Four receive Distinguished Alumni Award for reflecting standards, ideals of Rice

BY ARIE WILSON PASSWATERS, JENNIFER EVANS AND MIKE WILLIAMS

Four Rice University graduates have been selected to receive the Association of Rice Alumni’s 2010 Distinguished Alumni Award, presented to alumni whose professional or volunteer activities reflect and forward the high standards and ideals of the university.

Louis E. Brus ’65

Louis E. Brus ’65, a professor of chemistry at Columbia University, is commonly recognized as discoverer of the colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals known as quantum dots. But in the chemistry community, he is known as much more. Not only has his research been groundbreaking, but the culture of physical chemistry has markedly evolved as a result of Brus’ scientific contributions and leadership.

	LOUIS BRUS

Vicki Colvin, the Kenneth S. Pitzer-Schlumberger Professor of Chemistry, worked with Brus at Bell Laboratories in the 1990s and experienced his creativity and research firsthand. Later, Brus’ praise of Rice would influence Colvin to begin her career here.

“Louis is a great thinker, and he has impact on the field because he can go very deep into concepts with enormous rigor and teach the rest of us how to think about key phenomenon in nanotechnology,” Colvin said.

Most recently his accomplishments have earned him the 2010 NAS Award in Chemical Sciences. Brus was honored for his leading role in the development of a fundamental building block for nanoscience — colloidial semiconductor nanocrystals — and for his contributions to understanding the quantum effects that control their optical properties. In 2004, he was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and, four years later, he was co-recipient of the inaugural Kavli Prize.

“While I admire Louis for many reasons, I think what I most respect about him as a scientist is that he is not a great salesperson — nor does he aspire to this,” Colvin said. “Louis is a skeptic, always questioning and looking for ways to improve ideas.”

Brus has made quantum dots — their synthesis, characterization and theory — a very important part of modern chemistry.

“He has become famous and had long-lasting impact without hyping his research,” Colvin said. “His success is a testament to the value of powerful ideas, not technologies.”

James Mischka ’85

For more than two decades, James Mischka ’85 has been a standout in the fashion industry as half the internationally recognized team Badgley Mischka.

JAMES MISCHKA

“James Mischka demonstrates that, armed with a Rice undergraduate education, one can be anything one wants,” said Kathleen Boyd Fossi ’80, director of the Rice University Centennial Celebration. “He truly sets an example for Rice students today, to follow dreams built on learning — and to ‘set no upper limit.'”

The award-winning designer began at Rice as a biomedical engineering major and ultimately graduated with degrees in art history and managerial studies. At the encouragement of one of his Rice professors, Mischka attended Parsons School for Design in New York. After graduation, he went to work for Yves Saint Laurent in Paris and then for menswear designer Willi Smith. In 1988, Mischka and fellow Parsons graduate Mark Badgley founded their own label and initially specialized in women’s wear inspired by the glamorous Hollywood of the 1940s.

Since its start, Badgley Mischka has gowned such stars as Sharon Stone, Cameron Diaz, Winona Ryder, Jessica Lange and Kate Winslet. Most recently the duo dressed Helen Mirren, a nominee for best actress in a leading role for the 2010 Oscars, and Oprah Winfrey for her magazine’s 10-year anniversary issue. Mischka and his partner have grown the company into a thriving multimillion-dollar business that no longer creates only evening wear and bridal gowns but now everything from shoes and lingerie to eyewear and fragrances.

Well-respected in his field, Mischka was named among Vogue’s top 10 American designers and has been recognized with such accolades as the Marymount Designer of the Year Award, the Silver Slipper Award from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Dallas International Apparel Rising Star Award.

He has served on the Parsons Board of Governors and has volunteered energy, time, creativity and skills for the advancement of the art and business of fashion design and education.

Leslie Southwick ’72

Judge Leslie Southwick ’72 is a busy man. Over the past few years, he has dutifully served his country in many ways — from the bench of a federal courtroom to the sands of Iraq.

	LESLIE SOUTHWICK

Southwick has been a member of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans since his appointment by former President George W. Bush in 2007. A resident of Jackson, Miss., and a member of the Mississippi Army National Guard, he served as the Staff Judge Advocate of the 155th Brigade Combat Team in Iraq from 2004 to 2006.

Before his most recent appointment, Southwick served as a judge on the Mississippi Court of Appeals. When he’s not wielding a gavel, Southwick has volunteered his time to interview potential students applying to Rice. He is also an adjunct professor of law at Mississippi College and has written several legal and historical articles, which have been published in the Mississippi Law Journal, the Mississippi College Law Review, the Wall Street Journal and various historical journals. He is the author of “Presidential Also-Rans and Running Mates,” which won an American Library Association Best Reference Work of the Year award in 1985.

Southwick earned a bachelor’s in history from Rice in 1972 and a Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of Texas at Austin in 1975. He is married to the former Sharon Polasek, whom he met while at Rice, and has two children, Philip and Catherine ’05.

Peggy Whitson ’86

Peggy Whitson ’86 has spent more time in space — 377 days — than any other U.S. astronaut. She achieved that record in 2008 during her second six-month stint aboard the

PEGGY WHITSON

International Space Station, where she served as the first female commander. During that mission she oversaw a 48 percent increase in the station’s living and work space. Whitson has also performed six spacewalks, more than any other woman.

The Iowan, who earned her Rice doctorate in biochemistry, had her eyes on the skies from an early age and was inspired by the Apollo 11 moon landing to pursue a career in space. Now, as chief of the astronaut corps at NASA, she is responsible for the preparation of all space shuttle and ISS crews. She has served as an adjunct associate professor of biochemistry and cell biology at Rice.

“Her capacity for hard work and ability to interact in a positive and encouraging way with colleagues come together to make her an outstanding leader,” said Kathleen Matthews, Rice’s Stewart Memorial Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, who was Whitson’s thesis adviser.