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.

New York Times
Stephen Klineberg, professor of sociology, commented on the trends of migration in this country in an article on Houston’s response to the huge number of evacuees from Hurricane Katrina. The article also mentioned that Rice, Texas Southern University and the University of Houston were taking displaced college students.

Business Week
Amy Myers Jaffe, the Wallace S. Wilson Fellow in Energy Studies at Rice’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy and associate director of the Rice Energy Program and of the Shell Center for Sustainability, commented on the effect on the oil industry of the decision to release some oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Jaffe said the release “puts a psychological lid on the market.”

An article reported on the massive challenge presented by the “toxic brew” left in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Calvin Herb Ward, the Foyt Family Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering and professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, said, “There is no silver bullet and I would be highly suspicious of anyone who says there is.”

Associated Press
An article discussed possible political consequences of the migration following Hurricane Katrina. Robert Stein, dean of social sciences and the Lena Gohlman Fox Professor of Political Science, said the politcal impact in Houston will depend on how concentrated or widely dispersed the evacuees are. He added that Houston is one of the least-segregated big cities. Changing demographics, Stein said, are already pushing Texans toward the Democrats.

United Press International
An article featured research conducted under the auspices of the Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology and led by Michael Wong, assistant professor in chemical and biomolecular engineering and in chemistry. The researchers developed a method of replacing the pricey solvents used in quantum dot synthesis with cheaper oils that are commonplace at industrial chemical plants.

BBC News
In a story about rising concerns in the U.S. over the Bush administration’s apparent hostility to science, Neal Lane, the Malcolm Gillis University Professor, senior fellow in science and technology at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy and professor of physics and astronomy, was quoted. “It’s disturbing,” he said. “This is the first time, to the best of my knowledge through successive Republican and Democratic administrations, that the issue of scientific integrity has reared its head.”

Houston Chronicle
In article about the resegregation of U.S. schools, Linda McNeil, professor of education and co-director of the Center for Education, commented that test preparation has become the curriculum in many schools serving low-income students, depriving them of the rich education available to more affluent students.