In The News

“In the
News” features a sampling of faculty, staff and administrators
who have been quoted in newspaper or magazine articles or
have been interviewed on radio or television. To obtain
a copy of the clipping packet from which the “In the
News” items are collected, contact the Office of News
and Media Relations, 713-348-6774.

Houston Chronicle
David Schneider, professor of psychology, was quoted in
an article about road rage. Schneider attributed the behavior
to job stresses, hurried lifestyles as well as the increased
numbers of drivers. He added that he tends to agree with
what has been written about a “certain loss of civility
in our society over the last several years, where people
don’t care about being polite anymore.”

An article discussed
testing of fuel cells used in hydrogen-powered vehicles
that General Motors hopes to have in use by 2010. Mark Wiesner,
professor of civil and environmental engineering and chemical
engineering and director of the Environmental and Energy
Systems Institute, said that while it will eventually be
possible to produce hydrogen from water, for now it takes
fossil fuels, which results in pollution. “It comes
down to how you generate the hydrogen,” Wiesner added.

An article discussed
problem areas that remain in public education since the
historic Brown v. Board of Education ruling. Linda McNeil,
professor of education and co-director of the Center for
Education, was quoted. “We have a very divided school
system,” she said. “We know how to do school;
we just don’t do it very well for our poor or recent
immigrant children.”

Reuters
Vincent Kamiski, adjunct associate professor of management
at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management, was
quoted in an article about growing confidence in trading
in natural gas markets.

New York Times
An article reported how spam senders choose the clever names
in their return addresses. Chris Pound, faculty support
specialist in educational technology, said he has written
more than 40 random generators, including an “amazing
verbal kung-fu” generator, as well as one that merges
names from the worlds of Harry Potter and Dickens.

Business Wire
An article reported on the near-term prospects for nanomedicine.
Jennifer West, associate professor in bioengineering and
chemical engineering, said, “Scientifically, it makes
sense to go for in vitro diagnostics, such as blood tests,
and we’ll see some nice applications in diagnostics
in the next two to five years.”

Chronicle
of Higher Education
In an article about how universities are deciding what to
make available over the Internet and what to keep copyrighted,
Rice’s new courseware project Connexions was mentioned
as a noteworthy open-source development.

Variety Magazine
An article reporting on the first U.S.-government-sponsored
TV project in the Middle East quoted Edward Djerejian, director
of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. “Anything
that is state-sponsored will have a high barrier for credibility,”
he said.