The Baker Institute Inaugural Annual Conference drew dignitaries from across the nation and the world to explore foreign policy challenges. The Brown Challenge ends. 1997 Fund-raising campaigns for Computational Engineering and the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy successfully completed their goals. 1997 Dedications held for Edyth Bates Old Grand Organ and Recital Hall , the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, and the Center for Nanoscale Technology . Rice enters into a memorandum of understanding with the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen to collaborate in establishing a new private research university in Germany.
Rice initiates a new undergraduate degree program in bioengineering.
In October, former president of South Africa Nelson Mandela speaks in Autry Court before a packed crowd. 1st , best value among the nations 1,600 private universities, Kiplinger's Personal Finance. A publication of the Office of Institutional Research .