Brochstein and Curl named 2011 Gold Medal winners

Raymond Brochstein ’55 and Robert
Curl ’54 will receive Rice’s Gold Medal — the highest award bestowed by the Association of
Rice Alumni (ARA). The award is given for extraordinary service to the
university. Brochstein and Curl will be honored, along with the Distinguished Alumni and the
Meritorious Service Award recipients, at a May 14 dinner at the River
Oaks Country Club.

Raymond Brochstein ’55

	RAYMOND BROCHSTEIN

Ray Brochstein is perhaps one of
the most recognizable names among current members of the Rice community.
His contributions to the university and his representation of the
university in the wider community have truly earned him the highest
recognition that Rice University can bestow. Brochstein served on the
Rice Board of Trustees from 1998 until 2002 and has also served on the
ARA board, the Rice University Fund Council and the Rice Architecture
Advisory Committee, to name a few. A catalyst for change and improvement
in the area of campus aesthetics, he has contributed as a member of the
Buildings and Grounds Committee of the Rice Board of Trustees and as chair
of the Rice University Art Committee. He and his wife, Susan, have
generously given to the university with gifts supporting the School of
Architecture, James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, Fondren
Library and, of course, overall campus life with the generous gift of
Brochstein Pavilion.

Robert Curl ’54

	ROBERT CURL

Bob
Curl came to Rice in 1950 from the Odessa, Texas, area. He received his
B.A. in 1954 and enrolled in the Ph.D. program at the University of
California at Berkeley, where he studied under someone very well-known
to the Rice community: Kenneth Pitzer, who later became the university’s
third president. Curl returned to Rice in 1958 as an assistant
professor. He has, throughout his career, exemplified all of the most
praiseworthy features of the university: excellence in research and
outstanding teaching and mentoring. Curl’s 1985 discovery of carbon 60
(the buckyball) with collaborators Rick Smalley and Harry Kroto laid the
foundation for the opening of a new frontier in nanoscale science and
nanotechnology. The discovery also led to a shared Nobel Prize in
chemistry, awarded in 1996. Despite his retirement, Curl continues his
research today in physical chemistry as the Kenneth S.
Pitzer-Schlumberger Professor Emeritus of Natural Sciences and
University Professor Emeritus. He is a devoted member of the community
and has been since he set foot on the campus more than 60 years ago.