Monday, February 23, 2026, 11:00am-12:00pm
Exploring Realpolitik: Probing International Relations Theory With Computer Simulation*
A Lecture by Richard J. Stoll
Albert Thomas Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Baker Institute Rice Faculty Scholar
Barnett Conference Room, 4th Floor
Allen Center (or virtual), followed by lunch at the Cohen House
For hundreds of years scholars and practitioners of international relations have used the perspective of power politics or political realism to understand the world. There have been many debates about such a system. Dr. Stoll built a computer simulation of such a world and – initially using an IBM PC – explored what would happen. He will discuss why he did this, some of the results of his (now ancient) research, and the value of this type of research.
Dr. Richard J. Stoll is the Albert Thomas Professor Emeritus of Political Science and a Baker Institute Rice Faculty Scholar. He received an A.B. in Political Science (with Distinction) from the University of Rochester in 1974, was awarded a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Michigan in 1979, and in the same year came to Rice as an assistant professor. His research has focused on state-of-the-art quantitative studies of international conflict sponsored by NSF grants. He was awarded ten University-wide teaching awards, including the Nicholas Salgo Distinguished Teacher Award (1982); 2 Amoco Teaching awards (1991, 1993); 6 George R. Brown Superior Teaching Awards (1985, 1987, 1988, 1995, 2000, 2006), 1 George R. Brown Award for Excellence in Teaching (1990). He was voted the Jones College Associate of the Year so many times that they named the award after him. Richard served as Chair of the Political Science Department 1987-1991, Chair of the Committee on R.O.T.C., and Head Undergraduate Marshal for Commencement for over 20 years. In 2009, he received the Association of Rice Alumni Meritorious Service Award. Finally, it is worth noting that in 1993 Dr. Stoll proposed that Rice create the Baker Institute.
(*Title from Choices In World Politics: Sovereignty And Interdependence. (co-edited with Bruce Russett and Harvey Starr). W.H. Freeman. New York. 1989.)
This is a hybrid in-person and online event, with a Zoom link to be sent separately. To attend, please RSVP using the link below or at ARRUF.invites@rice.edu by Thursday, February 19.
Monday, January 13, 2026, 11:00am-12:00pm
Two Short Talks on the Rice Owl and the Classics at Rice
Barnett Conference Room, 4th Floor
Allen Center (or virtual), followed by lunch at the Cohen House
“The Owl as Rice’s Symbol”
Stephen Wallace (’68, Rice Alumnus and associate ARRUF member) will discuss how Rice University chose the Owl as its symbol and why that choice was and still is important.
Dr. Wallace received a B.A. summa cum laude in Linguistics from Rice University in 1968, a M.A./Ph.D. in Linguistics from Cornell University in 1976, and then a J.D. summa cum laude from the University of Houston Law School in 1983. He retired as Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary of Westlake Chemical Corporation several years ago. Dr. Wallace previously was an attorney, partner, and general counsel at Baker Botts, Transworld Oil USA, Oman Oil Company, and several other companies in the Houston area. He and his wife, Dr. Kristine Gilmartin Wallace (ARRUF member) established an endowed Scholarship and Scholarship Match Fund to support future scholars at the UH Law School.
“Back Then: My Classical Rice Story”
Kristine G. Wallace (Lecturer Emerita of Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures and Cultures at Rice University) will describe her time teaching and writing at Rice from 1969 to 2006 and her unique view of those 4 decades.
Kristine Gilmartin Wallace received an A.B. degree from Bryn Mawr College, magna cum laude with Honors in Latin. She then attended Stanford University, where she received a Ph.D. degree in Classics. She wrote her dissertation on the Roman historian Tacitus, and continued to publish papers on various Classical subjects. For many years Kristine taught Classics at Rice, including Latin and Greek languages and literature, Classical literature in translation, Greek civilization, Roman civilization, and women in ancient Greece and Rome. Kristine retired in 2006. She and Stephen have endowed The Kristine Wallace Prize, which is awarded to a graduating major in Classics at Rice University with an outstanding academic record who has contributed exceptionally to the program.
Wednesday, December 3, 2025, 2:00-4:00pm
Joint Holiday Party: ARRUF and WCRU
Cohen House (Faculty Club Parlor)
6100 Main Street #2 Houston, TX 77005
During the winter holidays, we treasure the season’s most basic gift of all, friendship. This year ARRUF again joined the Women's Club of Rice University to hold a combined afternoon party at the Cohen House from 2 to 4 PM on Wednesday, December 3, 2025. Savory and sweet light refreshments with sparkling wine and non-alcoholic beverages will be served, and we will be entertained by Nocturnal (~3:15 PM), a Rice undergraduate a capella choir.
Monday, November 17, 2025, 9:15am-1:30pm
Group Outing to POST Houston
Tour of Skyfarm and Conversation with Frank Liu,
Founder of The Lovett Group
POST Houston
401 Franklin St Houston, TX 77201
Join Frank Liu, founder of The Lovett Group, for an engaging conversation about POST Houston and Skyfarm – an award-winning adaptive reuse project in the heart of downtown Houston.
A Rice University alumnus with a degree in civil engineering, Frank co-founded Lovett Homes, a premium urban residential development company, with his Lovett College roommate in 1980. He went on to establish other thriving businesses throughout his career in the commercial, industrial and residential sectors. In 2015, his foundation established the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, home to experiential learning, entrepreneurship, and innovation at Rice.
Through Lovett, Frank has over $5 billion in projects throughout Texas and the U.S., including retail, office, industrial, adaptive reuse historic buildings, and thousands of homes. One of Frank’s largest projects is the development of POST Houston - a landmark cultural, entertainment, and business hub through the adaptive reuse and redevelopment of the city’s historic former U.S. Post Office headquarters. POST Houston is a 500,000-square-foot facility located on 16 acres in the heart of downtown Houston and includes a 5-acre rooftop park and organic farm, accessible to the general public.
The Skyfarm project is managed by POST and Blackwood Land Institute and serves as a globally recognized model for innovation in urban food production and food justice. Skyfarm has received accolades from local and national media and educational institutions across the country.
Sunday, November 2, 2025, 2:00pm
The Magic Flute by W.A. Mozart
A student performance by the Shepherd School of Music
A daring Prince, a beautiful Princess, and an evil Queen – a fairy tale love story with unimaginable trials along the way. Mozart’s final opera, The Magic Flute, contains some of opera’s most memorable melodies and roles, including The Queen of the Night and her famous high notes! Sorcery, a dragon, and long-held secrets challenge our hero and heroine on their quest for wisdom and enlightenment.
Note: This performance will be sung in German with English surtitles. This performance includes flashing lights, loud noises, and mature content that may not be suitable for all audiences.
Monday, October 6, 2025, 11:00am
"Charting Rice’s Future: Strategic Growth in a Changing Higher Education Landscape"
A Lecture by C. Fred Higgs, III
Vice Provost of Academic Affairs
Abstract: Enrollment cliffs, programmatic reductions, and shifting political landscapes dominate the national dialogue on the future of higher education. At Rice, however, the outlook is more optimistic. Building on a strong foundation, the university is positioned for continued momentum—with a growing student body, record faculty recruitment, bold research initiatives, and increasing recognition on both national and international stages.
Join C. Fred Higgs, Rice’s Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, John and Ann Doerr Professor of mechanical engineering, and Director for Rice’s Center for Engineering Leadership and Master of Engineering Management and Leadership, as we discuss the university’s strategic vision for sustained growth and student success, set against the broader higher education landscape. Drawing on peer comparisons and insights from Momentous, Rice’s new strategic plan, Higgs will highlight how the university is charting a thoughtful and ambitious path forward.
Monday, September 22, 2025, 10:00am
"My Accidental Career of Teaching Architecture at Rice"
A Lecture by Danny M. Samuels
Danny is a Rice person through and through, having been at Rice as student or teacher for roughly 60 years. He received his BA in 1969 and his Bachelor of Architecture in 1971. Early on, three classmates—John J. Casbarian, Liliana Milani, and Robert Timme—joined Samuels to form what they called “Architects Incahoots.” They worked on school projects together, continuing after graduation to form Taft Architects. Samuels has taught at Rice since 1977, including the freshman studio from 1991 to 2012. In 1996, Dean Lars Lerup asked Samuels to start the Rice Building Workshop to get students out of the studio and engaged in the larger community. Over the last twenty-six years, the Rice Building Workshop led by Samuels and Associate Director Nonya Grenader has involved nearly eight hundred students, who designed and built projects at various scales in the Houston community, from furniture to affordable houses. For the long-term collaborative work with Project Row Houses, the Workshop received the 2004 Prize for the “Integration of Practice and Education” from the National Council of Registration Boards and, in 2005, the “Collaborative Practice Award” from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.
This event started with a tour of Cannady Hall at 10:00am, followed by Danny's lecture at 11:00am and lunch at the Cohen House.
Monday, August 25, 2025, 11:00am
"Creative Invention and the Poetics of Failure: The Stories that Tell our Stories"
A Lecture by Dr. Deborah Harter
Associate Professor Emeritus, Modern and Classical Literatures and Cultures
Harter has had a remarkable career at Rice. Arriving in 1990 from the University of Chicago where she was an Andrew Mellon Post-doctoral Fellow, she has been a driving force in the Center for Women, Gender, and Sexuality, the Program in Medical Humanities, and the Moody Center for the Arts. She launched, with Marj Corcoran, the very first Faculty Senate at Rice from 2005-2009, and has written numerous research articles and two books. The first, Bodies in Pieces: Fantastic Narrative and the Poetics of the Fragment, was published by Stanford Press. The second, soon to appear, is a collection of essays with the provocative title: On the Subject of Kissing Hairy Creatures, and Other Essays about Things that Matter. She is, finally, one of Rice’s most outstanding educators. Teaching courses in French and Comparative Literature, and, with Mike Gustin, the very popular “Conceiving and Misconceiving the Monstrous in Art, Medicine, and the Biosciences,” she has won a dozen University-wide awards, including five George R. Brown Prizes for Superior Teaching, the Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Prize, the Alison Sarofim Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Humanities Award, the Impact Award for Contributions to Women at Rice, and the Student Association’s Faculty Mentor of the Year Prize.
Wednesday, November 15, 2023, 8:00am
GUIDED EXPLORATION: LOCAL PLANTS, ANIMALS, AND BIRDS of Rice University’s Harris Gully.
CIN-TY LEE, Professor and Chairman, Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, has championed awareness of the Rice University campus as a special environment with distinctive ecosystems, habitats for migrating birds, and wildlife. His efforts have especially focused on the Harris Gully, which has been left in a “natural” state for the benefit of human, avian, and mammalian residents. Thanks to Cin-Ty Lee and his colleagues, greater efforts and policy changes are ensuring the Gully will remain a respite on long migration routes and a center for remaining wildlife. ARRUF visited the Gully and saw for themselves in the cool autumn. Members met at the recently-built shelter in Harris Gully.
Monday, November 13, 2023 11:00 a.m.
Hybrid: Zoom or Fondren 412, followed by lunch
LONGEVITY BRIEFING: Vaccinations: History, Efficacy, Risks, and Controversies
During the second half of the 20th Century, vaccines for smallpox, polio, pertussis (whooping cough), diphtheria, tetanus, measles, mumps, rubella, pneumonia, influenza, chickenpox, and shingles were heralded as dramatic scientific breakthroughs that would eradicate most infectious childhood diseases and prolong the life of the elderly. Vaccine technology seemed to be keeping pace with both older and emerging pathogens, including HIV, Ebola, RSV, papilloma virus (major causative agent of cervical cancer), and even Covid19. Most medical check-ups for people over 65 involve vaccination histories and suggestions for booster or new shots.
However, at the beginning of the 21st century, an anti-vaccine movement arose, based in part on a study of 12 children, who were diagnosed with autism, either just before or right after they received their first mumps, measles, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. These anti-vaccine groups have grown over the past 20 years and become politically influential in recommending against vaccines and opposing mandatory requirements.
John Olson (Professor Emeritus in BioSciences) interviewed Dr. Novotny to explore these two opposing views, focusing on the biology of vaccines, their history, and reported medical outcomes.
Alma Novotny retired as a Rice University faculty member in May 2023 after 23 years in the BioSciences Department. She also taught biology courses for adults in Rice's Masters of Liberal Arts programs, offering "Plagues and Populations" and "DNA: Human Origins and Identity." Her Coursera [on-line] four-course "Fundamentals of Immunology" series currently enrolls approximately 70,000 registered students. At Rice, Dr. Novotny received three George R. Brown Awards for Superior Teaching and a Graduate Liberal Studies (GLS) John Freeman Faculty Mentoring Award. She was also nominated for a National Piper Teaching Award, based on student letters from UH Clear Lake where she taught before coming to Rice.
Dr. Novotny's signature course at Rice was Immunology 372, which she taught for 20 years. Over time, she experimented with different formats, eventually "flipping" the course to provide on-line instruction (continued next page) coupled with reinforcement and individualized responses during class time. She has also delivered public and Rice-community talks on childhood vaccinations and general principles of immunity. Alma Novotny proudly identifies as a Polio Pioneer, having served as a control during the 1954 Salk vaccine trials and promptly getting immunized the following year."
Monday, October 23, 2023, 11:00am
Hybrid: Zoom or Fondren 412
Book Discussion: Breaking the Age Code: How Your Beliefs about Aging Determine How Long and How Well You Live by Becca Levy (2022)
Book discussions are a series to take place every other week, beginning in October. The books and materials to be discussed are a serious effort to understand the population shifts ahead, the cultural differences that exist, and the opportunities to reframe Houston’s situation in preparation for the spring special event, which will bring together experts and Houston leaders. “The Rise of the Gray and the Brown,” some have called it, but Houston is a special case; our older population is growing fast, but so are our ethnic subgroups, which will soon be of comparable size and increasing influence. How can Houston make the shifts POSITIVE FOR ALL? This reading group will discuss issues related to this spring’s principal conference.