Applied Physics Graduate Program
The Rice Quantum Institute, the University’s first interdisciplinary institute, was formed in 1979 by Rice professors and Nobel Laureates Robert Curl and Richard Smalley, the latter serving as Institute director through the 1980’s and into the 1990’s. RQI’s mission is to promote the advancement of scientific knowledge within and across disciplines, of a fundamental nature and for the benefit of society, by fostering intellectual and collaborative interactions among its faculty and student members. Currently 70 RQI faculty fellows across eight departments in science and engineering, as well as more than 300 students and postdocs and undergraduates, constitute our community. RQI has been home to the Rice University Applied Physics Graduate Program, a nationally renowned interdisciplinary graduate program, for more than twenty years. RQI has hosted its own undergraduate student summer research program in its NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program for more than a decade, and collaborates with other undergraduate summer research programs on campus, such as NanoJapan, an NSF-funded international summer research exchange program between Rice and several institutions in Japan, Korea and China (link to website). Our summer activities culminate in a RQI Summer Research Colloquium, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in August 2011.
Research in RQI encompasses advanced materials, quantum magnetism, plasmonics and photonics, biophysics, ultracold atom physics, condensed matter and chemical physics, and all aspects of nanoscience and nanotechnology. In addition, numerous research efforts are focused on the development of innovations and emerging technologies, translating many of the scientific breakthroughs first seen here at Rice into useful applications that will benefit society.
Naomi J. Halas, Ph.D. | Director | 713.348.5611 | halas@rice.edu