People, papers and presentations

Pedro Alvarez has been appointed to Houston Endowment’s board of directors. Alvarez is the George R. Brown Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rice and the founding director of the Rice-based National Science Foundation Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment, or NEWT. Houston Endowment is a private philanthropic institution that provides about $70 million each year for the benefit of the people of greater Houston.

A Rice Housing and Dining team consisting of campus dining director Johnny Curet, senior executive chef Roger Elkhouri, chef de cuisine Verena Schulman and cook Christian Roskar earned a gold medal at the American Culinary Federation’s collegiate competition June 14, part of the Tastes of the World Chef Culinary Conference hosted by the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Teams were given a mystery basket of products with which they had three hours to prepare a three-course menu and a buffet platter.