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5/11/2006 12:05:00 AM

Association of Rice Alumni bestows gold medals on Allshouse, Sass

BY DAWN DORSEY
Special to the Rice News

For their commitment to Rice University, J.D. BuckyAllshouse ’71 and Ronald Sass, the Harry C. and Olga Keith Wiess Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, have been chosen by the Association of Rice Alumni as the 2006 Gold Medal winners.

J.D. Bucky Allshouse

A tireless supporter of Rice University, Allshouse has devoted countless hours to promoting Rice in the community, fundraising and serving in numerous volunteer positions.

Allshouse

Since graduation, Allshouse has been involved and dedicated to the university in various ways almost continuously. In 1988, Allshouse began serving as a Rice trustee. He is a member of the Association of Rice Alumni, where he served as a board member (1978-81) and president (1988-89). Allshouse was also president of the Owl Club (1981-83). In 1995 the Association of Rice Alumni honored him with the Meritorious Service Award.

“We always hope, as deans and as faculty, that our trustees will take a serious interest in the academic affairs of the university to ensure that their leadership on the board will reflect the needs and aspirations of the schools,” said Kathleen Matthews, dean of the Wiess School of Natural Sciences and the Stewart Memorial Professor of Biochemistry. “Bucky has always expressed his interest in academic affairs and indeed has set the standard to which we hope all of the trustees will aspire.”

In addition to his own financial support of the university, Allshouse has facilitated and solicited millions of dollars in support for Rice.

Allshouse was instrumental in helping the School of Natural Sciences raise funds to establish and support the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology and to construct Dell Butcher Hall. He and his wife, Cynthia, were driving forces behind raising funds to establish the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy and the Shepherd School of Music. Also, Allshouse was involved in Rice’s first-ever capital campaign, Rice: The Next Century Campaign, which raised more than $500 million for the university.

Allshouse was also campaign leadership committee co-chair from 1998 to 2004 and Rice University Fund Council member from 1988 to 2000.

Following a career as a Rice athlete and football player, Allshouse has dedicated time and money to Rice Athletics. He is a member of the “R” Association and the Rice Athletic Hall of Fame. In addition, he was named to the All-Time Southwest Conference Football Team.

After graduating from Rice, Allshouse became an academic adviser and began his history of involvement with students. He has been a community associate at Brown College and is a champion of his own Wiess College. He has worn many hats over the years, including serving on a committee on the admission of athletes.

Ronald Sass

If the mark of a great mind is a diversity of talents and interests, Sass is truly a genius. He is one of Rice’s most-honored teachers and mentors, as well as a widely recognized researcher.

Sass

“Ron Sass is my perfect model for the ‘civic scientist,’ a concept I have preached about for the last decade or so,” said Neal Lane, the Malcolm Gillis University Professor, professor of physics and astronomy and senior fellow in science and technology at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. “He is a scientist who has used his knowledge, skills, fame and accomplishment to reach out to the public and policymakers in a effort to make the world a better place for all of us.”

Sass came to Rice in 1958 as an assistant professor of chemistry studying X-ray diffraction and crystal structures. He also served as a member of the education department. He is the outgoing chair of the ecology and evolutionary biology department and since 1988 has been co-director of the Rice Center for Education, which he helped found and raise funds for.

In 1964 Sass received the first of many teaching commendations when he won the Senior Class Teaching Award. The recognitions that followed included three George R. Brown Prizes for Excellence in Teaching, the George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching and Piper Professor, a statewide award. In 2001 he was honored with the Meritorious Service Award. Sass retired from teaching undergraduates in 2005.

His research career has matched his distinction in teaching. He began his career as a physical chemist researching X-ray crystallography. Since the late 1980s, Sass’ research has concerned trace gas emissions from agricultural activities and their effects on global climate change. Since 1990, he has published more than 40 papers in highly recognized journals on the role of methane as an active atmospheric gas.

His expert stature in environmental studies has led him to assume consulting roles for the United Nations and the Environmental Protection Agency, and he has received a Guggenheim Fellowship at Cambridge University and was a National Research Senior Fellow with NASA.

Sass won an award for his work with the Center for Education’s Model Science Lab, which trains middle-school science teachers.

Over the years, Sass has held positions at Baylor College of Medicine, NASA, the University of New Hampshire and Nanjing Agricultural University. In 2003 he was inducted into the Texas Hall of Fame of Science, Mathematics and Technology.

Since officially retiring, Sass has continued his work at the Center for Education and teaches in the new Masters of Liberal Studies program of the School of Continuing Studies.