On Friday, September 22, The College of Arts and Sciences recognized Hall of Fame honorees, Rising Stars and Distinguished Alumni. Among the twenty-one Distinguished Alumni recognized was Dr. John Rice, the W. Brooks Fortune Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at Purdue University.  Dr. Rice earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in Mathematics from OSU in 1954 and 1956 before receiving his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology. During his time as an undergraduate in the OSU Math Department, Dr. Rice published "Electronic Brains"; a work that demonstrates his progression towards the computer sciences. In 1964, Dr. Rice joined the faculty at Purdue University as Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science. From 1983-1996 he served as the Department Head of the Computer Sciences Department.

Dr. Rice is founder of the ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software and is on several other editorial boards. He is the past chair of the Computing Research Association, a fellow of the AAAS and the ACM and he is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Dr. Rice has published 30 books including Solving Elliptic Problems with ELLPACK (1985), Mathematical Aspects of Scientific Software (1988), Expert Systems for Scientific Computing (North Holland, 1992) and Enabling Technologies for Computational Science (Kluwer, 2000). He has published over 300 journal articles and has 6 patents in computer security. Dr. Rice was honored as the Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1974 and the W. Brooks Fortune Distinguished Professor from 1989-2004.

The Department of Mathematics at Oklahoma State University is happy to join the College of Arts and Sciences in recognizing Dr. Rice's contribution to the fields of mathematics and computer science.