People, papers and presentations

George Hirasaki, the A.J. Hartsook Professor Emeritus of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, has been awarded the Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal by the Society of Petroleum Engineers. The medal honors Hirasaki’s “distinguished achievement in the identification and development of new technology and concepts that will enhance the process of finding or producing petroleum.” He automatically becomes a distinguished member of the society. Hirasaki will formally receive the Lucas Medal Sept. 27 during a banquet at the society’s annual technical conference and exhibition in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Tomasz Kowalczyk, a graduate student in percussion at Rice’s Shepherd School of Music, won second place and the Audience Favorite Prize in the 2016 Cynthia Woods Mitchell Young Artist Competition. The annual competition is open to all Texas Music Festival Orchestra Fellows.

Rice University student engineers swept the field at the annual student design competition of the American Society for Artificial Internal Organs this month. The “Sensory Substitution VEST for the Blind” won the top prize of $2,000; the “Neonatal EEG Monitor for Low-Resource Settings” project took second and $700; and the “WombOx: Minimally Invasive Monitoring of Fetal Blood Oxygen” took third and $300. Graduate student Zichao Wang ’16 presented for the VEST team, Yusi Ou ’16 presented for the neonatal team and Samir Saidi ’16 presented for WombOx. They were among seven teams selected to present at the society’s annual conference in San Francisco June 15-18. Rice’s “D-Clot” team, represented by Erica Kim ’16 and Angela Li ’16, also presented.