Editor's Note: Fall 2025

Fall 2025
By Lynn Gosnell

In the editor’s note for “Rice Magazine Issue No. 13,” published in summer 2012, I marveled at my luck in joining the Rice community during its yearlong centennial celebration. “Having enrolled in a crash course in 100 years of Rice history, I’m also getting lessons in the vision for Rice’s future,” I wrote, before getting down to the business at hand — previewing the issue’s stories for readers. 

Looking back, the debut featured a solid mix of campus news and events (including the debut of James Turrell’s
Skyspace!), research findings and alumni tales. A personal essay by Professor Emeritus Ron Sass added poignancy, and an account of a concert at Houston’s Orange Show added fun. And so it went.

Between then and now, 50 issues have landed in your homes and inboxes, thanks in large part to the collaborative talents of a core staff of dedicated, funny and seriously creative professionals — and the steady support we’ve received from leadership. That’s too many Rice-related stories to count — but believe me, the keg of cool stories about Owls is barely tapped. 

Not that we don’t have favorites — entire issues devoted to Owls in the Houston food scene and beverage businesses around the world; stories that rhyme Rice and history, like Vietnamese refugees’ oral histories preserved in Houston’s Asian American Archive (“Lost at Sea”) and a peek into primary research by historians Alexander X. Byrd ’90 and Caleb McDaniel (“Paging Through History”); the astonishing tale of roommates Barney Graham ’75 and Bill Gruber ’75, whose careers intersected in the race to develop a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 (“Solving the Vaccine Puzzle”).

We've loved sharing stories of Rice Owls whom you may never have heard of — but whose passions and pursuits are worth knowing about. Take, for example, architectural historian Jobie Hill ’02, who is striving to save slave houses across the American South (“Tracing the Ancestors”); former musician Martina Snell '99, who became Mother Cecilia, the prioress of a monastery whose cloistered nuns record sacred hymns in soaring harmonies ("Ora et Canta"); and that of electrical engineer Yuan Kang Lee '98, a free-flight model plane builder and world-champion competitor ("Lighter Than Air").

Over 13 years, the magazine has evolved for the better — adding a website and multimedia storytelling; undergoing a comprehensive redesign led by then-art director Alese Pickering, which earned recognition from professional design associations; and growing our  pool of freelance writers, illustrators and photographers. In 2022, still in pandemic mode, we took home the top award in magazine achievement from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. Last year, we expanded our pages to include Owlmanac into the fold. 

According to a recent survey finding, Rice Magazine is the preferred source of information about Rice for alumni. In this deeply challenging moment for higher ed, sharing the stories of Rice takes on added relevance and responsibility. But this team is up to the challenge. Once again, I marvel at my luck in joining the Rice community. Thank you for your attention, your feedback and your ideas. Owl see you around!

We really do like reader feedback and Owl puns. Kindly write to us at ricemagazine@rice.edu. Look for the next issue in late 2025.