People, papers and presentations

Amy Dunham, an associate professor of biosciences, and co-authors from the University of Konstanz and the University of Hamburg in Germany published a letter in this week’s issue of Science to point out the lack of attention to the unique challenges climate change poses to people with disabilities. The letter suggests climate change will accentuate inequalities and increase marginalization of the world’s disabled populations, and notes recent action by the United Nations Human Rights Council to bring attention to the situation. Scientific American and Forbes have published articles about the letter.

Pulickel Ajayan, the Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson Professor in Engineering, a professor of chemistry and chair of Rice’s Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering, has authored a “News and Views” article in Nature, “The nano-revolution spawned by carbon.” The article draws a line from the Nobel Prize-winning 1985 discovery of buckminsterfullerenes at Rice and the subsequent discoveries of carbon nanotubes and graphene, and how they continue to pave the way for nanoscale innovation.