People,
papers and presentations

Edwin “Ned” Thomas, the William and Stephanie Sick Dean of Engineering, is the recipient of the 2012 Award in Polymer Chemistry from the American Chemical Society (ACS), sponsored by the ExxonMobil Chemical Co. Peter Wolynes, the D.R. Bullard-Welch Foundation Professor of Chemistry and professor of physics and astronomy, is the recipient of the ACS 2012 Award in Theoretical Chemistry, sponsored by Dell Inc. Thomas and Wolynes will be honored at a ceremony March 27 in conjunction with the annual ACS national meeting in San Diego.

Tomasz Tkaczyk, assistant professor of bioengineering, was selected for the 2011 Paul F. Forman Engineering Excellence Award by the Optical Society for his robust cost-effective optical-imaging platform technologies that instantaneously provide multidimensional biological data. The systems have broad use in basic research and in point-of-care diagnostics in various clinical settings worldwide. OSA will present the award to Tkaczyk next month at the society’s annual meeting in San Jose, Calif.

Entries for ”People, Papers, Presentations” should be submitted to the Office of News and Media Relations by email to ricenews@rice.edu or campus mail to MS 300.