Dateline Rice for June 24, 2021

NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

Congressional Dems open another front in their war on oil and gas
A report on the CLEAN Future Act by the Baker Institute for Public Policy is cited. Gabriel Collins, the Baker Botts Fellow in Energy and Environmental Regulatory Affairs at the institute and the author of the report, is quoted in a broadcast by WOAI.
Forbes (This article also appeared in OLT News.)
https://bit.ly/3vSSsCb
WOAI-AM (San Antonio)
https://bit.ly/3qvEKnO (This broadcast aired three times.)

Gene causing sickle cell disease removed by scientists
Former Rice research scientist Ciaran Lee is quoted.
The Irish Times (This article also appeared in The World News.)
https://bit.ly/3d98cdR

Opinion: Americans should worry more about China than Russia. The new space race shows why.
President John F. Kennedy’s “moon speech,” which was delivered at Rice Sept. 12, 1962, is mentioned.
The Washington Post (Subscription is required.)
https://wapo.st/3d8e2fk

HOUSTON/TEXAS

Rice Task Force to consider relocation of Willy Rice statue
A report by Rice’s Task Force on Slavery, Segregation and Racial Injustice is featured. Student Shifa Rahman is quoted.
Houston Chronicle (Subscription is required. This article also appeared in the June 24 print edition.)
https://bit.ly/3qnsdCB 

‘An epic demographic revolution’: Houston’s post-COVID future, according to Rice’s Stephen Klineberg
Stephen Klineberg, founding director of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research and an emeritus professor of sociology, is featured in a Q&A.
Houston Chronicle (Subscription is required.)
https://bit.ly/3h0FCwi

Houston needs to be a clean energy leader and preserve its oil-based economy. Can we have both?
Ken Medlock, senior director of the Center for Energy Studies at the Baker Institute for Public Policy, is quoted.
Houston Chronicle (Subscription is required.)
https://bit.ly/3dasnrI

New CDC dataset showing COVID vaccine-by-county numbers misses the entire state of Texas. Why?
Vivian Ho, the James A. Baker III Institute Chair in Health Economics at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy’s Center for Health and Biosciences, is quoted.
Houston Chronicle (Subscription is required.)
https://bit.ly/3jeX2b9

Some Texas power plants unexpectedly went offline last week. The grid operator says it still doesn’t know why
Daniel Cohan, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and a Rice faculty scholar at the Baker Institute for Public Policy, is quoted.
KPRC (This article originally appeared in the Texas Tribune.)
https://bit.ly/35Pj9gE

Jan. 6 corporate freeze on campaign donations begins to thaw
Douglas Schuler, associate professor of business and public policy at Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business, is quoted.
KRIS (This article appeared in more than 10 other media outlets.)
https://bit.ly/3zTnxca
KMGH-TV (Denver)
https://bit.ly/3vV5Dmb (This broadcast also aired on KSTU-TV in Salt Lake City; WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee; WXYZ-TV in Detroit; WFXT-TV in Fort Myers, Florida; WPTV-TV in West Palm Beach, Florida; WCPO-TV in Cincinnati; WEWS-TV in Cleveland; and KSHB-TV in Kansas City, Missouri.)

Some victims in deadly Reynosa shootings identified
Tony Payan, the Françoise and Edward Djerejian Fellow for Mexico Studies and director of the Center for the United States and Mexico at the Baker Institute for Public Policy, is quoted.
KGRV
https://bit.ly/3dcfbCF

Opinion: Texas has an opportunity to expand health insurance coverage
Elena Marks, a nonresident fellow in health policy at the Baker Institute for Public Policy, authored an op-ed.
Houston Chronicle (Subscription is required. This op-ed also appeared in the July 24 print edition.)
https://bit.ly/3zOhBRL

11 free things to do in Houston this summer
An article features James Turrell’s “Twilight Epiphany” Skyspace on the Suzanne Deal Booth Centennial Pavilion.
Laredo Morning Times (This article originally appeared in the Houston Chronicle.)
https://bit.ly/35QDmme

BROADCAST

Texas Public Radio
Viridiana Edwards, nonresident scholar in the Drug Policy Program at the Baker Institute for Public Policy, is a guest on “The Source.”
KSTX-FM (San Antonio)
https://bit.ly/2U40haI (This broadcast aired three times.) 

WJAS-AM (Pittsburgh)
Alumnus Glenn Youngkin, who is running for governor of Virginia, is interviewed.
https://bit.ly/3xLHtMf (This broadcast also aired on WIBX-AM in Utica, New York.)

TRADE/PROFESSIONAL

Antibody conjugate delivers drug to bone tumors and inhibits metastasis
Chemist Han Xiao at Rice and biologist Xiang Zhang at Baylor and their labs have developed an antibody conjugate called BonTarg that delivers drugs to bone tumors and inhibits metastasis. Xiao is quoted. Mentioned in Medi Magazine are postdoctoral researchers Zeru Tian and Lushun Wang and graduate students Chenfei Yu, Yuda Chen, Axel Loredo and Kuan-Lin Wu.
Technology Networks (Similar articles appeared in more than 20 other media outlets.)
https://bit.ly/3xNWRrl
Cancro alle ossa: coniugato anticorpale potente strategia
Medi Magazine (An English translation is not available.)
https://bit.ly/2T1VAhF

‘Flashed’ nanodiamonds are just a phase: Rice produces fluorinated nanodiamond, graphene, concentric carbon via flash Joule heating
Collaborative research by James Tour, the T.T. and W.F. Chao Chair in Chemistry and a professor of computer science and of materials science and nanoengineering, that “evolves” carbon through phases that include valuable nanodiamonds is featured. Additional co-authors of the research quoted or mentioned include Boris Yakobson, the Karl F. Hasselmann Professor of Materials Science and NanoEngineering and a professor of chemistry; graduate students Weiyin Chen, John Tianci Li, Zhe Wang, Wala Algozeeb, Emily McHugh, Kevin Wyss, Paul Advincula, Jacob Beckham and Bo Jiang; research scientist Carter Kittrell; and alumni Duy Xuan Luong and Michael Stanford. An article from ASM International mentions that Tour and Yakobson have partnered with a professor from Corban University on research at the intersection of sustainability and material science.
Nanotechnology Now (A similar article appeared in Free News Agency.)
https://bit.ly/3vSE4dg
Other materials stories that may be of interest
American Ceramic Society
https://bit.ly/3qpohkI
Dr. Yufeng Zhao conducts groundbreaking frontier research in material science and sustainability
ASM International
https://bit.ly/3xQFG8u

Toward safer breast implants: How implant surfaces affect immune response
An article features collaborative research by Omid Veiseh, assistant professor of bioengineering. He is quoted, and he and graduate students Samira Aghlara-Fotovat and Amanda Nash are pictured.
SciTechDaily (Similar articles appeared in more than 10 other media outlets.)
https://bit.ly/3xNfefX

Employees motivated to develop creative ideas when offered choice of rewards
Research by Jing Zhou, the Mary Gibbs Jones Professor of Management and Psychology at Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business, determined the effectiveness of rewarding employees.
Engineering360 (This article also appeared in Tech Explorist.)
https://bit.ly/3zX68iy

IDENTIFIED: 35 highly influential women in engineering
Lydia Kavraki, the Noah Harding Professor of Computer Science, professor of bioengineering, mechanical engineering and electrical and computer engineering, and director of Rice’s Ken Kennedy Institute, is featured.
Fair Play Talks
https://bit.ly/3hhLP7l

Vectorworks Inc. names Leslie Majer ‘Richard Diehl Award’ winner
Rice students Han Zhu, Xinyu Chen, and Wanting Zhou won a Vectorworks Design Scholarship in the architecture category for their design, “Pliable Display-Ground.”
BIM Ireland (This article also appeared in CADCAM.)
https://bit.ly/3j6OMKk

Who will be the next MARAD chief?
Ally Cedeno, a graduate of Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business, is featured.
gCaptain
https://bit.ly/35Mr7aj

How the cloud is powering us through — and beyond — the pandemic
Alumnus Rod Fontecilla authored an article.
Fed Health IT
https://bit.ly/3vRHJrB

OTHER NEWS OF INTEREST

Radio signals from the night side of exoplanets can provide important data
We can’t detect them yet, but radio signals from distant solar systems could provide valuable information about the characteristics of their planets. A paper by Rice scientists describes a way to better determine which exoplanets are most likely to produce detectable signals based on magnetosphere activity on exoplanets’ previously discounted nightsides. Alumnus Anthony Sciola and Frank Toffoletto, a professor of physics and astronomy, are quoted.
Kenyan News (Similar articles appeared in Canaltech, 15 Minute News, Chip.pl and 7th Space.)
https://bit.ly/3xOCryp

Targeted tumors attack not-innocent bystanders
The Rice lab of synthetic chemist K.C. Nicolaou, in collaboration with AbbVie Inc., has created unique antibody-drug conjugates that exhibit a “significant bystander effect,” affecting cancerous neighbor cells that aren’t directly attacked by the drugs. Nicolaou is quoted.
E News
https://bit.ly/3xQAQYU

If you build it, we will thrive
Bill Fulton, director of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research, and Henry Cisneros, fellow at the institute, co-authored an article.
Island Press on Medium
https://bit.ly/3xMj4WM

Meet our 2021 interns
Rice student Henry Taibi is featured.
Payette
https://bit.ly/3gTCPWO

Hines Global Income Trust appoints two new directors
Rice trustee emerita Ruth Simmons, who currently serves as president at Prairie View A&M University, is featured.
The DI Wire
https://bit.ly/3d9NNoV

Sylvia Frey, renowned Tulane University history professor, dies at 86
An obituary for Sylvia Frey mentions she formerly taught at Rice.
Nola.com
https://bit.ly/3qr0tNI

Visión económica | Impacto socioeconómico de las remesas
A webinar on remittances hosted by the Baker Institute for Public Policy’s Center for the United States and Mexico is featured.
El Sol de Hermosillo (An English translation is not available.)
https://bit.ly/3vUqGVG

SPORTS

Glen Ellyn native goes for gold in Tokyo 2020 Paralympics
Rice swimmer Ahalya Lettenberger, who will represent the United States in the Paralympics in August, is featured.
WBBM (This article also appeared in WUSN.)
https://bit.ly/3j9j5jr

‘Inside the NBA’
Rice men’s basketball coach Scott Pera discusses his time coaching Brooklyn Nets star James Harden in high school.
NBA TV
https://bit.ly/3qnqnSk

W&M names UC Berkeley’s Brian Mann as new athletic director
Former Rice senior associate athletics director and chief development officer Brian Mann is featured.
WAVY
https://bit.ly/2U13DeV
Brian Mann named W&M director of athletics
TribeAthletics.com
https://bit.ly/3gSLgSo

Sixers mock draft roundup: Can Philadelphia find another late-stage gem in 2021?
Former Rice basketball player Trey Murphy is featured.
Justice News Flash
https://bit.ly/2U3OqcI

Who is Giannis Antetokounmpo’s girlfriend? Meet Mariah Riddlesprigger
Former Rice volleyball player Mariah Riddlesprigger is featured.
Journal Beat
https://bit.ly/2SnD4js

About Matt Wilson

Matt Wilson is a senior editor in Rice University's Office of Public Affairs.