Virginia Tech is the first university to receive the CleanZone Level III Certification. Here is a press release from Tech:

The residents and employees of Virginia Tech’s residence halls can breathe a little easier knowing that their buildings are cleaned with responsible processes and systems, using only sustainable products that are free from harsh chemicals.

Virginia Tech is the first university to receive the CleanZone Level III Certification from JanPak Inc., the leading supplier of distinctive and responsible cleaning and packaging solutions to the building service contractor, property management, industrial, healthcare, and institutional markets. Read more »

Mark Alley

David Notter

Two professors from Virginia Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences have been recognized for their teaching and research contributions to the agriculture industry. Here is a press release from Tech:

Marcus M. Alley of Blacksburg, Va., and David R. Notter of Blacksburg, Va., received Andy Swiger Land-Grant Awards for their contributions to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech.

Established to reward creative achievement and commitment to the college, the award recognizes faculty members whose accomplishments in teaching, research, or Extension greatly benefit the agriculture industry and improve the quality of life for Virginians. Read more »

Kerry Redican (left), Susan West Marmagas (center), and Dr. François Elvinger, discuss curriculum for Virginia Tech's new Master's of Public Health program, due to launch later this month.

Virginia Tech plans to offer a  Masters degree in Public Health. Here is a press release from the university:

Virginia Tech has launched a new Master of Public Health program as the United States and, in particular, Southwest Virginia and the greater Appalachian region face a critical shortage of trained public health professionals.

The 42-credit professional degree program, which offers concentrations in public health education and infectious disease, integrates and significantly expands public health opportunities at the university. The program is administered through the new Population Health Sciences Department (http://www.mph.vetmed.vt.edu/) in the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine (http://www.vetmed.vt.edu/) and was developed in collaboration with the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. Read more »

The Chancellor of the Virginia Community College System is holding a town hall meeting at Central Virginia Community College next Wednesday. Here is a press release from CVCC:

Glenn DuBois, Chancellor of the Virginia Community College System (VCCS), will hold a Chancellor’s Town Hall Meeting at Central Virginia Community College from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, September 8. The meeting will be held in the multipurpose room of Merritt Hall, rooms 5122-25.

The event is one of a series of town hall meetings held around the state to discuss the work of the VCCS reengineering task force. Entitled “Change Agenda with a Student-first Focus,” the draft of ideas and accompanying discussion will help to shape the future agenda of Virginia’s community colleges.

Ferrum College has increased its enrollment numbers for the fifth year in a row, growing closer to 1,500 students. Here is a press release from the College: Read more »

Thurmon Lockhart

Engineering professor Thurmon Lockhart has been chosen to serve on a National Institutes of Health review board. Here is a press release from Tech:

Thurmon Lockhart, an associate professor with the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech’s Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (http://www.ise.vt.edu/main/index.php), has been invited to serve a five-year term on the Center for Scientific Review’s Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation Sciences Study Section at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Read more »

Janis Terpenny

Engineering professor Janis Terpenny has been appointed as program director of the National Science Foundation. Here is a press release from Tech:

Janis Terpenny (http://www.me.vt.edu/people/faculty/terpenny.html), professor of engineering education (http://www.enge.vt.edu/) and mechanical engineering (http://www.me.vt.edu/) in the Virginia Tech College of Engineering, has been appointed as a program director for the National Science Foundation.

Beginning Aug. 30, Terpenny will serve as program director for the Division of Undergraduate Education, Directorate for Education and Human Resources at the National Science Foundation (http://www.nsf.gov/). She will work in programs advocating science, technology, engineering and math; as well as cyber service programs. Read more »

Virginia Tech has been awarded almost $35 million in funds for 91 research projects from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act since it was passed last year. Here is a press release from Tech:

Virginia Tech faculty members have been awarded $28,689,393 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) in fiscal year 2010 (ending June 30, 2010) to support 76 research projects. Awards since the act was passed in February 2009 total $34,561,554 for 91 projects.

The funds help support students and staff working on the projects and have enabled purchase of major research instrumentation, said Robert Walters, vice president for research at Virginia Tech. For example, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded two major research instrumentation grants, one for $2 million to acquire a versatile heterogeneous supercomputer (http://www.eng.vt.edu/news/article.php?niid=2377), and one for $ 661,240 to develop an instrument that measures the nanoscale forces involved in the motion of molecules in fluids, which will improve the understanding of motion of complex fluids, including biomolecules. Read more »

Janine Hiller

Virginia Tech business professor Janine Hiller has been named a Fulbright Scholar and Distinguished Chair. Here is a press release from Tech:

Janine Hiller (http://www.finance.pamplin.vt.edu/faculty/jsh/index.html), professor of business law in the Pamplin College of Business (http://www.pamplin.vt.edu/), has received a Fulbright Scholar grant and the Fulbright-Lund Distinguished Chair of International Public Law. She will spend the 2010 fall semester in Sweden, at Lund University’s Raoul Wallenberg Institute of International Human Rights Law. Read more »

The award winning Virginia Tech aerospace engineering team.

A team of Virginia Tech engineering students has won a competition to design a system to send two astronauts to an asteroid. Here is a press release from the university:

Virginia Tech’s design of a reliable and cost effective system to send a minimum of two astronauts to a Near Earth Asteroid and return them safely to earth has won the team first place in the 2010 American Institute of Aerospace and Aeronautics (AIAA) Team Space Transportation Design Competition.

The Virginia Tech engineering students called themselves Team COLBERT, an acronym for Close Object Landing by Earth Research Team. They named the mission Athena after the Greek goddess of wisdom, due to the amount of insight into the history of the universe that would be gained from the asteroid samples brought back by the astronauts. Read more »