People, papers and presentations

Graduate student in history Whitney Stewart won a six-month predoctoral research fellowship from the Smithsonian. She will work in the collections of the National Museum of African-American History and Culture and the National Museum of American History.

Five graduate and four undergraduate teams competed in the 2015 Owl Open, the first all-Rice student startup competition, at the BioScience Research Collaborative Feb. 20. Houston investors and entrepreneurs judged the teams’ 10-minute business plan pitches. The winner of the undergraduate track was Bizongo, earning a $2,500 cash prize, while DexMat Inc. won the graduate track, earning both a $2,500 cash prize and an automatic entry into the 2015 Rice Business Plan Competition, hosted by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship.

The Office of Public Affairs earned two awards at the 53rd annual American Advertising Federation-Houston ADDY Awards, which recognize creative excellence in the advertising and marketing in Greater Houston. Rice Magazine, the quarterly magazine produced by the Office of Public Affairs, won a silver award for the cover of the summer 2014 issue. The magazine was awarded a citation of excellence for the overall design of the fall 2014 issue. Public Affairs also won two awards at the 30th annual Educational Advertising Awards, the largest educational advertising awards competition in the country. The fall 2014 issue of Rice Magazine earned a silver award and the Unconventional website was recognized with a merit award.