President, board honor staff excellence

President, board honor staff excellence

BY LINDSEY FIELDER
Rice News staff

There’s a new breed of employee at Rice these days. Centers, institutes and offices have all prospered under the watch of highly skilled, nonfaculty professionals promoting high-priority, high-impact activities in science and engineering.

Rice President Malcolm Gillis recognized five of these staff members at the quarterly meeting of the Rice University Board of Trustees in December: Christian Holmes, Denis Headon, Tony Elam, Daryl Boudreaux and Wade Adams.

Holmes came to Rice in January 2003 as executive director of the Environmental and Energy Systems Institute in the George R. Brown School of Engineering and of the new Shell Center for Sustainability.

Holmes has engaged Rice faculty, along with graduate and undergraduate students, in new work on sustainability issues, said Amy Jaffe, the Wallace Wilson Fellow for Energy Studies at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy and associate director of the Rice Energy Program.

”Chris has made a huge contribution in providing administrative muscle and focus to the existing initiatives that take Rice’s strengths and apply them to a broad set of sustainability problems,” Jaffe said. ”We are all richer now that he is here on campus.”

Since he joined the Rice team, Holmes has galvanized new research and outreach programs on gas hydrates. In addition to organizing public forums on air quality and water issues, he has developed several case study research programs for students using examples of private-sector environmental and sustainability projects in Houston.

Headon became director of the Texas/UK Research Collaborative at Rice in December 2002 after seven years as president and chief executive officer at a Baylor College of Medicine technology company.

This joint multinational and cross-disciplinary research undertaking has surpassed expectations by embracing 10 institutions in Texas and six core institutions in the United Kingdom. It has funded 19 collaborative proposals, 20 percent of which involve researchers at Rice working with researchers at British schools.

President Gillis told the board that Headon is helping Rice bring about more intensive and extensive nano- and bio-research collaboration with other universities. ”In one short year, he has seen to it that, in this effort, we are already today where we expected to be in 2005,” he said.

In the seven years Elam has been at Rice, he has held two important positions. For the first five years, he served as the executive director of the Computer and Information Technology Institute. His present duties as associate dean of engineering for research have been in effect for two years.

Elam manages, promotes and develops new research projects for the faculty and research scientists in science and engineering. In doing so, he works closely with other institutes and centers on campus.

Together with Rice faculty, Elam has obtained significant funding for various research projects, such as the expansion of the university’s relationship and involvement with Los Alamos National Lab and life science opportunities with the Texas Medical Center.

Moshe Vardi, the Karen Ostrum George Professor in Computer Engineering, professor of computer science and director of the Computer and Information Technology Institute, said Elam’s combination of skills have made him highly effective in both of his positions at Rice.

”Tony combines a deep understanding of how industry operates, a real appreciation for Rice’s academic values, broad familiarity with Rice’s engineering research activities and an unusual ability to work well with people,” Vardi said.

Boudreaux is the first director of Technology Transfer (TT), which was established five and a half years ago.

With a responsibility to protect and license intellectual property developed by Rice faculty and other researchers, Boudreaux has helped TT earn a reputation for being helpful, resourceful and flexible.

President Gillis noted that since TT was established in 1998, 52 patents have been issued to Rice researchers, and Boudreaux’s office is overseeing the prosecution of
258 pending patents.

”Daryl has been instrumental in assisting the faculty in launching nine start-up companies,” President Gillis said. ”He has provided vital services that before his time were totally unavailable at Rice.”

The final staff member recognized at the board meeting was Adams. As director of the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (CNST), Adams has helped the center become well-recognized and receive increased funding.

President Gillis praised Adams’ deep scientific knowledge and ability to generate enthusiasm and interaction that have been fundamental to his success at CNST over the past two years.

”Wade has been instrumental in organizing nanotechnology workshops and conferences in cooperation with national, state and local partners,” he said. ”He has provided truly dynamic and energetic leadership for the nanoscience and technology programs at Rice.”

In addition to providing guidance and administrative oversight to Rice’s Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology, Adams has helped secure substantial federal funding to advance nanotechnology research in Texas. He also serves on boards and in advisory capacities for other universities and organizations.

Since 1996, President Gillis has presented members of the Rice staff to the board of trustees at each quarterly meeting. Employees are recognized for their outstanding contributions to the university. The staff recognition program is just one way Rice employees are recognized for their hard work.