Satish Nagarajaiah Named Fellow of ASCE's SEI
Satish Nagarajaiah, professor of civil and environmental engineering, and of mechanical engineering and materials science, has been named an inaugural fellow of the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) of the American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE).  more...

Water sees right through graphene
"The extreme thinness of graphene makes it a totally non-invasive coating," said Pulickel Ajayan, Rice's Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson Professor in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and of chemistry. "A drop of water sitting on a surface 'sees through' the graphene layers and conforms to the wetting forces dictated by the surface beneath. It's quite an interesting phenomenon unseen in any other coatings and once again proves that graphene is really unique in many different ways."  more...

UT Medical School Hosts Discussion on Advances in Rehabilitation
Machines and robots used to help stroke patients recover are now being experimented with to see if they can help patients with spinal and brain injuries. Marcia O'Malley, associate professor in mechanical engineering and materials science, is quoted.  more...

Graphene quantum dots: The next big small thing
A Rice University laboratory has found a way to turn common carbon fiber into graphene quantum dots, tiny specks of matter with properties expected to prove useful in electronic, optical and biomedical applications. 

The Rice lab of materials scientist Pulickel Ajayan, in collaboration with colleagues in China, India, Japan and the Texas Medical Center, discovered a one-step chemical process that is markedly simpler than established techniques for making graphene quantum dots. The results were published online this month in the American Chemical Society's journal Nano Letters.   more...