The collaborative environment at Rice was critical to the development of nanotechnology, having facilitated the work of two Nobel laureates who discovered buckminsterfullerene. Rice’s culture of collaboration has minimized barriers between research areas for decades. Chemistry faculty members hold appointments in four of the six departments in the School of Natural Sciences and in six departments in the School of Engineering. Rice chemists do not take a prescribed set of courses, but construct an individualized curriculum consisting of any six courses in any area of science or engineering. This flexibility to customize courses is ideal for chemists who want to branch out into other areas and for people who want to move into chemistry from another discipline.