In The News

Each month
Rice News will publish a sampling of faculty, staff and
administrators who have been quoted in newspaper or magazine
articles or have been interviewed on television or radio.
To obtain a copy of the clipping packet from which the In
the News items are collected, contact the Office of Media
Relations and Information at (713) 348-6774.

The New York
Times
Commenting on author J.R.R. Tolkien, Jane Chance, professor
of English, said Tolkien refashioned the old medieval epics
into what we now call fantasy literature. She also commented
on J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter, saying he is infused
with the Middle Earth ethos, which is about the ordinary
or smaller man who goes on to win great victories.

The Wall
Street Journal
Amy Jaffe, senior energy adviser at the James A. Baker III
Institute for Public Policy, said that even if oil production
increased now, it wouldn’t alleviate the gas situation
in the United States in time for summer.

Business
Week
A news brief featured the nanoshell research of Naomi Halas,
the Stanley C. Moore Professor in Electrical and Computer
Engineering and Chemistry.

Discover
An article mentioned that Edison Liang, the Andrew Hays
Buchanan Professor of Astrophysics, recently proposed using
the National Ignition Facility to simulate conditions of
a gamma-ray burst.

Washington
Post
An article mentioned that Donald Huddle, professor emeritus
of economics, estimated that undocumented immigrants paid
$12.6 billion in taxes in 1996, noting, however, that they
used more in government services.

Chicago Tribune
Paul Brace, the Clarence L. Carter Professor of Political
Science, commented that since George W. Bush is not a great
orator, the image the White House should present of him
is plain-speaking, honest George.

The Boston
Herald
James P. Weston, assistant professor of management at the
Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management, commented
that the future of regional stock exchanges is unclear.

Kiplingers
Personal Finance Magazine
An article mentioned that researchers at Rice and Yale built
a self-assembling nanoscale device that stores electrons.
James Tour, the Chao Professor of Chemistry, said the device
has the potential to be scaled down to the single-molecule
level.

Hispanic
Outlook in Higher Education
An article featured Richard Tapia, the Noah Harding Professor
of Computational and Applied Mathematics, and the program
he heads, the Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate
at Rice.

Houston Chronicle
An article profiled Rice President Malcolm Gillis.
Rice was mentioned as joining the Association of American
Universities in 1985. The article mentioned Gillis as chair
of the AAU’s tax committee and noted that he nominated
Texas A&M for admission to the AAU and gave a speech
on its behalf at a recent AAU meeting.
A letter from Gillis noting that Fortune magazine listed
Houston as ranking second in the number of Fortune 500 company
headquarters appeared.
In a column about the current job market for graduating
seniors, Cheryl Matherly, director of career services, discussed
how several companies have either rescinded job offers to
Rice students, changed their job assignments or reassigned
their positions.
Commenting on a kidnapped girl who was held captive and
then escaped, Bernie Mathes, project director at the Center
for Education, said that returning to her daily routine
as quickly as possible may aid in the girl’s emotional
recovery.
In a column about financing a college education, Ann Wright,
vice president for enrollment, was quoted as saying that
determining financial aid for students is a subjective matter
— it’s not done by computer.