Winter 2007 nization Saying Goodbye to a Rice Legend Exploring Strings Using Evolution to Predict Our future INSIDE RICE SALLYPORT • THE MAGAZINE OF RICE UNIVERSITY • WINTER 2007 2 President's Message • 3 Letters • 6 Through the Sallyport Departments 16 Students • 37 Arts • 40 On the Bookshelf 42 VVho's Who • 48 Scoreboard (*) Multiracial births on the Looking for more 7rise and, with them,a 15computer storage? growing new trend in Magnetic vortexes no racial identity. larger than a red blood cell might power new This prototype camera drives capable ofstoring 10 may be on the large side, thousands of movies on but it can capture an entire a square inch ofspace. Is your company image on a single pixel. looking outside its own walls for a new CEO? should look Maybe it 44 Tropical storms and hurricanes along the Gulf Coast have inward instead. 3Imr raised public concern about coastal flooding. According to new Rice research, we ought to brace for more. 12 Can corporate social Alysha Jeans may have performance actually 17 been bornblind, but help a company's she certainly sees more bottom line? potential in the world than most people. Liz Harwood has a 48simple philosophy: give students enough ROPE, If you love music and wish you knew morc about it, try out and they'll use it to get 37Sound Reasoning,a new online music appreciation course. offcampus and into the great outdoors. The snap judgments people make in deciding whether 112 to trust strangers show people are willing to judge a book by its cover,even though they should not. 18 Evolutionary Thinking 28 Focus on Sustainability For more than 100 years, evolutionary theory has The idea of sustainability has been around for provided profound insights into where humans nearly 300 years, but only recently have individuals, might have come from. Now,Rice scientists expect organizations, and governments seriously begun to evolution to provide similar insights into where we consider the consequences of disposability. Enter may be going. Richard Johnson, Rice's first ever sustainability planner. Features By Deborah J. Ausman By Ruth Samuelson 24 String Theory 34 Remembering Rice Computing Pioneer Ken Kennedy Musical instrument strings have touched many a heart, yet they remain largely unexplored by science. Ken Kennedy was at the forefront ofcomputing, both That's changing, thanks to the work oftwo Rice at Rice and nationally, but his computations never mathematicians. neglected his students and friends. By Jade Boyd By Christopher Dow Si We are entering an exciting and dynamic time at Rice University. Just over a year Rice Sallyport ago, after a process that included consultation with every constituency, the Board ofTrustees endorsed the Winter 2007, Vol. 63, No. 2 10-point Vision for the Second Century, or V2C for short. Today that process continues to unfold with community. Published by the Office discussions and consultation across the Rice of Public Affairs The changes occurring are both tangible and intangible. Most visible is our ambitious building plan Linda Thrane, vice president to transform our already magnificent campus into a setting that supports the best in education, research Suzanne Gschwind, director of Web and Print Communications and public service. We have broken ground on the Collaborative Research Center located at University Boulevard and Main Street, and we expect that this and other efforts will foster significant new research Editor partnerships with the Texas Medical Center. Christopher Dow Our research and teaching missions also will be supported by planned new physics and social sciences Editorial Director buildings, an engineering design lab and renovations to several other laboratories. These are all at least in Tracey Rhoades the planning stages as we raise the necessary funds. Creative Director In addition, we are looking forward to constructing two new colleges to support our plans to increase Jeff Cox the undergraduate student body by 30 percent. We expect construction to begin this fall and to be com- Art Director pleted by fall 2009. Chuck Thurmon Our plans to create a more dynamic campus and sense ofcommunity life also are well under way,includ- ing a new recreation center and a glass pavilion and cafe behind Fondren Library. And thanks to a generous Editorial Staff Sarah Williams, assistant editor gift from Bobby and Phoebe Tudor, we finally will be able to transform 50-year-old Autry Court into an Christie Wise, production coordinator athletics facility and venue for large gatherings that we can be proud of. celebrated the launch of our Center for Civic Design Staff Equally important, we recently Tommy LaVergne, photographer Engagement, which will bring new educational opportunities to our students as Jeff Fitlow, assistant photographer they use research skills to reach out to the Houston community. New collabora- The Rice University Board tions also have begun with the Museum ofFine Arts, Houston and the Menil Col- of Trustees lection. We are pleased to be recognized as one of the best places to work by the James W. Crownover, chair, J.D. Bucky Houston Business Journal. Allshouse; D. Kent Anderson; Teveia Rose Barnes; Alfredo Brener; Vicki International engagements are flourishing, and as I write this, we are expecting Whamond Bretthauer; Robert T. Brockman; a delegation of25 university presidents, chairmen and senior education officials for Albert Y. Chao; Robert L.Clarke; Edward selected for this A. Dominguez; Bruce W. Dunlevie; Lynn the China—Rice University Leadership forum. Rice was specially Laverty Elsenhans; Douglas Lee Foshee; forum by the Chinese Ministry of Education. Susanne Morris Glasscock; Carl E.Isgren; "Achieving our Achieving our ambitions for education, research and service, as reflected in the K. Terry Koonce; Michael R. Lynch; Robert R. Maxfield; Steven L. Miller; M. ambitions for V2C,requires constant planning and careful implementation. We already have some Kenneth Oshman; Hector Ruiz; Marc education, two dozen committees and groups working on various aspects of the V2C plan, Shapiro;L. E.Simmons; Robert B.Tudor among them the undergraduate experience,campus vibrancy,research and diversity. III; James Turley research and As we move forward, we will see that every story about Rice can be seen through Administrative Officers service, as the lens of our strategic plan, and this issue of Sallyport is no exception. David W. Leebron, president; Kathy "Evolutionary Thinking,"takes a fresh look at what we're doing Collins, vice president for Finance; reflected in the One ofour stories, Eric Johnson, vice president for biosciences and other disciplines across campus as we attempt to better understand Kevin Kirby, V2C, requires in Resource Development; biological processes, evolution, social interaction and human behavior. vice presidentfor Administration; Eugene constant planning Levy,provost; Chris Munoz, vice president This issue also incorporates some diverse strands of our commitment to protect for Enrollment; Linda Thrane, vice and careful our environment, both in terms of research and Rice's own actions. Some ofHou- president for Public Affairs; Scott W. ston's environmental concerns are reflected in the work of John Anderson and his Wise, vice presidentfor Investments and implementation." treasurer, Richard A. Zansitis, general colleagues on the causes of Gulf Coast flooding. Rice's Center for Biological and counsel. Environmental Nanotechnology, under the direction of Vicki Colvin, has received —David W. Leebron $12 million in additional funding to examine health impacts of nanotechnology. All submissions to Sallyport are subject to editing for length, clarity, accuracy, And in our cover story, "Focus on Sustainability," we examine the contributions appropriateness, and fairness to third of faculty, staff and students to environmental protection issues, including a profile of Richard Johnson, parties. Rice's first ever sustainability planner. Sallyport is published by the Office of None ofthis would be possible without the extraordinarily talented and dedicated people working here. Public Affairs ofRice University and is sent In fact, during a recent town hall forum for faculty and staff, I was struck by the thoughtfulness ofa com- to university alumni,faculty, staff, graduate students, parents of undergraduates, and ment by Bill Lassiter, a Rice electrician. Bill expressed concern about whether the next generation of Rice friends of the university. craftspersons was being sufficiently trained. He said, "After 26 and a half years of building a good electrical system, I want to make sure Rice is well served after we retire." Editorial Offices Rice Office of Publications—MS 95 That epitomizes the Rice spirit. Every one of us, no matter what part of we touch, contributes to P.O. Box 1892 our mission. We must think not only about the Rice we find, but also the Rice we leave behind. Houston, Texas 77251-1892 No one captured that spirit better than Ken Kennedy, who we remember in these pages. His combina- Ease 713-348-6751 tion of brilliant research, humor, generosity of spirit and breadth of perspective captured our ambitions Email: sallyportikice.edu and our humanity. Indeed,in a recent focus group when the participants were asked if Rice University was Postmaster a person, who would it be, one answer was "Ken Kennedy." Send address changes to: I couldn't agree more. Rice University Development Services—MS 80 P.O. Box 1892 Houston, TX 77251-1892 OMARCH 2007 RICE UNIVERSITY 2 Rice Sallyport LETTERS Letters Gonzales Haskell's contribution to this effort is but these two arguments are mutual- he describes the high point of his mili- to say, basically, that since they lack ly contradictory. It takes a real effort tary career as "advisor to the assistant I am not in the habit of writing to our cool military hardware, they have to make both arguments in the same operations officer of the Vietnamese Sallyport, butthe letters section of the to "make do with the resources at letter.