By Matt Wilson, Rice University News
Reginald DesRoches, the William and Stephanie Sick Dean of the George R. Brown School of Engineering and professor of civil and environmental engineering and of mechanical engineering, received the 2018 Distinguished Lecturer Award from the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) for “outstanding professional contributions of major importance for earthquake hazard mitigation.” The award entitles DesRoches to present a lecture at the EERI’s 11th National Conference on Earthquake Engineering in Los Angeles June 25-29 and at six other EERI regional or student chapters during the year. His lecture may also be published in Earthquake Spectra, the institute’s journal.
Fifth-year Rice architecture student Eric Hsu is one of three winners of the 2018 Kohn Pedersen Fox Traveling Fellowship presented by the KPF Foundation. The fellowship comes with a $10,000 award to facilitate summer travel by students at the partner schools of the New York architecture firm Kohn Pederson Fox Associates. Hsu plans to spend time in Russia, Estonia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine and Belarus to study what he called the “massive socio-historical void in global politics and culture” left by the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Rice University and its Information Technology (IT) staff were selected as a 2018 CIO 100 Award winner for work related to Hurricane Harvey. This highly competitive award program recognizes organizations around the world that exemplify the highest level of operational and strategic excellence in IT. CIO is part of IDG, the world’s leading technology media, data and marketing services company. Representatives from the winning companies will be honored at the CIO 100 Symposium and Awards Ceremony Aug. 15 in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.
Zahra Jamal, associate director for community engagement at Rice’s Boniuk Institute for Religious Tolerance, served on Mayor Sylvester Turner’s Houston Diversity Month planning committee, which designated April as a month to bring together “people of all backgrounds to share diverse cultures and heritages, exchange knowledge and ideas and celebrate the core social values of inclusiveness, respect and equal opportunity for all.” Jamal appeared in a video featuring Diversity Month testimonials