Bienvenue, nuovi Lovetteers! We (Matteo and Marie‐Nathalie) are looking forward to

welcoming you to the best college on the Rice campus! (ehm, you guessed right, this is Lovett). In addition to being your future residence, Lovett is a close‐knit community

with a vibrant intellectual and social life. You will soon find yourself contributing to all aspects of this wonderful environment. The “senior adults”—us, College Coordinator Sharon O’Leary, and Resident Associates Renee Laverdiere and Angel Marti—provide advice and guidance in all aspects of the life of the college and its students, often complementing informally the academic mission of the university. You may be wondering in whose hands the sorting hat placed you, so here are a few snippets of information about ourselves.

We both grew up in Gaul (Cisalpine and Transalpine) and speak a combined four languages—partly because some of our parents were born in Argentina. Yes, English is one of the four. Being separated by the Alps, we ignored each other during our undergraduate studies (in Bononia and Lutetia, respectively). We crossed the Pillars of Hercules independently to pursue our doctorates and stopped ignoring each other when we met outside the office of Matteo’s advisor at the University of Minnesota. We are both chemical engineers—a dominant gene in Matteo’s family.

Matteo is a professor of Chemical &

Biomolecular Engineering and

Chemistry. Matteo advises a vital

group of PhD students and postdocs

doing experimental and theoretical

research on complex fluids (think

mayo, ketchup, and silly putty) and

carbon nanotubes—read more at

www.owlnet.rice.edu/~mp if you are

nerdy enough. Some of Matteo’s

colleagues think that he’s actually a

disguised physicist or a closet

mathematician—they may be right.

Marie‐Nathalie is a research engineer

at INEOS, the third largest chemical

company in the world. Marie‐

Nathalie and her colleagues

manufacture building blocks used for

a variety of products, from car tires,

to plastic bags, to textiles and food packaging. Marie‐Nathalie serves as the interface

between the commercial and operations group at Chocolate Bayou Works. This place is so far out that it doesn’t even have a street address. Her vocabulary now includes foreign words like “buying spot”, “PIMS”, “Score Furnaces”, etc., so don’t worry if you don’t understand her at times. Matteo also uses strange words (nanotubes, rheology, ARPACK, etc.); if you learn them, you’ll fit right in with the Rice S/Es.

What do we like? We both enjoy reading; our library includes Bulgakov, Oscar Wilde,

existentialists (Sartre, Camus), poetes maudits (Rimbaud, Leopardi), historical novels,

and such classics as Harry Potter, Asterix, and the Far Side. On the movie shelf you will find Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, The Godfather (all three, of course), many Italian (with subtitles) and French (sorry, no subtitles) movies, and, prominently displayed, the complete Monty Python collection. Matteo occasionally plays guitar (Marie‐Nathalie prefers that you don’t ask him to play the mandolin). We like modern art and architecture—we think that the

Lovett College architecture is very

cool. We like traveling (islands are

our favorite destinations), opera,

theater, music, and getting together

with friends for conversation, food,

and (yes!) wine. Matteo also likes

sports (both playing and watching).

We don’t have children (yet).

This will be our first year as Lovett Masters: we are very excited about this new

adventure and we look forward to learning together with you!

— MP & MNCC