Richard Smalley

Chemist, buckyball discoverer,

statesman for nanotechnology

Bill Barnett’s quiet diplomacy

The Rice Historical Society
Meet Conference USA
The little art department that could
Inside RICE SALLYPORT • The magazine of rice university • FALL 2005

2 President’s Message • 3 Return Addressed

D e p a r t m e n t s 3 Through the Sallyport • 14 Students • 34 Arts
42 On the Bookshelf • 44 Who’s Who • 50 Scoreboard

9 Bioethics may be a
relatively new field, 6 Isa radio
it the message in
commercial
but its practitioners that influences a
are applying it to the listener’s perception of
age-old problems of a product, or is it the
end-of-life care. music?

12 When the National

Commission on the
Voting Rights Act held a
hearing in Montgomery,
Alabama, last spring,
seated among the seven
4 Need information on
state supreme court
commission members
was Rice’s Chandler
cases? Turn to Rice
Davidson.
University’s State
Supreme Court Data
Project.

5 Does capitalism in the form of multinational

corporations live up to the promise of
improving conditions for the world’s poor?

3 Criticism and blame

surrounding corporate
14 An award-winning
student-designed
scandals in recent device to counter
years don’t stop at the muscle atrophy and 10 Research on the pros and
cons of needle exchange
bone loss during
8 AoutRice researcher rules boardroom door. programs finds that many
one of the most long-term spaceflights
of the arguments against
prominent theories may help osteoporosis
such efforts run counter
explaining increased sufferers as well.
to fact.
risks for heart attacks for
some Americans.

C o v e r P h o t o g r a p h b y To m m y L a V e r g n e
 18 It’s All About the People
Bill Barnett may have stepped down as chair of the Rice Board of Trustees, but
his style of quiet diplomacy will continue to impact Rice for decades to come.
By Melissa Kean

24 Richard Smalley
Rick Smalley, Rice chemist and co-discoverer of the buckyball, who died in
F e a t u r e s October, has been called the grandfather of nanotechnology. Certainly he
was one of its greatest advocates. His energy and formidable presence will be
missed, but his legacy will live on, not only in discoveries yet to be made but
in ways of thinking about how science and technology can be used to improve
lives worldwide.
By Jade Boyd

30 Alma Mater and the Auld Lang Syne

What can be done to prevent the Sallyport from becoming another Rashomon
Gate? The Rice Historical Society is working on just that.
By Christopher Dow

18 24

30
 W
hy is it that universities are referred to as “ivory towers”? The historical origins Rice Sallyport

of the term are traced back to several verses in the Bible. It is most often used to Fall 2005, Vol. 62, No. 1

suggest that academic institutions are separated from the world and the cares of Published by the Division
of Public Affairs
daily life and ordinary people. Indeed, one definition of the word “academic” refers to activity Terry Shepard, vice president
or knowledge that is not practical or useful. Universities must remain committed to “curios-
Editor
ity-driven” and basic research, and researchers must be willing to question commonly held Christopher Dow
assumptions. However, we should not take from that commitment an understanding that such
Creative Director
research does not—in either the long or short run—contribute importantly to the understand- Jeff Cox
ing and solution of pressing problems that concern us all. Art Director
A great deal of work at Rice helps us move from unproven assumption to substantiated Chuck Thurmon

knowledge. Examples in this issue of Sallyport include a study by statistician Rudy Guerra Editorial Staff
David D. Medina ’83, senior editor
and colleagues that rules out one of the most prominent theories for why elevated levels of a Dana Benson, associate editor
particular fat-carrying protein lead to increased risks for heart attacks among whites but not Sarah Williams, assistant editor
Christie Wise, production coordinator
among African Americans. New findings by Rice psychologist
Geoffrey Potts demonstrate that alcohol-dependent patients Design Staff
Tommy LaVergne, photographer
initially may be incapable of certain cognitive skills required Jeff Fitlow, assistant photographer
by traditional therapy, possibly clearing the way to more The Rice University Board
effective treatments. Jones School professor Doug Schuler, of Trustees
James W. Crownover, chair; J.D. Bucky
using empirical evidence, examines whether investments by Allshouse; D. Kent Anderson; Teveia
Rose Barnes; Alfredo Brener; Vicki
multinational corporations have improved conditions for the Bretthauer; Robert T. Brockman; Albert
world’s poor. And Andrew Lustig, director of Rice’s Program Y. Chao; Edward A. Dominguez; Bruce
W. Dunlevie; James A. Elkins III; Lynn
on Biotechnology, Religion, and Ethics, offers a careful analysis Laverty Elsenhans; Douglas Lee Foshee;
of the key ethical issues surrounding end-of-life care. Karen O. George; Susanne Glasscock;
“Rick epitomized Carl E. Isgren; K. Terry Koonce; Michael
our commitment to The true pursuit of knowledge, even for its own sake, is R. Lynch; Steven L. Miller; M. Kenneth
Oshman; Marc Shapiro; William N. Sick;
discovering new ineluctably a commitment to the betterment of our world. L. E. Simmons
things about our This commitment is reflected at Rice not only in our research
Administrative Officers
and teaching, but in our responses to the needs that arise in David W. Leebron, president; Kathy
world and turning Collins, vice president for finance;
the world around us. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Eric J o h n s o n , v i c e p re s i d e n t f o r
that knowledge to the
our university reached out and accepted as visiting students, Resource Development; Eugene Levy,
improvement of our provost; Terry Shepard, vice president
without any payment to Rice, 120 Tulane enrollees displaced for Public Affairs; Scott W. Wise, vice
lives. I know of no one president for Investments and treasurer;
by Katrina. And as shelters in Houston filled, students, faculty,
Ann Wright, vice president for Enrollment;
who brought more staff, and alumni alike mobilized to help people who had lost Richard A. Zansitis, general counsel.
energy and vision to everything, donating time, goods and money to help cover All submissions to Sallyport are subject
that mission.” the evacuee’s needs. Volunteer efforts ranged from housing to editing for length, clarity, accuracy,
appropriateness, and fairness to third
—David W. Leebron and dining employees cooking 500 pounds of meat a day parties.
for evacuees, to Rice EMS students working double shifts Sallyport is published by the Division of
providing care, to members of the Rice custodial staff organizing to clean restrooms at the Public Affairs of Rice University and is sent
to university alumni, faculty, staff, graduate
Astrodome. Having responded to some of the immediate needs created by the hurricane, Rice students, parents of undergraduates, and
researchers already have turned their attention to improving our understanding of the natural friends of the university.

phenomena behind such disasters and to studying the problems faced by the evacuees. It is Editorial Offices
this fundamental ethic of making a contribution to others that ought to drive our teaching, Office of Publications–MS 95
P.O. Box 1892
research, and service missions. Houston, Texas 77251-1892
This was certainly true of Rick Smalley, our renowned Nobel Laureate who passed away just Fax: 713-348-6751
Email: sallyport@rice.edu
before this issue went to press. This is an immense loss not only to the Rice community, but to
the world scientific community. Rick epitomized our commitment to discovering new things Postmaster
Send address changes to:
about our world and turning that knowledge to the improvement of our lives. I know of no Rice University
one who brought more energy and vision to that mission. We cannot replace Rick, but what Development Services–MS 80
P.O. Box 1892
he built at Rice in nanotechnology will endure as his monument and will yet produce many of Houston, TX 77251-1892
the great things he imagined. © 2 005 Rice Unive rsit y

2 Rice Sallyport
 [ t h rou g h t h e sallyport ]

[ R eturn addressed ]

Letters

Of particular interest in the spring 2005 issue of Sal-

lyport was the article “Planting the Seeds of Art.” We
were dismayed to find no mention of Herbert Rather
Jr. ’52 in the article, despite the fact that his credentials
in both architecture and art are at least as good—and
more likely substantially more impressive—than those
of anyone listed in this piece.
He is too modest to note this omission, but his family
is proud of his accomplishments. He had a noteworthy
Making Room for Ethics in
career as an architect for 45 years, directing and docu-
menting large projects all over the United States as well Business Schools
as overseas. At the same time, he pursued his second Criticism and blame surrounding corporate scandals in recent years didn’t stop at
career as a watercolor artist. He has had his work pub-
lished in a number of national art magazines and books. the boardroom door. Business schools also have been faulted for not deterring and
Additionally, his paintings have been accepted for ex- for possibly encouraging executive misconduct. In fact, several surveys suggest
hibition in many prestigious juried shows. He has long that, historically, no more than roughly one-third of business schools made ethics
been honored as a signature member of both premier
or related subjects a course requirement.
national watercolor organizations: the American Water-
color Society and the National Watercolor Society. He
also is one of only 59 artists who are currently Dolphin That is something that Duane Wind- integrating business ethics, business
Fellows in the American Watercolor Society. sor, an expert in business ethics law, and areas such as stakeholder
We hope that this missive is received with the same at Rice’s Jesse H. Jones Graduate management and corporate social re-
respectful spirit with which we send it. Our intent is to School of Management, would like sponsibility throughout the remainder
convey information. We feel that his accomplishments
to see change. Windsor argues that, of a business or management student’s
deserve more recognition.
until ethics is accorded at least equal education.
The Family of Herbert Rather Jr.
Copperas Cove, Texas curriculum importance with other “If we expect our future business
subjects like accounting, finance, and leaders to be value-setters, our business
economics, the current concern over schools should profess and promote
As a Rice grad (MA 1975 in geology) and avid reader of business ethics won’t last—until the moral leadership over and above legal
Sallyport and supporter of Rice University (I am a Rice
Associate and I endow a scholarship as well as other ac-
“If we expect our future business leaders to be
tivities), I object to the political editorial style comment
in the article from Amy Myers Jaffe [“Nano Deemed value-setters, our business schools should profess
Best Long-Term Energy Alternative,” summer 2005] and promote moral leadership over and above legal
that the 2003 energy bill was a giveaway to special inter-
compliance or minimum adherence to corporate
ests. I worked very hard as an architect and contributor
on this energy legislation (I testified before the House codes of conduct.” —Duane Windsor
and Senate committees writing it), and Ms. Jaffe’s com-
ments are biased, misleading, and insulting. I am not a
politician but a scientist and executive; Ms. Jaffe speaks next major scandal. In the Journal of compliance or minimum adherence
from her background as a political scientist. Had it been Business Ethics Education, Windsor to corporate codes of conduct,”
marked as an editorial, it would be fine, but to put it in advocates that business schools require Windsor says. “Students should be
context with nanotechnology and other scientific ideas
a foundation course addressing the provided the groundwork by ethic
leads one to believe she is reflecting a scientific position
moral, legal, and political education specialists to help them understand
instead of a highly political one. I would suggest you
put her biased political comments on the editorial page
of future business managers, taught by this increasingly complex subject area.
so there is no confusion in the future. specialists and offered at the start of a Otherwise, simply infusing ethics into
Michael L. Johnson
school’s core curriculum—whether at other coursework becomes highly
Houston, Texas the undergraduate or graduate degree superficial.”
level. He also proposes systematically

Fall ’05 3
 [ t h rou g h t h e sallyport ]

http://www.rice.edu/statecourt

Analyzing State Supreme Court Cases

For political scientists and other scholars hungering for information on impact on the kinds of decisions help them look at the informa-
state supreme court decisions, Rice University’s State Supreme Court they make,” Brace says. Using tion they needed to enter in the
the State Supreme Court Data database. The data entered by
Data Project is a free all-you-can-eat buffet.
Project, scholars can study the coders on the software template
effects of judicial elections on went straight into a spreadsheet,
The project boasts an online details. State courts decide more judicial behavior by compar- which avoided errors that might
analysis of every state supreme than 99 percent of the litigation ing the dockets of appointed have resulted from copying data
court case heard from 1995 in the United States, interpret- versus elected supreme courts, manually from paper.
through 1998 in all 50 states. ing not only state laws but also how the composition of a court Biographical information on
Each of the more than 30,000 federal laws. reflects a state’s liberal or con- more than 400 state supreme
cases in the database has been “With increasing state dis- servative tendencies, and how court judges is contained in
coded to facilitate an extensive cretion over matters of public public opinion affects judicial the database, and although the
variety of searches, such as bio- policy, the power of state courts decisions. database ends with court cases
graphical information about a should be increasing, making Brace and Hall trained and from 1998, Brace is hopeful
judge, the judge’s vote in a case, that private funding will support
the outcome of a case, legal is- extension of the project on an
sues raised, and characteristics ongoing basis. “This would al-
of litigants. “We want this to be a permanent data archive that can serve as infrastructure low longitudinal studies of how
“The states have an awesome for addressing fundamental questions about law and politics.” state supreme courts change
responsibility for resolving the —Paul Brace over time,” he says.
vast majority of the nation’s “We want this to be a perma-
legal disputes,” says Paul Brace, nent data archive that can serve
studies of these institutions employed undergraduate and
the Clarence L. Carter Profes- as infrastructure for addressing
particularly timely,” Brace says. graduate students at Rice and
sor of Political Science at Rice fundamental questions about law
“Without understanding the Michigan State to code more
and principal investigator for and politics,” Brace adds. “These
nature of these institutions and than 200 details for each case.
the project. “Unfortunately, data will be of interest not only
the states, we are left with a very Additional NSF support was
our knowledge of state courts, to academicians but also to gov-
incomplete understanding of obtained to fund undergraduate
including courts of last resort, is ernment officials, practicing at-
American politics.” and graduate research related to
quite limited.” torneys, and concerned citizens
Unlike the unique U.S. Su- the project. One of the biggest
With nearly $1 million in interested in the activities of the
preme Court, whose justices challenges during the project’s
grants from the National Sci- states’ highest courts.”
are appointed for life and don’t early phase was how to develop
ence Foundation (NSF), Brace To view the State Supreme
have to worry about decisions a template that systematized
and co-principal investigator Court Data Project, go to
being reversed, Brace notes that the collection of data to reduce
Melinda Gann Hall at Michigan http://www.ruf.rice.edu/
most state supreme court judges mistakes. “Intercoder reliability
State University spent the past ~pbrace/statecourt/index.
are elected and linked directly was incredibly high,” Brace ex-
six years collecting and coding html.
with voters and public opinion. plains, noting that the software
data on state supreme courts to —B. J. Almond
“Whether or not judges are included hint buttons to guide
meet the need for such pivotal
elected [vs. appointed] has an coders through the cases and

4 Rice Sallyport
 [ t h rou g h t h e sallyport ]

aspect of global capitalism

Examining the Pros and Cons of Global Capitalism that’s creating new places of
knowledge and new bases of
products, thereby improving
Most developmental economists believe that condi- investment tends to exploit the situation not only of workers
the underdeveloped world,” but of others as well.” However,
tions of the world’s poor have improved in the past
explains Schuler. Schuler adds, knowledge com-
few decades as a result of modern global capitalism. petition does not achieve the
On the other hand, the lib-
Still, while the world’s wealthy nations have become eral, more currently accepted egalitarian structure advocated
richer, more than 1 billion people continue to live in position is that capitalism has by socialist theorists because
extreme poverty. Perhaps, as Rice’s Doug Schuler and raised the standard of living for the nature of such industries
other university researchers suggest, the contentions many of the world’s poor. favors educated workers over
the uneducated.
by socialist economists regarding capitalism’s role in To assess whether the
promises of capitalism have Schuler and his co-authors
inequality and poverty may be truer than liberal econo- also reviewed the current role
been realized or have failed,
mists care to admit. of nongovernmental organiza-
Schuler and his colleagues
examined five phenomena tions in response to claims
“To some extent, multinational by even developmentalists
involving international busi-
corporations have benefited that a competitive global mar-
ness: strategic alliances and
people in developing coun- ket will cause multinational
joint ventures, nongovern-
tries,” Schuler says, “but in corporations to locate their
mental organizations and
other instances, international production facilities in coun-
anti-sweatshop campaigns,
capitalism has failed to make tries with the lowest wages
terrorism, poverty, and knowl-
much of a dent in reducing and least expensive working
edge competition.
world poverty.” conditions.
They conclude that multina-
As part of a conference on “Multinational corporations
tional corporations generally
multinational corporations generally provide better wages
have improved the lot of poor
and global poverty reduc- and working conditions than
people, but they also concur local companies in develop-
tion, Schuler, an associate with some of the predictions
professor at the Jesse H. ing countries,” Schuler says,
made by socialist economists “but NGOs have not been
Jones Graduate School of that free trade and capitalism
Management, co-authored particularly effective in in-
can be destructive to develop- fluencing companies’ social
a study titled “Multinational ing countries.
Corporations Through the practices.”
“Multinational corporations He cites the fact that fewer
Uneven Development Lens” that bring sophisticated prod-
with Stefanie Lenway of the companies have complied
ucts and efficient production meaningfully to improving their
Carson School of Manage-
to developing countries may labor or environmental condi-
ment at the University of
not displace thousands of local tions in developing countries
Minnesota and Lorraine Eden
workers as uneven develop- and that many environmental
of the Mays Business School
mentalists predicted,” Schuler groups rely on the very corpo-
at Texas A&M University.
says, but those activities rations they monitor for their
Their paper examines recent
haven’t necessarily reduced own funding.
trends in international busi-
the number of poor people in In looking at the overall
ness from the perspective
those countries either. record of global capitalism,
of Marxist–Leninist ideology.
Industries requiring highly Schuler concludes that the
While many theories of
“uneven development” skilled labor seem to improve liberal economists’ perspec-
have been debunked, a country’s economy by way tive may be too rosy.
Schuler and his col- of “knowledge competition” “To buy into the argument
leagues found that or “learning by doing.” In es- that open trade and private
some of these older, sence, local skilled workers global enterprise ensures eco-
D largely discredited argu- and managers hired for high- nomic development,” Schuler
ou
gS
ch uler ments regarding capital- tech industries tend to learn says, “is just as simplistic as
ism should not be completely so much about the product believing that controlling a
discounted. they manufacture that they nation’s economy will benefit
“The basis of uneven devel- eventually create the next that country’s people.”
opment is that international generation of products.
exchange is inherently unequal “Although knowledge com-
and that international capital- petition largely has been limited
ism through foreign trade and to specific Asian countries,”
explains Schuler, “it’s still an

Fall ’05 5
 [ t h rou g h t h e sallyport ]

Music Has the Charm to Influence Perception favorable or unfavorable impres- a moderately stimulating and
sions,” Zhu says. “On the other novel style.
Is it the message in a radio commercial or the music that hand, that same music can elicit For example, an ad for a travel
influences a listener’s perception of a product? According to feelings or thoughts consumers agency should use sedate rather
Rui Zhu, it depends on the target audience, the format of the associate with specific events or than energetic background mu-
experiences, such as childhood, sic when touting dependable,
message, and how the music is performed.
or concepts and emotions, like hassle-free service with a verbal
frivolity, calm, and fear.” Consum- message that is simple and di-
There are circumstances, for sion of the originality of a store ers’ sensitivity to either of these rect. If the ad’s verbal message
example, when the style of a or product.“Even if the young aspects of meaning imparted is delivered in a drama format
radio ad’s verbal message has listeners focus most of their by background music depends with more than one person
little impact on the impression energy on the verbal message on the complexity of the conveying the information,
created by the background of a radio ad and simply react to verbal message. listeners will perceive
music. A radio ad promoting a the sound of the music rather Radio ads that the service to be better
store’s unique, original décor is than its referential meaning,” convey information when the background
more likely to leave a favorable Zhu explains, “the moderately in an easy-to-follow music is energetic
impression on young listeners stimulating, relatively novel style lecture format are versus sedate.
if the background music is rela- of the music would still have left less demanding for In their study, Zhu
tively novel and soulful than if a favorable impression.” consumers to process. i Zh
u
and her colleague also
Ru
it is performed in a more clas- In a study published in the Marketing theorists claim point to the importance
sical version. The format of the August issue of the Journal that, under those conditions, of identifying consumers who
verbal message—regardless of of Marketing Research, Zhu, the background music is likely are most likely to pay attention
whether it’s easy or more men- assistant professor of market- to trigger associations for con- to details of the ad. One way
tally demanding to follow—will ing at Jesse H. Jones Graduate sumers—what they call music’s is by comparing their product
have little impact on the impres- School of Management, and referential meaning—which then category to the target audience.
sion created by the music in Joan Meyers-Levy, professor are attributed to the product. Those with very little motivation
this circumstance. of marketing at the University However, if the information is to process information about a
Zhu and her research colleague of Minnesota’s Carlson School presented in a drama format, product tend to pay more at-
explain that young listeners of Management, examined the listener has to pay closer tention to peripheral aspects
will associate a classical ver- the relationships between the attention to the verbal portion of radio ads.
sion of background music with content and style of a radio of the ad. In that situation, “In that case,” Zhu says, “the
concerned, benevolent pater- ad’s verbal message, the back- consumers are more likely to listener is not all focused on the
nalism, while a contemporary ground music, and the target process the less complex em- substance of the ad.”
style references their desire to audience. bodied meaning of background
—Pam Sheridan
be unique. Those feelings may “Simply the sound of a par- music and have a favorable
be transformed into an impres- ticular piece of music can evoke impression if it is performed in

6 Rice Sallyport
 [ t h rou g h t h e sallyport ]

A One-Stop Shop for Middle East Research

Rice’s Connexions project, a collaborative,
community-driven approach to authoring,
teaching, and learning that is intended to
provide a free cohesive body of high-quality
educational content to anyone in the world.
A new digital archive at Rice’s Fondren Library has created Project staff and other experts will develop
educational modules in Connexions that draw
a virtual time machine for visiting the Middle East between on the TIMEA archive.
the 18th and early 20th centuries. Researchers interested in TIMEA’s educational potential is further
enhanced by research guides developed by
landmarks of Jerusalem can see historic black-and-white pho- Sanders and David Getman, a graduate stu-
tos of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Mosque of dent in history. Using a virtual research project
Umar. Scholars wanting to know more about the geography based on the book Oriental Cairo by Douglas
Sladen, the guide walks students through the
and culture of Cyprus can access an interactive map to study basic steps involved in conducting historical
everything from roads and rivers to topography and histori- research and introduces a variety of resources
available through Fondren Library, such as
cal sites. Historians researching Syria under the Ottoman rule WebCat and WorldCat.
can read explorer Gertrude Bell’s The Desert and the Sown, an As more books and other materials are
digitized, they will be added to TIMEA’s
account of her 1905 travel across the Syrian Desert. repertoire. Ultimately, TIMEA will have some-
thing of interest to a wide range of disciplines,
including anthropology, archaeology, geogra-
These and many more online learning oppor- of 19th-century travelers’ books on Egypt, phy, history, literature, religion, and women’s
tunities await visitors to Fondren’s Travelers in which includes many hard-to-find texts, images, studies. TIMEA’s timeliness is evident by the
the Middle East Archive (TIMEA). The project and artifacts. For example, she has all English increasing prominence of Middle Eastern stud-
provides easy access to narrative texts, maps, language editions of the Baedeker travel guides; ies at universities.
photos, drawings, study guides, and other few libraries own more than a single edition In addition to Sanders, Spiro, Garza, and
public domain resources related to travel in
the Middle East from 1700 to 1923.
Paula Sanders, associate professor of history
and a co-principal investigator for TIMEA, says
that between the 18th and 20th centuries, Eu-
ropeans and Americans conducted archaeologi-
cal expeditions, toured religious sites, explored
foreign cultures, and pursued geopolitical goals
in the Middle East. “A rich body of literature
and images documents these travels, providing
invaluable resources for scholars and students
in disciplines ranging from English literature
and women’s studies to classical, Middle
Eastern, and medieval archaeology, religion,
and history,” she says. “Unfortunately, these
materials are scattered in libraries and private
collections around the world, and conducting
Fondren Library’s Travelers in the Middle East Archive (TIMEA) offers access to resources related to that part of the
systematic research outside of major research world, including photographs, maps, text, and other materials. Leading the project are: front row, left to right, Lisa
libraries is laborious.” Spiro, Paula Sanders, Pamela Francis, a graduate student in English, and German Diaz, and back row, left to right,
The project was initiated when Lisa Spiro, Eva Garza, Geneva Henry, David Getman, and project coordinator Marie Wise.
director of Fondren Library’s Electronic Re-
sources Center and a co-principal investigator of this guide. Other analog materials that will Geneva Henry, executive director of the Digital
of TIMEA, noticed that Michael Decker, post- be digitized include books, photographs, and Library Initiative at Rice, the TIMEA project
doctoral fellow at Rice’s Center for the Study postcards. The first phase of the project, focus- staff includes Decker, now at the University
of Cultures, often came to the center to scan ing on Egypt and Cyprus, is expected to be of South Florida, and German Diaz, GIS sup-
travelers’ narratives that focused on the Middle completed by October 2006. port specialist for the GIS/Data Center and a
East. Spiro saw the potential for more people to Eva Garza, director of Fondren’s Geographic co-principal investigator of TIMEA. Members
benefit from Decker’s digitization. The project Information Systems (GIS)/Data Center, notes of Fondren’s Technical Services and Woodson
gained support through a $250,000 National that TIMEA uses GIS resources to build inter- Research Center staffs provide support for the
Leadership Grant for Libraries from the Institute active maps that show the topography, roads, project.
of Museum and Library Services and a $30,000 bodies of water, and many other features of a —B. J. Almond
grant from Rice’s Computer and Information particular location. GIS allows users to visualize
Technology Institute’s Enriching Rice through and analyze spatial information in a dynamic TIMEA can be found at www.timea.rice.edu.
Information Technology program. digital environment.
Some of the narratives accessible through To facilitate its use for teaching, learning,
TIMEA are from Sanders’s personal collection and research, TIMEA is teaming up with

Fall ’05 7
 [ t h rou g h t h e sallyport ]

Research@ Rice

Study Could Change Treatment of Alcoholism

New findings by Rice psychologists could presage a change in the Differences in Heart Attack
way therapists treat alcohol-dependent patients. They discovered
that, in some cases, traditional therapy requires certain cognitive
Risk Is Not Black-and-White
skills, such as abstract thinking, that alcohol-dependent patients
initially may be incapable of performing.

“Studies have shown that alcoholics have problems with executive

functions—those that have to do with such cognitive tasks as work-
ing memory, problem solving, and abstract thinking,” says Geoffrey An analysis of the historic support a relationship be-
Potts, a cognitive neuroscientist at Rice and principal author of Dallas Heart Study con- tween the protein’s size and
“Frontal Deficits in Alcoholism: An ERP Study,” published in Brain ducted by statisticians from related levels of atheroscle-
and Cognition. Rice University and medical rosis in any of the groups we
Potts, Rice postdoctoral fellow Mary “Reeni” George, and col- researchers from the Univer- studied.”
leagues at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences sity of Texas Southwestern The Dallas Heart Study
in Bangalore, India, have shown that alcohol-dependent patients seem Medical Center at Dallas is a groundbreaking multi-
to have brain malfunctions similar to those of patients who have has ruled out one of the ethnic investigation of car-
structural damage to the frontal lobe. “The responses we got from most prominent theories diovascular disease involving
subjects in our study,” Potts says, “indicate that alcohol-dependent for why elevated levels of a thousands of Dallas County
patients are more similar to people with frontal lesions than to patients fat-carrying protein called residents, and it contains the
with subcortical damage, both in their brain waves and in their task lipoprotein(a) lead to in- most representative sample
performance.” creased risks for heart at- of African American subjects
The frontal lobe is the most advanced tacks among whites but not of any other statistical data-
part of the brain and is credited with such among African Americans. set ever used to study Lp(a)
functions as attention, problem solving, The theory is based and coronary artery calcium
memory, judgment, impulse control, and on earlier lab studies that levels. In the Rice-led study,
regulating social behavior. Subcortical areas, showed lipoprotein(a), of- scientists looked at the re-
on the other hand, are involved in more ten referred to as Lp(a), cords of 1,288 subjects over
primitive functions, such as some aspects has a tendency to stick to the age of 40—380 black
of emotions, certain motor functions, and some of the tissues that line women and 241 white wom-
the regulation of thirst, hunger, and body blood-vessel walls. Some en over 45 and 381 black
temperature. researchers believe the adhe- men and 286 white men over
Geoffrey Potts
The researchers tested four groups of sive property causes a chain 40—whose coronary calcium
subjects using a modified version of the Petrides and Milner Number reaction in which, first, LDL levels had been determined
Sequencing task. All of the subjects were recruited from the National (“bad” cholesterol) and then via electron beam computer
Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences.The alcohol-dependent calcium build up on the in- tomography and whose
patients had an average drinking history of six years and were detoxified ner walls of blood vessels. Lp(a) levels were determined
before taking part in the study. The subjects with subcortical lesions Although African Americans via blood tests.
were stroke patients, and those with frontal lobe lesions were either typically have two to four The researchers say their
stroke patients or had recovered from tumor resections. The control times more Lp(a) in their analysis, which appeared in
group consisted of paid adult volunteers who had no prior history of blood than whites, the Lp(a) a recent issue of the journal
substance use or neurological disorders. proteins in whites tend to be Circulation, points to the
Through electroencephalograph recordings, the researchers shorter and stickier than that need for further research to
measured changes in the patients’ brain waves before and during the in African Americans. determine whether African
number sequencing test. The study found that the ability to recall a The researchers looked Americans have a genetic
sequence of numbers was much lower for frontal lesion patients and for a relationship between mechanism that protects
the alcohol-dependent group than for the subcortical lesion group or the increased levels of Lp(a) them from the risks of Lp(a).
control group. In addition, both the alcohol-dependent and frontal lobe and increases in coronary If such a mechanism is
patients had similar abnormal brainwave activity, while the subcortical calcium, a leading indicator found, doctors might be able
patients had brain activity more like the control participants. of coronary atherosclerosis, to use the information to
Such findings may be critically important for therapists who treat but found no independent develop therapies and drugs
alcohol-dependent patients, since traditional therapy requires skills relationship between plasma that reduce heart attack risks
that the patients initially may not have. “In dealing with patients who levels of Lp(a) and coronary for everyone.
have a known deficit,” Potts says, “you first have to identify where calcium in either whites or The research was sup-
they are having problems in case they need special help or training African Americans. “This ported by the Donald W.
to overcome those deficits. When designing treatment for alcohol- indicates that some other Reynolds Foundation and
dependent patients, for example, it would be important to know they mechanism is at work,” says the National Institutes of
may have working memory deficits as our study has shown.” Rudy Guerra, professor of Health.
statistics at Rice and the lead —Jade Boyd
—B. J. Almond
author of the paper. “We
also found no evidence to

8 Rice Sallyport
 [ t h rou g h t h e sallyport ]

Research@ Rice

Research@Rice is a monthly email newsletter featuring some

of the latest research going on in different disciplines at Rice.
To subscribe, go to the latest issue at
http://explore.rice.edu/explore/research.asp,
and click the “subscribe” link at the bottom of the page.
For a look at articles that have appeared in past issues, go to
http://explore.rice.edu/explore/research_archive.asp.

Ethical Challenges Posed By End-of-Life Care

the patient’s interests and a
patient-centered assessment
of the benefits and burdens of
either initiating or continuing
treatment,” Lustig says.
Patient autonomy, he
explains, is not the sole de-
The circumstances surrounding Terry Schaivo and and “quality of life” versus
terminant of what constitutes
“sanctity of life.”
six-month-old Knya Dismuke-Howard, both of whom At the heart of many of
appropriate medical treatment.
died after being removed from life support, have fu- these legal and ethical issues re-
“Healthcare professionals may
deny forms of care they deem
eled renewed debate over end-of-life care. garding a patient’s care, Lustig
harmful or futile,” he says.
says, are the concepts of patient
“As occurred in the case of
At stake are not just the indi- autonomy and the physician’s
of high-quality care as a person the Dismuke-Howard child,
vidual lives of patients and their right to deny certain forms
moves from a curative goal in who suffered from leukemia
families but, argues a Rice Uni- of care because they may be
intensive care to a palliative and multiple-organ failure,
versity religious studies scholar, harmful or futile.
goal.” a physician’s judgments can
fundamental questions about Ethicists, for example,
In a chapter for the Hand- sometimes run counter to the
what medicine means as a pro- generally draw a distinction
book of Bioethics titled “Death, wishes of the patient or surro-
fession and practice. between actively terminating
Dying, Euthanasia, and Pal- gate if the doctor believes the
“Medicine is historically and a patient’s life and passively
liative Care: Prospectives treatment is inappropriate or
professionally committed spe- allowing the individual to die
From Philosophy of Medicine ineffectual.”
cifically to extending life and based on the patient’s decision
and Ethics,” Lustig reviews Above all, as doctors and
curing patients,” says Andrew and what would be identified as
the advancements in clinical patients face troubling ques-
Lustig, director of Rice’s Pro- the cause of death. In the case
medicine, specifically end-of- tions about medical interven-
gram on Biotechnology, Reli- of a patient on a respirator who
life care, that have led to the tions at the end of life, the
gion, and Ethics. “But it’s still wants to die, most ethicists
emergence of bioethics. He quality of the relationship be-
difficult for practitioners and, would consider withdrawing
also offers an extensive analysis tween the doctor and patient
obviously, for patients to accept that support justifiable because
of the prevalent theories of bio- is critical. Despite efforts to
a terminal prognosis and shift it’s the patient’s decision, and it
ethicists regarding key ethical enhance communication be-
their set of commitments from would relieve the patient’s suf-
issues confronting patients and tween patients and healthcare
curing to caring.” fering. “Ethicists would con-
physicians in either critical care professionals, Lustig believes
Part of this difficulty, Lustig sider such an action as a clear
or hospice settings. a significant gap still exists
believes, stems from the tech- case of letting the patient die
Issues that are of vital between theories of doctor
nological advances that have rather than killing the patient,”
ethical concern, according to and patient relations and what
occurred in medicine and the Lustig says, “because the cause
Lustig, include distinctions really occurs. As an example,
need to re-examine a number of death is the underlying pa-
between withholding and he cites the 1995 SUPPORT
of fundamental philosophi- thology of the lungs.”
withdrawing life-sustaining Project, the first large-scale
cal issues, beginning with the In instances in which treat-
treatment, physician-assisted study of dying patients in the
scope and nature of medicine. ment is withheld or withdrawn,
suicide, what “dying naturally” United States. Researchers on
“Despite the dramatic improve- Lustig claims that the consen-
means in a hospice setting, the the project concluded that,
ments in clinical care and in sus among bioethicists is that
principle of “double effect” tra- even after extensive efforts, at-
current practices involving hos- either decision must involve
ditionally espoused by the Ro- tempts to improve the quality
pice care,” he says, “the medi- the consent of the patient or
man Catholic Church, distinc- of information shared among
cal profession is still a long way surrogate. “This decision also
tions between “ordinary” and patients, doctors, and nurses
from providing a continuum must take into consideration
“extraordinary” treatments, failed.

Fall ’05 9
 [ t h rou g h t h e sallyport ]

Martin Researches Benefits of million for the NEP resulted in a

savings of between $1.3 billion
the police, or other readily avail-
able sources. In 1997, Congress
Needle Exchange and $4.1 billion.
The contrast between Austra-
enacted Public Law 105-78,
which prohibits federal funding
Many opponents of needle-exchange programs argue that supplying lia and the United States, Martin of any program that distributes
notes, is “particularly striking,” sterile needles for the injection
drug users with clean needles sends the wrong message. But a as evidenced by a presentation of illegal drugs.
researcher at Rice’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy that physician Alex Wodak made Consequently, only 120 NEPs
advises that they should be concerned about the message they during a 2002 Baker Institute currently operate in the United
conference on “Moving Beyond States, with funding from state
actually are sending through their opposition.
the War on Drugs.” Wodak, who or city governments, private
helped persuade the Australian foundations, and/or individuals.
Despite the over whelming 50 and 80 percent of IDUs government to support NEPs, Martin notes in his research
evidence that needle-exchange contract hepatitis C—the most reported that, in 2000, the rate paper that Houston—the fourth
programs (NEPs) can help dangerous strain—within their of 14.7 new AIDS cases for largest city in the nation—has
reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS first year of needle use. every 100,000 Americans was nearly 20,000 known cases of
and hepatitis, many legislators Martin also translates the dramatically higher than the rate AIDS but no NEP. Dallas, on the
refuse to support such efforts problem into dollars. A 2005 of 1.1 new AIDS case for every other hand, has a program run by
and instead write off death and report from the Centers for 100,000 Australians. four volunteers who reportedly
illness as “just deserts” for Disease Control and Preven- During the 1990s, a small distribute 250,000 needles a
illegal behavior, says William tion (CDC) estimates that the number of U.S. cities experi- year from a pickup truck. “Lim-
Martin, senior fellow in religion lifetime treatment cost for a mented with NEPs. The most ited as it is,” Martin says, “this
and public policy at the James person with HIV is $155,000. carefully studied program was effort surely plays some role in
A. Baker III Institute for Public With 40,000 people being in New Haven, Connecticut, an AIDS rate 57 percent lower
Policy. than that of Houston’s.”
In a research paper posted Although NEPS consistently
on the Baker Institute website, “No responsible person wants to are rejected by politicians and
Martin paraphrases the mes- encourage drug abuse. No fis- platforms of both major political
sage these opponents really cally prudent person wants to waste parties, Martin says some law-
are conveying to injecting drug money simply to satisfy a sense of makers are starting to consider
users (IDUs): “We know a way righteous indignation. No compas- changes in policy as they learn
to dramatically cut your chances sionate person wants to consign more about studies confirming
of contracting a deadly disease, that NEPs can save lives and
people unnecessarily to death or a
then spreading it to others, money without increasing drug
living hell.”
including your unborn children. It —William Martin abuse. Last year, for example,
also would dramatically cut the California became another state
that allows pharmacy sales of
amount of money society is go- infected with HIV each year, where researchers estimated
up to 10 sterile syringes without
ing to have to spend on you and lifetime treatment for those that the HIV and hepatitis B
a prescription, and the Texas
those you infect. But because infected in just the past five transmission rates dropped by
legislature currently is consid-
we believe what you are doing years is projected to cost $31 about one-third during the first
ering a bill that will permit the
is illegal, immoral, and sinful, billion. “The CDC estimates that two years of the program.
operation of NEPs.
we are not going to do what only 1,300 cases would need Government-funded studies
“No responsible person
we know works. You are social to be averted annually to make of NEPs and reports from such
wants to encourage drug
lepers, and as upright, moral, a full-scale program of syringe respectable organizations as
abuse,” Martin says. “No fiscally
sincerely religious people, we exchange and disposal for IDUs the National Academy of Sci-
prudent person wants to waste
prefer that you and others in economically effective,” Martin ence, the American Medical
money simply to satisfy a sense
your social orbit die.” notes. Association, the National Insti-
of righteous indignation. No
Martin cites a number of Other countries, particularly tutes of Health, and the CDC,
compassionate person wants
alarming statistics to show the the Netherlands and Australia, Martin says, have endorsed
to consign people unneces-
size of the drug problem. The have demonstrated that sup- access to clean needles as an
sarily to death or a living hell.
number of IDUs is estimated plying drug addicts with clean effective measure for reducing
Fortunately, providing IDUs with
to be between 1 million and needles in exchange for their the incidence of blood-borne
access to sterile syringes allows
1.25 million. By mid-2000, 36 used ones is an effective means diseases and increasing access
us to be responsible, prudent,
percent, or 270,721, AIDS cases of reducing the incidence of to treatment for drug users. “In
and compassionate—admirable
in the United States had oc- blood-borne diseases. Addicts addition,” he says, “they have
criteria for good public policy.”
curred among IDUs, their sexual receive a clean needle for persuasively documented that
Martin is the Harry and Hazel
partners, and their children, and every used one they turn in; access to sterile needles neither
Chavanne Professor of Religion
these three categories of people this limits careless and danger- encourages people to start
and Public Policy and professor
accounted for half of all new ous disposal of contaminated injecting drugs nor increases
of sociology. The full text of his
HIV infections in the nation. needles. A 2002 report from drug use by those who are
research paper is available at
In fact, 57 percent of children Australia estimates that in the already users.”
http://www.bakerinstitute.org.
born with AIDS in the United 1990s, Australia’s NEP helped Yet policy-makers at the fed-
States are the offspring of IDUs avoid 25,000 cases of HIV eral, state, and local levels have —B. J. Almond
or their sexual partners. IDUs and 21,000 cases of hepatitis resisted providing IDUs with
also risk exposure to various C. In U.S. dollars, Australia’s easier access to clean needles
forms of hepatitis. Between investment of more than $71.8 from physicians, pharmacies,

10 Rice Sallyport
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A Community of Art
Providing a dynamic union of art and education is the goal of Rice University’s
newest partnership with the museum community of Houston, the Rice
University–Museum Collaborative Partnership.
Led primarily by the School of Humanities, the partnership brings together Hous-
ton’s museums—with their wealth of original art, photography, and unique docu-
mentation—and Rice’s scholarly and educational resources to develop programs and
studies of Houston’s unique artistic holdings. Partnership representatives include
the President’s Office; the School of Humanities, including the Departments of
Visual Arts and Art History and the Rice Art Gallery; the Museum of Fine Arts,
Houston; the Menil Collection; and the Glassell School of Art.

The Rice Annual Fund is the university’s most

powerful giving program and is supported by
more than 90 percent of Rice alumni who give
to the university. Its sole purpose is to support
student life and learning year after year. Your
gift to the Annual Fund is the best way to ensure
that current and future students receive the
most rewarding Rice experience possible.
Members of the Rice University-Museum Collaborative Partnership celebrated the union at a March
luncheon. Pictured are, standing from left, Joe Manca, Rice; Kim Davenport, Rice; Brad Boucher
’69, Glassell School of Art; Joe Havel, Glassell School of Art; Karin Broker, Rice; Josef Helfenstein,
Menil Collection; Gwen Goffe, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Bill Camfield, Rice; and Liz Howard • Financial resources supplied by the Annual
’76, Rice; seated from left, Rice University president David Leebron, Suzanne Deal Booth ’77, and Fund are crucial to maintain and enhance the
Gary Wihl, Rice. Rice experience, supporting scholarships,
graduate fellowships, residential college
Suzanne Deal Booth ’77, who received her bachelor of arts degree in art history
life, library resources, and initiatives that
from Rice and has many years of experience in art conservation, made a significant
might not otherwise be funded.
gift to help launch Rice’s participation.
After obtaining a master of arts degree and certificate in art conservation from New
York University, Booth began her work at the J. Paul Getty Museum in California • Many strategic opportunities to improve
and subsequently spent several years organizing international conservation educa- the quality of the Rice learning experience,
tion projects at the Getty Conservation Institute. She currently is an art consultant including bringing world-class faculty and
and founder of the Friends of Heritage Preservation, a small, private association visiting professors to campus and developing
of members based in Los Angeles, dedicated to the recognition, preservation, and unique new academic programs, require
conservation of artistic and cultural heritage. immediate funding. The Rice Annual Fund
Booth has a longstanding interest in the Houston arts community. While a work- provides current-use money to seize these
study student at Rice, she was an assistant to the late Dominique de Menil, founder opportunities.
with her husband, John, of the Menil Collection that houses their vast art collection.
At the time Booth was working with her, Menil was organizing exhibitions of her • Rice graduates have received one of the
art collection at Rice’s “Art Barn.” nation’s most highly valued degrees, along
As an alumna, Booth has been actively involved in the Rice Art Gallery and serves with a uniquely rich college experience. A gift
as a member of the Humanities Advisory Board and on the University Art Com- to the Annual Fund helps extend those benefits
mittee. “I’m delighted to be in a position to donate to this initiative,” Booth says.
to others and demonstrates appreciation for
“It’s a great way to expand the artistic richness of the Houston community and
the great educational experience that our
strengthen the city’s cultural and community ties with Rice.”
“Suzanne’s gift will enhance and develop every aspect of the visual arts at Rice graduates have received.
University,” says Gary Wihl, dean of the School of Humanities. “Greater ties to
the museum community will create opportunities for new research of national and • The percentage of alumni who contribute
international caliber, expand our offerings in studio arts, and give our unique Rice to the university has an impact on Rice’s
Gallery a much greater presence in the art world. Suzanne’s gift is the capstone of national rankings and the level of corporate
a building effort that will have lasting benefits to our students and faculty and to and foundation giving.
Rice as a whole in connection with President David Leebron’s new vision of our
role in Houston.” For more information or to give to the Rice Annual Fund,
Joint undertakings include appointing fellows from the Glassell School to teach visit us at http://giving.rice.edu/annual.
courses in the Department of Visual Arts; the production of major scholarship in
the field of art history through symposia and exhibits; establishing postdoctoral Annual Gifts Office–MS 81
fellows to conduct research on specific holdings at the museums; jointly sponsored P.O. Box 1892
lectures and publications; and establishing two new positions at the Rice Gallery: Houston, TX 77251-1892
curator of education and director of outreach. Phone: 713-348-4991 • Fax: 713-348-5166
—Margot Dimond Email: giving@rice.edu

Fall ’05 11
 [ t h rou g h t h e sallyport ]

A Commitment to Voter Rights requirement that jurisdictions in all or part of 16 states submit
voting changes to the Justice Department or a federal court
When the National Commission on the Voting Rights Act held for approval before they can be implemented; a requirement
a hearing in Montgomery, Alabama, last spring, seated among that more than 450 counties and townships provide language
the seven commission members was Rice’s Chandler Davidson, assistance to voters with limited English proficiency and autho-
the Radoslav A. Tsanoff Professor Emeritus of Public Affairs and rization of the Department of Justice to appoint an examiner or
Sociology. But he wasn’t there just to listen to the testimonies of send observers to any jurisdiction in the 16 states singled out
lawyers and academicians specializing in voting rights, elected by the VRA to protect people of color.
officials, and everyday citizens who wanted to share their Davidson has more than a passing familiarity with the ins
experiences with discrimination against minority voters in the and outs of the VRA. He testified before Congress for the 1982
South. Davidson will draft a report summarizing information reauthorization of the act, and he co-edited a seminal book on
that the commission obtains through a series of four to six re- voting rights, Quiet Revolution in the South: The Impact of the
gional hearings around the nation. Voting Rights Act, 1965–1990.
The hearings are being held to gather testimony and other His career-long interest in racial politics and minority voting
evidence that will be used to create a comprehensive record spans more than four decades. “I got caught up in the civil rights
of racial discrimination in voting since 1982—the last time the movement as a student at the University of Texas [at Austin] in
temporary features of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) were reautho- the early ’60s,” Davidson says. He vividly remembers partici-
rized. Congress enacted the VRA of 1965 to protect the right to pating in “stand ins” before the Civil Rights Act was passed.
vote among minorities, and it relies on an extensive record of At that time, movie theaters in Austin would not sell tickets to
discrimination in voting to justify the need to extend provisions blacks, so Davidson and others would form a line outside the box
of the act that will expire in 2007. Those provisions include a office and take turns buying tickets and then trying to purchase

Signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in the Capitol Rotunda, Washington, D.C.
President Lyndon B. Johnson moves to shake hands with and give a pen he used
to sign the bill into law to Martin Luther King Jr.

12 Rice Sallyport
 [ t h rou g h t h e sallyport ]

another ticket for a black friend. When the theater refused to for Civil Rights Under Law, remains necessary. “There’s still a
sell the additional ticket, the protestors would request a refund lot of racism in this country,” he says. “There are people who
for the ticket they had already bought. These repeated transac- don’t want their representative to be black.”
tions slowed business for the theaters because other custom- Despite all the incidents of discrimination that he has read
ers had to wait longer in line. Eventually the group picketed about over the years, Davidson was surprised by some of the
other businesses in the university neighborhood, which evidence of discrimination presented during the hearing
caused some of them to desegregate. in Montgomery. A New Orleans political scientist, for
When Davidson joined the Rice faculty in 1966, example, presented data showing that a high degree
he was working on a PhD from Princeton and chose of racially politicized voting still exists throughout
to study black politics and the rise of the civil rights the South. And in a referendum in Alabama last
movement in Houston for his doctoral thesis, which year, white voters overwhelmingly opposed removing

on
ds
vi
a
was published as a book. Back then, Houston’s city nd
ler
D
from the state constitution some language requiring
C ha
council consisted of eight members elected citywide. segregation—even though this language was rendered
Davidson realized how difficult it was for blacks to get elected null and void by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
under this system, given the racial bloc voting by whites, and “Racism just dies hard,” Davidson says. But he notes that
he testified as an expert witness in the case that resulted in the much progress has been made and pointed out that the number
current council structure, which consists of nine single-member of black officials elected in Alabama now is proportional to the
districts and five at-large members. state’s population, thanks largely to the VRA. “No other state,”
He has since testified in more than 30 voting-rights cases he says, “can claim that.”
around the nation, and he says the National Commission on the —B. J. Almond
Voting Rights Act, which was created by the Lawyers Committee

Fall ’05 13
 [ students ]

http://www.riceteamcobra.com

Austin Elam Christopher Gibson Zeyad Metwalli Roland Robb Thomas Rooney

Bioengineering’s Team Cobra Strikes Down Its Competition

Most graduating students focus stimulate the muscles and bones
on starting a career or attending in key physiological sites. Every-
graduate school, but a group of five thing is run by a central control
system that coordinates the effects
seniors known as Team Cobra from
of the motors.
Rice’s bioengineering program The RASC–AL forum required
took on an additional challenge Team Cobra to extensively over-
after graduating in May. They’re haul its project because it called
competing in several national for technology that could be ap-
plied across the spectrum of space
events where they will present
exploration. Team Cobra adapted
a yearlong research and design by expanding their concept from
project that could revolutionize the single device to an interrelated
long-term spaceflight and may aid “tool suite” that can be tailored to
in the fight against osteoporosis the needs of a specific mission.
here on Earth. The team has filed a provisional
patent with Rice’s Office of Tech-
At its first national competition, nology Transfer, and according to
the Revolutionary Aerospace Sys- team member Christopher Gibson,
tems Concept–Academic Linkage Michael Liebschner, an assistant
(RASC–AL) forum, held just one professor of bioengineering, intends
week after commencement, Team that most impressed the judges with STEVE also has a great deal of
to use the device as a test bed for
Cobra was awarded first prize by their drive for success, enthusiasm potential for use as a treatment for
some of this year’s bioengineering
representatives from NASA and for space science, and community osteoporosis, says team member
seniors. The prize for the RASC-
the space industry. engagement. Austin Elam. The belt portion of
AL contest was an expense-paid
The team is getting used to One reason the team has been the device may reduce bone loss
trip to another conference. This
winning awards for its prototype so successful is STEVE’s innova- in elderly individuals with this
time, the team will go to SPACE
device called the Spine and Tro- tive design and the fact that it ad- metabolic bone disease. Best of
2005, the premier space confer-
chanter External Vibration Effecter dresses one of the most persistent all, it’s easy to use, inexpensive,
ence of the year, and is one of just
(STEVE), which is designed to obstacles NASA faces as it prepares and requires only 15 minutes of
a handful of undergraduate/gradu-
counter muscle atrophy and bone to return to the moon and explore use each day.
ate presenters.
loss during long-term spaceflights. Mars—loss of bone and muscle Based on prior research that
In addition to Elam and Gibson,
With an initial design funded by a mass during long-term spaceflights. established that high-frequency,
the team includes Zeyad Metwalli,
$1,250 grant from the Texas Space While current countermeasures low-amplitude vibration of bone
Roland Robb, and Thomas Rooney.
GrantConsortium(TSGC), STEVE against muscle loss in micrograv- combats bone-density loss due
For more information, visit the
brought home three top prizes at ity are fairly successful, the bone to lack of normal body stress on
Team Cobra website, http://www.
the November 2004 TSGC De- mass lost in the spine, hips, and bones, STEVE is a system of small
riceteamcobra.com.
sign Challenge Showcase, as well thighs is a critical concern because motors that can be strapped to an —Jade Boyd
as seven top honors in TSGC’s no technology has been shown to astronaut’s body to deliver vibra-
spring competition. Team Cobra prevent it. Also of concern is the tions throughout all the joints
also won the first TSGC Design lack of evidence that astronauts in the body. The system uses a
Challenge Legends Award in its will regain the same bone quality combination of strategic load-
four-year history, given to teams after returning to Earth. ing and vibration techniques to

14 Rice Sallyport
 [ students ]

Shepherd School Students Perform at Kennedy Center

Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music made an encore performance in May in the Terrace Theater at the John
F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. It was the second year the Shepherd School has been
invited to participate in the Conservatory Project, a program that brings students from eight top music schools to one
of the best-known venues in the country for a series of one-hour performances of classical music, opera, and jazz.

“This was a special opportunity for several of our students to The program included works composed by faculty members
perform in one of our nation’s most exalted music venues,” Pierre Jalbert and Art Gottschalk, as well as works by Alain
notes Robert Yekovich, dean of the Shepherd School. “Visibility Bernaud, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Chris Brubeck, and Ludwig van
of this kind enhances the school’s fine reputation and brings Beethoven. Shepherd School students were joined at the eight-
credit to Rice.” day event by peers from Berklee College of Music, The Juilliard
Adding to the honor for students is the fact that attendees School, The Curtis Institute of Music, Eastman School of Music
are selected by faculty to represent the best of the school’s mu- at the University of Rochester, the Peabody Conservatory at
sical talent. Participants were Fei Xie, bassoon, accompanied Johns Hopkins University, the School of Music at Northwestern
by pianist Kana Mimaki; Judson Perry, tenor, accompanied by University, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
pianist Calogero Di Liberto; Evan Bertrand, marimba; and Novus, —Dawn Dorsey
a trombone quartet of Christopher Beaudry, Mike Clayville, Mike
Selover, and John Widmer.

Among the participants in the Performing Arts’ Conservatory Project are, standing from left, graduate student Judson Perry, Novus member Mike Selover, Novus member
Mike Clayville and graduate student Fei Xie; sitting from left, senior Evan Bertrand, Novus member Christopher Beaudry, doctoral student Kana Mimaki and Novus member
John Widmer. Not pictured is Calogero Di Liberto.

Fall ’05 15
 [ students ]

Academic
Awards Recognize Students’

Rice students Julia Follick, Me- Shepherd School of Music, has biological and medical sciences, Beckman Center of the Na-
gan Levin, and Anthony Potoc- been working to become an or- or some combination of these tional Academies of Sciences
zniak will live, work, and study chestral harpist for most of her subjects. Research is conducted and Engineering in Irvine, Cali-
abroad next year, thanks to the life, and the Fulbright grant will during two full-time summer fornia. The Arnold and Mabel
Fulbright Program for U.S. help her merge this goal with research sessions and a part- Beckman Foundation gives
Students. her love of Paris. She will spend time research session during the awards to program-related,
Only about 600 Fulbrights the year abroad studying at the one academic year. nonprofit research institutions
are awarded nationally each year Ecole Normale de Musique de Working in the lab of Bonnie to encourage research in chem-
to graduating seniors and grad- Paris under professor of harp Bartel, professor of biochem- istry and life science. Estab-
uate students who are U.S. citi- Madame Perrin. The French istry and cell biology, Lin is lished in 1997, the Beckman
zens. Awards are based on the approach to playing an instru- researching hormone response Scholars Program to date has
applicant’s personal statement, ment is emotion-driven, Levin defects in mutants of the plant awarded fellowships to 413 stu-
proposed project, transcript, explains. She hopes to make her Arabidopsis thaliana. She is dents—four from Rice.
faculty recommendations, and music more personal, intense, working on isolating mutants
a language exam, if applicable. and meaningful. At the same that suppress resistance to aux- Hanszen College junior Nas-
Each scholarship covers one time, she’ll experience life in in, a phytohormone involved tassja Lewinski was one of 320
year of university study and re- Paris as a full-time resident, not in plant growth and stress re- undergraduate sophomores and
search abroad. simply a tourist. sponses. By eventually cloning juniors in the United States
Follick plans to work and Potoczniak, a graduate stu- the gene responsible for resis- this year awarded a nationally
study in Germany during her dent in anthropology, will travel tance, she hopes to identify key competitive Barry M. Goldwa-
Fulbright teaching assistantship. to Ukraine to examine how folk proteins of the elusive auxin ter Scholarship. It was awarded
While studying there as an un- songs are transformed into cul- signaling mechanism. A clearer based on her plans to work in
dergraduate, she met many Ger- tural commodities in the post- understanding of the auxin sig- the field of scoliosis research.
mans whose less-than-favorable Soviet economy. He plans to naling pathway could have ma- Since 2002, Lewinski has been
opinions about Americans were study how experts at four state jor agricultural implications. working in the lab of Rebekah
based on outdated textbooks or institutions archive Ukrainian Pond is researching the trig- Drezek, the Stanley C. Moore
poorly trained nonnative Eng- folk music. His specific inter- gered disassembly of TiO2 Assistant Professor of Bioengi-
lish teachers. As a teacher in the est is in how everyday scientific nanoparticle-assembled capsules neering and assistant professor
German schools, the May grad- research practices, as they relate (NACs) in the lab of Michael in electrical and computer en-
uate hopes to counter German to folk music, are influenced by Wong, assistant professor in gineering. Lewinski currently
prejudices against Americans, social, political, and economic chemical and biomolecular is the George R. Brown Un-
starting with secondary-school constraints at local and national engineering. Pond hopes to dergraduate Research Assistant
students. Follick also will take levels. engineer a mechanism for the studying the fluorescent proper-
German-language classes at a triggered disassembly of the ties of type I collagen gels.
local university to strengthen Two 2005 graduates—Grace NACs and then use it to work She also spent nine weeks
her language skills and sit in on Lin and Mark Pond—were on controlled release of material during the summer participat-
American studies classes to hear selected to participate in the stored within the center of hol- ing in Washington Internship
what German students are be- Beckman Scholars Program. low NACs. for Students of Engineering
ing taught about the United The highly competitive program The scholars will continue (WISE), where she learned how
States. She hopes to gain useful provides funding—$17,600 per their research through next government officials make deci-
ideas to implement in her own student—for research by under- summer, when they will join sions on complex technological
classroom. graduate students in the areas of other Beckman Scholars for issues and how engineers can
Levin, a graduate of the chemistry, biochemistry, and the a research symposium at the contribute to legislative and reg-

16 Rice Sallyport
 [ students ]

Might
Rice students are among the best and the
brightest in the country, as shown once again
by the number of prestigious scholarships
and awards they won in 2005.

ulatory public policy decisions. with famed musician Francois tion between religion and the who received the most votes to
The WISE program is ranked Rabbath. Rice graduate Natilee epidemic. be nominated for a Watson Fel-
one of the 100 best internship Harren will study 20th-century The Wagoner Foreign Stud- lowship but did not receive the
opportunities in the United performance history and its ies Scholarships are awarded to award. Both the Zeff and Wat-
States by the Princeton Review. critical theory at the London Rice undergraduate and gradu- son fellowships give students
Lewinski plans to pursue both Consortium. She wants to in- ate students who demonstrate about $22,000 to travel abroad
an MD and a PhD to research vestigate works that challenge scholastic achievement, dedica- and spend one year working on
improvements in scoliosis pre- the boundaries of performance tion, and character. Rice estab- a research project.
vention and management. and study art history. lished the scholarships in 1997
The Goldwater Foundation is Ryan Foster, a graduate stu- through provisions made by By their record of accomplish-
a federally endowed agency es- dent in history, will travel to the late James T. Wagoner ’29, ment at Rice University, 68
tablished in 1986. Scholars were Potsdam, Germany, to collect who took his first trip abroad May graduates qualified for
selected on the basis of academ- the necessary archival materi- after graduating from Rice and membership in Phi Beta Kappa.
ic merit from a field of students als to write the first contextual enjoyed extensive world travel Election to Phi Beta Kappa is
in mathematics, science, and study of Joseph von Schelling’s during his retirement. a significant honor recogniz-

By their record of accomplishment at Rice University, 68 May graduates qualified for membership in Phi Beta Kappa.
Election to Phi Beta Kappa is a significant honor recognizing outstanding achievement in the liberal arts and sciences.
engineering who were nominat- most mature work, Naturphi- ing outstanding achievement in
ed by the faculties of universities losophie. Wiess College senior This summer, Wiess College se- the liberal arts and sciences. To
nationwide. The award covers Searcy Milam plans to take nior Emily Matuzek embarked be considered for membership,
the cost of tuition, fees, books, Spanish literature courses in on a yearlong journey to re- a student at Rice must have
and room and board for one to Spain and incorporate the lan- search how other countries treat completed at least 90 semester
two years. guage, culture, tradition, and autistic children. As a recipient hours in courses that reflect
literary style into his own writ- of the Roy and Hazel Zeff Me- the pursuit of learning for its
Seven Rice students will spend ing. Elitza Ranova, a graduate morial Fellowship, Matuzek is own sake, rather than a focus on
the next academic year studying student in anthropology, will visiting Denmark, India, and the development of particular
abroad, each having earned a travel to Bulgaria to conduct Chile to examine the diagnosis, professional skills. As an addi-
Wagoner Foreign Studies Schol- research for her dissertation. treatment, and education pro- tional indication of intellectual
arship. Her anthropological fieldwork cess for autism in each country. breadth, at least 10 of these
Brown College junior Nancy will focus on lifestyle and con- She chose those three countries qualifying courses must be cho-
Brown, an English major, will sumption changes as they relate because of their different ap- sen from outside the division in
attend Queen Mary University to the postsocialist country’s proaches to diagnosing and which the student’s major lies.
in London to study literature political transition. Recent treating the disease.
—Reported by Lindsey Fielder and
in the modernist period, a time graduate Laura Sawyer will The Zeff Fellowship was Linda Williams
of tremendous progress and spend the next year at the Uni- created by Stephen Zeff, the
upheaval in the arts and poli- versity of Cape Town in South Herbert S. Autrey Professor
tics. Shepherd School student Africa studying the AIDS epi- of Accounting at the Jesse H.
Shawn Conley plans to spend a demic in that country, with a Jones Graduate School of Man-
year in Paris studying the bass particular focus on the connec- agement, for the Rice student

Fall ’05 17
 It’s All About the People By Melissa Kean • P h o t o g r a p h y : To m m y L a Ve r g n e

Trying to get Bill Barnett to talk about him-

self is a challenging proposition. Although
he tries, really, to make an effort to answer
questions about his years at Rice and his own
accomplishments, invariably the conversation
moves back to what he really wants to talk
about: all the other people who have made
Rice the special place that it is.
Barnett’s emphasis on the contributions of versity. Like so many of his generation who Stern—as well as a distinguished legal career.
others is both wise and true. To the extent came to Rice from the small cities and towns He is a former chair of the 15,000-member
that Rice has realized the ambitions of its of Texas and Louisiana, he was drawn by Antitrust Section of the American Bar Asso-
founding president, Edgar Odell Lovett, it is Rice’s lack of tuition as much as by its aca- ciation and a fellow of the American College
because of the dedicated efforts of an entire demic reputation. By all testimony, Barnett of Trial Lawyers. In 1984, Barnett became
community. Through the decades, thou- was a very serious student, although—again, the managing partner of Baker Botts L.L.P.,
sands of faculty, staff, and alumni have main- like many others—he had a bit of a rude a position he held for 14 years. During that
tained deep emotional ties to the university, awakening when confronted with Rice math time, he led the firmThompson
—Will through a number
and their work and unstinting generosity and science classes. He graduated from Rice of significant changes. Baker Botts nearly
remain vital to the success of the institution in 1955 with a bachelor’s degree in eco- doubled in size, added offices in Dallas and
at every level. Still, as chair of Rice’s Board nomics, but his real interests lay elsewhere. New York, expanded its areas of practice,
of Trustees from 1996 to 2005, Barnett has Coming from a family of lawyers, he always and grew a significant international presence
made critical contributions to the continu- intended to pursue a legal career. Pausing with the opening of offices in London and
ing health and maturation of Rice as a seri- only long enough to marry classmate Peggy Moscow. Barnett became senior counsel in
ous university. Mauk the Monday after graduation (sug- 1998 and continued in that role until his
Curiously, Barnett’s contributions are gesting that he had, indeed, found time retirement in June 2004.
so overarching that it is almost hard to see for something besides his studies), he im- All the while, Bill and Peggy Barnett have
them clearly. Much of what he has done, mediately headed off to Austin to begin given freely and generously to the Houston
quietly and thoughtfully, has been to bring law school at the University of Texas. Law community. A native Houstonian, Peggy
about changes—some readily visible, others school proved a natural fit for Barnett, and has focused her attention on education and
much less so—that will allow other members during the three successful and productive healthcare. Always active in church and in
of this extraordinary community to thrive years he was there, he was a member of the her children’s schools, she also has served
into the future. He has been, to a great de- Order of the Coif and Chancellors and a the broader Houston community in many
gree, responsible for creating the opportuni- comment editor for the Texas Law Review. ways. She has chaired the development
ties, resources, and environment that enable He received his LLB with honors in 1958. board of the UT–Houston Health Science
trustees, students, faculty, volunteers, staff, Following law school, Barnett returned Center and has been an active and success-
and alumni to reach high levels of accom- to Houston and joined the firm of Baker ful fundraiser for the University of Texas
plishment in the service of the university’s Botts, where his practice concentrated on School of Nursing at Houston, where she
mission. commercial litigation and antitrust law. He was the founding chair of PARTNERS, a
Barnett’s many commitments to Hous- spent the next couple of decades building a support group for the students and faculty
ton and Texas have been so varied that it’s family—Bill and Peggy have two children, of that institution. Her own contributions to
surprising he’s not a native of the state. Ann Barnett Stern and Edward William Rice are innumerable, and she has sat on the
He grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana, and Barnett Jr., both lawyers in Houston, and boards of the Shepherd School of Music, the
moved to Houston only to attend Rice Uni- two grandchildren, Carter and Margaret Friends of Fondren Library, and the Baker

Burton McMurtry
Fall ’05 19
 Pausing only long enough to marry classmate Peggy Mauk
the Monday after graduation, he immediately headed
off to Austin to begin law school at the University of Texas.

Institute Roundtable. on reaching the age of 70, the that ought to guide its future.
Like his wife, Barnett also has customary retirement age for Rice In many ways, his leadership has
served on a wide variety of educa- trustees. underscored the importance of
tional, civic, and corporate boards, Barnett’s election as board chair the university’s role as a servant
including the University of Texas was received with a bit of surprise of society and a participant in the
Law School Foundation, Baylor on the Rice campus. Although world around it. For example, he,
College of Medicine, the Texas active on the board, particularly former president Malcolm Gillis,
Heart Institute, St. Luke’s Epis- Barnett’s vision has proved in the founding of the new James and the board stood firmly on the
copal Health System, the Center A. Baker III Institute for Public side of increasing racial diversity
for Houston’s Future, JPMorgan Policy, he had not been especially on campus, helping devise creative
Chase Bank, and Reliant Resourc- both broad and farsighted. visible to the faculty and staff of programs to continue supporting
es. He is a former chair of the the university, and few had any minority students after the Hop-
Greater Houston Partnership and
Central Houston, Inc. In 2001, He gently has guided the real idea of what to expect from
his leadership. To those who know
wood decision by the Fifth Circuit
Court prohibited most efforts to
he was appointed by Houston him, however, it is unsurprising make campuses more reflective of
mayor Lee Brown to chair a task
force charged with transforming
university through a series of that his nine-year tenure at the
head of Rice’s Board of Trustees
American society.
Barnett also fully embraced the
the city’s zoo into a premier insti- has been marked not only by the notion that the university must
tution. The next year, the zoo was fundamental decisions that kind of steady growth and prog- actively seek out collaborations
privatized successfully, and Barnett ress that the Rice community has with other institutions around
was elected the first chair of the come to take for granted but also Houston and elsewhere to attract
board of the nonprofit corpora- have improved the campus, by truly extraordinary changes. and keep the kind of faculty who
tion that now manages the facility, Barnett’s vision has proved both want to perform meaningful and
Houston Zoo, Inc.
Barnett first joined the Rice
enriched the experiences broad and farsighted. He gently
has guided the university through
exciting research. In doing so, he
continued the tradition of col-
University Board of Governors a series of fundamental decisions laboration that Rice, because of its
as a term member in 1991, when
that board still maintained a two-
of faculty and students, that have improved the campus,
enriched the experiences of fac-
small size, developed early in its
history. Most important and clos-
tiered governance structure. Only ulty and students, and positioned est to home, Barnett has helped
the seven trustees had voting au- and positioned Rice to plan Rice to plan its future with energy spearhead Rice’s efforts to build a
thority; the eight term governors and confidence. He has led the collaborative research center—on
and four alumni governors acted board in making these changes land between the Rice campus
in advisory roles. In 1994, he was its future with energy and with an eye toward distant as well and the Texas Medical Center—to
elected a trustee along with his law as current needs, providing Rice house research groups from Rice
school classmate James A. Baker,
III, filling positions left vacant
confidence. with the long-term flexibility to
respond to circumstances that can-
and other leading institutions in
the medical center.
by the retirements of Josephine not possibly be anticipated today. Always quick to understand the
Abercrombie and John Cox. In Barnett brought to his work as importance of building a global
1996, Barnett was elected chair of chair of the Rice board a ground- presence for Rice in a world made
the board after Charles Duncan ed understanding of the institu- faster and smaller by emerging
stepped down from that position tion, its goals, and the principles technologies, Barnett reached out

20 Rice Sallyport
to bring international perspectives was followed almost immediately ing his tenure, a building boom,
to the campus. These included by the university’s first national begun in the early 1990s, trans-
a faculty–student exchange with championship in any team sport formed the face of the campus.
Monterrey Tech and the Uni- when the Owls won the College Like the other changes that came
versity of Monterrey in Mexico World Series in 2003. And this is to Rice during these years, this
as well as bringing leaders with just one example. The nine years spate of new construction and
international experience onto the of Barnett’s term as chair were renovation also was informed and
Rice board. Further, he strongly highly successful ones for Rice Always quick to guided by a coherent vision of the
institution’s intellectual purpose.
supported Rice’s cooperation in athletes, as many Rice teams, both
the planning and development of men’s and women’s, were com- First articulated by Edgar Odell
an entirely new university modeled petitive in the Western Athletic understand the importance Lovett, this vision found new ex-
after Rice: International University Conference, all while Rice con- pression in the mid-1990s, when
the Strategic Planning Committee,
Bremen in Germany.
Barnett helped Rice reach off
tinued to be among the nation’s
leaders in graduation rates for its of building a global comprising members of the Rice
campus in one other quite impor- athletes. faculty, staff, administration, stu-
tant way. After President Gillis an-
nounced his intention to retire on
Barnett’s sense of responsibil-
ity for these athletes, and for the
presence for Rice in a dent body, and board, produced
an aggressive report. It called for
June 30, 2004, Barnett was instru- institution as a whole, led him to a series of initiatives to elevate
mental in guiding the university commission a study of all aspects world made faster and graduate studies in targeted areas
through the critically important of the university’s athletic program to national distinction, strengthen
search process for a new president. in 2004. The results of the board’s the already excellent undergradu-
In what has become the Rice tra- deliberations on this report—a smaller by emerging ate program, increase the number
dition of openness and collegiality, decision to remain in Division of faculty, and begin to address
he organized a committee, chaired
by board trustee Jim Crownover,
1-A but also to tighten the ad-
missions process for athletes and
technologies, Barnett pressing building needs. This re-
port became the foundation for
whose members were drawn from require improved financial perfor- an ambitious plan that the board
all parts of the Rice community.
After an amicable and exciting
mance—probably wholly satisfied
no one, but opened a flexible and
reached out to bring approved in 1997. Rice: The Next
Century Campaign sparked a ma-
nine months, the search con- pragmatic path forward. The thor- jor capital fund drive to raise $500
cluded successfully in December oughness of the study will provide international perspectives million, the success of which pro-
2003 with the announcement that a factual foundation for any future vided many of the resources that
the Rice board had unanimously discussions of the topic, but far have helped advance the universi-
elected David Leebron, then dean more important, Barnett’s deci- to the campus. ty’s strategic plans.
of the Columbia Law School, as sion to release the report to the The creation of new spaces on
Rice’s seventh president. entire community immeasurably campus that are central to Rice’s
In his leadership of the board, strengthened the bonds of trust educational and research mission
Barnett also has honored the Rice between the Rice campus and the is another of Barnett’s legacies.
tradition of the scholar–athlete. board of trustees. The construction of two residen-
The construction of Reckling The most visible changes that tial colleges, Martel in the north
Park, a modern and beautiful new Barnett helped bring to Rice are, cluster and a new Wiess College in
facility for Rice’s baseball team, of course, the physical ones. Dur- the south, along with the renova-

Fall ’05 21
 After President Gillis announced his intention to retire on
June 30, 2004, Barnett was instrumental in guiding the university
through the critically important search process for a new president.

tion and expansion of Jones and and biosciences programs and is atic over time. Rice and Houston
Brown, added space for about 350 a centerpiece of plans for future had grown far larger, far more
students, allowing more than 70 academic growth. The largest new diverse, and far more complex
percent of undergraduates to live facility on campus is the Jesse H. since the original seven-member
on campus. Similarly, the replace- Jones Graduate School of Manage- board was authorized by William
ment of the old Graduate House ment’s Janice and Robert McNair Marsh Rice in the 1891 charter of
with the new Graduate Apart- Hall, a fitting home for what, fi- the university. Rice graduates now
ments on Bissonnet Street gave nally, is a business school worthy Above all, Barnett’s leadership were spread all across the country
more graduate students access to of Rice’s reputation. and around the world. More con-
affordable and functional housing. But the buildings, in and of stituencies existed that ought to
Academic facilities also saw up- themselves, aren’t what is im- of Rice has been characterized be represented, and more knotty
grades. The Humanities Building, portant to Barnett. Instead, he sets of problems had arisen whose
nestled between Fondren Library
and Rayzor Hall, has provided
is excited about the reason these
buildings exist. They are, he says,
by a meticulous attention to solutions often called for compe-
tence in specialized and sometime
badly needed classroom and office “all about the people.” That is, technical fields. Attracting enough
space and brought faculty mem-
bers in history, philosophy, and re-
they fulfill their purpose by help-
ing provide students and faculty
process, allowing all voices to people who could bring the neces-
sary skills to the boardroom took
ligious studies together in a single with what they need to do their on greater urgency in proportion
location. This building, along with jobs and make Rice successful. be heard and ensuring that all to the greater complexity of the
Rayzor Hall, renovated to ad- As valuable as these visible institution.
dress the special needs of foreign changes will be to Rice’s future, Service on the Rice board,
language study, and Herring Hall, the most profound and far-reach- perspectives are respected. whether as trustee or advisor, al-
remodeled to house the English ing modifications that Barnett ways has been a cherished honor
and art history departments, forms
a coherent humanities corridor de-
has brought to Rice are those
that went almost unnoticed by
He continually has acted on among Rice alumni and Housto-
nians. Ensuring that everyone who
signed to foster study in these vital students, faculty, and staff. Real- makes the enormous commit-
areas by providing technologically izing that a failure to recognize the belief that the more people ments of time and effort that this
up-to-date facilities. The construc- and adapt to social and economic service entails has an equal voice
tion of the new, startlingly green developments would ensure insti- in decision making seemed only
Library Service Center on Main tutional erosion, he undertook an that are heard, the better the fair. In characteristic fashion, Bar-
Street has allowed the long-await- effort to revitalize and strengthen nett first quietly built a consensus
ed major renovation of Fondren
Library—currently underway—
the governance structure of the
Rice board itself. university’s decisions will be. among the board members that
the time had come to meet these
that will provide significant sup- Both the dual structure that issues squarely. In late 1997, he
port to the academic needs of split members into two groups— put together an ad hoc commit-
faculty and students, particularly seven lifetime trustees who held tee to study the governance struc-
in the humanities and social sci- all authority and 12 governors tures and practices of other elite
ences. Old Chem also underwent who only could advise—and a universities, with an eye toward
a major renovation. Now renamed geographic restriction that meant understanding what changes really
Keck Hall, it serves as the home almost all trustees had to live in would make sense at Rice.
to many of Rice’s bioengineering Houston had become problem- Even in the midst of contem-

22 Rice Sallyport
 Bill Barnett, David W. Leebron, and Malcolm Gillis

plating significant alterations, that Rice has become. It is their geographically scattered group, With a calming, low-key de-
though, Barnett displayed respect contributions, also, that Barnett however, other arrangements meanor, a willingness to seek
for the role of continuity and Rice lauds when he says, “It’s all about would have to be made.
and accept good advice, and
tradition. The committee mem- the people.” Again, Barnett turned to the
bers, who met with academic A second fundamental change, kind of calm and deliberative ap- a seemingly endless capacity
leaders across the country and brought about by a lawsuit to proach that he always favors. He for preparation, Barnett repeat-
read countless pages of sometimes amend the charter, was the end appointed a board committee, this edly has been able, slowly and
numbing commentary on gover- of the prohibition of debt financ- time to begin a thorough process determinedly, to move Rice into
nance issues, were trustees Burt ing. An original part of Rice’s long of canvassing the membership and
positions of greater strength. His
McMurtry and Kent Anderson tradition of fiscal conservatism, the working toward a decision about
and emeritus trustees Hank Hud- ban on any kind of indebtedness leadership. Throughout, it was exemplary service to Rice Univer-
speth and Ralph O’Connor—in- had, by 1998, long since become clear that he expected the group sity puts him in the company of
dividuals who shared long, deep a costly anomaly. Along with the to reach a full consensus, however Rice’s finest and most important
ties to Rice and possessed both success of the capital campaign, long it took. As it turned out, the leaders, such as Captain James
historical perspective and a keen this change helped bring about the quiet and careful discussions led A. Baker, George R. Brown, and
understanding of the workings of badly needed new construction to a relatively quick outcome. The
Charles Duncan, all linked by their
the university as a whole. and renovation during Barnett’s Rice board unanimously elected
In 1998, after a great deal of tenure and, even more important, Jim Crownover as its next chair at embrace of Edgar Odell Lovett’s
work and discussion, the trustees has given future generations of its December 2004 meeting. visionary belief in Rice’s poten-
filed suit in Harris County District Rice leaders a critical tool for man- It is difficult to imagine anyone tial for limitless excellence and
Court to amend Rice’s charter. aging the institution’s finances. besides Barnett being able to build by their drive to move the univer-
The new Rice Board of Trustees Finally, Barnett had one more consensus for so much transforma-
sity closer to achieving that vi-
would have 25 members, all of important responsibility to fulfill tive change. To accomplish this
whom could vote. There would before he could step down at the requires first the sound judgment sion. Rice’s ability to perform its
be definite term limits and an end end of this past June. When the to understand the proper course intellectual mission is far stron-
to geographical restrictions so that governance changes were enacted and then the flexibility and prag- ger for Bill Barnett’s efforts, and
talented leaders from around the in 1998, the board didn’t amend matism to move others to the best the Rice community owes him a
country, and even beyond national its bylaws to make provisions for possible position for the university. debt of gratitude that can never
borders, could work alongside electing a new chair. This simply Above all, Barnett’s leadership of
be repaid.
trustees from Houston and Texas, wasn’t an issue until Barnett’s Rice has been characterized by a
combining fresh ways of think- retirement date approached, at meticulous attention to process,
ing with the deep familiarity of which time it became rather press- allowing all voices to be heard
Rice possessed by local leaders. As ing. In the days of the seven-mem- and ensuring that all perspectives
strong new members have been ber board, selection of a new chair are respected. He continually has
added, these changes already have may have been contentious at acted on the belief that the more
begun to open up the board in times, but it was never complicat- people that are heard, the bet-
many ways, resulting in a sophisti- ed. Seven people simply decided ter the university’s decisions will
cated and diverse leadership group among themselves—matters were be, and thus he has contributed
with the kind of national and in- worked out privately, and four greatly to the spirit of common
ternational experience needed to votes were enough to carry the enterprise that binds the Rice
guide the ambitious institution day. With a much larger and more community.

Fall ’05 23
 Nanotech Pioneer and Nobel Laureate

Richard Smalley
19 43– 2005

Rice chemist and buckyball discoverer

became statesman for nanotechnology

By Jade Boyd
Nobel laureate Richard Smalley, co-discoverer of the buckyball
and one of the best-known and respected scientists in nano-
technology, died in Houston on October 28 after a long battle
with cancer. He was 62.
Smalley, who joined Rice University in 1976, shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with fellow
Rice chemist Robert Curl and British chemist Sir Harold Kroto for the discovery of buckminster-
fullerene, or “buckyballs,” a previously unknown third form of carbon. He is survived by his wife,
Deborah Smalley; two sons, Chad and Preston; a brother, Clayton; two sisters, Linda and Mary
Jill; stepdaughters Eva and Allison; granddaughter Bridget; and a host of friends and relatives.
“We will miss Rick’s brilliance, commitment, energy, enthusiasm, and humanity,” Rice presi-
dent David Leebron said. “He epitomized what we value at Rice: pathbreaking research, com-
mitment to teaching, and contribution to the betterment of our world. In important ways, Rick
helped build and shape the Rice University of today. His extraordinary scientific contributions,
recognized with the Nobel Prize, will form the foundation of new
technologies that will improve life for millions. His life’s
work and his brave fight against a terrible disease were
an inspiration to all.”
Colleagues and scientific leaders say it is hard
to overestimate the role Smalley played in
founding and fostering the development of
nanotechnology, one of the most important
and exciting new areas of scientific inquiry
to arise in the past quarter century.
“Rick was incredibly creative and
had the ability to make his creative
vision a reality,” said Curl, University
Professor Emeritus, the Kenneth S.
Pitzer-Schlumberger Professor Emeri-
tus of Natural Sciences, and professor
emeritus of chemistry. “His mind was
sharp and incisive. Whenever I brought
up some point that I thought he might
have overlooked, I found that he had
already thought of it and refuted it in
his own mind. I have met many eminent
scientists; I’ve never met anyone smarter,
more creative, and more focused. His mind
was like a searchlight bringing whatever it looked
at into clarity.”
No one was better than Smalley himself at describing
nanotechnology in plainspoken terms. “We are about to
be able to build things that work on the smallest possible length
scales, atom by atom, with the ultimate level of finesse,” Smalley told the
U.S. House of Representatives while testifying in 1999 in support of the National Nanotechnol-
ogy Initiative (NNI). “These little nanothings and the technology that assembles and manipulates
them—nanotechnology—will revolutionize our industries and our lives.”
Nanotechnology draws its name from the nanometer, or one-billionth of a meter. Buckyballs
measure one nanometer in diameter, and their discovery at Rice in 1985 frequently is cited as one
of the earliest and most influential discoveries in the development of nanotechnology.
“In my view, this was a singular event in the history of nanotechnology,” said Neal Lane, se-
nior fellow in science and technology at Rice University’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public
Policy. “It not only created the whole new field of fullerene chemistry, but it also immediately
made feasible the notion of making things from the bottom up, just as physicist Richard Feynman
predicted 50 years earlier.”
Fullerenes—the family of compounds that includes buckyballs and carbon nanotubes—remained
the central focus of Smalley’s research until his death, and Smalley himself never shied from espous-
ing the importance of fullerenes, particularly carbon nanotubes. “[Fullerene research] probably
has transcendent importance in many areas of technology and, perhaps, in society,” Smalley told
Small Times magazine in 2001. “It’s a heady thing to be involved. It’s almost like church.”

Fall ’05 25
 Due in part to Smalley’s leadership, the United States launched the The launch of Sputnik in 1957 excited his interest in science, and he
NNI in 2000. NNI is a sweeping federal research-and-development pro- first became serious about education at the age of 16. In an autobiog-
gram that coordinates the nanotech efforts of nearly two dozen federal raphy written for the Nobel committee in 1996, Smalley also credited
agencies, including the National Science Foundation, the Department his high school chemistry teacher, Victor Gustafson, as a key inspiration.
of Defense, and NASA. NNI funding has more than doubled in the past “[Chemistry] was the first class I had ever taken with my sister Linda,
five years, with federal spending for 2005 topping $1 billion. who was a year older than I and was a far better student than I had ever
At the time of NNI’s creation, Lane served as assistant to the presi- been,” Smalley said. “The result was that, by the end of the year, my
dent of the United States for science and technology and director of the sister and I finished with the top two grades in the class. We hardly ever
U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy. He said Smalley played missed a question on an exam. It was an exhilarating experience for me
a crucial role in getting the initiative approved, both by President Bill and still ranks as the single most important turning point in my life, even
Clinton and by Congress. Smalley’s testimony on Capitol Hill, from my current perspective nearly four decades later.”
in particular, helped establish him as one of the leading At his aunt’s urging, Smalley enrolled as a chemistry
voices for nanotechnology. major at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, in 1961.
“Rick overwhelmingly carried the day,” said Caltech’s He transferred to the University of Michigan two
James Heath, one of Smalley’s PhD students on the years later, earning his bachelor’s degree in 1965.
buckyball discovery, who has risen to become a Smalley began his PhD studies at Princeton in
leading voice for nanotechnology. “He sat there 1969 after four years work at Shell Chemical
in front of Congress with no hair, as a result of Co. in New Jersey and the birth of his eldest
the chemotherapy, and talked about the promise son, Chad. His studies in the Princeton labora-
of nanotechnology for cancer and other diseases tory of Elliot R. Bernstein marked Smalley’s first
and how it would pay off for his children. It was exposure to the discipline of chemical physics,
absolutely riveting.” and Smalley said he learned from Bernstein “a
Smalley’s fervent belief that nanotubes were a penetrating, intense style of research that I had
wonder material that could solve some of humanity’s never known before.”
most intractable problems—such as clean energy, clean Smalley came to Rice as an assistant professor in
water, and economical space travel—led him to crusade 1976, following three years of postdoctoral research at
for more public support for science and to take up the the University of Chicago under Donald H. Levy.
mantle of business after more than three decades Smalley rapidly became “a major intellectual force”
in the laboratory. in chemistry and chemical physics at Rice, Lane
Smalley helped found Carbon Nanotechnologies said, helping found the Rice Quantum Institute
Inc. in 2000 to make sure his discoveries made in 1979. He was named the Gene and Norman
it to the marketplace where they could benefit Hackerman Chair in Chemistry in 1982 and was
society. He was convinced that nanotubes could appointed a professor of physics in 1990.
be used to solve society’s problems only if they “Rick made great contributions to science,”
were manufactured in bulk and processed eco- Curl said. “While fullerenes and nanotubes
nomically. In 2002, he embarked on a two-year dominated the end of his research career, he had
crusade to promote the use of nanotechnology to made many contributions of towering magnitude
tackle what he described as the No. 1 problem facing before them.”
humanity in the 21st century—the need for cheap, clean Smalley was the pivotal force in the development of
energy. Smalley crisscrossed the country, gave dozens nanoscience and technology at Rice. He foresaw the
of keynote addresses, testified before Congress, potential of the discoveries emerging at this scale
and met with countless leaders in government, and moved with characteristic intensity to forge
academia, and industry. Rice’s program as the founding director of the
“Rick cared little about honors and much more Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology
about how applications of nanoscience might (CNST). His efforts resulted in the construc-
help resolve pressing human problems in energy tion of Dell Butcher Hall and the endowment
accessibility, food supplies, and medical diagnosis of chairs and the recruitment of faculty pursuing
and treatment,” said Malcolm Gillis, University nano-related research in departments throughout
Professor, the Ervin Kenneth Zingler Professor of science and engineering. Indeed, almost a quarter
Economics, and professor of management at Rice. of Rice’s faculty hires in science and engineering
“In meetings with Rick in the past year, it was clear to since 1985 have expertise relevant to nanoscale science
me that the primary reasons for his dogged, determined and technology, and many others have incorporated this
battle against his disease had first to do with his family and area into their research agenda. This robust and enthusiastic
second with his desire to witness at least a few of the social benefits he community will continue the tradition of excellence and vision that
expected from buckyballs, buckytubes, and other nanoparticles.” Smalley initiated almost two decades ago.
Smalley was born June 6, 1943, in Akron, Ohio, and spent most “I think of Rick as the father of nanotechnology in the sense that,
of his youth in Kansas City. He was the youngest of four children. better than anyone else, he articulated the vision of its future and how
The childhood influences he credited most for his success were his it would impact the world, and he did so in a kind of universal language
mother’s love of science, the skills she imparted in draftsmanship, his that was understandable and inspiring to everyone,” said William Barnett,
father’s tenacity and mechanical abilities, and the inspirational example trustee emeritus and former chair of the Rice Board of Trustees.
of his aunt, who was one of the first women in the country to earn a Throughout his career, Smalley maintained a strong commitment to
PhD in chemistry. teaching and public service. For example, he still taught undergraduate

26 Rice Sallyport
 “When Rick and Bob won the Nobel Prize,
it broke a boundary and forever changed
the way people think about Rice.”
—James Crownover

Fall ’05 27
 “Rick was a visionary, and his charisma and logic made
those he worked with buy into the vision.
Rick convinced us that we could be better,
stronger, and take more chances if we just tried.
—Robert Curl

28 Rice Sallyport
Smalley was the pivotal force in the development of nanoscience and technology at Rice.

chemistry in the fall of 1996 when the Nobel American Carbon Society Medal (1997), the famed architect and geodesic dome inventor
Prize was announced. Franklin Medal from the Committee on Science Buckminster Fuller.
“One key thing I learned from Rick that I try and the Arts of the Franklin Institute (1996), Smalley was fond of pointing out that the
to teach my students is that we are here doing Hewlett-Packard Europhysics Prize from the machinery of life itself, at the most basic level
science because the taxpayers have given us a European Physical Society (1994), the Welch of DNA and protein encoding, draws its power
license to do that,” Heath said. “We need to do Award in Chemistry from the Robert A. Welch from controlling matter with atomic precision.
great science that can change the world we live Foundation (1992), Ernest O. Lawrence He coined the term “wet” nanotechnology to
in, and we need to be sure that we can always Memorial Award from the U.S. Department apply to the biological systems that operate at
explain to the average nonscientist on the street of Energy (1992), and the Irving Langmuir the nanoscale and “dry” nanotechnology to
why their investment is worthwhile.” Prize in Chemical Physics from the American describe the physical/chemical systems that
Even while battling cancer, Smalley maintained Physical Society (1991). nanotechnologists were developing. At one
a hectic work and travel schedule and an intense While the Nobel Prize won him worldwide point in the early years following the discov-
focus on his research. As director of the Carbon recognition, the award carried a special sig- ery of buckyballs, he said that biology was the
Nanotechnology Laboratory, he continued to nificance for members of the Rice community only working nanotechnology. His vision was
develop foundational technologies for carbon because it resulted directly from work carried to work at the interface between these wet
nanotube production and processing. out on the campus. “When Rick and Bob and dry systems to bring the range of systems
One of Smalley’s most ambitious programs, won the Nobel Prize, it broke a boundary and that could be generated in the dry realm to
the Armchair Quantum Wire project, began in forever changed the way people think about bear on the wet world of biology and to create
April with $11 million funding from NASA. He Rice,” said James Crownover, chair of the Rice entirely new systems.
described the quantum wire during his accep- Board of Trustees. “With that achievement, they “Rick could focus so completely on his
tance of the Distinguished Alumni Award from showed that with imagination, inspiration, and goals, and he could inspire his students and
Hope College in May, calling it “a continuous commitment, there are no boundaries to what his colleagues to a similar focus,” said Kathleen
cable of buckytubes that we expect will conduct Rice and its people can accomplish.” Matthews, dean of the Wiess School of Natural
electricity 10 times better than copper yet have From the moment of their discovery, bucky- Sciences and the Stewart Memorial Professor of
only one-sixth the weight, a zero coefficient balls attracted scientific attention worldwide. Biochemistry. “He had the ability to persuade
of thermal expansion, and a tensile strength Carbon, at the time, was believed to be one of others with a rare intensity of thought and spirit.
greater than steel. If we succeed, we’ll be able the most stable of all elements, with only two He brought both passion and intellect to his
to rewire the world, replacing aluminum and primary forms: graphite and diamond. The work, and he displayed a degree of dedication
copper in virtually every application and per- discovery of a third form was astounding to and engagement that could motivate others to
mitting a vast increase in the capacity of the many, and it presaged the dawning of a new new levels of achievement.”
nation’s electrical grid.” era in the physical sciences in which scientists Similar words were echoed by Curl: “Rick
Smalley was a member of the National Acad- could exert an unprecedented level of control was a visionary, and his charisma and logic
emy of Sciences and a fellow of the American over materials. made those he worked with buy into the
Academy of Arts and Science, the American Shaped like soccer balls and no wider than vision. Rick convinced us that we could be
Physical Society, and the American Association a strand of DNA, buckyballs are molecules of better, stronger, and take more chances if we
for the Advancement of Science. pure carbon. Each contains 60 carbon atoms just tried. I hope that we don’t forget that.
He was the recipient of countless honors, arranged in a hollow sphere. The atomic ar- Then his legacy to Rice will make a lasting
including the Lifetime Achievement Award rangement of the carbon atoms resembles two transformative difference.”
from Small Times magazine (2003), the Glenn conjoined geodesic domes, and Smalley coined
T. Seaborg Medal from UCLA (2002), the the name “buckminsterfullerene” in honor of

Fall ’05 29
30 Rice Sallyport
 The Rice Historical Society
by Christopher Dow

History is a fragile thing. It can be lost, destroyed, altered by interpreta-

tion, or deliberately suppressed. Most often, it is simply misremembered.
Try reminiscing with an old friend about bygone days, and you’ll find that
historical accuracy is doubtful, even for relatively recent personal events.
So, what can be done to prevent the Sallyport from becoming another
Rashomon Gate? The Rice Historical Society is working on just that.

Rice University is an ideal subject for historical Historical Commission. They started collecting get any response.”
study because it is a unique and well-defined university archives, but their main objective was They did, ending up with an initial mem-
entity with roots that do not extend so far into to provide the resources for a book about the bership of nearly 200. Today, membership
the past that they are obscure. As Karen Hess history of Rice University up to 1963.” remains a very steady 260. “The purpose of
Rogers ’68, emerita member of the Rice Board That book, A History of Rice University: The the group is to collect and preserve the his-
of Trustees and the principal founder of the Institute Years, 1907–1963, written by Freder- tory of Rice and to make it known,” Rogers
Rice Historical Society (RHS), puts it, “You can icka Meiners ’63, was published in 1982, and says. “We have serious lectures, symposia, and
wrap your arms around Rice’s history.” when it was finished, the Historical Commis- tours each semester, but we also like to have
There is more than love in that embrace. sion disbanded. To fill the gap, the Association a couple of really nice parties during the year,
Rice’s past is intrinsically interesting because of Rice Alumni formed an alumni archives so we have fun, too.”
it is so connected to the growth of Houston committee to collect memorabilia, and they But scratch the surface, and you’ll see that
and Texas. William Marsh Rice was intimately asked Rogers to serve as chair. “It was a loose the motivations of the members run deep.
involved in the development of Texas, and group,” Rogers says. “We met once a week to Founding member Greg Marshall, who also
many of the individuals who have nurtured Rice encapsulate things in Mylar, and the collection has served as president, cites a personal fasci-
over the years have been movers and shakers was kept in the alumni office.” nation with history, but underlying that is the
on the local, state, and national scenes. More John Boles ’65, the William Pettus Hobby effect Rice has had on his life. “For me, Rice
recently, Rice’s indelible influence on major Professor of History and an expert on Rice’s was a very formative experience,” he says. “I
scientific and humanistic advancements makes past, recalls discussions within the commit- was plucked out of a small Texas town that
the university’s past even more important to tee regarding an official historical club, but had fewer people than Rice and was given an
remember. nothing got off the ground until Rogers opportunity to view the world through the
took the various ideas and put them together lens of Rice, where every form of diversity that
H ist o r y in the early 1990s. She organized a steer- I’d read about in books existed in microcosm.
ing committee consisting of Boles, Nancy Going to school at Rice was the completion of
To collect and preserve Rice history, the Wood- Boothe ’52, Harry Chavanne ’33, Shirley my education—of the kind of cultural educa-
son Research Center was created in 1968 to Laughlin Hamner ’63, Greg Marshall ’86, tion that you ought to get. Over the years, I
serve as the university archives, and while the Joyce Winning Nagle ’44, and her friend, Lee would go back and look at the old yearbooks
involvement of an official friends group to help Chatham Sereau, and RHS was confirmed and think, ‘That doesn’t really tell the whole
in the effort took much longer, there were as an official Rice friends group in 1995. story.’ And I began to realize how short the
precedents. “The Historical Society didn’t With cachet in hand, RHS set about acquir- half-life of institutional memory really is.”
grow out of a vacuum,” Rogers says. “At least ing membership. “We printed brochures asking At least one member joined because, initially,
20 years before we got started, Ray Watkin people to join and sent them to alumni,” Rogers she had little choice. In the late 1990s, Melissa
Strange [then Ray Watkin Hoagland ’36], H. recalls. “It was a very bold thing to do because Kean ’96 was studying the integration of pri-
Malcolm Lovett [’21], Willoughby Williams it was a large mailing—maybe 20,000—and we vate universities in the South for her doctorate
[’39], and some other people founded the Rice sent the brochures out not knowing if we’d in history when she suddenly found herself

Fall ’05 31
 on the board. “I didn’t even know about the the way people spoke around the time of the searched, and the writers work really hard on
organization at the time,” Kean admits. “But founding of the university with the way they them. I know, because I see them searching the
the charter calls for a grad student to be on speak now.” Any aspect of Rice is fair game, archives. And that’s a valuable service in itself.
the board, and I got this notice in the mail and other topics have included the history of The Woodson Research Center archives have
one day saying I was on the board and when choosing Rice presidents and how the process not been thoroughly examined, and there are
the next meeting was.” She laughs. “I’m sure has evolved over time, a botanical tour of the a lot of interesting things buried in there.”
John Boles volunteered me.” campus, Albert Thomas and the role Rice RHS also has published two books. The first,
Since earning her doctorate, Kean has writ- played in bringing NASA to Houston, campus written by Boles, was Edgar Odell Lovett and
ten a history of Rice’s School of Continuing architecture, athletics, the evolution of the the Founding of the Rice Institute. “I’d given a
Studies and worked on a history of science Rice Hotel, and Rice’s role in the founding variety of talks on the topic of Lovett and the
and engineering at Rice. More recently, after and development of International University speech he made at the opening of the institu-
serving as the administrative assistant to the Bremen. RHS events usually are held on the tion,” Boles says. “Lovett’s vision is so central
presidential search committee that brought Rice campus or elsewhere in Houston, although to what we’re doing now, and it’s the kind of
President David Leebron to Rice, she was members occasionally go to Galveston for lec- document that everybody who is interested in
named Rice’s first official university historian. tures, tours, or parties. Rice ought to read. But it was hard to find. It
Currently, she is working on an up-to-date Because the minimal expenses associated was printed in the Book of the Opening and in
history of Rice. She says RHS has given her with events and parties are paid for ad hoc by a pamphlet issued in 1916, but it hadn’t been
a lot of perspective on the university and its the membership, RHS dues are designated for reprinted since. I thought that it should be
past. “The organization is just great,” she says. other projects that meaningfully contribute to more readily available and that the speech’s
“It’s such a vivid connection to material that the historical study of Rice. One of the princi- initial impact would be better appreciated if
was just paper to me before.” pal projects is The Cornerstone, which contains readers had an understanding of the state of
historical articles about Rice. Wanda Waters, a higher education at the time. So my idea was
E v e n ts a n d P r o j e c ts friend Rogers had known both in high school to preface that famous talk with an introduc-
and at Rice, agreed to be the newsletter’s editor tory scaffold.”
RHS supports itself primarily through mem- for the first year or two, and she came up with The second book is Houston as a Setting of
bership dues. “The lowest-level membership is the name and established the format. the Jewel: The Rice Institute, a reprint of a book
still $25 a year,” Rogers says. “And it’s a deal When Waters stepped down, Boles ap- originally published in 1913 that spotlighted
because we don’t charge people anything to proached Mary Dix to take up the reins. Dix, the opening of the Rice Institute. “It’s the best
come to our events unless it’s something where who had just retired from Rice after 26 years as snapshot we have of Houston in 1912,” Rogers
we have to buy a ticket to a play or something editor of The Papers of Jefferson Davis, agreed, says. “It features the Rice Institute, but it also
like that.” RHS holds about three events each and she has edited The Cornerstone since. A talks about all the public and private schools
spring and fall semester, an annual meeting professional historical editor, Dix is pleased and the prominent men in business and city
in June, and a seasonal party here and there. with the articles published in The Cornerstone. government as well as important architecture
Members also receive a quarterly newsletter, “They’re usually quite good, and they’re very and the Houston Ship Channel.”
The Cornerstone, and discounts on books pub- personal,” she says. “Good topics on Rice An upcoming book project had its genesis
lished by the society. aren’t difficult to come up with. There’s just in the years when George Rupp was president.
RHS events generally have a speaker who an amazing amount of history. I don’t know “A group of students at the time produced a
gives a talk on some aspect of Rice history or of any school with so much.” volume about the history of Rice,” says Rogers.
a related topic. “Most of the time, we have Kean is enthusiastic about The Cornerstone. “Each student took a particular subject, like the
historians like John Boles,” Rogers says, “but “From a historian’s perspective, it’s extremely development of the college system, the history
we’ve also had speakers like linguistics professor well done,” she says. “Obviously, it’s not of a specific college, or the history of women
Nancy Niedzielski, who gave a talk contrasting scholarly material, but the articles are well re- at Rice, and they published it. John Boles has

32 Rice Sallyport
 T he R i c e H ist o ri c al S o c iet y

“It’s people remembering the great times they had as students here and trying hard to contribute something as adults by preserving that past.”
—Mel i ssa Kean

been wanting to do that since.” double set of the Campanille and doesn’t need restricted. But we want them to give it to us
Boles and Kean even co-taught a Baker any more except for the boxed edition from because, in the future, anything might shed
College course on Rice history, and the stu- 1970. Nor does it need more freshman beanies light on something that may not seem impor-
dents wrote essays on their research. “It’s the from Slime parade. It is looking for class rings, tant right now.”
kind of class where students can go down to however, although all those go to Woodson RHS would like to see the archival mate-
Woodson and do real historical research based rather than remain in the RHS archives. rial eventually come out of storage and go on
on authentic archival materials and primary For Rogers, some of the most important display. “If there ever were a Rice museum,
sources,” Boles says. He and Kean selected items in the collection are scrapbooks and which we hope to have one day,” says Boles,
the best of those essays for publication, and family histories. “We’ve been given some au- “or maybe an elaborate visitors center, we could
they hired one of the students to serve as edi- tobiographies—the sorts of things that people display materials that wouldn’t be particularly
tor, with RHS footing the costs. “If we have do just for their families,” she says. “We have appropriate for the Woodson archive but that
a class like this every couple of years,” Boles three that were written by people born in the are important to Rice history.”
says, “we can turn out a series Another way RHS is helping
of books on different aspects of augment Woodson’s archives is by
Rice history. In the future, hav- funding the digitization of some
ing these kinds of vignettes of of the collections, specifically an
history will be important.” academic journal once published
by Rice and variously titled The
A r c hi v es Rice Institute Pamphlet and Rice
University Studies, material about
Research and publication aren’t the Masterson presidency, and
the only ways RHS contributes a number of audio and video
to Rice history. The society also tapes. Some of the latter were
Left to right: John Boles, Melissa Kean, and Karen Hess Rogers
actively seeks historical Rice in- interviews taped by Meiners for
formation and memorabilia for both the official first decade of the 20th century who came to A History of Rice University and unearthed by
university archives in Woodson Research Center Rice in the ’20s. Two were from very rural Kean. “We didn’t know we had them,” Kean
and its own archives. “The Historical Society backgrounds, so it was a really life-changing says, “but once we did, we found interviews
has a totally separate collection that consists experience for them. These kinds of histories with people long dead, like Malcolm Lovett.
of things that Woodson isn’t interested in,” are really wonderful, not just because they talk I’d give anything to talk to Malcolm Lovett.
Rogers says. “We always run new acquisitions about Rice but because they tell what lives were It would be—I don’t want to say tragic—but
by them first, but they don’t want objects that like at the time.” it would be bad to lose that history.”
take up a lot of space. If they don’t want it, With her professional interest in the history of There are plenty of reasons to preserve as
we keep it.” higher education, Kean is especially concerned much of Rice’s history as possible for the fu-
The RHS archives grew out of the alumni with RHS’s efforts to preserve material, both ture, but that doesn’t mean the effort has to
association collection of memorabilia, and much for Woodson and in its own archives. “The be dull or tedious. “It’s a very happy group,”
of it now is kept in a rented storage space. “We Rice Historical Society made me see so clearly Kean says, summing up the Rice Historical
have megaphones, photographs, diplomas, old the importance of building the archives,” she Society. “It’s people remembering the great
invitations, extra building cornerstones, and says. “One of the things we’re relatively short times they had as students here and trying
things like that that,” Rogers says. Because on in Woodson is faculty papers, so any time hard to contribute something as adults by
RHS has received so much donated material, anybody retires, I make it my business to tell preserving that past.”
the group had to come up with a list of items them not to throw their stuff away. We’ll even
it does and doesn’t want. It has, for example, a sort it out for them or restrict it if they want it

For more information on the Rice Historical Society, go to ricehistoricalsociety.org, email rhs@ruf.rice.edu, or call 713-348-4990.

Fall ’05 33
 [ arts ]

Student
department—many done during lectures.
Mulcahy took a selection of the highly
gestural drawings done on various scraps
of paper and clustered them into one

OUTPUT
larger vertical piece. This presentation
gave cohesiveness to the assortment of
images and conveyed a strong sense of
Saner’s work.
OUTPUT was Mulcahy’s first stint as
a solo curator. “I realized how powerful
curators are,” he says. “It’s very similar to
making art for me, but instead of using a
Art is all about choices. pencil, you are using other people’s art.”
Rebecca Villarreal, for example, decided Mulcahy was impressed with the ambi-
to teach herself to weld. Using Rice equip- tion and motivation of artists like Villarreal
ment, the graduating senior created her as well as the collaborative work of Leslie
aptly titled floor sculpture, Rebar, from McAhren and Courtney Dow. Snacks, a
lengths of curved rebar welded together 16mm film by McAhren and Dow, was
in an open cylinder. Visually, the piece was the standout of the show. In fall 2004,
similar to a sheaf of wheat bound together they received the Mavis C. Pitman Exhibit
in the middle and curving outward at the Award to help finance the film, and they
base and top. shot it during the fall and spring semester.
But even after she fabricated the labor Adapted from a short story by Sam Lipsyte,
intensive sculpture, Villarreal’s work wasn’t the film centers around an awkward Baby
done. The rebar curling out on top created Huey-esque teen and his love of food.
a circumference that was too broad to fit What was most striking about the work,
through the gallery doors. Instead of leav- shot entirely in Houston, was the artists’
ing the work out of the show, Villarreal ability to evoke a palpable sense of place
decided to trim the rebar sections. Art is through their camera work and choice of
all about choices. locations that are wonderfully evocative
To choose a curator for this year’s stu- of the Bayou City’s swampy splendor—
dent show, OUTPUT: Rice Student Exhibit ranging from the banal to the tropically
42, Rice Gallery director Kim Davenport
turned to Rice’s own student body. Bren- For the vast majority of the graduating overgrown and derelict.
For the vast majority of the graduating
dan Mulcahy was a graduate student in students, visual art was not their sole major.
architecture and had studied fine art as an
undergraduate. Following graduation, he
students, visual art was not their sole As in the past, this year’s crop had double
and even triple majors, and their other
landed a job working as an assistant to
artist Sol LeWitt, known as the “dean” of major. As in the past, this year’s crop had studies often informed their work. In the
case of Will Thompson, his documentary
conceptual art. Mulcahy started thinking films led directly to his figurative paintings.
about graduate school, but after spending
four years working with LeWitt, he figured
double and even triple majors, and their Christel Miller’s interest in gender studies
resulted in her series of staged photographs
that getting an MFA in studio art would
be redundant. other studies often informed their work. of “drag kings”—black-and-white images
of women dressed as men.
With an interdisciplinary approach to For Mulcahy, the difference between
art, Mulcahy decided to pursue a master’s making artwork in a traditional sense and
degree in architecture at Rice. The graduate curating is that, with curating, “You are
program here suited him. Mulcahy describes given a fixed set of variables, and then you
it as “very experimental,” allowing students move them around to sort of flush out the
to pursue interests that range from the composition or concept that you want to
practical to the highly theoretical. make. If you want to have an agenda, then
Mulcahy brought his open, artistic curating is a good place to be.”
sensibilities to his job as curator. He met Mulcahy graduated last May and headed
with the graduating art majors and asked to New York. When asked what his plans
to see their work—not just projects they are, he replies, “I’m just going to be an
had done as a part of their classes but artist.” Given his open approach to art,
also things they had created on their own. that could involve any number of things,
That’s how he discovered Ruya Saner’s curating among them.
drawings. Saner had a collection of quickly
—Kelly Klaasmeyer
and surreptitiously sketched portraits of
students and faculty in the architecture

34 Rice Sallyport
 [ arts ]

A Cloud of Kites kites in his epic installation,

Infinite Expanse of Sky, a 1998
the first kites, like Hashimoto’s,
were made from silk and bam-
The installation team worked
12-hour days, but curato-
project at the Museum of Con- boo. Hashimoto found one rial assistant Katherine Kuster
Walking into Superabundant temporary Art in Chicago. “All of the largest Chinese manu- says that, in spite of the time
Atmosphere, Jacob Hashimoto’s my friends, my parents, me, facturers of dragon kites—the crunch, Hashimoto sought
installation at Rice Gallery, was everyone that I knew in the segmented bodies of which to foster an air of relaxation.
like walking into a cloud. In one world, everybody, sat around are created from tiny circular The installation team listened
and built 14,000 pieces, and kites—and asked them if they to a lot of Radiohead as well
of his most striking works to
that was a killer,” the artist could create an elliptical kite. as books on tape, a staple in
date, the 32-year-old artist filled revealed in an interview for the To his relief, they could. Hashimoto’s own studio.
the gallery with thousands of tiny Superabundant Atmosphere ex- Hashimoto’s elegant and airy Based on past experience,
kites that hung in rows from the hibition catalog. installation belies the labor-in- Hashimoto believes that if
ceiling, creating the effect of a the installation team is tense,
it comes across in the work.
cumulus cloud hovering low in
The idea makes sense; it would
the gallery. Hanging 9,000 kites was an epic effort in itself, be hard to realize this kind of
requiring at least 18,000 knots, each one tied by subtle undulation if everyone
Hashimoto’s kites aren’t the hand.The installation took five days and required is harried and trying to work as
sort of diamond-shaped ones quickly as possible.
six assistants.Then Hashimoto spent an extra day
you flew as a child. They’re For the viewer, Superabun-
tiny ellipses made from cream- and a half tweaking things on his own. dant Atmosphere was interactive
colored silk stretched over a in a delicate and quiet way.
bamboo frame, drawn from the Entering the gallery, you were
Japanese tradition of kite-mak- enveloped by the tranquil,
ing. Peering through the glass Diamond-shaped or hexago- tensive efforts required to cre- otherworldly atmosphere. The
that covers the front wall of nal kites take Hashimoto about ate it. The first step in achiev- thousands of tiny kites swayed
the gallery, visitors were struck two minutes each to make by ing its phenomenal effects was in response to your move-
by the sheer spectacle of the hand. But to create an elliptical to stretch parallel wires taut ments, connecting you, the
work. The neutral tones of the kite, according to Hashimoto, across the gallery ceiling. Each room, and the piece. Visitors
silk blended with the stone of takes about an hour and in- kite was hung from slender walked behind it to view the
the gallery floor and the white volves soaking and shaping the black threads tied to the wires. thousands of threads unob-
walls to create an ethereal envi- bamboo frame. Making the Rows of kites started low in the scured by the kites; they blew
ronment. 9,000 kites required for his back of the room and slowly on the kites, creating ripples
Rice Gallery installation would undulated upward like the through the work. The flight-
Although Hashimoto has
have taken Hashimoto more underside of a cloud. Hanging less kites seemed to levitate
used kites in previous exhibi-
than four years, working 40 9,000 kites was an epic ef- in the air of the gallery. With
tions, for the Rice Gallery in-
hours a week. fort in itself, requiring at least simple components and a lot of
stallation, he chose the elegant
For the Rice Gallery kites, 18,000 knots, each one tied by man-hours, Hashimoto man-
elliptical forms because they
Hashimoto turned to China. hand. The installation took five aged to create an environment
occur in some of his favorite
Kites, like a lot of other inno- days and required six assistants. that felt effortlessly serene.
Japanese screen paintings as
vations, originated in China. Then Hashimoto spent an extra
clouds moving from scene to —Kelly Klaasmeyer
Some historians believe they day and a half tweaking things
scene, marking the passage
date back 3,000 years and that on his own.
of time. Hashimoto first used

Fall ’05 35
 Pictured left to right: Neil "Sandy" Havens, David Parsons, Katherine Tsanoff Brown, John O'Neil, Earl Staley, James Chillman Jr.
36 Rice Sallyport
 [ arts ]

When John O’Neil was being recruited in 1965 to chair

Rice’s new Department of Fine Arts, he was unimpressed
with what he found on campus. In his personal notes
about the creation of the department, which chronicle
a five-year period and appear in full below, O’Neil com-
ments that, “Interest on campus in the establishment
of the Department of Fine Arts seemed unenthusiastic.
Some older faculty members actually were hostile.”

“I returned to Oklahoma,” writes O’Neil, a renowned painter who, ment. Broker hopes that, in the in the humanities and is impor-
at the time, was director of the School of Art at the University of future, a component will be tant for its role in academia, the
Oklahoma, “realizing that even though Rice enjoyed a fine added to the program wherein museum world, and publish-
Rice students can take courses ing,” explains Joseph Manca,
reputation in science and engineering, any distinction in art
at the Glassell School in such chair of the department. “We
would be hard won.” areas as ceramics, foundry, and have our own major and honors
jewelry making, which Rice program, we do our own hiring
currently does not have the re- and promotion of faculty, and
How things have changed since not expressed in numbers starts
sources to offer. we control our own budget.”
then. The original Department to give you hives.”
Visual arts is not just for stu- The department has moved
of Fine Arts morphed into the With support from the presi-
dents who want to pursue ca- into the renovated Herring
Department of Art and Art His- dent and the dean of the School
reers as artists, Broker explains. Hall, formerly home to Rice’s
tory, which in 2003 split into of Humanities, Gary Wihl,
In fact, she considers the arts a business school. It includes the
two—the Department of Art Broker forged a new collabora-
vital educational component. state-of-the-art Visual Resource
History and the Department tion with the Glassell School
Center, a collection of 300,000
of Visual Arts. Today, they are images of works of art and vi-
important components of the sual culture from prehistoric to
humanities at Rice. And as the “We can develop the Renaissance student— contemporary times.
departments celebrate their
40th anniversary on campus,
we can take students with the math and the chemistry Studio art and art history
are very different disciplines,
their chairs find much more en- background and make them great.” Manca points out, and ideally
thusiasm for the arts here than never should have been joined
—Karin Broker
their predecessor O’Neil did together, but having two sepa-
decades ago. rate departments wasn’t practi-
Karin Broker, chair of the at the Museum of Fine Arts, Through the arts, she says, “We cal 40 years ago. O’Neil, who
Department of Visual Arts, is Houston. The Core Program can develop the Renaissance died in 2004, had a great vision
especially pleased about one of will bring recent master’s of fine student—we can take students for both the visual arts and art
the biggest proponents of the arts graduates from the Glassell with the math and the chemis- history at Rice, and Broker—his
humanities at Rice: President School to Rice as adjunct lectur- try background and make them officemate for many years—is
David W. Leebron. She was ers. Rice students will receive great.” confident that the state of the
bowled over by Leebron’s ad- instruction from the “cream Art history, meanwhile, also is arts at Rice today is what he was
vice in his matriculation address of the crop” in the arts world, blossoming since becoming its working toward.
to the Class of 2008: “Take an and the new graduates will get own department. “Art history —Dana Benson
art class, even though anything a taste of the academic environ- is a major intellectual discipline

Fall ’05 37
 [ arts ]

Beginnings:

Personal Notes About the Founding of

the Department of Art and Art History
B y (1965–1970)
John O’Neil

In spring 1965,
the greater part over and after “Oh, I’m pretending that this of a house on the campus pe-
lunch in the Faculty Club at is a university!” riphery also was examined, as
Cohen House. There had been Jasper also had taught a was the erection of a temporary
I received, in my office at the difficulty in finding a room for painting course at Rice and, at steel structure. The latter op-
School of Art of the University my Houston stay since festivi- the end of the 1964 academic tion was adopted, with a loca-
of Oklahoma in Norman, a ties attendant to the opening year, staged the first-ever art tion in the shadow of the track
telephone call from Elinor Ev- of the Astrodome were then in students’ exhibition. In the stadium: this was to serve for
ans, a recently arrived teacher progress. I was given room in a studio area, he also had a col- studio courses. In art history,
in the Department of Architec- Holcombe Street motel, where league, David Parsons, who a position already had been
ture at Rice University. Elinor, the air conditioner immedi- had been recommended by advertised and was accepted by
an artist with a master’s degree ately failed, so my evaluation of Jimmy Chillman, director William Kane.
from Yale, where she had stud- Houston at this point was quite emeritus of the Museum of During my campus tour, I
ied with Josef Albers, was call- low. Fine Arts, Houston, to teach found lecture rooms and studio
ing to tell me that Rice wanted During the visit, I found beginning drawing as well as rooms, all located in Anderson
to establish a fine arts depart- that there had been some art sculpture to architecture stu- Hall, to be chaotic: a tumble
ment as part of the humanities, instruction on the Rice campus dents. of old and sometimes broken
and she had been asked to in past years, all within the If Jasper Rose didn’t think furniture, trash, wadded paper,
recommend an artist or art his- Department of Architecture: highly of Rice as a university, it and abandoned student paint-

“The entire Rice campus seemed almost aggressively anti-visual.”

torian to be chair. Would I be James Chillman Jr., retired di- may have been because it had ings. The entire Rice campus
interested? rector of the Museum of Fine changed to that designation seemed almost aggressively
Having just completed 14 Arts, Houston, and Katherine only in 1960, having previ- anti-visual. A Jacques Lipchitz
years as a tenured professor and Tsanoff Brown, a graduate ously been the Rice Institute. bronze of Gertrude Stein,
director of the School of Art at of Rice and Cornell, taught a The new concept took root poorly shown in Fondren Li-
Norman, a school with a fac- few fundamental art history slowly. Interest on campus in brary, bore the burden of the
ulty of 14, a graduate program courses, as did Jasper Rose, a the establishment of a Depart- single work of art in this pocket
dating from 1934, 200 art ma- visitor from England holding a ment of Fine Arts (later to of academia. I returned to
jors, and a respected art muse- one-year appointment at Rice. be given the more accurate Oklahoma realizing that, even
um, my interest in change was Jasper departed in 1965 to name Department of Art and though Rice enjoyed a fine
mild. However, I did send a accept an appointment to the Art History) seemed unen- reputation in science and engi-
note to Philip Wadsworth, then instructional staff of the Uni- thusiastic. Some older faculty neering, any distinction in art
dean of humanities at Rice, versity of California at Santa members actually were hostile. would be hard won.
asking for information. An Cruz, but not before he had However, an effort had been Soon after my return to Nor-
exchange of letters followed, surprised the Rice campus by made to find a suitable space to man, there was a telephone
then a telephone call from wearing academic regalia to his house the department, at least call, followed by a letter from
Wadsworth asking me to come classes. Once, striding across temporarily. Under consider- Dean Wadsworth: he offered
to Houston in order to meet the quadrangle in his vivid and ation was the basement of the me an appointment as professor
several members of the archi- flowing robes, he encountered food services building (an idea and chair of the Department of
tecture faculty and others from then-president Kenneth Pitzer, eventually abandoned: cooking Fine Arts. I delayed a decision
related disciplines. The meet- who asked him what the festive odors merging with that of oil until I could discuss the offer
ing was low-key, conducted for occasion was. Jasper replied, paint!); the rent or purchase with my dean, Donald Clark. I

38 Rice Sallyport
 [ arts ]

One brave student, Paul Pfeiffer Jr., decided to risk becoming an art major.

thought Rice needed the help dent paraphernalia. the English department was ings by Dorothy Hood (one of
I felt qualified to give, and a Applications arrived for both releasing him so that he could which, later stolen, had been
plan was formed for me to take the art history and studio posi- join the fine arts faculty. given to the department by
a year’s leave from Oklahoma tions. We invited portfolios President Pitzer, taking in Meredith Long), photography
to go to Rice as a visitor and from 14 artists and narrowed our recent soggy state, said we by Geoff Winningham selected
acting chair. I planned to step the art history search to Mar- would be moved to the sec- from his master’s exhibition at
away from these posts when tha Caldwell, who eventually ond floor of Allen Center, the the School of Design in Chi-
the department had been prod- was appointed. During the business office, as soon as the cago, and the third annual stu-
ded into existence. Rice agreed search, a new wing for Fondren building was complete. I asked dent show, which caused some
to the plan. Library was under construc- for the space to include a de- campus ripples. Jim Simmons,
In fall 1965, the Depart- tion. During spring 1966, a partmental art gallery and for a head of the Office of Buildings
ment of Fine Arts appeared, violent storm sent 14 inches small budget to purchase works and Grounds, objected fiercely
and a major curriculum was ap- of water into our basement of- of art to form a teaching col- to an overflow of student work
proved. The instructional staff fices, inundating and ruining lection, and both requests were being shown in the halls of Al-
was Katherine Brown, David work in the artists’ portfoli- approved. len Center, which forced us to
Parsons, William Kane, James os—we had little furniture and The second annual art stu- stay within the gallery limits.
Chillman, and myself. Three storage space at the time, and dents’ exhibition was staged The contract for Martha
rather gloomy departmental the floor served as a convenient at the Rice Memorial Center; Caldwell was not renewed; we

“In fall 1965, the Department of Fine Arts appeared, and a major curriculum was approved.”
offices, one with a window and table. Slides and books belong- it seemed to signal a change searched for a replacement.
two without, were assigned ing to Kane, Brown, and Chill- in the visual atmosphere of Earl Staley, a recent MFA grad-
to us in the basement of Fon- man also were water soaked. the campus. However, at the uate of the University of Ar-
dren Library. Studio courses When the waters subsided, we end of the spring 1966 semes- kansas, was appointed to teach
in drawing and painting began also discovered that a group ter, the department still was printmaking and drawing, the
in a temporary steel building of Henry Miller watercolors, struggling to develop, and I printmaking equipment already
situated in what proved to be a given to us just a week before petitioned Oklahoma for a one- having been purchased. The
quagmire. One brave student, by the architecture department, year extension of my leave since slide collection was begun with
Paul Pfeiffer Jr., decided to risk had been washed bone clean. I couldn’t face leaving so many Juwil Topazio as curator. In the
becoming an art major. Insurance covered the losses, loose ends at Rice. This, too, past, only large lantern slides
A search began for a full- but paying claims spread over was approved. in black-and-white were used
time studio instructor as well an entire year. All the studio In fall 1967, we moved to for lectures. Winningham, then
as a replacement for Bill Kane, applicants had to be informed new quarters in Allen Center; teaching at the University of St.
who had resigned after be- and asked to state the value of the offices were small, but the Thomas, was employed to pho-
ing appalled by the primitive their destroyed work—some, it gallery was a clean, luminous tograph the glass slides and re-
working conditions; poverty of seemed, hadn’t sold much and space. The initial exhibition duce them to a 35mm format.
resources; damp, hot climate; thought the event to be a per- was attended by Houston no- A decision had to be made
and the deluges that year that sonal bonanza! tables, including Oveta Culp about my pending return to
prompted one student to dub When something resembling Hobby. Six exhibitions were Oklahoma. President Pitzer
the campus William Rice’s normalcy appeared, Neil Ha- staged for the first season, in- was very persuasive in en-
marsh. Boots, umbrellas, and vens, the director of Rice Play- cluding those of the California couraging me to remain per-
raincoats became necessary stu- ers, came in to inform us that painter John Tomas, ink draw- manently at Rice, and after a

Fall ’05 39
 [ arts ]

I realized then that the future, at least for several years, was going to be

difficult time of indecision, I

agreed to do so. He had as-
sured me that future building
plans included a new structure
to house art and architecture.
Such a plan actually was drawn
but was rejected because of the
excessive cost of $7 million.
An alternative, but temporary,
space for art was then included
in the planning of Sewall Hall,
dential Insurance grounds. Se-
bastian “Lefty” Adler arrived in
1966 to direct it in a series of
spirited exhibitions. The Hous-
ton Symphony, the Houston
Grand Opera, and the Alley
Theatre were well established
and supported. Commercial
galleries such as Kiko and Loui-
siana & Bute were appearing.
There was a very heady feeling
the slide collection and cura-
tor, the exhibition program
with its technical staff, and the
photography and film program
(designated not very happily
“media”) with two instructors,
plus generous funds to fuel
the various activities. We were
enthusiastic, but some Rice ad-
ministrators observed that the
de Menils “had a poor track
a
offered to erect another build-
ing, a true art center, to be
designed by a distinguished
architect. For the immediate
solution, however, he wanted
to build a temporary structure,
brick faced, to be situated near
Fondren Library. The Board of
Trustees rejected this because
the architectural style was in
conflict with the Rice tradition.
a gift of Blanche Sewall. At this in Houston that almost any- record” in educational support The longer-term plan was then
stage, Pitzer was offered the thing of worth in the arts could and that the proposed merger followed, and a de Menil invi-
presidency of Stanford Univer- be accomplished, and with en- was “unprecedented,” as in- tation to Louis Kahn, brought
sity, which he accepted. Fine thusiasm. deed it was. back a second time by Rice,
arts was thus abandoned to its A few gifts to the depart- Thus began months of nego- produced a few preliminary
fate by a powerful friend. ment appeared, the first from tiation, sometimes on campus, sketches by him. A short time
Although I found Rice the estate of the portrait paint- but frequently at the de Menil later, Kahn, dead of a heart at-

The de Menils had proposed that the entire spectrum of art activity at St. Thomas be shifted to Rice, a wedding without precedent.
University a sterile, even bleak er Tamera de Kuffner—mostly residence on San Felipe, at tack in New York, brought a
environment, Houston itself decorative objects such as dinner parties, at the Faculty great dream to an end.
showed stirrings of a vigor- furniture, silverware, and crys- Club, and at the then Criterion To help solve the space
ous cultural life: the Museum tal—that went to enhance the Club. There were many stick- problem, we decided to close
of Fine Arts, Houston, under interior of Cohen House. ing points: there was no room the gallery temporarily in order
James Johnson Sweeney staged In 1967–68, the departmen- at Rice for such a large group to create office space for the
superb exhibitions in the grand tal gallery began its second sea- of people with attendant equip- St. Thomas group, and the de
space of Cullinan Hall; the son. Sometime that year, there ment, and Sewall Hall, with Menils finally decided to build
University of St. Thomas his- were rumors that the de Menils one portion planned to house two temporary structures, of
tory of art program and its were dissatisfied with certain a small art department and a neutral design, at a point dis-
extraordinary fine exhibitions, aspects of their role at the Uni- departmental gallery, would tant from the main campus.
directed by Dominique de versity of St. Thomas. Shortly be inadequate. Many of the de One, in time referred to as The
Menil with the support of her thereafter, Dean Tapazio came Menil proposals were extraor- Barn, housed exhibitions, work
husband, John, gave a unique to me with the startling news dinary: at one point John de space, and some studio space.
and blazing life to the intel- that the de Menils had pro- Menil asked me to go to the Next door, but not quite a
lectual and cultural milieu. Rice posed that the entire spectrum president and ask him to stop clone, was the Media Center.
could only dream of achieving of art activity at St. Thomas the Sewall Hall construction, Dominique de Menil, who had
a parallel art order. There also be shifted to Rice, a wedding a structure which at that time been art chair at St. Thomas,
was the courageous Contem- without precedent. The shift was rising above ground! The became, at Rice, the director of
porary Arts Museum, housed would include a group of four request was, of course, refused the Institute for the Arts, cre-
in a small building on the Pru- art historians, the art library, by me, but John nonetheless ated especially for her.

40 Rice Sallyport
 [ arts ]

wild ride
A frenzy of activity ensued.
Moved to the Rice campus
were art historians William
Camfield, Mino Badner, Philip
Oliver-Smith, and Walter Wid-
rig. Juwil Topazio graciously
resigned her slide curator post,
which was then given to Pat
Toomey. John de Menil wanted
Gerald O’Grady and Geoff
Winningham to teach in the
tional protests against the war
in Vietnam took place here in
a brief occupation by students
of Allen Center.
Earl Staley’s appointment at
the termination of his three-
year contract was not renewed.
Earl had been hired as a print-
maker, but he wanted to teach
painting instead. Since he was
a young artist without many
staff in the Grand Hall of the
Rice Memorial Center. This
was done. The film was Lone-
some Cowboys, which in the at-
mosphere of 1969 might have
been considered titillating.
Warhol and attendant “family”
members—Ultra Violet and
others—paraded in front of the
audience before the film began.
The following day, several
the de Menil teaching collec-
tion. Even though a small but
pleasant departmental gallery
was provided, together with an
adjacent loading dock, storage
areas, and both a freight eleva-
tor and a passenger elevator,
none of the dozens of people
who pored over the blueprints
ever realized that there was
no connection above ground
media program, but strong credentials, the department members of the administration between the two wings of the
objections by the Rice English decided to look for a replace- called on me in my office. The building, nor was this critical
faculty blocked the appoint- ment. Before his departure, I usual reaction to the film event fact mentioned by the archi-
ment of O’Grady, a Chaucerian asked Earl to have a solo show ranged from dislike to distaste. tects. Thus the fine arts area,
scholar who had been given on campus—this was before These opinions also applied to with the exception of sculpture
three teaching awards at Rice the gallery opened. The exhibi- the notion of any art activity and gallery, emerged elevator-
but had been denied tenure for tion was staged in the Ham- at all on campus, expressed in less.

Warhol and attendant ”family” members–Ultra Violet and others–paraded in front of the audience before the film began.
reasons unclear. O’Grady did man Hall lobby; the work was such questions as, “Mr. O’Neil, Dominique de Menil, Dan
not go down to defeat quietly. vigorous and somewhat erotic just what do you have in mind Tapazio, and myself were ap-
After one of several confer- and accompanied the Rice for the future of the fine arts pointed as a trio to make deci-
ences with Dean Topazio, Players presentation of Edward department?” My answer to sions about how that future
he was described as being “a Albee’s Tiny Alice. A poster that was, “A vital and vigorous for the arts at Rice could be
windmill of words.” I had commemorated both events. creative and scholarly discipline, realized. At my request, Domi-
enrolled in a film course at St. The Institute for the Arts open to the examination of all nique and I met in order to
Thomas with O’Grady and held its first exhibition, a ideas in the visual arts and the prepare a budget proposal for
thought him an unusually fine marvelous one titled, “The study and interpretation of the the coming year to be submit-
instructor, the flow of lan- Machine,” co-sponsored by history of art.” The then-dean ted to Tapazio. Dominique
guage put to good use. the Museum of Modern Art. of the graduate area, however, seemed genuinely surprised
As on other campuses, 1969 Shortly thereafter, the Media rather stubbornly insisted, “Art when I asked her to put to-
was a year of upheaval at Rice. Center (actually part of the doesn’t belong at Rice because gether a budget for the Insti-
A new president to replace Department of Fine Arts) be- student accomplishment cannot tute for the Arts major exhibi-
Pitzer, William H. Master- gan giving courses in film with be accurately graded.” tion program. She replied, “We
son—a former Rice faculty James Blue as instructor. In Meanwhile, plans for Sewall always just pay for whatever
member—faced a protest to order to inaugurate the center, Hall had to be revised in order expenses there are.”
the appointment by a united John de Menil had proposed to make room for the increased I realized then that the fu-
student and faculty group. that a new film by Andy War- number of faculty and staff. ture, at least for several years,
Masterson sensibly decided to hol be previewed by the faculty, Space needed to be found for was going to be a wild ride.
forfeit the appointment. Na- students, administrators, and the arriving Art Library and

Fall ’05 41
 [ on t h e books h elf ]

Children’s Books Offer

Informative Look at
Construction Equipment
For those of us who live in urban areas such as Houston, it’s a familiar
scenario when a little voice from the back of the car suddenly pipes up,
“Mommy, what’s that big machine over there?” That’s easy, it’s a bulldozer.
But then the questions keep coming, leaving even adults wondering
Rice University Prowled
about the bevy of construction equipment that is an everyday sight on
our roads and highways. Want the lowdown on Rice That’s the premise of the Col-
University? Then don’t look at lege Prowler series of guide-
A series of children’s books by books that give a realistic
Rice’s Linda Williams helps the university’s brochures meant
impression of student opin-
answer those questions. The to attract new students or ask ions on campuses across
Mighty Machines book set the faculty or administration or the country. The guides are
(Capstone Press, 2004) includes student written and often
even the major magazines that
Backhoes, Bulldozers, Concrete tell it like it is from a student
Mixers, Cranes, Dump Trucks, do annual rankings of colleges
perspective—the bad as well
and Earth Movers. repetitive. While this likely is a and universities. Ask the stu- as the good. The 160-page
Geared toward children ages strong selling point for younger
dents themselves. College Prowler volume on
5 to 8, the books are large with children, those in the 6 to 8 age
Rice, Rice University Off
simple text and colorful, unique range might find the books a
the Record: Students Speak
photography. All the books fol- little below their reading level.
Out! by Julia Schwent ’04,
low the same formula: a gen- Because of the subject matter,
contains hundreds of quotes
eral description of the piece of the books are more likely to ap-
from Rice students about
equipment and its function, a peal to boys.
topics ranging from academ-
section on the parts of the ma- The books’ best feature is the
ics to the attractiveness of
chine, and a chapter specifically photography, and the close-ups
the student population. The
on its purpose. All the books include labels that point to the
quotes are grouped in topi-
include a table of contents, a different parts. There also are
cal sections and supported
glossary, and an index. photos of the machines at work.
with statistical information.
They encourage children to Williams, a technical writer
Some of the nearly 30 sec-
learn more about the machin- for the Wiess School of Natural
tions of the guidebook
ery by offering a “Read More” Sciences, has penned another
cover Rice’s best and worst,
section and information about series of books whose titles
on- and off-campus hous-
a website, http://www.fac- include Chemistry Demystified,
ing, diversity, student or-
thound.com, where children Earth Science Demystified,
ganizations, and essential
can access a list of sites related and Environmental Science
Rice-related terminology.
to the book’s topic. Demystified.
—Dana Benson
Designed for use in schools —Christopher Dow
and libraries, the books are
informative, but they also are

42 Rice Sallyport
 [ on t h e books h elf ]

B o o k n o tes

Panic!
Evan Casher has a good life as an award-winning
documentary filmmaker, and things have gotten Accounting and Finance for Small Business
Made Easy, by Robert Low ’78 (Entrepreneur
even better since the beginning of his romance with Press, 2004)
his new girlfriend, Carrie. Little does he know that Clio’s Southern Sisters: Interviews with
a frantic call from his mother is about to make his Leaders of the Southern Association for
life explode. Women Historians, by Elizabeth Hayes Turner
’90, associate professor of history at the
University of North Texas in Denton, and
Evan arrives at his parents’ home to find his to Florida to the Midwest and overseas to Constance B. Schulz, professor of history at
the University of South Carolina in Columbia
mother murdered. The killers assault Evan, London as he races to stay one step ahead of
(University of Missouri Press, 2004)
demanding he turn over a set of digital files the professional killers trailing him and find
his mother sent to him the day before. The not only the incriminating files and his miss- Even Mountains Vanish: Searching for Solace
killers don’t believe Evan’s distraught pro- ing father but also the real identity of the in an Age of Extinction, by SueEllen Campbell
tests that he doesn’t know what they’re talk- leader of the rogue spy ring. But even if he ’73, professor of English at Colorado State
ing about, and they begin torturing him for succeeds, will he be able to trust his father University (University of Utah Press, 2004)
the information, but he is rescued by a man when he finds him? Or his girlfriend? The Future of Work: How the New Order of
named Gabriel. A disgraced Business Will Shape Your Organization, Your
ex-CIA operative, Gabriel tells Management Style, and Your Life, by Thomas
Evan that the parents he has W. Malone ’74 (Harvard Business School
known and trusted all his life Press, 2004)
weren’t who he thought they George MacDonald Exposes False Conflicts, by
were and that his whole life is Mary Ellis Taylor ’44 (Authorhouse, 2004)
a carefully constructed lie.
So begins Jeff Abbott’s The Greenwood Guides to Historic Events
of the Medieval World, series editor
Jane Chance, professor of English at Rice
(Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004)
Library of Medieval Women, series editor
Panic is a page- Jane Chance (Boydell and Brewer, 2004)
turner filled with tense Literature of the American West, by Greg
Lyons ’72, professor of English at Central
encounters and narrow Oregon Community College (Longman, 2003)

escapes as Evan struggles Magna Carta, by Katherine Fischer Drew ’44,

the Lynette S. Autrey Professor Emerita of
to stay alive long enough History at Rice (Greenwood Press, 2004)
Modernism’s Masculine Subjects: Matisse,
to find the truth, save the New York School, and Post-Painterly
Abstraction, by Marcia Brennan, assistant
those he loves, and professor of art history at Rice (MIT Press,
2004)
destroy the spy ring.
Searching for Their Places: Women in the
South Across Four Centuries, edited by Angela
Boswell ’95, associate professor of history
at Henderson State University, and Thomas
Panic (Dutton, 2005), sending Evan Panic is a page-turner filled with tense en- H. Appleton Jr. (University of Missouri Press,
on a twisty journey where deceit rules and 2003)
counters and narrow escapes as Evan strug-
death rewards failure. Along the way, he gles to stay alive long enough to find the Toni Morrison: Playing with Differences, by
learns that his father has gone missing and truth, save those he loves, and destroy the Lucille P. Fultz, associate professor of English
that his own life is in danger because the spy ring. And it nicely portrays the angst of a at Rice (University of Illinois Press, 2003)
digital files contain information that exposes young man caught up in machinations be- Trading Up, by Candace Bushnell ’80 (Hyperion
a sinister rogue spy ring. Everyone wants the yond his understanding, who must come to Press, 2003)
files—various government agencies as well grips with the evil done by his parents or pay
as the leader of the spy ring, whose back- the price for that evil with his own blood. Vicksburg is the Key: The Struggle for the
ground is shrouded in mystery—and almost Nominated for three Edgar and two An- Mississippi River, by William L. Shea ’75,
everyone seems to want Evan dead. Even thony Awards, Abbott ’85 is the author of professor of history at the University of
Arkansas, and Terrence J. Winschel, a
worse, the more he looks for the answers seven mystery and suspense novels, includ-
historian at Vicksburg National Military Park
that can save him, the more Evan begins to ing A Kiss Gone Bad, Black Jack Point, and (University of Nebraska Press, 2003)
realize that his parents, some of the govern- Cut and Run.
ment agents, and even his girlfriend, may —Christopher Dow The Wakefield Master’s Dramatic Art: A
be working for the bad guys. Drama of Spiritual Understanding, by Liam O.
The journey will take him from Texas Purdom ’81 (University Press of Florida, 2003)

Fall ’05 43
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Each year, Rice honors several of its best

teachers with the George R. Brown Award for
Superior Teaching. This year, professor of French studies Lynne Huffer,
third from left, was singled out for excellence in
teaching. Those honored for their superior skill in
the classroom are, from left, Michelle “Mikki” Hebl,
associate professor of psychology and manage-
ment; Joel Wolfe, associate professor of history;
Stephen Klineberg, professor of sociology; Brian
Gibson, lecturer in kinesiology; and Jose Aranda,
associate professor of English. Not pictured is Don
Johnson, the J.S. Abercrombie Professor in Electri-
cal Engineering and Statistics.

44 Rice Sallyport
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Teaching Awards

Bonnie Bartel Bala Dharan Bridget Gorman Michael Gustin Meng Yeh

Although Lynne Huffer’s classes in women and Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Award. Winners are voted on by alumni two and five
gender studies often deal with highly politicized Statistics; Joel Wolfe, associate professor of history; years out from graduation.
issues, she manages to maintain the delicate and Michelle “Mikki” Hebl, associate professor of Dharan, who teaches courses in financial accounting,
psychology and management. financial statement analysis, and evaluation, notes, “It’s
balance required to keep students at ease but
Hebl also earned the Julia Mile Chance Prize for tough for an accounting professor to wow the students.
on their toes. Excellence in Teaching, which is given annually to an Accounting is not normative, not a closed, well-defined
Huffer’s alchemy of intellectual stimulation and relaxation associate or full professor who provides students with theory. My students have to deal with a lot of practical
makes a lasting impression on students, and it is on the intellectual challenge and inspiration, shows extraordinary situations in order to learn. So they are asked to do a
list of reasons she is the recipient of the 2005 George dedication to students’ professional development, and lot in my courses.”
R. Brown Prize for Excellence in Teaching, Rice’s most enhances gender-sensitive leadership on campus. Michael Gustin credits his optimism and outgoing
prestigious teaching award. Recognizing the rare combination of excellence in personality for his success in the classroom. Gustin,
Every year, Rice commends its best teachers with both teaching and scholarship, the 2005 Charles W. associate professor of biochemistry and cell biology, is
George R. Brown awards. One is chosen for the excel- Duncan Award for Outstanding Achievement was given the recipient of the 2005 Nicholas Salgo Distinguished
lence prize, which includes an award of $6,500, while to Bonnie Bartel, professor of biochemistry and cell Teaching Award. Created in 1966 by the Noren–Salgo
several are recognized for superior teaching, which offers biology. The Duncan Award is open to tenure-track or Foundation, it is Rice’s oldest teaching award. The Salgo
a $2,000 prize. Awards are based on survey responses tenured members of the faculty with fewer than 10 years winner is chosen each year by members of the junior
of experience, and it includes a $5,000 prize. and senior class and awarded a $1,500 prize.
from alumni who graduated two and five years ago.
It always is a challenge to balance teaching and The Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Prize is awarded each
As director of Rice’s Program for the Study of Women
research, Bartel says, so she tries to tie together con- year to an outstanding assistant professor at Rice Uni-
and Gender, Huffer teaches Introduction to Lesbian, Gay,
cepts from both areas. “I sometimes get insights for my versity based on faculty review of student evaluations.
Bisexual, and Transgender Studies, as well as two senior
research projects when I am reading for a lecture,” she For 2005, the award was presented to two recipients:
capstone courses.
explains. “Moreover, much of the teaching that I do oc- sociology’s Bridget Gorman and Adrian Lenardic in
“I create a space where students feel they can express
curs in my laboratory, where the teaching and research the earth science department. Many students indicated
their views,” Huffer says. “However, they must always
are seamless.” that, although they initially enrolled in their classes simply
be respectful of others, and they must support their Rice’s 2005 Presidential Award for Mentoring has to meet a requirement, the courses became among the
arguments with materials from the class.” been awarded to mechanical engineering’s Yildiz Baya- most rewarding they have taken.
Since she began teaching the introductory class zitoglu, the Harry S. Cameron Professor in Mechanical Two lecturers of Chinese in the Center for the Study of
seven years ago, enrollment has grown to 75 students Engineering. She is a pioneer among women engineers Languages are recipients of the 2005 Sarofim Teaching
from only eight. Huffer believes a critical examination of who has gained national acclaim for her support of Award for Excellence: Meng Yeh and Chao-mei Shen.
sexuality is important for everyone—regardless of sexual students, particularly young women. Created with support from Rice endowment manager
orientation or identity. Many students are attracted to The mentoring award is given annually to a faculty Fayez Sarofim, the award is given to lecturers in the
the courses’ multidisciplinary nature—weaving together member who has demonstrated a commitment to mentor- School of Humanities who show exceptional profes-
philosophy, anthropology, history, literature, political ing students, either graduate or undergraduate. Particular sionalism and dedication to students.
science, psychology, and other disciplines. emphasis is given to candidates who have promoted
The six faculty who earned the George R. Brown —Reported by B. J. Almond, Jade Boyd, Dawn
diversity by mentoring women and underrepresented
Dorsey, and Debra Thomas
Award for Superior Teaching are Jose Aranda, associ- minorities. The award includes a $2,000 prize.
ate professor of English; Brian Gibson, a lecturer in the The J. Howard Creekmore Professor of Management
Department of Kinesiology; Stephen Klineberg, profes- Bala Dharan has been awarded the 2005 Jesse H. Jones
sor of sociology; Don Johnson, the J.S. Abercrombie Graduate School of Management Teaching Excellence

Fall ’05 45
 [ w h o ' s w h o ]

— Kathy Collins
— Eugene Levy
— Shih-Hui Chen
— Rebekah Drezek
In the News
— Malcolm Gillis
— Ken Kennedy
— Richard Tapia
— Peter Vail
— Marcia O’Malley
— Yehia Massoud
— Susan Ossman
— Moshe Vardi
— Martin Wiener
— Peggy Shaw
— Yildiz Bayazitoglu
— Martha Alexander
— Eusebio Franco

Collins Named VP for Finance the space agency with independent 3,000 bioengineers and biomedical discoveries have, among them, 10
advice and guidance on its major engineers. products approved by the Food and
Reorganizing Rice’s administrative
program and policy issues. Athanasiou was selected as a fel- Drug Administration. One of those—
support services, President David
As chair of the planetary protec- low for pioneering work in articular VidaCare’s EZ-IO, a device used by
W. Leebron has created the new
tion committee, Levy will lead the cartilage bioengineering and for paramedics and frontline military
Division of Finance and named
group that advises NASA on mat- substantial contributions to research medics in Afghanistan and Iraq to
Kathy Collins vice president for
ters related to protecting planets, that have resulted in numerous inject lifesaving medications directly
finance.
moons, comets, and asteroids. The bioengineering products. into the bones of patients suffer-
Collins, who formerly was as-
committee’s focus is preserving the He also received the first Van ing blood loss and shock—already
sociate vice president and budget
ability to study other worlds as they C. Mow Medal from the American is credited with saving numerous
director, reports to both the president
exist in their natural states, avoiding Society of Mechanical Engineers. lives and was recognized recently
and the provost, heading a division
contamination that would obscure Established in 2004, the medal is with top honors in the critical-care
that includes the Budget Office, the
the ability to find life elsewhere— given to an individual who has made and emergency medical category
Office of Institutional Research, and if it exists—and ensuring prudent of the prestigious Medical Design
a significant impact on the field of
the Controller’s Office. precautions are taken to protect Excellence Award competition.
bioengineering through research,
Before coming to Rice in 1995, Earth’s biosphere in case it does. education, professional development,
Collins served for seven years as Levy has been a member of this and leadership in the profession as
budget director with the U.S. De- committee since 2002. a mentor and through service to the
partment ofTransportation and nine As a member of the NAC, Levy will Composer Chen Awarded
bioengineering community.
years in the White House Office provide counsel directly to NASA’s Commission
Athanasiou’s research centers on
of Management and Budget. She administration on issues of space the regeneration of cartilages of the Shih-Hui Chen, assistant professor
holds a bachelor of arts degree in policy. Levy began his term in June musculoskeletal system—tissues of composition and theory at the
urban studies from Mount Holyoke and will serve along with the likes of that cannot heal themselves. His Shepherd School of Music, was
College and a master of arts de- former senator and astronaut John Musculoskeletal Bioengineering one of seven composers awarded a
gree in city planning from Harvard Glenn, author Homer Hickam, and Laboratory conducts basic research commission for new musical works
University. filmmaker James Cameron. on the healing processes of cartilage by the Serge Koussevitzky Founda-
and applied research into methods tion in the Library of Congress and
of growing tissues in the lab. the Koussevitzky Music Foundation
Athanasiou has published more Inc. The foundations perpetuate
Levy Named Chair of NASA Athanasiou Honored for Pioneering than 150 peer-reviewed papers former Boston Symphony director
Committee Work in Cartilage Bioengineering
and 200 conference proceedings Serge Koussevitzky’s lifelong ef-
Rice’s Howard R. Hughes Provost Kyriacos Athanasiou, the Karl F. and abstracts, and he holds some forts to encourage contemporary
and professor of physics and as- Hasselmann Professor of Bioengi- 25 U.S. patents. He has mentored composers.
tronomy Eugene Levy has been neering, has been elected to the more than 130 medical residents, The Empyrean Ensemble, founded
named chair of NASA’s Planetary inaugural class of fellows of the postdoctoral researchers, gradu- in 1988 at the University of California–
Protection Advisory Committee and Biomedical Engineering Society, ate students, undergraduates, and Davis, will perform Chen’s commis-
a member of the NASA Advisory an international professional orga- high school students. Moreover, sioned work, scored for voice and
Council (NAC), a group that provides nization representing more than three companies founded on his chamber ensemble. Chen’s work has

46 Rice Sallyport
 [ w h o ' s w h o ]

Kathy Collins Eugene Levy Rebekah Drezek Malcolm Gillis Ken Kennedy Richard Tapia

been performed by the Cleveland specifically, for creating new tech- in Vietnam. The board is made up 1998 appointment to co-chair the
Chamber Symphony, Philadelphia nologies for the early detection of of six private citizens appointed by Clinton administration’s Information
Symphony Orchestra, and Cleveland many cancers. She currently is de- the White House, four members of Technology Advisory Committee, a
Symphony Orchestra, among oth- veloping new optical technologies Congress, and the secretaries of group charged with reviewing the
ers. Her music frequently appears for improved detection, diagnosis, state, treasury, and education. effectiveness of all of the nation’s
in programs abroad, and she is the and monitoring of breast, ovarian, federally funded research and de-
recipient of numerous awards, fel- and endometrial cancer. velopment spending for information
lowships, and grants. Drezek received another significant technology.
honor by earning a 2005 Beckman Kennedy Honored by AAAS Kennedy, who earned his bach-
Young Investigator Award from the Ken Kennedy has been elected a elor’s degree from Rice in 1967 and
Beckman Foundation, which sup- fellow of the American Academy of joined the faculty in 1971, helped
Bioengineer Drezek Wins AAMI ports the work of the nation’s most found Rice’s computer science
Arts and Sciences, an organization
Award promising young researchers in the department, the Computer and
founded in 1780 to honor intellec-
Rice University bioengineer Rebekah chemical and life sciences. Only 20 tual achievement, leadership, and Information Technology Institute,
Drezek has been awarded the 2005 of the awards are given each year. creativity. the Center for Research on Paral-
Becton Dickinson Career Achieve- Drezek’s award comes with a three- Kennedy, University Professor and lel Computation, and the Center
ment Award by the Association year, $264,000 grant. the Ann and John Doerr Professor for High Performance Software
for the Advancement of Medical of Computational Engineering in the Research (HiPerSoft), which he
Instrumentation (AAMI). Drezek Department of Computer Science, still directs.
is the Stanley C. Moore Assistant is among 196 new fellows of the
Professor of Bioengineering and an
Former President Gillis Named to
academy, the nation’s oldest and
Board of Federal Agency
assistant professor in electrical and most illustrious learned society.
computer engineering. Malcolm Gillis, University Professor,
Tapia Named One of Tech’s ‘50
Kennedy is one of the nation’s
Most Important Hispanics’
The AAMI Career Achievement the Ervin Kenneth Zingler Professor leading experts on high-performance
Award is given each year to an in- of Economics, and professor of computing. His research focuses on The editors of Hispanic Engineer &
dividual who is innovative, creative, management, has been appointed developing high-level programming Information Technology magazine
and fundamentally committed to to the board of directors of the Viet- tools for parallel and distributed have selected Rice’s Richard Tapia
improving the health and well-being nam Education Foundation. computer systems. He currently as one of the 50 Most Important
of the world’s population. It recog- The foundation is an independent leads two multi-institutional research Hispanics in Technology and Busi-
nizes outstanding achievement in U.S. federal agency founded by efforts: the Los Alamos Computer ness for 2005. Honorees are chosen
the development of medical devices, Congress to promote closer rela- Science Institute, a consortium for the annual list based on their
instruments, or systems that will tions between the United States of five universities and the Los outstanding work in the field of
help all people live healthy lives. It and Vietnam. It offers opportunities Alamos National Laboratory, and technology and for their institutional
includes a $1,500 prize. for Vietnamese nationals to pursue the Grid Application Development leadership.
Drezek was selected for her graduate and postgraduate studies in Software Project, a National Sci- Tapia is the Noah Harding Profes-
groundbreaking developments in science and technology in the United ence Foundation-sponsored effort sor of Computational and Applied
optically based medical diagnostic States and for American citizens to involving eight universities. Mathematics, associate director of
tools for women’s healthcare and, teach in the same fields of study His national service includes a graduate studies, and director of

Fall ’05 47
 [ W h o ' s w h o ]

Peter Vail Marcia O’Malley Moshe Vardi Yildiz Bayazitoglu Martha Alexander

Rice’s Center for Excellence and Vail’s concepts have had far-reach- and research component. terconnect synthesis strategies
Equity in Education. ing implications for both science and O’Malley will use her funding will use statistical modeling meth-
The Top 50 list includes many commerce, revolutionizing the field to develop innovative laboratory odologies incorporating inductance
of the nation’s highest-achieving of stratigraphy and greatly enhanc- modules using haptic devices to to produce layout that meets design
Hispanic executives, managers, ing methods for oil exploration. Vail enhance student learning, rein- constraints.
and researchers in industry, gov- joined Rice’s faculty in 1986 after a vigorate an introductory robotics The educational component of
ernment, and academia. Honorees 30-year career at Exxon. He retired course to include hands-on experi- Massoud’s grant calls for the use
have demonstrated leadership on a from Rice in 2001. ments with haptics and robotics, of a dynamic computer engineer-
broad front—not only in the work- The Franklin Institute was estab- and promote high school outreach ing curriculum in both his graduate
place but also in their communities. lished in 1824 in Philadelphia to train that includes internships, campus class, which uses an innovative
Throughout 2005, honorees will artisans and mechanics in the fun- visits, and demonstrations using semester-long project emphasizing
be presented to young people as damentals of science.The Benjamin haptics to encourage students to original research, and his under-
role models, and their accomplish- Franklin Medals are given annually pursue careers in science and en- graduate class, which stresses the
ments will be upheld as examples in seven disciplines of science to gineering. Haptic technology allows fundamentals of the very large-scale
of the important daily contributions those whose achievements reflect users to simultaneously see and integration design process.
made by thousands of Hispanics in the spirit, innovation, and inspiration feel virtual environments through
technology-related jobs. of Benjamin Franklin. the use of computer-controlled
desktop devices that contain sen-
sors and actuators. Three Rice Faculty Earn
Massoud’s CAREER project will Guggenheim Fellowships
Geologist Vail Awarded Franklin Awards Support Developing focus on developing more efficient Three Rice faculty members are
Medal Careers of Young Engineers methods of designing integrated among this year’s recipients of pres-
Peter Vail, the W. Maurice Ewing Assistant professors Marcia circuits and system-on-chip. Due to tigious Guggeneheim Fellowships.
Professor Emeritus of Oceanography, O’Malley, mechanical engineer- the continuously increasing operat- Anthropologist Susan Ossman,
was honored with the 2005 Benjamin ing and materials science, and Yehia ing frequencies, interconnect has computer scientist Moshe Vardi,
Franklin Medal in Earth and Environ- Massoud, electrical and computer become the main limiting factor of and historian Martin Wiener were
mental Science. It recognizes his engineering, have won Faculty Early the performance of integrated cir- selected by the John Simon Guggen-
pioneering and innovative ideas for Career Development (CAREER) cuits. To facilitate and develop the heim Memorial Foundation on the
using seismic reflections to identify Awards from the National Science new system-oriented interconnect basis of distinguished achievement
sequences of subsurface rock lay- Foundation. synthesis paradigm for mixed-signal in the past and exceptional promise
ers, greatly enhancing exploration The grants support early career nanoscale interconnects, Massoud for future accomplishment. This
for oil-containing rock. He also dis- development of junior faculty, and and his research group will research puts the number of Rice faculty
covered that similar changes in the they are among the most competi- and create analytical modeling, who have received Guggenheim
rock record appear worldwide and tive grants at the National Science optimization, and synthesis meth- fellowships at 37.
can be attributed to global changes Foundation, which awards only about odologies that facilitate generalized Ossman, visiting associate pro-
in sea level, thus contributing to 400 of the five-year grants across design automation in integrated fessor of anthropology, will use
greater understanding of Earth’s all disciplines each year. Career mixed-signal and system-on-chip her fellowship for a project titled
geological history. grants include both an educational designs. The system-oriented in- “People of the Third Step: Arab

48 Rice Sallyport
 Business Information Center’s Shaw Earns Shapiro Award

Located at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management,

the Business Information Center serves as a business and economics
reference library for MBA students as well as for the rest
of the Rice community and the general public.

Serial Migrants in a Global World.” Wiener, the Mary Gibbs Jones general public. In addition to ordering tive impact by raising awareness
She will conduct research on people Professor of History, will support books, journals, and other materials of women’s issues, and serve as
from Arab nations who have been his continuing study of British crimi- and managing the daily activities of role models in the empowerment
residents of two or more countries, nal justice history. By examining a the center, Shaw teaches classes of women.
so-called “serial migrants.” She will number of homicide cases in British for MBA students on how to use The 2005 faculty and staff winners
spend eight months developing a colonies that evoked fundamental BIC services, conduct job searches, are Rebekah Drezek, the Stanley
survey and traveling in the Arab questions about the nature and ratio- and research companies. C. Moore Assistant Professor in
world, Europe, and the United States nale of British authority, Wiener will The BIC houses 5,000 volumes, Bioengineering and assistant pro-
to conduct in-depth interviews to explore a deeper understanding of including annual reports and peri- fessor in electrical and computer
understand what kinds of families the dynamics of British imperialism odicals, and a variety of electronic engineering; Yildiz Bayazitoglu,
and individuals such global move- and address emerging areas in the databases and services, such as the Harry S. Cameron Professor in
ment creates and how increased study of British history. The project Investexts and online access to Mechanical Engineering; Martha
serial migration is changing the will result in a book, tentatively the most current financial infor- Alexander, LANP administrator in
Arab world. titled An Empire of Law? Violence, mation. electrical and computer engineer-
Vardi, the Karen Ostrum George Race, and Authority in the British The award, funded by an endow- ing; and Eusebio Franco, custodial
Professor in Computational Engi- Empire. ment from the late Beth Shapiro, and grounds manager in facilities,
neering and professor of computer who served as university librarian engineering, and planning.
science, will use his award to lead from 1991 until her death in 1995,
was created to recognize a member —Reported by B. J. Almond, Jade
the six-month “Special Program on
Boyd, Margot Dimond, Jennifer Evans,
Logic and Algorithms” at the Isaac Business Information Center’s of the Fondren Library staff who has
and Lindsey Fielder
Newton Institute for Mathematical Shaw Earns Shapiro Award developed an innovative program to
Sciences in Cambridge, England. Peggy Shaw’s dedication to maintain- provide library services at Rice or
The program aims to bring together ing high standards and her creative who has shown exemplary service
leading theoretical computer sci- approach to her job are among the to the university community.
entists to bridge a longstanding reasons she was selected as the
divide between those who seek to 2005 recipient of the Shapiro Library
ensure and verify the correctness Staff Innovation Award by the Staff
of computing systems and those Travel and Development Committee
Impact Awards Honor Outreach,
who measure and ensure the ef-
Service
of Fondren Library.
ficiency of computer resources. Since joining the Fondren staff Several Rice faculty and staff mem-
His program will center around a in 1986, Shaw has overseen the bers have been recognized with
series of workshops focusing on Business Information Center (BIC). Impact Awards, given annually by
developments in recent years that Located at the Jesse H. Jones the Women’s Resource Center to
have begun to bridge the gap. More Graduate School of Mangement, those who demonstrate service
than 100 leading computer science the center serves as a business to the campus community, show
theorists and mathematicians are and economics reference library involvement and participation in
expected to participate. for MBA students as well as for the student life and activities at Rice
The Guggenheim received by rest of the Rice community and the and beyond, work to make a posi-

Fall ’05 49
 [ scoreboard ]

Getting to Know

The Rice Owls had great success in the One immediate advantage to competing in C-USA
will be decreased travel time, reducing the amount of
missed classes for student-athletes as well as travel
expenses. Rice also will have a shot at five football

nine years spent competing in the Western bowl games and more television opportunities for all
sports. C-USA football and both men’s and women’s
basketball games can be seen on ESPN/ESPN2, and
College Sports Television Networks, Inc., also will

Athletic Conference, including winning the

carry football, basketball, and other C-USA sports.

One of the most exciting aspects of the move is the

chance to play in-town rival University of Houston

2003 NCAA baseball national championship.

in meaningful conference games. Rice sports fans
will have the opportunity to attend those events,
but games between Rice and its other new rivals
also are more within reach, as the schools are closer

In fact, Owl teams have experienced success

geographically than most of the WAC competition.
C-USA is a two-division conference, with Rice and
Houston in the West division along with SMU,
Tulane, Tulsa, and UTEP. The remaining teams
are in the East.

wherever they’ve competed and now hope to In all, Rice athletic teams won 15 conference
titles since joining the WAC. In 2000, Rice won an
unprecedented six WAC titles, including in wom-
en’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross-country,

replicate that in Conference USA, which Rice women’s indoor and outdoor track and field, and
baseball. In the WAC and the Southwest Confer-
ence, of which Rice was a member for 82 years,
the Owls have won 61 conference titles, including

joins starting with the 2005–06 season. the SWC football co-championship in 1946, when
the team went on to win the Orange Bowl.

50 Rice Sallyport
 [ scoreboard ]

The Competition: Getting to Know Conference USA

East

East Carolina University University of Southern Mississippi University of Alabama at Birmingham

Location: Greenville, North Carolina Location: Hattiesburg, Mississippi Location: Birmingham, Alabama
Founded: 1907 • Enrollment: 21,797 Founded: 1910 • Enrollment: 15,259 Founded: 1969 • Enrollment: 16,693
Nickname: Pirates • Colors: Purple and Gold Nickname: Golden Eagles • Colors: Black and Gold Nickname: Blazers • Colors: Forest Green and Old Gold
President: Steve Ballard President: Shelby F. Thames President: Carol Garrison
Athletics Director: Terry Holland Athletics Director: Richard Giannini Athletics Director: Watson Brown
Conference-Sponsored Sports: Conference-Sponsored Sports: Conference-Sponsored Sports:
Men: baseball, basketball, cross-country, football, golf, Men: baseball, basketball, football, golf, tennis, in- Men: baseball, basketball, football, golf, soccer, tennis
soccer, tennis, indoor track and field, outdoor track and door track and field, outdoor track and field • Women: Women: basketball, cross-country, golf, soccer, soft-
field • Women: basketball, cross-country, golf, soccer, basketball, cross-country, golf, soccer, softball, tennis, ball, tennis, indoor track and field, outdoor track and
swimming and diving, tennis, indoor track and field, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field, volleyball field, volleyball
outdoor track and field
Football Stadium: M.M. Roberts Stadium (33,000) Football Stadium: Legion Field (72,000)
Football Stadium: Dowdy-Ficklen (43,000) Basketball/Volleyball Arena: Reed Green Coliseum Basketball/Volleyball Arena: Barlow Arena (8,500)
Basketball/Volleyball Arena: Williams Arena at Min- (8,095) Baseball: Young Memorial Field
ges Coliseum (8,000) Baseball: Pete Taylor Park Athletic Point of Pride: UAB upset Virginia, propelling
Baseball: Clark-LeClair Stadium Athletic Point of Pride: Southern Miss is the only the Blazers to the Elite Eight of the 1982 NCAA Tourna-
Athletic Point of Pride: Over the past 12 seasons, the school in Conference USA to win championships in ment in just the program’s fourth year of existence.
East Carolina football program has participated in six bowl football, men’s basketball, baseball, and softball. Notable Alumna: Vonetta Flowers, the first African Amer-
games and finished with a Top 25 national ranking twice. Notable Alumnus: NFL quarterback Brett Favre ican to win a gold medal in a winter Olympics (bobsled)
Notable Alumnus: NFL quarterback Jeff Blake Athletics Website: http://southernmiss.com Athletics Website: http://uabsports.com
Athletics Website: http://ecupirates.com

Marshall University University of Memphis University of Central Florida

Location: Huntington, West Virginia Location: Memphis, Tennessee Location: Orlando, Florida
Founded: 1837 • Enrollment: 16,551 Founded: 1912 • Enrollment: 20,332 Founded: 1963 • Enrollment: 44,000
Nickname: Thundering Herd • Colors: Green and White Nickname: Tigers • Colors: Blue and Gray Nickname: Golden Knights • Colors: Black and Gold
President: Michael J. Farrell President: Shirley Raines President: John C. Hitt
Athletics Director: Bob Marcum Athletics Director: R. C. Johnson Athletics Director: Steve Orsini
Conference-Sponsored Sports: Conference-Sponsored Sports: Conference-Sponsored Sports:
Men: baseball, basketball, cross-country, football, golf, Men: baseball, basketball, cross-country, football, golf, Men: baseball, basketball, cross-country, football, golf,
soccer • Women: basketball, cross-country, golf, soccer, soccer, tennis, indoor track and field, outdoor track and soccer, tennis • Women: basketball, cross-country, golf,
softball, swimming and diving, tennis, indoor track and field • Women: basketball, cross-country, golf, soccer, soccer, softball, tennis, indoor track and field, outdoor
field, outdoor track and field, volleyball softball, tennis, indoor track and field, outdoor track and track and field, volleyball
field, volleyball
Football Stadium: Marshall University Stadium (38,016) Football Stadium: Florida Citrus Bowl (65,438)
Basketball/Volleyball Arena: Henderson Center (9,043) Football Stadium: Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium Basketball/Volleyball Arena: UCF Arena (5,100)
Baseball: University Heights Baseball Field (62,380) Baseball: Jay Bergman Field
Athletic Point of Pride: Marshall’s football team has Basketball Arena: FedEx Forum (18,400) Athletic Point of Pride: A total of 28 players have been
played in seven bowl games since moving to Division I-A Baseball: Nat Buring Stadium drafted or signed to free-agent contracts in the NFL in the
in 1997 and has posted wins in five of those appearances. Athletic Point of Pride: Since 1987, Memphis has post- past six years, including nine players from the 2002 roster.
Notable Alumnus: NFL quarterback Byron Leftwich ed an 89 percent graduation rate for student-athletes. Notable Alumni: NFL quarterback Daunte Culpepper,
Athletics Website: http://herdzone.com Notable Alumnus: Former NBA star Anfernee Hardaway women’s soccer star Michelle Akers
Athletics Website: http://gotigersgo.com Athletics Website: http://ucfathletics.com

Fall ’05 51
 [ scoreboard ]

West

Rice University Southern Methodist University University of Tulsa

Location: Houston, Texas Location: Dallas, Texas Location: Tulsa, Oklahoma
Founded: 1912 • Enrollment: 4,785 Founded: 1911 • Enrollment: 10,038 Founded: 1894 • Enrollment: 4,100
Nickname: Owls • Colors: Blue and Gray Nickname: Mustangs • Colors: Red and Blue Nickname: Golden Hurricane • Colors: Old Gold,
President: David W. Leebron President: R. Gerald Turner Royal Blue, Crimson
Athletics Director: Bobby May Athletics Director: Jim Copeland President: Steadman Upham
Athletics Director: Judy MacLeod
Conference-Sponsored Sports: Conference-Sponsored Sports:
Men: baseball, basketball, cross-country, football, golf, Men: basketball, football, golf, soccer, tennis • Women: Conference-Sponsored Sports:
tennis, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field basketball, cross-country, golf, soccer, swimming and Men: basketball, cross-country, football, golf, soccer, tennis,
Women: Basketball, cross-country, soccer, swimming diving, tennis, indoor track and field, outdoor track and indoor track and field, outdoor track and field • Women:
and diving, tennis, indoor track and field, outdoor track field, volleyball basketball, cross-country, golf, soccer, softball, tennis,
and field, volleyball indoor track and field, outdoor track and field, volleyball
Football Stadium: Gerald J. Ford Stadium (32,000)
Football Stadium: Skelly Stadium (40,385)
Football Stadium: Rice Stadium (70,000) Basketball/Volleyball Arena: Moody Coliseum
Basketball/Volleyball Arena: Donald W. Reynolds
Basketball/Volleyball Arena: Autry Court (5,000) (8,998)
Center (8,355)
Baseball: Reckling Park Athletic Point of Pride: SMU has ranked among the
Athletic Point of Pride: Tulsa has won six national
Athletic Point of Pride: Rice won the 2003 NCAA top 10 athletic programs in private institutions nation-
championships—four in women’s golf (1982 and 1988
baseball national championship. ally in seven of the past eight years.
NCAA and 1980 and 1982 AIAW titles) and two in
Notable Alumnus: Houston Astro Lance Berkman Notable Alumnus: Championship PGA golfer Payne
men’s basketball (1981 and 2001 NIT).
Athletics Website: http://riceowls.com Stewart
Notable Alumni: former NFL wide receiver and former
Athletics Website: http://smumustangs.com
U.S. Congressman Steve Largent, professional golfer
Nancy Lopez
Athletics Website: http://tulsahurricane.com

University of Houston Tulane University University of Texas at El Paso

Location: Houston, Texas Location: New Orleans, Louisiana Location: El Paso, Texas
Founded: 1927 • Enrollment: 30,757 Founded: 1834 • Enrollment: 12,676 Founded: 1914 • Enrollment: 18,542
Nickname: Cougars • Colors: Scarlet and White Nickname: Green Wave • Colors: Olive Green and Nickname: Miners • Colors: Dark Blue, Orange,
with Navy trim Sky Blue and Silver accent
President: G. Jay Gogue President: Scott Cowen President: Diana Natalicio
Athletics Director: Dave Maggard Athletic Director: Rick Dickson Athletics Director: Bob Stull
Conference-Sponsored Sports: Conference-Sponsored Sports: Conference-Sponsored Sports:
Men: baseball, basketball, cross-country, football, golf, Men: baseball, basketball, cross-country, football, golf, Men: basketball, cross-country, football, golf, indoor
indoor track and field, outdoor track and field • Women: tennis, outdoor track and field • Women: basketball, track, outdoor track • Women: basketball, cross-coun-
basketball, cross-country, soccer, softball, swimming cross-country, golf, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, try, golf, soccer, softball, tennis, indoor track, outdoor
and diving, tennis, indoor track and field, outdoor track indoor track and field, outdoor track and field, volleyball track, volleyball
and field, volleyball
Football Stadium: Louisiana Superdome (64,900) Football Stadium: Sun Bowl (51,500)
Football/Soccer Stadium: Robertson Stadium Basketball/Volleyball Arenas: Fogelman Arena Basketball Arena: Don Haskins Center (12,500)
(32,000) (3,600), New Orleans Arena (17,832) Athletic Point of Pride: Former UTEP basketball
Basketball Arena: Hofheinz Pavilion (8,479) Baseball: Turchin Stadium coach Don Haskins broke color barriers by starting five
Baseball: Cougar Field Athletic Point of Pride: 79 percent of Tulane’s black players in a championship game. The Miners
Athletic Point of Pride: In its athletic history, Houston student-athletes graduated in the latest NCAA gradua- defeated top-ranked Kentucky to capture the NCAA title
has produced 648 All-Americans. The Cougars also tion rate report, placing Tulane 14th among Division I-A in 1966. UTEP is the only school in the state of Texas to
have compiled 17 NCAA team championships and 55 universities. win a national crown in men’s basketball.
NCAA individual champions. Notable Alumnus: Former Yankee slugger and presi- Notable Alumni: NBA hall-of-famer Nate Archibald,
Notable Alumni: Former NBA star Hakeem Olajuwon, dent of the American League Bobby Brown NFL defensive star Seth Joyner
Olympian Carl Lewis Athletics Website: http://tulanegreenwave.com Athletics Website: http://utepathletics.com
Athletics Website: http://uhcougars.com

52 Rice Sallyport
Make a Gift to Rice That Gives Back
to You and Your Loved Ones

“With a gift annuity, we receive quarterly payments

while knowing that our gift will help students.”
Ret. Lt. Col. Elbert W. Link ’55 and his wife, Ann ’56

Establish a charitable gift annuity

Ret. Lt. Col. Elbert W. Link ’55 and his wife, Ann attain a first–rate education at Rice to prepare them for
’56, were the first in their families to go to college their own successful careers. To do this, Bert and Ann
because Rice offered them a tuition–free education. established a gift annuity with Rice, which, in exchange
Bert went on to a stellar career with the Army Corps for a gift, provides them payments for life.
of Engineers and with a consulting engineering firm A gift annuity may be established with Rice for a
that worked on projects such as Houston’s Reliant minimum contribution of $25,000. The amount of
Stadium, Minute Maid Park, and the Toyota Center. the payment depends on the ages of the individuals
He has been named engineer of the year for Houston receiving the annuity and the amount of the gift. This
and for Texas. Ann has held every office, including type of gift is ideal for an individual or couple who
state president, in the Auxiliary to the Texas Society want to supplement their retirement income while
of Professional Engineers. being eligible for substantial tax savings and income
Now they feel it’s their turn to help young people tax deductions.

Please contact the Office of Gift Planning for gift illustrations and calculations tailored for
your situation, as well as for other tax–saving gift options.

For more information, contact Lydia Luz, J.D., Senior Director of Gift Planning
Phone: 713–348–4807 • Email: giftplan@rice.edu • Website: giving.rice.edu/giftplanning
 Rice University Nonprofit Organization
Sallyport U.S. Postage
Publications Office–MS 95 PAID
P.O. Box 1892 Permit #7549
Houston, Texas 77251-1892 Houston, Texas

Photos by Jeff Fitlow

As thousands of evacuees came into Houston in the

days following Hurricane Katrina, the Rice community
responded in ways both large and small: from taking
in 120 Tulane students for the fall semester to cleaning
restrooms at the Astrodome, an effort spontaneously
organized by employees of facilities, engineering,
and planning. The Ley Student Center served as
the collection site for the HOOTS/Rice Hurricane
Katrina Food Drive, and thanks to the generosity
of Rice people, the drive resulted in the collection
of more than 2,500 pounds of supplies, including
bottled water, paper goods, diapers, clothes, and
nonperishable foods.