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Welcome to the Thesis & Dissertation Submission System

Within a week of your defense, please upload the defended copy of your thesis as well as a scan of your signed approval of candidacy form. Please make sure you have written the title of your thesis in the appropriate section on the form, and that you have indicated the date of your defense on the form.

Once your submission is complete and submitted within this site, please fill out the webform here:

https://graduate.rice.edu/online-thesis-submission-form

in lieu of submitting the thesis in person to the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.

Complete instructions for thesis submission may be found here.

If you have questions after reading the instructions completely, please contact your graduate coordinator or [email protected] for assistance.  

To get started with your submission, click the link below. You will be asked to authenticate using your NetID.  If you have previously started a submission for this thesis, please select "Edit" next to the started submission.  If you have not started to submit this thesis, please select "Start New Submission" at the bottom the page.  

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This submission process is is made through an online application developed and maintained by the Texas Digital Library, in conjunction with the Texas A&M, MIT, and UIUC.  Your feedback is very important to us; it allows us to continue to improve the system. Please feel free to notify us directly at [email protected] if you have any suggestions to increase the usability or effectiveness of this application.

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Rice University Research Repository

The Rice Research Repository (R-3) provides access to research produced at Rice University, including theses and dissertations, journal articles, research center publications, datasets, and academic journals. Managed by Fondren Library, R-3 is indexed by Google and Google Scholar, follows best practices for preservation, and provides DOIs to facilitate citation. Woodson Research Center collections, including Rice Images and Documents and the Task Force on Slavery, Segregation, and Racial Injustice, have moved here .

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FAQ: Rice Research Repository

How do i search for a thesis or dissertation.

If you know the name of the author, advisor, or committee member, select "Rice University Graduate Electronic Theses and Dissertations" on the repository home page . Then, select Browse --> By Author. Note: author, advisor, and committee member names appear via this function; it is currently impossible to separate student names from faculty names during a search.

If you know the title of the thesis or dissertation, you can use the "Search the repository" bar on the repository home page .

If you are unable to find a thesis or dissertation, please use this webform .

• Using R3 content
• Last Updated Nov 17, 2023
• Answered By Shannon Kipphut-Smith

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Doctoral dissertation, work closely with top faculty on your doctoral dissertation.

While working on the doctoral dissertation, the student interacts extensively with faculty, seeking advice from faculty with whom the student shares research interests. A dissertation chairperson will be typically selected by the student by the end of his/her second year of study. With the consultation of this dissertation chairperson, the student will typically select his or her dissertation committee members during the third year of his/her study. The dissertation committee members help the student formulate and pursue his or her dissertation topic.   Working on the dissertation involves two important milestones. The first involves the defense of a dissertation proposal that explains the nature of the student’s planned dissertation research. When the student has developed a written dissertation proposal that his or her advisor judges is ready for oral defense, a formal proposal defense before the dissertation committee is held. At the defense, the student proposes his/her dissertation idea, discusses its significance to the development of knowledge and explains the research methods to be used and any preliminary results. Doctoral students will typically propose their dissertation defense proposal by the end of their third year of study. The second and final milestone is the dissertation defense. When the written dissertation is judged complete by the student’s advisor, it must be defended orally in a final dissertation defense before the dissertation committee and the general Rice community.

Doctoral Dissertation Committee

There is no formal process for creating a dissertation committee. As a student progresses to the dissertation stage (typically after the end of the second year), he or she begins working with a faculty advisor. The advisor may be one of the student’s summer paper advisors. This advisor typically then becomes the chairperson of the student’s dissertation committee. As the student develops the dissertation, he or she selects other members of the committee on the advice of the chairperson, or by approaching other faculty members who have shown interest in the dissertation topic. The rules regarding committee membership are as follows:

• The dissertation committee is composed of at least three members who must be approved by the Director of the Ph.D. program.
• All committee members must be tenured or tenure-track Rice faculty members.
• At least two committee members must be Jones Graduate School of Business faculty.
• At least one committee member must be a non-Jones Graduate School of Business faculty.
• At most, two committee members may be tenure track or tenured faculty members at universities other than Rice University. These outside members must be in addition to the three Rice University faculty members.
• The committee chairperson must be a tenured or tenure-track faculty member of the Jones Graduate School of Business of the student's area.
• At least three committee members, including the chairperson, must be present at the dissertation proposal. The committee vote must be unanimous for the student to pass the dissertation proposal.
• All dissertation defenses must take place on the Rice University campus with the candidate and all committee members in physical attendance. In exceptional cases, appeals to this requirement can be made in writing to the dean of graduate and postdoctoral studies through your graduate coordinator. The committee vote must be unanimous for the student to pass the dissertation defense.
• Members of the dissertation committee change only in exceptional circumstances.

Scheduling the Dissertation Proposal and Dissertation Defenses

• At least 3 months must lapse between the dissertation proposal defense and the dissertation defense.
• The student sends the proposal/dissertation to all committee members who discuss whether it is acceptable.
• When the proposal/dissertation is deemed acceptable, the student works with the committee members to find a mutually agreed upon day and time for the proposal or dissertation defense.
• No later than two weeks before the proposal/dissertation defense, the student must provide a copy of the dissertation proposal or dissertation to each of the committee members and send an electronic copy to Melinda Pena ([email protected]), coordinator of the Ph.D. program.
• A formal announcement about the proposal/dissertation defense, invitation for all Jones School faculty and PhD students to attend the defense, and the title and abstract of the proposal/dissertation should go out no later than two weeks before the scheduled date. Please contact Melinda Pena, coordinator of th Ph.D. program to arrange this announcement. In addition, the dissertation defense must be publicly announced two weeks before the scheduled defense. Defense announcements should be submitted by the student to the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies by filling out the following form: http://events.rice.edu/rgs.

PhD Program

Theses/ Dissertations

Linnea Ng Fostering Belonging through a Brief Intervention Dissertation August 27, 2021 Time: 9:30AM – 11:30AM Zoom Defense

Meghan Davenport Reconsidering the role of error encouragement in error management training: Is self-regulation the key? Thesis July 22, 2021 Time: 10:00AM – 12:00PM Zoom Defense

Allison Traylor The Antecedents and Effects of Teamwork Process Exclusion in Engineering Teams Dissertation July 9, 2021 Time: 10:00AM – 12:00PM Zoom Defense

Autumn Horne Investigating the relation between phonological working memory and speech production Thesis July 8, 2021 Time: 11:30AM – 1:30PM Zoom Defense

Ryan Brown Bereavement and Food: An investigation of postprandial immune responses Thesis June 28, 2021 Time: 2:00PM – 4:00PM Zoom Defense

Bradley Weaver Effect of Motorcycle Lighting Configurations on Drivers’ Perceptions of Closing Dissertation June 24, 2021 Time: 9:00AM – 11:00AM Zoom Defense

Rachel Zahn The Role of Phonological Working Memory in Narrative Production: Evidence from Chronic Aphasia Thesis April 30, 2021 Time: 1:00PM – 3:00PM Zoom Defense

Ivy Watson Are you responsible for confronting prejudice?: Increasing ally behaviors by promoting responsibility Thesis April 29, 2021 Time: 10:00AM – 12:00PM Zoom Defense

Amanda Woods The Impact of Trainer and Trainee Race on Diversity Training Outcomes: Are the Differences Black and White? Dissertation April 23, 2021 Time: 8:30AM – 10:30AM Zoom Defense

Denise Reyes Moving Up or Giving Up: How Professional Rejection Sensitivity Impacts Career Success Dissertation April 22, 2021 Time: 9:30AM – 11:30AM Zoom Defense

Shannon Cheng Co-Conspirators in the Fight for Racial Justice?: Understanding How Asian American Respond to Anti-Black Discrimination at Work Dissertation April 13, 2021 Time: 9:00AM – 11:00AM Zoom Defense

Ian Robertson The Development and Initial Validation of the Trust in Self-Driving Vehicles Scale (TSDV) Dissertation April 9, 2021 Time: 1:00PM – 3:00PM Zoom Defense

Jensine Paoletti Addressing the Social Support Paradox with a Multidomain Complementary Fit of Desired and Perceived Support Dissertation April 9, 2021 Time: 11:00AM – 1:00PM Zoom Defense

Shivam Pandey Buzz Buzz: Haptic Cuing of Road Conditions in Autonomous Cars for Drivers Engaged in Secondary Tasks Dissertation April 7, 2021 Time: 10:00AM – 12:00PM Zoom Defense

Xianni Wang Computational Modeling Reveals How Navigation Strategy and Ballot Layout Lead to Voter Error Thesis August 28, 2020 Time: 1:00PM – 3:00PM Zoom Defense

Michelle Chen The Role of Childhood Maltreatment and Self-Regulatory Processes on Inflammation, Depressive Symptoms, and Grief Symptoms During Spousal Bereavement Thesis July 29, 2020 Time: 10:30AM – 12:30AM Zoom Defense

Julie Dinh Creating Space for Care: Enhancing Patient-Centered Performance Outcomes Through Organizational Change Dissertation July 7, 2020 Time: 1:00PM – 3:00PM Zoom Defense

Brittany Bradford Examining STEM Formative Experiences and College STEM Outcomes from a Social Cognitive Career Theory Perspective Dissertation June 30, 2020 Time: 1:30PM – 3:30PM Zoom Defense

Brad Weaver A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Takeover Performance during Conditionally Automated Driving Thesis June 17, 2020 Time: 8:30AM – 11:00AM Zoom Defense

Sarah Irons Phonetic Correlates of Sublexical Contributions to Reading Aloud Familiar Words Thesis June 5, 2020 Time: 9:00AM – 11:00AM Zoom Defense

Michelle Kim Perceived Work Environment, Job Characteristics, Job-related Mental Health: Across the Working Lifespan in a 19-Year Longitudinal Study Dissertation June 1, 2020 Time: 3:00PM – 5:00PM Zoom Defense

Abby Corrington Perceptions of Team Contributions for Men and Women Dissertation April 30, 2020 Time: 5:00PM – 6:30PM Zoom Defense

Adam Braly Direct Learning for Time-to-Collision Judgments of Approaching Objects: The Role of Fractal 1/f Noise in Exploration Dissertation April 6, 2020 Time: 11:00AM – 1:00PM Zoom Defense

Isabel Bilotta The Role of Fairness Perceptions in Patient and Employee Health: A Multi-Level Multi-Source Investigation Thesis March 5, 2020 Time: 1:30PM – 3:00PM Location: Sewall Hall 109

Linnea Ng The Effects of Interpersonal Discrimination on Older Adults’ Pill Sorting Task Performance and Interactions Thesis February 7, 2020 Time: 1:00PM – 2:30PM Location: Sewall Hall 462

Jackie Torres A Lifespan Perspective on Proactive Socioemotional Behaviors and Work Attitudes and Performance Dissertation February 6, 2020 Time: 11:30AM – 1:30PM Location: Sewall Hall 462

Allison Traylor It’s About the Process, Not the Product: A Meta-Analytic Investigation of the Relationships Between Team Demographic Diversity, Processes, and Performance Thesis November 4, 2019 Time: 9:00AM – 10:30AM Location: 462 Sewall Hall

Anoushka Shahane Chromosomal, Lexical, and Neurobiological Mechanisms of Cognitive Reappraisal and How They Relate to Health Indicators Thesis August 23, 2019 Time: 1:00PM – 3:00PM Location: BRC 140Q

Shannon Cheng Examining the Social Identity of Being a Muslim in the American Workplace Thesis July 30, 2019 Time: 10:00AM – 11:30AM Location: 250 Sewall Hall

Meiyuzi Gao Multi-Cultural Usability Assessment with System Usability Scale Dissertation June 3, 2019 Time: 10:30AM – 12:00PM Location: 1064 Duncan College

Rachel Trump-Steele Male Allies and Gender Equality: Exploring the Explanatory Mechanisms Dissertation May 15, 2019 Time: 8:30AM – 10:00AM Location: 250 Sewall Hall

Christine Nittrouer Allies as Intermediaries: Strategies that Promote Hiring People with Intellectual Disabilities Dissertation April 15, 2019 Time: 12:00PM – 2:30PM Location: 301 Sewall Hall

Amanda Woods What Does it Take to Lead Change? A Qualitative Approach to Identifying Change Leader Functions and Competencies Thesis April 15, 2019 Time: 3:30PM – 5:00PM Location: 250 Sewall Hall

Curtiss Chapman How do Word Frequencies and Semantic Diversity Affect Selection of Representations in Word Processing? Dissertation April 4, 2019 Time: 11:15AM – 2:15PM Location: BRC 706

Chelsea Iwig Unobtrusive Real-Time Cognitive State Measurement for Human Performance Assessment in the Field Dissertation November 27, 2018 Time: 9:00AM – 11:00AM Location: 103 Martell College

Brittany Bradford Qualitative Data Analysis and Biodata Measure Development of Rice Undergraduates’ STEM Formative Experiences Thesis November 27, 2018 Time: 9:00AM – 11:00AM Location: 250 Sewall Hall

Michelle Kim Vocational Interest and Its Impact on College to Job Trajectory in a 11-Year Longitudinal Study Thesis November 20, 2018 Time: 9:00AM – 10:30AM Location: 250 Sewall Hall

Jensine Paoletti Is it a Popularity Contest? Popularity and Diversity in Team Leadership Thesis November 6, 2018 Time: 9:00AM – 11:00AM Location: 250 Sewall Hall

Qiuhai Yue Evaluating the Buffer vs. Embedded Processes Accounts of Verbal Short-Term Memory by Using Multivariate Neuroimaging and Brain Stimulation Approaches Dissertation October 29, 2018 Time: 1:15PM – 3:15PM Location: 706 BioScience Research Collaborative

Ian Robertson Subjective Usability Evaluation: A Comparison of Four Methods Thesis July 5, 2018 Time: 1:00PM – 2:30PM Location: 462 Sewall Hall

Colin Noe Measuring Top-Down Influence onto Sub-Lexical Speech Perception Thesis April 20, 2018 Time: 8:30AM – 10:00AM Location: 706 BioScience Research Collaborative

Shannon Marlow Conditions Promoting Psychological Safety in Self-Managed Teams Dissertation April 11, 2018 Time: 1:00PM – 2:30PM Location: 250 Sewall Hall

Jackie Gilberto Old Dogs and New Tricks: How Ageism Affects Trainer Attitudes, Trainer Behaviors, and Training Characteristics Thesis April 6, 2018 Time: 3:00PM – 5:30PM Location: 462 Sewall Hall

Denise Reyes You Get What You’re Not Afraid to Ask For: The Role of Gender-Based Rejection Sensitivity on Gender Differences in Negotiation Initiation Thesis April 4, 2018 Time: 10:30AM – 12:00PM Location: 460 Sewall Hall

Abby Corrington A Multinational Examination of the Impact of Power Posing in a Negotiation Setting Thesis March 28, 2018 Time: 10:00AM – 11:30AM Location: 250 Sewall Hall

Alda Rivas Can Retrieval Practice Reduce the Associative Deficit? Dissertation March 21, 2018 Time: 4:00PM – 5:30PM Location: 305 Sewall Hall

Julie Dinh Cultural Competency in Healthcare Providers: A Qualitative Investigation Thesis March 21, 2018 Time: 10:00AM – 11:30AM Location: 250 Sewall Hall

Yingxue Tian The Domain-Specificity of Serial Order Short-Term Memory Thesis March 20, 2018 Time: 1:00PM – 2:30PM Location: 706 BioScience Research Collaborative

Amy Shaw The Effects of Time and Material Constraints on Creativity Thesis November 21, 2017 Time: 10:00AM - 11:30AM Location: 250 Sewall Hall

Meiyuzi Gao Measuring the Usability of Home Healthcare Devices Thesis May 18, 2017 Time: 11:00AM – 1:00PM Location: 462 Sewall Hall

Kamalika Ghosh Trait and Experiential Antecedents of Indian Medical Students’ Prosocial Knowledge and their Contribution to Students’ Clinical Performance Thesis May 9, 2017 Time: 2:30PM – 4:00PM Location: 462 Sewall Hall

Stephanie Zajac Diversity in Design Teams: A Ground Theory Approach Thesis April 18, 2017 Time: 3:30PM – 5:00PM Location: 462 Sewall Hall

Christina Lacerenza Leader Emergence in Self-Managed Teams as Explained by Surface- and Deep-Level Leader Traits Thesis April 18, 2017 Time: 1:30PM – 3:00PM Location: 462 Sewall Hall

Carlos Moreno A Longitudinal Study: Promoting First-Generation Latino Success through Parental Pro-Educational Interventions Thesis December 16, 2016 Time: 3:00pm-4:30pm Location: 462 Sewall Hall

Carmen Young Age and Training: A Meta-analysis Examining Training Features Thesis December 16, 2016 Time: 1:30pm-3:30pm Location: 462 Sewall Hall

Wendy Jackeline Torres Course Participation, Performance, and Completion of Adult Learners in a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC): Trait Complexes, Interest, and Non-Ability Determinants Thesis November 17, 2016 Time: 10:00am-12:00pm Location: 250 Sewall Hall

Heather Dial Sublexical, lexical and phonological short-term memory processes: Evaluating models of speech perception and short-term memory Thesis July 29, 2016 Time: 9:00am-12:00pm Location: BioScience Research Collaborative Rm 706 Chair: Randi Martin Other committee members: Simon Fischer-Baum, Caleb Kemere

Curtiss Chapman Rethinking the behavioral patterns that dissociate semantic dementia and comprehension-impaired stroke aphasia Thesis July 7, 2016 Time: 1:00pm-3:00pm Location: Sewall Hall 462 Chair: Randi Martin Other committee members: Simon Fischer-Baum, James Pomerantz

Tao Wei Naming "CAT" in the past affects naming "DOG" in the present: How and where semantic facilitation and interference occur Thesis June 20, 2016 Time: 1:00pm-3:00pm Location: Sewall Hall Rm 462 Chair: Tatiana Schnur Other committee members: Randi Martin, Simon Fischer-Baum, Casey O'Callaghan

Julie Hughes The Cognitive and Neural Bases of Bilingual Word Selection Thesis June 17, 2016 Time: 1:30pm-3:30pm Location: BioScience Research Collaborative Rm 706 Chair: Tatiana Schnur Other committee members: Randi Martin, Caleb Kemere, James Pomerantz

Yu-Hsuan Chang It Takes More Than Practice and Experience to Become a Chess Master: Evidence from a Child Prodigy and from Adult Tournament Players Dissertation May 20, 2016 Time: 1:00pm-3:00pm Location: Sewall Hall Rm 562 Chair: David M. Lane Other committee members: Margaret E. Beier, Arthur Gottschalk and Frederick L. Oswald

Debshila Basu Mallick Factors affecting audiovisual speech perception as measured by the McGurk effect Dissertation March 31, 2016 Time: 10:00am-12:00pm Location: Sewall Hall Rm 303 Thesis Director: Michael Beauchamp Chair: James L. Dannemiller Other committee members: Margaret E. Beier and Richard Grandy

Kamalika Ghosh Personality Traits, Prosocial Knowledge, Charismatic Leadership Behavior, and Clinical Performance of Indian Medical Students Master's Thesis January 14, 2016 Time: 1:00pm-3:00pm Location: Sewall Hall Rm 462 Chair: Stephan J. Motowidlo Other committee members: Frederick L. Oswald and Margaret E. Beier

Rachel Trump Male Allies: Men Convince other Men that Gender Equity Matters Master's Thesis November 11, 2015 Time: 1:30pm-3:30pm Location: Sewall Hall Rm 309 Chair: Mikki Hebl Other committee members: Frederick L. Oswald and David M. Lane

Christine Nittrouer Lacking a Voice: Bias against Women as Academic Speakers at Top Universities Master's Thesis October 15, 2015 Time: 3:45pm-5:30pm Location: Sewall Hall Rm 250 Chair: Mikki Hebl Other committee members: Margaret E. Beier and Frederick L. Oswald

Christina Zimmer Virtual Teams: A Qualitative and Quantitative Review of Best Practices Dissertation August 27, 2015 Time: 1pm-3pm Location: Sewall Hall Rm 250 Chair: Anton J. Villado Other committee members: Margaret E. Beier, Michelle R. Hebl, and Rick Wilson

Jason Randall Mind Wandering and Self-directed Learning: Testing the Efficacy of a Self-Regulation Intervention to Reduce Mind Wandering and Enhance Online Training Performance Dissertation July 21, 2015 Time: 10am - 12pm Location: Sewall Hall Rm 250 Chair: Anton J. Villado Other committee members: Margaret E. Beier, Erik Dane, and Michelle R. Hebl

Kimberley Orsten False Pop Out Dissertation May 1, 2015 Time: 12pm - 2pm Location: Sewall Hall Rm 462 Chair: James Pomerantz Other committee members: James L. Dannemiller, Richard Grandy, and David M. Lane

Ting Xiao Reasoning, Fast and Slow: Investigating Cognitive Abilities, Speed and Effects of Personality Traits Master's Thesis April 17, 2015 Time: 9:30am - 12pm Location: Sewall Hall Rm 460 Chair: Fred Oswald Other committee members: Margaret E. Beier and Anton J. Villado

Jingyi Geng Role of features and categories in the organization of object knowledge Dissertation April 17, 2015 Time: 9am - 12pm Location: Sewall Hall Rm 462 Chair: Tatiana Schnur Other committee members: Randi C. Martin, Simon Fisher-Baum, and Steven Cox

Alda Rivas Do older adults benefit from effortful retrieval? Master's Thesis April 16, 2015 Time: 3pm - 4:30pm Location: Sewall Hall Rm 462 Chair: Jessica Logan Other committee members: Margaret E. Beier and Simon Fisher-Baum

Carmen Young The Effects of Structure and Metacognitive Prompts on Learning Outcomes in Training Environments Master's Thesis February 10, 2015 Time:1-3pm Location: Sewall Hall Rm 429G Chair: Margaret Beier Other committee members: Michelle Hebl and Anton J. Villado

Nicole Howie The Generalizability of Cognitive Modeling Parameters for Older Adults Master's Thesis January 7, 2015 Chair: Michael Byrne Other committee members: Philip T. Kortum, Marcia O'Malley, and Jessica M. Logan

Clayton Stanley Comparing vector-based and ACT-R memory models using large-scale datasets: User-customized hashtag and tag prediction on Twitter and StackOverflow Dissertation November 13, 2014 Chair: Michael Byrne Other committee members: Philip T. Kortum and Devika Subramanian

Jeffrey Zemla Factors Influencing Speed-Accuracy Tradeoffs in Decision Making Dissertation September 25, 2014 Chair: Michael Byrne Other committee members: Tatiana T. Schnur, Richard Batsell, and Philip T. Kortum

Jisoo Ock Why do raters pursue different rating goals? The role of rater personality and accountability context Dissertation September 2, 2014 Chair: Frederick L. Oswald Other committee members: Margaret E. Beier, Anton J. Villado, and D. Brent Smith

Samuel McAbee Personality, Interpersonal Skills, and Students' Job Search Behaviors Dissertation August 7, 2014 Chair: Frederick L. Oswald Other committee members: Margaret E. Beier, D. Brent Smith, and John Cornwell

Claudia Acemyan System Usability and User Mental Models of Three Verifiable End-to-end Voting Methods: Helios, Prêt à Voter, and Scantegrity II Dissertation July 1, 2014 Chair: Philip T. Kortum Other committee members: Michael Byrne, Dan Wallach, and David M. Lane

Denise Y. Harvey Semantic Interference in Language Production and Comprehension: Same or Separable Loci? Dissertation April 18, 2014 Chair: Tatiana T. Schnur Other committee members: Randi C. Martin, Simon Fischer-Baum, and Casey O'Callaghan

Seydahmet Ercan Antecedents of Expatriates' Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Expatriate Adjustment and Job Attitudes as Mediators and Cultural Similarity as the Moderator Dissertation April 1, 2014 Chair: Frederick L. Oswald Other committee members: Margaret E. Beier, Anton J. Villado, and D. Brent Smith

Katie O'Brien Just Saying "No": An Examination of Gender Differences in the Ability to Decline Requests in the Workplace Dissertation March 31, 2014 Chair: Michelle Hebl Other committee members: Margaret E. Beier, Anton J. Villado, and Bridget Gormon

Debshila Basu Mallick An Investigation of Audiovisual Speech Perception Using the McGurk Effect Master's Thesis March 11, 2014 Director: Michael Beauchamp Chair: James L. Dannemiller Other committee members: Tatiana T. Schnur and Margaret E. Beier

Heather Dial Separating Semantic and Phonological Short-term Memory in Aphasic Patients Using a Novel Concurrent Probe Paradigm Master's Thesis January 1, 2014 Chair: Randi C. Martin Other committee members: Tatiana T. Schnur and Jessica M. Logan

Michelle Martin Personality, Emotional Intelligence, and Skill in Service Encounters: Exploring the Role of Prosocial Knowledge as a Mediator Dissertation August 30, 2013 Chair: Stephan J. Motowidlo Other committee members: Margaret E. Beier, Frederick L. Oswald, and D. Brent Smith

Rebecca Lundwall Molecular Genetics and the Development of Reflexive Visual Attention Dissertation August 8, 2013 Chair: James L. Dannemiller Other committee members: Frederick L. Oswald, John Alford, and Anne Sereno

Christina Upchurch Adaptive Performance: The Role of Knowledge Structure Development Master's Thesis April 17, 2013 Chair: Anton J. Villado Other committee members: Margaret E. Beier and Frederick L. Oswald

Julie Walker Hughes All cumulative semantic inference is not equal: A test of the Dark Side Model of lexical access Master's Thesis April 17, 2013 Chair: Tatiana T. Schnur Other committee members: Randi C. Martin and Simon Fischer-Baum

Bryan Campbell The Usability Implications of Long Ballot Content for Paper, Electronic, and Mobile Voting Systems Dissertation April 15, 2013 Chair: Michael Byrne Other committee members: Philip T. Kortum, Dan Wallach, and David M. Lane

Gillian Piner CHILVote: The design and assessment of an accessible audio voting system Dissertation April 10, 2013 Chair: Michael Byrne Other committee members: Philip T. Kortum and Dan Wallach

Enrica Ruggs The Influence of Employee Inkings on Consumer Behavior: Booed, Eschewed, and Tattooed Dissertation March 28, 2013 Chair: Michelle Hebl Other committee members: Frederick L. Oswald, D. Brent Smith, and Margaret E. Beier

Nicole Howie The Effect of Response Modality on Task Performance for Older and Younger Adults Master's Thesis March 6, 2013 Chair: Michael Byrne Other committee members: Philip T. Kortum and Jessica M. Logan

Jennifer Chen Human Olfactory Perception: Characteristics, Mechanisms and Functions Dissertation March 5, 2013 Director: Xiaohong Denise Chen Chair: James R. Pomerantz Other committee members: Jessica M. Logan and Casey O'Callaghan

Sebastian Thomas The Impact of Feedback Tone, Grammatical Person and Presentation Mode on Performance and Satisfaction in a Computer-based Learning Task Dissertation January 9, 2013 Chair: David M. Lane Other committee members: Michael Byrne, H. Albert Napier, and Philip T. Kortum

Yu-Hsuan Chang Chess performance under time pressure: Evidence for the slow processes in speed chess Master's Thesis December 19, 2012 Chair: David M. Lane Other committee members: James L. Dannemiller and Frederick L. Oswald

Louma Ghandour Stability of College Students’ Fit with Their Academic Major and the Relationship Between Academic Fit and Occupational Fit Dissertation November 29, 2012 Chair: Margaret E. Beier Other committee members: Frederick L. Oswald, Bridget Gorman, and John M. Cornwell

Jason Randall Is Retest Bias Biased? An Examination of Race, Sex, and Ability Differences in Retest Performance on the Wonderlic Personnel Test Master's Thesis November 26, 2012 Chair: Anton J. Villado Other committee members: Margaret E. Beier and Frederick L. Oswald

Corinne Allen Inhibitory control mechanisms and their role in task switching: A multi-methodological approach Dissertation May 8, 2012 Chair: Randi C. Martin Other committee members: Tatiana T. Schnur, Suzanne Kemmer, Chandramallika Basak, and Frederick L. Oswald

Larry Martinez Confronting Bias: How Targets and Allies Can Address Prejudice Against Gay Men in the Workplace Dissertation April 16, 2012 Chair: Michelle Hebl Other committee members: Margaret E. Beier, Rick K. Wilson, and John M. Cornwell

Jisoo Ock Practical impact of predictor reliability for personnel selection decisions Master's Thesis April 13, 2012 Chair: Frederick L. Oswald Other committee members: Margaret E. Beier and Anton J. Villado

Seydahmet Ercan Assessing Adverse Impact: An Alternative to the Four-Fifths Rule Master's Thesis April 11, 2012 Chair: Frederick L. Oswald Other committee members: Margaret E. Beier and Anton J. Villado

Azli Hassan Testing the semantic control hypothesis for stroke aphasics with semantic deficits Master's Thesis April 11, 2012 Chair: Randi C. Martin Other committee members: Tatiana T. Schnur and David M. Lane

Yi Glaser The Mechanisms of Proactive Interference and Their Relationship with Working Memory Dissertation April 10, 2012 Chair: Randi C. Martin Other committee members: Michael Byrne, Rick Wilson, Chandramallika Basak, and Michael Beauchamp

Chad Tossell An Empirical Analysis of Smartphone Use: Characterizing Internet Visit Patterns and User Differences Dissertation February 24, 2012 Chair: Philip T. Kortum Other committee members: Michael Byrne, David M. Lane, and Lin Zhong

Sara Haber The Neurological Components of Metacognitive Monitoring: JOL Accuracy in Younger and Older Adults Dissertation January 10, 2012 Chair: Jessica M. Logan Other committee members: Margaret E. Beier, Richard Grandy, Michael Beauchamp, and James L. Dannemiller

Shu Wang Individual Differences in Adaptation to Changes Dissertation December 15, 2011 Chair: Margaret E. Beier Other committee members: Frederick L. Oswald, H. Albert Napier, Anton J. Villado, and Jeffrey Fleisher

Jeffrey Zemla A Computational Model of Commercial Jetliner Taxiing Master's Thesis September 7, 2011 Chair: Michael Byrne Other committee members: David M. Lane and Philip T. Kortum

Daniel Glaser Implications of differences of echoic and iconic memory for the design of multimodal displays Dissertation August 12, 2011 Chair: David M. Lane Other committee members: Michael Byrne, Philip T. Kortum, and H. Albert Napier

Rebecca Lundwall Is Response Time Variability on an Exogenous Visual Orienting Task Associated with Specific Genetic Markers? Master's Thesis June 27, 2011 Chair: James L. Dannemiller Other committee members: Chandramallika Basak and Frederick L. Oswald

Gillian Piner A Usability and Real World Perspective on Accessible Voting Master's Thesis May 10, 2011 Chair: Michael Byrne Other committee members: David M. Lane and Philip T. Kortum

Ashley Meyer The positive and negative effects of testing in lifelong learning Dissertation April 12, 2011 Chair: Jessica M. Logan Other committee members: Margaret E. Beier, Nicoletta Orlandi, and James L. Dannemiller

Gunes Avci Transfer of the testing effect: Just how powerful is it? Dissertation April 6, 2011 Chair: Jessica M. Logan Other committee members: Frederick L. Oswald and Suzanne Kemmer

Jennifer Chen Binaral Rivalry in the Presence of Visual Perceptual and Semantic Influences Master's Thesis March 31, 2011 Chair: Denise Chen Other committee members: Chandramallika Basak and Jessica M. Logan

Rochelle Evans Why Does Content Desirability Impact Subjective Video Quality Ratings and What Can Be Done About It? Dissertation January 24, 2011 Chair: Philip T. Kortum Other committee members: Michael Byrne, Lin Zhong, and David M. Lane

Michelle Martin The Generalizability of Knowledge as Measured by a Single-Response Situational Judgment Test Across Domains Master's Thesis January 21, 2011 Chair: Stephan J. Motowidlo Other committee members: Margaret E. Beier and Frederick L. Oswald

Bryan Campbell Usability Assessment of the Straight-Party Voting Ballot Option on Paper, Punch Card, and Electronic Voting Systems Master's Thesis December 13, 2010 Chair: Michael Byrne Other committee members: David M. Lane and Philip T. Kortum

Kristen Greene Effects of Multiple Races and Header Highlighting on Undervotes in the 2006 Sarasota General Election: A Usability Study and Cognitive Modeling Assessment Dissertation November 22, 2010 Chair: Michael Byrne Other committee members: David M. Lane, Dan Wallach, and Philip T. Kortum

Ashley Rittmayer Hanks Employee Turnover: The Effects of Workplace Events Dissertation November 12, 2010 Chair: Margaret E. Beier Other committee members: Frederick L. Oswald, Andrew Perkins, and Michelle Hebl

Katharine Bachman The Influence of Work-Family Balance Based Realistic Job Previews on Job Search Decisions Master's Thesis November 9, 2010 Chair: Michelle Hebl Other committee members: Anton J. Villado and Margaret E. Beier

Yue Su The effect of secondary tasks and stimulus type on ratings of telephone hold workload Master's Thesis August 20, 2010 Chair: Philip T. Kortum Other committee members: Michael Byrne and David M. Lane

Larry Martinez Childhood cancer survivors' workplace experiences Master's Thesis August 3, 2010 Chair: Michelle Hebl Other committee members: Frederick L. Oswald and Margaret E. Beier

Katherine Ramos Development of a New Measure of Helping at Work Master's Thesis June 15, 2010 Chair: Frederick L. Oswald Other committee members: Stephan J. Motowidlo and Daniel J. Beal

Denise Harvey Object Priming in the Fusiform Cortex: Exploring Effects of Task and Visual Similarity Master's Thesis May 14, 2010 Chair: Tatiana T. Schnur Other committee members: James L. Dannemiller, Randi C. Martin, and E. Darcy Burgund

Sebastian Thomas The Influence of the Tone of Feedback Prompts on the Learning Behavior and Satisfaction of University Students in a Multiple Cue Probability Task Master's Thesis May 13, 2010 Chair: David M. Lane Other committee members: Michael Byrne and Philip T. Kortum

Corinne Allen Task switching and short-term retention: The role of memory load in task switching performance Master's Thesis April 14, 2010 Chair: Randi C. Martin Other committee members: David M. Lane and Jessica M. Logan

Jingyi Geng The distractor frequency effect in Stroop and picture-word interference paradigms Master's Thesis April 13, 2010 Chair: Tatiana T. Schnur Other committee members: Randi C. Martin and Jessica M. Logan

Loan Vuong The role of attentional control in garden path recovery Dissertation January 15, 2010 Chair: Randi C. Martin Other committee members: David M. Lane, Jessica M. Logan, and Suzanne Kemmer

Pablo Cruz Emotion Perception and Reactions to Tests: Affective Influences on Test Performance Dissertation January 13, 2010 Chair: Daniel J. Beal Other committee members: Michelle Hebl, Andrew Perkins, and Margaret E. Beier

Regulations and Procedures for Thesis Master's Graduate Degrees

University graduation requirements for thesis master's degrees , time boundaries for candidacy and defense , time to degree.

• Approval of Candidacy 

Thesis Committee

Announcement of thesis defense, oral examination in defense of thesis, thesis submission regulations and procedures, departmental duties, other requirements.

Candidates receive a master's degree after completing:

• A minimum of 30 graduate semester credit hours of coursework taken at the 500-level or above (including thesis credit hours).
• A minimum of 24 graduate semester credit hours must be taken at Rice University. 
• A minimum overall GPA of 2.67 or higher in all Rice coursework.
• A minimum program GPA of 2.67 or higher in all Rice coursework that satisfies requirements for the thesis master’s degree.*
• A minimum residency enrollment of one fall or spring semester of full-time graduate study at Rice University.
• Original work reported in a thesis and a public oral examination, approved and submitted to the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.
• All courses must be taken in the relevant field.

* Note : Departments or programs may identify and define in their program's General Announcements Requirements tab stricter minimum requirements to satisfy their academic program requirements.

Candidacy, Oral Examinations, and Thesis 

Time to candidacy.

Master of Architecture (MArch) students must be approved for candidacy before October 31st prior to their juried defense. Master of Music (MMus) students must be approved for candidacy before beginning the 4th semester of study. All other thesis master’s students must be approved for candidacy no later than the beginning of the 5th semester of their enrollment in the degree program at Rice. See  Candidacy, Oral Examinations and Thesis . Additionally, students must be projected to complete their minimum required credit hours and all other non-thesis degree requirements before the end of the semester in which they defend.

Time to Defense

Master’s students must defend the thesis no later than the 8th semester from the date of their enrollment in the degree program at Rice. See  Candidacy, Oral Examinations and Thesis .

Time to Thesis Submission

Candidates who successfully pass the oral examination in defense of the thesis must submit the thesis to the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies no later than six months from the date of the examination. See  Candidacy, Oral Examinations and Thesis .  Candidates must also adhere to all deadlines associated with the Academic Calendar for a given commencement.  

All master’s students are required to complete their program within five years of initial enrollment. This time boundary includes any period in which the student was not enrolled or enrolled part-time, for whatever reason. Failure to meet any university time to degree deadline may result in the student not being able to continue in their degree program.

Approval of Candidacy  

Candidacy marks a midpoint in the course of graduate education. Achieving candidacy for the master’s degree signals that a graduate student has:

• completed required coursework,
• passed any required exams to demonstrate comprehensive grasp of the subject area,
• demonstrated the ability for clear oral and written communication, and
• shown the ability to carry on scholarly work in the subject area.

Requirements for achieving candidacy for the master's degree are determined at the  departmental  level. The department is also authorized to grant waivers or substitutions of specific course requirements, but not to make exceptions to university requirements.

Students enrolled in research degree programs submit their petitions for candidacy for a master’s degree through the department chair to the dean of graduate and postdoctoral studies. In the petition sent to the dean, the department chair identifies the student’s thesis director, recommends a thesis committee, certifies that the applicant has fulfilled the departmental requirements, and provides a course transcript as evidence that work completed within the department is of high quality. 

Master’s candidacy students must be approved for candidacy before the beginning of the fifth semester of their enrollment at Rice. However, in order to qualify for a given commencement, they must meet the submission deadline for that commencement per the  Academic Calendar . This date falls at the end of October for December degree conferral and the end of February for May degree conferral.

Students who are unable to meet the university time boundary for candidacy may petition the dean of graduate and postdoctoral studies or the dean's designee for an extension of time to candidacy. Students who exceed their time boundaries without an approved extension request will be placed on academic probation. Students who exceed their time boundaries and do not receive an extension to their time to candidacy are subject to immediate dismissal by the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.

The thesis committee administers the oral examination for the student’s thesis defense and has final approval/disapproval authority and responsibility for the written thesis.  The thesis committee is subject to the approval of the department (either the chair or the director of graduate studies) and the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.

A thesis committee is composed of at least three members. Two, including the committee chair, must be members of the student’s department faculty. At least three members of the committee must meet one of the following requirements:

• Tenured or tenure-track members of the Rice faculty
• Rice research faculty holding the rank of assistant research professor, associate research professor, or research professor 

Qualified individuals who have been identified by the department chair may serve as additional committee members, but may not substitute for the three tenure or tenure-track faculty members.

The composition of the thesis committee must always meet the guidelines mentioned above, with the following exceptions:

• Interdisciplinary programs (Applied Physics and Systems, Synthetic, and Physical Biology ) -  The chair of the thesis committee is either the advisor or in the host department of the student, is affiliated with the program and is Rice tenured or tenure-track faculty . The second member of the committee is affiliated with the program and is Rice tenured or tenure-track faculty .  The third member is Rice tenured or tenure-track faculty. The formal structure of the thesis committee for the programs can be found in the program specific sections of the General Announcements and are regularly reviewed by the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.
• Master of Architecture (MArch) -  The committee chair must be a tenured or tenure-track faculty member. Other committee members can be tenured, tenure-track, or non-tenure track Rice faculty.

The thesis director must be a tenured or tenure-track member of the Rice University faculty or a research faculty holding the rank of assistant research professor, associate research professor, or research professor. Faculty whose primary appointment is at another institution may serve as thesis director if approved by the dean of graduate and postdoctoral studies. Emeritus professors may not accept new graduate students or be included on newly formed thesis committees without the approval of the dean of graduate and postdoctoral studies and an appointment letter from the school dean.

The committee chair need not be the thesis director. The chair, however, must be either a tenured or tenure-track member of the student's department or a research faculty member of the student's department. In addition to the three required members, additional members of the committee may be selected with the approval of the department chair or the director of graduate studies.

In the event that a member of a students’ thesis committee leaves their position at Rice University, they may continue to serve on the thesis committee if they continue to have the support of the department chair (or in the case of interdisciplinary programs, the graduate program director) to serve in this capacity.

Candidates are responsible for keeping the members of their committee informed about the nature and progress of their research. They also must establish a schedule for thesis completion and review. The members of the committee, in turn, should review the thesis in a timely manner, approving a preliminary form of the thesis before scheduling the oral examination.

Changes to the thesis committee must be approved in writing by the department chair or the director of graduate studies and approved by the dean of graduate and postdoctoral studies prior to the defense.  Students have a right to know prior to the defense who will examine them. Changes requested after the thesis defense are generally not granted, so a re-defense may be required, but a petition can be made to the  the dean of graduate and postdoctoral studies. 

Oral examinations for the master’s degree must be registered and publicly publicized at least 7 days in advance. Oral examination announcements must be registered with the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies by entering the information into the Graduate Students Thesis Defense Announcement form at https://events.rice.edu/rgs . Defenses that proceed without timely registration are unofficial and will not meet university degree requirements.

The public oral defense of a thesis is intended to be an examination of a completed body of work and should be scheduled only when the thesis is essentially completed. Students may take the final oral examination in defense of their thesis only after the dean of graduate and postdoctoral studies approves their candidacy. 

In addition to announcing the planned defense as described above, at least one copy of the thesis must be available in the departmental office not less than two calendar weeks prior to the date of the oral defense. Graduate programs may allow or require the thesis to be submitted and stored in an electronic format. 

The length of the oral examination and the subject matter on which the candidate is questioned are left to the judgment of the thesis committee. The defense should be scheduled by the student after consultation with the thesis advisor, who agrees that the thesis is completed and ready to be defended. All oral thesis defenses must take place on the Rice University campus with the candidate in physical attendance and all thesis committee members in attendance throughout the entire defense. While the physical attendance of the committee is highly encouraged, it is recognized that this may add unnecessary scheduling conflicts delaying the student’s defense. The student may, at their own discretion, provide an online option for guests to attend the defense.

Should a candidate fail, the committee chair may schedule a second examination. Students who fail a second time will be dismissed from the university.

Following their defense, students must submit a copy of their approval of candidacy form, signed by the thesis committee signifying successful defense of the thesis, along with a copy of their defended thesis, to the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies within one week after the oral examination. Instructions to submit this form are located online at https://graduate.rice.edu/academics/candidacy-defense-thesis-submission . The original approval of candidacy form must be turned in when the thesis is submitted.

Master’s students must defend their theses before the end of the eighth semester of their enrollment at Rice. Students who are unable to meet the university time boundary for thesis defense may petition the dean of graduate and postdoctoral studies or the dean's designee for an extension of time to defense. Students who exceed their time boundaries without an approved extension request may be placed on academic probation or dismissed by the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.

A candidate must be enrolled in the semester in which the oral examination is held. Students who defend during the summer must enroll in the summer session of classes. For the purpose of the oral defense only, enrollment in a semester is considered valid through the Friday of the first week of class of the following semester. Students passing the oral examination on or before the end of the first week of classes of any semester do not have to register for that or any subsequent semester even though they may be continuing to make minor revisions to the final copy of their thesis.

The thesis is the principal record of a student’s work for an advanced degree. Instructions for online thesis submission and guidelines for thesis formatting are available at: https://graduate.rice.edu/academics/candidacy-defense-thesis-submission .

Candidates who successfully pass the oral examination in defense of the thesis must submit the thesis to the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies no later than six months from the date of the examination. If the thesis is not submitted by the end of the six-month period, the “pass” will be revoked and an additional oral defense will need to be scheduled. Applications for an extension without reexamination must be made by the candidate with the unanimous support of the thesis committee, endorsed by the department chair (or in the case of interdisciplinary programs, the graduate program director), and approved by the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. Extensions of this six-month period for completion without reexamination will be granted only in rare circumstances.

Students must have an electronically certified signature of each member of their thesis committee submitted through AdobeSign on two title pages of their thesis. All students submitting theses must complete a ProQuest/University Microfilms International (UMI) publishing contract as part of their thesis submission. 

All theses are permanently preserved in Rice’s Institutional Repository and are available via  https://scholarship.rice.edu  shortly after the final submission of the thesis. At the time of thesis submission, a student may request an embargo of six months, one year, or two years; embargos beyond this period are subject to the approval of the dean of graduate and postdoctoral studies.

Students have six months from the date of their defense to submit their thesis. However, in order to qualify for a given degree conferral and the associated commencement ceremonies, they must meet the submission deadline for that degree conferral per the Academic Calendar . This date falls on the last day of classes in the fall, spring, and summer semesters. 

In most research degree programs, students must undertake a limited amount of teaching or perform other services as part of their training. Assigned duties should not entail more than 10 hours per week, averaged over the semester, or extend over more than eight semesters.  Students must be paid as a Teaching Assistant, Instructor of Record, or on an hourly basis for this work, regardless of degree requirements.

There are other additional requirements, regulations and procedures for all graduate programs. They are found under Graduate Students > Academic Policies and Procedures > All Graduate Students , or can be accessed directly here .

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Graduate Student Research

The culmination of our Ph.D. program is the graduate research thesis. This dissertation presents the student's original and independent work on their chosen mathematical problem.

Defense Titles and Abstracts

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• 2012 Thesis Defenses

Contact Information

Tel (713) 348-4829

Mailing Address: Rice University Math Department -- MS 136 P.O. Box 1892 Houston, TX 77005-1892

Physical Address: Rice University Herman Brown Hall for Mathematical Sciences 6100 Main Street Houston, TX 77005

Rice University is now accepting applications for graduate study for 2025 admission. Click here to apply .

Applications for GCURS 2024 close Sept. 29! Visit gcursapply.rice.edu to begin your application.

Resources | Thesis Defenses

Upcoming thesis defenses.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations: Supplemental Files

• Supplemental Files

Rice University Theses and Dissertations Supplemental File Guidelines

Supplementary files are separate attachments that enhance your thesis and can be important in furthering the understanding of your research. Supplementary files may include research data, computer code, audio or video files, and hi-resolution images or maps. If you are unsure about whether content should be included within your thesis or as a separate document, please consult with your advisor.

Supplemental files are submitted with your thesis PDF via the THESIS.RICE.EDU system. The following guidelines provide recommended practices for formatting supplemental files.

Copyrighted Materials

If your thesis includes copyrighted materials, include any associated permissions or release forms as appendices within your thesis PDF. Do not submit as a separate supplemental file. For more on copyright guidance, see Copyright Checklist for Theses and Dissertations .

Documenting Supplemental Material

If you are including supplemental material in your submission, it is recommended to include an appendix within your thesis document which contains an overall description and file name(s). This assists in associating your thesis to any additional supplementary material, as well as providing further information and context about the file(s).

• Example: Appendix

The maximum file size for each supplemental file should be no larger than 100 MB or 10GB in total.

Filenames should only include letters, numbers, underscore or dashes.

Do not use spaces.

Do not use special characters such as: " / \ : * ? < > [ ] & $ .

Keep the filename short (aim for less than 32 characters)

• Examples: dataset.zip, figure01.png, supplemental.pdf

Best Practices by File Type

Audio/video.

To display your media in browser (instead of downloading), use MP3 format for audio or MP4 for video. Filenames cannot contain spaces or special characters.

To improve accessibility, it is recommended to include a text transcription for audio content or provide captions for video. Either SRT or VTT closed caption formatting is supported. Closed caption files should be uploaded with the same filename as the source video file (e.g. myvideo.mp4.srt).

Datasets are usually comprised of multiple files. In such cases it is recommended to package all the files in an archival format (e.g. ZIP, 7Z, TAR, etc.) Include a manifest file to describe the contents (e.g. a readme text file). For suggestions on creating a manifest/readme file, please see Cornell University’s Guide to Writing "readme" Style Metadata or Dryad’s guidance on readme files for datasets .

In most cases, access-quality image formats may be sufficient for display purposes, such as PNG or JPG. For high resolution images it is recommended to save the image in a JPEG2000 format (*.j2). The JPEG2000 format provides enhance online viewing of graphically dense images by allowing a user to zoom in to view greater detail.

Fondren library can help convert your TIF files to JP2 format upon request.

Presentations

Presentation files can come in many formats, such as PowerPoint. Such formats are proprietary and many not be viewable by all readers. Over time such formats may become unreadable as software becomes obsolete or earlier versions are not rendered properly in later versions. To ensure your presentation retains the original look and layout it is recommended to convert any presentation files to PDF format. It is recommended to embed fonts, perform optical character recognition (OCR) to ensure text is searchable and provide descriptions for any images. For guidance on creating accessible PDFs, please see this Fondren guide .

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QE and Thesis

Graduate Student Qualifying Exam (QE) and Thesis Defenses

Helpful Links

Theses + Dissertations

• Mark Bebawi, PhD in History,  The Muslim Brotherhood Reconsidered: Interactions with Secular Nationalism, Military Authoritarianism, and Western Imperialism, 1928-1956 . (2018) (Committee Member)
• Kyle Grant Sweeney, PhD in Art History,  Fancying Gothic: Architecture and Society in Normandy , 1480-1520. (2017) (Committee Member)
• Asma Husain, Master of Architecture,  Fatal Attractions . (2010) (Thesis Director)
• Irina Armianu, PhD in French Studies,  La Littérature et le cinéma: le cas de Jean Cocteau . (2010) (Committee Member)
• Curt Gambetta, Master of Architecture,  Making Waste Public or Towards a Landscape of Perturbation . (2009) (Thesis Director)
• Viktor Ramos, Master of Architecture,  The Continuous Enclave: Strategies in Bypass Urbanism . (2009) (Thesis Director)
• Ryan Matta-Byrnes, Master of Architecture,  Hotel-Beirut: Architecture in the Conflict City . (2008) (Thesis or Dissertation Director)
• L. Philip Baraldi, Master of Architecture,  Urbanisms of Subsistence: The Void, the Seed and the Splint . (2008) (Committee Member)
• Alex Acemyan, Master of Architecture,  The Un-Mega Dealership: Transforming the Houston Car Dealership into an Autoscape . (2008) (Thesis Director)
• Natali Leduc, PhD in French Studies,  Divagation, interdit de divagation et divagation du texte . (2007) (Committee Member)
• Dewey Ervin, Master of Architecture,  A Museum for a Small Town . (2007) (Thesis or Dissertation Director)
• Roger Bruce King, PhD in French Studies,  Notions of Language in Merleau-Ponty's Philosophy and New Interpretations of Existentialist Literature . (2006) (Committee Member)
• Juan Kent Fitzsimons, DArch,  The Deposition of the Body: Architecture and Corporal Limits . (2006) (Committee Member)
• Ariel Espino, PhD in Anthropology,  Home as Investment: Housing Markets and Cultures of Urban Change in Houston . (2005) (Committee Member)
• Zhen Ji, PhD in French Studies,  La Chine Subversive: Essai sur la Modernité du Discours Chinois au XXe Siècle . (2005) (Committee Member)
• Aidan Chopra, Master of Architecture,  Play at School . (2004) (Committee Member)
• Jason Carney, Master of Architecture,  Agencies of Reassurance . (2004) (Committee Member)
• Marcus Farr, Master of Architecture,  Hybrid Park(ing): Exploring the Mediation Between Infrastructure, Architecture, and the Public . (2004) (Committee Member)
• Nikolai Nikolov, Master of Architecture,  Home-Land . (2002) (Thesis Director)
• Benjamin Koush, Master of Architecture,  Houston Lives the Life: Modern Houses in the Suburbs , 1952-1962. (2002) (Thesis Director)
• Fani Qano, Master of Architecture,  Rethinking Suburban Development . (2002) (Thesis Director)
• Eliza Howard, Master of Architecture,  Immersion . (1999) (Committee Member)
• Dawn Finley, Master of Architecture,  A Study in Pharmetics . (1999) (Committee Member)
• Feng Xu, Master of Architecture,  Abstraction and Reinterpretation . (1999) (Committee Member)
• Linn Fisher, Master of Architecture,  Amphibious Landscape . (1999) (Committee Member)
• Andrew Albers, Master of Architecture,  Many Many Many Many Parking Spaces . (1999) (Committee Member)
• William Hall, Master of Architecture,  Designing the Store-bought Spec-built Dream . (1999) (Thesis Director)
• Ana Miljacki, Master of Architecture,  Incorporaiding City Drawing of the Belgrade Protest 96/97 . (1999) (Committee Member)
• Krista Armstrong, Master of Architecture,  Exploiting the Edge . (1998) (Thesis Director)
• Diana K. Davis, Master of Architecture,  Architectures of Pestilence: Smallpox, Tuberculosis, and the Spatial Control of Epidemic Disease . (1998) (Thesis Director)
• Brett Terpuluk, Master of Architecture,  The Garden in the Machine: Rethinking Nature and History in the Post-Industrial City . (1998) (Committee Member)
• Ben Thorne, Master of Architecture,  Tearing a Cleft in the Continuous Suface of Reality . (1998) (Committee Member)
• Christopher Nichols, Master of Architecture,  Permutation . (1997) (Committee Member)
• Stephen Traeger, Master of Architecture,  Boxing Domesticity . (1997) (Committee Member)
• Christina Wilson, Master of Architecture,  "Landscrapes": Clearcut Installations . (1997) (Thesis Director)

Helpful Links

Quick Links

Sep. 19, 2024

Nih awards $2.8m to rice, baylor college of medicine for research on acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine have received $2.8 million in funding from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), for research on reducing inflammation and lung damage in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) patients.

The study, titled “Cell Based Immunomodulation to Suppress Lung Inflammation and Promote Repair,” will be co-led by Omid Veiseh , a professor of bioengineering and faculty director of the Rice Biotech Launch Pad, and Ravi Kiran Ghanta, a professor of surgery at Baylor. Veiseh and Ghanta are developing a new translational cell therapy platform that allows better local administration of cytokines to the lungs in order to suppress inflammation and potentially prevent lung damage in ARDS patients.

ARDS affects over 300,000 Americans annually, with a high mortality rate of 43% driven significantly by inflammation, specifically in the one-third of patients with hyperinflammatory ARDS. While cytokines like IL-1Ra and IL-10 can reduce inflammation and aid lung repair, current delivery methods cause poor biodistribution, toxicity and immune complications. The new approach developed by Ghanta and Veiseh overcomes these issues by using engineered retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells to locally and sustainably produce these cytokines in the lungs. The cells are encapsulated in a protective layer allowing them to subsist immune system attacks. This method allows precise, targeted anti-inflammatory therapy, reducing lung damage and improving ARDS outcomes while side-stepping the risks of systemic delivery.

“ARDS is a devastating condition that affects hundreds of thousands of Americans every year, with inflammation driving long-term respiratory failure and high mortality rate in many of its patients,” said Ghanta. “Current cytokine therapies face major obstacles in terms of delivery and safety, which is why our team is developing a novel cell therapy platform to safely conduct local delivery to the lungs. “Our approach harnesses engineered RPE cells to act as localized cytokine ‘factories,’ delivering anti-inflammatory agents directly to the lungs. This technology represents a critical advancement in addressing inflammation and lung damage in ARDS, with the potential to significantly improve patient outcomes.”

“We are grateful to the NHLBI for this funding, as it certifies the importance of finding safer ways to treat inflammation and ultimately treat ARDS patients,” Veiseh said. “Thanks to the collaborative work between Rice and Baylor, we will be able to ultimately create new cell therapy systems that ameliorate lung health and increase survival rates for people suffering from ARDS. “This study highlights the spirit of collaboration characteristic of the Rice ecosystem and demonstrates the launch pad’s commitment to generating groundbreaking technologies that ultimately reach the clinic and make a positive impact on patients’ lives.”