Today we had the honor of hosting Reginald DesRoches, President of Rice University, in Veriten’s offices at the Ion. Reggie assumed the role of President in July 2022, after previously serving as Rice’s Provost and the Dean of the Engineering School. Additionally, Reggie serves as a professor of civil and environmental engineering, and as a professor of mechanical engineering. Before his tenure at Rice, Reggie was Chair of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech in Atlanta.
 
Rice University is an essential part of Houston’s community and is home to 8,600 plus students and more than 900 faculty members. As we discuss, Rice Management Company is responsible for developing the Ion District in partnership with the City of Houston, where Veriten first started in January 2022. We were thrilled to visit with Reggie and hear his perspectives on the world, energy, the Ion, and the current educational landscape.
 
In our conversation, we explore how AI will change the educational landscape and future career prospects for the next class of students starting at Rice, changes in demand for top areas of study, the vital role energy plays in economic development and healthcare, student attitudes towards energy, and the importance of exposing students to real-world energy access challenges in developing countries or rural areas. Reggie shares Rice’s efforts to increase study abroad participation to 50% to broaden student perspectives, the current generation’s eagerness to address global issues and make a difference, Rice’s University-Industry partnerships including Woodside and the Texas Medical Center, the role of industry in providing practical constraints and scalability considerations to university research, and the surge in industry interest Rice received following the Woodside partnership announcement (linked here). We discuss Rice’s goals for the Ion District and the potential for Houston to grow into a leading technology and innovation center, Houston’s unique advantages, Rice’s strategic plan for the next ten years, the balance between STEM and non-STEM disciplines at Rice, navigating research funding, planning for new facilities, the competitive landscape for hiring new faculty, and the importance of having global representation on campus. We ask Reggie for his perspective on the evolving role of university presidents, and as you’ll hear, the job is anything but easy. The Economist article Reggie references is linked here. We covered a great deal of territory and can’t thank Reggie enough for joining us today.
 
Mike Bradley kicked off the show by highlighting that the 10-year bond yield is hovering at ~4.25%. He noted this week’s economic calendar isn’t overly robust. WTI price has rallied ~$4/bbl over the last 4-5 days, trading back above $81/bbl and surpassing its 50/100/200-day moving averages. Whether you’re looking at 3mo, 6mo, 12mo or 24mo timeframe, WTI price has been relatively rangebound over those respective timeframes averaging ~$80/bbl and with crude oil volatility trading at multi-year lows. Broader equities continue to be driven by the recent drop in bond yields and a continuation of the strong AI/Tech rally. Broader equity market breadth continues to be extremely narrow, with the top six AI/Tech stocks (APPL, MSFT, NVDA, GOOG, AMZN & META) seeing their combined market-cap increase by $5T over the last year, pushing their combined market-cap to ~33% of the S&P 500. Jeff Tillery expanded on Mike’s thoughts on volatility, adding that the focus on commodity volatility will likely expand.
 
We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did! Thank you again to Reggie for stopping by. Go Owls!