Sallyport - The Magazine of Rice University - Winter 2002

In the News - Who's Who
Winter 2002
VOL.58, NO.2
In the News
Richard Stoll has stepped down as associate director of the James A.
Baker III Institute for Public Policy to become associate dean of social
sciences. In his new position. Among his duties will be coordinating
development efforts for the school and overseeing the Center for the Study
of Institutions and Values as well as interdisciplinary majors and
Leadership Rice. Stoll, a professor of political science, also will coordinate
research, teaching, and other collaborations with the Baker Institute.
Vicki Colvin, associate professor of chemistry, has received a Camille
Dreyfus Teacher–Scholar Award for 2001. Colvin earned the $60,000 prize
for her project titled “Protein Crystals as Scaffolds for Materials Design.”
The award was established by the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation
to strengthen the teaching and research careers of talented young faculty in
the chemical sciences. The Camille Dreyfus Teacher–Scholar Awards
Program focuses on individual research attainment and promise, and
evidence of excellence in teaching also is expected. In general, 15 awards
are made annually.
Neal Lane, university professor and former science adviser to President
Clinton, has been named to the Committee on International Security
Studies (CISS) of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Founded in
1982, the committee plans and sponsors multidisciplinary studies focusing
on emerging issues with global implications and exploring cooperative,
multilateral means of providing peace and security. Lane also holds
appointments in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Rice and as
senior fellow of Rice’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy.
The Houston Press chose Mark Ramont, director of the Rice Players and
lecturer in the English department, as the year’s best Houston director. The
Press said about Ramont and a play, Jon Maran’s Old Wicked Songs, he
produced: “It is a delicate story, rich with the sort of nuance that requires
intelligence, patience, generosity and reserve from its director, which is
exactly what the gifted director Mark Ramont brought to Stages this past
winter.”
Vicki Colvin
Neal Lane
Jennifer West
The groundbreaking work of Rice’s scientists was displayed in the
September issue of Scientific American. The issue, dedicated to
nanotechnology, featured a cover article by Richard E. Smalley, the Gene
and Norman Hackerman Professor of Chemistry and professor of physics.
But he was not alone. Six of the nine articles in the special nanotechnology
section mention the research of Rice faculty, including Robert Curl, the
Harry C. and Olga Keith Wiess Professor of Natural Sciences; James
Tour, the Chao Professor of Chemistry, professor of mechanical
engineering and materials science, and professor of computer science;
Naomi Halas, the Stanley C. Moore Professor in Electrical and Computer
Engineering and professor of chemistry; and Jennifer West, associate
professor of bioengineering and associate professor of chemical
engineering.
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