for a master’s degree. Moreover, the Fulbright Commission was urging him to return to his native country, as is required of every Fulbright scholar. Fernando resisted his repatriation because at the time Peru was in the midst of fighting a Maoist insurrection and economic chaos. He remained in Houston for two additional years, but by 1987 he ran out of legal recourses to stay in the U.S. and went back.
Fernando’s return to Lima changed his life because he accidentally discovered a career in art criticism that he had never imagined for himself. In fact,
his writing left an imprint in the history of Peruvian photography. For three years, he wrote about photography for El Comercio, the main daily newspaper in Peru, and for Lima Times, the English weekly. That journalistic activity also landed him curatorial opportunities. He curated a memorable exhibition that traveled the U.S. and merited a half-page review in The New York Times: “Modernity in the Southern Andes: Peruvian Photography 1900–1930.”
All the while the Instituto de Investigaciones Filosóficas of the Universidad de Lima was paying him a stipend for researching any philosophically related topic. Yet, what Fernando really wanted to do was write fiction, and even though he won a couple of prestigious COPE short-story awards, his critical writing took him away from his objective. Still, between art, philosophy and research, in Peru he was certainly leading the “examined life” that Socrates might have wished for him. In 1990, he was gifted new responsibilities: he got married and fathered a
beautiful son. So, when hyperinflation, terrorist bombs and a cholera epidemic made living in Lima extremely dangerous, he requested a resident visa to come back to the U.S.
In 1992, he and his family arrived in Houston and settled near the Rice campus, where there was still a lot of good soccer to be played. He weighed the option of finishing his PhD in philosophy, and after pondering time, expense and results, he became a schoolteacher instead. He continued doing art and writing for many periodicals, including Aperture, the acclaimed photography magazine, founded by Minor White, Dorothea Lange, Beaumont Newhall, Ansel Adams and others. In 2021, with the COVID pandemic still in the midst, he retired from teaching and resumed his original plan to write fiction. However, life took him back to the art world, and he became a curator at Sicardi Ayers Bacino Gallery, one of the most prestigious Houston galleries. He says, “What I like about my new job is that I learn something new
every day; that is the reason why I would have been an eternal graduate student at Rice — Fondren Library all morning and pick-up soccer games in the afternoon.” Fernando continues to write for ArtNexus, Literal magazine, Art Houston, etc.
Fernando continues: “Among my intramural teammates in the photo is Ricardo Bofill Jr. ’87 (Jones: BA), son of Ricardo Bofill Sr., the architect who designed Rice’s Shepherd School of Music, and Eduardo Aizenman Stern ’87 (Jones: BA; BArch, 1990), also an architect in Mexico. Our team, Los Calzones, won the tournament.”
Michael D. Campbell ’76 (MA) writes: “I graduated with an MA in geology. The years I spent at Rice as the senior graduate student in the then Department of Geology were memorable and were covered in some detail my book, published in 2023. ‘Anecdotes of a Life -
time: Memoirs of a Professional Geologist’ covers my years at Rice with fond, and not-so-fond, but not unusual memories. The first edition in hardback is available in the Fondren Library and online as well.”
Stephen M. Cohen ’89 (MA; PhD, 1992) has been hosting a popular podcast for nonscientists called “The History of Chemistry,” which delves into the evolution of chemistry from prehistoric times to the present. The podcast links chemistry to art, science, music, literature, politics and religion. With nearly 150 episodes of around 20 minutes each, Stephen leads the listener through the good and bad about chemistry (and no math or balancing equations!). It usually ranks in the top five chemistry podcasts in the U.S. Stephen also published the second edition of “What’s in a Name? A Young Person’s Jewish Genealogy Workbook” (JewishGen Press, 2024), a unique genealogy book for teens to explore their Jewish ancestry, with spaces in the book to record important information. He also gives a variety of lectures on both science history and Jewish genealogy. Among his recent talks (listed on the American Chemical Society’s Speakers Bureau) have been the dual music and chemical background of Russian professor Alexander Borodin and the life and research of Polish-Viennese chemist Stefanie Horovitz, who proved that isotopes were real. Stephen is currently the secretary of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s U.S. Section and the treasurer of the Midwest Jewish Studies Association.
We love baby Owls! Send your birth announcement and baby photo to your class recorder or owlmanac@rice.edu.
Faith Stovall James ’78 (Jones: BA) welcomed her first grandchild, Maya Jolene Davis, on July 26, 2021. Her daughter, Evan, and son-in-law, Barry, had a small role in this production (smile).
Maya Jolene Davis
Truman Wise Oringer was born Jan. 11, 2025, to Brittany WiseOringer ’10 (Jones: BA) and Ryan Oringer ’12 (Jones: BA). He is welcomed by his big brothers, Theo (4) and Thomas (2)! They all look forward to making the trip from New York to visit Rice one day.
Molly Richardson Krueger ’14 (McMurtry: BS) and her husband, Nick, welcomed their first child, Josephine Rae Krueger, in August 2024.
Katherine Ford Hokamp ’15 (Wiess: BS) and Kathryn Hokamp ’16 (Martel: BA) welcomed Saloma Hokamp in July! She’s pictured here with her brother, Tony, age 3. Her godfather is Zay Gamez ’16 (Martel: BA). Tony’s godparents are Belle Douglass ’16 (Martel: BA) and Brian Dang ’16 (Wiess: BA, 2017; MAT, 2018).
Rebecca Lam ’s ’15 (Will Rice: BS) firstborn son, Jesse Rui-Yang Boyd, was born March 8, 2024, in Orlando, FL, and weighed 8 lbs., 3 oz.
Lili Jiang ’19 (MBA) writes: “My wife, Meiyu Wang, and I just had our first baby, Runhe (Rain) Jiang, in March 2024. He is now the center of our world and brings us so much joy!”
“Tori” Woogk Sloan ’20 (Lovett: BA) and her husband, John, welcomed their new son, Carter Luke Sloan, on Christmas
IN MEMORIAM
Submit remembrances to owlmanac@rice.edu.
1944
Carolyn P. Wells Blanton
Leon E. Heinze Jr. , Jan. 5, 2025
Thelma M. Curry Ross , Jan. 3, 2004 1933
Josephine M.L. Herbelin MacFerrin , July 28, 1982 1937
Richard W. Feagan Sr. , June 13, 2008
1938
Adele E. Cannizzo , Sept. 17, 2000
1940
Sinclair E.H. Gertz , Aug. 15, 2004
Russel L. Jacobe Jr.
Sarah Cotropia Perrone , May 23, 1996
Charles G. Prior, March 21, 2005
Jane M. Maroney Stanzel , May 2, 2013
1941
Vivien D. Bragg Ashford , July 8, 2012
Lucille R. Leonard Garner, July 8, 2004
Col. Clarence “Rusty” Webb Jr. , March 19, 2003
Margaret E. Schiller Zerby (MA), March 27, 1987
Dorothy M. Green Suman , Nov. 24, 2024
1946
William Waller Jr. , Dec. 14, 2024
1947
Donald W. Scharlach , Feb. 3, 2025
1948
Edwin J. Jennings Jr. (MA), July 9, 2020
1949
Mary F. Weismann Peterson , Jan. 31, 2025
1951
Jack S. Hudgins , Dec. 13, 2024
Betty J. Condron Ligon , Dec. 9, 2024
Betty J. Spear Miller, Jan. 2, 2025
Charles H. Noble Jr. , Jan. 24, 2025
1953
Harry J. Danos (MArch), Jan. 16, 2025
1955
Ron C. Lassiter (MBA), Jan. 12, 2025
Charles S. Canter (MBA), Nov. 1, 2024
Marshall H. Crawford , Feb. 9, 2025
Phillip N. Dean (MA), Nov. 20, 2024
Odus E. “Peck” Drennan Jr. , Dec. 9, 2024
F.G. Seeberger Jr. , Feb. 4, 2025
Davis H. Tucker III , Jan. 31, 2025
1957
Donald C.W. Dumlao (MA), Nov. 7, 2023
William P. Johnson Jr. (MS), Dec. 10, 2024
Rev. James R. McChesney Jr. , Dec. 29, 2024
Pauline H. Applebaum Stark (MA), Feb. 6, 2025
1958
John Francis “Frank” Gardner, Feb. 14, 2025
Susan Kaufman Lapin , Feb. 3, 2025
Mary A. Breedlove Nall , Oct. 28, 2024
Steve J. Shaper (MBA), Feb. 14, 2025
Barbara L. Teague Seeger, Jan. 24, 2025
Temple L. Tucker, Dec. 7, 2024
Barbara A. Marchand Winslow, Nov. 24, 2024
1959
Ronald L. Davis , Dec. 17, 2024
Paul B. Engelbert , Jan. 22, 2025
1960
Franji Hensley Christian (MS) (Jones), Jan. 4, 2025
Dale U. Moseley (Baker), Dec. 7, 2024
Thomas S. Whipple (Will Rice), Nov. 18, 2024
1961
Alton Bryant (Baker), July 9, 2019
Cecil L. Groves (PhD) (Will Rice), Jan. 16, 2025
1962
Lewis T. Waters (MArch; MA; MAUD; PhD) (Baker), Jan. 30, 2025
1963
John J. “Jay” Hollenburger (Wiess), Sept. 24, 2024
Mary Ann Lipscomb Raesener (Jones), Sept. 9, 2024
1964
David A. George (Will Rice), June 1, 2024
Dr. Counce H. Hancock (Hanszen), Jan. 15, 2025
Buddy W. Nairn (Wiess), Dec. 1, 2024
Larry M. Phillips (MA; EdD) (Will Rice), Jan. 27, 2025
Henry T. Winkelman Jr. (MArch) (Baker), Dec. 27, 2024
1966
Roger Keith Dennis (PhD) (Will Rice), Dec. 12, 2024
C. Jeanne Henry Kammer Neff (MA; DA), Jan. 30, 2025
Robert W. Pittman (MS), Nov. 21, 2024
1967
Joseph A. English (MA), Aug. 19, 2024
Roscoe C. Lawless (MArch), Jan. 15, 2025
Susan E. McCotter Ramsey (Jones), Jan. 4, 2025
1968
Charles M. Young III (PhD) (Baker), Aug. 30, 2024
1969
Roberta K. Reed (Brown), Jan. 11, 2025
Bob Rule III (Will Rice), Jan. 10, 2025
Carolyn J. Tribble Witt (MS) (Jones), Jan. 17, 2025
1970
Donna Misner Collins (MA; PhD) (Jones), Jan. 11, 2025
Benjamin C. Fields (Hanszen), June 26, 2024
Michael S. Hamilton (Hanszen), Feb. 2, 2025
Clive Kileff (PhD), Jan. 3, 2025
Jane E. Duke McAshan (Brown), June 16, 2024
Julian M. Picone (MA; PhD) (Baker), Jan. 5, 2025
1971
Jerlyn L. Mardis (MBPM) (Jones), Nov. 24, 2024
Robert E. Moore (MA; MS; PhD) (Baker), Dec. 2, 2024
1972
Barbara H. Berman Coleman (MA), Nov. 10, 2024
George C. Davis (Hanszen)
James F. Hall (PhD), Nov. 22, 2024
Margaret L. Morey (JD) (Jones), Nov. 28, 2024
Michael L. Spruill (Lovett), Feb. 21, 2025
1973
Timothy D. Boyd (MME) (Will Rice), Dec. 8, 2024
Graham F. Shannon Jr. (MAUD), Dec. 30, 2024
1974
Rev. Fr. Michael A. Garcia (MA; MDiv; MSW) (Will Rice), Jan. 29, 2025
Kim Kaufman (Lovett), Dec. 22, 2024
Janis L. Scott (Jones), Dec. 9, 2024
1975
Kenneth L. Lacey (MBA) (Lovett), Feb. 22, 2025
Shible S. Simon (Hanszen), Feb. 11, 2025
William “Bill” James Wilson Jr. (MEE) (Will Rice), Oct. 14, 2021
1977
Helene C. SostaritchBarsamian (MA) (Brown), Feb. 2, 2025
1979
Donald J. Schlicht (Will Rice), Dec. 1, 2024
1980
Jesse Hugh Burgess Jr. (MArch; DArch), Sept. 18, 2022
1982
Robert F. Catterall (MBA) (Hanszen), Feb. 7, 2025
Gay Lunday (Lovett), Dec. 6, 2024
1983
Cyrille A. Rubinstein Young (MAcc), Feb. 21, 2025
1984
Douglas H. Allen (CFA) (Hanszen), Dec. 24, 2024
Gregory V. Novak (MBA; JD) (Will Rice), Dec. 11, 2024
Robert W. Stone (MBA) (Jones), May 23, 2020
Jack M. Terry III (JD) (Jones), Nov. 9, 2024
1985
Dr. L.B. “Lee” Baskin (MS; MAMS), Nov. 20, 2024
Connie M. Sunday (MMus) (Brown), Feb. 12, 2025
James W. Handschy (MS; PhD), Nov. 16, 2023
1990
Christopher S. Hall (MA; PhD) (Brown), Feb. 6, 2025
1995
Usha Rajagopalan (MS), Dec. 24, 2024
1999
Kevin M. Graham (MBA) (Brown), Dec. 14, 2024
2007
Edward E. Enciso (MBA), Dec. 15, 2024
2012
Juliana Serrano (JD) (McMurtry), Oct. 28, 2024
Steve J. Shaper ’58 (MBA), Feb. 14, 2025
Jerlyn L. Mardis ’71 (MBPM) (Jones), lecturer in professional communication and management, Nov. 24, 2024
Peter Mieszkowski (MA; PhD), professor emeritus of economics, Dec. 25, 2024
Peter R. Vail (MS; PhD), W. Maurice Ewing Professor Emeritus of Oceanography, Dec. 28, 2024
Dalton K. Andrepont , Facilities and Capital Planning, Nov. 27, 2024
Leslie Bartosh , College Food Service, Jan. 30, 2025
Lindley E. Doran (PhD), Rice Counseling Center, Sept. 27, 2024
Elmer Eisner, Computational and Applied Mathematics, Aug. 2, 2016
Una M. Gourlay, Fondren Library, Nov. 12, 2024
Phillip S. Hassell (DMin), Rice University Police Department, Sept. 13, 2020
Marilyn B. Hellums , Nov. 27, 2024
James Magee , Facilities Engineering and Planning, Dec. 18, 2024
Michael D. Smith , BioScience Research Collaborative, Nov. 11, 2024
Paul R. Wiley, Facilities Engineering and Planning, Oct. 9, 2024
Read more about Dr. Stinebaugh’s gift by scanning the QR code.
For more information about bequests and other planned gifts that provide enduring support to Rice, contact Stephanie Dugan, CAP®, interim executive director of gift planning, at sdugan@rice.edu or visit giftplan.rice.edu.
After retiring from a successful medical career, Dr. Bobby Stinebaugh ’54 reflected on what he wished he had known as a young professional. Determined to equip future Rice graduates with essential financial knowledge, he and his family developed a first-of-its-kind financial literacy course at the university. With a gift of securities and stock through his qualified charitable distribution, Stinebaugh established the Stinebaugh Family Endowment Fund to bring his vision to life.
The program, run by the Center for Career Development, is designed to provide students with a strong foundation in investing, credit management, financial planning and much more. The Stinebaughs believe that financial literacy is a vital skill, and they hope this gift will empower students to succeed as they begin their careers and adult lives.
Rice University, Creative Services–MS 95
P.O. Box 1892 , Houston, TX 77251-1892
Rice will break ground on the new Moody Center Complex for Student Life on May 8, 2025, marking a transformative moment for the university’s commitment to student engagement, development and success. Made possible by generous gifts from the Moody Foundation and the Brown Foundation, the new 75,000-square-foot facility will serve as a dynamic hub for student activities. Located on the south side of the Central Quadrangle, the new building will complement the Rice Memorial Center and Ley Student Center, which will undergo renovations after the completion of the new building. “Rice University is dedicated to empowering our students to become leaders who make meaningful impacts around the world,” says President Reginald DesRoches. “The Moody Center Complex for Student Life will be a centerpiece for community, creativity and collaboration, providing our students with the resources and spaces they need to thrive.” Designed by award-winning architecture firm Olson Kundig with Page as the executive architect, the new building is scheduled for completion in fall 2027. — CHRIS STIPES
Read more at magazine.rice.edu/roost