Accelerate Magazine
Issue 2 — Fall 2024
A Message From Stephen Bayer
It is always a privilege to watch your generosity transform talent and ideas into real-world discoveries, works of art, scientific breakthroughs and life-changing innovations. Whether it’s seed money to test a promising hypothesis, a commitment toward an electronic textbook or financing for medical research that will treat an overlooked subset of patients, your gifts advance the work of our talented scholars, artists, scientists and researchers.
We often speak of the transformational impact of philanthropy, but we less often discuss the incremental nature of the process. Your gift produces a multiplier effect by funding research that leads to innovation that earns a grant that eventually produces large-scale solutions to global problems. There are infinite combinations and iterations, but in each instance your willingness to partner with Rice brings us closer to solutions that will better our world.
The second issue of Accelerate gets to the heart of the many ways philanthropy and innovation intertwine to advance essential work. I saw the fruits of this in June, when I traveled to Malawi and Tanzania with President DesRoches to see the extraordinary work of the NEST360 neonatal program, an initiative that is cutting infant mortality rates by 75%. Never before have I witnessed such a powerful impact of philanthropy. What started as a seemingly insurmountable social and economic challenge has become a multi-country effort to better the lives of thousands of mothers and babies.
Finally, the stories in this issue showcase the power of the Rice community when we utilize our strengths — our personalized scale, location, partnerships and academic excellence — to make lasting improvements to humanity. This is the core principle driving Rice’s new strategic plan, Momentous, and I hope you will take a moment to learn more about this ambitious vision at momentous.rice.edu.
Sincerely,
Stephen Bayer
Vice President, Development and Alumni Relations
