University founder William Marsh Rice established the Houston and Galveston Navigation Company, later known as the Houston Navigation Company, which was instrumental in the development of the Houston Ship Channel. Thanks to the ship channel, despite being 50 miles inland, the Port of Houston is now the nation’s largest foreign tonnage port.

Rice alumnus Bill Arhos ‘57 launched, and served for nearly 25 years as executive producer of, the popular PBS music program Austin City Limits.

Rice alumnus Bill Broyles Jr. ‘66 was the founding editor of Texas Monthly magazine, his Rice classmate Gregory Curtis ‘66 took over that job from 1981 to 2000, and thousands of Texans still get political analysis from yet another Rice graduate, Paul Burka ‘63, who joined the magazine one year after its founding and continues to work there today.

Rice alumnus Peter Masterson ‘57 wrote and directed the hit Broadway musical (later a motion picture) The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and directed the film The Trip to Bountiful.

Legendary Houston newscaster Marvin Zindler, who inspired the character Melvin P. Thorpe in Rice alumnus Peter Masterson’s play The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, was once a featured twirler with Rice’s unconventional “Marching” Owl Band, The MOB.

The most famous play in college football history occurred when a University of Alabama player left the bench to tackle Rice’s Dicky Maegle ‘55 in the 1954 Cotton Bowl.

In 1962, speaking in Rice Stadium, President John F. Kennedy challenged the United States to become the world’s greatest space-faring nation, saying “Why go to the moon? Why sail the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? We do these things not because they are easy but because they are hard.”

In 1994, in front of a home crowd in Rice Stadium, Rice beat Texas.

Rice alumnus and Pulitzer Prize and Academy Award winner Larry McMurtry ‘60 firmly cemented the Texas mystique with his book (later also a television miniseries) Lonesome Dove and with other novels such as The Last Picture Show and Terms of Endearment.

Rice graduate William P. Hobby ‘53 remains the longest-serving Lt. Governor in the history of Texas (18 years, concluding in 1991).

The discovery of buckminsterfullerene (“Buckeyballs”) on the Rice University campus in 1985 launched the new field of fullerene chemistry, helped create the field of nanotechnology, earned Rice professors Richard Smalley and Robert Curl ‘54 the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and may someday enable the construction of an elevator to space.

In 2011, the Rice Owls baseball and women’s swimming teams won Conference USA team championships. And, the 2003 Rice Owls won the NCAA Division I national baseball championship.

Rice alumnus Bill Broyles Jr. ‘66 used his Vietnam experience to create the television series China Beach, and then went on to write the screenplays for Ron Howard’s Apollo 13 and the 2001 film Planet of the Apes.

Playwright, novelist and screenwriter JP Miller, a 1941 Rice graduate, is probably most famous for his 1958 teleplay (later also a motion picture) Days of Wine and Roses.

As president of CBS News, Rice alumnus David Rhodes ’96 leads the department responsible for such iconic television franchises as “60 Minutes,” “The Early Show” and “Face the Nation."

Rice graduate Robert W. Wilson ’57 and fellow Bell Laboratory researcher Arno Penzias shared the 1978 Nobel Prize for Physics for identifying the “echo” of the big bang.

In 1963, Rice became the first university in the nation to create a dedicated Space Science department, offering both Masters and Ph.D. degrees in the new field.

Rice’s School of architecture, consistently rated one of the top architecture programs in the country, may proudly claim two recipients of the U.S. architectural profession’s most prestigious award, the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal: in 1985, William Caudill, the school’s former director, became the first Texan to win the medal, and in 1990, E. Fay Jones ‘51 also was so honored.

Rice University has a fantastic array of resources that, if properly used, can make a somewhat socially awkward high school student into a capable, self-assured, contributing adult. However, the benefits are more than just utilitarian to society; being at Rice gave me the network of friends, set of unique experiences and self-discovery to allow me to personally soar. -- Amy Bridges '11

I've had the opportunity to be a part of O-Week for 4 years now. I was a freshman, advised, then co-advised and coordinated for O-Week 2011. As O-Week winded down, all the new students, regardless of where home used to be, felt accepted and a part of something beautiful. Even more amazing to me was how some of our advisers were so attached to their new students, shocked that after just a week they could care and appreciate everyone around them so much. Rice is great for this. - Kensey King '12

Fred Hansen ’63 was the NCAA champion in pole vault and later set a world record and earned an Olympic gold medal in the sport.

Kwatsi Alibaruho '11 was both the first African American flight director in the history of the U.S. space program, and the lead flight director for NASA's last ever space shuttle mission, STS-135.

I was in the market for a used husband and there he was, with Pete Laun, a mutual friend who assured me that Chris Rockwood was not an ax murderer. Chris and I started dating immediately and married three years later. If it weren't for Rice, I would never have met him. Thank you.

My mom took me to Rice when I was six and told me if I worked really hard, I could possibly get into Rice. The day the big envelope came in the mail was one of my life's happiest moments. At Rice, I experienced the highest level of intellectual stimulation and shared so many memories with fellow students and professors. Even casual conversation over dinner was cerebral and only Rice folks would get the jokes. Now the conversations with my fellow alumni are still the same kind - very Rice.

Wonderful, challenging professors such as Huddle, Atherton, Cuthbertson, many others always had time to talk and discuss and challenge me and the ideas I developed at Rice. The wonderful campus life, where I played club soccer, built upon this academic foundation. I can't say enough good things about Rice, its people, and its transformative influence on my life.

her name was Barbara Barden at the time. Rice also graduates a lot of productive, intelligent people, which is good for the Houston Area economy. I wouldn't have the GPA to gain entry, which was about a 2.7 in the last 60+ credit hours.

I came from a small town where I was the odd person out. When I came to Rice, I realized that there were a lot of people there who had been lonely in high school but were happy at Rice, and I decided that I fit right in. Even all this time later (30 years!), I still have a close friend from Rice (shout-out to Kathy (Reeves) Carpenter), and I still stay in touch with some of the professors there. The lessons that I learned at Rice, inside the classroom and out, have stayed with me. Thanks, Rice!

FIRST GEN: My father, John Cobb Ridley, graduated in 1930. My mother, Muriel Elizabeth Abell Ridley attended, but did not graduate. SECOND GEN: I, Muriel (Betty) Elizabeth Ridley Gosse, graduated in 1967 (originally class of 1965) - Jones, BA Math. My husband, Clinton Gessner Gosse, graduated in 1963 - Will Rice - BA - Mech Eng. and in 1967 - BS - Mech Eng. THIRD GEN: Our daughter, Elizabeth Ridley Gosse Widup, graduated in 1998 - Will Rice - BA - Psychology & Managerial Studies.

It was at Rice University, during my MBA that I strayed into the field of global health. I got acquainted with Professor Marc Epstein,an expert in the use of business models to improve health and promote development in poor regions.This interaction exposed me to the problems of access, lack of relevant statistics, and other challenges faced in the area of global health,which ultimately became my motivation to take up a scholarship to study for an MSc in Global Health at the University of Oxford.