Three Rice Engineering alumni named 2025 Laureates Awards Honorees

Three alumni of the George R. Brown School of Engineering and Computing were among those named the 2025 Rice University Laureates Award recipients. The Laureates Awards Program was created by the Association of Rice Alumni in 1937 to recognize distinguished alumni for their extraordinary achievements and contributions to their professions, local communities, and Rice University.

The late Robert ‘Bob’ Maxfield ’63 ’64 is the recipient of the 2025 Gold Medal, the highest award given by the Association of Rice Alumni to recognize an alumnus for their extraordinary service to the university.

Maxfield earned his B.A. and B.S. in electrical engineering from Rice and later received his M.S. and Ph.D. from Stanford University. A distinguished engineer, technology pioneer, and philanthropist, his work placed Rice at the forefront of scientific innovation and education. In 1969, Maxfield and three other Rice graduates founded the ROLM Corporation, which became a Fortune 500 company that revolutionized the telecommunications and computing industries, as well as influenced what we know today as the culture of Silicon Valley.

A lifelong advocate for science and education, Maxfield founded the Maxfield Foundation to channel his support for high-impact projects, including Rice University’s OpenStax, a revolutionary initiative to provide free, high-quality textbooks. As one of its earliest investors and a longtime strategic advisor, Maxfield played an essential role in making education more accessible and affordable for millions of students worldwide. Moreover, his generous gift of $5 million was instrumental in the refurbishment of the oldest building on Rice campus to Maxfield Hall, which is now the home for the Department of Statistics.

Maxfield’s unwavering service to Rice included providing expertise as a member of the Rice Board of Trustees from 1994 to 2012, heading the finance committee for many years, and helping shape the university’s endowment and technology transfer strategies. He was a prominent member of leadership committees for both the Rice: The Next Century Campaign and the campaign to build Duncan Hall, and a member of the George R. Brown School of Engineering and Computing Advisory Board until his death. 

Frank Liu ’78 is the recipient of the 2025 Meritorious Service Award, which recognizes alumni who have rendered significant and sustained voluntary contributions and commendable service towards the advancement of the university. A visionary entrepreneur, Liu is a steadfast benefactor and advocate of Rice University. His philanthropic efforts have touched countless lives, embodying the university’s ideals of excellence, service, and innovation.

After earning a civil engineering degree from Rice, Liu co-founded several companies such as Lovett Homes, Lovett Commercial, InTown Homes and Lovett Industrial that shaped Texas’ real estate landscape through retail, office and industrial projects worth billions.

Liu has generously channeled his successes to advance Rice’s culture of enterprise and student innovation. He helped establish the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Lilie), fostering a vibrant ecosystem of creativity and collaboration across the Rice community. The lab enrolls more than 1,600 students annually and has supported the creation of 100-plus ventures in the last year alone.

Liu’s generosity has also strengthened the university’s academic landscape through the Frank Liu Distinguished Visitor Series at the Chao Center for Asian Studies. In addition, he has remained actively engaged as a Lovett College Community Associate for more than 15 years and has provided valuable mentorship and internship opportunities for Rice students. He also supports numerous initiatives in education, healthcare and community development across Houston through the Frank Liu Family Foundation.

Thomas Benford ’00 is the recipient of the 2025 Distinguished Alumni Awards, which honors alumni who have advanced the interest and standards of excellence of Rice University through distinctive professional or volunteer careers. An exemplary student-athlete who received double degrees in economics and computational and applied mathematics, Benford’s legacy of excellence and entrepreneurship stretches far and wide.

Benford began his career in investment banking at J.P. Morgan Chase, followed by key financial and strategic roles at Halliburton. Leveraging his experiences as a corporate leader and entrepreneur, Benford played a pivotal role in acquiring assets from The Coca-Cola Company in 2015 to launch Coke Florida, a multi-billion bottling enterprise. Rising through the ranks, he was named president and chief operating officer in 2021. Today, he leads a team of over 5,000 employees serving 21 million consumers and delivering 119 million cases of beverages annually. Under his leadership, Coke Florida, one of the largest Black-owned businesses in the country, has been recognized as a best-managed company and a model corporate partner.

Benford’s drive for economic empowerment extends beyond his corporate role. He has co-founded ventures such as Benford-Kalu Investments and iProtest, a property tax protest firm, and was recently appointed to the board of the Tampa Bay Economic Development Council.

The Laureates Awards will be formally presented at the Association of Rice Alumni reception and dinner at the Post Oak Hotel in Houston on May 8. More information and tickets available online.