Smalley-Curl Institute | Smalley-Curl Institute

NEST360 is Finalist for $100 Million McArthur Grant

Life-saving program for African newborns makes final cut for 100&Change

From Rice News: NEST360°, a visionary 10-year effort to save the lives of 500,000 African babies per year, is a finalist for the MacArthur Foundation’s first $100 million 100&Change grant.

NEST360° is one of four 100&Change finalists named today by the foundation. One finalist will be awarded $100 million in December. The 100&Change competition, which began more than a year ago, aims to solve one of the world’s critical problems. The competition drew more than 1,900 applications, and eight semifinalists were selected in February.

See the full Rice News story here

SCI-STAR

The Smalley-Curl Institute is excited to announce a new program that will provide graduate students with the opportunity to propose, plan, and oversee original research projects! SCI-STAR: Student Training for Advising Research will be a collaborative program. Working with the Doerr Institute for New Leaders (DINL), the goal of this program is to develop graduate students as leaders in science, especially in the context of mentorship and research group management. Please see our SCI-STAR website for additional information. Proposal deadline: Monday August 21

Read more about SCI-STAR

Kavli Foundation to Sponsor "Grand Challenges" Meetings

SCI to Organize Series on the Future of Sensing

From Rice News: The Kavli Foundation has agreed to sponsor a trio of visionary, cross-disciplinary meetings at Rice University that will focus on the future of sensing technology. The meetings will bring together scientists and engineers from academia, government and industry to identify the grand challenges that could potentially be met by next-generation sensing technologies, and the fundamental scientific capabilities that will be needed to address those challenges.

See the complete Rice News article here.

Applied Physics in the News

Applied Physics’ own Pelham Keahey wins six-year NCI grant for cancer diagnosis

Rice University graduate student Pelham Keahey is one of less than 40 in the entire country of the inaugural winners of the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) prestigious predoctoral-to-postdoctoral fellow transition award, which includes funding for two years of graduate school and four years of postdoctoral training. Keahey, who is pursuing a doctorate through Rice’s Applied Physics Graduate Program (and past president of the Applied Physics Graduate Student Association) and carrying out his research in the lab of bioengineer Rebecca Richards-Kortum, said the funds will support his development on the use of low-cost, point-of-care optical imaging and molecular probes to improve the detection and treatment of cancer.

- See the Rice News article here

SCI Summer Research Colloquium

Congratulations to our 3rd Annual SCI Summer Research Colloquium Oral and Poster Presentation Winners!

We had an outstanding group of student and postdoctoral presenters! Thank you to all for your participation, and to all of our colleagues and guests in helping make this year's event a success.

The Smalley-Curl Institute (SCI) Summer Research Colloquium began in 1986 as the RQI Colloquium, and has taken place in August of each year since then. The purpose of the SCI Summer Research Colloquium is to provide undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers working at Rice with an opportunity to present their most recent work.

Read more about SCI Summer Research Colloquium

Welcome to the Smalley-Curl Institute (SCI)

The Smalley-Curl Institute (SCI) was created in 2015 from the merger of two of Rice multidisciplinary research institutes, the Richard E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology and the Rice Quantum Institute. SCI is the home of the Applied Physics Graduate Program and of several endowed postdoctoral research fellowships. It participates in establishing strong industrial collaborations, and takes part in novel educational and outreach programs, such as the Professional Science Master’s Program in Nanoscale Science. The Institute assists its members in forging new, cross-cutting and interdisciplinary research areas, and in seeking new means of supporting their work. Research in SCI encompasses advanced materials, quantum magnetism, plasmonics and photonics, biophysics and bioengineering, ultracold atom physics, condensed matter and chemical physics, and all aspects of nanoscience and nanotechnology.