The Rice Thresher, Vol. 92, No. 28, Ed. 1 Friday, May 20, 2005 Page: 12 of 28
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THE RICE THRESHER
FRIDAY, MAY 20.2005
Nobel Prize winner, former
Lovett master Curl retires
by Matt McCabe
THRESHER EDfTORlAL STAFF
The Nobel Prize was first
awarded in 1901, and the Rice
Institute began offering classes
in 1912, but the two did not inter-
sect until Chemistry Professors
Robert Curl ('54) and Richard
Smalley were awarded the 96th
Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996.
With that accolade and many oth-
ers in hand, Curl is retiring after
47 years as a faculty member.
Although Curl is retiring as a
faculty member, he will continue
to do research at Rice. Most re-
cently, he has focused on DNA
instrument development.
'[Curl] is
intellectually very
honest. He always
tends to put himself in
the background and
gives credit to others
he interacts with.'
— Frank Tittel
Electrical engineering
professor
"I'm getting tired of dealing
with the hassles [of being on
staff]," Curl said. "[I need] a bit
of time to smell the roses."
Electrical Engineering Profes-
sor Frank Tittel said Curl has
been an ambassador for Rice.
"He's always balanced re-
search with education, teaching
and reaching out across campus,
to the city, to the state and to the
country," Tittel said.
Before the college system was
implemented in 1957, Curl — as
an undergraduate — lived in the
buildingthat later became Wiess
College.
"There was hazing for fresh-
men," Curl said. "Freshmen had
to climb a grease pole in a mud pit,
but the freshmen outnumbered
the sophomores... [so, later] the
freshmen retaliated by kidnap-
ping sophomores and driving
them out into the country and
kicking them out of the car."
After earning his doctorate
from the University of California-
Berkeley in 1957 and serving
a one-year post-doctoral stint
at Harvard Univeristy, Curl re-
turned to Rice as an assistant pro-
fessor. Curl replaced the outgoing
George Bird, who had a group
of graduate students working in
spectroscopy and with a function-
ing microwave spectrometer.
"There was a professor leaving
here that had an apparatus and a
good problem in the field that I
was in," Curl said. "It was sort of
a running start on an academic
career. ... That made it quite
attractive."
Curl served as master of
Lovett College — then all male
— soon after returning to Rice.
"I was the first master of Lovett
College," Curl said. "[It was] very
interesting, because I was the
master from the fall of '68 until '72,
during the height of the protest of
the Vietnam War. The students had
a very different attitude."
Curl said he remembers a
dirty room contest at Lovett,
when the college enlisted the
help of Will Rice College's "Gross
Phil" to evaluate the dirtiness of
the rooms. In the end, "Gross
Phil" could not settle on a win-
ner and was eventually chased
from Lovett by students throwing
dinner rolls at him as he began
to insult the Lovetteers.
While at Rice, Curl has re-
searched trace gas detection, atmo-
spheric chemistry and air quality
in the space station. Tittel said the
breadth of Curl's accomplishments
is particularly impressive.
'A Nobel laureate
never retires.'
— Tittel
"I consider Professor Curl
to be equally brilliant in chem-
istry, physics and engineering
physics," Tittel said. "Humans
[usually] only excel in maybe
one of these areas, but Dr. Curl
is special."
Curl won the Nobel Prize for
discovering fullerenes with Smal-
ley and Sir Harold Kroto of the
University of Sussex-Brighton
in England. Curl said the break-
through was actually not complex.
"It was remarkably easy
because we stumbled across
something that demanded an
explanation," Curl said. "We came
up with an explanation, [and] it
sort of mushroomed from there.
The really important work only
took three months."
Curl said he never imagined
the ramifications of winning the
Nobel Prize.
7 have enjoyed the
time I've had here so
far, and I don't plan
on going anywhere.'
— Robert Curl
Chemistry professor
"It was sort of a strange ex-
perience because I [had] never
had anything take over my life
effectively," Curl said. "It was
easier for me to raise research
money with it; [however], the
downside is that you are always
being invited to get involved
in things that you really aren't
interested in."
Tittel, who has worked with
Curl since 1973, said Curl has
distinguished himself with his
willingness to collaborate.
"He's always been very ef-
fective in providing creative and
stimulating ideas to our field of
laser spectroscopy," Tittel said.
"He is intellectually very honest.
He always tends to put himself in
the background and gives credit
to others he interacts with."
Besides continuing to do
research, Curl said he will be-
come more involved at the Baker
Institute.
"In the early part of my career,
I was narrowly focused on my
teaching and my research," Curl
said. "When you reach a certain
point, you want to look at things
in a broader spectrum. Rice has
been good to me. I have enjoyed
the time I've had here so far, and I
don't plan on going anywhere."
Tittel said he thinks Curl will
always be affiliated with Rice in
some way.
"He'll probably focus on
some theoretical aspects of his
research for which he has never
had time," Tittel said. "A Nobel
laureate never retires."
Soccer coach Huston named
women's administrator
Search for women's basketball coach continues
by David Brown
THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF
Soccer Head Coach Chris Hus-
ton will become Rice's next senior
women's administrator, filling one
of two positions vacated by Cristy
McKinney, who also served as
women's basketball head coach
for the past 12 years. Athletic Di-
rector Bobby May (Will Rice '65)
announced Monday.
7 don't think we've
interviewed a [coach]
yet that could not fill
the position. It's going
to be a very tough
decision.'
— Steve Moniaci
Senior assooktr athletic
director
Senior Associate Athletic Direc-
tor Steve Moniaci, who is chairing
the search committee for a new
women's basketball coach, said
he hopes to have a coach in place
by June 1.
Moniaci said the search com-
mittee intended to hire an internal
candidate to be the senior women's
administrator, and that Huston,
the senior female coach in the
athletic department, has proven
her capabilities.
"With the soccer team she's
shown great leadership starting up
the program," Moniaci said.
Moniaci said the duties of the
SWA may change slightly for
Huston — she may have oversight
for different sports than McKinney
had — but the position will remain
mostly the same.
"At Rice, that administrator
oversees several sports and acts as
a liaison for women's affairs to the
athletic director, the university and
Conference USA," Moniaci said.
Huston said she will have a num-
ber of new duties, including attending
conference meetings and approving
schedules for other teams.
"Also, I can be there for athletes
who would like to talk to me about
any issues to bring up to the athletic
director," Huston said.
In C-USA, the senior women's
administrators are also responsible
for recommending policies related
to Title IX and student-athlete
welfare, as well as selecting con-
ference championship sites in all
sports except football and men's
basketball.
Huston said she is excited about
becoming the SWA.
"I'm involved on one level as a
coach, and now I get to see what
it's like to be an administrator as
well," Huston said.
The search for a coach
Moniaci said the committee re-
ceived more than 30 applications for
women's basketball head coach and
has interviewed several candidates.
The committee will interview a final
candidate this weekend.
Moniaci said the committee is
looking for a candidate who will
mesh well with Rice's academic
emphasis.
"We're looking for somebody
who has something that would
relate to Rice," Moniaci said. "It's
tough sometimes, if you've never
been at an institution with academ-
ics as a high priority, to come in and
be a coach in a position like that."
Moniaci said the candidates
have impressed him thus far.
"Maybe we shouldn't be sur-
prised [by that] now that we're one of
the top jobs thanks to [McKinney],"
Moniaci said. "I don't think we've
interviewed a candidate yet who
could not fill the position. It's going
to be a very tough decision."
7 can be therefor
athletes who would like
to talk to me about any
issues to bring up to the
athletic director.'
— Chris Huston
Soccer head coach
The committee, which consists
of eight people including Moniaci
and May, will meet next week after
the interviews are complete to take
a straw poll on the candidates,
Moniaci said.
"Whether or not we do another
round of interviews may depend on
the candidate," Moniaci said. "If it's
somebody who has been here or
is currently here, it's not going to
be a necessity, but if it's somebody
not as familiar with Rice, we might
decide to talk a little further."
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Three students awarded Fulbrights
by Theodora Carson
FOR THE THRESHER
Two students who graduated
Saturday and one doctoral student
will travel abroad at no expense
next year thanks to Fulbright Schol-
arships. Two others will receive
stipends forgraduate school from Na-
tional Science Foundation Graduate
Fellowships.
Sid Richardson College senior
Julia Follick was awarded the
Fulbright Scholarship to teach
English to high school students in
a small town in eastern Germany
next semester.
Follick, a German and political
science major, also taught English
to students in Germany during Fall
2003. Follick said the scholarship
will allow her to become even more
proficient in German, and she hopes
the experience will help her get a job
in international affairs.
Wiess Co'loge senior and music
major Megan Levin was awarded
the Fulbright Scholarship to study
harp performance in Paris. Levin
said she declined an offer from
the Cleveland Institute of Music
for graduate school because she
wants to experience French music
first hand.
"A year of French culture — the
people, the music, the food — is bet-
ter than sitting in a cell of a practice
room," Levin said.
Levin said she hopes to eventu-
ally play for a professional orches-
tra, and is planning to reapply
to CIM when she returns to the
United States.
Anthony Potoczniak, an an-
thropology doctoral student, also
received a Fulbright and will travel
to Ukraine for nine months to study
four folk music archives around
the country.
"I'm looking at how intellectual
property is conceived in the minds
of people who study folk music,"
Potoczniak said. "It is an interesting
phenomenon because with the fall
of the Soviet Union and the intro-
duction of free markets,... people
are only starting to realize there is
something more to property that
used to be considered the domain
of the state."
Potoczniak said he will also re-
search how folk music is becoming
more prevalent in popular culture.
Hanszen College senior Candace
Chan and Lovett College senior
Hanna Garth both received NSF
Graduate Fellowships, which are
awarded to about 900 students
nationwide for graduate study the
sciences and engineering.
Chan researched carbon nano-
tubes with Chemistry Professor Rick
Smalley and will pursue a doctorate
in physical chemistry at Stanford
University next year. She said the
fellowship will give her more freedom
in her graduate studies.
"Normally the professor you study
with in graduate school will pay for
you out of his own pocket, but this way
he won't have to," Chan said.
Garth, an anthropology, policy
studies and Hispanic studies major,
received the fellowship for her
study of medical anthropology.
As a junior, Garth studied ethno-
medicine in Chile.
"It's rare for someone in the
social sciences to receive this award."
Garth said.
Garth said she will begin a
masters program in public health at
Boston University next year. After
that, she plans to join the Peace
Corps before pursuing a doctorate
in anthropology.
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Obermeyer, Amber. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 92, No. 28, Ed. 1 Friday, May 20, 2005, newspaper, May 20, 2005; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443173/m1/12/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.