In the News
Alum Leads Natural Science Museum
Joel A. Bartsch ’03 has been appointed as the president of the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
His 24-year museum career has included positions at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado; the Texas Memorial Museum in Austin; and the Lyman Museum in Hilo, Hawaii. He also served as director of the California State Mining and Mineral Museum and most recently has served as curator of gems and minerals at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. In his 15 years with the Houston museum, Bartsch has played a key role as project manager for several of the museum’s temporary exhibitions and permanent exhibit halls, including the nationally renowned Wiess Energy Hall.
The native Texan, who earned his MA from Rice and currently is a PhD candidate in history, is a longtime Houstonian who graduated from Lamar High School. He received his bachelor of arts degree from Concordia University.
Bayazitoglu Earns High Honor from ASME
Rice University’s Yildiz Bayazitoglu has been awarded the 2004 Heat Transfer Memorial Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). She is the first woman ever to win the prestigious honor, which is given to no more than three individuals per year.
Bayazitoglu, the Harry S. Cameron Professor in Mechanical Engineering, was recognized for contributions to fundamental radiative heat transfer, thermal effects in materials processing, and microscale heat transfer; for leadership in engineering education; and for outstanding service to the heat transfer community.
The award, which was created in 1959, honors outstanding teaching, research, practice, and design in the field of heat transfer. Fewer than 90 of the awards have been given in the past 45 years.
A member of the Rice faculty since 1977, Bayazitoglu has authored more than 150 publications in technical journals and conference proceedings, and her undergraduate textbook, Elements of Heat Transfer, has been translated into Korean. She is a reviewer for several journals and government research funding agencies in the areas of heat transfer, fluid flow, radiation, and energy. She is the co-editor-in-chief (Americas) of the International Journal of Thermal Sciences and associate editor of Thermal Science and Engineering. Bayazitoglu is a fellow of the ASME and is a member of the Society of Women Engineers and the American Institute of Astronautics and Aeronautics.
Engineering’s Clark Elected IEEE Fellow
In recognition of his contributions to modeling in electrophysiology and cardiopulmonary systems, John Clark has been elected a 2005 fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
Fellowships are awarded to those who have made important individual contributions to any of the IEEE designated fields, including electrical engineering, electronics, computer engineering, computer sciences, and the related arts and sciences.
As a professor in electrical and computer engineering and bioengineering at Rice, Clark has centered his research on computational biology and medicine. His laboratory develops large-scale models of the cardiovascular and pulmonary systems for different species. This work has culminated in the development of a neurally controlled human cardiopulmonary system model that is used to study the interaction between the cardiovascular and pulmonary systems as mediated by the central nervous system.
Clark is a leader in the bioengineering field in the Houston area and was instrumental in forming the Houston Society for Engineering in Medicine and Biology, which hosts an annual conference on biomedical engineering research. He is a founding fellow of the American Institute of Engineering in Medicine and Biology and currently is president of the IEEE Society for Engineering in Medicine and Biology.
Drezek a Top Young Innovator
Rice bioengineer Rebekah Drezek was named to the 2004 list of the world’s 100 Top Young Innovators by Technology Review, MIT’s magazine of innovation.
The annual TR100 list recognizes individuals under age 35 whose innovative research in fields such as biotechnology and medicine, computing, and nanotechnology has a profound impact on today’s world. TR100 award winners are chosen by Technology Review’s editors and a panel of independent judges.
Drezek, the Stanley C. Moore Assistant Professor in Bioengineering and assistant professor in electrical and computer engineering, conducts translational research at the interface of two emerging areas in biomedical engineering: nanobiotechnology and biophotonics. Her laboratory’s projects emphasize developing new technologies to improve women’s healthcare with a focus on detection, diagnosis, and monitoring therapy of breast, ovarian, and endometrial cancer.
She works in collaboration with 2003 TR100 winner Jennifer West, the Isabel C. Cameron Professor of Bioengineering and professor in chemical engineering, and Naomi Halas, the Stanley C. Moore Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering and professor of chemistry, on nanotech research that focuses on medical applications of a class of nanoparticles called metal nanoshells. Drezek’s team is designing, fabricating, and validating molecular-specific optical imaging agents that are part of a comprehensive nanoshell-based technology Rice is developing to diagnose and treat cancer.
In biophotonics, Drezek works with clinicians at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center to develop novel optical technologies for real-time, point-of-care imaging. These technologies allow detection of cancer at a much earlier stage than conventional imaging methods by probing early molecular signals of disease. Her laboratory also creates the computational tools and mathematical algorithms that doctors need to make a diagnosis based on optical imaging data.
English’s Patten Named Couper Scholar
English professor Robert Patten recently was selected by Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest academic society, to participate in the new Couper Scholars Program.
Patten, the Lynette S. Autrey Professor in Humanities, is one of four Couper Scholars who will visit selected colleges and universities to lecture to undergraduates, talk informally with students and faculty members, and meet with the deans of liberal arts and sciences. The Couper Scholars Program was established by the Phi Beta Kappa Society through a $100,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation.
Patten is the author of Charles Dickens and His Publishers and George Cruikshank’s Life, Times, and Art, which was named the best biography of the 1900s by the Guardian of London. He has written dozens of articles and reviews on 19th-century British literature, art, and culture. A former Guggenheim Fellow and Fulbright Scholar, Patten also has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Humanities Center.
Tapia Honored for Service, Contributions
The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) has awarded Richard Tapia its prize for Distinguished Service to the Profession of Applied Mathematics. The prize recognizes applied mathematicians who have made contributions to the furtherance of the field on the national level.
Tapia is the Noah Harding Professor of Computational and Applied Mathematics, associate director of graduate studies, and director of Rice’s Center for Excellence and Equity in Education. SIAM honored him for his “extensive and tireless work in mentoring and encouraging minority and female students in mathematics, science, and engineering, as well as for his many contributions to applied mathematics, particularly optimization.”
Organized in 1951, SIAM supports and encourages the important industrial role that applied mathematics and computational science play in advancing science and technology.
Vardi Named AAAI Fellow
In recognition of his significant contributions to the field of artificial intelligence, Moshe Vardi was inducted as a fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence (AAAI). Vardi is the Karen Ostrum George Professor in Computational Engineering, professor of computer science, and director of Rice’s Computer and Information Technology Institute.
Fellows are selected by a committee that bases its choice on a member’s publications, awards, speeches, conference committee affiliations, and longstanding contributions to the field. Vardi’s promotion of logic as a foundation for computational systems is the basis for his induction as an AAAI fellow.
Using logic as a framework, Vardi has cultivated research in intelligent databases, multiagent systems, and automated reasoning.
For his work in intelligent databases, Vardi focused on transforming unsophisticated databases into intelligent ones with deductive capabilities. Vardi’s work with multiagent systems addresses the issues associated with multiple agents working together. He helped develop a theory of reasoning about knowledge that guides a distributed system to implementing a cohesive plan. Vardi also pioneered the use of automata theory for automated reasoning in applications such as verification of communications protocols and hardware controllers.
West Honored for Nano/Bio Research
The Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation named Jennifer West the 2004 Frank Annunzio Award Columbus Scholar. One of the nation’s most prestigious and competitive honors, the Annunzio Award includes a $50,000 prize.
West, the Isabel C. Cameron Professor of Bioengineering and professor in chemical engineering, is internationally recognized for cutting-edge research in two of bioengineering’s most competitive fields—nanotechnology and tissue engineering. Her research in biomaterials and tissue engineering focuses on the synthesis, development, and application of novel biofunctional materials. In one project, her group is creating new materials for small-diameter vascular grafts that could eliminate the need for doctors to use veins from a patient’s leg for heart bypass surgery.
The Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation is a federal agency governed by a presidentially appointed board of trustees. It seeks to nurture and recognize pioneering individuals and programs that reflect the visionary spirit and pioneering heritage of Christopher Columbus.
West, along with Naomi Halas, also was selected as a runner-up in Small Times magazine’s Best of Small Tech Researcher Award competition. The Small Tech awards recognize the best people, products, and companies in nanotechnology, microsystems, and mechanical engineering and materials science.
Halas, the Stanley C. Moore Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering and professor of chemistry, and West were honored for groundbreaking research in 2003–04 toward the development of a novel treatment for cancer that uses metallic nanoshells. During the past year, Halas and West have published several important studies about nanoshell-based cancer therapy, including the first results from live-animal tests. While these early studies are laying the groundwork for tests in humans, no date has been set for the start of human clinical trials.
Rice Biologists Elected AAAS Fellows
Rice University evolutionary biologists Joan Strassmann and David Queller have been awarded the distinction of fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for their efforts to advance science or scientific applications.
Strassmann, professor and chair of the department of ecology and evolutionary biology, and Queller, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, each were selected for their pioneering efforts on the evolution of sociality. Strassmann’s research on social insects centers on cooperative alliances that have proven successful both evolutionarily and ecologically. She particularly is interested in how these alliances came to be, how conflicts are subsumed into cooperation, what conflicts remain, and how they influence sociality. Queller is interested in the evolution of social interactions in contexts that involve cooperation and conflict. He has studied wasps and stingless bees to determine the benefits of sociality, the role of genetic relatedness, and the extent of conflicts within social insect societies. The two researchers currently are using well-developed genetic and genomic resources for Dictyostelium discoideum—slime mold—to find genes involved in social interactions and they are using those genes to test evolutionary hypotheses, for example whether social evolution is particularly rapid.
Four at Shepherd School Receive National Award
Four professors in Rice’s Shepherd School of Music received the 2004–05 American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) Award for their original compositions and recent performances.
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| Arthur Gottschalk, Shih-Hui Chen, Anthony Brandt, Kurt Stallmann |
Anthony Brandt, Shih-Hui Chen, Arthur Gottschalk, and Kurt Stallmann were recognized by an independent panel for their work in 2003. Brandt, assistant professor of composition, had three pieces that premiered in 2003. He is a founding member of Musiqa, a contemporary music ensemble that includes four other Rice professors and a University of Houston professor. Chen, assistant professor of composition and theory, had one piece that premiered in 2003. Gottschalk, professor and chair of the Department of Composition and Theory, had two pieces that premiered in 2003. He has received the ASCAP award every year since 1980 for his compositions. Stallmann, the Lynette S. Autrey Assistant Professor of Composition and Theory, premiered three pieces in 2003. He also is a member of Musiqa.
ASCAP is the primary performing-rights organization in the United States for more than 140,000 composers, songwriters, and publishers of all kinds of music. ASCAP protects the rights of its members by licensing and distributing royalties for the nondramatic public performances of their copyrighted works.
Baros Joins Career Center as Executive-in-Residence
Mary Baros has been named the first executive-in-residence at Rice’s Career Services Center. The position was created as part of a pilot program in which industry leaders volunteer their expertise to Rice students.
Baros’s experience adds a real-world perspective to the career counseling already offered to students. Baros recently retired from Royal Dutch/Shell Oil, where she established an executive coaching program for the corporation’s senior leaders.
She has held various management positions in organization and leadership development at several large companies, and she spent the early part of her career focused on human resources. Baros earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from McMaster University in Canada and received certification in executive coaching from Georgetown University and in training and development from Texas A&M University.
Rice’s Holmes Named to State Panel on Pollution Prevention
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has appointed Christian Holmes, executive director of Rice’s Environmental and Energy Systems Institute and the Shell Center for Sustainability, as the academic representative on the state’s Pollution Prevention Advisory Committee. The committee offers TCEQ advice on policy and goals for pollution prevention and waste minimization. His appointment is effective through August 2005.
Holmes’s background in public service spans the environmental, international economic development, and energy sectors. A past chief financial officer and assistant administrator with the Environmental Protection Agency, he also worked for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development in nations throughout the world. A graduate of Wesleyan University, Holmes has received numerous awards and distinctions throughout his career, including the U.S. Army Soldiers Medal for Heroism, the Arthur S. Fleming Award, the EPA Gold Medal, and the President’s Meritorious Service Award for superior accomplishment in the conduct of foreign policy.
Computer Science’s Price Honored for Above-and-Beyond Attitude
Darnell Price always strives to do her best, and for this she has earned Rice’s Distinguished Employee Award.
As the senior department administrator in computer science, Price manages grant proposals and budgets. She is recognized as an expert on grant-related issues, and other campus departments often seek her advice. Price also helped found the Leading Effective Administrative Recognition and Networking (LEARN) Team, a networking system for Rice staff members.
The Distinguished Employee Award is given by the human resources department on behalf of the university to recognize employees who perform above and beyond their job descriptions to the benefit of the Rice community.
— Reported by Jade Boyd, Jennifer Evans,
Lindsey Fielder, Shannon Gosda, and Terry Shepard
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