#30 Rice University (Brown)

The George R. Brown School of Engineering is an academic school at Rice University in Houston, Texas. It contains the departments of Bioengineering, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computational and Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Materials Scienceand NanoEngineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Statistics. Engineering has been part of Rice’s curriculum since the university’s founding in 1912, but the school was not established as its own unit until 1975.

In its earliest days, Rice offered courses in chemical, civil, mechanical and electrical engineering. Over the years, the engineering program grew, and in 1975 the George R. Brown School of Engineering was established, and named after George R. Brown, a major donor and leader of Brown & Root Inc. Presently, the school comprises nine academic departments and includes 16 research institutes and centers. One third of Rice’s students are engineering majors.