The President's Pulse

MOMENTOUS

Rice launched its new 10-year strategic plan — Momentous: Personalized Scale for Global Impact — in October.

This campuswide initiative is the result of extensive collaboration across our community, and it reflects our commitment to excellence in research, teaching and service. Momentous also sets out to preserve what makes Rice special — the personalization, the close-knit community and culture of care — while positioning Rice to do BIG things.

The plan’s vision is for Rice to deliver unparalleled personalized education and propel breakthrough discoveries to transform lives and better humanity. The power of this plan is in the “and” — premier teaching and research.

What sets us apart is our ability to do both, the important synergies between the two, and our ability to work across disciplines and leverage both our agile size and our interdisciplinary culture to solve the world’s most pressing issues in a way only Rice can.

As I told the campus at our launch event, built into Momentous is a focus on us — each one of us. Everyone has a role to play in this plan — including you. This is our moment for Rice. We invite you to join us for this next, exciting chapter as we take Rice to new heights … together!

STUDENTS

Our student body has reached an all-time high with 4,776 undergraduate students and 4,104 graduate students. For the first time since Rice opened its doors in 1912, the number of graduate students has almost reached parity with the number of undergraduate students. We plan to continue to grow both student populations, while preserving the intimate classroom atmosphere and culture that makes Rice so special.

Engaging with students is one of the absolute best parts of being Rice’s president. Recently, I had the pleasure of joining the incredible students at Sid Rich College for lunch. Their questions, ideas and energy left me inspired as did my visits with students from all of the other 10 residential colleges. I began my lunch tour with students a year and half ago and have enjoyed every minute of it.

FACULTY

Strong leadership and exceptional talent is critical as we seek to advance undergraduate and graduate education, two of the key drivers of our strategic plan. I’m pleased to share that this was a record-setting year for faculty hires, bringing an impressive group of worldclass teachers and researchers to Rice. This hiring cycle yielded 59 new tenure or tenure-track faculty and 38 nontenure-track faculty. This new class of accomplished faculty includes three National Academy members, John Baugh a linguistics professor and a member of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences; and, two members of the National Academy of Engineering, Menachem Elimelech, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, and Karen Lozano ’96, ’99, a Rice alumna and professor of materials science and nanoengineering.

ALUMNI

Alumni Weekend was spectacular. It was wonderful to have more than 2,000 Owls representing a span of 50 years celebrating their alma mater. From reunion parties and the President’s Town Hall to Rice football’s winning homecoming game against Navy, the weekend was filled with memories, milestones and visions for the bright future ahead. I especially enjoyed the Saturday morning run around campus with a group of enthusiastic Owls.

RESEARCH

Rice launched five new institutes this year — Medical Humanities Research, Advanced Materials, Sustainability, Synthetic Biology and WaTER — all harnessing Rice’s expertise in these critical areas to solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges in health and medicine, energy and climate, urban resilience, and more. Rice also invested in several research centers and launched accelerators where faculty and students can turn their discoveries into real-world solutions driving economic development in Houston and beyond.

The Center for Operations Research in Cancer is one such example, a joint initiative between Rice and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center — the nation’s leading cancer center — to solve complex operational and cancer care challenges using data science. The new center is co-led by Rice professor Andrew Schaefer and Jeffrey Siewerdsen, who works for both MD Anderson and Rice, and will pair Rice’s expertise in computational applied mathematics, operations research and statistics with the work done at MD Anderson’s Institute for Data Science in Oncology.

Rice also joined forces with MD Anderson to create the Cancer Bioengineering Collaborative. Led by Rice’s Gang Bao and MD Anderson’s Dr. Jeffrey Molldrem, the initiative aims to foster cooperation on fundamental and translational cancer research, to develop new technologies for cancer detection and therapy, and to secure external funding in support of further research and training.

Stay up to date with Rice’s research enterprise with the Rice Research Review (R3), the university’s new publication devoted to highlighting our high-impact research and innovation. The magazine will be available online and in print shortly after the new year.

CAMPUS

Our beautiful campus is growing! We have either completed, are in the process of, or are planning several significant construction projects to accommodate our current and future growth. From the newly redesigned Academic Quad and several new academic buildings to two new residential colleges and a new student center, our 300 acres are undergoing some exciting changes to say the least. These endeavors are transforming our campus and providing state-ofthe- art facilities for teaching, research and gathering for our students, faculty, staff and the broader community.

STUDENT EXPERIENCE

A coalition of student groups organized an energizing Election Day celebration on campus in the Academic Quad. The event helped build excitement around people casting their ballots at the Rice Welcome Center. Some of those voters were students eligible to vote for the first time, which is such a big milestone. Personally, it was meaningful for my wife Paula, my 92-year-old father and me to cast our ballots together on campus. I commend the dedicated individuals who contributed to making the Election Day activities possible for our campus community. From our Harris County Volunteer Deputy Voter In November, we announced the expansion of our international presence in India with the launch of Rice Global India. As part of this strategic expansion, Rice is deepening its collaborations with presti- Registrar volunteers to the Rice students who worked at our polling site, their commitment to democracy truly embodies the spirit of service and community.

RICE GLOBAL

In November, we announced the expansion of our international presence in India with the launch of Rice Global India. As part of this strategic expansion, Rice is deepening its collaborations with prestigious institutions such as the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and the Indian Institute of Science Bengaluru. We also signed an exciting agreement with the Ritnand Balved Education Foundation, more commonly known as the Amity Education Group. These partnerships will foster advanced research initiatives, student and faculty exchanges, and collaborations in key areas of mutual interest such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology and sustainable energy. Rice’s presence in India is a critical step in expanding our global reach and reflects our commitment to fostering a more interconnected world where education and research transcend borders.

COMMUNITY PARTNERS AND IMPACT

I had a fantastic conversation with Bill McKeon, the president and CEO of the Texas Medical Center, in October about my journey to Rice, the university’s priorities and the exciting partnerships we have with the TMC, including the center’s new Helix Park. The event was a timely opportunity to share all of the great things that are going on at Rice and how they’re advancing our community and the world. The growing and diverse collaborations between Rice and the TMC are a vital part of the university’s future and align with our new strategic plan’s key research driver of leading innovations in health.

Rice’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research, led by Ruth López Turley, is a valuable resource for the Houston area and beyond. The institute’s work is key to the university becoming the national and international hub for the global applications of research and programs that seek to enhance the social, economic and infrastructure issues that impact urban life. An example of the institute’s work includes its fifth annual State of Housing in Harris County and Houston. This year’s report shows that despite Houston’s longtime reputation as one of the most affordable large cities in the country, homeownership is increasingly out of reach for many of its residents. The report also found that in spite of homeownership COMMUNITY PARTNERS AND IMPACT A coalition of student groups organized an energizing Election Day celebration on campus in the Academic Quad. The event helped build excitement around people casting their ballots at the Rice Welcome Center. Some of those voters were students eligible to vote for the first time, which is such a big milestone. Personally, it was meaningful for my wife Paula, my 92-year-old father and me to cast our ballots together on campus. I commend the dedicated individuals who contributed to making the Election Day activities possible for our campus community. From our Harris County Volunteer Deputy Voter In November, we announced the expansion of our international presence in India with the launch of Rice Global India. As part of this strategic expansion, Rice is deepening its collaborations with presti- Registrar volunteers to the Rice students who worked at our polling site, their commitment to democracy truly embodies the spirit of service and community. being unattainable for many residents, it is something they value and consider an important milestone in becoming an adult. The institute’s annual Houston Area Survey is also an important resource and provides an unparalleled look at current conditions in the region as well as the Houston of Tomorrow.

An interdisciplinary team of Rice University engineers and collaborators led by Jamie Padgett is leveraging responsible artificial intelligence, hazard and resilience, models, and multimodal urban data to improve the safety and resiliency of coastal communities facing compounded risk from hazardous weather events. In collaboration with key stakeholders, the research team will design, develop and deploy a new intelligent system called Open-Source Situational Awareness Framework for Equitable Multi-Hazard Impact Sensing using Responsible AI or OpenSafe AI systems. The project’s goal is to enable communities to better prepare for and navigate severe weather by providing better estimates of what is actually happening or might happen within the next hours or days.