People, papers and presentations

Two Rice students and a 2013 graduate received ThinkSwiss Scholarships to do research at a public Swiss university or research institute for two to three months this summer: Will Rice senior Justin Dong, Baker senior Disha Kumar and Sid Richardson alum Sachin Allahabadi ’13. ThinkSwiss is an official program of the Swiss Confederation that promotes exchanges and knowledge sharing between the U.S. and Switzerland.

“Rice’s Owls,” Robert Flatt’s photographic chronicle of the daily life of a family of owls that took up residence on the Rice campus in 2010, won the 2013 IndieReader Discovery Award for photography. Flatt is an adjunct professor of management at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business. The IndieReader Discovery Awards are open to independently published books and are voted on by a distinguished panel of judges from industry insiders. The award is the sixth accolade for the book, including first place at the recent San Francisco Book Festival, winner of the Anderbo Publishing Co.’s competition for best self-published book of the year, honorable mention at the New England Book Festival in Boston and runner-up in the 2013 Paris Book Festival Competition. The book is exclusively available through the RiceOwls.com online store and the Rice Ticket office at Tudor Fieldhouse, with all proceeds benefitting the Owl Club, which supports the overall goals for the Rice University Athletic Department by generating the funds for scholarships for student-athletes in 16 varsity sports.

The winner of the 2013 Rice Business Plan Competition, SiNode Systems of Northwestern University, recently won first place at the second annual U.S. Department of Energy National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition. The title included a $100,000 prize. SiNode will ring the NASDAQ closing bell at the NASDAQ Market Place in New York City as part of its RBPC winnings Aug. 23.