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

Gang Bao, Rice’s Foyt Family Professor of Bioengineering and a professor of chemistry and of materials science and nanoengineering

Finding a cure: Rice lab pursues cure for sickle cell disease

Rice University lab won a prestigious National Institutes of Health grant in April 2020 to pursue gene-editing research it hopes will lead to a cure for sickle cell disease. The four-year R01 grant to Gang Bao, Rice’s Foyt Family Professor of Bioengineering and a professor of chemistry and of materials science and nanoengineering, is worth $2.45 million. The grant will be administered by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Learn more

Ming Tang

Better batteries: Rice researchers work to improve electric vehicles

Rice University researchers will contribute to a new project to make better batteries for electric vehicles. Rice materials scientist Ming Tang and his colleagues announced in July 2020 they will receive part of a $2.4 million grant from the United States Advanced Battery Consortium to develop low-cost, fast-charging batteries for vehicles. Learn More

science and religion

Science and Religion: Grant funds research about identities, beliefs

A new subfield of sociological research examining how identities and beliefs are related to attitudes about science and religion is being advanced by a $2.9 million grant awarded in June 2020 to Elaine Howard Ecklund, the Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences at Rice, and John Evans, the Tata Chancellor’s Chair in Social Sciences at the University of California, San Diego. The grant, funded by the Templeton Religion Trust and coordinated by The Issachar Fund, is the first comprehensive initiative to fund new scholarship in the sociology of science and religion. 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

Lacy Johnson
Lacy Johnson

2020 Guggenheim Fellowship

Lacy Johnson, an associate professor of English, was a prestigious 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship, which is awarded annually to “further the development of scholars and artists by assisting them to engage in research in any field of knowledge and creation in any of the arts, under the freest possible conditions and irrespective of race, color or creed.”

Stay tuned for the next edition of Rice Research Review