Centers & Offices

NEWT is an interdisciplinary, multi-institution nanosystems-engineering research center (headquartered at Rice University) whose goal is to facilitate access to clean water almost anywhere in the world by developing efficient modular water treatment systems that are easy to deploy, and that can tap unconventional sources to provide humanitarian water or emergency response. Read about the center's recent work in the NEWT annual report.

The Precise Advanced Technologies and Health Systems for Underserved Populations (PATHS-UP) Engineering Research Center (ERC) was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2017. The specific vision of the PATHS-UP ERC is to change the paradigm for the health of underserved populations by developing revolutionary and cost-effective technologies and systems at the point-of-care.

Expeditions in Computing See Below the Skin is an NSF-sponsored research center that has the goal of designing computational imaging systems that effectively use light to traverse deep into the body beneath the skin at cellular-level resolutions without making an incision or drawing blood.

The Richard Tapia Center for Excellence & Equity was founded by Professor Richard. A. Tapia (Professor in the Department of Computational & Applied Mathematics and Maxfield-Oshman Chair in Engineering) to promote greater participation of underrepresented minorities and wome in in STEM and empower them to be future leaders in academia and industry.

The Smalley-Curl Institute (SCI) is the result of the merging of two multidisciplinary research institutes: the Richard E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology and the Rice Quantum Institute. The new institute will be the home of the Applied Physics Graduate Program and several endowed postdoctoral research fellowships, will establish strong industrial collaborations, and will foster new educational and outreach programs.

The mission of the Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering (IBB) is to promote cross-disciplinary research and education encompassing the biological, chemical, and engineering disciplines. IBB represents a unique educational environment in which to prepare students to meet the complex scientific, technological, and ethical challenges we face in the twenty-first century.

The Rice University School Mathematics Project (RUSMP) was established in 1987 to promote the effective teaching of mathematics and to create a better understanding of the nature, beauty, and importance of mathematics. RUSMP’s scope has expanded to include supporting science, technology, engineering, and the arts as they relate to mathematics.

The Ken Kennedy Institute for Information Technology (K2I) is dedicated to the advancement of research in the fields of computing and information technology. Our goal is to provide broad support for a strong community of research experimentation that challenges traditional disciplinary limits.

The institute’s power lies in its ability to challenge traditional boundaries, look beyond individual faculty members and departments, and leverage industry specific expertise to support fruitful collaborations.

Rice 360˚ brings together an international group of faculty, students, clinicians, and partners to design innovative health technologies. Research includes the biological and social factors involved in health inequality to design, test, and implement solutions with multidisciplinary leaders around the world.

Space exploration has impacted society and culture across the globe in many diverse and imaginative ways, changing how we view the world, how we interact with it, and how we imagine our place within it. Increasingly, research in the humanities and social sciences is addressing this impact and exploring the cultural context in which it occurs. The Rice Space Institute aims to foster these discussions and to bridge the disciplines as we seek to understand the societal and cultural impact of space exploration.