1975: The Division of Science and Engineering splits into two schools: the George R. Brown School of Engineering and the School of Natural Sciences. William Gordon continues as Dean of Natural Sciences, while Alan Chapman becomes Dean of Engineering. Gordon conceived the massive radio telescope at Arecibo, Puerto Rico, supervising its design, construction and early operation. Initial departments included biochemistry, biology, chemistry, geology and geophysics, mathematics, physics, and space science and astronomy.
1978: Robert Wilson ’57 becomes the first Rice graduate to receive the Nobel Prize, winning the physics prize for the co-discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation.
1979: The school is renamed the Wiess School of Natural Sciences in honor of Harry and Olga Keith Wiess.
1980: King Walters ’53 is appointed dean of the Wiess School of Natural Sciences. He pioneered the atomic physics research program at Rice and helped develop it into one of the nation’s strongest.
1986: The Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering (IBB) is established to foster cross-disciplinary research and education programs encompassing the biological, chemical and engineering disciplines.
1988: Jim Kinsey ’56 ’59 becomes dean of the Wiess School of Natural Sciences. He received his B.A. from Rice in 1956 and continued on to earn his Ph.D. in Chemistry under Robert Curl.
1989: The Department of Biochemistry becomes the Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology. The Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology is formed from the former Biology Department.
1993: The Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, the first university-based research institute dedicated to nanotechnology in the United States, is established under the leadership of Rick Smalley.
1996: Robert Curl ’54, Rick Smalley and Sir Harold Kroto win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their discovery of buckyballs. This marks the first time a Nobel Prize is awarded for a discovery made on Rice's campus.
1998: Kathleen Matthews becomes dean of the Wiess School of Natural Sciences.
2000: The Space Physics and Astronomy Department joins Physics to become the Department of Physics and Astronomy.
2000: The Rice Space Institute is founded.
2001: The Gulf Coast Consortia is founded to bring together six member institutions to build interdisciplinary collaborative research teams and training programs in the biological sciences at their intersection with computational, chemical, mathematical and physical sciences.
2009: Daniel Carson is named dean of the Wiess School of Natural Sciences.
2013: The Department of Kinesiology joins the School of Natural Sciences.
2014: The Departments of Biochemistry and Cell Biology and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology merge to form the Department of Biosciences.
2014: Peter Rossky becomes dean of the Wiess School of Natural Sciences.
2017: The Geology and Geophysics Department, renamed to the Department of Earth Science in 1999, becomes the Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences.
2020: Roger Penrose, Rice's Edgar Odell Lovett Professor of Mathematics from 1983-87, is awarded half of the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity.
2021: Thomas Killian is named dean of the Wiess School of Natural Sciences.
2022: The E4 Initiative for Earth, Environment, Ecosystems and Energy is established.
2022: Rice and Houston Methodist launch the Center for Human Performance.
2023: Louis Brus ’65 shares the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots. Brus attended Rice with a Navy scholarship and graduated magna cum laude with a B.S. in chemical physics.
Images courtesy of the Woodson Research Center/Rice University