Meet the Ken Kennedy Institute's June Member of the Month: Stephen Bradshaw, Professor and Associate Department Chair of Physics and Astronomy!

How does your work impact the community at large?
"I focus on astrophysical plasmas, primarily the upper atmosphere of the Sun. This region is the major progenitor of solar storms and what we ultimately experience as space weather here at the Earth. Our space-based technology, on which our society is utterly reliant, can be vulnerable to what the Sun has to throw at us. Building a greater understanding of the physical processes that occur in the Sun’s atmosphere will allow us to better understand the Sun-Earth interaction, forecast space weather events, and develop effective strategies for mitigating their consequences."

What kind of collaborations are you looking for at Rice and within the community?
"I am always looking to employ state-of-the-art methods to tackle my research problems, particularly with respect to numerical modeling, and so I like to work with the applied mathematicians of (what used to be) the CAAM department, now CMOR. I think we cross-pollinate well because they apply their tools and solvers to the frontier problems that scientists are grappling with."

The Ken Kennedy Institute awarded $5,000 in seed funding to two social sciences projects and one digital humanities project. Congratulations to the following recipients:

• Brielle Bryan, Sociology: "Locked Out of Place: How Felony Conviction History Shapes Residential Opportunity and Racial Segregation"

• Jim Elliot and Jaleh Jalili, Sociology: “Dynamics of Protest in Black Lives Matter Movement.”

• César Uribe, Electrical and Computer Engineering: "The Next Generation Archive: Towards Systematic Qualitative Analysis of Social Media Enhancing the Humanities"

The Ken Kennedy Institute's new Corporate Partner Program is an opportunity for organizations to partner with top-tier research at Rice University. Through the program, corporations can develop research collaborations, sponsor graduate students, recruit top talent, and become a strategic arm in pushing artificial intelligence, data, and computing further.

The program consists of two levels: Partners and Premium Corporate Partners. Details about each level and how to get involved can be found through the "Learn More" button below.

If your company is ready to get started, or if you have companies in mind that would be interested, please contact us at kenkennedy@rice.edu.