For a change of pace, let’s begin with a riddle. What is 1,181-feet long and has a Nobel Prize laureate at each end? Give up? The Guinness World Record longest single-walled carbon nanotube model. That was the bright-blue sight stretching from Fondren Library though the Sallyport and across Founder’s Court on April 22. We feature photos on the back of the magazine. It’s nice and even inspiring that we set such records at Rice, but even more important—and more inspiring—is the potential for our research to improve our world. On the very day Professors Robert Curl and Rick Smalley stood at the ends of the oversized plastic nanotube model, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced a four-year, $11 million contract with Rice’s Carbon Nanotechnology Laboratory to produce a prototype power cable made entirely of carbon nanotubes—each about one ten-thousandth of the width of a human hair. The goal is “quantum wires” that can conduct electricity up to 10 times better than copper and weigh about one-sixth as much. This holds obvious advantages for long-distance space travel, where every ounce counts, and could help revolutionize energy distribution on Earth. With energy one of the central problems our world faces, that is no small matter. (OK, pun intended.)

A great university, to some extent, is about problems and puzzles. As you read Sallyport, I hope you too will be inspired by the range of problems and puzzles our researchers—students as well as faculty—are trying to solve. In this issue alone, these include peace in the Middle East, precise detection of loss of bone structural integrity, whether ethnic difference breeds distrust, why some people are conservative and others liberal, the threat posed by rising sea levels, and the molecular origins of life and evolution.

One of the fundamental premises of a research university is that education conducted by extraordinarily talented people dedicated to advancing understanding and contributing to the solution of problems produces a transformative experience for promising young people. This is well captured in the final installment of our four-year Class series, which has followed the paths of several undergraduate students who entered in fall 2001. One student, for example, was inspired by a research internship at the Baker Institute for Public Policy, and now she is working at the State Department before attending graduate school. At its best, such education helps our students discover things about themselves as they engage in learning both inside and outside the classroom. It also embodies not only substantive learning, but exposure to leadership opportunities and cultural experiences. We hope in the end we will graduate students who love learning and yearn to contribute, who will succeed and lead in a world that continues to change at an astonishing rate.

A great education is thus about enabling individuals to realize their own possibilities for achievement, contribution, and fulfillment. As one of our graduating students put it:

I was given a thorough and rigorous liberal arts education that I would not trade for anything. My ability to think crucially has been strengthened, my desire to explore new avenues of learning just for the sheer pleasure of it continues unabated, and I feel ready to move and use what I’ve learned. I was told when I came here that the Rice education was unparalleled, but only now does the magnitude of that truth finally hit me.

Although I am faced with and will continue to confront great and difficult decisions in my life . . . of one thing I am sure: I have life chances that are the envy of most people, and I am so lucky to have them. For this, I owe Rice thanks.

Read this issue—you will get a glimpse of the numerous reasons so many people have reason to give thanks for Rice.

—David W. Leebron