Rice Research Review

2020 was an exciting year for research at Rice. We continued work in several important areas, announced some exciting new projects and joined forces across campus and with our community partners to help tackle COVID-19.

Yousif Shamoo

Welcome to the first edition of Rice Research Review. This annual online publication highlights a sampling of Rice University’s research pursuits and accomplishments over the previous year. View more.

FOCUS

Pathbreaking Research: Rice’s Response to COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has shined a bright light on the role research plays in understanding some of our modern world’s greatest challenges. As the virus swept across the globe last year, Rice University joined forces with researchers across campus and the Greater Houston community to help end the pandemic and prepare for similar outbreaks in the future.

AT LARGE

IN BRIEF

Graphine

Graphene formation: Scientists discover how to watch conductive material form

Scientists at Rice University, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) announced in 2020 they are using a very small visible beam to burn laser-induced graphene (LIG) into microscopic patterns. The labs of Rice chemist James Tour, which discovered the original method to turn a common polymer into graphene in 2014, and Tennessee/ORNL materials scientist Philip Rack revealed they can now watch the conductive material form as it makes small traces of LIG in a scanning electron microscope. Learn More

Rice researchers study forgotten artifacts, records

Diasporic cultures of slavery: Rice researchers study forgotten artifacts, records

A team of Rice University researchers is studying forgotten and newly uncovered artifacts and records related to slavery thanks to a grant it received in November 2020 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The title of the project is “Diasporic Cultures of Slavery: Engaging Disciplines, Engaging Communities.” Learn More

Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment Center (NEWT)

NEWT: Work continues on next-generation water treatment systems

In October 2020, the Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment Center (NEWT), a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center with its headquarters at Rice University, earned a five-year renewal to continue its work on next-generation water treatment systems. The multi-institution, multidisciplinary center under the direction of Rice environmental engineer Pedro Alvarez is a partnership between academia, industry and government to produce transformational technology as well as engineers primed to lead the global economy. The NSF award is for $16.5 million. Learn More

BY THE NUMBERS

Rice University is one of the nation’s leading research universities. With just over 7,500 undergraduate and graduate students, Rice produces $172 million in sponsored projects annually. These projects span a broad spectrum of academic areas and work toward solving pressing problems across the globe.

By The Numbers
Awards
Awards
2020 Research Funding
Research Funding
Top Five Federal Awards
Awards
National Academy Memberships
National Academy Membership
Active National Science Foundation Career Awards
Active National Science Foundation Career Awards
National University Rankings
National Universities Ranking

ACCOLADES

W. Caleb McDaniel
W. Caleb McDaniel

Pulitzer Prize for History

Caleb McDaniel, associate professor and chair of the Department of History, won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for History for “Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America,” an account of Henrietta Wood, a woman who twice survived enslavement and eventually triumphed in a historic court case against one of the men responsible for her captivity.

Stay tuned for the next edition of Rice Research Review