New $25,000 Award Program for Women in Science Working on Water Crisis |
The Story Exchange, an award-winning nonprofit media organization dedicated to elevating women's voices, is celebrating its 10th anniversary by launching the annual Women In Science Incentive Prize. The cash prize will support U.S.-based women working to find innovative, solutions in the area of climate change mitigation and adaptation. This year, the focus is on women leading efforts in water
The Story Exchange will award $5,000 incentive prizes and potential media coverage via The Story Exchange to 5 female scientists addressing climate change.
Application deadline: July 31.
Application and details about the program can be found here.
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Fralin Undergraduate Research Fellowship Accepting Applications! |
The Fralin Undergraduate Research Fellowship is a competitive award program that is open to all Virginia Tech undergraduates with a goal of increasing diversity in research. Fifteen (15) fellowships of $1,000 will be awarded annually to students demonstrating academic capability and a strong interest in undergraduate research, enabling them to conduct research with a faculty mentor over the course of one academic year.
Student Application Deadline: August 2, 2021 at 5pm EST.
Faculty Endorsement Deadline: August 5, 2021 at 5pm EST.
Application and details about the fellowship can be found here.
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FACULTY AND FELLOW SPOTLIGHT |
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Dr. Shuhai Xiao
- Department of Geosciences
GCC affiliate Shuhai Xiao is Professor of Geobiology in the Department of Geosciences at Virginia Tech. Shuhai's research group studies how the biosphere and its environments interacted at critical transitions in Earth history. Their work focuses on key evolutionary innovations such as the origin and early diversification of eukaryotes, multicellular organisms, and animals. His current research projects include the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition, as illustrated in this recently published article in Nature Communications. Shuhai is dedicated to Earth science education and regularly teaches undergraduate and graduate courses and engages in community outreach. Shuhai recently took part in an educational video called, "Life's Big Bang - The Story of the Cambrian Explosion" by the YouTube channel Evolution Soup. In the video, Shuhai answers the questions, what started the Cambrian radiation and what exactly is the preceding period known as the Ediacaran?
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Abby Lewis - Department of Biological Sciences
Abby began her Ph.D. in Department of Biological Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech under the advisement of Dr. Cayelan Carey in 2019. Before joining VT, she received her bachelor’s degree in Biology from Pomona College where she conducted research projects around the world studying several aspects of global change. Abby is studying how changing levels of oxygen in a reservoir affect freshwater carbon cycling. This research is particularly relevant right now because climate change, land use, and water management are altering oxygen levels in water bodies around the world. Abby is excited to pursue a career in lake ecology not only because she loves the process of doing research, but also because she sees freshwater research as a powerful opportunity for interface between science and society. Motivated by this same desire to connect science and society, Abby currently writes for the international blog Envirobites which translates scientific articles for a non-technical audience.
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Undergraduate Students Invited to Present at the 2021 Undergraduate Summer Research Symposium! |
Virginia Tech's Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) is hosting the annual VT Summer Research Symposium. This conference is aimed at offering participants in organized summer research programs and undergraduate researchers at large the opportunity to gain experience communicating their research. This virtual conference will host 5-minute video presentations with live discussion threads to enable attendees to interaction with the presenters.
Conference will take place Thursday, July 29, 2021 from 10am to 3pm
Student Application Deadline: July 19 at 5pm.
Conference Video Submission Deadline: July 26 at 9am.
Application and details about the conference can be found here.
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Funding opportunities: iTHRIV Pilot Grant RFP |
The integrated Translational Health Research Institute of Virginia (iTHRIV) is a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Program Hub. iTHRIV is a cross-Commonwealth collaboration between University of Virginia , Virginia Tech, Carilion Clinic, and the Inova Health System.
iTHRIV has two new funding opportunities!
Pilot Translational and Clinical Studies Program
The goal of the iTHRIV Pilot Studies Program is to support innovative approaches to clinical and translational research to foster collaborative research across the iTHRIV partner institutions.
Community Organization & Research Institution Partnership
This funding opportunity is specifically interested in applications that seek to reduce health disparities and improve health among communities that experience poorer health outcomes and have historically been excluded from opportunities to engage in research (e.g. racial/ethnic minorities, rural communities, women, low-income families).
Application Deadline: Monday, August 30 at 5pm EST.
Applications and details can be found here.
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Summer Camps at the Science Museum of Western Virginia |
Summer Camp Registration is still open!
The Science Museum of Western Virginia offers fully hands-on camps in a variety of STEAM subjects. Located in Downtown Roanoke, the facility is surrounded by innovation and inspiration to help campers gain a unique understanding of their opportunities for a promising STEAM career.
Science-based Summer Camps are essential in maintaining STEAM skills that are developed throughout the school term and often deplete over summer break. Attending fun and engaging Summer Camps results in marked improvements across all STEAM subjects when they return to school! Additionally, IGC Fellow Sara Teemer Richards will take part in leading group activiites as part of the program in August.
All Summer Camp Programs have a Rising K – 2nd Grade class, and a 3rd-5th Grade class.
Camps run from 9am-4pm, Monday-Friday, with the option of adding Before and After Care, running 8am-9am and 4pm-5pm, respectively.
Registration and details about the camps can be found here.
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2021 International Master Gardener Conference |
For the first time this year, the Virginia Cooperative Extension’s Master Gardener Program will host the 2021 International Master Gardener Conference (IMGC). The online event is open to members of the public and will be a fantastic opportunity to learn more about local and global gardening. The conference will include access to world-class gardening experts and various educational opportunities. Subjects will include a range of gardening subjects from soil health and pollinators to building community gardens.
Conference will take place virtually September 12-17.
Registration will be open through August 20th.
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GCC Affiliate Todd Schenk part of National Science Foundation-Funded Conservation Project
As temperatures and sea levels rise as a result of climate change, flora and fauna are migrating into new and unknown lands to survive. Just as animal and plant species are adapting to change, strategies of how we successfully engage in conservation needs to as well. With a grant from the National Science Foundation’s Dynamics of Integrated Socio-Environmental Systems program, GCC affiliate Todd Schenk co-leads an interdisciplinary team of researchers from Virginia Tech, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and the University of Southern California to help conservation agencies and other stakeholders across state and local boundaries to rethink biodiversity protection approaches for this new era of climate change.
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Students use Drones to Analyze Soil in Course led by GCC Affiliate |
Three Virginia Tech seniors researched how drones could identify soil moisture for a class project in course led by GCC affiliate and School of Plant and Environmental Sciences Professor Kang Xia. The course, Monitoring and Analysis of the Environment, introduces students to the central focus of Kang's research: understanding negative human impact on water and soil quality and strategies to remediate the negative impact. As a member of the Ecosystem Science and Management Community, Kang is committed to focusing on ecosystem level interactions across research, teaching, and extension missions, including undergraduate majors in Environmental Conservation and Society. For additional information on Kang's research, a recently published article on the presence of antibiotics in soil samples is available here.
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Can Tree Campaigns Curb Climate Change without Harming Grasslands? |
GCC affiliate and Assistant Professor at the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences Leighton Reid discusses whether campaigns for increased tree-planting can have unintended ecological consequences on native grasslands. As a restoration ecologist and head of Virginia Tech's Restoration Ecology Lab, Leighton's work focuses on improving outcomes for society and nature in ecosystems that are recovering from disturbance.
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GCC Affiliate John Jelesko Speaks on Poison Ivy Exposure
Still itching at that poison ivy rash from last weekend's hike? GCC faculty affiliate & Associate Professor at the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences John Jelesko provides advice on how to treat rashes from poisonous plants and how to avoid future exposure all together. The Jelesko lab studies plant metabolism responsible for producing valuable chemicals, particularly alkylphenolurushiol - the chemical responsible for the classic irritating rashes after contact with poison ivy/oak/sumac plants. More on John's current research can be found in this recently published article.
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GCC Affiliate Dana Hawley Lends Expertise on Mystery Illness Impacting Local Birds
Dana Hawley, GCC affiliate and Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, was recently interviewed about a mysterious illness effecting birds throughout Southwest Virginia. While the ailment has no definitive cause at this time, a handful of state facilities and university departments are testing collected birds to determine what pathogens are and are not verifiably present. As part of documenting the evolution of increasing virulence in a directly-transmitted pathogen (Mycoplasma gallisepticum) of North American house finches, Dana is lending her expertise to this growing issue. More reading on Dana's research can be found in this recently published article.
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Do you have an opportunity or announcement you'd like to share with the GCC community? Send us an email!
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