People, papers and presentations

Ann McAdam Griffin, associate director of corporate relations, has been elected to the Network of Academic Corporate Relations Officers (NACRO) Board of Directors. NACRO increases the value of relationships between industry and higher education. Griffin’s leadership in NACRO contributed to Rice’s selection as the host university for NACRO’s Mid-Winter Leadership Conference Feb. 26-28. The Jones Graduate School of Business’ Melanie Rigdon, assistant director of corporate relations, and Jody Sommer, associate director of corporate relations, will also participate in the leadership conference.

Rice University’s Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering (IBB) has awarded IBB Travel Grants to 18 graduate students of IBB faculty members. Recipients were nominated by their faculty advisers and will receive funds for costs associated with attending a scientific conference. The Edgar O’Rear and Mary Morse Family Funds sponsored the grants. The recipients and the scientific conferences they will attend are

• Aditya Agrawal, chemical and biomolecular engineering, American Chemical Society spring national meeting.
•  Rajesh Balagam, bioengineering, Quantitative Biology Conference.
•  Liezl Balaoing, bioengineering, Society for Materials annual meeting.
•  Yasmin Chebaro, biochemistry and cell biology, American Society for Microbiology Conference in New Orleans.
•  Eliza Fong, bioengineering, American Association for Cancer Research Conference in San Diego.
•  Alessandra Forcucci, bioengineering, Photonics West Conference.
•  Songl Han, bioengineering, American Chemical Society meeting in Dallas.
•  Michelle Ho, bioengineering, American Institute of Chemical Engineers annual meeting in San Francisco.
•  Chenyue Hu, bioengineering, Keystone Conference on Sensing and Signal.
•  Yun-Ting Kao, biochemistry and cell biology, American Society of Plant Biologists.
•  Lydia Kisley, physical chemistry, Gordon Research Conference.
•  James Matthews, physics and astronomy, American Chemical Society meeting in Dallas.
•  Maria Magdalena Meza-Lopez, ecology and evolutionary biology, Ecological Society of America annual meeting.
•  Sina Najmaei, materials science and nanoengineering, MRS Fall Meeting.
•  Lauren Popp, chemical and biomolecular engineering, American Chemical Society meeting in Dallas.
•  Alex Tatara, bioengineering, Society for Biomaterials annual meeting.
•  Lin-Yung Wang, chemistry, American Chemical Society meeting in Dallas.
•  Fanli Zhou, biochemistry and cell biology, Drosophila Research Conference.

The recipients will be honored at the IBB Awards Ceremony May 8 at Rice’s BioScience Research Collaborative.