$3.4 million grant awarded for oil spill study
Researchers from the College of Natural Resources and Environment received a $3.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior to study the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on piping plovers, shorebirds that have been listed as threatened since 1986. Anticipating the spill's implications for the plover population, the team began work on the grant application within days of the explosion that caused the oil spill. When completed, the research will provide data litigators can use to base settlements for damage lawsuits.
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Plagiarism sleuths tackle full-text biomedical articles
Researchers at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute and collaborators have shown that a computer-based text-searching tool is capable of unearthing potential plagiarism from among thousands of full-text papers in biomedical literature. Using a computer program called eTBLAST, researchers examined 72 full-text articles to find that the introduction and methods sections of papers tend to be the most similar. Now ethicists will be able to analyze the findings to develop publishing guidelines.
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Five students selected as ACC Undergraduate Research Scholars
Five undergraduate students have been selected as 2010-11 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Undergraduate Research Scholars. The scholars receive a $2,000 award for research expenses such as supplies, travel, and the use of specialized research services. Charles Baker, Ritesh K C, Bryan Murray, Ryan Prest, and Sarah Webster were selected based on their ambitious research projects.
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College launches Leadership Institute
The College of Natural Resources and Environment launched a new program to develop leadership abilities in top students and help prepare them for a future in managing natural resources for sustainability and biodiversity. The Leadership Institute is a two-semester, special-study sequence in which students with demonstrated leadership skills and academic ability will strengthen their talents through in-class discussion and hands-on leadership projects. The students will also travel to Richmond, Va., and Washington, D.C., to meet with leaders and policymakers in the field of natural resources.
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Farrier participates in World Equestrian Games
Travis Burns, farrier at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, served as an official farrier at the 2010 World Equestrian Games in Lexington, Ky. Held every four years, the games are comprised of eight equestrian sports. Burns was chosen to participate after being selected by the American Farriers Association. The selection process included a rigorous application to ensure that the farriers were qualified for and capable of maintaining the hooves of the world-class horses participating in the international event.
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Engineering Expo draws 240 companies to campus
Hosted by the Student Engineers' Council, the annual Engineering Expo in September drew more than 240 companies and government agencies to campus to meet students seeking jobs, internships, or face-time with representatives. The same week, The Wall Street Journal released a survey ranking Virginia Tech 13th in the nation among colleges favored by recruiting employers and fifth in the nation by engineering recruiters.
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Student Engineers' Council reaches $500,000 endowment, continues job expo efforts
Researchers contribute to turkey-genome sequencing
An international consortium of researchers has completed sequencing and assembling 90 percent of the domesticated turkey genome, thanks in part to the efforts of Virginia Tech faculty members. The majority of data is derived from the 10 largest chromosomes (macrochromosomes); researchers are still searching for the best route to sequence the remaining microchromosomes. The genome sequence will provide new data to help scientists identify specific genes that influence meat yield and quality, health and disease resistance, fertility and reproduction, and, ultimately, higher-quality turkeys for producers and consumers.
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Scholarship initiative supports 97 students
The number of low-income Virginia residents able to attend Virginia Tech at no cost under the university's Presidential Scholarship Initiative has grown to 97 in the program's second year. The recipients are top performers, boasting an average high school GPA of 3.97 and an average SAT score of 1205. A 2.75 GPA is required of students in the program. All but two students who received scholarships under the initiative in 2009-10 were still in the program at the start of the fall 2010 term.
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Students start university's first student-veterans organization
Two students have started Veterans@VT to address the challenges of entering college following military service. U.S. Army veteran Gino Vivalda and U.S. Navy veteran Zack Mayo launched the organization to provide a social, academic, and career network for students who share a common bond as veterans. Because of the post-Sept. 11 GI Bill, colleges are seeing increasing numbers of veterans and are focusing on veterans' needs.
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McNair wins grant to enrich graduate student portfolios
Lisa McNair, assistant professor in the College of Engineering, was awarded a $403,000 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development grant to help engineering graduate students develop as reflective practitioners by using e-portfolios to enrich their careers. Posted online, e-portfolios include a mixture of scholarly teaching, research papers, video, and links to research-related blogs, podcasts, and PowerPoint presentations to paint a highly personal narrative of a person's professional experiences.
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Pamplin receives Dominion Foundation gift
The Pamplin College of Business has received a $40,000 gift from the Dominion Foundation to help students with their career searches. The gift will be used to create a web application to match students with their ideal employer and employers with their ideal recruits. The college was among 16 higher education institutions in the state to receive gifts from the Dominion Foundation for projects that focus on work-force knowledge and skills and energy conservation.
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Professor discovers new tuberculosis pathogen
Kathleen Alexander, associate professor of wildlife in the College of Natural Resources and Environment, discovered a novel tuberculosis species in the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex, pathogens that have adapted by using mammals as hosts. Alexander discovered that banded mongooses—a species common in central and eastern Africa—living closely with humans in northern Botswana were dying from a mysterious, tuberculosis-like disease. Currently, Alexander and student researchers are intensively studying the behavior and ecology of the mongoose population and this new pathogen across both urban and protected- area environments in Botswana.
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Veterinary students study food systems, agricultural production in Italy
Jacque Pelzer of the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine led a group of students to Italy for a 16-day course. The purpose of the summer 2010 trip was to expose students to sustainable agriculture methods used in Italy and to evaluate differences between the American and Italian approaches to veterinary education and agricultural systems. Additionally, the students explored Renaissance art and the remains of the Roman Empire while learning about economic and political systems in modern Italy.
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Corps commandant announces retirement
In July, Maj. Gen. Jerrold P. Allen, U.S. Air Force (retired), will retire as commandant for the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets. During Allen's 12 years as commandant, and the corps has experienced significant enrollment growth. Allen also played a key role the corps' leadership program while fostering an environment focused on academic success, resulting in a corps GPA of 3.03 for spring 2010. He also emphasized outreach, leading the corps to perform more than 9,700 hours of service in 2009-10.
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Poultry Science Association honors two faculty members
Paul Ruszler, Extension poultry specialist emeritus, and Rami Dalloul, assistant professor, both of the Department of Animal and Poultry Sciences in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, were honored by the Poultry Science Association (PSA) during its annual meeting. Ruszler was elected a PSA Fellow, the association's highest honor, recognizing members for professional distinction and contributions to the field. Dalloul received the PSA Early Achievement Award for Research. The award recognizes PSA members in the early stages of their poultry research careers.
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Army grant seeks to develop more scientists and engineers
By way of a $17.2 million U.S. Army grant, Virginia Tech and its partners will determine programs that best train teachers and prepare children in fifth grade and up. Competitions, internships, mentoring, and science fairs are among the high-profile Army-sponsored activities. The Army Educational Outreach Program piques student interest early, encouraging more college students to choose science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines. Virginia Tech will guide the program through three important milestones: marketing, data collection, and measurement.
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Virginia Tech rises in research rankings
With nearly $400 million in research expenditures in fiscal year 2009, Virginia Tech is now ranked 44th in the annual National Science Foundation report documenting research expenditures at 697 academic institutions. Virginia Tech ranked 46th in 2008. The university reported $396.7 million in expenditures for the year ending June 30, 2009, an increase of more than $23 million over 2008. The latest figures mark a five-year period of tremendous growth at Tech: In 2004, the university reported $268.8 million in research expenditures.
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Get info on the go with the new Hokie Mobile app
Virginia Tech released its first application for use on the iPhone and iPod Touch. The free app, called Hokie Mobile, provides users with campus news, events, maps, and a directory search. Setting Hokie Mobile apart from other university applications is the ability for students, alumni, staff, and faculty to use their Virginia Tech PID to log in and access personalized information, such as their current courses or university account balances.
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Human brain research begins at new institute
Leading brain researcher P. Read Montague joined the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute as a senior professor and will lead programs in neuroimaging and the new field of computational psychiatry. Montague is organizing and heading the Roanoke Brain Study, a cradle-to-grave effort to understand the neural basis of human decision-making and its impact on health. Brain scanners around the world will be linked to the institute's informational hub in Roanoke. Montague will develop human neuroimaging studies of decision-making and social cognition throughout the lifespan under normal conditions and in a wide variety of neuropsychiatric disorders in children and adults. Significant research equipment, including two magnetic resonance imaging machines, has been moved into the facility for the brain study and other research programs.
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Research brain scanners arrive at Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute
Virginia Cooperative Extension announces plan to restructure
Alan Grant, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, announced a plan to restructure Virginia Cooperative Extension to better meet the needs of its clientele and to address a cumulative budget reduction of $10.3 million since 2007 for Extension and the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station. The restructuring plan provides an infrastructure that will enable Extension to fulfill its land-grant mission and preserve delivery of critical programs related to agriculture and natural resources, youth development, and families and communities.
"This plan allows Virginia Cooperative Extension to reduce costs, maintain a local presence across the commonwealth, and continue to provide high-quality, science-based educational programming for Virginia. This will allow us to shift resources to the highest-priority needs of the state and localities," Grant said.
The design and delivery of educational programs will be determined by issue-based program teams. Area program leaders will train, supervise, and mentor the Extension educators (formerly known as Extension agents). The plan also consolidates Extension's administrative field staff into a regional structure.
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