Dateline Rice for Aug. 31, 2020

Stefan De La Garza
– August 31, 2020Posted in: Dateline Rice

COVID-19 PANDEMIC
‘New Day Weekend with Victor Blackwell and Christi Paul’
President David Leebron is interviewed about Rice’s fall restart and the measures taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
CNN on Youtube (This segment aired twice.)
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-leebron-fall-restart

Opinion: Vaping increases COVID-19 dangers, but don’t ban it
Katharine Neill Harris, the Alfred C. Glassell, III, Fellow in Drug Policy at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, and William Martin, the Harry & Hazel Chavanne Professor Emeritus of Religion and Public Policy and Sociology, co-authored an op-ed.
Houston Chronicle (Subscription is required. This article also appeared in the Aug. 30 print edition.)
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-harris-martin

Thursday’s Houston Matters: The latest updates on Hurricane Laura (Aug. 27, 2020)
Marah Short, associate director of the Center for Health and Biosciences at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, is interviewed about the complications of a hurricane evacuation amid a pandemic.
Houston Public Matters (This segment also aired on KUHF-FM in Houston.)
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-short (Interview begins at 43:10.)

UAE and Israel deal opens doors to business
Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, fellow for the Middle East at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, is quoted.
RFI.fr (This Agence France-Presse article also appeared in 10 other media outlets.)
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-ulrichsen

Football 2020: Mike Bloomgren thinks Rice is ready to turn corner
An article featuring Rice’s football program quotes head coach Mike Bloomgren and assistant coach Scott Vestal. The article mentions assistant coach Hans Straub, Director of Athletics Joe Karlgaard and former head coach David Bailiff. Rice football is featured or mentioned in the two additional articles.
Houston Chronicle (Subscription is required. This article also appeared in the Aug. 30 print edition of the Chronicle, and it appeared online in the San Francisco Chronicle.)
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-rice-football
College Football News preview 2020: Rice Owls
College Football News
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-rice-football
The Athletic 76: Preseason rankings of every FBS team playing a fall season
The Athletic (Subscription is required.)
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-rice-football
Conference USA preseason predictions for every game
College Football News
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-rice-football
College Football News preview 2020: Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders
College Football News
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-rice-football

Football 2020: Pandemic just part of state’s challenges in 1918
An article features Rice’s 1918 football team, which competed in the Southwest Conference amid the Spanish Flu pandemic. The article mentions Phil Arbuckle, Rice’s first athletic director, former head coaches John Heisman and John Anderson, former assistant coach Jack Coombs, and former Owl Shirley Brick.
Houston Chronicle (Subscription is required. This article also appeared in the Aug. 30 print edition.)
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-rice-football-1918

Friday Night Lights rolls on in COVID-19 era
Alumnus Robert Hubble is quoted.
Houston Chronicle (Subscription is required. This article also appeared in the Aug. 30 print edition of the Chronicle, and it appeared online in the San Antonio Express-News.)
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-hubble

Disasters are driving a mental health crisis
An article cites collaborative research by Rice and the Texas Flood Registry that determined 50% of Houston-area residents have wrestled with powerful or severe emotional distress since Hurricane Harvey made landfall in 2017.
The Center for Public Integrity (This article appeared in Grist, EnviroLink, KERA Online and a previous edition of Dateline.)
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-rice-flood-registry

Steelers working out free agent punter
Former Rice football player Chris Boswell is quoted.
Heavy.com (This article also appeared in Entertainment OverDose.)
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-boswell

Meet the MBA Class of 2022: The COVID cohorts

A pair of articles feature the following students at Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business: Rachel Garforth, Leo Flores and Pedro Martinez-Berrios.
Poets & Quants (Subscription is required. This article also appeared in Yahoo! Finance and Yahoo! Hong Kong.)
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-garforth
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-flores

Meet the MBA Class of 2022: Pedro Martinez-Berrios, Rice University (Jones)
Poets & Quants (Subscription is required.) 
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-berrios

Football 2020: AAC’s five things to watch
An article mentions that the Bayou Bucket football game between Rice and the University of Houston was postponed earlier this year.
Houston Chronicle (Subscription is required. This article also appeared in the San Antonio Express-News.)
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-bayou-bucket

Author Dan Brown goes ‘Wild’ for classical music
An article about Dan Brown’s “Maestro Mouse Reprise” mentions that it was originally scheduled to be performed at Stude Concert Hall at Rice’s Shepherd School of Music, but it was moved to an alternate venue due to the pandemic.
Houston Chronicle’s “Preview” (Subscription is required.) 
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-shepherd-school

NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL
Texas is running out of near misses
Jim Blackburn, a professor in the practice of environmental law and the co-director of Rice’s Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disasters Center, authored an op-ed in the New York Times, and it he is quoted or mentioned in the Houston Chronicle and Click2Houston. Phil Bedient, the Herman Brown Professor of Engineering and director of the SSPEED Center, is quoted in the Houston Chronicle, Red, Green and Blue and interviewed by Click2Houston.
The New York Times (Subscription is required. This article also appeared in the Aug. 29 print edition.)
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-blackburn
How Hurricane Laura could have caused ‘one of the worst environmental disasters ever’ in Houston
Houston Chronicle (Subscription is required. This article appeared on the front page of the Aug. 29 print edition and a previous edition of Dateline.)
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-blackburn-bedient
Hurricane Laura: Poverty and petrochemicals converge as devastation exposes entire Gulf Coast as ‘sacrificial zone’
Red, Green and Blue
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-bedient
Houston Newsmakers: Responding to Hurricane Laura
Click2Houston (This segment also aired on KPRC-TV in Houston.)
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-bedient-blackburn (Scroll down to “Galveston Bay Park: Can a five billion dollar plan work?”)

Texas Democrats roll out major voter registration push
An article cites a recent poll conducted in partnership between Rice and YouGov that showed President Trump with a seven-point lead in Texas over Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
The Hill (This article also appeared in MSN Money.)
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-rice-yougov

Superstorms are coming — are we prepared?
Alumnus Justin Onwenu authored an op-ed.
The Hill (This article also appeared in MSN.)
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-onwenu

HOUSTON/TEXAS
McCaul vote on Postal Service points to tight race
Mark Jones, the Joseph D. Jamail Chair in Latin American Studies, professor of political science, fellow in political science at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and fellow at Rice’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research, is quoted.
Austin American-Statesman (This article also appeared in 10 other media outlets.)
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-jones

Best value colleges in every state
Several articles featuring Rice mention that it is ranked No. 1 in Texas and No. 7 in the nation, according to Niche’s 2020 Best Value Colleges in America list. The second Houston Chronicle article mentions that Rice has earned an overall Niche grade of A+.
Houston Chronicle (This article also appeared in more than 25 other media outlets.)
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-hc
The top 20 colleges in Texas for 2021, according to Niche
Houston Chronicle (This article also appeared in the San Antonio Express-News and more than 25 other media outlets.)
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-hc
Colleges with the warmest weather
Houston Chronicle (This article also appeared in more than 25 other media outlets.)
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-hc
Region well-represented in newly released rankings of best colleges: Breakdown by state
Greenwich Daily Voice (This article also appeared in more than 30 other media outlets.)
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-dv

Inside Texas Politics: Lt. Gov. Patrick says Trump did not overlook Black Americans in RNC speech
An article mentions that the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation has partnered with Rice to survey LatinX voters.
KVUE Online
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-thpf

David Eagleman wants you to think much more about the brain
Alumnus David Eagleman is featured and pictured.
Houston Chronicle’s “Preview” (Subscription is required. This article appeared in the Aug. 30 print edition of the Chronicle, the front of the S.A. Life & Sports section in the Aug. 31 print edition of the San Antonio Express-News and online in the Express-News. This story also appeared in a previous edition of Dateline.)
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-eagleman

BROADCAST
‘BBC News’
Jacob Robinson, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and of bioengineering, is interviewed about the possibility of developing a bidirectional system for recording from and writing to the brain.
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-robinson (This segment aired twice)
‘BBC World Service Radio’ 
Newstalk ZB Aukland (New Zealand)
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-robinson (This BBC segment aired on over 1,300 stations around the world.)

‘Coast to Coast AM’ 
A broadcast mentions Jeffrey Kripal, the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice.
KMBZ-AM (Kansas City, Missouri) 
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-kripal (This segment also aired on more than 500 affiliate stations across the U.S. and Canada.)

TRADE/PROFESSIONAL
Is social comparison an answer to better marketing?
Jaeyeon Chung, assistant professor of marketing at Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business, is mentioned.
PR Week (Subscription is required.)
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-chung

Energy Jobs: JB Straubel’s battery recycling startup, Powerhouse, Total, Broad Reach Power, Span, Facebook, Clean Energy for Biden
A roundup features Kyle Judah, executive director of Rice’s Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
PV Magazine
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-judah

OTHER NEWS OF INTEREST
Faith and science forum to host online visit and lecture by Prof. Elaine Howard Ecklund Sept. 8
An article mentions that Elaine Howard Ecklund, professor of sociology and director of the Religion and Public Life Program, will give a virtual lecture hosted by the Los Alamos Faith and Science Forum Sept. 8.
Los Alamos Reporter (This article also appeared in the Los Alamos Daily Post.)
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-ecklund

SPORTS
Texans’ Jon Greenard, Isaiah Coulter, sidelined at practice
Former Rice football player Phillip Gaines is featured.
Houston Chronicle (Subscription is required.)
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-gaines

ROUNDUP: The Woodlands, Spring welcome new soccer club, design firm and more this year
Former Rice soccer player Vanessa Price is quoted.
Community Impact Newspaper
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-price

Former Red Sox Swiss Army Knife Brock Holt resurfaces in Washington

Former Rice baseball player Brock Holt is featured.
WGR Online
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-holt

Countdown to 2020: Best Cleveland Browns player to wear No. 13
An article featuring former Cleveland Browns quarterback Frank Ryan mentions that he completed his doctorate in mathematics at Rice in the offseason.
FanSided
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-ryan

This date in history: Aug. 31
An article mentions that Rice’s football team was defeated by Texas A&M University on Aug. 31, 2013.
The Eagle
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-rice-football

Rice scoops up in-state verbal from Texas 6A State Championship Finalist Morgan Bartley
An article featuring Morgan Bartley mentions that she plans to join Rice’s swimming and diving team.
Swimming World
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-bartley

NEWS RELEASES
Researchers set sights on theory of deep learning
The Office of Naval Research has awarded a five-year, $7.5 million grant to a group of engineers, computer scientists, mathematicians and statisticians from Rice and other institutions across the country to develop a theory of deep learning based on rigorous mathematical principles.
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-news-release-baraniuk-vardi

NSF backs first community platform for smarter wireless
A project led by Yingyan Lin, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rice’s Brown School of Engineering, received a $1.5 million National Science Foundation grant to develop an open-source platform to meet the urgent need of developing and validating machine-learning based innovations for future wireless networks and mobile applications.
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-news-release-lin

OpenStax surpasses $1 billion in textbook savings, with wide-ranging impact on teaching, learning and student success
Less than a decade after publishing its first free, openly licensed textbook, OpenStax — Rice’s educational technology initiative — has saved students $1.2 billion.
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-news-release-openstax

North American trade webinar: A view from Congress
The evolution of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement and what it means for the future of North American trade will be examined in a Sept. 2 webinar hosted by the Center for the United States and Mexico at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.
http://dateline.rice/aug-31-news-release-baker-talk

About Stefan De La Garza

Stefan De La Garza is a news analyst in Rice University's Office of Public Affairs.