[7][8] While working in the laboratory of physiologist Grover C. Stephens at the University of California, Irvine, he earned both a master's degree in biology in 1981 and a PhD.

[9][10][11] In 1982, while working with José Maria DeGuzman of Value Trading Company Inc. in Dagupan, he helped establish the first commercially successful farm for serranid grouper fish in the Philippines.

His research has led to refinements to the practice of managing shellfishery resources in coastal waters, estuaries and marine protected areas.

[17] Rice has made contributions the science of shellfishery management and to the growth of the aquaculture industry in Rhode Island,[18] and internationally,[19] including the Philippines,[20][21] Tanzania,[22] Georgia, Indonesia[23] and The Gambia.

[24][25] Working with Enrico Beridze of the Iberian Pontomarine Aquaculture Company, he introduced mussel farming to the Black Sea coast of Georgia.

[8] At the University of Rhode Island he served as Chairman of the Department of Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Science from 2000 to 2004, and Chairman/President of the URI Faculty Senate from 2005 to 2007,[3][29] and again from 2022 to 2023.

[30][31] Rice has served from 1999 to 2000 as the president of the Tavern Hall Club, a not-for-profit organization in Kingston, RI dedicated to the preservation of the historic (1738) Elisha Reynolds House as a community meeting place and social center.

[39] In 2008, upon the decision of incumbent Rep. John Patrick Shanley (D-South Kingstown) not to run for a fifth term in the Rhode Island House of Representatives, Rice ran and was challenged by Republican James K. Haldeman for the open seat.