rice magazine 1

Rice Magazine • No 1 • 2008 1

24 | Talking Oil • 28 | Earthquake Watch • 36| When They Get Ambitious • 40 | From MOB to High-Tech

IKE“MY PRIDE IN THIS UNIVERSITY HAS NEVER BEEN GREATER.”

14 THE LITTLE NETWORK THAT COULD17 PAPER, PLASTIC OR NANO?44 TAKING BOWS AT THE KENNEDY CENTER50 COURTING THE COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

—President David Leebron

Contents

13 Astronaut Peggy Astronaut Peggy Whitson ’86 loves Whitson ’86 loves breaking things in breaking things in space.

16 Fill ’er up with buckyballs!

Introducing new high-pressure storage for hydrogen. 14 A low-cost wireless net-

work developed at Rice has become a valuable resource for sociologists, medical researchers and anthropologists studying neighborhood dynamics.

17 Gobbling spilled oil on demand: Meet the nano-baton sac.

13 Rice makes the Best Places to Work ranking for the third year in a row.

15 New Rice trustee Lee Rosenthal is judged to be among the best.

10 How can you possibly see grains of sand orbit-ing distant stars? Ask astronomer Christopher Johns-Krull.

12 Biomedical research gets a boost.

11 A chemist makes a remarkable archaeological discovery.

20 Buckytubes and bones form a fast-growing partnership.

21 Researchers are put-ting the pressure on cartilage.

19

On the cover: View of Hurricane Ike from the International Space Station.

Rice Magazine • No. 1 • 2008 1

3 Hurricane Ike From making sure students were safe to

organizing community relief efforts, Rice weathered Hurricane Ike with resilience and compassion.

24 Lynn Laverty Elsenhans Lynn Laverty Elsenhans ’78, the new CEO and

president of Sunoco, refl ects on global energy concerns, the challenges facing women in the corporate world — and her favorite university.

B y C h r i s t o p h e r D o w

28 Cracking Quakes and Other Earthy Matters

We might not be able to prevent earthquakes, but decoding the signals that precede them could minimize loss of life and property damage. Rice Earth scientists are cracking the code.

B y J a d e B o y d a n d C h r i s t o p h e r D o w

32 Historic Building With “green” roofs cropping up on new Rice

buildings, the Recreation Center rising next to the Rice Memorial Center and “The ‘John and Anne’ Grove” enticing strollers with its cooling shade, the campus is looking better than ever.

B y M e r i n P o r t e r

36 Green as Grassroots A student-led initiative to lessen the

environmental footprint of the campus is producing tangible results for Rice.


40 The Entrepreneur Next Door High-tech entrepreneur David Zumwalt ’81

brings his touch for success to the University of the Virgin Islands Research and Technology Park, where he helps provide opportunities for the region’s rising business and technology stars.


Students23 Looking for an alternative to

the traditional offi ce? Look no further than Caroline Collective.

Arts42 From the Summer Window

Series to the student art show, the Rice Gallery showcases the old and the new.

46 If there is a way for a composer to write music for walking on cloud nine, Kurt Stallmann will probably fi nd it.

47 Summer music camp fi lls the air with ... well, the sound of music.

Bookshelf48 If you think that architecture

students just design buildings, you might be surprised by “The Things They’ve Done.”

49 April DeConick was intrigued by National Geographic’s translation of the Gospel of Judas — until she read the original for herself.

Sports50 No matter what the outcome,

you know these outstanding student–athletes worked hard to earn Rice’s seventh trip to the College World Series.

52 Class act Cole St. Clair ’08 receives the 2008 CLASS Award.

Features

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2 www.rice.edu/ricemagazine

Rice Magazine

Fall 2008, Vol. 65, No. 1

Published by the Offi ce of Public Affairs

Linda Thrane, vice president

EditorChristopher Dow

Editorial DirectorTracey Rhoades

Creative DirectorJeff Cox

Art DirectorChuck Thurmon

Editorial StaffMerin Porter, staff writer

Jenny West Rozelle, assistant editor

PhotographersTommy LaVergne, photographerJeff Fitlow, assistant photographer

The Rice University Board of Trustees

James W. Crownover, chairman; J. D. Bucky Allshouse; D. Kent Anderson; Keith T. Anderson; Teveia Rose Barnes; Alfredo Brener; Vicki Whamond Bretthauer; Robert T. Brockman; Nancy P. Carlson; Robert L. Clarke; Bruce W. Dunlevie; Lynn Laverty Elsenhans; Douglas Lee Foshee; Susanne Morris Glasscock; Robert R. Maxfi eld; M. Kenneth Oshman; Jeffery O. Rose; Lee H. Rosenthal; Hector Ruiz; Marc Shapiro; L. E. Simmons; Robert B. Tudor III; James S. Turley.

Administrative Offi cersDavid W. Leebron, president; Eugenepresident; Eugenepresident Levy, pro vost; pro vost; pro vost Kathy Collins, vice president for Finance; Kevin Kirby, vice president for Administration; Chris Muñoz, vice pres i dent for Enrollment; Linda Thrane, for Enrollment; Linda Thrane, for Enrollment vice pres i dent for Public Affairs; Scott W. Wise, vice president for In vest ments and trea sur er; Richard A. Zansitis, general counsel; Darrow Zeidenstein, vice president for Resource Development.

Rice Magazine is published by the Offi ce of Public Affairs of Rice University and is sent to university alumni, faculty, staff, graduate students, parents of un der grad u ates and friends of the university.

Editorial Offi cesCreative Services–MS 95

P.O. Box 1892Houston, TXHouston, TXHouston, T 77X 77X 251-1892

Fax: 713-348-6751 E-mail: [email protected]

PostmasterSend address changes to:

Rice Uni ver si tyDevelopment Services–MS 80

P.O. Box 1892Houston, TX 77251-1892

©OCT. 2008 RICE UNIVERSITY

Christopher [email protected]

In that spirit, we’ve spent much of the last year looking at what we’ve been doing right with this magazine, what needs improvement and what we can do without. Now, with the dust of renovation fi nally settling, we’re pleased to unveil the new Rice Magazine.

The process of charting a fresh course for the magazine was made possible, in large part, by our recent readership survey. Many of our decisions were based on your sugges-tions and comments, and we sincerely thank you for your valuable time and input.

The fi rst thing you probably noticed — aside from the magazine’s dimensions — was the absence of the name “Sallyport” on the masthead. The overwhelming number of responses to the question concerning the name indicated that it had limited recognition outside of the university community and did not adequately communicate the magazine’s affi liation with Rice. This is a critical point since the purpose of the magazine is to help fur-ther Rice’s mission and reputation as the university expands its infl uence beyond Houston and Texas.

We’ve adopted the simple but evocative name, Rice Magazine, to better achieve iden-tifi cation with the university we represent. At the same time, we felt that “Sallyport” is a

time-honored, symbolic name, and it will live on in a major department, “Through the Sallyport,” where you can read campus news and articles on people and research.

You’ll fi nd a number of changes inside, as well. While we’ve kept many of the basic bones that made Sallyport such a durable publication, we’ve trimmed the fat, toned the muscle and given the magazine a face-lift. We’re making the magazine a lot more fun to read, as well. Shorter, livelier features will allow us to increase our coverage of the kinds

of teaching, research, engagement and international impact that have long characterized Rice. And because there’s just too much going on at Rice to adequately cover in a quarterly magazine, we’ll leave you with lots of Web resources so you can delve more deeply into topics that strike your fancy.

One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is our excitement at presenting all the great people, discoveries and resources that make Rice one of the best universities anywhere. Nor has our commitment to our readers — alumni and many others who share an affi nity with Rice. So, without further ado, I invite you into the pages of the new Rice Magazine. ...

W E L C O M E T O O U R N E W L O O K

As Rice University takes bold strides to achieve its Vision for the Second Century plan to grow the institution in size, impact and reputation, it deserves a fl agship publication worthy of its aspirations.

Stop the Presses! Actually, we didn’t have much choice. Just as our newly designed Rice Magazine was hit-ting the presses, a big fellow named Ike strode across the Houston area and stopped them for us. Now that we’re up and running again, we’ve added a special section to let you know how Rice fared during and after the storm. In short, very well, thanks to thoughtful planning before the storm, quick action throughout and helpful responses — both on campus and in the wider community — in its aftermath. But see for yourself.

For more in-depth coverage of Hurricane Ike and Rice, visit: ››› media.rice.edu/media/20081.asp

H U R R I C A N E Ike



Baker Institute Director Ed Djerejian’s important new book is titled “Danger and Opportunity.” He takes this title from the Chinese word for crisis, which is composed of two characters — one derived from the character for danger and the other from the character for op-portunity. In short, the word embodies the idea that in each crisis lurks both danger and opportunity.

That has surely been our experi-

ence with Hurricane Ike. Make no mistake: For Houston and certainly for Galveston and nearby shore areas, this was a once-in-a-quarter-century hurricane (we certainly hope!) in terms of its strength, its size and directness of the hit. The last hurricane that was similar to Ike, both in force and loca-tion, was Alicia in 1983.

Literally years of preparation at Rice paid off. In 2005, we were fully prepared for Hurricane Rita, which,

in the last day or so before it made landfall, veered northward and largely spared the Houston area from serious damage. We learned a lot from that experience and implemented changes to our procedures.

In the days before Ike and even during the storm, the Rice Crisis Management Team met regularly via conference call to review every aspect of preparation, action and response.

We went into high gear on Thursday and Friday to batten down the campus, set up special shelters for our students and lay in food and water supplies. Ping and I walked the campus to meet with students, who were cheerful and patient as they faced the prospect of being crowded into shelters for the night. Throughout, we communicated with parents and others through e-mail and postings on the Web, in part to counteract the hyperbolic reports in the

news media.Once the winds subsided on

Saturday, we immediately began to assess damage, clean up and make repairs to prepare for a speedy return to normalcy. This was especially important in light of the large number of students living on our campus who were eager to return to classes.

While recognizing that the campus had been spared major damage, we

also understood that much of the city had suffered substantial losses, and millions of people were without power. Water pressure throughout the city had dropped, creating sanitary threats. Trees were down, gasoline was in short sup-ply and transportation was challenging.

The response of our community to all this was nothing less than amaz-ing — a case study in both resilience and compassion. Everyone pitched in. Our students stood side by side

People and institutions often are defi ned by how they respond to crises.

For more than four years, I have had the privilege of being part of the extraordinary Rice community, and my pride in this university has never been greater than during the week af-ter Hurricane Ike as I watched my colleagues and associates respond to both the threat and the aftermath of the storm.

O W L S I N T H E S T O R M B Y D A V I D W . L E E B R O N

In the days before Ike and even during the storm, the Rice Crisis Management Team met regularly via conference call to review every aspect of preparation, action and response.



with our Facilities, Engineering and Planning crews to clean up tree debris that blanketed the roads and blocked walkways on campus. Our construction crews redeployed to open up roadways and repair water and wind damage. Our Housing and Dining staff found and prepared fresh food for people sheltered on campus.

While we got Rice back on its feet in just a few days, many in our com-

munity — students, faculty and staff — still lived under diffi cult conditions. We did our best to accommodate those circumstances, from canceling tests to setting up day camps for children whose schools remained closed. We cre-ated emergency loans for staff members in need, handed out ice and opened up showers and laundry facilities on campus. If people needed time to deal with repairs, fl exibility was the rule.

We also turned our attention to our

battered city. Volunteers began lining up to help almost before the storm had subsided. Hundreds of students and staff helped sort and pack food at the Houston Food Bank and organized collections of supplies and money. They joined crews cleaning up parks and hard-hit neighborhoods. Several members of our basketball team helped remove debris in Galveston, which was seriously damaged by the storm.

When hospitals in the Texas Medical Center lost their helicopter landing pads, we opened up our bicycle track in the parking lot of Rice Stadium to allow them to land. Our neighbors clapped and cheered as the helicopters released their injured passengers and ambulanc-es whisked them away for care. We also delayed the opening of the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen for a week so disaster-assistance medical teams could use it as a triage center to handle

overfl ow injuries from hospital emer-gency rooms.

And, throughout, we never forgot that we are a community of learning and research. As the storm approached, Jerry Dickens, professor of earth science and master of Martel College, gave a lecture to the students on hurricanes. Before and after the storm, Rice faculty members served as resources for the media and others on a range of issues

regarding the weather and related topics.

Most of all, Rice emerged from Ike with a reaffi rmation that we are a community that cares: We care about each other, we care about our neighbors and we care about the world beyond. That is a big part of what makes Rice so special, and what makes the work we do so important.

The response of our community to all this was nothing less than amazing – a case study in both resilience and compassion. Everyone pitched in.


After a challenging weekend, Rice’s Vice President for Administration Kevin Kirby felt confi dent the uni-versity had passed the test posed by Hurricane Ike, the most serious storm the campus has seen in decades.

“It’s a judgment call as to what we call ‘normal-cy,’ but I think we’ll be there by Monday,” he said a few days after the hurricane, looking at blue skies through the windows in his Allen Center offi ce. “We don’t have any building we can’t use, though we had damage to almost every build-ing,” he said. “Most of the problems are with windows and roofs — nothing that would keep us from operating or using the buildings.”

Several construction projects, including the new Rice Children’s Campus on Chaucer Drive and the Collaborative Research Center at the cor-ner of Main Street and University Boulevard, suf-fered minor damage that was expected to only minimally delay their completion.

“The biggest challenge to all the construc-tion is that the labor force was signifi cantly re-duced in the week post-Ike,” said Barbara White Bryson, vice president for Facilities, Engineering and Planning (FE&P).

The “R” Room at Rice Stadium sustained some damage, but other athletic facilities came through the storm fi ne. “Rice Stadium has been standing since 1951, and it’s not going any-where,” said Athletics Director Chris Del Conte, who added that the baseball stadium and Autry Court, which is nearing the completion of its renovation, also are in good shape.

Bryson said it will take some time to fi x the “R” Room, as six windows facing the football stadium were blown out by Ike, and the inte-rior sustained substantial water damage. It was among the initial buildings to get attention from FE&P cleanup crews.

“Our fi rst-response tasks were to maintain infrastructure, address life-safety issues, board up windows where they were broken and clean up the largest water-intrusion areas,” Bryson said. “We had water in a few basements, most seriously over at Brown College. Those kinds of things had to be attended to right away. Happily, we kept power to most of the campus all the way through the event.”

On a scale of one to 10, she said, Ike probably was a three for Rice in overall impact. “But it’s the kind of event,” Bryson said, “that we end up dealing with for weeks and months in an effort to get everybody back to normal operations.”

—Mike Williams

Rice Gets Back to Business



When Will Rice College freshman Hannah Thalenberg decided to attend Rice last year, she never thought her fi rst month on campus would be so exciting.

“My mom in Atlanta knew I was safe at Rice during Hurricane Ike, and my dad in Brazil was ecstatic,” Thalenberg said. “My dad said that our Polish ancestors could never have imagined a Thalenberg riding out a hurricane. I’m fi rst-generation!”

To pass the time, Thalenberg said, about a half-dozen students made cookies with Paula Krisko, a master at Will Rice, while others played games, watched movies or read.

Excitement appeared to be the sentiment of most Rice un-dergraduate students hunkered down in their respective colleges. Most said Rice was well-prepared with water, food and shelter.

“Rice is the safest place in Houston to be,” said Annie Kuntz, Sid Richardson College sophomore. She is from Houston and decided to stay on campus rather than return to her parents’ home on the north side. “You know Rice is going to have power, being so close to the Texas Medical Center.”

For Jones freshman Brianna Mulrooney of New Jersey, this wasn’t her fi rst brush with a hurricane. In 1999, Hurricane Floyd dumped 15 inches of rain on the upper East Coast, killing 57 people. “This hurricane was very much like Floyd,” said Mulrooney, who, along with Kuntz and many others at Rice, donated blood to a Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center that was set up in Farnsworth Pavilion.

Making the best of it was the mantra of the day.An unconfi rmed but widely spread report said certain Martel

College students were fl ying kites during the tropical storm-force winds that preceded the hurricane. Also unconfi rmed are reports that the Martel kites had special messages written on them for Jones College residents.

“Most of us were having a good time and making the best of the situation,” said Brown College senior June Hu of Katy, Texas. “We saw Shepherd School students practicing a quartet in the Rice Memorial Center, so it put us in the mood to watch the movie ‘Titanic.’”

Both Hu and Brown senior Kevin Liu commented on the eerie sounds of Hurricane Ike. “We couldn’t see what was going on out-side, but we could hear it,” said Liu, of San Antonio, Texas.

Like all other undergraduate Rice students, Hu and Liu left their rooms to take shelter in hallways or other interior areas within build-ings and away from glass when the actual storm hit campus. “We were in the hallways from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.,” Liu said, “and I don’t think most of us slept much.”

While undergraduate students stayed at their colleges, graduate students who lived in Rice housing or mandatory evacuation zones were sheltered at Janice and Robert McNair Hall and Rice Memorial Center until Monday. Rice offi cials had to inspect and secure the apartment buildings, due to downed power lines and 15-pound roof tiles that were a potential threat.

“It was frustrating because we really wanted to get back to our apartments Saturday to have access to our clothing, food and other items,” said Andrew Staupe, a Shepherd School of Music graduate student from Minnesota. “At the same time, we knew that they wanted to make sure it was safe for us to go back.”

—David Ruth

Rice Students Ride Out Ike


Disaster Day Camp

With power out across much of the Houston area in the wake of Hurricane Ike, Rice coaches and student–athletes offered sports day camps for the children of Rice faculty and staff whose schools were closed.

Images from the camps can be viewed at:››› tinyurl.com/44tely

From Design Kitchen to Medical Triage Center

It may have happened by chance rather than design, but Rice’s newly completed Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen, with its quiet, climate-controlled atmosphere, proved to be the perfect location for an emergency medical triage center. The center was organized through a collabora-tive effort among Rice and Memorial Hermann, St. Luke’s, Ben Taub and Methodist hospitals. About 70 physicians, assistant physicians, nurses and paramedics who came from the Houston area and as far away as New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida treated about 250 patients a day, most suffering from low-acuity ailments such as bruises, bumps and rashes or needing further information about resources.

—Jessica Stark

Learn more about the Rice triage center by visiting:››› tinyurl.com/4m69vy

It’s not often that you see football players turn into water boys, but it may be the most important play these two former Owls ever made for Rice.It started when the city lost its pumping station at Trinity River, which feeds the water treatment plants in Houston. When water pressure started to drop on campus, Rice turned to its backup well, but the pump motor burned out during an electrical surge.

“It was never a drinking-water issue — we had plenty of bottled water,” said Kevin Kirby, vice president for admin-istration. “We needed water for sanitary reasons, for toilets and showers. We needed water for the boilers so we could produce steam and hot water for cooking and cleaning. And we needed water to run the air-conditioning system — the chillers and the cooling tower. After the safety of our stu-dents and employees, water pressure turned out to be our biggest concern during this whole storm.”

Enter Rice Athletics Director Chris Del Conte. “I was in a conference call with the Crisis Management Team, and one of the things that came up was the well,” he said. “We needed a massive motor. My fi rst thought was that trying to get water must be like trying to get oil, and we have a lot of former students working in the oil industry. If anybody knows how to get something from 1,600 feet underground, it would be those guys.”

Del Conte put in a phone call to former football play-ers John Huff ’69 and Jay Collins ’68 of Oceaneering International Inc., a Houston company that supplies prod-ucts to the offshore oil and gas industries. Collins succeed-ed Huff as president and CEO of the company in 2006.

The former Owls had a 2,500-pound motor as-sembly in Tennessee, and they wasted no time in mak-ing arrangements to get it to Rice. Two members of the Rice University Police Department, Jim Baylor and Niraj Rajbhandari, were dispatched to meet the delivery truck halfway, in Morgan City, La., to escort it to campus. It was installed soon after it arrived.

—Mike Williams

Instrument shop worker Terry Phillips, left, and supervisor Carl Riedel stand with the pump motor that was shipped from Tennessee to Rice by former Rice football players John Huff and Jay Collins of Oceaneering International Inc.

Alumni Go Long to Keep Rice Water Pumping

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“My daughter is a freshman and 1,650 miles away from home. Your reassuring e-mails and the timely Web site updates, as well as the reports from my daughter regarding all the precautions taken, were extremely comforting. The sense of community eased the anxieties both on campus and off.”

— S u s a n C o r k e t t

“Although I wanted my daughter to come home to Austin as Ike approached, she chose to stay on campus. Between the Rice Web site, your reassuring e-mail messages and cryptic text mes-sages from my daughter, I knew during the whole weekend that she was safe and well cared for. In retrospect, I’m glad she stayed on campus as she had the opportunity to have a positive growing ex-perience during the hurricane and got to see how a community can work together to protect itself and do the right thing.”

— D e n i s e C . F i s c h e r

“We know that Rice cares about its students’ well-being more than it does about the university’s rank-ing, performance and achievement. We appreciate all the devotion you put into the campus.”

— D a v i d a n d F e n W a n g

Before, during and after Hurricane Ike, Rice President David Leebron made it a priority to post notices on the university’s Web site to describe the conditions on campus and reassure stu-dents’ parents that their sons and daughters were safe. His efforts were rewarded with a number of grateful e-mail responses from parents. Here is a sampling:

“My wife and I have many friends, family members and colleagues in the Houston area. Of all of them, our daughter — the Rice student — was the one about whom we had the least worries.”

— S t e v e A l t c h u l e r

“We want to thank you and the entire Rice commu-nity for ensuring the safety and well-being of all Rice students during this past weekend. Even though our son is living off campus this year, it was so comforting to know that he and his roommates were welcome and expected back at Jones during the storm.”

— A n n a n d L o u i s G i l b e r t

“We live thousands of miles from Houston in the small country of Serbia. You can only imagine our anxiety as this terrible natural disaster stormed through your city and state. I had no way of com-municating with my son, and the only bright lights in that long night were the constant updates on the Rice University Web site. Your letters calmed me, a helpless mother so far away from her child. Thank you and all the other people at Rice who remained with our children and helped them unconditionally throughout the storm and its aftermath.”

— Z o r i c a N a k i c a n d B o b a n Z i v o j i n o v i c

“We continue to be impressed with Rice’s emergency readiness — actually, we are impressed with everything about Rice and its leadership.”

— M a r g a r e t S w a r t z

Parents Respond to President’s Messages

“ If our children are remarkable it is, in part,

because they have received a remark-

able education at Rice University, both inside and outside the class-room. Thank you for

keeping them safe and for instilling in them the importance of coming to the aid of those less

fortunate.”— M a r c i W a t e r s a n d C . J . S t e u e r n a g e l


Imagine trying to glean useful information from pro-cesses that take millions of years or from objects so far away they can’t be seen. Welcome to the world — or, rather, the universe — of the astronomer. Sometimes, though, ingenuity can help bridge even interstellar dis-tances and shed light on the unknown.

“Precisely how and when planets form is an open question,” said Rice astronomer Christopher Johns-Krull. “One theory is that the disc-shaped clouds of dust around newly formed stars condense into microscopic grains of sand that eventually clump into pebbles, boulders and whole planets.”

Johns-Krull is a member of an international team that analyzed a binary star system using data collected during the past 12 years from a dozen observatories around the world. The team’s fi ndings may help explain how Earthlike planets form.

The researchers looked at a pair of stars called KH-15D in the Cone Nebula (image at left). The stars are about 2,400 light-years from Earth, and they are only about 3 million years old, compared to the sun’s 4.5 billion years. But the stars’ youth wasn’t their only important feature.

“We were attracted to this system because it ap-pears bright and dim at different times, which is odd,” Johns-Krull said. This hinted at a situation that might allow the researchers to directly observe processes taking place near the stars, which normally is dif-fi cult because glare from a star obscures its nearby region. Until now, astronomers have used infrared heat signals, instead of direct observation, to identify microscopic dust particles around distant stars, but the method isn’t precise enough to tell astronomers just how big the particles become and how closely they orbit their star. KH-15D offered a solution.

The researchers found that the Earth has a nearly edge-on view of KH-15D. From this perspective, the disc of dust surrounding the system blocks one of the stars from view, but its twin has an eccentric orbit that causes it to rise above the disc at regular intervals. When it rises above the disc, its light refl ects off the dust, allowing the researchers to take photometric and spectrographic readings to determine the dust’s composition and chemical makeup.

The results were the fi rst measured evidence of small, sandy particles orbiting a newborn solar system at about the same distance as the Earth orbits the sun.

The research was funded by NASA and the Keck Foundation, and the report was published online in the journal Nature.

—Jade Boyd

Nature article:››› tinyurl.com/ 5ojsvf

Animation of KH-15D: ››› tinyurl.com/6c5aaf

“One theory is that the disc-shaped clouds of dust around newly formed stars condense into microscopic grains of sand that eventually clump into pebbles, boulders and whole planets.”

—Christopher Johns-Krull


The Universe in a Grain of Sand

A Placein the Sun

SallyportT H R O U G H T H E


Ron Parry’s favorite destination has a name: It’s called “the middle of nowhere.” Nothing makes the full-time Rice chemistry professor and part-time environmental activist happier than wandering through uncharted wilderness areas. “I don’t really think of it as taking a vacation,” he said. “It’s more like ‘revisiting reality.’”

Parry has been exploring those places “least overrun with human artifacts” since the 1960s, but his passion for wilderness areas really began in his early teens. “I grew up in Los Angeles, and we had a big yard with lots of plants and foliage,” he said. “I became fasci-nated by the interplay between science and the natural world.”

As he grew older, the self-proclaimed desert rat explored England during his postdoctoral fellowship and spent some time in Costa Rica, but he developed a particular affi nity for the rugged terrain and arid environment of the American Southwest. He spends plenty of time in Arizona and Nevada, but, like a true adventurer, he also loves the lure of unexplored territory. He takes the bait as often as possible, usually during a semester or midterm break.

In choosing where to go, Parry fi nds a suffi ciently intriguing “vacant area on the map” and heads out. These days, he avoids heavy equipment and backpacks and prefers to use his car as a base camp.

Parry has become deft at packing his gear, which usually includes a sleeping bag, food and water, a tent, fi rst aid materials, clothing, a hat, sunscreen, wildlife guidebooks, maps and “something interesting to read.” He got lost once in a little-known section of the Grand Canyon and found his way out — dangerously dehydrat-ed — a day and half later, so he carries a global position-ing system now, too. Parry’s trips usually last for nine or 10 days, mostly because it takes him “about three days to slow down.” He also travels alone for the most part.

“The key is to pay attention,” he said, “and that’s usually easier to do when you’re by yourself.”

Parry may walk 10 miles in a day, but he’s not walking to log distance. Rather, he walks to satisfy his curiosity as he watches the unspoiled world unfold in its daily dance around him. Sometimes, the world surprises him, as it did during a recent trip to 120,000 acres of Arizona wilderness.

Parry was resting next to a spring when he spotted something astonishing. The hillside next to him was covered in Native American artwork — drawings of horses, birds and other animals, of humans and deities and cultural symbols. The petroglyphs hadn’t been charted in any guidebook, and that was fi ne with him: Less publicity means fewer opportunities for vandalism and exploitation.

While discoveries like these are exciting, they aren’t the only reasons Parry traverses the unknown.

“What I get from these trips is mostly intangible,” Parry said. “It provides perspective, and it allows me to disconnect the electronic umbilical cord. That’s satisfy-ing in its own right.”

—Merin Porter


The $3 million, fi ve-year gift will enable Rice University, Texas Children’s Hospital and the Methodist Hospital Research Institute to work together on biomedical research aimed at discovering new ways to treat disease and benefi t the health of both children and adults.

“The future of biomedical research will involve skills and knowledge that draw from highly specialized and premier institutions,” said L. E. Simmons, president of the Simmons Family Foundation and a trustee of all three of these Texas Medical Center institutions. “In the end, it will be people working together who will make the discoveries that change people’s lives. We want to help make it happen.”

The fund is intended to assist researchers who have new ideas, junior researchers who do not yet have funding and experienced researchers who might not otherwise collaborate with the other institutions. Ideally, the projects supported by the fund will develop into successful research

programs that can be sustained by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and other sources of competitive funding.

Simmons said he is excited about each of the three institutions’ commit-ment to research. “Collectively, they are spending nearly a billion dollars on facil-ities, equipment and resources to begin new biomedical research,” he said. “It may well be one of the most important

Pictured from left are Virginia and L. E. Simmons of the Virginia and L.E. Simmons Family Foundation; David Leebron, president of Rice University; Mark Wallace, president and CEO of Texas Children’s Hospital; and Ron Girotto, president and CEO of the Methodist Hospital System.

commitments this city has ever made toward breakthrough research that will help people throughout the world.”

Simmons is president and founder of SCF Partners, an investment fi rm that provides management expertise to en-ergy service companies. He also is presi-dent of L.E. Simmons and Associates, a private equity fund manager and general partner of SCF. He serves as chairman of Oil States International Inc., a leading global provider of specialty products and services to oil and gas drilling and production companies. Virginia Simmons is vice president of the Simmons Family Foundation, which supports religion, art and culture organizations, education, and youth and medical associations.

—B.J. Almond

Gift Boosts Biomedical Research

“The health of nations is more important than the wealth of nations,” wrote philosopher and historian Will Durant. That may be, but mod-ern biomedical research often takes substan-tial fi nancial backing — the kind Rice recently received from the Virginia and L.E. Simmons Family Foundation.

“The future of biomedical research will in-volve skills and knowledge that draw from highly specialized and premier institutions. In the end, it will be the people working together who will make the discoveries that change people’s lives. We want to help make it happen.” —L. E. Simmons

Learn more:››› www.rice.edu/go?id=001

a great place to learn is also a great place to work?

When Colleen Dutton, director of compensation and employee relations for Rice’s Offi ce of Human Resources, went to look for her copy of the latest Rice Magazine, she found her 2-year-old terrier/Chihuahua, Macy, already relaxing with it on the sofa. Rice’s reputation as a fi rst-rate educational institution has again

been complemented by its reputation as a great place to work.

For the third year in a row, Rice made the Houston Business Journal’s list of “Houston’s Best Places to Work” in the category of businesses with more than 500 employees. The winners were determined by responses of employees who completed an on-line survey measuring a variety of attributes associated with employee satisfaction and involvement with the workplace.

High-Flying RecordsRice faculty member and NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson ’86 has broken a few things during her two stints aboard the International Space Station, but nobody is complaining. Whitson, who served as the space station’s fi rst-ever science offi cer her previous time aloft, broke the gender barrier this past spring as the station’s fi rst female commander. She also broke the record for cumulative time in space for a U.S. astronaut, topping Mike Foale’s previous record of 374 days by two days. In addition, Whitson performed fi ve spacewalks during the most recent expedition, for a total of six career spacewalks encompassing 32 hours, 36 minutes. It’s an out-of-this-world accomplishment that puts her 20th on the all-time list — the highest ranking by a female astronaut.

The set of letters written by Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, looked innocuous enough on the auction house Web site. But Lynda Crist immediately smelled a rat.

Crist, editor of Rice’s Jefferson Davis Papers project, knew the documents, worth $15,000, actually belonged to Transylvania University in Lexington, Ky., because she had microfi lmed them for inclusion in one of the project’s volumes. Among the items were letters and notes written by Davis and his wife, Varina, dated from 1847 to 1898. The documents had gone missing in 1994.

After Crist notifi ed Transylvania University of her fi nd, the university contacted the auction house and the police. Eugene Zollman, a Jefferson Davis impersonator who researched documents to make his impressions more authentic, was charged with theft of major artwork.

Rice faculty member and NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson ’86 has broken a few things during her two stints aboard the International Space Station, but nobody is complaining. Whitson, who served as the space station’s fi rst-ever science offi cer her previous time aloft, broke the gender barrier this past spring as the station’s fi rst female commander. She also broke the record for cumulative time in space for a U.S. astronaut, topping Mike Foale’s previous record of 374 days by two days. In addition, Whitson performed fi ve spacewalks during the most recent

minutes. It’s an out-of-this-world accomplishment that puts her 20th on the

Cyber Sleuth

a great place to learn is also a great place to work?


Dog Days



The network they built, centered in East Houston’s working-class Pecan Park neighborhood, uses a new technology that is more effi cient and less costly to operate than the Wi-Fi gear currently used in homes and businesses.

“We are supporting more than 4,000 users in three square kilometers with a fully programmable custom wireless network,” said Knightly. “This allows us to dem-onstrate our research advances at an operational scale.”

The project has drawn the atten-tion of the National Science Foundation, which recently awarded $1.5 million to a Rice-led research team for the expan-sion of the network and the design and testing of experimental mobile systems — and something else: health-monitoring devices. Collaborating on the fi ve-year project are researchers from the Methodist Hospital Research Institute, the nonprofi t Technology For All (TFA) and the University of Houston’s Abramson Center for the Future of Health.

The researchers will examine how patients with chronic diseases can use next-generation wireless networks, cell phones and health sensors to participate in their own medical treatment. Using sensors, patients with congestive heart failure, asthma or metabolic syndrome will be able to painlessly and noninvasively take stock of several key aspects of their health status on a daily basis. For example, an early design, called Blue Box, can compare current readings with a patient’s history and provide im-mediate, user-friendly feedback. By taking medical readings ev-ery day, rather than only during physician visits or crises, doctors

may be able to manage chronic conditions more effectively.Lin Zhong, a Rice assistant professor in electrical and comput-

er engineering, is examining another of the network’s unrealized potentials by laying the foundation for long-term fi eld studies in the community.

“My group is interested in how mobile devices like cell phones can provide IT access to under-served communities,” Zhong said, “par-ticularly when they are coupled with low-cost wireless broadband networks.”

TFA President and CEO Will Reed said that when his organization fi rst joined the project, he had no idea that it would lead medical researchers, anthropologists and other researchers to take such a keen interest in Pecan Park. “The community isn’t the kind of well-to-do neighborhood where this type of technology typically would be rolled out,” he said. “As a result, people are knocking down our door to fi nd out

how our residents are using the network, what they think of it and how it’s affecting them.”

—Jade Boyd

Learn more:››› www.rice.edu/go?id=002››› www.techforall.org/tfa_wireless.html

Next-Gen WirelessWhen Rice computer scientist Edward Knightly and his graduate stu-dent Joseph Camp began to design and build an experimental wire-less network in 2003, they thought they were working on a model of how broadband wireless Internet might one day be provided to whole cities. Little did they know how far their network would reach.

Edward Knightly and Joseph Camp



U.S. District Judge Rosenthal Joins Rice Board of TrusteesU.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal has been elected to the Rice University Board of Trustees. She has served the Houston division of the Southern District of Texas since 1992.

“Lee Rosenthal has outstanding experience in public service, the high-est stature as a jurist and savvy judgment,” said Jim Crownover ’65, chairman of the Rice Board of Trustees. “Her insight and experience will richly benefi t the university and everyone we serve.”

In addition to presiding over a busy docket, Rosenthal chairs the Judicial Conference Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure, to which she was appointed in 2007 by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. The committee supervises the rule-making process in the federal courts and over-sees and coordinates the work of the Advisory Committees on the Federal Rules of Evidence and of Civil, Criminal, Bankruptcy and Appellate Procedure. Prior to 2007, Rosenthal was a member, then chair, of the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Chief Justice William Rehnquist appointed Rosenthal to that committee in 1996 and as chair in 2003. Under Rosenthal’s leadership, the discovery rules were amended to address the impact of changes in information technology in 2006. In 2007, the entire set of civil rules was edited to be clearer and simpler without changing substantive meaning. The work clarifying and simplifying the rules used in the trial courts won the committee the 2007 “Reform in Law” Award from the Burton Awards for Legal Achievement, an award issued with the Library of Congress and the Law Library of Congress.

“We are truly fortunate to have Judge Rosenthal as the newest member of our board,” said Rice President David Leebron. “She has a reputation of being a thoughtful, dedicated and decisive leader, and she is widely known as one of the most outstanding judges in the country. Her experience and judgment will be invaluable to Rice as we continue to pursue our high ambitions as an international research university.”

The Texas Association of Civil Trial and Appellate Specialists se-lected Rosenthal as trial judge of the year in 2000 and 2006. She has received the Houston Bar Association’s highest bar-poll evaluation for judges three times — in 1999, 2005 and 2007.

Rosenthal is a member of the board of editors for the Manual for Complex Litigation, published by the Federal Judicial Center. She is a member of the American Law Institute (ALI) and was recently elected to its council. She serves as an adviser for the ALI’s Aggregate Litigation Project and Rules of Transnational Civil Procedure Project.

Rosenthal has several connections to Rice. Her mother, Ferne Hyman, was assistant university librarian at Fondren Library until her retirement in 1999. Her father, Harold M. Hyman, is the William P. Hobby Professor Emeritus of History at Rice. Her husband, Gary Rosenthal, is a member of Leebron’s President’s Advisory Board.

“The community isn’t the kind of well-to-do neighborhood where this type of technology typically would be rolled out. As a result, people are knocking down our door to fi nd out how our residents are using the network, what they think of it and how it’s affecting them.”

—Will Reed

Judge Lee H. Rosenthal

Today, the hunt is on in earnest for viable alternative fuels to power automobiles. One of the most promising is hydrogen, which is so clean-burning and abundant that the U.S. Department of Energy has devoted more than $1 billion to developing technologies for hydrogen-powered automobiles. But there is a snag. Because hydrogen is the lightest ele-ment in the universe, it is very diffi cult to store in bulk. It is estimated that a hydrogen-powered car with the range of a gasoline-powered car would require a storage system that could hold the element at densities greater than those found in pure liquid hydrogen. That’s a pretty strong container, but Rice materials scientists may have found it, and it’s a lot smaller than expected. Buckyball small.

Materials scientists at Rice University have

made the surprising dis-covery that buckyballs are so strong they can

hold volumes of hydro-gen nearly as dense as

those at the center of Jupiter.

Tiny Buckyballs

Squeeze Hydrogen Like Giant

Jupiter

“Based on our calculations, it ap-pears that some buckyballs are capable of holding volumes of hy-drogen so dense as to be almost metallic,” said lead researcher Boris Yakobson, professor of mechanical engineering and ma-terials science at Rice. “It appears they can hold about 8 percent of their weight in hy-drogen at room temperature, which is consid-erably better than the federal tar-get of 6 percent.” In layman’s terms, that’s nearly as dense as the pressures at the center of Jupiter.

Yakobson said scientists have long argued the merits of stor-ing hydrogen in tiny molecular containers like buckyballs, and experiments have shown that it’s possible to store small volumes of hydrogen inside buckyballs. The new research by Yakobson and former postdoctoral research-ers Olga Pupysheva and Amir Farajian offers the fi rst method of precisely calculating how much hy-drogen a buckyball can hold before breaking.

“Bonds between carbon atoms are among the strongest chemical bonds in nature,” Yakobson said.

—Jade Boyd

“These bonds are what make diamond the hardest known substance, and our research showed that it takes an enor-mous amount of internal pressure to deform and break the carbon-carbon bonds in a fullerene.”

If a feasible way to produce hy-drogen-fi l led buckyballs is

developed, Yakobson said, it might be possible to store

them as a powder.“They wi l l l i ke ly

assemble into weak mo-lecular crystals or form a thin powder,” he said. “They might fi nd use in their whole form or be

punctured under certain conditions to release pure

hydrogen for fuel cells or oth-er types of engines.”

The research, which was support-ed by the Offi ce of Naval Research and the U.S. Department of Energy, ap-peared on the cover of the American Chemical Society’s journal Nano Letters.

L E A R N M O R E :

››› tinyurl.com/55emea

N A N O N E W S



Meet nanobatons: multisegmented nano-wires that are made by connecting two nanomaterials with different properties. Mechanical engineering and materials sci-entist Pulickel Ajayan and his colleagues were working with one combination — carbon nanotubes that they fused to short segments of gold — when they no-ticed something peculiar. The nanobatons spontaneously assembled by the tens of millions into spherical sacs as large as BB pellets around droplets of oil in wa-ter. Even better, the researchers found that ultraviolet light and magnetic fi elds could be used to fl ip the nanoparticles, causing the bags to instantly turn inside out and release their cargo.

Ajayan says that by adding various oth-er segments — like sections of nickel or other materials — the researchers can cre-ate truly multifunctional nanostructures. “The core of the nanotechnology revolu-tion lies in designing inorganic nanopar-ticles that can self-assemble into larger structures like a ‘smart dust’ that performs different functions in the world — for ex-ample, cleaning up pollution,” Ajayan said. “Our approach brings the concept of self-assembling, functional nanomaterials one

step closer to reality.”The tendency of nanobatons to as-

semble in water-oil mixtures derives from basic chemistry. The gold end of the wire

is water-loving, or hydrophilic, while the carbon end is water-averse, or hydropho-bic. Ajayan, graduate student Fung Suong Ou and postdoctoral researcher Shaijumon Manikoth demonstrated that oil droplets

Paper, Plastic or Nano?suspended in water became encapsu-lated because of the structures’ tendency to align their carbon ends facing the oil. By reversing the conditions — suspending water droplets in oil — the team was able to coax the gold ends to face inward and encase the water.

“For oil droplets suspended in water, the spheres give off a light yellow color because of the exposed gold ends,” Ou said. “With water droplets, we observe a dark sphere due to the protruding black nanotubes.”

The team is preparing to test whether chemical modifi cations to the nanobatons could result in spheres that can not only capture but also break down oily chemi-cals. Another option would be to attach drugs whose release can be controlled with an external stimulus.

The research, which was supported by Rice University, Applied Materials Inc. and the New York State Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation, was published online in the American Chemical Society’s journal Nano Letters.

—Jade Boyd

What do you do when you have a mess? You bag it up and throw it away. But some messes — such as an oil spill — can’t be disposed of so easily. Or maybe they can.


In a development that could lead to new tech-nologies for cleaning up oil spills and polluted groundwater, scientists at Rice University have shown how tiny, stick-

shaped particles of metal and carbon can trap

oil droplets in water by spontaneously assem-

bling into bag-like sacs.

L E A R N M O R E :

››› tinyurl.com/5b3n9j


He will succeed Kathy Matthews when she relinquishes the position Dec. 31 after serving as dean for 10 years. Matthews will continue to do research as Rice’s Stewart Memorial Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology.

“I am thrilled to welcome a gifted scientist like Dan Carson to Rice’s leadership team,” said President David Leebron. “Following in Kathy Matthews’ footsteps is a daunting task, but Dan has the combination of research, teaching and management skills that will help Rice take another giant step forward in the natural sciences arena. We look to Dan to continue to drive the research that has made Rice a leader across a broad range of endeavors and that will make a difference for our students, our university, our city and the world.”

At the University of Delaware in Newark, Carson manages a department with 40 faculty members, 1,000 undergraduate majors, 80 graduate students and 24 support staff. Scientist magazine recently named the University of Delaware one of the top places to work in life sciences.

“We have developed a culture of mutual respect here,” Carson said. “The faculty and staff feel that they can express their views, that they will be heard and that things will happen.”

Since becoming department chair in 1998, Carson has recruited 17 faculty members and developed a robust research program, with external research funding increasing from $1.5 million to $10 million. His comprehensive revision of

the graduate program has resulted in four times as many graduate students as the department enrolled 10 years ago. He also has built collaborations with other biomedical research institu-tions in the region as well as with the university’s College of Engineering.

Carson, who also will serve as a professor of biochemistry and cell biology at Rice, is a reproductive biologist. His research interests focus on the molecular basis by which mammalian embryos implant into the uterine wall. His work earned him a prestigious National Institutes of Health MERIT Award in 2002.

Carson’s wife, Mary C. Farach-Carson, is a professor of biological sciences and materials sciences at the University of Delaware. She has been appointed associate vice provost for research at Rice. The Carsons have four children, the youngest of whom will fi nish high school next year.

—B.J. Almond

“Dan has the combination of research, teaching and management skills that will help Rice take another giant step forward in the natural sciences arena.”

—David Leebron

Dan Carson

Carson Appointed Dean of Natural SciencesDan Carson, currently the Trustees Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Delaware, has been appointed dean of Rice University’s Wiess School of Natural Sciences.

“We have developed a culture of mutual respect here. The faculty and staff feel that they can express their views, that they will be heard and that things will happen.”

—Dan Carson

F O R M O R E I N F O R M A T I O N :

››› www.rice.edu/go?id=008



Space Medicine Webcast from Mt. Everest

The International Space Medicine Summit II, held at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, featured panels on space medicine, human performance and solar radiation risks for lunar operations. A highlight was a live videoconference from 17,550 feet on Mount Everest with Dr. Christian Otto, expedition medical lead for the Canadian Mount Everest Medical Operations Expedition 2008. The expedition’s mission is to prepare for emergency medical management on long-duration space missions.

V I E W T H E W E B C A S T H E R E :


Parochial Bacterial VirusesBiologists examining ecosystems similar to those that existed on Earth more than 3 billion years ago have made a surprising discovery: Viruses that infect bacteria are sometimes parochial and unrelated to their counterparts in other regions of the globe.

L E A R N M O R E :


Single-Molecule SensingMany of us have diffi culty fi nding our car keys in the morning, so trying to sense a single molecule sounds daunting, no matter what time of day. But don’t try telling that to a group of research-ers at Rice’s Quantum Magnetism Laboratory and Laboratory for Nanophotonics.

L E A R N M O R E :


Chipping Away at Chip PiratesPirated microchips — chips stolen from legitimate factories or made from stolen blueprints — account for billions of dol-lars in annual losses to chipmakers. But a series of techniques developed at Rice could stop pirates by locking chips with a unique ID tag that can be activated only by the patent-holder — making knockoffs and stolen chips worthless.

L E A R N M O R E :


Chip Off the Old BlockRice University computer engineers have created a way to design integrated circuits that contain many individual selves. The chips can assume different identities, depending on the user’s needs. The new method enables programmers to strategically reconfi gure application-specifi c integrated circuits while preserving advantages such as speed and low power. The chips could be used for en-hanced device security, content provisioning, application metering, device optimization and many other design tasks.

L E A R N M O R E :


Chipping Away at Chip Pirates


“Ideally, a scaffold should be highly porous, nontoxic and biodegradable, yet strong enough to bear the structural load of the bone that will eventually replace it,” said Mikos, who is director of Rice’s Center for Excellence in Tissue Engineering. He’s also the lead researcher for a breakthrough study that found that the growing bone can be en-hanced by sprinkling stick-like nanoparticles throughout the scaffolding material.

“Previous research has shown that carbon nanotubes give added strength to polymer scaffolds,” Mikos said, “but this is the fi rst study to examine the performance of these materials in an animal model.”

The researchers implanted two kinds of scaffolds into rabbits. One type was made of a biodegradable plastic called poly(propylene fumarate) (PPF), which has performed well in previous experiments. The second was made of 99.5 percent PPF and 0.5 percent single-walled carbon

Replacing or repairing damaged or diseased tissue with healthy tissue is one of bioengineering’s goals. The results are even better if the healthy tissue is grown from the patient’s own body because that minimizes the risk of rejection. Discoveries by Rice bioengineers may help point the way.

nanotubes. Nanotubes usually are a thou-sand times longer than they are wide, but the researchers used shorter segments that have fared well in prior cytocompatibility studies.

While there was no notable difference in performance of the two materials at four weeks, the nanotube composites exhibited up to threefold greater bone ingrowth after 12 weeks. And surprisingly, at 12 weeks, the composites contained about two-thirds as much bone tissue as nearby native bone, while the straight PPF contained only about one-fi fth as much.

Mikos said the results indicate that the composites may go beyond being passive guides and take an active role in promoting bone growth. The researchers don’t know why this is, though Mikos postulated that changes in surface chemistry, strength or other factors might be responsible. The team is conducting further studies to fi nd out.

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Welch Foundation and Rice’s J. Evans-Attwell Postdoctoral Fellows Program.

—B.J. Almond

L E A R N M O R E :

››› tinyurl.com/5fwcly

with healthy tissue is one of bioengineering’s goals. The results are even better if the healthy tissue is grown from the patient’s own body because that

T I S S U E E N G I N E E R I N G

S P O T L I G H T O N T I S S U E E N G I N E E R I N G

Secret Ingredient Aids Bone GrowthFor much of his career, bioengineer Antonios Mikos has worked with porous, bio-degradable materials called scaffolds, which act as patterns and support for the re-growth of bone tissue. With the right chemical and physical cues, bone cells adjacent to the scaffold can be coaxed into producing new bone. As the bone grows over the scaffold, the scaffold degrades, leaving nothing but the new bone.

“Previous research has shown that carbon nanotubes give added strength to polymer scaffolds, but this is the fi rst study to examine the performance of these materials in an animal model.”

—Antonios Mikos


”

Cartilage’s stiffness, strength and other mechanical properties derive not from living cartilage cells but from the densely woven matrix of collagen and proteogly-can that surrounds them. This extracel-lular matrix (ECM) is produced during cartilage development in children, but this ability lapses in adulthood. Tissue engineers have long sought a means of growing new cartilage that can be transplanted into adults, but unfortu-nately, cartilage is diffi cult to engineer, in part because it has no natural healing processes to mimic.

Rice bioengineer Kyriacos Athanasiou, whose Musculoskeletal Bioengineering Laboratory has focused on cartilage for more than 10 years, might have found a way around that by applying a little pres-sure. Actually, a lot of pressure. The new fi ndings are based on three years of data collected by graduate student Benjamin Elder, who is simultaneously earning a doctorate in bioengineering at Rice and a medical degree at Baylor College of

Medicine under Rice and Baylor’s Medical Scientist Training Program.

In the study, Elder took samples of cartilage from calves’ knees, dissolved the ECM and isolated the living cartilage cells, or chondrocytes. The chondrocytes were used to create tissue-engineered cartilage, which was then placed in a chemical bath of growth factors and sealed inside soft plastic containers. The containers were placed inside a pressure chamber and squeezed for an hour a day at pressures equivalent to those at half a mile beneath the ocean’s surface.

“Our knees are fi lled with fl uid, and when we walk or run, the hydrostatic pressure on the cartilage cells in the knee approaches the pressures we used in our experiments,” Elder said. “But in daily activities, these pressures are fl eeting, just a second or so at a time.”

Most of the prevailing strategies in tissue engineering attempt to reproduce the conditions that cells experience in the body. Athanasiou said the unconventional

approach of using unnaturally high pres-sure stemmed from insights gained dur-ing years of previous experiments.

“By combining high pressure and growth factors,” Elder said, “we were able to more than triple the biomechani-cal properties of the cartilage. We’re not sure why they reinforce one another, but we do not get the same results when we apply them independently.”

The process results in an engineered cartilage with properties nearly identical to that of native cartilage. Even better, the new method, which requires no stem cells, holds promise for growing tissues to repair bladders, blood vessels, kidneys, heart valves, bones and more. So far, the process has yet to be tested in live animals, and Athanasiou cautions that it will be several years before the process is ready for clinical testing in humans.

—Jade Boyd

L E A R N M O R E :

››› tinyurl.com/4u57pt

”


Rice University graduate student Benjamin Elder displays a disk of cartilage that was grown using a new high-pressure technique.

TheTheThePressure Pressure Is On

Think of the body’s most important structural element. Bones, right? Not so fast. Cartilage, the stuff between the bones, is pretty important, too, since it acts as both a lubricant and a shock absorber during joint movement. Unfortunately, this damage-prone tissue can’t heal itself, and injured cartilage often serves as the focal point for arthritis formation.

Rice undergrads are well known for their brains and work ethic, and at Rice, they have plenty of opportunities to work side by side with researchers and graduate students in laboratories across campus. Can a student-produced science journal be far behind? Meet Catalyst: Rice Undergraduate Science Review, dedicated to highlighting and encouraging the undergraduate research experience at Rice.

Catalyst editors, from left: Yohan Moon, Patricia Bacalao, Ye Jin Kang, Lisa Sun and David Ouyang.

Rice’s 95th graduating class included 732 undergraduates, 22 undergraduate professionals and 686 graduate students. The largest number of doctoral degrees — 186 — were conferred, and a number of students graduated with multi-ple degrees, bringing the total number of degrees awarded to 1,490.

The Class of 2008

A New Catalyst for Students

For a Q&A with Catalyst’s founders, visit:››› www.rice.edu/go?id=009

Catalyst on the Web: ››› catalyst.rice.edu

To inquire about receiving copies of Catalyst, e-mail:››› [email protected]



Located at 4820 Caroline St. and dubbed Caroline Collective, the coworking space is Houston’s fi rst, although similar opera-tions already are successful in San Francisco, Philadelphia, Paris, Vancouver, Milan and Buenos Aires.

“The coworking movement strives to combine the relaxed working environment of the home offi ce with a dynamic social atmosphere,” Dodington said. “The model encourages the free fl ow of projects and ideas and is founded on the belief that work-ing together is working smarter.”

Dodington and Wettergreen’s idea to create a coworking space in Houston met with interest from the city’s creative and

CC

technical communities. As the global marketplace continues to free professionals from a physical location, more and more peo-ple work either as “digital nomads” or from their home offi ces. However, many professionals still desire the amenities an offi ce

can provide, like conference rooms, networking opportunities, collegial conversations and free Wi-Fi.

With the help and support of business partners and Wulfe Urban developers Jeff Kaplan and Adam Brackman, Wettergreen and Dodington secured a 6,000-square-foot space in Houston’s eclectic Museum District, making Caroline Collective one of the largest coworking spaces worldwide to date.

—Jessica Stark

For more information on Caroline Collective, visit:››› carolinecollective.cc

Caroline Collective Debuts in the Museum DistrictImagine a cafelike collaborative space for developers, writers and independents looking for an alternative to the traditional working offi ce. Rice University graduate students Ned Dodington and Matthew Wettergreen did and, this summer, they launched Houston’s fi rst creative coworking space.

“The coworking movement strives to combine the relaxed working environment of the home offi ce with a dynamic social atmosphere.”—Ned Dodington

Students


LynnElsenhans


It seems like every one of Elsenhans’ experiences has led her to this destination. Her father spent his career in a variety of re-search and marketing jobs for Exxon USA, and his work kept the family moving between metropolitan New York and Houston. All the moving taught Elsenhans to be adaptable, and her exposure to various high school curricula helped balance her academic strengths. When it came time to investigate colleges, she was immediately attracted to Rice because of its reputation in math, engineering and the sciences.

Elsenhans embraced every aspect of life at Rice. She played on the school’s fi rst women’s intercollegiate basketball team; she was in the Marching Owl Band; she was elected to student government; she was the sports editor for The Thresher; and she was a student representative on the Examinations and Standings Committee. Yet somehow, she still managed to fi nd time to excel in school and become social in a way she’d never been. “For me, it was the total experience, both inside and outside the class-room,” she said. “It was absolutely excellent for me.”

There also were glimmers of the kind of success she would later achieve. “People listened carefully when she spoke,” said Ronald Stebbings, who was master of Jones College when Elsenhans was there. “She gathered her thoughts and had some-thing useful to say.”

After leaving Rice, Elsenhans went straight to Harvard Business School. By the time she fi nished, she was more than ready to make the leap into the work world. “It sounds corny, but it really mattered to me to work for something that made a differ-ence,” she said. “I couldn’t think of anything that had more of an impact on our society than energy.”

During her tenure at Shell, Elsenhans steadily increased her authority and responsibility. After starting her career at the company’s U.S. headquarters in Houston and then moving to the

nearby Deer Park refi nery, she had assignments in virtually every aspect of the company’s downstream business. In 1999, she was made president and CEO of Shell Oil Products East, based in Singapore. Since then, she has served co-currently as president of Shell Oil Company and president and CEO of Shell Oil Products U.S. and, most recently, as executive vice president of global manufacturing for Royal Dutch Shell.

It’s an enviable career trajectory made even more remarkable by the fact that it occurred in an environment that has not always been encouraging to women. “When I fi rst started, there weren’t many women in the industry, and women’s credibility was very much questioned,” Elsenhans said. Much has changed since the early 1980s, thanks, at least in part, to Elsenhans’ success. As she rose in the corporate hierarchy, she made a concerted effort to pave the way for women who followed by mentoring them and helping establish women’s networking opportunities within Shell.

This year, however, Elsenhans hit a ceiling that was geo-graphic rather than glass. The only place left to go within Shell was to the company’s European headquarters, and for family reasons, she and her husband, John ’74, wanted to remain in the United States. Facing retirement, even if she wasn’t ready to retire, she was asked to take the helm of Sunoco.

“It’s a really good fi t for me,” Elsenhans said. “I worked for 28 years in the downstream part of the oil business — oil and chemical products — and that’s what Sunoco does.” It also was good from a personal standpoint because the company’s head-quarters are in Philadelphia, which allows the Elsenhanses to remain close to John’s mother, who lives in the Northeast.

Elsenhans assumed her new role in August, but she gra-ciously took a little time to talk to Rice Magazine about energy, women in the corporate world, leadership and, of course, her favorite university.

You’d think that Lynn Laverty Elsenhans ’78 might be ready to retire after serving at nearly every executive level in Royal Dutch Shell during her 28-year career there. But Elsenhans isn’t the retiring sort. Beginning this summer, she’s taking on fresh challenges as CEO and president of Sunoco — and as the fi rst woman to lead a major oil company.

By Christopher Dow • Photographs by Tommy LaVergne


Rice Magazine: Energy is one of the most important issues of our day. What is your projec-tion for the oil and gas industry in the mid- to long term?

Lynn Elsenhans: We’re all concerned about the price of energy, particularly gasoline, be-ing driven up by high oil prices. A lot of people don’t recognize that downstream oil companies like Sunoco do refi ning but not drilling and don’t benefi t from the high price of oil. They’ve been put in a bind, too. Energy usage typically follows economic activity, and because the economy is sluggish and product prices are high, people are changing their behavior in the way they drive and heat their homes. Product demand has been down dramatically. At the same time, supplies are getting quite loose because of ethanol and other biofuels mandates. We also have refi nery expansions coming on-stream. All of those fac-tors really squeeze the margin for downstream producers like Sunoco and make it quite diffi cult to make money. That surprises most people, who think that oil companies are making tons of money. The companies that produce oil and gas are making a lot of money, but the downstream companies aren’t.

There are really two pieces to the down-stream oil industry. One is the manufacture of oil products, such as gasoline and other fuels. Right now, nearby, non-OPEC sources of supply, such as those in Mexico, are not producing as much as in the recent past, at a time when demand for crude in developing economies is soaring. That’s part of the reason the price of crude oil is go-ing up. In the short to medium term, there will be tremendous pressure on product prices to go up even if the economic environment is not par-ticularly good for the companies that make those products. That will tend to lessen the amount of investment in that part of the business. Over

time, as the economy improves, we may, in fact, see a shortfall of product, giving us the double whammy of high crude oil prices plus tightness of product creating a tremendous increase in the price of the products. There will be a fair amount of volatility, but that volatility will be around a generally high price, so I don’t foresee consumer prices coming down in any dramatic way.

The other piece of the industry makes petro-chemicals: base chemical feedstocks for plastics and other chemical products. I don’t see a very good picture in this part of the business for North American producers unless they are the most competitive and effi cient producers. In the past, the industry depended on exporting chemi-cal products, but the new capacity being built in the Asia–Pacifi c region, where the big demand for the products is, will push those exports back into the U.S. I predict that some refi neries and petrochemical facilities will need to shut down. That’s a tough call for those businesses, and it’s a tough outcome for the communities where those plants are located.

Rice Magazine: What challenge are you least looking forward to as Sunoco’s president and CEO?

Lynn Elsenhans: I’m not looking forward to dealing with those politicians who are looking to paint the industry as villains. Sometimes I get the impression that, for political reasons — mean-ing what they perceive it takes to get re-elected — they don’t really want to understand what our country’s energy challenges are and don’t have the will to do the kinds of things that need to be done for sound energy policy. It can be frustrating to try to get our story out, and that’s compounded by considerable distrust of the industry and almost a tuning out of what the industry has to say.

Lynn Elsenhans

Rice Magazine: What are the issues that politicians may be unwilling to face?

Lynn Elsenhans: The fi rst one has to do with energy conservation, which is a combination of better energy effi ciency and changes in behav-ior in the way people use the products. While some of that happens naturally as the prices go up, there clearly are ways to encourage people to use energy more effi ciently. But as a nation, we haven’t invested enough in new technologies that will make energy usage far more effi cient than it is now.

The second has to do with supply. Biofuels are part of the answer, but they aren’t a complete solution, and they make sense only if they are not driving up the cost of food. Sunoco doesn’t drill for oil and gas, but for those companies that do, there needs to be more access. That includes drilling in wildlife preserves, in Alaska and off-shore. I don’t understand why we would deprive ourselves of a secure supply based here in this country and continue to depend on parts of the world that aren’t necessarily friendly to our coun-try. The industry knows how to produce oil and gas in a very responsible way with a minimum footprint on the environment, and as a country, we have to let them do that.

Rice Magazine: Can America eventually do without foreign oil?

Lynn Elsenhans: In a word, no. Our appetite for oil is well beyond our ability to produce it from supplies just from the United States, or even from North America as a whole. In the very long term, we might become less dependent than we are today as other forms of energy come on-stream. Biofuels are a part of a mix that will help extend the life of liquid fuels, but there’s only so much cel-lulose and waste plant matter that you’re going to

Lynn Elsenhans

Q&A


“One of the hardest lessons for me to learn as a leader was the need to give up being right. If you’re always advocating your position, you aren’t being open to the ideas of others.”

—Lynn Elsenhans

Rice Magazine: What are the qualities of effective leadership?

Lynn Elsenhans: The critical thing I tell people is to be yourself. Authenticity is incred-ibly important, and if you’re trying to be some-one you’re not, people see that, and it’s the kiss of death. Being self-aware also is important. Understanding the impact you have on others and being open to feedback. One of the hardest lessons for me to learn as a leader was the need to give up being right. If you’re always advocating your position, you aren’t being open to the ideas of others. Beyond that, a leader has to be more positive than negative and have a vision for the fu-ture and a belief that things can be better. People need a reason to believe and hope, and they will not follow a leader who doesn’t have the view that tomorrow will be better than today.

Rice Magazine: Some people defi ne suc-cess by how far they rise and how much money they make. How do you defi ne success?

Lynn Elsenhans: How much of a difference I can make to people’s lives. On the personal side, it’s: Who loves you? Who do you love?

Rice Magazine: You’ve lived in a lot of countries and traveled extensively. What are some of your favorite places and why?

Lynn Elsenhans: I really like Indonesia. The Indonesian people are incredibly friendly, wel-coming and gentle, and the colors, music and art are quite interesting and exciting. Bali really is a magical place. Another place that I think is magi-cal is the Rajasthan region in India. It’s where the Taj Mahal is, and it’s the area of India where the Mughal Empire had trade routes from Pakistan down into India. Again, the food, colors and art are

fantastic, and the Taj is just amazing. And I love Italy. There’s probably no place in Italy I’ve been that I didn’t think was just fabulous.

Rice Magazine: You’re a member of the Rice Board of Trustees, and you’re also a major contributor to scholarship funds as well as to the rebuilding of Autry Court. Why is this phenomenal level of service to the university important to you?

Lynn Elsenhans: I have a tremendous pas-sion and deep love for Rice. I had a fantastic experi-ence here as a student. It prepared me extremely well and is a part of my success. I still have relationships with many of the people I met here. A way for me to give back to Rice is to contribute my time and my money. I was fortunate enough to be asked to be a trustee, and I’ve really enjoyed it. The Rice Board is a tremendous group of dedicated and capable people.

In terms of my personal giving, I try to stay tuned to what the university needs, and one of the things we’re trying to do is expand undergraduate enroll-ment while maintaining the exceptional quality of the students. A big part of our ability to attract students is scholarships, so that’s one of my concentrations. Also, I was approached by Athletics Director Chris Del Conte to give to Autry Court. I was convinced because I believe that having students of high aca-demic achievement who have the ability and drive to compete in Division I is one of the things that sets Rice apart.

I’ve participated in sports throughout my life, and it’s a big part of who I am. In fact, one thing I tell anyone — women, especially — who is interested in going into business and being in leadership is to play a team sport. You learn a lot about yourself and what it means to interrelate with people and to work toward a common objective at the highest levels when you play on a good sports team. Being able to give toward the women’s basketball locker room in Autry was a small way for me to help keep that alive at Rice.

be able to turn into fuel without affecting the food supply and impacting the CO2 balance through de-forestation. There’s been a lot of talk about hydro-gen and hydrogen fuel cells, but that has its own problems. Where do we get the hydrogen? A main solution will be electrifi cation. Predominantly, in the large scale, it’ll have to be nuclear generated. Wind and solar are great, but they’re not going to be enough to make a signifi cant difference, though they’re part of the mix.

Rice Magazine: When you started in the industry, it was unheard of for a woman to reach the level of president and CEO. Is the glass ceiling being broken or just cracked?

Lynn Elsenhans: Women in all kinds of fi elds have opportunities for leadership that didn’t exist when I started working. In the energy industry, I cannot think of a role that women don’t participate in, so I think the op-portunities are out there. The numbers would suggest, however, that it’s still diffi cult for women to get to the highest levels, and one of the diffi culties is in the ways people interrelate. Research shows that women leaders tend to be either competent or liked, but rarely both, and that’s a double bind. People don’t tend to trust people they don’t like, and it’s very hard in business to lead if there isn’t mutual trust and respect. It’s also diffi cult to go forward in a company if you’re not considered competent. As society gets more comfortable with the no-tion that women can be tough when there’s a reason to get tough, as well as taking the more traditional supportive role, it will tend to make it easier for women to have top jobs and break that glass ceiling. There have been inroads, but I don’t think we’re there yet.

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AND OTHER MATTERS EARTHY

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The past few years have witnessed a number of devastating earthquakes, such as the Great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake in 2004 that generated tsunamis as high as 100 feet, shook the planet by as much as 1 centimeter and triggered other earthquakes as far away as Alaska. That earthquake and others — more recently, several that hit China — have caused billions of dollars in damage and widespread loss of life. While most occurred in Asia, few places are immune. Tremblors have been felt in the United States — not just in expected locales such as California and Alaska, but also in the Midwest.

We may not be able to control cataclysmic earth events, but understanding them can lead to prediction that could minimize their impacts. Rice Earth scientists and others have made some headway toward deciphering how and why earthquakes and volcanic activity take place, and one may just have found a way to predict when a quake is imminent.


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Continental Staying Power

Continents seem so substantial that it’s easy to forget they’re simply big chunks of rock fl oating around on the Earth’s viscous mantle. The movement can lead to earthquakes, but other processes also are at work. Geologists know, for example, that continents have come and gone during the Earth’s 4.5 billion years. As of now, however, there are more theories than hard data about some of the key processes that govern continents’ lives.

One thing we do know is that con-tinents ride higher than oceans. This is partly because the Earth’s crust is thicker beneath continents than it is beneath oceans. It also is the result of the conti-nents losing their magnesium and calcium to the oceans, leaving behind lighter, silicon-rich rock that is buoyed up by the denser rock beneath the Earth’s crust.

Rice geologist Cin-Ty Lee always assumed that processes deep within the Earth accounted for most of the magnesium loss. One of these pro-

cesses is delamination, in which dense, magnesium-rich magma wells up beneath continent-feeding volcanoes then ulti-mately sinks back into the Earth’s interior. Lee already had learned from previous research that about 40 percent of the magnesium in basaltic magma was lost to delamination, but a bit of laboratory serendipity made him take a closer look.

In measuring the lithium content of the granitic rocks, Lee noticed that lithium tends to behave like magnesium, and he realized he could use lithium as a proxy to fi nd out how much magne-sium continents had lost due to chemical weathering. He was surprised to fi nd that chemical weathering alone accounted for 20 percent of the magnesium loss.

“Weathering occurs in just the top few meters or so of the Earth’s crust, and it’s driven by the hydrosphere, the water that moves between the air, land and oceans,” Lee said. “It appears that our planet has continents because we have an active hydrosphere — if we want to fi nd a hydrosphere on distant planets, perhaps we should look for continents.”

Too Hot to Move

The planet Venus provides evidence for Lee’s hypothesis. Venus’ surface, which shows no outward signs of tectonic activity, is bone dry. It also is heavily scarred with volcanoes. Scientists have long believed that Venus’ crust, lacking water to help lubricate tectonic plate boundaries, is too rigid for active plate tectonics. But Rice Earth scientist Adrian Lenardic thinks something else might be at work there.

Conventional wisdom holds that plate tectonics is both stable and self-correcting and that the stresses generated by a fl owing mantle help keep tectonic plates

in motion. But that view relies on the as-sumption that excess heat from a planet’s mantle can effi ciently escape through the crust. Lenardic has recently completed a study that suggests a planet’s mantle can become less viscous if it heats up. In fact, prolonged heating of a planet’s crust via rising atmospheric temperatures can shut down plate tectonics and cause a planet’s crust to lock in place.

“The heat required is far more than anything we expect from human-induced climate change,” Lenardic said, “but things like volcanic activity and changes in the sun’s luminosity could lead to this level of heating. Our goal was to establish an upper limit of naturally generated climate variation beyond which the entire

solid planet would respond.”Lenardic said the research team

wanted to better understand the differ-ences between the Earth and Venus and establish the potential range of conditions that could exist on Earth-like planets in the solar system and elsewhere in the universe. The fi ndings may explain why Venus evolved differently from Earth. The two planets are close in size and geological makeup, but Venus’ carbon dioxide–rich atmosphere is almost 100 times more dense than the Earth’s and acts like a blanket. As a result, Venus’ surface temperature is hotter than that of even Mercury, which is only half as far from the sun.

The team discovered that Earth’s plate tectonics could become unstable if the surface temperature rose by 100 degrees Fahrenheit or more for a few million years.

“The time period and the rise in temperatures, while drastic for humans, are not unreasonable on a geologic scale, particularly compared to what scientists previously thought would be required to affect a planet’s geodynam-ics,” Lenardic said.

One of the most signifi cant fi ndings in the new study is that the atmospheric heating needed to shut down plate tec-tonics is considerably less than the critical temperature beyond which free water could exist on Earth’s surface.

“The water doesn’t have to boil away for irrevocable heating to occur,” Lenardic said. “The cycle of heating can be kicked off long before that happens.”

The researchers also found that a spike in volcanic activity could accom-pany the initial locking of the tectonic plates. This might explain the large per-centage of volcanic plains that are present on Venus.

Targeting a Tsunami Zone

Volcanoes generally seem innocuous compared with the devastating shakings that emanate from subduction zones — places where one tectonic plate slides beneath another and recycles back into the Earth’s molten mantle.

Earthquakes often occur in subduction zones when plates that normally move smoothly across one another lock, causing stress to build. When the lock breaks and the plates jolt past each other, the sudden re-lease causes the earth to shake. If the

The research team wanted to better understand the differences between the Earth and Venus and establish the potential range of conditions that could exist on Earth-like planets in the solar system and elsewhere in the universe. The fi ndings may explain why Venus evolved differently from Earth.


shock occurs beneath the sea floor, it can create a tsunami.

One infamous subduction zone, the Nankai Trough, located on the fl oor of the Pacifi c Ocean about 100 miles from Kobe, Japan, has been responsible for numerous earthquakes and tsunamis and likely will cause more.

The morphology of the Nankai Trough interests Rice Earth scientist Dale Sawyer, who was part of an international team that spent eight weeks aboard the new scientifi c drilling vessel Chikyu col-lecting data on a particularly troublesome zone deep beneath the trough.

“Earthquakes don’t nucleate just anywhere,” Sawyer said. “While the slip zone for quakes in this region may be hundreds of kilometers long and tens of kilometers deep, the initiation point of the big quakes is often just 5 to 6 kilometers below the seafl oor. We want to know why.”

The drilling done by Sawyer and colleagues marked the beginning of a massive project dubbed the Nankai Trough Seismogenic Zone Experiment. The project is organized by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP), an international scientifi c research program dedicated to advancing scientifi c under-standing of the Earth by monitoring and sampling subseafl oor environments. In addition to drilling across the fault in the Nankai Trough, the scientists also hope to sample the rocks and fl uids inside the fault, and they want to place instruments within the fault zone to monitor activity and conditions leading up to the next great earthquake.

Sawyer said scientists with IODP plan to return to the Nankai Trough each year through 2012, with the ultimate goal of drilling a six-kilometer-deep well to explore the region where the quakes originate. If they succeed, the well will be more than three times deeper than previ-ous wells drilled by scientifi c drill ships, and it will provide the fi rst direct data from this geological region.

Seeking Seismic Signs

Rice seismologist Fenglin Niu and his colleaques have used a similar well in California to uncover information that could change quake prediction forever.

The famed San Andreas fault runs through San Francisco and around Los Angeles, and about halfway between the cities lies the town of Parkfi eld, where the

U.S. Geological Survey has been collect-ing seismic data for almost 40 years. Niu and his colleagues set up shop there, at the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth, a deep well seismologists use to make direct measurements of the fault.

“Almost everything we know about the deep interior structure of the Earth comes from seismic waves, the elas-

tic waves of energy that are released during earthquakes,” said Niu, whose work has earned a prestigious Early CAREER Development Award from the National Science Foundation’s EarthScope Program.

Today’s state-of-the-art earthquake warning systems give only a few seconds’ warning before a quake strikes. These systems detect P-waves, the fastest-moving seismic waves released during a quake. Like a fl ash of lightning that arrives before a clap of thunder, P-waves precede slower-moving but more destruc-tive waves.

In an attempt to obtain readings that would give warning much further in advance of the event itself, Niu and his colleagues employed precision instru-ments built by collaborators at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). These sensors can measure the minute changes in the time — sometimes just tens of billionths of a second — that it takes seismic waves to travel through the rock along a fi xed pathway beneath Parkfi eld. The instruments are so sensi-tive that, although they were more than half a mile below ground, they could measure fl uctuations in air pressure at the Earth’s surface.

Changes in the rock structure are critical for predicting earthquakes. When rocks are compressed, the stress forces air out of tiny cracks, causing seismic waves to travel slightly faster through the

rock. Detecting stress changes before an earthquake has been the Holy Grail of earthquake seismology. Only recently, however, has technology improved suf-fi ciently to make the necessary precision and reliability possible.

In analyzing the data from the new sensors, Niu and his colleagues found that a distinct change occurred in the

rock before each of the minor Parkfi eld-area earthquakes during the test period. A measurable change preceded a magni-tude 3 quake by 10 hours. This was the largest local event during the observation period. A smaller but closer magnitude 1 temblor fi ve days later was preceded by a signal about two hours before the quake.

“We’re working with colleagues in China and Japan on follow-up studies to determine whether this physical response can be measured in other seismically active regions,” Niu said. “Provided the effect is pervasive, we still need to learn more about the timing of the signals if we are to reliably use them to warn of impending quakes.”

The study’s other co-authors include Paul Silver of the Carnegie Institution for Science’s Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Rice graduate student Xin Cheng and LBNL scien-tists Tom Daley and Ernest Majer. The research was supported by the National Science Foundation, Rice, the Carnegie Institution and LBNL, and it appeared in the journal Nature.

Changes in the rock structure are critical for predicting earth-quakes. When rocks are compressed, the stress forces air out of tiny cracks, causing seismic waves to travel slightly faster through the rock. Detecting stress changes before an earthquake has been the Holy Grail of earthquake seismology.

With its largest-ever freshman class and the continuation of its green-friendly building campaign, Rice University is making history in more ways than one. “The ‘John and Anne’ Grove” spreads its peaceful beauty near the south colleges, vegetated roofs are sprouting up across campus, and the new 103,000-square-foot David and Barbara Gibbs Recreation and Wellness Center is taking shape.

With its largest-ever freshman class and the continuation of its green-friendly building campaign, HistoricBuilding

new 103,000-square-foot David and Barbara Gibbs Recreation and Wellness Center is taking shape.

Across campus, the excitement is building.



A Grovey Kind of LoveIt may have culminated this summer with a revitalized green space near the south colleges, but it started with romance. In April 2006, a million-dollar gift from John ’63 and Anne d’Olier Mullen ’64 through the Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund fi nanced the beautifi cation of the quadrangle bordered by Rice’s inner loop on the north, Sid Richardson College on the south, Baker and Will Rice Colleges on the east, and Hanszen College on the west. Filled with formal rows of cedar elm and live oak trees and appropriately called “The ‘John and Anne’ Grove,” it is where the Mullens met and where their friendship evolved into true love.“I fi rst noticed Anne when she walked out of the grove into the Hanszen quad in fall 1960,” John said. “We soon became close friends, and one of our favorite places to talk was up in the branches of Rice’s majestic oaks. This gift is to all the other Johns and Annes who will meet on the Rice campus and form enduring friendships.”

Over the years, the grove began to suffer from poor drain-age and mosquitoes, and students gradually began seeking other places to gather.

“This is an area that has been underdeveloped and a little bit ignored,” said Facilities, Engineering and Planning (FE&P) Project Manager Larry Vossler, “so the Mullens wanted to do something to give back.”

During the renovation, FE&P tackled the grove’s problem of standing water by installing new drains. They also replaced the concrete sidewalks with decomposed granite paths, which now extend down the center of “The ‘John and Anne’ Grove” and along its edges. FE&P chose to use the permeable granite material to help safeguard the health of the existing trees, some of which were planted in the 1930s.

“With the age and beauty of the Grove, we wanted to do ev-erything possible to ensure that the trees continue to fl ourish,” Vossler said. “Decomposed granite is better for the trees’ roots, since it lets air and water get through.”

Over the years, a few of the original trees had become diseased and were removed. FE&P replaced them with six cedar elms and four live oaks — in addition to planting a number of crepe myrtles alongside Will Rice and Hanszen Colleges — and the pervious paths will benefi t them as well. St. Augustine grass was planted on either side of the center path.

Seating has not yet been placed in the area, but FE&P has turned to south college residents for input regarding their prefer-ences. No decisions have been made, but the students are leaning toward picnic tables or benches with backs in hopes of using the grove as a peaceful place to eat, study or converse with friends.

“Our goal was to turn ‘The “John and Anne” Grove’ into a more accessible oasis for relaxation and recreation,” said Vossler. “I’d say we’re there.”

—Merin Porter

HistoricBuilding

Across campus, the excitement is building.


Rice University students already are adept in the gym-nastics of the mind: Soon they’ll have a new place to master the athletic pursuits of the body. Scheduled to open in August 2009, the David and Barbara Gibbs Recreation and Wellness Center will offer state-of-the-art workout and health facilities and will house everything from competitive swimming and billiards to nutritional coun-seling and meditative classroom space. Rice broke ground on the two-story, 103,000-square-foot building on April 22. Upon its completion, the Rice Wellness Center will relo-cate from its current location next to Brown College. The Recreation and Wellness Center’s $41 million price tag will be funded solely through philanthropy. “We are particularly grateful to David and Barbara Gibbs for making the lead gift for this historic project,” said President David Leebron. “We also want to thank Ralph O’Connor and Carl Isgren for their generous gifts.”

Building for a Healthy Mind and Healthy Body


Most roofs are built to keep water out, but the green roof slated for several new Rice buildings will actually drink it in. That’s because the roof — which recently debuted over the South Plant’s electrical room and will also be added to Duncan College, the Collaborative Research Center and the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen — is actually a garden.

The roof employs low-maintenance vegetation that is planted in a special growing medium, which sits on layers of drainage and aera-tion material, insulation, roofi ng membrane and structural support. The vegetated roof’s exceptional insulating powers will help reduce the buildings’ energy consumption, minimize storm-water runoff,

limit damage from hailstorms and provide a habitat for songbirds and other native animals and insects.

“As vegetated green roofs cover our buildings, we’ll reduce our en-ergy consumption, our fl ooding and even the outdoor temperatures in summertime,” said Director of Sustainability Richard Johnson. “At the same time, we’ll have helped restore ecosystems disrupted by human development. That’s a future I think we can all get excited about.”

The landscape of today’s green roofs varies from utilitarian stretches of grass to elaborate elevated parks, and Rice is experi-menting with different plant species to determine which perform best in Houston’s scorching rooftop environment. The lessons learned atop Rice’s newest buildings will help others in the Houston area choose optimal plantings for their vegetated roofs, which is exactly what Johnson is anticipating.

“My hope is that when someone fl ies over Houston in an airplane 10 years from now, they’ll be able to look down at all the native land-scape on our rooftops and wonder where all the buildings went.”

—Merin Porter and Susann Glenn

Taking the HeatAs rooftop gardens grow, energy usage shrinks

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RSGBI


The Rice Student Green Building Initiative may have started small, but it has big plans for sustainable construction on campus.

An odd thing happened in autumn 2006: Despite the changing weather and the natu-ral push toward dormancy, something green grew. It was a tiny seed of an idea planted in the fertile soil of junior Stephanie Squibb’s mind. It grew along with Rice University’s Vision for the Second Century plan for a mil-lion square feet of new campus construction, until fi nally, it fl ourished into the Rice Student Green Building Initiative (RSGBI), a conscien-tious campus club that gives students the op-portunity to help build grassroots awareness of and interest in environmentally friendly building techniques.

By Merin Porter


“As an architecture student, I have been progressively interested in environmental and sustainable issues,” said Squibb. Her focus on “green” architecture began when she was a student in the spring 2006 Environmental Studies class co-taught by Director of Sustainability Richard Johnson and Professor Paul Harcombe, who has since retired. As part of a team assigned to research green options for a Jones College restroom renovation project scheduled for that summer, Squibb and classmates Niki vonHe-demann ’08 and Sabina Bharwani ’07 explored the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System, a U.S. Green Building Council program that provides a benchmark for the design, construction and operation of envi-ronmentally friendly buildings.

What these incredibly bright students did next came as no surprise to Johnson.

“When you take three young women like these and give them a fairly simple project,” he said, “they fi nd ways to increase the scope of the project. They get ambitious.”

The women compiled their research into a PowerPoint presentation and began showing it to friends, as well as to the presidents of Rice’s residential colleges. Before long, they were showing it to Rice’s college masters, too.

“They attended a meeting of all the college masters and got them to recommend that the new residential colleges, which at that point were just dreams, be ‘green’ buildings,” said Johnson. Recognizing that the grassroots effort had legs, he and Harcombe invited Associate Vice President of Facilities, Engineering and Planning (FE&P) Barbara White Bryson and Vice President for Administration Kevin Kirby to attend the students’ fi nal class presentation on green building. After the presentation, something special happened: Bryson and Kirby stood up and announced to the class that Rice would build not only the new residential col-leges according to LEED standards, but all other future campus structures as well.

“Of course, that’s not the kind of decision you just pull out of a hat, so clearly they had been talking about this already,” said Johnson. “But what Stephanie, Niki and Sabina were able

to do is build grassroots awareness and support among Rice students and those faculty members serving as college masters, who were very important in helping decide what was planned for the new colleges.”

Expertise on Tap

Despite the larger scope of the LEED initiative, Squibb, vonHe-demann and Bharwani hadn’t forgotten about the Jones College restroom renovation project. Johnson and Harcombe connected the students with FE&P Project Manager Ken Thompson, who asked for the students’ input regarding new faucets. His criteria were that the faucets have a single handle and input line and be well made, ADA compliant and within the price range of $125 and $130. As a result of the students’ recommendation, Thompson chose a more effi cient faucet than the one originally under consideration — reducing Jones College’s water usage by around 175,000 gallons per year and saving the university ap-proximately $1,200 annually.

“The purpose of this project was to minimize the lifetime ecological footprints of the products and replacements in as many ways as possible,” Squibb said, adding that the students also suggested that the old sinks and fi xtures be reused or re-cycled instead of being thrown away. As a result, the sinks were donated to a local Habitat for Humanity supply store, and the metal fi xtures were recycled as scrap.

Squibb calls her experiences eye-opening.“I began to recognize the level of student interest in green

building and the potential opportunities for connecting students with green building efforts and education on campus,” she said. “I felt that a student group on campus that embraced that focus and was acknowledged by the Student Association would be benefi cial.”

Squibb decided to complete independent study courses on sustainable building practices throughout her senior year, during which Johnson and Harcombe encouraged her to pursue her idea of organizing the RSGBI. The club held its fi rst meeting in

[ Stephanie Squibb • Niki vonHedemann • Sabina Bharwani ]“When you take three young women like these and give them a fairly simple project, they fi nd ways to increase the scope of the project. They get ambitious.”

—Richard Johnson


December 2006, and Squibb offered an introduction to the 10 or so students who attended.

“I explained that the group was a great way to learn about sustainable issues, network with architects and engineers within the community and become more involved with design decisions made about the buildings on campus,” Squibb said. She also discussed ways in which the organization would allow students to be involved in sustainable issues. These included education through guest speakers and organized tours, engagement and input during the design process of new buildings and selected renovations, and implementation by providing labor and other assistance to support the campus’s green building goals.

Ideas Into Action

The club held three meetings in spring 2007, further developing its mission statement, electing offi cers and creating a Listserv that quickly gained nearly 70 sub-scribers. Squibb, who received her bachelor of arts in architecture that semester, knew she would be pursuing a bachelor of architecture degree at Rice. Since she would be completing her architectural preceptorship in New York at Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, the club elected Alex Tseng as its president for 2007–08.

“Alex has been absolutely great for taking ideas and turning them into actions,” said Squibb, whose plan for a LEED training program Tseng executed. More than 40 students from architec-ture, engineering and even ecological and evolutionary biology attended the fi rst set of classes, which were taught in spring 2008 by Rice alumnus and LEED-accredited professional Guyton Durnin ’06.

“We started the LEED Certifi cation Class mainly to raise student awareness in sustainability issues and to allow those students who want to gain more knowledge in sustainable design to become professionally accredited,” said Tseng, adding that the U.S. Green Building Council generously provided the class’s

training materials. The students who took and passed the LEED for New Construction Professional Accreditation exam before the end of the semester enjoyed the fi nancial support of Rice’s schools of architecture and engineering, the director of sustain-ability and local architecture fi rms. This support covered half of the $300 exam fee for each student who passed the exam. Tseng noted that several students have expressed interest in taking the class next year, which not only means that it will need additional sources of funding, but also indicates that its popularity isn’t likely to dwindle.

Among the other projects that RSGBI has fostered are the Green Dorm Initiative, which encourages stu-dents to adopt sustainable lifestyles in their dorms; the Advocacy Task Force, which helps the club stay connected with other campus environmental organi-zations; a lecture series that brings architects involved in sustainable design to campus for the benefi t of club members; and site visits to green buildings in

the Houston area.Today, seven RSGBI board members help admin-

istrate and coordinate “green” events, and 150 members benefi t from their efforts. Despite the fact that the club was

started with the Vision for the Second Century’s construction efforts in mind, Tseng says that it will still be here long after the last construction worker has left campus.

“The RSGBI has a special status as an organization that seeks to work from the inside out,” Tseng said. “We want to cultivate advocates among the Rice student body who will be equipped to guide future development at Rice and to encourage others to participate.”

Squibb agreed. “I realize this is a pivotal time with all the current construction, but I feel that sustainable issues surround us at all levels,” she said. “The RSGBI allows students to be involved in these decisions and encourages them to help shape the future.”

architecture that semester, knew she would be pursuing a bachelor of architecture degree at Rice. Since she would be completing her architectural preceptorship in New York at

the Houston area.


started with the Vision for the Second Century’s construction

architecture that semester, knew she would be pursuing a bachelor of architecture degree at Rice. Since she would


“I feel that sustainable issues surround us at all levels.

The RSGBI allows students to be involved in these

decisions and encourages them to help shape the future.” —Stephanie Squibb

“I was a Drum Minor in the MOB my senior year, pregame announcer and a part of the scriptwrit-ing team,” said Zumwalt, a Baker College mem-ber and fellow who serves as executive director of the University of the Virgin Islands Research and Technology Park (RTPark). Orchestrating the insectile spectacle taught him some lessons he still relies on. “Challenges such as designing and executing a halftime show both Rice and Aggie partisans fi nd entertaining, while ‘desecrating’ Kyle Field with a cockroach and leaving the fi eld to a standing ovation, are no less complex than most any in business life.”

It’s a claim Zumwalt is well qualifi ed to make, since he has founded and directed several technology and communications companies over the past two decades. The most notable among these is CNet Inc., a software services business that merged with publicly traded, multinational Glenayre Technologies in 1997. (Glenayre later sold the CNet name to the well-known media company that now holds it.) Zumwalt also served in founding and executive positions for technology and telephony companies such as Privacy Inc., Go-Comm Inc. and Exceleron Software Inc.

persistence, leadership, an appreciation for de-layed gratifi cation — and diplomacy.

“Untangling roommate incompatibilities, grappling with multicultural and religious issues, testing the limits of on-campus capacity, and the inevitable privacy concerns that arise in a co-ed college all served up very useful skills for later ap-plication,” he said.

He also credits some of his favorite Rice fac-ulty and staff members with helping him develop personally and professionally. Physics professor Harold Rorschach, who made Rice history as the fi rst nonresident associate of Jones College when it still housed only women, was, Zumwalt said, “an outstanding and approachable Rice professor, es-pecially for wide-eyed and disoriented freshmen.” Through Professor Patricia Reiff’s instruction, he discovered a passion for astronomy and space science, and Baker College master Jeff Kurtzman reignited Zumwalt’s love for music. History profes-sor Charles Garside brought out his very best man-ners, and Zumwalt said he still uses sociologist Bill Martin’s “days behind for the undergraduate” equation. (“Who knew sociology had equations?”)

He remembers other Rice faculty and staff members with fondness, too: political science pro-fessor Gilbert “Doc C” Cuthbertson, who taught Zumwalt’s favorite class at Rice; Bert Roth, the “archetypical and original” director of the MOB; and faculty resident associate Maria Leal, who liked the way he sang in the shower — although Zumwalt said he didn’t realize his voice was carrying.

While these Rice friends helped him discover and develop latent passions and interests, it may have been Zumwalt’s freshman chemistry class that most affected his future path. Fresh out of high school and with a straight-A record, he planned to take the world of elements and electrons by storm — until he earned a 30 on his fi rst chem test.

“That did plenty to make me rethink my career

His fascination with telecommunications, technology and software began in the late 1970s, while he was pursuing his bachelor of science in electrical engineering at Rice. Zumwalt appren-ticed with Southwestern Bell when the company was planning and rolling out electronic switching in its north Texas offi ces, and he became fasci-nated with the upcoming divestiture of AT&T and the imminent deregulation of the industry.

Path to the Future

Competitive telecommunications was in its in-fancy when Zumwalt graduated from Rice and joined Compucon Inc. The company actively sup-ported the development of terrestrial microwave and satellite communications networks — and it also supported Zumwalt’s nascent entrepreneurial ambitions. He left the company to form CNet with fellow alumnus Scott Greenwell ’82, and the two “faced all the struggles, panics, stresses and joys of growing that business over an 11-year period in a dynamic environment.”

To succeed in the chancy venture, Zumwalt drew on the life skills he honed at Rice: patience,


The Entrepreneur Next DoorRice alum David Zumwalt may have a penchant for making history, but his keen sense of humor and passion for family have kept the former MOB member as down-to-earth as ever.

People still talk about it today: a human “cockroach” so enor-mous, so irreverent that it crawled into the Rice history books and has nested there to this day. It made its debut on Texas A&M University’s Kyle Field on Oct. 25, 1980, the same day the Owls beat the Aggies 10–6, when the Rice Marching Owl Band (MOB) — which prides itself on never actually march-ing — gave onlookers a halftime show to remember. It wasn’t the fi rst time David Zumwalt ’81, a former MOB member who helped pull off the stunt, made history — but it was certainly one of the most memorable.


aspirations, not to mention my opinion of my scholastic aptitude,” he said. “Rice quickly demon-strated to me that achievement and excellence are in abundance, and there’s always someone more talented and gifted, more committed and hard working, or just plain smarter than you.”

Zumwalt said that while his time at Rice im-proved his discipline and focus, it also softened some of his competitive drives. Since then, he’s learned that even the best-laid plans sometimes sink under the tumultuous waves of market condi-tions, capital restraints and simple bad luck. But Zumwalt also has learned to measure success in language that doesn’t include “big houses” or “bank accounts.” His yardstick for success com-prises two words: “Always try.”

“I have learned that a very thin line separates failure from success, so how we live and how we handle failure say much about how we handle suc-cess. There are any number of ways to keep score, but I believe success is less an outcome and more a way of living.”

That’s one reason why, in 2005, Zumwalt agreed to the challenge of nurturing the fl edgling RTPark. After more than two decades of entrepre-neurship, he was ready for something new.

“When I was approached with the opportu-nity to apply my past experiences to the greater challenge of economic development in a commer-cially crucial but fi nancially stressed region, I found it hard to resist,” he said. “I also sensed this was something I had been called to do.”

The Challenges of Economic Development

The RTPark was born in 2002 out of the U.S. Virgin Island’s search for untapped resources that could provide opportunities for the region’s outstanding businesspeople. Agriculture and tourism had been the major pillars of the local economy, but those sectors offered few opportunities for the island’s rising young business and technology stars.

“The result was a ‘brain drain’ from the Caribbean basin, as many of the region’s outstanding talents relocated to the mainland to pursue better opportunities. This robbed the Caribbean of many gifted leaders who might otherwise be contributing more directly to the future of these islands.”

When key decision makers from govern-ment, academia and commercial enterprise came together to search for a potential panacea to the USVI’s commercial woes, they quickly found it in the islands’ role as a signifi cant switching center for subsea fi ber networks.

“The USVI is home to one of the very largest concentrations of bandwidth in the hemisphere, and a signifi cant amount of Internet and voice traffi c is carried through our switching facilities,” Zumwalt said. “In a way, the USVI is to global data what Memphis is to the delivery of overnight packages.”

To capitalize on this bandwidth, the islands’ local leaders worked together to “design an engine that could focus the region’s many assets to foster a vital, growing and globally competitive new technology sector in the economy.” The resulting RTPark provides a physical hub for technology-centered businesses interested in establishing operations in the area. It leverages the islands’ fi ber connectivity and encourages workforce development through strategic partnerships and signifi cant local tax incentives.

Although the park conducted much of its early

work behind the scenes — organizing capital re-sources, identifying prospective partners and hon-ing its business model, among other things — its recent progress has won it a place in the sun.

“In 2007, we secured a breakthrough agree-ment with Global Crossing to provide data center solutions for tenants and partners — to which we’ve added key alliances for telecommunications and managed services — and we are negotiating with strategic partners for e-commerce transac-tion processing capabilities,” Zumwalt said. “We currently have a television station as a tenant, with additional tenants and partners on the way.”

Another Path to the Future

While Zumwalt is happy about his successes as head of the RTPark, they are not his proudest ac-complishments. That distinction falls to his third- and fi fth-graders, Emerson and Maggie, and to his wife, Emmy ’85. (Zumwalt does, however, admit to being proud of “the rather unusual distinction” of appearing in Playboy magazine: “April 1981, page 15, in the huge pink bunny suit, related to a MOB halftime show.”)

The importance of family is a consistent theme in Zumwalt’s story. He sold CNet in 1997 in pursuit of a schedule that was more conducive to a strong family life. One of his favorite places is a Singaporean hotel where he and Emmy learned their fi rst child was on the way. And, most days, he drops his kids off at school on the way to work and is home again in time for dinner. If he must work at home in the evenings, he waits until Maggie and Emerson have gone to bed.

Zumwalt says his wife and children “continu-ally inspire me, in the words of Jack Nicholson, to ‘try to be a better man.’” He also credits his father and fellow alumnus Gary Zumwalt ’57 and his mother and grandfather with being highly infl uential.

“They passed on many qualities for which I am profoundly thankful: my father’s temperament, patience and sense of fairness; my mother’s per-sistence, faith and strength in the face of adver-sity; and my paternal grandfather’s quintessential example of what every man truly aspires to be — a humble, loving father, grounded in faith, who led an exemplary career and actively sought ways to be of service to others.”

While Zumwalt strives for that kind of excel-lence, he’s not afraid to let go of the wheel, either — and he encourages Rice students to do the same.

“Many tilt at windmills as they work hard to shape careers and families to match their dreams and expectations,” he said. “Life, however, molds us on its own timetable and in many unexpected ways. Don’t be afraid to let it shape you.”

“Many tilt at windmills as they work hard to shape careers and

families to match their dreams and expecta-tions. Life, however, molds us on its own

timetable and in many unexpected ways.” —David Zumwalt



Hixon served as the juror for “LAUNCH: Rice Student Art Exhibition 45.” “Nancy is one of the most respected arts profes-sionals in Houston and she has so much experience working with students,” said Rice Gallery Director Kim Davenport. “Working closely with such a gifted

curator and having the opportunity to recognize outstanding creative students are some of the great rewards for the gallery staff.”

One of those outstanding stu-dents was Amanda Wallace, who was awarded the Rice University Art Gallery Director’s Choice award for “Back Home,” a series of photographs she took of friends, family and the neighborhood where she grew up. Accompanying each photograph was a small story about the person or place depicted.

In her statement about the work, Wallace wrote, “When you are away at college, you are absent from the many moments experienced by your family. You also miss the changes that have taken place in areas that were once familiar to you. These photographs are

the beginning of a way of representing these two experiences.”

“LAUNCH” also was something of a special occasion for the Rice Gallery staff and one of many turning points in the gallery’s long history.

“When I came to Rice, the student show looked very different than it did this year,” Davenport said. “In the past, visual arts faculty selected works from all classes and among all years of study, which were hung in the gallery salon style.”

The lively visual cacophony was com-plemented by the awards ceremony held

in the gallery during the opening. “There was a huge attendance, and not everyone could see the speakers, so we brought in a 12-foot ladder,” Davenport said. Each professor giving an award would climb up to look out over the crowd.

The “ladder podium” became a tradition and was used until a few years ago when the student award ceremony was moved to the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts’ new quarters in the Rice Media Center. Beginning next year, the student art exhibition will be held there — a fresh start signaled by this year’s exhibition title, “LAUNCH.”

“It has been fun to organize the student art exhibitions over the past 13 years,” Davenport said. “However, we

realize the need for students to reclaim the sense of ownership they had for the show when the art department was located in Sewall Hall, right up the stairs from the gallery. The Media Center is the place on campus where art is being made every day, where the art students gather and where the department’s identity and sense of community lie. It’s exciting to think about this change rein-forcing the vitality of the arts at Rice.”

—Kelly Klaasmeyer

Student shows are nothing new for Nancy Hixon. After almost 30 years with the Blaffer Gallery, the art museum of the University of Houston, she’s seen and installed enough student art to fi ll the Louvre. But that doesn’t mean Hixon isn’t excited every time she works with students. “I fi nd it interesting to learn what they’re reading, who they’re studying with and what artists they’re infl uenced by,” Hixon said. “I want to see where they take their work.”

Launch into New Space

Amanda Wallace was awarded the Rice University Art Gallery Director’s Choice award.

—Kim Davenport

“The Media Center is the place on campus where art is being made every day, where the art students gather and where the department’s identity and sense of community lie.”

Memories

Arts

MemoriesMemories from


When artist Mark Fox decided to move from Cincinnati, Ohio, to New York City, he knew he had a problem. His 6,000-square-foot studio in Cincinnati was full of stuff, but his new space in New York was only 400 square feet. He realized he’d have to get rid of a lot of what he owned, but somehow, he just couldn’t bring himself to eliminate everything entirely. So he drew it all.

“Dust,” Fox’s Summer Window installa-tion for Rice Gallery, was fi lled with black ink drawings of almost all the items Fox once owned, such as a vacuum cleaner, Christmas lights, C-clamps, a stuffed liz-ard, a toy horse, desk chairs, a ladder, a giant fan and even a stray corncob holder. He cut the drawings into the shapes of the objects, painted their backs fl uorescent green and mounted them on wires that ex-tended from a wall constructed just behind the gallery window.

“All my prior work was about manipu-lation and about how people move or con-trol things, collect things,” Fox explained. “Now, I was being denied movement by the things I owned; the things kind of owned me in a way.”

The massed images seemed to fl oat and swirl in space like the vortex of a tor-nado — sparse in the center with dense clusters at the edges, as if some force was sucking all of Fox’s possessions into oblivi-on. The luminous green paint on the backs of the drawings refl ected against the wall behind them, creating the ominous atmo-spheric effect he saw as a boy when he witnessed a tornado’s destructive funnel cloud.

“After I drew things, there was an as-sessing process,” Fox said. “The stories behind the objects I owned came back as I drew them.”

In the end, Fox may have jettisoned a dumpsterful of stuff, but he got to keep his memories in images that produced a fan-tastic installation.

—Kelly Klaasmeyer

from fromDust


For the fi fth year in a row, musicians from Rice University took center stage at one of the best-known venues in the country: the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.Eight students from The Shepherd School of Music participated in the Kennedy Center’s Conservatory Project, which was designed to introduce audiences to the top young musical artists from the nation’s leading undergraduate and graduate conservatories, colleges and universities. Students from The Shepherd School, which was one of the project’s founding participants, have been selected to perform every year since the program’s inception in 2004.

“This year was one of our strongest concerts yet,” said Gary Smith, associate dean of music. “The opportunity for our extraordinary musicians to play at the Kennedy Center — the national face of performing arts — is rewarding and in-valuable for them and for The Shepherd School.”

This year’s participants were Trio Destino (graduate students Hilary Abigana, fl ute; Amy Chung, clarinet; and Rachael Young, bassoon), harpist Sadie Turner ’08, and the Jasper String Quartet (graduate students John Freivogel, violin; Sae Niwa, violin; Sam Quintal, viola; and Rachel Henderson, cello). In the spring, the Jasper String Quartet won the Grand Prize and Audience Prize at the Plowman Chamber Music Competition and the Grand Prize at the Coleman Chamber Music Competition. This fall, they are studying with the Tokyo String Quartet at Yale University.

Other participating schools were Northwestern University School of Music, Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, Berklee College of Music and Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

—Jessica Stark

Trio Destino: Rachael Young, bassoon; Hilary Abigana, fl ute; and Amy Chung, clarinet.

Sadie Turner, harpist

Photography: David Long

ReturnReturnReturnto theto theto theKennedyKennedyCenter


“The opportunity for our extraordinary musicians to play at the Kennedy Center – the national face of performing arts – is rewarding and invaluable for them and for The Shepherd School.”

—Gary Smith

Sam Quintal, viola; Rachel Henderson, cello; Sae Niwa, violin; and John Freivogel, violinPhotography: David Long

Arts

to theCenter


A piece for cloud nine might have to wait a while, however. Stallmann hopes to spend 2009 producing creative works that use electronic and computer-generated sounds in concert with live instruments and in live performances. He’s also considering forming a new ensemble to explore musi-cal dialogue using computers and acoustic instruments.

“One thing that will remain very impor-tant to me,” Stallmann said, “is interdisci-plinary work involving other mediums — video, dance, light, movement.”

‘Breaking Earth’

Stallmann’s multidisciplinary work incor-porating performance, fi xed and interactive electronics, and visual elements has earned him the attention of a number of national organizations and foundations. Meet the Composer’s Commissioning Music/USA program commissioned his latest exhibi-tion, “Breaking Earth.” For that innovative work, Stallmann collaborated with fi lm-maker Alfred Guzzetti to create a palette of images, spaces and sounds.

The installation, which ran last spring at Houston’s DiverseWorks Art Space, featured fi ve screens of projected high-defi nition video and multiple channels of audio. At fi rst, sounds and images were recognizable items from the natural world, like woods, sea, wind, streams and stone. Elements then slowly shifted into one another and transformed into an abstracted landscape of consciousness.

“We set out to blur the lines of reality around the things we hear and see every day,” Stallmann said. “We really hope this work has the effect of motivating people to

become more aware of the world around them — experiencing the familiar, everyday world as something vivid and fresh — and consequently re-engaging and reconnect-ing them with their surroundings.”

“Breaking Earth” built on Stallmann’s history of pioneering works. He devotes his energy to the synthesis and connection of the many mediums available to composers today and creates works for acoustic group-ings, acoustic/electronics groupings with interactive elements, environmental sounds and purely synthetic sounds.

Passing It On

Another of Stallmann’s passions — perhaps his greatest — is teaching.

“I urge my students to look inside themselves to fi nd out what it is they want to contribute to the artistic landscape as it exists in the world today,” Stallmann said. “That requires a knowledge of what is out there to begin with and an understanding of how the past has led to the present.”

Stallmann hopes to be able to pass on to students his knowledge of that land-scape — the very landscape his work is signifi cantly impacting. He said that while connections and talent are important, they can take a person only so far.

“Hard work completes talent,” Stallmann said. “This is something that most people don’t understand. It takes a lot of courage and determination to commit oneself to very personal ideas.”

Stallmann’s ideas earned him the honor of presenting his piece “SONA — Sounds of Houston: Wind, Rain, Trains” as the closing work of the 2008 Society for Electroacoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS)

National Conference. The organization is devoted to music that involves electronic and digital generation of sound materials for performance. This year, he was also pre-sented with a SEAMUS President’s Award for his contributions to the organization.

The Shepherd School Infl uence

Given Stallmann’s incredible talent and cut-ting-edge vision, it’s likely that he will be remembered as a hero and mentor to many. He already is helping artists and musicians of the next generation leave their marks on the world.

“One thing we try to encourage at The Shepherd School is the development of the creative imagination and a sense of artistic responsibility — learning to commit one-self to seeing ideas through to completion,” Stallmann said. “Students have to become convinced that their ideas and the quality of their ideas are important. Without that con-viction, it is hard to invest the many hours of work necessary to bring those ideas into the world.”

Stallmann credited The Shepherd School and its administration for fostering an environment so conducive to artistic de-velopment and collaboration.

“Our students are wonderful and the en-vironment is very stimulating. Dean Robert Yekovich is an accomplished creative art-ist himself, so the support offered by the administration is outstanding,” Stallmann said. “Rarely have I seen a school where colleagues are more supportive of one an-other and where there is such a genuine sense of teamwork.”

—Jessica Stark

Shepherd School’s Stallmann Earns Prestigious Guggenheim FellowshipIf there is a way for a composer to write music for walking on cloud nine, Kurt Stallmann will probably fi nd it. And for good reason. Stallmann, the Lynette S. Autrey Assistant Professor of Composition and Theory at The Shepherd School of Music, recently was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, which placed him among an elite group of professionals who have demonstrated stellar achievement and exceptional promise for future accomplishment.


The Sound of Summer MusicSummertime is camp time at Rice, where summer pro-grams range from the academic and scientifi c to the athletic and recreational — and include one offering that fi lls the air with the sound of music.

The music camps were created by Rachel Buchman, a lecturer in music and head of The Shepherd School of Music’s Young Children’s Division. Buchman wanted to encourage children ages 2 through 9 to explore music through sing-ing, rhythm games, creative movement, improvisation, musical storytelling,

and the building and playing of percussion instruments.

Throughout the weeklong camps, the children develop their innate musicianship and understand music through joyful experi-ence. And the kids aren’t the only ones who benefi t. Current and former Shepherd School students who lead the weeklong camps often discover that the experience rekindles the spark that fi rst led them to music.

“I come from years of conservatory train-ing, so I know that the serious elements of music making can often get exaggerated,” said Juliette Javaheri ’05, who was among the camp’s seven teachers. “It is nice to be reminded of why we are all here in the fi rst place — to have some fun.”

Javaheri fi rst began working with The Shepherd School’s Young Children’s Division in 2006 when Buchman asked her to observe some classes.

“Rachel’s enthusiastic approach to music is contagious,” Javaheri said. “She is always reminding us that the kids are here in the summer to have fun. And boy, do they have a good time. I think you’d be hard-pressed to fi nd another group of kids getting so fi red up by a piece of classical music — sharing with one another their thoughts and feelings about a selected recording or live performance.”

Buchman has spent more than 25 years teaching music to young people, from toddlers to doctoral students in the U.S., Germany, England and Israel. Researching the connections between children and mu-sic, she found that singing encourages brain and language development and is one of the most essential educational activities a parent can do with a child.

While the summer programs build on her research interests, they also offer her a way to stay connected to the Houston com-munity and her students.

“The camps are open to everyone — not just Rice people — so they keep me plugged in to community needs,” Buchman said. “They’ve become a won-derful way for me to keep in touch with Shepherd School alumni and for them to come back to Rice to share their marvelous energy and creativity with the children of Houston.”

—Jessica Stark

For Tyler Barth ’08, studying in Asia was an opportunity for constant discovery, both in the classroom and beyond.

While dining out with one of his teachers in Japan, Barth offered to pay for their meals, but his teacher pointed to a sign written in Japanese. “It was an old phrase that meant the older give to the younger,” Barth said. “She said she would pay for me to do these things now, but later I would also have to give to the young. I realized that’s how scholarships work.”

With scholarship support, Barth was able to spend two summers and an academic semester abroad in Asia. After his freshman year, he participated in Rice’s NanoJapan program, and as a junior, he studied at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) and took part in a summer program at National Taiwan University. Recently he received the Wagoner Foreign Study Scholarship, which will allow him to return to HKUST to study computer science, a fi eld which he hopes to pursue in graduate school.

Looking back, Barth believes that studying abroad was a critical component of his Rice education. With fi nan-cial support, he was able not only to attend Rice, but also to extend his undergraduate education overseas.

Rice University • Offi ce of Development–MS 81 P.O. Box 1892 • Houston, TX 77251–1892

713-348-4600 • www.giving.rice.edu

A Scholarship Recipient’s

Journey Abroad

Arts

“I come from years of conservatory training, so I know that the serious elements of music making can often get exaggerated.It is nice to be reminded of why we are all here in the fi rst place — to have some fun.”

—Juliette Javaheri

“The camps are open to everyone — not just Rice people — so they keep me plugged in to community needs.”

—Rachel Buchman


Cannady’s new book, “The Things They’ve Done,” is in that same vein. It offers a brief history of the Rice School of Architecture (RSA) from 1912 to 2007 and profi les the heralded ca-reers of 68 alumni who attended Rice between 1964 and 1998.

Cannady began by making a list of the many students he had taught at Rice since early 1964. Senior faculty added more names to the list, and recommenda-tions from alumni yielded others.

“There were many students who

stood out as undergraduate and graduate students whom we knew had excelled in the professional realm,” Cannady said. “There are other alumni who should have been included, but either we didn’t have their contact information or they chose not to respond.”

The key to the selection process was based on identifying a diversity of occupations and locations around the world. The profi led alumni studied under seven administra-tions of the school starting in 1964, when Cannady started teaching at RSA, and pursued about 25 different career paths. They represent approximately 5 percent of RSA’s graduates.

Cannady asked each alum to write a short narrative on something memorable about their time at Rice. The

narratives express a connection to the campus, classmates, faculty and activities at Rice and, according to Cannady, are the most interesting part of the book.

“Themes started to develop among students who were in school during the same period of time,” Cannady said. “You can see that what you taught them has affected them and, in many cases, shaped their careers. That wasn’t a surprise to me but was a reassurance that the time faculty spend conceiving, developing and deliver-ing curriculum matters in the long run.”

For example, William Caudill, director of RSA from 1961 to 1969, had a pragmat-ic and team approach to design. Under his leadership, faculty members devised studio projects that explored planning and real estate development and exposed students to engineers, photographers and artists. Alumni in the “Caudill era” include three real estate developers, a commercial photographer, an urban designer and two public offi cials, in addition to practicing architects and designers.

Jack Mitchell, dean from 1978 to 1989,

and his faculty affected the paths of many RSA alumni who chose to go into

academia and hold faculty positions at architecture schools around the world. The 1997 Association

of Collegiate Schools of Architecture annual meeting of

105 schools included RSA alumni holding leadership positions on 11

different campuses.“This book demonstrates the

many careers that a Rice student can develop through the study of architec-ture,” Cannady said. “The traditional and not-so-traditional career paths.”

Along with architects and designers, RSA has turned out artists, photographers, teachers, deans, government offi cials, real estate developers, corporate executives, spacecraft designers, urban designers, authors and even an actor/producer.

—Jessica Stark

‘The Things They’ve Done’When Professor of Architecture William Cannady talks about his former students, it sounds like he’s talking about his own children. He recounts memories of them as “kids” while at Rice and tells stories of their school projects. But most of all, he speaks of their accomplishments.

stood out as undergraduate and graduate students whom we knew had excelled in the professional realm,” Cannady said. “There are other alumni who should have been included, but either we didn’t have their contact information or they chose

The key to the selection process was based on identifying a diversity of occupations and locations around the world. The profi led alumni studied under seven administra-tions of the school starting in 1964, when Cannady started teaching at RSA, and pursued about 25 different career paths. They represent approximately 5 percent of RSA’s

Cannady asked each alum to write a short narrative on something memorable about their time at Rice. The

and his faculty affected the paths of many RSA alumni who chose to go into

academia and hold faculty positions at architecture schools around the world. The 1997 Association

of Collegiate Schools of Architecture annual meeting of

105 schools included RSA alumni holding leadership positions on 11

different campuses.“This book demonstrates the

many careers that a Rice student can develop through the study of architec-ture,” Cannady said. “The traditional and not-so-traditional career paths.”

Along with architects and designers, RSA has turned out artists, photographers, teachers, deans, government offi cials, real estate developers, corporate executives, spacecraft designers, urban designers, authors and even an actor/producer.

“You can see that what you taught them has affected them and, in many cases, shaped their careers.”

— William Cannady

many cases, shaped their careers.”— William Cannady

many cases, shaped their careers.”


BookshelfO N T H E

Like most religious studies scholars, April DeConick, the Isla Carroll and Percy Turner Professor of Religious Studies at Rice, was instantly intrigued. Not content to simply read the translation, she obtained a copy of the original to read for herself, and that’s when she began to have doubts about the accuracy of the National Geographic team’s work. Her doubts were serious enough that she undertook her own translation, which confi rmed for her that the National Geographic’s version was in error and led her to write her own book on the subject, “The Thirteenth Apostle: What the Gospel of Judas Really Says” (Continuum, 2007).

DeConick said many scholars and writers have been inspired by the National Geographic version.

herself, and that’s when she began to have doubts about the accuracy of the National Geographic team’s work. Her doubts were serious enough that she undertook her own translation, which

and led her to write her own book on the subject, “The Thirteenth Apostle: What the Gospel of Judas Really Says”

DeConick said many scholars and

“It appears to have something to do with our collective guilt about anti-Semitism and our need to reform the relationship between Jews and Christians following World War II,” she said. “Judas is a frightening character. For Christians, he is the one who had it all and yet betrayed God to his death for a few dollars. For Jews, he is terrifying, the man whom Christians associated with the Jewish people, whose story was used against them for centuries.”

But DeConick contends that the Gospel of Judas is not about a “good” Judas or even a “poor old” Judas. It is a gospel parody about a “demon” Judas written by a group of Gnostic Judas written by a group of Gnostic Christians who lived in the second Christians who lived in the second century.century.

“Once I started translating the “Once I started translating the Gospel of Judas and began to see the Gospel of Judas and began to see the types of translation choices that the types of translation choices that the National Geographic team had made, I National Geographic team had made, I was startled and concerned,” DeConick was startled and concerned,” DeConick said. “The text very clearly called Judas said. “The text very clearly called Judas a ‘demon.’”a ‘demon.’”

DeConick’s book has ignited a DeConick’s book has ignited a fresh round of fi erce debate on the fresh round of fi erce debate on the subject, but that’s something she was subject, but that’s something she was prepared for.prepared for.

“The fi nding of this gospel has “The fi nding of this gospel has been called one of the most impor-been called one of the most impor-tant archaeological discoveries in tant archaeological discoveries in the past 60 years,” she said. “It’s the past 60 years,” she said. “It’s important that we get this right.”

—Christopher Dow

Translation and the Word

If you thought that Judas’ betrayal of Jesus was fi rmly established long ago, last year’s National Geographic trans-lation of the Coptic Gospel of Judas might have given you pause. The trans-lation caused a sensation because it portrayed Judas not as a villain but as a friend of Jesus who acted on Jesus’ request to betray him.

“Judas is a frightening character. For Christians, he is the one who had it all and yet betrayed God to his death for a few dollars. For Jews, he is terrifying, the man whom Christians associated with the Jewish people, whose story was used against them for centuries. ”

—April DeConick

“Literature-Based Activities for Integrating Mathematics with Other Content Areas,”by Robin A. Ward, clinical assistant professor for the Rice University School Mathematics Project

(Allyn & Bacon, 2008)

“Breaking Free: How to Work at Home with the Perfect Small Business Opportunity,” by Brian Armstrong ’05 (Lulu, 2007)

“Border Ransom,”by Pat Carr ’54 (TCU Press, 2006)

“Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion,”by Jeffrey J. Kripal, J. Newton Rayzor Professor in Religious Studies (University of Chicago Press, 2007)

“Science Without Laws: Model Systems, Cases, Exemplary Narratives,” edited by Angela N. H. Creager ’85,Elizabeth Lunbeck and M. Norton Wise (Duke University Press, 2007)


Omaha 2008

WORDS AND PHOTO BY TOMMY LAVERGNE

If you love Rice baseball as much as I do, it doesn’t get much better than going to Omaha for the College World Series. No matter what the outcome, you know the team worked hard to get this far, and this year was no exception. With the program’s seventh trip to the CWS since 1997, and third consecutive trip, the Owls registered another sensational season.

Rice won at least 42 games for the 14th-straight year on the way to another Conference USA regular-season championship, and the team members garnered a number of individual awards for their performance on the fi eld and in the classroom. Rice had a sky-high rating power index from the NCAA, which allowed the team to showcase the renovated Reckling Park to record crowds for the Regional and Super Regional rounds of the NCAA Tournament. And for the 2009 season, Head Coach Wayne Graham and his staff will return a host of tal-ented young players and are bringing in one of the top recruiting classes in the nation.

There’s a sad part to the term “next sea-son,” because a lot of these fi ne young men will move on. Some have graduated, and some might live out their dreams by taking a chance in the pro ranks. But no matter where they go or what they do, the character of these ball-players will never cease to amaze me.

For complete coverage of the 2008 College World Series, including a photo gallery, visit:

››› tinyurl.com/ 5ahlza

Sports


Omaha 2008


The nation’s premier tribute to college seniors, the CLASS Award The nation’s premier tribute to college seniors, the CLASS Award identifi es personal qualities that defi ne a complete student–athlete, identifi es personal qualities that defi ne a complete student–athlete, such as good character and excellence in the classroom, in the such as good character and excellence in the classroom, in the community and on the fi eld.community and on the fi eld.

“I am honored to receive this prestigious award with such a “I am honored to receive this prestigious award with such a rich history,” St. Clair said. “I know that a lot of effort was expended rich history,” St. Clair said. “I know that a lot of effort was expended

in the voting process by the dedicated Rice fans and my friends and in the voting process by the dedicated Rice fans and my friends and family, and I truly appreciate their efforts.”family, and I truly appreciate their efforts.”

Since moving to the bullpen full time in March, St. Clair became Since moving to the bullpen full time in March, St. Clair became one of the nation’s most dominating closers, posting a Conference USA-one of the nation’s most dominating closers, posting a Conference USA-leading 10 wins with a 2.09 earned run average in 21 relief appearances. leading 10 wins with a 2.09 earned run average in 21 relief appearances. During that span, he held opposing hitters to a .204 batting average. His During that span, he held opposing hitters to a .204 batting average. His strong performance down the stretch played a big role in Rice winning strong performance down the stretch played a big role in Rice winning its Super Regional and earning its third consecutive trip to Omaha for the its Super Regional and earning its third consecutive trip to Omaha for the prestigious CWS.

St. Clair, an economics major at Rice with a 3.22 GPA, received his St. Clair, an economics major at Rice with a 3.22 GPA, received his bachelor’s degree May 10. His classroom achievements include becoming bachelor’s degree May 10. His classroom achievements include becoming a three-time Conference USA Commissioner’s Honor Roll member. He was a three-time Conference USA Commissioner’s Honor Roll member. He was also named the recipient of the 2008 Bob Quin Award, given to the senior also named the recipient of the 2008 Bob Quin Award, given to the senior Rice student–athlete who best exemplifi es leadership and academic and ath-Rice student–athlete who best exemplifi es leadership and academic and ath-letic excellence.

In the community, St. Clair has raised money for a local Houston neighbor-In the community, St. Clair has raised money for a local Houston neighbor-hood center to sponsor a family for Christmas. He also assisted with the base-hood center to sponsor a family for Christmas. He also assisted with the base-ball team’s clothing drive for the Star of Hope Foundation in Houston. While in ball team’s clothing drive for the Star of Hope Foundation in Houston. While in Omaha, he visited with and gave advice to several young men from the Omaha Omaha, he visited with and gave advice to several young men from the Omaha School for Boys, a residential group home for at-risk school-age boys. School for Boys, a residential group home for at-risk school-age boys.

A Class ActA Class ActA Class ActAwardedRice’s Cole St. Clair earns top honors for all-around excellence

More information about St. Clair, Rice baseball More information about St. Clair, Rice baseball and other Owls athletic teams can be found at:and other Owls athletic teams can be found at:››› www.riceowls.com

Rice University pitcher Cole St. Clair ’08, who returned for his senior year after being drafted by Major League Baseball and helped lead the Owls into this year’s College World Series (CWS), has been selected as the

winner of the 2008 Lowe’s Senior Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School (CLASS) Award in the baseball division. The award,

chosen by a nationwide vote of coaches, media and fans, is presented annually to college baseball’s outstanding NCAA Division I senior

student–athlete.

“I am honored to receive this prestigious award with such a rich history. I know that a lot of effort was expended in the voting process by the dedicated Rice fans and my friends and family, and I truly appreciate their efforts.”

—Cole St. Clair

As a professor with more than 30 years of teaching experience at the University of Central Arkansas, Clint Johnson ’64 knows the value and importance of undergraduate research. In memory of his aunt, Elizabeth Johnson Duncan, who made his graduate education possible, and in honor of the Rice professors who infl uenced his career as an educator, Johnson has created the Elizabeth Johnson Duncan Endowed Fund for Undergraduate Research through a charita-ble remainder unitrust. To read more about Johnson’s gift to the university and the experiences that inspired it, please visit www.giving.rice.edu/giftplanning.

To learn more about this fund or about making charitable gifts to Rice through your estate, please contact the Offi ce of Gift Planning for gift illustrations and calculations tailored to your situation.

Phone: 713-348-4624 • E-mail: [email protected] • Web site: www.giving.rice.edu/giftplanning

“Our great experiences at Rice were burned in our memories, and I know the same thing

is going on now. That’s what I want to

help facilitate.”—Clint Johnson

Honoring the Past, Creating Opportunity in the Present

Nonprofit OrganizationU.S. Postage

PAIDPermit #7549

Houston, Texas

Creative Services–MS 95P.O. Box 1892Houston, TX 77251-1892

Rice University President David W. Leebron and University Representative Y. Ping Sun stand in front of National Stadium after attending the opening ceremo-nies for the Beijing Olympics. They were in Beijing as special guests of the Chinese Minister of Education, who issued only 12 such invitations worldwide, and just two in the United States.

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