The Rice Advanced Materials Institute (RAMI) was founded on July 1, 2023, and is the culmination of a campus-wide initiative to identify areas of strategic strength and potential for the growth of Rice’s global reputation in science and engineering. Recognizing that Rice has had a long tradition of excellence in the broad field of materials (including world-leading efforts in nanomaterials, plasmonic/photonic materials, 2D materials, quantum materials, catalysts, perovskites, wide bandgap materials, up-cycling, functional materials, and more) and acknowledging the importance of advanced materials to solving many of society’s most pressing challenges, the University decided to invest.
To date, this includes, among other things, commitment to campus-wide strategic growth aimed at expanding world-class research (including efforts to hire more than 200 faculty between 2023-2028). To support this growth, the campus has also invested in capital projects such as the construction of the Ralph S. O’Connor Building for Engineering Science, which officially opened in Fall 2023. This new building, which will serve as the home for RAMI, provides world-class researchers with access to state-of-the-art, built for purpose laboratory infrastructure.
RAMI was conceived to provide a campus-wide vision for growth in the field of advanced materials. Working with the campus leadership at the highest levels, RAMI interfaces with the Schools of Engineering and Natural Sciences and the departments therein, other Institutes on campus, organizations like the Shared Equipment Authority, and others to identify critical areas of investment and focus to “super-charge” advanced materials research at Rice.
Today, RAMI, the Departments, Schools, and Campus are investing in a range of efforts to realize these goals, including:
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Recruiting World-Class Faculty
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RAMI will lead the effort to hire researchers and educators at all levels (including those at the Full, Associate, and Assistant Professor levels) working in advanced materials. This hiring will augment hiring in departments and efforts in cluster hires to bring innovative new thinking in this space. RAMI will identify at least nine faculty hires over the next few years (2023-2027) who will bring new thinking, new capabilities, and resources and attract students and researchers to these fields of study.
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Membership and Support for Existing Rice Faculty and Researchers
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These new hires will be augmented by extensive engagement with existing faculty at Rice. Those working in the broad field of materials can opt to join RAMI in pursuit of these goals and will, in turn, have access to additional RAMI programs and support.
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Competitive Postdoctoral Scholar Program
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RAMI also supports a competitive postdoctoral scholars program aimed at seeding new collaborative and interdisciplinary work in materials research. This program will be launched in 2024.
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Supporting World-Class Research and Growth in Advanced Materials
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RAMI will hire an Executive Director who will help support the day-to-day operations and expand the impact of the Institute, will support additional staff to support researchers with the management of their research programs, and will work to provide administrative support to Institute researchers so they can better focus on solving those important issues they are passionate about.
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State-of-the-Art Space to Enable Cutting-edge Research
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RAMI will also provide space to grow the advanced materials efforts. Housed in the new Ralph S. O’Connor Building for Engineering Science, RAMI and the schools and campus will build out state-of-the-art research laboratories, offices, and meeting spaces that will complement the existing world-class Rice researchers already moving into this building. Ultimately, RAMI works to develop a home and community for collaborative, interdisciplinary, cutting-edge materials research at Rice.
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Supporting Rice Leadership in Advanced Materials
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RAMI will provide support to coordinate future Rice-led efforts to respond to large-scale calls for proposals in the area.
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Investing in Shared Excellence
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RAMI will work with and coordinate with the Shared Equipment Authority to seed new shared infrastructure for materials research on campus.
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Bringing the World to Rice and Rice to the World
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RAMI will support workshops, topical meetings, and invited speaker series.
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Making Connections
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RAMI is also working to build strong connections with other institutes on campus – including the Smalley-Curl Institute, the Ken Kennedy Institute, the Sustainability Institute, the Institute on Biosciences and Bioengineering, the Baker Institute, and others to identify ways that coordinated efforts could impact campus and the community and to bring together the campus for large-scale efforts that would further establish Rice a global academic and research leader.