It's a wonderful place to do research because of the instrumentation that's been provided and because of the ambiance. Now we are entering the recruiting phase, in which we will fill endowed chairs and junior faculty positions. In universities, people are everything. At a small private reception prior to the ceremony, two portraits will be unveiled, one of E. Dell Butcher and another of Nobel laureates Curl and Smalley. Dell Butcher Hall, designed by architect Antoine Predock, is a four-story building with labs, classrooms and conference space.
Research laboratories feature the most advanced equipment available for nanoscale science research.
In addition to the CNST faculty and researchers, about one-third of the chemistry department faculty has offices and labs in the building. Every student now has his or her own enclosed hood and work space. Although we moved in a little late in the fall semester, the students are all scrambling for new experiments, because they have achieved about twice as much as they did in the old building. No longer hampered by the environmental constraints that many chemistry labs still have, organic chemistry students at Rice will be able to study more toxic chemicals used in industry, and so be better prepared, Glass said. This is the second building to be added to the campus during the past year.