Gillis Plans to Step Down in Mid-2004
Consistent with a leadership characterized by planning for the future, Malcolm Gillis has announced that he will complete his term as the sixth president of Rice University on June 30, 2004.

We All Know that Desserts Are Brain Food
Pooja Bhatia, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal’s “Weekend” section, paid an unannounced visit to the South Servery in early October. She was traveling around the country sampling college dorm food.

IT Research and Digital Library Benefit from Recent NSF Awards
Computer science researchers at Rice University have been awarded four grants totaling more than $3.5 million under the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Information Technology Research (ITR) program, and the School of Continuing Studies received $700,000 to develop an online digital library.

New Wiess, Same Old Wiessmen
More than 50 years after students moved into the original Wiess College, Wiessmen have a new home for the War Pig, tabletop theater, and pumpkin caroling.

Living and Leaving a Legacy to Rice: A Memoriam
When Cy Johnson entered Rice in 1927, he couldn’t have imagined how his future would be molded by the experience—nor could Rice have anticipated how this brilliant young man would influence his alma mater for years to come.

Leaders Convene for Space Summit
If your image of space exploration is people boldly going where no one has gone before, you might want to slow down a bit. Space exploration is a marathon, not a sprint, say world space leaders who attended the Space Policy Summit hosted by the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy October 11 through 13. They recommended that space exploration be pursued as a step-by-step progression that involves sustained, systematic improvements in scientific understanding and enabling technologies, such as advanced in-space propulsion and power-generation systems.

Project Might Predict Serious Conflicts, Wars Weeks in Advance
Suppose you could accurately predict serious militarized international conflict weeks, or even months, in advance, potentially impacting foreign policy?

Modeling Cancer Metastasis
Cancer researchers know the disease spreads from organ to organ in a nonrandom pattern, but they are unable to predict exactly how cancer will spread, in part because of the limited tools available to study cancer-cell migration in a controlled laboratory setting. That could all change.

Rice, Brookhaven Physicists Unravel Basic Biological Mystery
Physicists at Rice and the Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have unraveled one of the most stubborn mysteries of basic biology—the structure of the initial stage of membrane fusion.

Growing Bone Outside the Body
A new study by Rice researchers indicates that bioengineers attempting to grow bone in the laboratory may be able to create the mechanical stimulation needed to grow bone outside the body. One of the greatest challenges tissue engineers face in growing bone in the laboratory is recreating the conditions that occur inside the body.