C. Fred Higgs III, Ph.D.

Faculty Director, Rice Center for Engineering Leadership
John and Ann Doerr Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Vice Provost for Academic Affairs

Fred Higgs is John and Ann Doerr Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Professor of Bioengineering, and Faculty Director of the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership (RCEL). He joined RCEL as Faculty Director in July 2016 following an international search, and was named Vice Provost for Academic Affairs for Rice University in 2018. His Particle Flow & Tribology Lab studies Industry 4.0 technologies, such as additive manufacturing, machine learning, simulation-based engineering, and digital twins, to understand particle-laden tribological systems. A father to three, he is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and a 2023 Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).

Education

• Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (2001)

• M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1997)

• B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Tennessee State University (1995)

“We wanted to find a program that would take the amazing talent that there is at Rice and challenge it. Kick it up a notch so that ... the genius of Rice students to understand and solve problems could be amplified... Those interests of ours, married with the vision of Rice faculty, which has always valued undergraduate education, allowed us together to come up with this Center for Engineering Leadership.”

In 2010, John and Ann Doerr, ’73 and ’75, respectively, wanted to create engineering leadership at Rice University. Through their generous gift, the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership was formed.

John Doerr is a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, engineer, and author, best known as Chairman of Kleiner Perkins, where he backed giants like Google and Amazon. Ann Doerr serves on the Board of Environmental Defense Fund and is Chairman of Khan Academy. She is also a Trustee Emerita of Rice University. In 2015, the Doerrs extended their support of leadership at Rice University through a $50 million gift to establish the Ann and John Doerr Institute for New Leaders. The Institute will promote leadership across the curriculum, giving each student the chance to develop into an effective leader.