rice magazine fall 2003
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RICE SALLYPORT The magazine of rice universiTy fall 2003
D e p a r t m e n t s
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InsIde
5Did you get a u shot
last year? Then youdbetter get one this year.Michael Dean tells you
why.
52The Rice tennis teamcourts victory.
6Want to know aboutthe latest research innanoscale science andtechnology? NanoFANShas the scoop.
6Rice marine geologists
uncover evidence ointense meteor strikescaused by a colossalasteroid collision 500million years ago.
43A unique class thatexplores the art andbusiness o printmakingtransorms classic photoso the Rice campus intoartistic prints.
7A Rice innovationmakes the list o the 100most technologicallysignifcant products othe year.
4Creating a newdepartment is the frststep in elevating the roleo the visual arts at Rice.
9When corporateexecutives misbehave,should consumersshoulder some o the
blame?
10A think tank with adierence, the BakerInstitute or PublicPolicy marks 10 years o
distinguished service.
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Rc SayporFall 2003, Vol. 60, No. 1
Published by the Division o PublicAairs
Terry Shepard, vice president
Editor
Christopher Dow
Creative DirectorJe Cox
Art DirectorChuck Thurmon
Editorial StaDavid D. Medina 83, senior editorM. Yvonne Taylor, associate editor
Lindsay Dold, assistant editorLorrie Lampson, production coordinator
Design StaDean Mackey, senior designer
Jana Starr, designerTommy LaVergne,photographerJe Fitlow, assistant photographer
The Rice University Boardo Trustees
E. William Barnett, chair; J. D. BuckyAllshouse; D. Kent Anderson; TeveiaRose Barnes; Alredo Brener; Robert T.Brockman; Albert Y. Chao; James W.Crownover; Edward A. Dominguez; Bruce
W. Dunlevie; James A. Elkins, III; LynnLaverty Elsenhans; Karen O. George;Susanne Glasscock; K. Terry Koonce; CindyJ. Lindsay; Michael R. Lynch; Robert R.Maxfeld; Burton J. McMurtry; Steven L.Miller; W. Bernard Pieper; Karen HessRogers; Marc Shapiro; William N. Sick;L. E. Simmons
Administrative OfcersMalcolm Gillis, president; ZenaidoCamacho, vice president or Student
Aairs; Dean W. Currie, vice presidentor Finance and Administration; CharlesHenry, vice president and chie inormationofcer; Eric Johnson, vice president orResource Development; Eugene Levy,
provost; Terry Shepard, vice president orPublic Aairs; Scott W. Wise, vice president
or Investments and treasurer; Ann Wright,vice president or Enrollment; Richard A.Zansitis, general counsel.
Sallyportis published by the Division oPublic Aairs o Rice University and is sentto university alumni, aculty, sta, graduatestudents, parents o undergraduates, andriends o the university.
Editorial Ofces
Ofce o PublicationsMS 95P.O. Box 1892
Houston, Texas 77251-1892
Fax:713-348-6751E-mail:sallyport@rice.edu
Postmaster
Send address changes to:
Rice UniversityDevelopment ServicesMS 80
P.O. Box 1892Houston, TX 77251-1892
2003 Rice UniveRsity
Not long ago, I was talking to an older alumone who graduated in the Rice Institutedaysand he made an interesting observation. Rice has always been an excellent school with highaspirations, he told me, but it is ar better now than when hed been a studenttougher to getinto and tougher to graduate rom. That, coupled with 40 additional years o Rices increasingreputation as a world-class university, had added considerably to the prestige o his Rice degree.
Then, with a wry grin, he commented that he probably would not have gotten into Rice hadthe admission and graduation requirements been as stringent then as they are now, and that hewas, in essence, riding on the coattails o graduates one-third his age.
The truth is that, all too oten, prestige lies in the eyes o thebeholder rather than in the intrinsic worth o that which is beheld.Rice, thankully, has both intrinsic worth as well as prestige, butthere was a time when the edgling Rice, despite the ballyhoosurrounding its inauguration, had to prove its worth when com-pared to more venerable institutions o higher learning. It didand, because o that, rose in distinction to join the ranks o thosesame institutions it once aspired to equal.
Getting to the top takes a lot o hard work and diligence. Stay-ing there is perhaps more difcult, and Rice cannot rest on its laurels. Today there is incrediblyintense competition among universities or all the elements that matter most in higher education:
excellent aculty, superior students, and ample unding or general operations, state-o-the-art acili-ties, student assistance, and research. Maintainingmuch lessincreasingeach o these elements requires constant vigilance.Faculty can be lured elsewhere, state-o-the-art acilities canbe all too quickly eclipsed by new technologies, and programsand research can cease to exist rom lack o unding. All theseactors aect the decision o superior students to choose Riceor go elsewhere.
The simple act is that the value o a degree hinges in parton the reputation o the university that has granted it. Ricesreputation can continue to rise, or, due to lack o supportandthus meansit can all. And with those uctuations goes thecachet that a Rice degree imparts to its alumni. Support cantake various orms, the most obvious being unding. As a private
university, Rice must make its fnancial way among ar-largerstate supported schools in what is, as we all know, a difcultfnancial climate. But support also includes the less tangible,such as participation in the Association o Rice Alumni, vol-unteerism on behal o the university, or simple advocacy.
Indeed, all these orms o support are crucial in these changingtimes, or we are witnessing incredible evolution not only in technologies but in educational modelsand the needs and aspirations o students, and Rice cannot allow the dynamic orward momentumit has built over the past decade to alter. We must take up the dual challenges o orging aheadand, at the same time, preparing the way or our own passage. And none o us should make themistake o believing that the acilities we are so proud o today will be state-o-the-art in 20 years,that current educational models will adequately represent the pedagogy o the uture, or that newdirections in research can be predicted by contemporary standards.
Pride in and respect or Rice should be reason enough to contribute to the university, as ispreservation o the distinction o a Rice degree. But most important, perhaps, is that Rice, despiteits modest size, is making a real dierence in the world. I could cite numerous Sallyportarticlesreporting on achievements made by members o the Rice communityrom the scientifc andtechnological to the social and culturalbut such a catalog would require an issue unto itsel.Instead o dwelling on past achievements, I simply ask you to use your imagination to envisionRiceand the accomplishments o its alumni, aculty, researchers, and studentsin 20 years.Then I encourage you to discover what you can do to help make that vision a reality.
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Letters
r e T u r n a d d r e s s e d
Will the Real Beer Bike Winners
Please Stand Up?
Sallyportis the magazine o Rice Uni-versity. How could you be so careless
as to report incorrectly who won 2003
Beer Run? Martel College had its veryfrst major victory on campus, and you
have robbed us o it. The least you cando is have a eature article on Martels
victory in your next issue.
Not happy at Martel.
Joan Few
Master, Martel College
Its not air reporting that Will Ricewon Beer Bike, even though it was
Beer Run. We still won air and
square. Fix it.
James Walker
Houston, Texas
As the editor-in-chie o a ellow RiceUniversity publication, theCampanile
yearbook, I am horrifed by the lacko journalistic responsibility exhibited
in the most recent issue oSallyport.
The Beer Bike results, though theymay seem trivial to some, are very im-
portant to Rice students and alumni.These results are not difcult acts
to fnd. Martel won the mens race
at Beer Bikeplain and simple. Myphotograph was also used in this issue,
and I do not wish to compromise myown journalistic integrity by having
my likeness appear alongside a aulty
article. Please send an apology toMartel College and all the recipients
o your magazine.
Heidi Sherman
Martel College
It has come to my attention thatSallyport reported that Will Rice
won Beer Bike/Run. This is clearly
alseask anyone who was there,
or the Threshersta, or everyone atMartel who was cheering when they
won. Will Rice did, however, decideto have another race the ollowing
week which they titled the Will Rice
Invitational Beer Bike. Everyone elseat Rice just called it Fake Beer Bike
because thats what it really is. That,and you cant just have another race
because you didnt win the frst one.
Thats just stupid. Whether or notWill Rice won the race they planned
or themselves is completely insignif-cantnot to mention the act that
only two other colleges showed up
to their Waste o Everyones Freak-ing Time Invitational. So just because
some people at Will Rice who weredropped on their heads as babies de-
cided to have another race doesnt
make it valid. Recognize the winnerso Actual Real Beer Bike: Martel.
Will Thompson
Martel College
Our apologies to Martel College and
our readers. The error resulted rom
a too-hurried reading o the results
posted at http://www.ru.rice.edu/
~program/beerbike/results.html, which
listed the winners o the alumni race
frst and the mens race last.
Editor
The Others
I enjoyed your article about Tony Elam
and his games. Unortunately, you gotthe name o one o his avorite games
wrong. It is Cosmic Encounter, notCosmic Encounters. My housemates(one o whom coincidentally used to
work with Tony at IBM and game with him at CLAG) call it CosmicEncountersto annoy me.
John S. Adair 89
Austin, Texas
Just a note: Lynn Elsenhans is cur-
rently on the Jones Graduate SchoolBoard o Overseers, and your write-
up makes it sound like she no longer
is. Vicki Bretthaur is also on the JGSCouncil o Overseers. Obviously,
were proud o having them on our
council.
Debra Thomas
Director o Public RelationsJones Graduate School o
Management
I appreciate the articles on students,especially the various ways that they
volunteer themselves and their time
or others.The summer 2003 issue, which
I just received, has an article on thedonation o hair to Locks o Love. You
have eatured other students in the
past. Please be aware, however, that
students have been doing this or a
long time. My daughter, Jill, surprisedus on her Christmas visit home in 2001
with a very new, very short cut. Locks
o Love was delighted, as red hair is
hard to come by. A good riend ohers, Stephanie Moat, also donated
at the same time. These womenmade the donation with no anare
and would probably be embarrassed
i any uss were made. A well balancedarticle, however, might include urther
research into the requency that dona-tions to Locks o Love are made by
all Rice students.
Rice students make other simple,but meaningul contributions to the
Houston community. I doubt i verymany Rice students are content to
just study. Most go to Rice precisely
because they want challenges andnew experiences. I believe you might
fnd many more interesting ways Ricestudents contribute to the community
i you seek them out.
Louise Bergman
Long Grove, Illinois
Thank you or the summer issue. I do
not remember an issue with more in-teresting articles, better graphics, and
more inormation. It is the best yet.
Judy Wingo
Richardson, Texas
I just read the summer issue o theSallyport. Its terrifcboth layout andcontent. Cheers to the sta.
Susan Lieberman
Director, Leadership Rice
On the inside back cover o the summer
Sallyportit is stated that Will Rice wasthe rst across the nish line at Beer Bike.
Wrong, wrong, wrong. Martel was the
clear winner and by a large margin. All o
the students in the above photo are Martel
College students.
Arthur Few
Master, Martel College
The Real
Kelly Niemann
In the write-up on Je
Niemann in the summer
issue, the woman pictured withJe may indeed be his biggest an,
but she is not his mother. She ishis cousin, Sherry Darby, whose
husband, Glenn, ran track at Rice
in the 1960s. Our apologies to theNiemanns. Here is Je, with his
parents, Kelly and Steve.
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The split recognizes the dierent
teaching and research methods
used by artists and art historians.
Artists tend to be visual and con-
ceptual, while art historians tend
to be analytical and discursive,
says Gale Stokes, the Mary Gibbs
Jones Proessor o History and
ormer dean o humanities. Artists
create space, line, color, and shape;
art historians analyze those cre-ations, placing them in context.
The move will enhance each
department by making it more
eective, efcient, and respon-
sive to student and aculty in-
structional and research needs,
says Hamid Nafcy, the Nina J.
Cullinan Proessor o Art His-
tory and chair o the art his-
tory department. The
change will not aect
current academic
programs, and no
proessors will
be added to ei-ther department.
However, the art
historians, who cur-
rently are housed in
Sewall Hall, will move
their ofces into Herring Hall
during the 200304 winter break.
Nafcy said he hopes each de-
partment can now concentrate
its eorts on developing its own
local, national, and international
identity to attract top students,
visitors, scholars, and artists. Each
department also can develop more
rigorous undergraduate and grad-
uate majors in its area, create closer
ties with local and national
museum and arts com-
munities, increase
interdisciplinary col-
laborations, and
promote its own in-
tellectual, program-
matic, and artistic
growth at Rice.
The reorganization
will help defne the goals
o visual arts proessors, says Karin
Broker, proessor and chair o the
visual arts depart-
ment. One problem
the departmentsencountered, she says,
was that the two disci-
plines had grown too large to be
managed together eectively. Art
proessors also have dierent needs
than art history proessors, such as
dealing with heavy equipment and
chemicals, saety procedures, and
adequate space or working.
The division already has created
a new energy among the visual
artists, Broker says. When stu-
dents returned in the all, they elt
that they were studying and work-
ing in a real art school. The
mission o the visual arts depart-
ment is to give students the best
opportunity to study painting,
sculpture, photography, drawing,
design, flmmaking, and print-
making at the undergraduate lev-
el. In turn, this will create more
collaborations with the School
o Architecture and the Houston
arts community.
We believe the creation o
TheArto Separation
The Department o Art and Art History is no more. But never
ear, art loversin its stead stand two new departments: the
Department o Art History and the Department o Visual Arts.
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g st
this new depart-
ment, which will
include the Rice Me-dia Center, is the frst
step in elevating the role
o the visual arts at Rice, says
Broker, but equally important
is the creation o a new spirit o
camaraderie and dedication on
the part o each and every studio
aculty member and sta person.
We hope to create an atmosphere
o cooperative work and interac-
tion among all o our various art
disciplines, the kind o camarade-
rie that characterizes the best art
institutions.
The split does not signal the
end o collaboration between art
historians and artists and may even
encourage more partnerships.
From the enthusiasm that the
change has already stirred among
the artists and historians, Stokes
says, it is clear that the sum o
the two separate departments will
actually be greater than when they
were together.
e c
kari
Bro
ker
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ham
idnafc
y
T h r o u g h T h e s a l l y p o r T
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T h r o u g h T h e s a l l y p o r T
The program, called NanoFANS
short or Friends Advancing Nano
Science/Technologyoers a va-
riety o membership levels aimed at
groups as diverse as grade school
students and business leaders.
Since CNST was ormed in
1993, people outside the Rice com-munity have asked how they could
get involved, either in helping us
to urther scientifc research at the
nanoscale or to educate the public
about the benefts and prospects or
nanotechnology, says Wade Adams,
CNST director. NanoFANS gives
those olks a window on the CNST
research thats under way in the
laboratories o more than 80 Rice
aculty members.
All NanoFANS members receive
a membership card, advance notice
o all CNST events, and an invita-tion to the annual CNST aculty/
sta/student outing. Upper-level
members get additional benefts
like reserved parking or events and
opportunities to sponsor events.
Details and enrollment orms
are available online at http://
cnst.rice.edu.J B
The research, which appeared
in the May 9 issue oScience, is
based on an analysis o ossil me-
teorites and limestone samples
rom fve Swedish quarries located
as much as 310 miles apart.
We are doing astronomy, but
instead o looking up at the stars,
we are looking down into
the Earth, says lead re-
searcher Birger Schmitz,
who conducted his analy-sis during his tenure as
the Wiess Visiting Proes-
sor o Earth Science at
Rice. Schmitz is proes-
sor o marine geology at
Gteborg University in Sweden.
Meteorite activity on Earth
is relatively uniorm today, with
an average o about one mete-
orite per year alling every 7,700
square miles. Some 20 percent
o the meteorites that reach
Earth today are remnants o a
very large asteroid that plan-
etary scientists reer to as theL-chondrite parent body.
This asteroid broke apart
around 500 million years ago
in what scientists believe is the
largest collision that occurred
in late solar-system history. The
breakup let its mark when lime-
stone orming rom sea-bottom
sediments during a 2 million-year
span about 480 million years ago
sealed intact meteorites, as well
as trace minerals rom disinte-
grated meteorites, in a litho-
graphic time capsule.
The new study ound a hun-
dred-old increase in meteorite
activity during the period o
limestone ormation over the en-
tire 150,000-square-mile search
area. In looking or unique ex-
traterrestrial orms o the mineral
chromite that are ound only in
meteorites rom the L-chondrite
breakup, Schmitz and his col-
leagues ound that all the intact
ossil meteorites in the Swedish
limestone came rom the breakup.
Moreover, they ound matching
concentrations o silt and sand-
sized grains o extraterrestrial
chromite in limestone rom all fvequarries, indicating that meteorite
activity ollowing the breakup was
occurring at the same rate over
the entire area.
The research helps explain why
Schmitz and his colleagues at
Gteborg have been able to col-
lect so many ossilized meteorites
rom a single quarry near Kin-
nekulle, Sweden, over the past
decade. Fossil meteorites embed-
ded in stratifed rock are extreme-
ly rare. Only 55 have ever been
recovered, and Schmitzs group
ound 50 o those.
It is true that we are luckyto be looking in just the right
placea layer o lithifed sediments
that was orming on the sea oor
immediately ater this massive col-
lision, Schmitz says. But on the
other hand, we would never have
started looking there in the frst
place i the quarry workers hadnt
been fnding the meteorites on a
regular, yet still rare, basis. Until
Schmitzs group started working
with the quarry crew, the ossil-
ized meteorites were considered
blemishes in the limestone and were
discarded.
Schmitz believes it is possible
that similar concentrations o os-
silized meteorites and extrater-
restrial chromite grains are present
across the planet in limestone thatormed during the period ollow-
ing the asteroid breakup. He re-
cently received unding to look or
evidence o this in China, and he
says there are South American sites
that also are avorable.
The research was sponsored by
the National Geographic Society and
the Swedish Research Council.
J B
Using ossil meteorites and ancient limestone unearthed throughout
southern Sweden, marine geologists at Rice University have discovered
that a colossal collision in the asteroid belt some 500 million years ago
led to intense meteorite strikes over Earths surace.
NanoFANS SupportSmall Science in aBig Field
Rices Center or Nanoscale
Science and Technology (CNST)
has established a new aliate
program that allows o-campus
supporters o nanoscience
and nanotechnology to both
materially support research at
Rice and stay abreast o the
latest developments at CNST.
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T h r o u g h T h e s a l l y p o r T
Conventional single-walled
carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are
hollow tubes o pure carbon that
measure just one nanometer, or
billionth o a meter, in diameter.
Theyre excellent conductors o
electricity and heat, can be electrical
semiconductors, and show tremen-
dous promise or use in advanced
composites, sensor technology, uel
cells, and molecular electronics. Buta major obstacle to ully exploiting
their properties is their tendency to
get tangled into knotted bundles.
First prepared at Rice in the labo-
ratory o John Margrave, the E.D.
Butcher Proessor o Chemistry, u-
oronanotubes have unique chemical
properties not ound in pure carbon
nanotubes. By attaching thousands
o uorine atoms to the sides o
nanotubes, researchers
in Margraves group cre-
ated chemical handles
that allow chemists and
engineers to bind othermolecules to their sides to
create new materials.
Fluorinating nanotubes
also makes it easier or
scientists and engineers to exploit
their incredible strength. Although
SWNTs are 100 times stronger than
steel at one-sixth the weight, their
tendency to clump together inhib-
its their use in creating superstrong
composite materials. Research by
Margrave and others at Rice has
shown disentangling SWNTs via
Share(hard)ware
Top aculty in interdisciplinary
elds like nanotechnology and
bioinormatics increasingly
need expensive, high-powered
equipment to do their jobs; itcan be the price o admission or
competing at the highest levels
o their elds.
One o Rices newest weapons
in the battle to attract and retain
these top aculty isnt a piece o
equipment, howeverits a new
way o managing the instruments
that are already here.
At Rice, the management and
maintenance o research instru-
ments historically has been han-
dled by academic departments.Rices new Shared Equipment
Authority (SEA) grew out o a
broadening awareness
that department-level
management was ill-
suited or extremely
expensive instru-
ments that are in
high demand by users
across departments.
SEA now manages
some 20 instruments
that previously were
maintained by depart-
ments in the WiessSchool o Natural
Sciences and George
R. Brown School o
Engineering.
In addition to en-
suring that all aculty have access
to the big-ticket equipment that is
increasingly needed to land com-
petitive research grants, SEA helps
to maximize the useul lie span o
high-dollar instruments. For most
o these machines, Rice will spend
an amount equal to the purchase
price to keep them up-to-date
and operational over a 10-year lie
cycle.
Some o the equipment will be
available to researchers outside
Rice. One example is a state-
o-the-art 800 MHz nuclear
magnetic resonance (NMR) spec-
trometer purchased by the Gul
Coast Consortium (GCC) with a
$750,000 grant rom the John S.
Dunn Research Foundation and
a $1 million grant rom the W.M.
Keck Foundation. It will become
uorination makes it easier to dis-
perse them evenly in polymers and
ceramic composites.
Those participating in Margraves
uoronanotube research include
ormer doctoral student Edward T.
Mickelson, who carried out the frst
synthesis and characterization o u-
oronanotubes; ormer doctoral stu-
dents Ivana Chiang and Zhenning
Gu, who built upon Mickelsonswork; Robert Hauge, distinguished
aculty ellow; Richard E. Smalley,
University Proessor, the Gene and
Norman Hackerman Proessor o
Chemistry, and proessor o physics;
Valery Khabashesku, aculty ellow;
Shyam Shukla, visiting proessor
o chemistry rom Lamar Univer-
sity; Galle Derrien, postdoctoral
research associate; graduate stu-
dents Haiqing Peng, Lei
Zhang, and Yu Liu; and
undergraduate researchers
Joel Stevens, Ian Tonks,
Paul Reverdy, and JustinCratty. The research is
sponsored by the Robert
A. Welch Foundation
and the Texas Advanced
Technology Program. Assistance
was provided by Carbon Nanotech-
nologies, Inc., Rices Center or
Nanoscale Science and Technology,
and MarChem, Inc.J B
part o the shared acilities o the
John S. Dunn, Sr. Gul Coast Con-
sortium or Magnetic Resonance.
While some 35 GCC researchers
are interested in high-feld NMR
research, there have been only two
high-feld instruments in the entire
Gul Coast region. The addition
o Rices instrument and another
at the University o Texas Medical
Branch at Galveston will double
that capacity.
Most SEA equipment is avail-
able only within the Rice commu-
nity, however. This is advantageous
in recruiting young aculty because
it is much easier or junior aculty
to get time on high-dollar instru-
ments at Rice than at larger state
institutions. But Rices small size
makes or a real challenge in the
area o cost recovery because there
just arent enough billable hourson the machines to cover the ris-
ing cost o maintenance. Thats
why SEA encour-
ages external use o
its instruments by
industry and other
academic organiza-
tions.
SEA is governed by
a 15-member aculty
committee chaired
by Vicki Colvin, as-
sociate proessor o
chemistry and direc-
tor o the Center orBiological and En-
vironmental Nano-
technology. Colvin
says that SEA is com-
mitted to holding
user ees to their lowest possible
level. Toward that end, the com-
mittee is working with the Ofce
o Development to obtain en-
dowed unds earmarked or instru-
ment stewardship.
With the right level o unding,
Rice could do away with internal
user ees altogether, Colvin says.
That would give our aculty, par-
ticularly our junior aculty, ree
access to instruments that they just
couldnt get, or would have to pay
a lot or, at a bigger school. That
would make Rice very attractive to
innovative young researchers.
J B
Fluoronanotubes, a processed orm o carbon nanotubes that opens
the door to hundreds o varieties o designer nanotubes, have been
named one o the 100 most technologically signicant products o the
year by R&D Magazine.
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FluoronanotubesEarn PrestigiousR&D Award
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T h r o u g h T h e s a l l y p o r T
RIce UnIveRsIty
the OffIceOf Planned GIvInGms 81 p.o. Bx 1892 ht, Tx 77251-1892
g Jb, cfc, clu, at dt p g 713-348-4617 jb@.
YouandtheuniversitYcanbothbenefit.
A charitable trust may provide attractive opportunities: Ensure and oten increase income rom selected assets Obtain an immediate and oten generous income tax
charitable deduction
Receive relie rom capital gains taxes on highlyappreciated assets used to make the git
Reduce onerous git and estate taxes and probate costs Make a signifcant git to Rice
howitworks
A minimum git o $100,000 to Rice is required toestablish a charitable trust, with Rice Trust Inc. astrustee. Charitable trusts are most oten unded withgits o cash, stocks, or bonds. However, gits o realestate, artwork, or a closely held business may also beconsidered as unding sources and evaluated on anindividual basis.
A charitable unitrust makes payments based on a fxedpercentage o the trusts total assets, revalued annually.Since the trusts assets may grow over time, the totalannual payment, though a fxed percentage, may growover the years o the lie o the trust.
Establishing a charitable remainder unitrust with Rice Universityoers you an opportunity to enjoy substantial fnancial and taxbenefts while also making an important git to Rice.
Impor tant L egis la t iv e UpdateThe U.S. House o Representatives and the U.S. Senate are investigating issues concerning IRA rollovers or charitable purposes.For the latest inormation on the status o legislation and how it may aect charitable gits, please check the Legislative Update
on our website at http://giving.rice.edu/giving/legupdate.asp. Or call 713-348-4617 or an update.
aGIfttO RIcethatPaysyOUback.
C h a r a R m a n d r U n r u s :
forexample
John and Jean Simon, both class o 1955 and retired,wish to make a signifcant git to Rice. They cannotmake an outright git o assets they need in theirretirement so they establish a charitable remainder
unitrust with Rice.
The Simons make an initial git o $100,000 tound the trust.
They receive a payout rate o 5 percent, providinga frst-year income o $5,000. Future income willvary with trust value.
Their unitrust generates an immediate charitableincome tax deduction o $42,191.
They designate that the unitrust ultimatelyestablish unds dedicated to support the libraryand residential colleges.
letusworkwithYou.
The sta o the Ofce o Planned Giving will be happyto provide individual git illustrations or inormationabout charitable trusts. Please eel ree to contact us.
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T h r o u g h T h e s a l l y p o r T
Duane Windsor, the Lynette S.
Autrey Proessor o Management
in Rices Jesse H. Jones Graduate
School o Management, is not so
quick agree, or ethical and practi-
cal reasons.
In an article in a special issue
o theJournal o Corporate Citi-
zenship, Stakeholder Responsi-
bilities: Lessons or Managers,
Windsor says it is a dilution
o stakeholder theory to start
spreading responsibility aroundversus keeping it with manage-
ment. He makes a practical ar-
gument: Customers actions oten
occur at a distance rom the deci-
sions made by management.
Take the case o Unocal Cor-
poration, an energy giant cur-
rently embroiled in a lawsuit
stemming rom its passive invest-
ment in a pipeline partly
owned by the govern-
ment o Burma. The
military regime in
Burma is oten
labeled by theU.S. government
and others as a
repressive dictator-
ship that allegedly has
used rape, murder, and
slave labor to secure its inter-
ests and investmentsincluding
the pipeline at the center o the
lawsuit. Do consumers who
purchase a product that is trans-
ported through this pipeline bear
some responsibility or the meth-
ods allegedly employed by the
Burmese government to operate
the pipeline?
Windsor points out that most
customers would have no way o
knowing exactly how their gas
was transported. In addition,
almost any action a consumer
would take, beyond simply not
buying the product themselves,
could be subject to criticism and
legal challenges by others. We
would be moving into a worldin which everyone has unlimited
moral responsibility and has to
consult everyone beore taking
action, Windsor says.
On the other hand, the board
o directors and executive team
at Unocal should have known
that the Burmese government
would use such methods to pro-
tect its investment. I they
elt insulated because
they wouldnt actu-
ally be carrying out
any brutality, that
would be a morally
wrong rationaliza-
tion, says Windsor.
To be sure, putting
the onus in the execu-
tive suite doesnt relieve
consumers o all responsibility
or making careul purchases. For
instance, a person who purchases
a CD with the knowledge that it
is stolen is acting immorally, and
probably illegally as well, Windsor
says. The consumers ethical re-
Who IsResponsible?
duane
Widsor
sponsibility is to those harmed: the
frm or individual who holds the
copyright to the songs on the CD.Ultimately, business owners,
managers, and board members
have to hold themselves to a
higher moral standard than do
consumers, says Windsor. The
board has a crucial role to play
in determining the undamental
values o a company, he says.
Based on those values, manage-
ment is charged with ormulating
and implementing strategy and
directing the operations o the
company.
Approaching business deci-
sions rom a moral ramework
may even cost a frm, adds Wind-
sor. Ken Moser, Rice M.B.A.
04, a ormer student o Wind-
sor, headed a business unit that
manuactured parts or combus-
tion turbines. In one case, Moser
and his colleagues were working
on a part that they manuactured
in Europe, where the patent had
expired, meaning that anyone was
ree to use the design. Mosers
team developed and launched
their own product, at which point
the company that had created the
original design obtained a patent
in the United Statesdespite the
act that the product had been
commercially available or more
than 17 years. Our frst reactionwas that this was ridiculous, says
Moser. We had manuactured a
whole bunch o stu legally that
they suddenly said we couldnt
sell. However, it became clear
that the patent was valid, and
Moser and his colleagues disposed
o all the parts that werent al-
ready in use. It was a tough deci-
sion, and it elt unjust, he says.
This incident, along with oth-
ers in which he was orced to con-
sider ethics as well as the bottom
line, prompted Moser to seek an
M.B.A. program that included
course work in business ethics. He
ound that at the Jones School.
I eel comortable regarding my
own decisions rom an ethical
perspective; however, given the
recent meltdown o companies
in the energy trading business,
in part due to apparent lapses in
ethical behavior, I elt ethics train-
ing would be important going
orward, says Moser. Its rel-
evant to everything we do.
k m. k
Amid headlines o corporate misconduct, some experts say that
customers, and not just executives or boards o directors, must take
responsibility or the ethical behavior o companies.
W w b t w
w t
bt t t b t t.
d W
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T h r o u g h T h e s a l l y p o r T
While both are private universities,
they have dierent missions, and
Rices agreements reect that
dierence.
Monterrey Tech was ounded
in 1943 and received accreditation
rom the Southern Association o
Colleges and Schools (SACS) in
the United States in 1951. With
an enrollment o 95,000 ull-
time students on 29 campuses,
the university oers 34 under-
graduate, 51 masters, and six
doctoral programs.UDEM is a younger, smaller
university, ounded in 1969 and
accredited in 2001. It has 8,500
students on a single campus and
oers 23 academic programs or
undergraduates and 11 programs
at the masters level.
The agreement with UDEM
ormalizes an unofcial exchange
program that has been in place or
several years and involves Rices
George R. Brown School o En-
gineering and Department o Me-
chanical Engineering and MaterialsScience and UDEMs School o
Engineering. The plan is to eventu-
ally expand the program to include
computer science, architecture,
humanities, and social sciences.
The UDEM program has taken
some time to develop. In 1990, a
group o students rom the uni-
versity came to Rice and invited
Rice to participate in their annual
student-run conerence. The ol-
lowing year, Enrique Barrera,
associate proessor o mechani-
cal engineering and materials
science, and Michael Carroll,the Burton J. and Ann M. Mc-
Murtry Proessor o Engineer-
ing in Mechanical Engineering
and Computational and Applied
Mathematics, brought a number
o students to the conerence.
The relationship regained mo-
mentum in 1993, and today in-
volves annual visits between the
universities; however, the student
exchange has been one-way so ar.
UDEM is a very young univer-
Rice Forms Relationships withMexican Universities
sity, Barrera says, noting that
only 30 percent o the aculty
hold doctorates. Our relation-
ship with them has been one o
stewardship. We try to provide an
opportunity to produce students
or advanced degrees who can go
back to their campus and become
Ph.D. research aculty.
Rices connection with
Monterrey Tech is more
recent. The present
agreement, expected
to be the frst amongmany, will apply only to Rices
mechanical engineering and ma-
terials science department and
Monterrey Techs mechanical
engineering department.
Collaborations with Mon-
terrey Tech are crystallizing on
several ronts, says Rice presi-
dent Malcolm Gillis. Discus-
sions involving the Jones School
o Management and the Baker
Institute or Public Policy are the
centerpieces at present. Also, we
are discussing possibilities or u-
ture interaction among Monter-
rey Tech, Rice, and International
University Bremen.
Right now the agreement with
Monterrey Tech is a preliminary
one signiying the intent to begin
an ofcial relationship. The details
are being negotiated, and a more
ormal signing will take place
once those details are in place.
Jordan Konisky, vice provost
or research and graduate studies,
sees a lot o potential or both o
these collaborative eorts. I re-
quently get contacted by universi-ties rom all over the world who
want to develop ties with Rice,
Konisky says. But we are very
selective because, unless there
is aculty-to-aculty interaction,
these things just dont work. You
cannot implement this rom the
top; there has to be a common
interest and a solid working re-
lationship. And thats what we
have here.
mt d
Rice University recently expanded its international outreach eorts
into Mexico, ormalizing exchange programs with Tec de Monterrey
(Monterrey Tech) and Universidad de Monterrey (University o
Monterrey, or UDEM).
How I view Rice:Ambitious and noble, a Texas treasure
When I think o Rice: I remember walking back to Jones one beautiul
Friday aternoon. College windows were open, and I could hear laughter.But the main sound was somebody playing the solo guitar ri rom
Stairway to Heaven. I thought, Im so happy to be here.
Why I give back to Rice: So many o my riends were at Rice on
scholarships. It was the only way they could attend Rice. My lie wouldnot be nearly as ull i I had not met them. So, now that my husband,
Doug, and I are able to, we have established a scholarship to help otherdeserving students. Its my responsibility to give back to Rice because Rice
gave me so much.
How I have stayed connected: Next Century Campaign Major Gits
Steering Committee, Annual Gits vice chair, co-chair or reunion givingclass o 1978, board member o the Friends o Fondren Library, and
member o the Friends o the Rice Art Gallery
My gits to Rice:
Rodd/Selman Scholarship in Chemical Engineering Rice Annual Fund, including 25th reunion gitMy husband and I are ortunate that ExxonMobil matches our gits 3-to-1.
Rice University Ofce o Development MS 81 P.O. Box 1892
Houston, Texas 77251-1892 713-348-4600 giving@rice.edu
r tt
tt, ,
t.
Alumna:
Cathryn Lankord Rodd Selman
Year:
1978
Major:
Economics/History
College:
Jones
Proession:
Civic Volunteer
First Git:
$12.50
Years o Giving:
23
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T h r o u g h T h e s a l l y p o r T
starB y D a v i d D . M e d i n a
W y W u
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T h r o u g h T h e s a l l y p o r T
You coudn am Pggy Whson for ng xcd
w bt t ttt w t t w.
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When the time came to board the space shuttle Endeavoron June 7, 2002, or
the fight to the International Space Station (ISS), Whitson elt like a child
again. She was so eager to go on the ride o her lie that ear had no place in
her. I was so excited to be fying in space or the rst time, she says.
Atexactly six and a hal seconds beore takeo, the main engines ignited,and Whitson could eel the shuttle shaking. But that was nothingcompared to the vibration that ollowed ater the solid rocket boosters turned
on. As the shuttle climbed, the gravity o acceleration pushed her hard against
her seat. The pressure eels like two people sitting on your chest while you
are trying to breathe, she says. Ater reaching orbit, the uel in the external
tanks had been expended, and the tank was released rom the shuttle through
a pyrotechnic that jolted the deck right un-
derneath her eet. In less than eight and a hal
minutes, the shuttle had traveled 200 miles and
had begun orbiting the earth. It was quite a
ride, she admits. I was there, and it still seems
unbelievable.
Whitson was living her dream o ying inspace, and the dreamlike quality remained when
she peered out the window and saw the world as
never beore. Words seem insufcient to describe
her heavenly vision.
To say that my frst sight o the earth rom
orbit was breathtaking or magnifcent still seems
such a paltry way to describe what I saw and
elt. My frst impression was o the clarity o my
visionnot even air molecules got in the way o seeing what was ahead. It
seemed as i I could see an incredible distance. The next impression was o the
richness o the colors that made up our planet and the atmosphere below. The
colors were so vibrant that they seemed to have a previously unseen texture.
I would liken the eeling to having someone turn on the lights ater having
lived in semidarkness or years.
During her six months aboard the ISS184 days, 22 hours, and 14 min-utes, to be exactWhitson conducted 21 experiments in human lie sciences
and microgravity sciences and on commercial products. She also worked as a
builder, helping expand the station. Each crew that visits the ISSis responsible
or adding another piece o the puzzle. The station has already grown rom
the size o an efciency apartment to that o a three-bedroom house. Whitson
helped install the mobile base system, which serves as a platorm or a robotic
arm. She also added a couple o segments to the truss. The truss structure will
eventually support almost an acre o solar panels to provide more power or
the space station. When completed, the truss will stretch 356 eet.
All that was very satisying work. However, the most exciting part o her
duties was the space walk. Whitson ventured out into the wide-open darkness
or our hours and 25 minutes to install six shields or the main service mod-
ule to protect it rom ying meteoroids. Donning a Russian space suit called
Orlanwhich means eagle in RussianWhitson was hauled through space
by a mechanical arm operated by Korzum. He was ying me rom one side
o the station to the other. It was just me out there over nothing, Whitson
says. I was about 40 eet away rom the station and Earth was going below
me. Its an incredible sensation o ying.When she frst emerged at the end o the giant arm, darkness enveloped
her. Then the sun came over the edge o the Earth, and she was bestowed
another breathtaking view. It started o as only a thin, royal blue, curvilinear
line, Whitson described. As the line thickened, the colors became richer and
mixed with burning reds and oranges. The sun hits the station frst, and it goes
rom being very dark to sepia colors, like some old photograph. When the sun
reaches Earth, you frst see the curved horizons and then it starts lighting up
the atmosphere in bright beautiul colors.
Being on the space station must have re-
minded Whitson o the Iowa arm she grew
up on, where she not only made additions to
the house but had to cultivate a small garden.
As the resident scientist, Whitson was in charge
o 21 experiments, which included growing
the frst-ever soybean crop in space. The ex-periment was intended to see how the lack o
gravity aects the chemical composition o the
plant. NASA hopes to grow crops in space as
ood or the astronauts. The soybean experi-
ment was a lot o un or me since my dad is a
armer, Whitson says. And it was really special
or Valery and Sergei to see green stu or the
frst time in a month and a hal.
One o the primary goals o the science research aboard the ISSis to un-
derstand how to allow people to live in space or extended periods o time,
Whitson explains. Ideally, we want to understand how to send people to Mars
and what we need to do with people to make sure that when they arrive, they
will be able to unction and work eectively. With that in mind, Whitson did
several studies on the human body, such as monitoring or kidney stones, which
astronauts are at a greater risk o orming. A kidney stone is excruciating andwill incapacitate a crew member, and thus orce the mission to be aborted.
Whitson also measured lung unction, blood circulation, and bone loss. In
long space ights, astronauts tend to lose about one percent o bone mass a
month, Whitson says, and some crew members have lost up to 20 percent in
the hips. Scientists have long known that exercise stimulates bone growth, so
to reduce loss, a resistive exercise machine was installed on the ISS.
Another acility that was new to the ISSwas the Microgravity Science
Glovebox. This device includes an enclosed container with transparent sides
that has gloves sticking into it, allowing a scientist to work saely with haz-
ardous materials. Whitson conducted two types o experiments with the
glovebox, one on superconductor crystals and another on melting charac-
teristics o succinyl/nitrile mixtures. Both used high-temperature urnaces
to melt the materials.
Peggy Whitson, who is an adjunct assistant proessor in Rices Depart-
ment o Biochemistry and Cell Biology, had prepared or this moment ever
since she was a kid. She studied biology and chemistry in college and
received her Ph.D. in biochemistry rom Rice University in 1985 beore
she spent six years training as an astronaut. At last she was chosen or
the Expedition Five crew, along with Russian cosmonauts Valery Korzun
and Sergei Treschevdestination: the International Space Station. Even
more impressive, she had been named NASAs rst-ever science ocer
to serve aboard the station.
Whitson and ellow crew members at a preight conerence
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In some ways, working in the ISSwas like another day at the ofce. At
6 a.m. Greenwich mean time, Whitsons alarm clock would go o, and
the frst thing she did was read any e-mails that the ground crew had sent
overnight. She then took a sponge bath, ate breakast, and got ready or
work. On some days she had to do maintenance or repair hardware. On
others, she did what she liked bestconducting
the science experiments.
In the evening was the social hour, when all
three crew members gathered or dinner and
talked about work, world politics, and just about
anything else. Dining in microgravity wasnt di-
fcult, despite having to eat out o a bag. The
real problem was being on an eight-day rotation
meal plan. Ater a while the ood gets kind o
boring, Whitson admits. Picante sauce quickly
became her avorite ood. She ate a lot o re-
hydrated macaroni and cheese, irradiated ajitas
and barbecue brisket, and Russian canned oods
containing meats and vegetables.
All was not work, however. Like other NASA
employees, she had her days o, too. On the
Fourth o July, she took the time to entertain
the Houston ground crew by playing Born inthe USA by Bruce Springsteen through the
intercom. Whitson also convinced Korzun and
Treschev to paint their aces with red, white, and
blue markers and appear on live video to wish
the ground people a happy Fourth.
Whitson enjoyed other whimsical moments.
Baseball ans around the world saw her throw
the frst pitch to open the 2003 World Series.
Microgravity makes it a lot more challenging to
throw the ball, she says, especially i you want
some accuracy. Whitson also cut the two cos-
monauts hair while they held a vacuum cleaner
over their heads to keep the hair rom oating
everywhere.
In her spare time, Whitson talked to severalschools in such places as Connecticut and Hawaii
via a special communication system and through
ham radio operators who linked the astronaut
to the students. Those talks were very limited,
only about 10 minutes usually, but it was still a
lot o un to answer all the kids questions. They
were so excited and nervous.
Students requently asked her why she be-
came an astronaut. Whitson replied that she was
inspired at a young age, and though the training
was very difcult at times, she never gave up on
her dream. I youre pursuing your dream, she
told them, its always worth it.
Whitson was born in south central Iowa in
the small town o Mount Ayr. Her parents were
two hardworking armers who encouraged their
daughter to ollow her dream. When she was
nine years old, Whitson saw Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon, and that
sparked her desire to y among the stars. I
thought walking on the moon would be a cool
job, she says. When she graduated rom Mount
Ayr Community High School in 1978, Whitson saw the frst woman being
selected as astronaut, and that solidifed her career choice. Everything she
did rom that point on was geared toward becoming an astronaut.
She graduated rom Iowa Wesleyan College in 1981 with a bachelor o
science degree in biology and chemistry. From a small rural school, the
ormer arm girl went to the big city o Houston to earn her doctorate in
biochemistry at Rice University. It was a huge cultural shock to move to
Houston, she says.
At Rice, Whitson did research in protein DNA interaction under the
guidance o Kathleen Matthews, proessor o biochemistry and cell biology.
Peggy undertook very complex and challenging
experiments, says Matthews, now dean o the
Wiess School o Natural Sciences. Some stud-
ies required that she spend 48 hours straight in
the laboratory, taking measurements every two
hours or so. Her Ph.D. work demonstrated that
this genetic regulator protein is able to orm
highly stable complexes with supercoiled DNA
containing multiple operator sequencesone o
the frst examples o DNA looping.
Whitsons tenacity impressed many people
at Rice. Peggy was a dedicated and determined
graduate student, willing to explore new territory
and to develop the experimental tools necessary,
Matthews says. In short, she was terrifc. Her
style as a graduate student anticipated her success
as an astronautbright, determined, willing to
take on challenges, and yet able to be an eec-tive and engaging part o a team. It is especially
ftting that she was the frst science ofcer on
the International Space Station.
When Whitson graduated rom Rice in 1985
with a doctorate in biochemistry, she was deter-
mined to fnish her dissertation by a certain date
so that she could meet the application deadline
or a job at NASA. I wanted to be able to write
on my application that I had a Ph.D. rom Rice,
Whitson says. At NASA, she started as a biochemi-
cal researcher but was quickly included in joint
scientifc investigations that NASA was doing with
the Russians. In 1989, she made her frst trip to
Russia to conduct biomedical research and later
served as the lead scientist o the joint programbetween NASA and Russias Mirspace station.
She then served as co-chair o the U.S.Russian
Mission Science Working Group. In 1996, she
began training as an astronaut.
Ater spending six months in the space sta-
tion, Whitson boarded the shuttle again or the
trip home. As she entered Earths atmosphere
and gravity returned, pressure built on her chest
and burdened her limbs. This camera that I
had been carrying the previous six months had
weighed nothing, she laughs, and suddenly
it had what seemed to be a huge weight. I was
like: Wow! This is so heavy.
Whitson elt lousy during her frst 24 hours
o being on solid ground. I really thought they
could send me back, and I would be okay. Re-
adjusting to a mundane lie wasnt easy. For
example, she had to fgure out how much orce
to use in doing simple things like throwing a
crumpled piece o paper into a wastebasket. I
threw it and it landed at my eet. But then, she
says, something clicked in her brain and told her
she was back on Earth, and everything was fne.
Would I do it again? she asks. In a heartbeat.
Whitson displays her soybean cropthe frst-ever grown in
space.
The space gym is a requirement or personnel aboard the ISS.
Using virtual reality hardware, Whitson prepares or her spaceadventure.
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Photography by Tommy LaVergne
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bYmariastalford
rice universitYisalreadYdistinguishedforhavingoneofthecountrYsmost beautiful universitY campuses. thanks to the lYnn r. lowreY
arboretum, the campus isalso set to become one of the regions most
ecologicallY rich. onlY the thirdarboretum in texas to be established
onauniversitYcampus, the lowreYarboretumwillserveasaresourcefor
teachingandresearchaswellasmakingthecampusevenmorecongenial.
theideaforthe lowreYarboretumwasbornwhenagroup, ledbYlYnn
lowreYs daughter patsY andersonand her husband, mike, alongwith
lowreYs friend charles tapleY 54, formeda committee to brainstorm
about possible tributes to lowreY (19171997) and his impact on the
horticulturalcommunitYin texasandbeYond. theYdecidedtherecould
benobetterwaYtohonorhimthanbYcontinuinghislegacYofpromoting
theappreciationandstudYofnativeplants. eventhough lowreYhimself
didnothaveformalconnectionsto rice, thecommitteeturnedto rice
asahostforthearboretumbecauseoftheuniversitYsspecialabilitYto
maintain, develop, and benefit from thearboretum far into the future.
support from the communitY for the project has been remarkable, with
morethanhalfamilliondollarsalreadYraisedingiftsandpledges.
thearboretum began to take root on campusata ceremonial tree
planting in march 1999. the planting of twowhite oaks, two fringe
trees, andaswampchestnuttreenearthetrackstadiuminauguratedthe
arboretumslivingmemorialto lYnn lowreY. whilearboretumplantings
and developmentswere originallY intended to remain clustered in this
area northwest of the intersection of main street and universitYboulevard, plansforthearboretumhavegrowntoincorporatetheentire
campus. ratherthanestablishingapreservesetapartfromthe
rest of the universitY, thearboretumwill be incorporated,
as muchas possible, intoall future landscape planning for
universitY buildingand campus development. enhancingall
areasofcampuswithaninfusionofdiverseandflourishing
plant life, the arboretums visuallY pleasing, carefullY
planned landscapingwill beanalogous to thevaried but
coordinatedarchitectureofthecampussbuildings.
thearboretumsplantingsofwoodYplantsnativeto
texas, the gulf coastofthe united states,andnorthern
mexicowill make the campusan even more lushandattractivenaturalsetting, butthebenefitsto ricewill
extend far beYondaestheticappeal. thearboretum
willremindustoattendmoretotheplants inour
environmentand their importance in the overall
ecologY, observes kathleen matthews,
A CultivAted lifeA dedicated mentor and an inormal
teacher to many in the plant
community, Lynn Lowrey was
legendary or his contagious passion
or plants. Lowreys curiosity about
the natural world was unbounded and
his knowledge nearly encyclopedic.
You could go on a eld trip or a day,
son-in-law Mike Anderson says, and
it was like taking a whole semester o
horticulture!
Friends say that Lowreys expertise
was, in act, so great that consulting
him or inormation about a particular
plant was almost like consulting the
plant itsel. I you liked a tree andmet Lynn Lowrey, joked Tapley, it
was like meeting the tree, only better,
since a plant cant talk about itsel.
His knowledge about individual plants
and trees led you to a place where you
wanted to know even more.
Lowreys enthusiasm and expertise
attracted a wide and diverse ollowing.
He welcomed anyoneyoung or old,
expert or novice, scientist or backyard
gardenerwho was curious, and he
nurtured passing interests in plants
into abiding passions. Even in his 70s,
he loved to tromp around or hours
on research trips with companions 40
years his junior. He could get along
with young olks or old olks, it didnt
matter, Tapley recalls. It
was the common
bond
7
f 03 17
the lynn R. lOwReyaRbORetUm
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deanofthe wiess schoolof natural sciences. becauseplantsare
crucialtolifeonearth, understandingandappreciatingtheirrole
intheirenvironmentwhetherforbeautYorpleasure, fordiversitY
ofspecies, orforfoodisanimportantcontributionofthe lYnn r.
lowreYarboretumat rice.
ricehasagreatreputationinanumberoffields, notes tapleY,andthearboretumsignificantlYexpandsthatrange. itputstheuniversitY
inanotherfieldthatisbothamazingandhumane, hesaYs. amazing
intermsofwhatwemightlearnfromit, andhumanefromwhatit
candopsYchologicallYand environmentallY.
professors and students
will need onlY step out their
doorsorlogontothe lowreY
arboretums new website
to access the arboretums
tremendous resources as a
tool
for
teaching
,learning
,and research. students in
the plant diversitY class
taught bY professor of
ecologY and evolutionarY
biologY paul harcombe
have been conducting a
surveY to identifY and
record vines, shrubs, and
trees throughout the
campus. this information
iscurrentlYbeingcompiled
intoa comprehensive map of plant life on campus, whichwillbeavailableonthearboretumswebsiteathttp://arboretum.rice.
edu.
workingto identifYanddocumentcampusplantlifehasbeen
an invaluable learning experience for harcombes students. fora
student trYingto learn the names ofthings, harcombeexplains,
theresnosubstituteforseeingaliveplant. connectingabstract
subjectmattertophYsicalobjectsthatstudentscanseeandtouch
helpsthemtointernalizeandremembertheconceptswediscussin
theclassroom.
theclasshasopenedstudents eYestotherichnessofnaturein
theirmidstalessonthatstudentswilltakewiththemfarbeYond
theirdaYsat rice. imamazedathowmanYstudentsindicatedthat
theY hadnt paidanYattention to the plants before, harcombe
said. butaftertakingtheclass, theYnoticedthingswhenevertheY
wereoutwalking, andtheYexpressarealsenseofaccomplishment
inbeingabletoidentifYcommonthingstheYsee. makingdetailed
informationabout thearboretumaccessible on thewebsitewill
provideanopportunitYforalltofeelthesamejoYofexploration
18 r st
with plants that counted.
Though Lowrey received a bachelors
degree in horticulture rom Louisiana
State University in 1940, he acquired
his knowledge o plants largely through
constant reading, observation, and
experimentation on his own. Ater serving
in the army or our years during World
War II, Lowrey dedicated his lie to the
study and cultivation o plants, opening hisrst nursery in 1957. Every minute o the
waking day, he was thinking about plants,
reading about plants, and going on eld
trips, Anderson remembers. He always
wanted to go o to the woods and look or
something new. Hed be reading about a
plant, and hed want
to go nd it.
Lowrey was
the leading pioneer
o the native plants
movement in Texas,
long beore talk obiodiversity became
ashionable. Both at
the several nurseries
he owned and during
his tenures as an
expert grower at other
nurseries, Lowrey
was an advocate
or the propagation
o the naturally rich
plant lie native to the
region. While other
landscapers eagerly
satised customersdemands or the most popular and stylish
species rom abroad, Lowrey ollowed his
curiosity on regular expeditions throughout
Texas and northern Mexico, tirelessly
combing the wild areas or unusual and
underrepresented species to collect and
cultivate. Lowreys interest in native plants
made his landscaping methods considerably
more time-intensive than those o many
o his peers, because rather than simply
purchasing plants readily available on the
market, Lowrey would have to rst locate in
the wilderness and then patiently grow tosalable size most o the plants he used.
Through his sel-directed studies,
Lowrey became an exceptionally well-
versed general horticulturist as well as one
o the worlds oremost experts on plants
native to the southwestern United States
and northern Mexico. In act, oreign visitors
to the National Arboretum in Washington,
D.C., oten were advised to make Texas part
o their travel plans just so they could chat
-
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21/56f 03 19
with Lowrey about the regions fora.
Lowreys service to his colleagues
in the plant community and to the
environment earned him many honors,
including a special award rom the
Native Plant Society o Texas or
almost single-handedly rescuing the
Texas pistache (Pistacia texana) rom
extinction. The Texas pistache is just
one o several species that continue
to propagate and fourish because o
Lowreys eorts.
A poignant nal chapter o
Lowreys legacy was his integral
involvement in research on the Chinese
happy tree (Camptotheca acuminata).
In the last years o his lie, a surge
o interest in research on the cancer-
ghting properties o Camptotheca
meant that the trees were in short
supply. Lowrey was called in as an
expert to advise on the growth and
cultivation o the trees. Soon ater,Lowrey and the nursery owned by
Patsy and Mike Anderson donated 600
healthy Camptotheca trees to a hospital
and cancer research organization. In
addition to sharing his expertise about
the trees growth and care with the
researchers, Lowrey worked hard to
raise unds and orge interpersonal
connections that would aid in this
research. As a tribute to his dedication,
a rare Camptotheca species, rst
ound by a team o researchers on an
expedition to China, was named ater
himCamptotheca lowreyana. Lowrey
was later to take the experimental
medication Camptothecin in his own
battle with cancer.
Lowreys dedication to cancer
research was just one o countless
examples that riends and admirers cite
o his remarkable generosity toward
both plants and people. Lowreys love
o the plant world was so deep that he
wished to share it at every opportunity,
requently making gits o plants to
riends and customers. He never
made a lot o money, Tapley recalls,because when you went out to his
nursery and were admiring these young
trees, he would hand them to you, and
when it came time to pay, there was no
paying! I you liked it, it was yours. He
would have gone across the state, ound
a seed, brought it back, planted it, and
grown it or you. It was truly a git.
Though his expertise was
continually sought rom around the
f 03 19
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8/14/2019 Rice Magazine Fall 2003
22/5620 r st
anddiscoverYthat harcombesstudentsexperienced.
thearboretumspotentialasateachingtoolisnotlimitedto
thesciences. inparticular, as harcombepointsout, thearboretum
willcreatehabitatsandsettingsthatwillmakeiteasiertoillustrate
hownaturecontributestoasenseofplace. itwillprovideahands-
onmodelrelevanttodiscussionsofarchitecture, urbanplanning,
andsustainabledevelopment, amongotherfields, and, inthiswaY,
thearboretumisparticularlYwellsuitedto riceandtheuniversitYs
emphasisoninterdisciplinarYcollaboration. thistYpeofresource
can bring together folks interested in differentaspects of the
arboretum across multiple disciplines, matthews explains. in a
largerinstitution, barriers to such interactionsare often
muchhigher.
the arboretum project also
will establish the lowreY
collection at fondren
librarY. it isa testament tolYnn lowreYs great impact
on the plant communitY
that four of thevolumes
in the collection are
dedicatedtohim.
world, riends say that Lowrey always
considered himsel an amateur. Quiet and
unassuming, Lowrey oten was described as
a quintessential Southern gentleman. Tapley
recalls Lowreys impeccable orbearance
in his constant role as teacher and mentor.
When we rst began to unravel the
richness o our ecology, Tapley says, there
is so much to it, and I ound mysel asking alot o questions. Because o Lynns generous
way, he wouldnt allow himsel to think that
I was bothering him, though looking back, I
was bothering him! But I learned a lot rom
him, and I was indeed very grateul or his
being so generous.
Years beore Camptotheca lowreyana,
botanists wanted to name another rare
plant, a species o legume ound in
Mexico, ater Lowrey. When Lowrey was
unbending in his
reusal o the honor, the
plant was eventually
namedMyrospermumsousanam ater another
horticulturist. No doubt
the proposition o the Lynn
R. Lowrey Arboretum at
Rice would run against the
same dogged humility. O
course, he would have been
the rst person to say, Youre
not going to put my name on
it, Anderson chuckles. He
would have been so mad!
Although Lowrey likely
would have been displeasedthat the new arboretum bears
his name, he would have been
delighted by the educational
opportunities it will provide
horticulturists o the uture
proessional and amateur alike. Each
time he opened a new plant nursery, he
would say, Im going to make this place
a showplace. People are going to come
rom all over the country to see my plants,
recalls Anderson. Now that dream is coming
true at Rice on a scale Lowrey might never
have imagined.
20 r st
y
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23/56
B d b J . a
f 03 21
Can a required course ever be fun?
it
jt t r t
tt tt t
t.
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24/56
GeneRal edUCation. diStRibUtion. FoUndation.
Whatever you call those courses that tell students in one
discipline how other disciplines work, chances are thatstudents are calling them something else: a waste o time.
No one doubts the value o a broad-based education. Thats
why students attend liberal arts institutions like Ricethey
want the chance to think outside the box that is their ma-
jor feld o study. But general education is challenging,
not just to take, but to teach and to implement within a universitys
course requirements.
Its easy to lose sight o the goal o general education, explains John
Hutchinson, vice president o student aairs and a veteran o many Rice
curriculum committees. Rice began a 20-year general education experi-
ment in the late 1980s when it instituted core oundation courses in the
humanities (HUMA), social sciences (SOCI), and natural sciences and
engineering (NSCI). Then the squabbles began. Ask aculty members
what Rice undergraduates should know in order to graduate, and you
quickly have a list that is longer than anything anyone could pos-
sibly takeeven i they took nothing but general education
courses, Hutchinson says. And when you make everyone
take one specifc course, it ails because too many people
dont want to be there.
Rice abandoned the oundation requirement in 1995,
taking away the lesson that general education isnt about
the subject matter, but about intellectual growth. The
texts read in Humanities 101, the only original oundation
course still taught at Rice, are simply a backdrop or learning
how to analyze texts critically and construct logical arguments.
Science and engineering courses or social science and humanities ma-
jors do best when they reveal the rigorous trial and error and real-world
application o the scientifc method. Think o general education as abridge between disciplinesa bridge that is built through engaging, ea-
ger proessors and an innovative approach to the subject matter.
Students want to walk out o these courses eeling like they have a
deeper understanding o the issues and an ability to tackle tougheror
dierentintellectual challenges than beore they took the course,
Hutchinson says. When they come out on the other side, students will
have the confdence and ability to look at a problem and say I can fgure
that out, because theyve done it beore.
Rices current general education strategy puts students squarely in
charge. Undergrads must take 12 hours o course work rom two depart-
ments within each o the three disciplinary groups. Beyond that, students
decide what to take. Its a exible system that makes material acces-
sible, Hutchinson says. And without the burden o teaching required
material, aculty have been able to think creatively about the best way to
make their subject areas more appealing to nonmajorsor to ensure that
their majors are exposed to ideas that may help them become leaders in
their felds when they graduate.The result is a troop o interesting bridge courses and curriculum pro-
grams that are broadening the Rice undergraduate experienceand that
could never be described as a waste o time.
th So Survvor: Humans 101/102
Alums who took the NSCI and SOCI oundation courses are not
surprised to learn o their demise. There was nothing in NSCI that
inspired me to try harder, and the act that Id already been over the
material in greater detail than was oered there made it horrically
boring, complains Karin Kross, a 1996 English grad.
So why has the humanities oundation course survived? For one,
HUMA 101/102 never pretended to provide a oundation in every-thing about the humanities. Even though students read texts gen-
erally considered important, the course ocuses on skills, on
imparting an understanding o rhetoric, textual analysis, and
writing. Hutchinson describes HUMA as creating an ex-
perience, while its NSCI and SOCI counterparts ocused
on exposure.
The HUMA experience goes beyond skills. Even dur-
ing its heyday in the early 1990s, enrollment was capped
at around 25 students per section, making it the only small-
group course a science or engineering major would take resh-
man year. Elisa Verratti 94, who took the Big Three (MATH
101, CHEM 101, and PHYS 101), HUMA, and SOCI in 198990,
admits she really enjoyed HUMA. Dr. Zammito [the John Antony Weir
Proessor o History and history department chair] was great, and it was a
small class. SOCI was too broad, too boring, and too huge.
As Verratti observes, HUMAs proessors are another key to the experi-
ence. Lucky reshmen fnd themselves interpreting the crazy chalkboard
o circles, arrows, and scrawl generated during the dynamic lectures o
award-winning English proessor Dennis Huston. Huston, who has
taught the HUMA course since its inception, admits that one beneft
o not having 17 sections o HUMA is that now we have nothing but
good teachers and, sometimes, better than good teachers.
The word gets around. Ive heard wonderul things about Dennis Hus-
ton, and they proved true this semester, says Sarah Baxter, a premed biology
major who enrolled in HUMA as a senior. She was told it was required. It
wasnt, yet Baxter remained. I was enjoying it too much to drop it.
The texts, too, prove a compelling draw. Though the reading changes
Johnhutch
inon
22 r st
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rom semester to semester, the emphasis is always great works in West-
ern philosophy and literature. The relaxation o the general education
requirements has spawned other humanities courses covering Greek, me-
dieval, and Asian civilization and more esoteric topics like the representa-tion o the sel in art and literature. Even so, at least six sections HUMA
101 and 102 are still oered each semester. Lauren Vanderlip, a
reshman planning to double major in sociology and religious
studies, calls the reading hard and demanding, but reveals, I
love how the works that we read are applicable and repre-
sentative o humanity today.
Times being what they are, the all 2002 reading
list included The Qur'an. And because the course is
no longer required, proessors have more reedom
to vary the texts between sections. For the last fve
years, olks were fnishing up with Dantes Inerno,
Huston explains. But the last thing I need is a
bunch o people in the Last Circle on the last day o
class, so I did Chaucer.
if You bud i. . . : th lgo la
Mess around with Legos our hours each week. Build
an autonomous robot to specications. Unleash your
creation against rival competitors and let the blocks
all where they may. All this, and earn our Group III
distribution credits.
Thats ELEC 201, Introduction to Engineering Design,
a.k.a. the Lego Lab. The course takes its inspiration rom sev-
eral robot-oriented courses taught at other universities, including
a midterm, optional elective contest oered at MIT. But while these
courses are geared to engineers and scientists, ELEC 201 targets non-engineers. Interdisciplinary student teams are charged to build a robot
that will accomplish a given task better than competitors robots. The
2002 contest, or instance, required a robot to navigate a ping-pong-
sized, slightly sloped table to collect more balls in one minute than its
opponent. Solving the problem compels students to learn and apply
engineering design principles.
James Young, proessor o electrical and computer engineering,
says that the Lego Lab succeeds where other Group III distribution
courses struggle because o the way it conveys the material. A typi-
cal science or engineering course starts at the bottom with acts and
ormulas; these details are then built up to create concepts. The Lego
Lab, however, starts with the conceptthe competitive game. To at-
tack the problem, students must actively seek out the details.
I I went in and just started giving lectures about control theory, I
know most o the students wouldnt care, Young states. Instead, I talk
briey about control problems and dierent approaches they could take
with their robots. I know that eventually, the stu-dents are going to ask, Why wont this thing
ollow a straight line? Thats when they
get motivated to drill down to the
details.
Young notes that each student
ollows a dierent path through
the material, depending on the
expertise o the team and his or
her individual interests. Some
may ocus on mechanics, some
on programming, and others
on algorithms or strategy. As
was overheard during one lab
practice session: Im a com-
puter science major . . . I dont
have to deal with real-world appli-
cations!
Being an engineer doesnt give you a
leg up, according to Gary Printy, a junior
electrical engineering major whose team con-
structed 2002s winning robot, Disco Stu. What we do
as electrical engineers really doesnt apply to the problem in
the classbuilding a robot, he says. This course is really
about the basics o solving a problem.
Lectures cover an array o specifc technical details associ-
ated with the robots, as well as more general inormation on the
business o engineering. Students discuss ethics cases and analyze the les-
sons to be learned rom high-profle engineering ailuresBeyond the
ones they are experiencing themselves in the lab, Young chuckles.Most teams are happy just to build a robot that works. Were go-
ing over to the other side o the board and hoping that the other one
doesnt, explained one 2002 team. Ultimately, this aim wasnt trivial,
as the most requent outcome in competition was a tangled robot mess.
Disco Stu lost one bout this way, but ultimately won through the reliable
execution o a straightorward program.
People told me this was the most un class at Rice, says Stephanie Clark,
a studio art major who served on the Disco Stu team with Printy and Tiany
Truss, a reshman deciding between mechanical and electrical engineering.
At frst, I had absolutely no idea what we were supposed to do. But I was
able to contribute. Im proud. I understand whats happening now.
W t
, t b
t t wt t b t.J ht
Jame
young
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Communcaon n Conx: th Can Projc
Most scientists and engineers know that their careers will require
them to write and speak about what they do. But they dont realize how
important it will be to their jobs: how many e-mails they will send, pre-
sentations they will give, and papers and grants they will write.
Unortunately, it shows. Our candidacy exam used to require our
students to write a grant, and oten we couldnt get around to evalu-
ating the science because the writing was so poor, says Kate Beck-
ingham, proessor o biochemistry and cell biology. Her department
solved the problem by instituting a grant-writing course and working
with the Cain Project, an innovative curriculum program that empha-
sizes the integration o communication activities into existing scientifc
course work.
In the our years since a grant rom chemistry fnancier Gordon
Cain established the program, the Cain Project has supported more
than 46 courses, assisted hundreds o graduate students in writingtheir theses and creating scientifc posters, and helped build commu-
nication-intensive curricula or a new major in bioengineering. More
importantly, its turning Rice science and engineering grads into
more savvy communicators without adding a single required course
to their schedule.
Thats because most Cain Project activities simply add a communi-
cation element to traditional science and engineering assignments, says
Linda Driskill, proessor o English and director o the Cain Project.
With a class they are already taking, students may be asked to write
a technical report on laboratory fndings, develop a technical poster
to describe research results, or deliver a presentation to demonstrate
their understanding o a scientifc concept. The assignments support
the learning already occurring in the course, while simultaneously o-
ering the chance to teach students how to structure an argument,
organize their evidence, and make a convincing case to a third
party in either oral or written orm, Driskill says.
For instance, the Cain Project lets John Polking, pro-
essor o mathematics and a Cain Project board mem-
ber, demonstrate that math is about more than solving
equations by rote. Four years ago, Polking began re-
quiring the more than 250 students in MATH 211 to
complete projects that apply the mathematical methods
encountered in homework to larger-scale problems. He
asks the class to solve the project problem and write up the
answer in a technical report. Cain Project sta helped Polk-
ing develop Web-based student instructions on writing reports and a
grading rubric or teaching assistants that maintains grading consis-
tency rom semester to semester.
Similarly, when plans or the new bioengineering major began,
aculty consulted with the Cain Project rom the outset to integrate
communications activities into the course work. Lab courses requiretechnical poster development, technical memos accompany the se-
nior design project, and group projects undertaken in each year o
course work mandate oral presentations. Even so, when one o the
programs frst graduates returned to speak to bioengineering sopho-
mores about her new career, she surprised Ann Saterbak, a lecturer
in bioengineering and director o laboratory instruction. She
wished shed taken more advantage o opportunities to improve her
writing and presentation skills, Saterbak reports. Even our ramped
up curriculum wasnt enough.
The Cain Project also works outside o existing curricula, develop-
ing and delivering targeted courses such as thesis writing workshops
and the aorementioned biochemistry and cell biology grant writing
course. Students also can receive individual coaching rom Cain Proj-
ect sta.
Im always amused by the reaction people have to the Cain Proj-
ect, says Polking. Everybody tends to ocus on just one aspect o
what it does, but in reality, it operates across many areas.
thas no it: Comp 200
Just because you can play around in Windows or set up a server
doesnt mean you know anything about computer science. Which is
why COMP 200 exists. Its goal is to intr
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