(Press-News.org) HOUSTON – (Feb. 6, 2024) – Rice University chemist James Tour was named to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), one of the highest professional distinctions accorded “in recognition of distinguished contributions” to the field.
Tour, the T.T. and W.F. Chao Professor, professor of chemistry and of materials science and nanoengineering and of computer science, was recognized for his research on the “synthesis, fabrication, properties, applications and commercialization of novel forms of carbon and their composites and derivatives.”
“I am deeply grateful to my colleagues for putting me forward for this honor,” Tour said. “It’s wonderful to join the ranks of Rice engineers that bear this honor, and to see our work on carbon materials recognized. We think of the impact our research will have in the real world, and aim to put our findings in the context of current needs and challenges we face as a society.”
Tour’s research areas include organic synthesis, chemical biology, spectroscopy and imaging, and nanomaterials synthesis. His work has helped drive discovery and innovation in new materials synthesis through techniques such as flash Joule heating, laser-induced graphene, and single-molecule nanomachine synthesis for biomedical applications.
“Rice University takes immense pride in the recognition bestowed upon Professor James Tour as a distinguished member of the National Academy of Engineering,” President Reginald DesRoches said. “Jim is one of those rare talents who can both conduct creative and groundbreaking fundamental research, while also developing technologies that are finding their way into the marketplace. Jim’s dedication to innovation and his profound impact on advancing nanotechnology exemplify the spirit of excellence that defines our institution. We congratulate Jim on this well-deserved honor and look forward to his continued leadership and inspiration within our community and beyond.”
Tour has a significant publication track record exploring sustainable methods to make carbon-, graphene- and silicon oxide-based materials with potential for use in nanoelectronics, photovoltaics, supercapacitors, lithium ion and lithium metal batteries, carbon dioxide capture, water splitting and purification and more. Applications stemming from this research could, at scale, enable new, more sustainable recycling, manufacturing and energy use practices and impact national security. Single-molecule nanomachines such as the molecular motors and molecular jackhammers developed by Tour and his team were proven effective against infectious bacteria, cancer cells and treatment-resistant fungi, showing the potential of a molecular mechanical approach in therapeutics. The Tour lab is also home to the world’s first nanocar with turning buckyball wheels.
“The breadth of Jim’s discoveries across the scientific disciplines, including chemistry and engineering, is truly remarkable,” said Amy Dittmar, the Howard R. Hughes Provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. “I’m pleased to see the National Academy of Engineering recognize him for his distinguished accomplishments, including over 800 research publications and more than 200 patents. His research is transforming medicine and the energy transition.”
Informed by his research, Tour started more than a dozen companies in fields ranging from pharmaceuticals to electronic memory and advanced materials that he says now have a collective value of nearly $2 billion. Three of the companies are publicly traded.
“This honor is incredibly well-deserved, and I am delighted for Jim,” said Thomas Killian, dean of the Wiess School of Natural Sciences and a professor of physics and astronomy. “His contributions to chemistry are broad and profound, spanning from fundamental discoveries in carbon nanoscience to applications that address great societal challenges related to energy, the environment and human health. His success in translating his research into high-impact companies is remarkable, and he has also been a dedicated mentor to many graduate students and postdoctoral researchers.”
Tour is the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions, including recognition as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academy of Inventors, and as a recipient of the Feynman Prize in Experimental Nanotechnology, the NASA Space Act Award, the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society, the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award and the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award.
He is one of 114 new members and 21 international members in the NAE’s newly elected class of 2024. The new members will be formally inducted at the academy’s annual meeting Sept. 29.
Click here for the complete list.
Tour joins 14 current Rice faculty who are members of the academy ⎯ Pedro Alvarez, Richard Baraniuk, DesRoches, Gene Frantz, Naomi Halas, Abbas Firoozabadi, Antonios Mikos, Ramamoorthy Ramesh, Rebecca Richards-Kortum, Pol Spanos, Moshe Vardi and Richard Tapia — along with emeritus Rice professors George Hirasaki and Ronald Nordgren.
-30-
This release can be found online at news.rice.edu.
Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.
Image downloads:
https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2024/02/230824_Dr.-Tour-Thumbnail-Pieces_Gustavo--cb40a926a64e7fb9.jpg
CAPTION: James Tour is the T.T. and W.F. Chao Professor and professor of chemistry and of materials science and nanoengineering at Rice University’s George R. Brown School of Engineering.
(Photo by Gustavo Raskosky/Rice University)
Links:
James M Tour Group: https://www.jmtour.com/
Department of Chemistry: https://chemistry.rice.edu/
Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering: msne.rice.edu
Wiess School of Natural Sciences: https://naturalsciences.rice.edu/
George R. Brown School of Engineering: https://engineering.rice.edu
About Rice:
Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of architecture, business, continuing studies, engineering, humanities, music, natural sciences and social sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 4,574 undergraduates and 3,982 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction, No. 2 for best-run colleges and No. 12 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.
END
Rice’s James Tour named to National Academy of Engineering
Professor honored for work on “novel forms of carbon”
2024-02-07
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Preterm births linked to ‘hormone disruptor’ chemicals may cost united states billions
2024-02-07
Daily exposure to chemicals used in the manufacture of plastic food containers and many cosmetics may be tied to nearly 56,600 preterm births in the U.S. in 2018, a new study shows. The resulting medical costs, the authors of the report say, were estimated to reach a minimum of $1.6 billion and as much as $8.1 billion over the lifetime of the children.
For decades, the chemicals, called phthalates, have been shown to interfere with the function of certain hormones, or signaling compounds that circulate in the blood and guide much of the body’s processes. Exposure to these toxins, which is believed to occur as consumer products break down and are ingested, has been linked ...
We must tackle female ageism in sport and exercise science, urge researchers
2024-02-07
Action is urgently needed to address the dearth of older women in sport and exercise science, not only for the sake of the growing numbers of female athletes, but women’s health in general, urge a group of international researchers in an editorial, published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
There are already far too few sports and exercise science studies that include women, point out the authors, citing their own 2021 report on the sex data gap.
This showed that out of 5261 studies, from across six popular sport and exercise science journals, women and girls made up just over a third of the total number of participants, a figure that is likely ...
Women may find it harder to adjust to later life divorce and break-ups than men
2024-02-07
Women may find it harder to emotionally adjust to divorce or a relationship break-up in later life than men do, if patterns of antidepressant use are indicative, suggests a large long term study published online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.
While both sexes increased their antidepressant use in the run up to, and immediate aftermath of, a divorce, break-up, or bereavement, women’s use of these drugs was greater than men’s. And while re-partnering was associated with a slight reduction in antidepressant use in both sexes, it was particularly short-lived in women, the study findings indicate.
Due to population ...
High weekly physical activity levels linked to lower kidney disease risk in diabetes + overweight/obesity
2024-02-07
Clocking up high weekly levels of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity is linked to a lower risk of developing chronic kidney disease in overweight/obese people with type 2 diabetes, finds research published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
But boosting the weekly tally by just over an hour is linked to a 33% reduction in risk, with the effects apparent for bouts lasting above or below 10 minutes at a time, the findings indicate.
Diabetes is the leading cause of chronic kidney disease, accounting for 30–50% of all such cases. Diabetes plus chronic kidney disease is associated with a 10-fold or greater increase in the risk of death from any cause ...
Monterey Bay Aquarium study reveals how kelp forests persisted through the large 2014-2016 Pacific marine heatwave
2024-02-07
New research led by Monterey Bay Aquarium and the University of California, Santa Cruz, reveals that denser, and more sheltered, kelp forests can withstand serious stressors amid warming ocean temperatures. Published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the study also offers the first comprehensive assessment of how declines in kelp abundance affected marine algae, invertebrates, and fishes living in Monterey Bay. The study comes after a multi-year marine heatwave – the product of a 2014 ‘blob’ ...
Early drawing and building skills linked to enhanced education and behaviour in children
2024-02-07
Fine motor skills in young children are linked to better GCSE scores and fewer behavioural problems in childhood and adolescence, according to a new study from the University of Surrey and Birkbeck, University of London. The authors suggest that preschool fine motor skills, including drawing, folding paper and block building, may play an important role in the pathway between infancy and later educational and behavioural outcomes in primary and secondary school.
The study showed that fine motor skills ...
NLR researcher named Fellow of Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)
2024-02-07
WASHINGTON – U.S. Naval Research Laboratory research physicist Lynda E. Busse, Ph.D., was named a Fellow of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, for outstanding technical contributions to the development of novel infrared (IR) optical materials and photonics devices.
Announced December 2023, the 47 new Fellows represent high-profile leaders in academia, industry, and government, and are being honored for their technical achievements as well as for their service to SPIE and the optics and photonics community. Dr. Busse was recognized along with many of the other new Fellows at the 2024 SPIE Photonics West Conference in San Francisco, California ...
A Filipino fruit dove, long part of Peabody collection, reveals its secrets
2024-02-06
In May 1953, Filipino ornithologist D. S. Rabor collected a single female fruit dove on the forested slopes of an active volcano on the Philippine island of Negros. The small apple green bird, which had yellow edgings on its wings and prominent circles of bare skin around its eyes, was unlike any other known pigeon species. In 1954, Rabor and Yale professor Dillon Ripley described the unique specimen as Ptilinopus arcanus, a name inspired by the Latin word for “secret.”
The Negros Fruit Dove, as it is commonly known, has never been ...
New study finds “sweet spot” for length of yarn-shaped supercapacitors
2024-02-06
As interest in wearable technology has surged, research into creating energy-storage devices that can be woven into textiles has also increased. Researchers at North Carolina State University have now identified a “sweet spot” at which the length of a threadlike energy storage technology called a “yarn-shaped supercapacitor” (YSC) yields the highest and most efficient flow of energy per unit length.
“When it comes to the length of the YSC, it’s a tradeoff between power and energy,” said Wei ...
New approach to tackling bacterial infections identified
2024-02-06
New York, NY (February 6, 2024)—Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have identified a new approach to controlling bacterial infections. The findings were described in the February 6 online issue of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology [DOI # 10.1038/s41594-024-01220-x].
The team found a way to turn on a vital bacterial defense mechanism to fight and manage bacterial infections. The defense system, called cyclic oligonucleotide-based antiphage signaling system (CBASS), is a natural mechanism ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
UC Riverside medical school develops new curriculum to address substance use crisis
Food fussiness a largely genetic trait from toddlerhood to adolescence
Celebrating a century of scholarship: Isis examines the HSS at 100
Key biomarkers identified for predicting disability progression in multiple sclerosis
Study: AI could lead to inconsistent outcomes in home surveillance
Study: Networks of Beliefs theory integrates internal & external dynamics
Vegans’ intake of protein and essential amino acids is adequate but ultra-processed products are also needed
Major $21 million Australian philanthropic investment to bring future science into disease diagnosis
Innovating alloy production: A single step from ores to sustainable metals
New combination treatment brings hope to patients with advanced bladder cancer
Grants for $3.5M from TARCC fund new Alzheimer’s disease research at UTHealth Houston
UTIA researchers win grant for automation technology for nursery industry
Can captive tigers be part of the effort to save wild populations?
The Ocean Corporation collaborates with UTHealth Houston on Space Medicine Fellowship program
Mysteries of the bizarre ‘pseudogap’ in quantum physics finally untangled
Study: Proteins in tooth enamel offer window into human wellness
New cancer cachexia treatment boosts weight gain and patient activity
Rensselaer researcher receives $3 million grant to explore gut health
Elam named as a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society
Study reveals gaps in access to long-term contraceptive supplies
Shining a light on the roots of plant “intelligence”
Scientists identify a unique combination of bacterial strains that could treat antibiotic-resistant gut infections
Pushing kidney-stone fragments reduces stones’ recurrence
Sweet success: genomic insights into the wax apple's flavor and fertility
New study charts how Earth’s global temperature has drastically changed over the past 485 million years, driven by carbon dioxide
Scientists say we have enough evidence to agree global action on microplastics
485 million-year temperature record of Earth reveals Phanerozoic climate variability
Atmospheric blocking slows ocean-driven glacier melt in Greenland
Study: Over nearly half a billion years, Earth’s global temperature has changed drastically, driven by carbon dioxide
Clinical trial could move the needle in traumatic brain injury
[Press-News.org] Rice’s James Tour named to National Academy of EngineeringProfessor honored for work on “novel forms of carbon”