For the fourth straight year, the University of Virginia School of Medicine has received the Health Professions Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine.

As a recipient of the Health Professions HEED Award – a national honor recognizing U.S. medical, dental, pharmacy, osteopathic, nursing and allied health schools that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion – the School of Medicine will be featured, along with 30 other recipients, in the December issue of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, the oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education.

INSIGHT Into Diversity selected the School of Medicine based on the institution’s success on how it values, engages and includes diverse faculty, staff, students, patients and suppliers.

Beyond a short-term project or a narrow initiative, UVA’s School of Medicine has a comprehensive approach that promotes the fundamental transformation of the school’s culture by embedding and practicing inclusion in every effort, aspect and level of the institution.

“The Health Professions HEED Award process consists of a comprehensive and rigorous application that includes questions relating to the recruitment and retention of students and employees – and best practices for both, continued leadership support for diversity, and other aspects of campus diversity and inclusion,” said Lenore Pearlstein, publisher of INSIGHT Into Diversity. “We take a holistic approach to reviewing each application in deciding who will be named a HEED Award recipient. Our standards are high, and we look for institutions where diversity and inclusion are woven into the work being accomplished every day across their campus.”

UVA’s Landscape Architecture Program Earns International Recognition

The School of Architecture won top honors at the ninth European Landscape Biennial, held Sept. 29 to Oct. 1 in Barcelona, hosted by the Association of Architects of Catalonia and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia.

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An international jury selected UVA’s entry – which comprised nine projects, including five from its “Recentering Delhi” initiative­– as the winner of the International Prize for University Projects.

Projects were selected on the basis of originality, methodological rigor and innovation potential. The jury narrowed the original 10 finalists to UVA and the University of Pennsylvania; UVA emerged as the winner for adhering closest to the biennial’s theme of “Tomorrow’s Landscapes,” which stressed innovation for the future, said Iñaki Alday, Quesada Professor of Architecture, who attended the biennial.

Selected projects were part of an exhibition at the Technical School Superior of Architecture of Barcelona that remains on view through Oct. 19. The exhibition will move through several European universities afterward.

Artificial Pancreas Researcher Honored in His Hometown

Dr. Daniel R. Chernavvsky, an assistant professor of research in psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences affiliated with UVA’s Center for Diabetes Technology, has received the “Personalidad Destacada de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires en el Ámbito de las Ciencias Médicas (Outstanding Personality of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires in the Field of Medical Sciences)” award from the city of Buenos Aires for his work on the artificial pancreas.

He received the tribute Sept. 20 from Argentinian Congresswoman Claudia Calciano during a ceremony in the Argentine Legislature’s Eva Peron Hall in Buenos Aires.

Chernavvsky, a native of Argentina, visited with two other UVA faculty members, Marc Breton and Boris Kovatchev,­ the latter being the director of the Center for Diabetes Technology and one of the pioneers of the artificial pancreas technology. Chernavvsky and colleagues from Harvard University and the University of Padova, Italy presented the research behind the technology at an academic conference, and the UVA trio stayed on to set up a collaboration with Argentine institutions to conduct the first clinical trial of the artificial pancreas held in South America.

Becker’s Hospital Review Honors UVA Medical Center CEO

Pamela M. Sutton-Wallace, chief executive officer of UVA Medical Center, was recently named as one of “12 female CEOs making their mark in health care” by Becker’s Hospital Review, a national health care publication.

“As CEOs, these 12 women have positively impacted their hospitals and health systems, and the greater health care industry,” according to Becker’s.

Sutton-Wallace has served as UVA Medical Center’s CEO since July 2014. Earlier this year, she was recognized as one of “10 Minority Executives to Watch” by Modern Healthcare and among the Top Blacks in Healthcare by BlackDoctor.org.

“Adding to her hospital industry expertise, Ms. Sutton-Wallace also has a strong grasp of the pharmaceutical, insurance and research industries,” Becker’s said in its overview of her achievements.

Keisha John Wins Diversity Role Model Award

For creating new programs designed to increase minority student interest in research and scholarship, Keisha A. John, director of diversity programs in UVA’s Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs, has been named a National Role Model by Minority Access Inc.

John collaborates with various UVA offices to lead and coordinate University-wide activities designed to recruit, mentor and foster success among a diverse body of graduate and professional students, as well as postdoctoral scholars, especially those from underrepresented groups.

“Since her arrival to UVA in 2015, Keisha has played a key role in creating several new programs designed to increase minority participation,” wrote Dr. Marcus Martin, UVA vice president and chief officer for diversity and equity, in his letter of nomination.

Working with the Leadership Alliance, a national group devoted to increasing the minority population in academia and the workforce, John brought to the Grounds the Leadership Alliance Mellon Initiative, an eight-week national summer fellowship program devoted to increasing the number of demographically underrepresented students pursuing graduate studies in the humanities, education and social sciences.

This summer, she implemented the First Year Research Experience program in partnership with the University’s Office for Diversity and Equity and the Virginia-North Carolina Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation. In its inaugural year, 20 students from minority-serving institutions across the nation participated, conducting research with chemistry or physics professors.

Minority Access Inc., a nonprofit organization that gives the annual award to a select group of faculty, administrators, students and other leaders, honored this year’s awardees at the 17th National Role Models Conference, held Sept. 30 to Oct. 2 in Washington, D.C.

UVA Doctor Earns Prestigious Faculty Development Award

Dr. Shannon Moonah of the School of Medicine has received the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program Award, offered to faculty members of historically disadvantaged backgrounds with the intention of helping them achieve a senior rank in academic medicine and, in turn, furthering diversity in the realm of medicine.

Award recipients serve as a support network and role models for underrepresented populations as they progress through academic medicine. Moonah joins three other previous winners at UVA’s School of Medicine, including the school’s dean, Dr. David S. Wilkes.

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“I am truly honored that I was selected for this award and am so humbled to be in such an elite company,” Moonah said. “The award is a reflection of the strong mentorship that I have and continue to receive.”

The award essentially functions as a four-year grant and helps about a dozen recipients advance their careers as physician-scientists.

Moonah is completing a fellowship – a more specialized training after residency – in infectious disease. He plans to continue his research in parasitology, investigating the immune response and the effects of the immune system in contributing to the disease processes occurring in the body while under attack.   

American Chemical Society to Honor Mass Spectrometry Innovator Donald Hunt

The American Chemical Society has named chemist Donald F. Hunt, a University Professor and a pioneer in the field of mass spectrometry, as the winner of its 2017 ACS Award in Analytical Chemistry. The award will be presented in April at the society’s annual national meeting, to be held in San Francisco.

Mass spectrometry is a powerful analytical technique that is used to identify unknown compounds, to quantify known materials and to determine the sequence of amino acid building blocks that define proteins in the human body. Its applications have led to advances in all fields of science, especially immunology, cell signaling, drug development, epigenetics and immunotherapy of cancer.

Hunt came to UVA in 1968 and became a pioneer in developing techniques for using mass spectrometry to study organic molecules of biological interest. He is widely recognized for developing mass spectrometry instrumentation and methods for amino acid sequence analysis of the several hundred thousand proteins in the human body.

In 2014, Hunt was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. A member of the UVA Cancer Center, he received UVA’s Distinguished Scientist Award in 2010 and the School of Medicine Dean’s Award for Excellence in Team Science with Victor Engelhard and Dr. Craig Slingluff in 2012.

Hunt, who as of 2014 had published more than 3,500 articles, has sent more than 100 former graduate and postdoctoral students into academics and into leading positions in the field of mass spectrometry, in addition to teaching organic chemistry to more than 14,000 premedical students. Listed as a co-inventor on more than 25 patents and patent applications, he has co-written more than 350 scholarly publications and ranks among the top 130 most highly cited chemists in the world.

Tax Assistance Program Run by UVA Law Students Wins ABA Award

Students at the UVA School of Law have been recognized by the American Bar Association with the 2016 Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Award for leading University efforts to help taxpayers prepare their own returns.

Each year, the Law School’s VITA program collaborates with other students on Grounds through Madison House, UVA’s student volunteer center, to help low- and moderate-income clients, who are a mix of community members, University employees and students. In the process, VITA gives law students experience working directly with clients and provides substantive knowledge of tax law.

UVA’s VITA outreach helped about 800 clients on their 2015 tax returns – about 30 percent of ABA’s local-coalition efforts, which are coordinated by the United Way Thomas Jefferson Area.

“This award is a wonderful recognition of volunteers’ dedication and commitment to the VITA program, and the tremendous support that it receives from UVA Law School, the UVA Human Resources Department – which provides dedicated space for the consultations – and United Way,” said Jacob Aronson, a 2016 Law School graduate who served as the VITA chapter’s president last year.

New for the 2015-16 school year, the Law School began a collaboration with students in the Darden School of Business to increase the number of volunteers. In addition to the extra help from MBA students, the number of Law School volunteers surged from 32 to 48. Undergraduate volunteers continued to be an important factor in the group’s efforts.

UVA Named to 100 Great Neurosurgery and Spine Programs List

Becker’s Hospital Review selected the UVA Neurosciences Center at the UVA Medical Center for its most recent list of “100 hospitals and health systems with great neurosurgery and spine programs.” 

Health systems earning the award “are remarkable leaders in neurosciences, providing treatment for patients with various brain and spine conditions,” according to the national health care publication. 

“This honor reflects the efforts of our team to provide cutting-edge, high-quality care in a range of specialties,” said Dr. Mark Shaffrey, chair of UVA’s Department of Neurosurgery. 

According to Becker’s, award winners were chosen based on rankings and awards from several outside groups. UVA’s neurology and neurosurgery programs were rated “high performing” by U.S. News & World Report. BlueCross BlueShield has named the UVA Spine Center a Blue Distinction Center for spine surgery, which according to the Blue Cross website means UVA meets quality measures for patient safety and outcomes. 

In its overview, Becker’s highlighted the array of specialty care available at UVA Neurosciences Center, including neuro-oncology, a stroke center, a spine center that performs more than 1,500 procedures annually and care for neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS and Alzheimer’s.

UVA’s Timely, Quality Heart Attack Care Earns National Award

For meeting national standards to help provide fast care and improve outcomes for heart attack patients, the UVA Health System has received an American College of Cardiology award. 

UVA received the NCDR ACTION Registry-GWTG Platinum Performance Achievement Award for 2016. According to the American College of Cardiology, the award highlights UVA’s “commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care for heart attack patients,” including patients who suffer a severe heart attack called a ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction, or STEMI. 

To earn the award, UVA consistently met clinical guidelines and recommendations from the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association for treating heart attack patients.

UVA Heart & Vascular Center and emergency medicine staff credit the award to a team effort that includes local rescue squads, the Emergency Department, the Cardiac Catheterization lab and inpatient cardiology units.

Dr. David R. Burt, an emergency medicine physician and director of the UVA Chest Pain Center, highlighted the work of UVA’s quality improvement team who analyze data and identify areas where UVA’s team can enhance care. Recent improvement efforts have included better communication with rescue squads to bring heart attack patients directly to the Cardiac Catheterization lab for treatment, as well as more patient referrals to cardiac rehabilitation and a specialized post-heart attack clinic as part of their recovery. 

Nursing Historians Earn National Honors

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UVA School of Nursing professors Arlene Keeling and Barbra Mann Wall were lauded at the recent 33^rd annual American Association for the History of Nursing conference in Chicago.

The duo won the Mary M. Roberts Award for outstanding original research and writing for their book, “Nurses and Disasters: Global Historical Case Studies,” and Wall also won the Lavinia L. Dock Award for outstanding research and writing for “Into Africa: A Transnational History of Catholic Medical Missions and Social Change.”

Two UVA doctoral nursing students, Sandra Lewenson and Brigid Lusk, along with mentor Keeling, won the Mary Adelaide Nutting Award for their publication in Nursing Outlook magazine, “Using nursing history to inform decision-making: Infectious diseases at the turn of the 20^th century.”


Alumna Michele Hehman, who earned her Ph.D. in May, won the Teresa E. Christy Award, given to new nursing history investigators, for “Once seen, never forgotten: Nursing, ethics and technology in early premature infant care in the US, 1898-1943.”

ACES Inducts Suzanne Morse Moomaw

The Academy of Community Engagement Scholarship inducted Suzanne Morse Moomaw, associate professor of urban and environmental planning in the School of Architecture and director of UVA’s Community Design Research Center, as a member during a ceremony held Sept. 26 at the International Association for Research on Service-learning and Community Engagement’s annual conference in New Orleans.

Patricia M. Sobrero, president of the ACES Board of Directors, recognized Moomaw’s lifetime commitment to civic engagement and service-driven teaching, research and practice with communities and constituencies outside the University.

The Engagement Scholarship Consortium seeks to provide expertise to policymakers, higher education institutions and organizations, community leaders and national and international entities interested in addressing complex societal issues through the effective engagement of higher education with community members and organizations.

The academy noted both Moomaw’s research and practice, in particular her extensive contributions to the pedagogy of engagement. Her monograph, “Renewing Civic Capacity: Preparing College Students for Service and Citizenship,” was considered a plan of action for institutions that want to reinvigorate their civic mission. She founded The Public Leadership Education project, funded by the Exxon Educational Foundation, which engaged college and university faculty from a multitude of disciplines in identifying teaching methodologies that enforce and develop civic skills.

The committee also recognized Moomaw’s research trajectory in the documentation of community best practices, profiled in her latest book, “Smart Communities: How Citizens and Local Leaders Can Use Strategic Thinking to Build a Brighter Future.”

In supporting the nomination, Sherry Magill, president of the Jessie Ball Dupont Fund, said, “the Fund is one of the hundreds of foundations, community groups, and policy groups that have benefitted and applied this research. The Fund has continued to work with and learn from Suzanne’s research and experience since she has been at the University of Virginia. … In other words, the list of her contributions goes on.”

The project occasionally reminded 1987 University of Virginia graduate Michael Russell of his college days. He was working with classmate Zena Howard, a 1988 School of Architecture graduate; and a UVA professor, Elizabeth K. Meyer, was reviewing their work.

The stakes, however, were much higher. All three were working on the Smithsonian Institution’s highly anticipated National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opened in September.

Russell is now the chief executive officer of H.J. Russell & Company, which partnered with Clark Construction and Smoot Construction to build the museum. Howard led a team of architects from her firm, The Freelon Group, and three other firms: Adjaye Associates, Davis Brody Bond and SmithGroup. Meyer is one of seven presidential appointees to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, which advises the government on designs for landmarks, memorials, public buildings and landscapes in Washington, D.C.

They were among several UVA alumni who had a hand in the museum’s creation.

The Adviser: Professor Beth Meyer

Meyer, a landscape architecture professor and alumna of UVA’s School of Architecture, has served on the commission since 2012. The commission reviewed architecture and landscape designs for the museum and approved final designs, including plans from Howard and Russell. Among other factors, the commission considered the innovative materials and techniques proposed and how the building and its landscapes might impact surrounding landmarks and landscapes.

“This was the most rewarding project I reviewed during my four years on the commission,” Meyer said. “Discussions during our design reviews were memorable, as we knew the stakes were high for this project, on that site. Each member of the design team – from architects, landscape architects and engineers to the contractor and client – found innovative ways to enrich the museum as an artifact and an experience.”

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The Architect: Zena Howard

Howard and her team won the Smithsonian’s international design competition with a distinctive three-tiered design, highlighted by an ornate bronze corona.

Each element aligns with the museum’s mission to share and celebrate African-American heritage and culture. The three-tiered shape, for example, references a crown worn by Nigeria’s Yoruba ethnic group, while the corona honors ironwork crafted by African-Americans in the southern U.S., and a 60-foot deep porch celebrates traditional gathering spaces in African-American communities.

Inside, visitors move upward from subterranean slavery and civil rights exhibits to brighter celebrations of African-American culture. Strategic spaces in the outer corona control heat and light – important for the building’s LEED Gold certification – while framing spectacular views of the National Mall.

“As a UVA student, I never would have thought that I would be a significant part of designing a museum that is so important to this country and also represents my culture and heritage as an African-American,” said Howard, whose parents were active in the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s. “I don’t think their generation ever thought that this country would take a stand to tell that story in such an honest way. It means a lot.”

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The Builder: Michael Russell

Russell, who studied civil engineering at UVA, now leads the Atlanta-based construction firm founded by his father. He worked with architects and Smithsonian officials to make sure that their vision became reality.

The corona posed a unique challenge, as did preparations surrounding the site itself. The team excavated 70 feet down and had to divert an underground creek, while monitoring the water table to avoiding destabilizing buildings like the nearby Washington Monument. Successfully negotiating these challenges and bringing the museum to life stands among the proudest achievements of Russell’s career.

“It was an awesome opportunity for our firm, which is an African-American-owned firm, to be a part of a museum that tells the stories of African-Americans,” he said.

The Fundraiser: Emily Draper

Emily Draper, a 2010 alumna who majored in history and African-American studies, now working as an advancement associate at the museum, threw herself into the $540 million capital campaign, half of which relied on private donations. She witnessed many aspects of the museum’s creation – even taking tickets during opening week.

“Seeing the range of emotions on so many faces as they walked through the door is something I will never forget,” she said. “It has been incredible to see support coming from all corners of the country and across the globe.”

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The Landscape Architect: Rodrigo Abela

Rodrigo Abela, who holds UVA master’s degrees in architecture and landscape architecture, was one of two principal landscape architects representing his firm, GGN. Their work integrates the museum with the National Mall, which Abela calls “the country’s public space,” while reflecting its unique mission.

The landscape’s features include a granite path tracing a former canal likely built by slaves, and a reflecting pool mirroring the Washington Monument. Abela’s team also selected plants for the site based on museum director Lonnie Bunch’s themes of spirituality, resiliency, hope and optimism.

“We planted close to 40,000 crocuses on the lawn, which will bloom right at the end of February, one of the first flowers to come up after a long winter,” Abela said. “Fittingly, February is Black History Month.”

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The Curator: Doctoral Student Stephen Lewis

Music Ph.D. student Steven Lewis, an Edgar Shannon Jefferson Fellow, is a research assistant to Music and Performing Arts Curator Dwandalyn Reece.

Lewis helped select the exhibit’s soundtrack and researched artist biographies and artifact descriptions for iconic artifacts like Louis Armstrong’s trumpet. His biggest project was a massive interactive timeline chronicling African-American music across 14 genres and 400 years.

“It has been a privilege to take what I do as a scholar and make it accessible to other people of color and anyone interested in African-American history,” Lewis said. “A key point the museum makes is that black history is also the history of all Americans. We are all heirs of this history.”

The Historian: Mabel Wilson

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1985 architecture alumna Mabel Wilson literally wrote the book on the new museum, called “Begin with the Past: Building the National Museum of African American History and Culture.” Wilson, now an associate professor of architectural design and history at Columbia University, traces the museum’s development from initial discussions of an African-American memorial in 1915 to the 2016 opening.

Wilson hopes that the book and the museum will jump-start discussions across the country.

“I think the museum will be very powerful, and given recent events around the nation, hopefully serve as a touchstone to think about how the things that we are talking about today are the outcome of history,” she said. “America is an unfinished project, and the museum contributes to that conversation.”

The University of Virginia’s living laboratory model has brought a solar table to Grounds, allowing students to charge their devices without carbon emissions.

Prompted by a student-led class project, University workers this spring installed a CarrierClass Green Infrastructure ConnecTable solar table outside the Lile-Maupin residence hall. The table, which seats four, has a solar array over the top of it like an awning; the array charges a battery in the table, allowing students to plug their devices in for charging.

“Students can work outside and do collaborative work and support clean energy on Grounds,” said Sakib Ahmed, sustainability communications coordinator in UVA’s Office for Sustainability.

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The idea to purchase and install the table originated from a student group project in the “Global Sustainability” course taught in the 2015 spring term by Phoebe Crisman, an associate professor of architecture. Students researched and developed a case for bringing a solar table to Grounds as a way to raise awareness about renewable energy, provide a source of emergency power and serve as an outdoor study space for students.  

The project was well-received during an Earth Week poster competition, and one of the group members, Tatiana Sokolova, an engineering student who graduated in May, took on bringing it to the Grounds. She joined the Open Space Working Group under the University’s Committee on Sustainability to work with faculty and staff to develop her concept, identify funding sources and find a location. The table, sold by ConnecTable of Pennsylvania, cost around $17,000, which was funded by a $10,000 grant from the UVA Parents Fund; $5,000 from the Green Initiatives Funding Tomorrow, which distributes Student Council money to sustainable projects;  and $5,000 from the Facilities Management Division. The remainder of the money will be used to maintain the table.

Andrea Trimble, director of the Office for Sustainability, said the solar table project is an example of students using the University as a learning tool for sustainability. This year, a new “Global Sustainability” course project is studying how to raise awareness of the table and analyzing use patterns.  

“This project demonstrates how student ideas can be led and implemented by students, in collaboration with staff, to become a reality on Grounds,” said Nina Morris, sustainability program manager for outreach and engagement in the Office for Sustainability. “It’s a great intersection of curriculum, research and operations.”

The 2.1-amp outlet can charge a cell phone in 2½  hours, and the 1.1-amp outlet in five hours.

Morris also noted that because the table has battery storage, it can be used for up to two days without sunshine.

The University of Virginia’s Academical Village, which is nearing its 200th anniversary, is unique in many respects, not the least of which is that it is the vision of one man, Thomas Jefferson, who conceived of the University and designed it.

Richard Guy Wilson, Commonwealth Professor of Architectural History in UVA’s School of Architecture, was on Grounds Wednesday narrating an aerial tour of the center of Grounds.

The Academical Village represented Jefferson’s vision of a school with students and professors living together in a secular learning environment. The layout hinged on the Rotunda, which contained classrooms and the library. There were also classrooms in the pavilions, with the professors living above.   

“There was no chapel, which represented a separation of church and state,” Wilson said. “All the other schools were religiously affiliated, such as Harvard and Yale with the Congregationalists. This was the first time an American university campus had a library at its center, not a chapel.”

Wilson said the Rotunda, which had been modeled after the Pantheon in Rome, was a good example of spherical architecture. The main section of the building was round, with a domed roof containing a round oculus.

“To Jefferson, there were perfect forms, such as the cube and the sphere,” Wilson said. “And the top floor of the building was the library, the mind of the University.”

In designing the Academical Village, Wilson said Jefferson worked with symmetry and asymmetry.

“One of the principles of classic architecture is that the right equals the left,” Wilson said. “At first glance, the Academical Village looks symmetrical because of how it is laid out. But then the pavilion fronts are different and the gardens on the east side are deeper.”

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There is also the contrast of interior versus exterior space. The village is built around a central open area, or common, while the gardens are enclosed, contemplative areas. And the colonnades and the arcades provide sheltered exterior space.

The original viewscape was open to the south, which was Jefferson’s preferred entrance to the Lawn, ascending the terraces toward the Rotunda. While the view to the south on the Lawn is blocked now by the addition of Old Cabell, Cocke and Rouss halls, Wilson noted that the south hills are still visible from the Rotunda’s upper floors.

Jefferson also envisioned trees on the Lawn, bringing the outside environment onto the enclosed space on Grounds.

“The trees on the lawn set up a dialogue between nature and the man-made structures,” Wilson said.

The asymmetry of the pavilions on the Lawn, with the variety of features, was also Jefferson’s textbook on architecture.

“Jefferson believed that the environment teaches as much as a professor talking in a classroom,” Wilson said. “Jefferson believed that architecture was part of the students’ education.”

The University of Virginia has received a $35,000 planning grant from the Dominion Foundation, the charitable arm of Dominion Resources, to explore a historic trail between Morven Farm, James Monroe’s Highland and Thomas Jefferson’s home and plantation, Monticello.  

UVA will embark on several experiential learning opportunities starting this spring. Faculty and students from several disciplines, including architecture, law and environmental science, will investigate the historic landscape, land use and trail alignments, as well as legal and institutional instruments involving public access, liability and maintenance.

The planning grant will also support the examination of a future link with the Saunders-Monticello trail, a two-mile recreational trail that is made available to the public free of charge by Monticello. The trail and adjoining park are used by more than 140,000 walkers, runners, bikers and birdwatchers each year.

Organizers say the new planning experiences will be invaluable to students as they enter professional careers like law and landscape design.

Morven Farm, a 3,000-acre property owned by the UVA Foundation, “provides a unique location to examine the link between the history of the Piedmont region and career opportunities in the modern world,” said Stewart Gamage, who directs programs at the property.

The trail traces its 4,000-year history to a pathway created by Monacan tribes who used the Morven property – a tract initially identified by European settlers as “Indian Camp” – as a seasonal hunting ground. Used by Native Americans and former U.S. presidents, the trail also provided a means of transportation and communication for free and enslaved families and servants.

In 1795, Jefferson purchased the Morven property for his colleague and former secretary, William Short. Jefferson and Short experimented with various forms of crop rotation and innovative sustainable practices on small tenant farms. 

“This trail is an important part of our state’s rich history,” said Hunter A. Applewhite, president of the Dominion Foundation. “We are proud to partner with UVA in this unique opportunity to educate students.”

“Morven has been, and continues to be, an extraordinary teaching tool for the University,” said Jeffrey W. Legro, UVA’s vice provost for global affairs, who also oversees Morven. “This support from Dominion will enable us to explore the rich history of the property and examine future connections with our other partners in the Presidential Precinct.”

The non-profit Presidential Precinct alliance includes UVA, the College of William & Mary, Morven, Monticello, Highland and James Madison’s Montpelier.

Fifteen years later, Roger Mason Jr. still thinks about his only appearance in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament and considers how his college career could have unfolded differently. Mason was a sophomore guard on the University of Virginia team that, as a No. 5 seed, lost 86-85 to giant-slayer Gonzaga University in a first-round game in Memphis, Tennessee.

The 2000-01 Cavaliers, coached by Pete Gillen, had a deep, talented roster that included Mason, Adam Hall, Chris Williams, Donald Hand, Keith Friel and Travis Watson. Had they defeated Gonzaga, standing between the Wahoos and the Sweet Sixteen would have been a No. 13 seed, Indiana State.

“That was a tough game,” Mason said of the loss to Gonzaga, “and I do think about what would have been, particularly the next year when we didn’t have a healthy Adam Hall, and we just couldn’t get it together. You wish you got further, but that’s for the history book.”

As a junior, Mason led the Cavaliers in scoring, but the team struggled late in the season and finished a disappointing 17-12 after losing in the NIT’s first round.

For Mason, a 6-foot-5 guard from Silver Spring, Maryland, that was his final college season. He entered the NBA draft in 2002, and the Chicago Bulls selected him with the 30th overall pick.

A long NBA career followed, during which Mason played for Chicago, Washington, San Antonio, New York, New Orleans and Miami. His playing days are behind him, but the NBA still dominates Mason’s professional life.

He’s the deputy executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, whose executive director is Michele Roberts.

“It’s funny, when I was a player, I never thought about working for the union,” said Mason, 36. “It was never my goal or a dream of mine. I always thought I’d either be a general manager or maybe go into ownership or something else. But I really just organically fell in love with being a representative for players and fighting for player rights.

“At this point, I’m living a dream job, to be the deputy executive director of the players’ association at a time when our game is doing so well. We have the ability to really effect positive change, both in the community and with our guys. As far as the future, I have no idea what’s in store, but I know one thing: I’m loving being able to do this and work under Michele and work for our great players.”

Mason, who still has family in the D.C. area, returns to Charlottesville from New York City where the association is headquartered at least a couple of times each year. When he was in school, the Cavaliers played their home games at University Hall. Since 2006, the basketball program has been based at John Paul Jones Arena, and under head coach Tony Bennett’s leadership Virginia has become a national power. (The Cavaliers open their 2016-17 season on Friday, traveling to face the University of North Carolina-Greensboro.)

“It’s always fun to come back and to know that I had a hand in getting the arena built,” Mason said, “and [reflect on] the success we had, Coach Gillen and Travis and the rest of my teammates. It’s always fun to see what we helped establish, and Tony’s done a great job taking his program to a new level.”

The Cavaliers’ current coaching staff has been welcoming, Mason said. “It’s always tough when the coach you played for is long gone, so there’s not that emotional connection. But Tony has been great, and he’s been real good to me when I come down there, so we have a nice relationship.”

For nearly a decade, the NBPA’s annual Top 100 camp for elite high school players has been held at JPJ. Mason oversees the camp, and so he was in town in June “working and making sure that folks were doing their job and seeing ways that we can improve the camp moving forward.”

Mason said he keeps up with several of his former UVA teammates, among them Watson, Hall, Josh Hare and Majestic Mapp.

After focusing on economics during his first two years at UVA, Mason transferred into the School of Architecture, where he studied urban planning. He completed work on his degree after leaving the University.

“I wouldn’t have this job right now if I hadn’t,” Mason said. “It had its challenges, but I’m happy I was able to get it done.”

During his 10 seasons in the NBA – he also played professionally in Greece and Israel – Mason grew increasingly active in the players’ association.

“The first time I was a player rep actually was in 2007,” he recalled. “I had been an alternate before that. But I’ve always been interested in the business [of the sport], and after I watched an agent overcharge me, I said, ‘I want to dig in deeper and understand the business.’ Once that happened, I naturally became more of a player advocate.”

In 2010, Mason was elected to the NBPA’s executive committee. In 2013, he became first vice president, the second-highest position among NBPA’s executive committee. (LeBron James is the current first vice president.)

In February 2014, Miami traded Mason to Sacramento, which then waived him. At that point, Mason recalled, he expected to play for another two or three years. But during the controversy over racist remarks made by Donald Sterling, who then owned the Los Angeles Clippers, the NBPA’s president, Clippers guard Chris Paul, couldn’t speak on behalf of the players, so Mason took on a leading role.

He delivered a speech in Los Angeles to which current and former players, including Magic Johnson, LeBron James and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, responded enthusiastically, Mason said.

“We were also dealing with stuff with our former executive director, and we were looking for a new executive director,” Mason said. “So going through that process and interviewing folks, along with the Sterling situation, made me realize that I loved the union and I loved fighting on behalf of players.

“When we hired Michele, I was contemplating continuing to play, but she told me she wanted me to be her deputy executive director. And so I turned down continuing my playing career in favor of starting my career as an executive.”

Mason, who’s now pursuing an MBA at Columbia University, said he remembers his time at UVA fondly.

“The campus and the school and the education that I got while I was there, I truly appreciated it,” Mason said. “I didn’t have much of a social life, because all I was focused on was getting good grades and making it to the NBA. And so I think my social side of things kind of failed, but it all worked out. I made it to the NBA, and I had [a long] career. Something worked out, that’s for sure.”

Imagine a commute where, instead of steering yourself through traffic, you can sip your coffee, get some work done or even nap while your self-driving vehicle makes your commute for you. Or perhaps your whole family could pile into a hotel-like car, sleeping through the night while your car takes you home for the holidays.

It sounds futuristic, but experts at the University of Virginia are already thinking about the implications as companies like Google, Amazon, Uber and Tesla design and test their first self-driving cars. Google’s autonomous vehicles have hit the streets in California, and the startup NuTonomy just announced that it will begin testing a U.S. fleet in Boston after successful tests in Singapore. In October, Uber put the first autonomous truck on the nation’s highways, transferring 50,000 cans of Budweiser from a brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado to Colorado Springs, 120 miles away.

Urbanization vs. ‘Hyper-Sprawl’

At UVA, Andrew Mondschein, an assistant professor of urban and environmental planning in the School of Architecture, is one of several professors studying how these vehicles could impact everything from the design of our cities and roadways to the quality of our environment.

According to Mondschein, there are two ways the future could go: “a very sustainable, very urban-oriented future, or something that is basically hyper-sprawl.”

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 In the first scenario, Mondschein said, shared fleets of self-driving cars could shuttle people around cities and reduce the need for privately owned vehicles, thereby reducing vehicle emissions. More people might also walk, cycle or use public transit for short distances while hiring self-driving cars for longer distances.

His colleague in the School of Engineering, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering Donna Chen, found that, compared to current transportation modes, a fleet of self-driving vehicles could offer price-competitive transportation making around 22 trips per day, roughly four to seven times the rate of individually owned, driver-operated vehicles. If a ride-sharing program were instituted, she said, that rate could double.

“Self-driving vehicles could be a perfect option for overcoming barriers currently limiting car-sharing and green vehicle adoption,” Chen said.

In his second scenario, Mondschein points out that self-driving cars could exacerbate suburban sprawl, because people could be more productive while commuting and more willing to undertake longer commutes and move further from their jobs. Cars could function as extended living spaces, where people spend more and more of their time.

“Already, we are seeing both of these trends develop, as our cities are getting denser and using a mix of walking, biking and transit, while people are also moving further away from their jobs in search of affordable places to live,” Mondschein said. “We will probably confront an even more bifurcated way of thinking about our cities and how we get around.”

New Choices in Urban Design

The choice between those two futures could be up to planners and public officials in individual cities, Mondschein said. 

He points to London as one example. There, city officials chose to use revenue from a congestion charge to narrow central London’s roadways, leaving less room for cars and more for cyclists and pedestrians.

“Some drivers complained, but it did create a much higher level of service for pedestrians, cyclists and transit riders,” Mondschein said.

Because self-driving cars are expected to be more accurate than human drivers, widespread adoption could lead to more highway capacity, narrower lanes and more space.  

“We will need to decide if we want to use the surplus road width to pack more cars in or to widen sidewalks and bike lanes. Every city is empowered to make those choices,” Mondschein said. “I think there is a lot of potential to make gains in efficiencies.”

Certain infrastructure changes will also depend on exactly how the technology develops. Some companies, like Google, are developing autonomous vehicles that drive independently of any network, relying on very detailed mapping programs. Others are developing connected vehicles, which rely on external infrastructure – such as sensors and alert systems – to provide information about speed, terrain and obstacles.

“Right now, there is a lot of research surrounding both models,” Mondschein said. “There are important differences between the two that will affect how we build our cities.”

Social and Ethical Dilemmas

Of course, such decisions carry significant social and ethical consequences. Mondschein has already given a presentation to the U.S. Marines discussing the potential security implications of self-driving cars.

“They had a lot of specific concerns about, for example, what happens when no one grows up knowing how to drive,” he said. “What if the self-driving systems fail or are shut down? How could we be more resilient?”

For citizens, self-driving cars could significantly improve the lives of those currently facing limited mobility, such as senior citizens. On the other hand, Mondschein pointed out that there are significant ethical concerns about, for example, having self-driving cars drop children off at school.

“Ultimately, we will have to look at this from a social point of view,” he said. “Discussions on the ethics of driverless cars have already begun.”

The Engineering School’s Chen also pointed out potential benefits for a group she calls “captive riders” ­– those who are forced to rely on public transportation because they cannot afford to own a car. Those riders are fairly well-served in large urban areas, she said, but often endure long waits and irregular service in less-urban settings. Self-driving cars could improve their mobility, provided that the services are not cost-prohibitive.

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“We would need to think about cooperation between public agencies and private entities, who might own and operate self-driving fleets, and what might happen to those who cannot afford the price per trip,” Chen said.

Chen also said that the proliferation of self-driving cars could change the housing landscape by reducing the need to live so close to major transit hubs and thus reducing price hikes in those areas.

“It could challenge ideas of gentrification and dilute land value so that it is not quite as extreme,” she said.

Both Mondschein and Chen acknowledge that answers to many of these questions remain unknown. The technology is simply not there yet, though both believe it is coming.

“I am not skeptical that this will eventually happen, because it does seem that many things are lining up to facilitate this future,” he said. “But, there is a lot to go through first. There are a lot of systems that have to be developed in order for this driverless future to occur.”

The rapid development of artificial intelligence is opening up new worlds, and a group of University of Virginia students and faculty members from across Grounds came together over January term to explore its possibilities.

“AI Design Challenge: The Rise of Bots” – led by instructor William Sherman, Lawrence Lewis Jr. Professor of Architecture and founding director of OpenGrounds – crossed disciplines and brought in partners from WillowTree Apps, a Charlottesville-based mobile app development company.

Take a look.

On April 13, the University of Virginia and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello will present their highest honors, the 2017 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medals in Law, Citizen Leadership, Global Innovation and Architecture, respectively, to: 

• Loretta Lynch, the first African-American female attorney general in U.S. history, known for her impressive career prosecuting cases involving narcotics, violent crimes, public corruption and civil rights. More.
• Citizen Leadership:  Alice Waters, founder of the Edible Schoolyard Project, chef, author, food activist, founder and owner of Chez Panisse Restaurant in Berkeley, California, who has championed local, sustainable agriculture for more than four decades. More.
• Global Innovation:  N.R. Narayana Murthy, Indian entrepreneur and visionary leader who founded and grew Infosys into an information technology powerhouse through the design and implementation of the global delivery model for outsourcing services. More.
•   Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, Irish founders and directors of Grafton Architects, renowned for their creative and visionary academic and educational buildings. More.

The Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medals recognize the exemplary contributions of recipients to the endeavors in which Jefferson – the author of the Declaration of Independence, the third U.S. president and the founder of the University of Virginia – excelled and held in high regard.

“This year’s medal recipients represent a remarkably broad range of human endeavor. The common denominator is that all of them have ascended to significantly high levels of achievement in their respective fields,” said UVA President Teresa Sullivan.

The medals are the highest external honors bestowed by the University, which grants no honorary degrees. The awards are presented annually on Jefferson’s birthday, April 13, by the president of the University and the president of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, the independent, nonprofit organization that owns and operates his home, Monticello. April 13 is known locally as Founders Day, celebrating Jefferson and his founding of UVA in Charlottesville in 1819.

“This year’s medalists embody Jefferson’s vision of global citizenship and his relentless dedication to human progress and innovation,” said Leslie Greene Bowman, president and CEO of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. 

Bowman and Sullivan will present the medals, struck for the occasion, to the recipients at a luncheon in in the Dome Room of the Jefferson-designed Rotunda at UVA. The medalists in Architecture, Law, Citizen Leadership and Global Innovation will each give a free public lecture at UVA, and will be honored at a formal dinner at Monticello.

The complete schedule of events for Founder’s Day can be found on the Founder's Day website. 

The Citizen Leadership medalist, Alice Waters, will also be the featured keynote speaker at Monticello’s commemoration of Jefferson’s 274th birthday on April 13 at 10 a.m. on the West Lawn of Monticello. The celebration is free and open to the public. The ceremony will be live streamed online here. 

This year’s medalists join a distinguished roster of past winners that includes architects Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, I.M. Pei, Frank Gehry, Toyo Ito and Zaha Hadid; seven former and current U.S. Supreme Court justices; former U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher; Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children’s Defense Fund; Wendy Kopp, founder of Teach for America; Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve; former Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano; and several former and current U.S. senators and representatives, including John Lewis, John Warner, George Mitchell, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Sam Nunn and James H. Webb Jr.

In an alternative universe somewhere, the University of Virginia has a chapel on the Lawn. Memorial Gymnasium is over on Mad Bowl. Physics students take classes in a striking, modernist building that almost seems to float. This version of Grounds has a 12-story dorm on North Grounds near the Law School.

And there’s no Rotunda.

For 200 years, architects, University leaders and builders have been assembling the UVA we know today, building by building, chasing an idea that Thomas Jefferson laid out at its founding: that the University’s physical presence embodies the education of its students.

The original Jefferson-designed Academical Village is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the enduring heart of Grounds, but the University has been expanding beyond it almost since its completion. Over the centuries, the custodians of that growth have taken care to build in the spirit of “Jeffersonian architecture” – even if opinions sometimes differed on what exactly that means.

As a result, the University’s history is replete with designs for buildings that were never built and alternative proposals for ones that were. Some were done by famous architects who devoted years to plans that never quite came together. Others were fanciful suggestions and quick sketches, more thought experiment than serious construction proposals.

Taken together, these snapshots of a Grounds-that-could-have-been illuminate ideas that still drive the University’s future: Architecture matters here, and planners plan for the long run.

The Keeper of the Records

Tucked away in a long, narrow, climate-controlled room in a Facilities Management building off McCormick Road are rows of file cabinets filled with large flat folders. They hold a large part of the records of the University’s architectural history.

“The oldest one we have here is Fayerweather Hall,” Garth Anderson said on a recent afternoon, sliding open one of the drawers and pulling out a blueprint from the 1890s.

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Anderson is the man behind an extensive database of records on UVA facilities, a role he assumed almost by happenstance.

Anderson came to UVA in 1984 to supervise a clinical investigation lab in the Health System for the blood bank. This was in the early days of computing, and he got his hands on an IBM XT to replace the adding machine he’d been using. Before long, he’d taught himself to assemble and maintain a database.

About 12 years later, when the lab closed, Facilities Management was confronting a data problem of its own. The blueprints for all the buildings on Grounds built since the late 19^th century – proposals, early designs, finished products and more – were kept rolled in tubes in a jumbled closet without any sort of index.

“If somebody wanted a particular record of a building on Grounds, they had to get in there and root around until they found it,” Anderson said. “I said, ‘I can do a database.’ I’m not a librarian, but I think like one sometimes.”

After years of work, that database is built and the records organized, both in physical form and in a digitized archive.

The project also put Anderson in closer touch with the University’s academic life. He’s worked closely with students on undergraduate research projects, helped doctoral candidates run down records and collaborated with faculty in the School of Architecture and elsewhere.

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“Garth earned a prominent place in my acknowledgments,” said Philip Herrington, an assistant professor of history at James Madison University who completed his Ph.D. at UVA and recently published an architectural history of UVA’s Law School.

Anderson also realized he likes following the historical breadcrumbs in the records.

“It requires a little investigative work that I love,” he said. “You start to get acquainted with the architects and the designers of the different buildings, and you start to turn to other sources to find out more about them.”

That itch to find out more also makes him a really good tour guide for a University that doesn’t actually exist.

Academical Village, v.1

One of the first examples of alternative design plans that Anderson cites isn’t in his archive and is actually older than the University itself.

In 1814, Jefferson produced the first set of sketches for what would become the University of Virginia. Some features are familiar: a series of pavilions created a large “U” shape with a central Lawn or green space.

But the details are very different. For one, there was no Rotunda, just three pavilions facing down the Lawn.

Richard Guy Wilson, Commonwealth Professor of Architectural History in UVA’s Architecture School, is quick to point out that these sketches weren’t actual plans. They were developed before there was a site, years before the first workers – including enslaved laborers – would begin building the University after the laying of the cornerstone of Pavilion VII in 1817.

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“In all architecture, the site actually determines what the buildings will look like,” Wilson said. “This was more of a scheme. He came up with this idea of the Academical Village, which came from ideas he’d had floating around for a number of years.”

These first sketches called for nine pavilions on a flat site, with expanse in the middle that stretched 257 yards across. (The actual Lawn is only about 188 feet across.) Perfect, Wilson said, for the flatlands of the Midwest or Tidewater. Not perfect for the rolling hills of Central Virginia.

Some of the early sketches were done in letters Jefferson sent to correspondents such as William Thornton and Benjamin Henry Latrobe asking for input and ideas.

“The reason he was writing them was that he’d recently sold most of his books to the Library of Congress, and that included his architecture books,” Wilson said. “So he needed some help.”

In one letter back to Jefferson, Latrobe suggested that the center building ought to be a domed structure. He apparently also sent a sketch of the idea to Jefferson, but that record is lost to history, Wilson said.

“We should keep in mind that Jefferson had a bug for domes of the worst order, and had been asking Latrobe endlessly about domes,” Wilson said. “So this played right into his hands.”

As the University’s creation progressed and an actual site was chosen, the plans evolved into what we know today. The three imagined pavilions at the front of the Lawn became the Rotunda; the Lawn narrowed and the ranges appeared on either side.   

“In the end, the building site rules all,” Wilson said.

Modernism on Grounds

The history of new buildings beyond the Academical Village is one of good stewardship and strong opinions. As University Architect, Alice J. Raucher is keenly aware of the forces that go into a new structure here, and she sees part of her job as making a marriage of sorts between the architect and the University.

On the one side, architects need to be free to bring their own vision to a project. But new buildings on Grounds have to be understood as being part of the comprehensive whole, and they aren’t necessarily vehicles for radical personal design statements, Raucher said.

“We need architects that can put forward something fresh, but also understand our legacy and work within it,” she said.

Two of Anderson’s favorite unbuilt buildings date to the middle part of the 20th century, when the University was grappling with how to stay current on modern design trends while maintaining a sense of connection to its Jeffersonian origins.

In the 1960s, architect Marcel Breuer proposed a building design for the Physics Department that had upper stories that cantilevered out wider than the base.

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The design was a bit too far out for University planners at the time, who opted for a more conservative building. But Breuer later built a similar – though not identical – building as the headquarters for the Pirelli Tire Company.

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A few years earlier, a similar fate befell a proposal for a chemistry building done by architect Louis Kahn. At the time, the Department of Chemistry was located in Cobb Hall, just off the Lawn. Lab chemicals had worn through many of the pipes in the building, and the department desperately needed something new, said Brian Cofrancesco, a 2011 architectural history graduate who researched the Kahn proposal extensively in his student days.

Kahn was then an up-and-coming architect who had done some work for the University of Pennsylvania. Though he was a modernist, Kahn had studied neoclassical design, and he took the idea of fidelity to Jeffersonian principles seriously, Cofrancesco said.

“In 1961 he actually stayed in Pavilion VII, studying what he called the ‘nuances of Jefferson’s Lawn.’”

Kahn eventually delivered a design of a U-shaped building with an open end facing McCormick Road, with an enclosed amphitheater in the middle of a large courtyard.

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“In a way, it’s reminiscent of the three-sided Lawn and an open end,” Cofrancesco said. “It had at its center this kind of communal space of learning – just like putting the Rotunda at the center of the Academical Village. The wings of this building were going to be three stories tall, with the lower levels as labs and work spaces.”

In the end, the edgy design (and accounts of Kahn being less-than-responsive to communication and deadlines) caused the University to abandon the plans after nearly three years of development, Cofrancesco said. And not everyone liked the design. At one point, an architectural committee member assessed the proposed building as “cold, forbidding and prison-like,” he said.

“The president of the University, Edgar Shannon, said that calling Kahn to fire him was one of the hardest things he’d ever had to do,” Cofrancesco said.

Both Breuer and Kahn are important modernist architects, and the fact that they were not able to forward their designs at UVA is neither a reflection of their talents nor a sign that the University was too conservative in its ambitions, Raucher said. Her own professional history – both as current custodian of the University’s architectural integrity and her past as an academic and as an architect in the private sector – equips Raucher to see both sides of the relationship.

“Part of my job is to make a union between the University and architects so they can be successful on Grounds,” she said. “It’s not about having the next newest thing – I don’t believe in architecture as the latest fashion. Our architecture is civic in nature, and stands the test of time. And we have our iconic structures already: the Rotunda, the Lawn. Whatever we build today has to serve the University in that context, and then prepare us for the future.

“That’s not to say that we can’t have interesting, thought-provoking buildings unto themselves – I hope we do – but there are a lot of things that play into our selections.”

Location, Location, Location

Some of Anderson’s other favorite alternate building designs are notable not for what they looked like, but for where they would have gone. One was a proposal for the University Chapel that placed it on the Lawn.

Jefferson’s decision to make a university free from religious affiliation was controversial in its time, and beginning almost immediately after his death there was a concentrated effort spanning decades to build a church or chapel on Grounds.

One of those proposals came from William Abbott Pratt, an architect hired in 1858 as the University’s first superintendent of buildings and grounds. That same year, Pratt proposed a design for a Gothic chapel built on the south end of the Lawn. He produced an elevation drawing to sell subscriptions to finance the building – several groups worked to raise funds for a religious building on Grounds during those decades, Anderson said – but it was never constructed.

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The actual chapel, built decades later northwest of the Lawn, was a factor in another building on Grounds that was originally proposed for a different spot.

Memorial Gymnasium sits off Emmet Street at an angle slightly off from the road (the roadway came later and the building is actually oriented to be parallel to the Lawn), but an early 1922 proposal for the building placed it at the north end of Madison Bowl off Rugby Road, Anderson said. 

That plan called for a three-bay design instead of five, and was done by a New York architect and UVA graduate named Walter Dabney Blair.

“If you look at a photo of Penn Station, it has a giant attic space that sits above providing the light into the massive waiting room – and this is a variation of that,” Anderson said.

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When the site moved to its current location, there were plans for a walkway and promenade that passed directly through where the chapel is located – planners at the time assumed the building would be removed, Anderson said.

A Rocky Process with Good Result

Perhaps one of the most contentious building design processes in the University’s history involved Clark Hall, which sits at the bend of McCormick Road and was completed in 1932 as the home of the School of Law.

Herrington studied the architectural history of the Law School extensively for a recent book published by the University of Virginia Press.

Many people played a role in the creation of Clark Hall, Herrington said. While the University’s Architectural Commission, which included Blair, designed the building, it had to satisfy overlapping, and at times competing, interests. Edwin Alderman, the University’s first president, and the Board of Visitors were deeply involved in the project. And the Law School’s dean and faculty had expectations for the new building they weren’t shy about expressing, he said. Add a wealthy donor, William Andrews Clark Jr., and there was no shortage of differing opinions.

One complicating factor was that the University was concerned about keeping its new, large buildings to the north and west visually subordinate to the original Academical Village, Herrington said.

“One of the rejected plans for the new law building was a hulking mass of a building that had a very large octagonal dome,” Herrington said. “This design failed in part because it was so out of scale with the rest of Grounds, and its dome would have competed with the Rotunda.”

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“Clark Hall offered the Law School and the University an opportunity to assert their national prominence. There was a real fear in the period between the wars that the University was losing ground to other colleges and becoming a regional institution. So the question was, ‘How do you build something that evokes the local and familiar while also making it impressive?’” Herrington said. “The back-and-forth is funny in retrospect. The president and Board of Visitors wanted a ‘monumental’ building, but for months no one could agree on how to accomplish this. One member of the Board of Visitors dismissed a design for having wings; he said that a monumental building would never have wings. President Alderman thought one plan looked more like a post office than a law school. The architects frequently got upset because they felt like they were always starting over.”

In the end, though, the building design that the president, the Board of Visitors and the Law School agreed upon wasn’t that different from the commission’s original proposal, and Clark Hall is now one of the finest post-Jefferson structures on Grounds in terms of its proportions, materials and details, Herrington said. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.

Herrington’s book also traces the history of the Law School’s move to North Grounds – where one proposal called for a 12-story dormitory between the new law and Graduate School of Business buildings. He said the research process underscored for him the depth of emotion involved in the building process at UVA.

“I can’t imagine another American university where people feel so invested in the look of the campus,” he said.

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For Raucher, that sense of emotional investment in the University’s physical presence is an asset that helps guide future projects, including upcoming transformations of the U.S. 250/Ivy Road approach to Grounds from the west, the new student-oriented neighborhood at Brandon Avenue, or the new building for the contemplative sciences.

“The style of the architecture is often used to describe what is, or isn’t ‘Jeffersonian,’” she said. “Jefferson was certainly looking at the historic buildings of Palladio for an architectural style, but he was also keenly aware of contemporary buildings of his time. It’s really about the ability of architecture to teach, and the ability for architecture to make use of technological advancements.”

We also can’t forget that the architecture of the University would not exist without the landscape that binds the Grounds together and gives it its unique identity, she said. The Lawn would not exist without the Colonnade and the rooms, and vice versa. “Our buildings are always understood relative to the landscape they inhabit, which provides the connectivity we try to achieve in every project.”

As plans for new projects come together, Raucher is also mindful that design choices now will affect students and faculty for centuries, and knows it’s important to get them right.

This drives the professionals of the Office of the Architect, who represent architecture, landscape architecture, land-use planning, space planning and historic preservation, she said. An integrated design approach ensures the careful stewardship of the historic Grounds and the thoughtful growth of the University for the next century.

“The heart and soul of the University will always be the Academical Village and the Rotunda; there’s nothing threatening that. It’s our responsibility to steward that for future generations,” she said. “But it’s also our job to lay the groundwork for future generations and build upon that strength.”

On Thursday, the University of Virginia and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello will present the University’s highest external honors, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medals, to commemorate Jefferson’s birthday and UVA’s Founder’s Day.

UVA has celebrated Jefferson’s birthday, April 13, since its first academic session in 1825. Thursday’s events will include a celebration of the third president’s 274th birthday at his home, Monticello; a tree-planting ceremony honoring the former University Protocol and History Officer Sandy Gilliam; and several events featuring the 2017 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medalists.

UVA and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation – the independent, nonprofit organization that owns and operates Monticello – will jointly present the medals, each recognizing outstanding leadership and achievement in pursuits that Jefferson held in high regard. The 2017 medalists are:

• Loretta Lynch, Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Law: Lynch is the first African-American female attorney general in U.S. history, known for her impressive career prosecuting cases involving narcotics, violent crimes, public corruption and civil rights. More.
• Alice Waters, Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Citizen Leadership: Waters is the founder of the Edible Schoolyard Project, a chef, author and food activist and the founder and owner of Chez Panisse Restaurant in Berkeley, California. She has championed local, sustainable agriculture for more than four decades. More.
• N.R. Narayana Murthy, Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Global Innovation: Murthy is an Indian entrepreneur and visionary leader who founded and grew Infosys into an information technology powerhouse through the design and implementation of the global delivery model for outsourcing services. More.
• Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture: Farrell and McNamara, Irish founders and directors of Grafton Architects, are renowned for their creative and visionary academic and educational buildings. More.

Waters will be the keynote speaker at Monticello’s commemoration of Jefferson’s birthday, which will begin at 9:45 a.m. Thursday. The celebration is free and open to the public and will also be live-streamed online at www.monticello.org.

UVA President Teresa A. Sullivan and Leslie Greene Bowman, president and CEO of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello, will present the medals, struck for the occasion, during a private luncheon at the University.

Each of the medalists will also give public talks on Grounds. The Darden School of Business will host Murthy on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. in Darden’s Abbott Center Auditorium, with online registration beforehand. On Thursday, the School of Architecture will host Farrell and McNamara at 3 p.m. in Campbell Hall, room 153. The Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy will host Waters in Garrett Hall at 3:30 p.m., and the School of Law will host Lynch at 4 p.m. in the School of Law’s Caplin Auditorium.

Also on Thursday, the University will continue its annual tradition of planting a tree on Founder’s Day, honoring an individual who has made significant and lasting contributions to UVA. This year’s honoree is former University Protocol and History Officer Alexander G. “Sandy” Gilliam, who, during 39 years of service to UVA, worked as a special assistant to three presidents and spent 18 years as secretary to the Board of Visitors.

Members of Gilliam’s family have attended UVA since 1829, just four years after the University opened its doors. Gilliam followed in their footsteps, graduating from UVA in 1955 and holding several posts with the U.S. Foreign Service before returning to work on Grounds. Today, though he is retired, he can still be seen on Grounds daily.

Sullivan will preside over the tree-planting ceremony, which is open to the public, at 11 a.m. near the courtyard on the western side of the Rotunda.

More information, including a full schedule of events, is available on the Founder’s Day webpage.

Several times a month, fourth-year student Zihan Chen can be found soaring thousands of feet above the University of Virginia’s Grounds and the Blue Ridge Mountains in a plane rented from the Charlottesville Albemarle Airport.

“Flying is always challenging, fascinating and inspiring,” said Chen, who earned his private pilot license last year. “I experience a lot by looking with a different perspective and discovering at full speed.”

Changing his point of view – whether in the air or on the ground – has helped the studio art major and budding inventor develop new ideas to solve everyday problems. Chen, who came to UVA from his hometown of Kunshan, China, filed his first patent application as a first-year student.

Three years later, he has been granted that first patent – for a faucet design minimizing water waste and manufacturing costs while maximizing user experience and hygiene. He has worked with local attorneys to file five more patent applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which takes a few years to review applications. Chen, who also minored in architecture, hopes to be a designer. He plans to pursue a master’s degree in products of design at the School of Visual Arts in New York City after graduating from UVA in May.

“I like to observe things, question things and challenge things,” Chen said. “Everyday I look at things around me and think, ‘Why not make some change to make it better?’”

He believes his faucet design, for example, could be a game-changer in that market. The design simplifies traditional faucets by placing the knob and soap dispenser within the central tube of the faucet itself. Water flows around the knob when running, but must be turned off to dispense soap, essentially forcing users to conserve water. Once the soap is dispensed, the water turns on again, flowing over the knob and effectively cleaning it for the next user.

“When people reach up to get soap while the water is still running, that causes a significant waste of water. I saw it happening every day and thought I should do something to stop it,” Chen said. “Redesigning the structure of the faucet could make that disappear.”

Chen’s pending patent applications include systems, devices or methods for managing emergency communications, managing refrigerator spillage, dynamically rendering texts on electronic devices, authenticating pairing between electronic devices and improving vehicle identification.

In his more recently applications, he has focused mostly on electronic devices and digital interfaces.

“When I get an idea, I develop it a little bit and if I think it is valuable and something that could be commercialized, I go to my attorney,” Chen said. “We do a patent search and start to draft an application, and I do all of the drawings for the patents.”

Aside from pursuing patents, Chen has picked up several new skills during his time at UVA. Within the studio art program, he chose to concentrate on new media, which focuses mostly on art created with computers and other digital media, such as video art, animations and interactive art.

Though he had little experience with cinematography or computer programming before coming to the Grounds, Chen now regularly makes short films and animations for his classes and has founded a game studio, SECStudio, with friends. The group has designed and published three animated casual puzzle games that are now available on mobile platforms like iOS and Android. One of those games, called “Crater – Impact Your Mind,” reached the Top 10 in its subcategory on China’s App Store and the Top 20 in the U.S.

With all of those ideas under his belt – and many more percolating – Chen is looking forward to honing his product design skills in graduate school, and to exploring the different opportunities and perspectives that abound in New York City.

“I am very excited,” he said. “I have already experienced life in a small town in America here in Charlottesville, so I am excited to try a bigger city. For me life is just about experiencing.”

(Editor’s note: This is one of a series of profiles of members of the University of Virginia’s Class of 2017.)

Tens of thousands of people will be at the University of Virginia for its 188th Final Exercises weekend, May 19, 20 and 21, presided over by President Teresa A. Sullivan.

At Friday’s 3 p.m. Valedictory Exercises on the Lawn, students will pay tribute to their fellow classmates, presenting the Class Gift and University/Class Awards. The ceremony also features a speech from the keynote speaker selected by the Class of 2017 Trustees, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who won the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end his country’s protracted war with Marxist guerrillas. His son, Esteban, is receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree in public policy and leadership from the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy.

The first graduation ceremony on Saturday, beginning at 10 a.m., will award degrees to students in UVA’s largest school, the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Deborah McDowell, director of UVA’s Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies and Alice Griffin Professor of Literary Studies, will give the keynote speech.

Sunday’s ceremony, also beginning at 10 a.m., will feature students from UVA’s other schools:

• School of Architecture
• Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy
• School of Continuing and Professional Studies
• Curry School of Education
• Darden School of Graduate Business Administration
• School of Engineering and Applied Science
• School of Law
• McIntire School of Commerce
• School of Medicine
• School of Nursing

Students in the Data Science Institute will also participate. Sunday’s keynote speaker is Robert Pianta, Novartis U.S. Foundation Professor of Education and dean of the Curry School of Education.

In total, between 30,000 and 35,000 people are expected to attend Finals weekend.

Both days, students will participate in  school- or department-specific ceremonies at sites around Grounds following Final Exercises.

Graduation is a ticketed event. Each graduate receives six tickets for admission to the Lawn, which can be picked up at the UVA Bookstore before Finals Weekend. The days and times that tickets are available for pickup can be found here.

In all, 6,698 degrees will be conferred. Included in that figure are 4,084 baccalaureate degrees, 133 of which were earned in three years and seven in two. UVA will confer 465 professional degrees and 2,165 graduate degrees, including 326 Ph.D.s, 15 Doctor of Education degrees and 19 Doctor of Nursing Practice degrees.

There are 3,815 graduates from Virginia and 1,082 from 108 international countries.

Social Media, Live Streaming, Text Messages and Remote Viewing

UVA encourages everyone to participate in Final Exercises on its social media channels.

Throughout the weekend, students and guests alike can share their excitement by taking snaps with the “UVA Grad” geofilters on Snapchat. Creative mortarboards and other joyful moments will be featured on UVA’s Instagram account.

Final Exercises will be livestreamed at virginia.edu/live and UVA’s Facebook page, where photos also will be posted all weekend long.

UVA’s Twitter account will share memorable moments of Final Exercises; tweet us @UVA. And students, use #UVAGrad and your social posts could be featured on the big screen during the ceremonies.

To receive important Finals Weekend text alerts, type “uvagrad” to 79516. Users will be automatically unsubscribed after Finals Weekend.

Guests may watch live broadcasts of both Final Exercises ceremonies in these climate-controlled, remote viewing locations: the Alumni Hall ballroom, Chemistry Building Auditorium, Culbreth Theatre, Gilmer Hall auditoriums (rooms 130 and 190), the Harrison Institute and Small Special Collections Library Auditorium, Newcomb Hall Ballroom and Theatre, the Student Activities Building and Zehmer Hall Auditorium. Additionally, there is a dedicated remote viewing site for persons with limited mobility on the third floor of Newcomb Hall.

Inclement Weather

If inclement or severe weather plans need to be implemented for Final Exercises, the University will make an announcement in local media; on the UVA hotline (434-924-7669); the University’s home page, www.virginia.edu; the Finals Weekend website; and on the University’s Twitter, Instagram and Facebook channels.

In the case of inclement or severe weather on Friday, Valedictory Exercises will move from the Lawn to the John Paul Jones Arena. An announcement will be made no later than noon. Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis.

In the case of rain without the presence of thunder, lightning, high winds or other unsafe conditions on Saturday or Sunday, the University will hold Final Exercises on the Lawn, while all school and department graduation ceremonies will be held indoors. The designated locations for the school/department ceremonies will be available on the “School/Department Graduation Ceremony Locations” page.

If the weather is severe on Saturday or Sunday, Final Exercises will be moved to the John Paul Jones Arena and all school and department graduation ceremonies will be held indoors. Graduating students should arrive at the arena by 9:15 a.m. and proceed directly to the seating area on the main floor of the arena. Faculty will assemble in the Courtside Club, which is located on the bottom level of the arena, by no later than 9:45 a.m. Only guests with bar-coded tickets will be allowed entry. Due to the space limitations inside the arena, students will be limited to only three guests.

Inclement or severe weather plans for Saturday and Sunday will be announced no later than 8 a.m. each day.

Food stands will be located throughout Grounds, serving beverages and snacks on Finals Weekend. Light breakfast items (doughnuts, pastries, muffins, fruit juice, soda, bottled water and coffee) will be offered for sale Saturday and Sunday mornings. Food stands will be open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Lunch items will be available beginning mid-morning.

Information booths will be available around Grounds for guests who have questions or need assistance. These booths will also have Finals Programs available for distribution.

Security Checkpoints

Everyone attending Valedictory and Final Exercises ceremonies, including graduates, faculty and guests, will be subject to security screening before entering. All bags will be subject to search, which may delay entry into the venue. A “bag check lane” will be available for guests who choose to bring a bag with them.

Everyone wearing an outer garment such as an academic robe or coat will be asked to open it for a visual inspection. To expedite entry into the assembly areas, graduates and faculty are encouraged to don their robes after passing through the security checkpoint.

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On Friday, security checkpoints for Valedictory Exercises will open at 1:30 p.m. and remain open until end of the ceremony. On Saturday and Sunday, checkpoints will open at 7:30 a.m. and remain open until the end of the ceremonies.

A list of prohibited items is available here. 

Parking and Transportation

For Friday’s Valedictory Exercises, guests may park free of charge at John Paul Jones Arena and ride a shuttle bus to Central Grounds.

On Saturday and Sunday, free parking will be available at John Paul Jones Arena, University Hall and Scott Stadium, with shuttle service leaving from the John Paul Jones Arena and Scott Stadium to Central Grounds.

First-come, first-served, paid parking will be available at the Emmet/Ivy Parking Garage and the Central Grounds Parking Garage for all three days, with no shuttle service provided. More information about parking, including shuttle bus routes and pick-up and drop-off locations, is available here.

Public parking will not be available on Central Grounds. McCormick Road will be closed from University Avenue to the McCormick Road Bridge from 1 to 6 p.m. on Friday and 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

Allow extra transit time for all events due to increased pedestrian and vehicular traffic.

They call themselves the “Gizmologists,” and they live to create gizmos – nifty devices that perform a function while adding more than a touch of creativity, beauty and flair.

A new group of University of Virginia students, the Gizmologists have conceptualized, designed, built, tested and now hung a V (for Virginia)-shaped clock that combines engineering with style, using analog and digital precision-time-keeping functionality. It is a “kinetic art” piece – art that moves.

They placed their clock in the main hallway of the Engineering School’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, where hurried students and visitors can take a glance to see if they are making appointments or classes on time.

Originally the Gizmologists intended to place their clock in a lecture hall, but its operation proved just a tad too loud for students taking exams, or for lecturers lecturing.

“We got the idea because a professor, who will go unnamed, was always looking up at a wall clock in the lecture hall and telling seemingly late-arriving students that they were late,” said Watson Spivey, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student. “But actually, the clock was 10 minutes fast. So we decided it was time for a new clock.”

Below, take a look at the progression of the project, from the first concepts through the finished product.

It is said that necessity is the mother of invention.

The Gizmologists got their start two years ago when Gavin Garner, a mechanical and aerospace engineering professor, decided to start a club for engineering and like-minded students who might want to put their classroom learning to practical use on projects of their own design, on their own time. Engineers being engineers, several signed on, eager to build upon the knowledge and training gained in their courses.

“Engineers are the epitome of makers, and what we do fits in with the current maker movement,” Garner said. “Our students are passionate about their projects, combining the logic and know-how of engineering with the creativity of artists. Engineering is inherently creative, and our concept of gizmology is to add beauty and style to the things we’re creating.”

The Gizmologists include students in electrical, mechanical and systems engineering and materials science. Students in architecture, business and other disciplines have joined in on the fun as well, all working together to create devices that previously did not exist.

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With Garner as their faculty adviser, they have been working on designing and building several other objects, including a clock with a robot arm that moves a feather quill over pressure-sensitive LCD screens to draw out the numbers of the current time, and a boombox table shaped like a cassette tape. The V-for-Virginia clock is simply the club’s first masterpiece to reach completion, and was the project that started it all.

“We teach our students to be unafraid of making mistakes so long as they learn from them,” Garner said. “Engineering begins with mathematics for making predictions as to how a design will work. But a lot of engineering is experimentation, the actual building of objects, and realizing mistakes and then fixing problems and making refinements. That’s how to learn, and how to make.”

Garner has won several awards for his invigorating and inspiring teaching, given by both his department and the School of Engineering and Applied Science. A Richmond native, he earned his master’s degree and Ph.D. in mechanical and aerospace engineering at UVA, and developed a love for teaching as a graduate teaching assistant.

“Engineering teaches humility, and these kinds of hands-on extracurricular projects boost the students’ confidence,” he said. “The great thing about engineering is it’s a way to take rational control over the world, to make and do things that have never been done before that ultimately make the world a better place.”

Garner’s own interest is in robotics, otherwise known as mechatronics, which brings together the principles of mechanical, electrical and software engineering. He played a key role in setting up the Engineering School’s Advanced Manufacturing Lab, which provides students with the tools needed to make what they imagine, fusing theory with practice. There, students can operate laser cutters, computer-controlled mills and routers, 3-D printers and water jets that can sculpt metal.

“We get a lot of engineering theory in our classes, but hands-on learning is important too,” said Ginger Collier, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student and founding member of the Gizmologists. “This project, building the kinetic art clock, allowed us to really merge theory and manufacturing. I learned more doing this project than I did in some of my classes.”

The Gizmologists have signed their clock and designed it for easy disassembly and reassembly so future students can keep the clock well-maintained.

During his four years in the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture, Matt Johnson has traveled to the Arctic, attended conferences in Australia and designed housing for the homeless in Ethiopia.

His biggest legacy, however, might be felt much closer to home.

Johnson is among a small group of students raising awareness of mental health issues and examining the culture of the School of Architecture’s studios, where students spend hours and hours working on design projects.

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“Studio culture is a big issue in architecture schools around the country,” Johnson said. “It is a notoriously intense and demanding field, and the work can become all-consuming if you let it.”

Two years ago – after realizing how that intensity was impacting his own life – Johnson began planning events, poster campaigns and other initiatives reminding students to prioritize mental and physical health. Now, the A-School Wellness Initiative is a school-wide program.

“I am still involved in it, but it is bigger than me now,” Johnson said. “It has become a really powerful thing that is making the school a healthier, more productive place and a better community.”

UVA Today caught up with Johnson before graduation to learn more about the wellness initiative, his interest in architectural robotics, his work around the world and his post-graduation plans.

Q. Why did you choose to study architecture?

A. Initially, I applied to colleges as a medieval history major. I was interested in architecture as a kid, but scared I did not have the skills. Later, though, I was looking at UVA’s School of Architecture website. The work they were doing looked awesome, and I realized I wanted to give it a shot, at least for a semester. I fell in love with it and haven’t looked back since.

Q. You’re very involved in the School of Architecture’s fabrication shops. What kind of work do you do there?

A. I’m really interested in digital fabrication, including practices like 3-D printing, laser cutting and computer numerically controlled, or CNC, routing. As a student employee in the digital fabrication shop, I monitor students’ projects, maintain equipment and run safety training.

I am also very involved with architectural robotics. The school has a six-axis robot that can orient itself in 3-D space, unlike a regular CNC router. My thesis project used the robot to invent a new method for 3-D printing concrete columns.

Q. What method did you come up with?

A. To create something with concrete, you typically have to build a formwork, pour the concrete in and throw away the formwork. My method uses the robot to move the 3-D printing tool through space in free-form designs. It can change the design as it goes along, which allows for an infinite number of column shapes. I have been working with the Virginia Transportation Research Council’s concrete lab to develop the concrete mix, which is designed to pour smoothly and cure quickly while holding its shape.

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It’s exciting to be part of the research group getting architectural robotics off the ground here. I have gotten a lot of great opportunities to travel to conferences, including one in Sydney, Australia, and I aim to present my thesis at the next Robots in Architecture Conference in Switzerland.

Q. How is robotics changing the practice of architecture?

A. I believe these technologies will transform how buildings are built in the immediate future. Building construction is one of the least-automated manufacturing processes in the world, compared with manufacturing computers or clothes, for example. What we can do with robots is completely outside of the vocabulary of how we build buildings right now. It will change things drastically, and I am grateful to have developed literacy in that at UVA.

Q. You’ve also led efforts encouraging students to take care of their mental health. What inspired those efforts?

A. With design work, there is never really an endpoint. You can always do more work on a project. If you are not careful, you can find yourself pulling all-nighters, skipping meals or not exercising. I fell into that during my first year or two here, doing more and more work just to convince myself I was a good designer. It started affecting my health and actually holding me back from doing good work. 

In my third year, I hit a very difficult semester, and became so stressed and anxious that my friends noticed something was wrong. With their help, I realized that my unhealthy practices were affecting my mental health and actually preventing me from doing my best work. That semester, I gave up all-nighters and started prioritizing eating well, sleeping and taking time to do things with friends.

Q. How have you helped your fellow students work through similar problems?

A. The same semester that I was really struggling, we had an event for the entire school, talking about dealing with stress and setting limits around work. Professor Beth Meyer, the dean at the time, spoke, along with many faculty and students sharing personal stories. It was so powerful and moving.

After that, we started the wellness initiative. Now, there is a student-run commission doing everything from educating people about the danger of pulling all-nighters to providing technical assistance to younger students acclimating to our software programs. People are talking about mental health and they know there are resources there now.

Q. What else stands out as you look back over your time in the Architecture School?

A. I started the A-School Christian Fellowship during my second year, meeting twice per week in Campbell Hall to talk, read Scripture and support each other. Having that community has been so rewarding. It’s such an open group. People from all kinds of religious backgrounds – or none at all – come to talk and learn more about what we believe.

I have also gotten a lot of really great travel experiences. One of my studio classes did research in Svalbard, Norway, an island chain home to the world’s northernmost towns, with an otherworldly landscape and extreme way of building. Last summer, some classmates and I got a grant to help design housing and health care facilities for an NGO providing permanent homes to homeless people with disabilities in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We have been working with Professor Anselmo Canfora and his project, initiative reCOVER. It has been really cool to see another culture and know I am contributing to the world with design. Right now, I am considering returning to Ethiopia to work on this project after graduation, if I can line up grant funding.

Twelve University of Virginia scholars will pursue their work on foreign shores with the help of Fulbright Scholarships this year.

The U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board offered the grants to the UVA alumni and graduate students, who will be among 1,900 U.S. citizens – selected on the basis of academic and professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential – who will travel abroad for the 2017-18 academic year through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.

The scholarships cover round-trip transportation to the host country; funding for room, board and incidental costs; and health care benefits. In some countries, the scholarship also covers book and research allowances, mid-term enrichment activities, full or partial tuition, language study programs and orientations.

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The UVA scholars will teach English in foreign countries such as Brazil, Laos and Colombia or pursue research in international academic centers.

The Fulbright program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. Its primary source of funding is an annual Congressional appropriation to the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs; participating governments and host institutions, corporations and foundations in foreign countries and in the U.S. also provide support. The program operates in more than 160 countries and is administered by the Institute of International Education.

“We’re moving in the right direction,” said Andrus G. Ashoo, associate director of the Center for Undergraduate Excellence. “Our applicant pool is more and more representative of the student body at the University of Virginia and the types of awards available under the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. So it is exciting to see among those who have received the award two students who will pursue a postgraduate degree, at University College London and Yonsei University in South Korea; three alums who will be teaching English, in Bulgaria, Laos and Brazil; and two Ph.D. students who will pursue research in India and Sweden. In addition to students from the College of Arts & Sciences, there are two from the School of Architecture, two from the Frank S. Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, and two from the Curry School of Education.”

Since its establishment in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the Fulbright program has given approximately 360,000 students, scholars, teachers, artists and scientists the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns.

This year’s recipients are:

• Hayley Anderson of Centreville, graduating with a master’s degree in public policy from the Frank S. Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy’s accelerated master’s program, who will be an English teaching assistant at a federal university in Brazil.

 “At the Batten School, my research focused on public administration and foreign policy,” she said. “For my final capstone project, I worked with the World Bank to find ways to scale up Brazil’s flagship social welfare program, called ‘Bolsa Família.’ I enjoyed this work because I often got to use my knowledge of Brazilian politics and Portuguese language skills to accomplish the real goal of bringing Brazilians out of poverty.”

While at UVA, Anderson was a Range resident; a member of Volunteers with International Students, Staff, and Scholars; president of the University Dance Club; and a student docent at The Fralin Museum of Art. Anderson will be a federal management consultant for Deloitte in Washington, D.C. when she returns from Brazil. Her eventual goal is to be a management officer in the U.S. foreign service.

“The Fulbright name carries a lot of weight in the government and private sectors, and I hope that my completion of the award will signal my ability to work and connect with people around the globe,” Anderson said. “On a personal level, this is an opportunity to give my passion for language and cross-culture communication a practical focus.”

• Mirenda Gwin of Vinton, a 2015 graduate with a double major in the distinguished history majors program and media studies, who will be an English teaching assistant in Burgas, Bulgaria.

“One of the purposes of the Fulbright program is for young people to grow in cultural fluency and learn to be more understanding of other ways of life,” Gwin said. “I’m absolutely thrilled about the opportunity for learning about the history, culture and educational systems of another country.”

While a student at UVA, Gwin was a member of the University Judiciary Committee; Movable Type, an undergraduate media studies journal; Catholic Student Ministries; and the Raven Society. She designed and taught her own course, “All Things Fitzgerald,” to other undergraduates in the Cavalier Education Program. She was an Echols Scholar and received the Kelly O’Hara Scholarship, the Academic Achievement Award for Media Studies and the 2015 Bernard Peyton Chamberlain Memorial Prize for the Best Distinguished Majors Thesis in the Corcoran Department of History.

Gwin worked at a summer camp in North Carolina after graduating, then spent the last academic year  teaching at Veritas Christian Academy in Chesapeake.

“It is a classical school with a large international student body, and I have been privileged to teach middle and high school students,” she said. “I really love working with and advocating for kids, and I’m interested in bringing my knowledge about international education back to the United States when my work as a Fulbright is done.”

• Nicholas Budd Fenton of Skillman, New Jersey, graduating with a double major in political and social thought and Russian and Eastern European studies, who will teach English in a university in Omsk, Russia.

While a student at UVA, Fenton’s research has focused on a contemporary strand of Russian nationalism called Neo-Eurasianism.

“I looked at the ideology’s historical roots, its current adherents and its broader political implications,” he said. “I found it to be a fascinating intersection of my interests in intellectual history and Russian area studies.”

An Echols Scholar and a Jefferson Scholar, Fenton is a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity, the IMP and Raven societies and Engage@UVA. He is a recipient of the Hammond Prize for Excellence in Russian Area Studies. A graduate of The Lawrenceville School, he plans to continue his studies of Russia.

“This award is a dream come true,” Fenton said. “The opportunity to live and work in Russia for a year, where I will be able to explore Russian culture, forge relationships with Russian counterparts and additionally improve my knowledge of the Russian language means the world to me. I am confident that my experiences abroad in Russia will serve me immensely as I continue my studies and begin my career.”

• Corey Haynes of Falls Church, a 2016 graduate with a master’s in education from the Curry School of Education, who will be an English teaching assistant in Laos.

“I was an English teacher in Albemarle County Schools while at UVA, taught English for two years with the Peace Corps in Nicaragua and currently teach in Fairfax County,” she said. “I hope to further my teaching career, learning more about Lao/Asian culture and how to incorporate it into a multicultural and culturally responsive classroom.”

• Christopher Hiebert of Vancouver, British Columbia, a religious studies doctoral candidate, who will conduct research under a Fulbright/Nehru student research grant at Namdroling Monastery in the Tibetan refugee community of Bylakuppe, Karnataka State, India.

“My dissertation looks at the development of Tibetan monastic education in the 19th and early 20th centuries and its relationship to the wider world of Tibetan Buddhist religious practice and patterns of economic and political patronage in Eastern Tibet,” Hiebert said.

A graduate of the University of Toronto with a degree in Buddhist studies, Hiebert is a Buckner W. Clay Foundation for the Humanities Fellow. He plans a career in academia.

“The Fulbright-Nehru grant will enable me to conduct six months of intensive research in Tibetan communities in India and will forge numerous professional and cultural connections and contacts, which will greatly facilitate my academic work in the future,” he said.

• Tiffany Hwang of Richmond, on track to graduate in August with a master’s degree in education from the Curry School of Education, who will teach English in Taiwan.

“Much of my time at UVA has been spent honing my research skills and studying the science of learning from a distance,” she said. “I felt the time was ripe to gain more perspective by stepping into the classroom. Teaching in Taiwan topped my bucket list because I am close to driven, global-minded family and friends who were educated there, and I became curious about the systems that contributed to their success. I look forward to visiting them in Taiwan, learning from my students and using the year to improve my Chinese language skills.”

Hwang received a bachelor’s degree in cognitive science and psychology at UVA in 2016 and completed the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages certificate program. She has been working with Sara Rimm-Kaufman in the Social Development Lab at UVA’s Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning to develop a science curriculum that integrates service-learning and social-emotional learning.

She also served as a project coordinator and former lab manager at the Child Language and Learning Lab directed by associate psychology professor Vikram Jaswal, where she initiated a partnership with the Science Museum of Virginia to connect with the public and share studies of how children learn. Her research projects have also included collaborating with Embracing Hope Ethiopia, Computers4Kids, the Coordinated Approach to Child Health Program in Virginia and the Living Laboratory at the Virginia Discovery Museum.

She has been an intern and consultant for the Volunteers with International Students, Staff and Scholars program at UVA’s Center for American English Language & Culture; a coordinator of the UVA Medical Center’s English as a Second Language Program for immigrant and refugee workers; and a Madison House youth mentoring program director for the Music Resource Center. She was a College Council department representative, an editor for the Cavalier Daily and a teaching assistant in the psychology department as well as in ESL classrooms for international graduate students.

“I hope this next adventure through Fulbright will help fuel my commitment to building bridges between education research, practice and policy,” she said. “Gaining experience in all three arenas is important to me. After teaching, I would like to explore education policy and continue with research.”

• Libby Lyon of Arlington, a 2014 graduate of the School of Architecture with a degree in urban and environmental planning and a minor in global sustainability, who will study at the Institute of Education at University College London.

“I will partner with primary schools in London and research the dynamics between cooking and gardening education programs in schools and family food practices at home,” she said. “My Fulbright tenure will further prepare me for a career in promoting the health of families and children through food-growing programs in schools. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to study at the Institute of Education, University College London, alongside researchers at the Thomas Coram Research Unit who are experts in the health and food practices of children and families.”

At UVA, Lyon received a 2013-14 Jefferson Public Citizen Grant to research and implement school-garden education programming at Burnley-Moran Elementary School in Charlottesville, as well as a 2012-13 Community Based Undergraduate Research Grant to research garden-based curricula for elementary school-aged students and developed lesson plans based in various academic subjects to be taught in Charlottesville City Schools.

A founder and student leader of the Burnley-Moran Elementary Garden Club, she was on the UVA Community Garden leadership team and an apprentice at the University’s Morven Kitchen Garden. She was a student leader of the City Schoolyard Garden in Charlottesville, a service member of FoodCorps and a farmers’ market manager for GrowNYC.

She also was a student representative to the UVA Strategic Planning Career Services Working Group; a site leader for Project SERVE, a day of service for incoming students; and a trustee of the Class of 2014.

After the Fulbright, she wants to continue to work with schools to connect kids and families to healthy food.

• Samantha Merritt of Fort Meade, Maryland, graduating with a double major in public policy and leadership from the Frank S. Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and in foreign affairs from the College of Arts & Sciences (with a minor in East Asian studies), who will pursue a master’s degree in Korean studies at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea.

“This two-year endeavor will give me the opportunity to study South and North Korean politics, economics, history, society, culture and the Korean language, while allowing me to focus on South Korea’s role as a critical partner for peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region,” Merritt said. “I am especially interested in understanding the national reactions to, and international security implications of, South Korea’s foreign policies toward North Korea, such as [former South Korean] President Kim Dae-jung’s more peaceful Sunshine Policy and President Lee Myung-bak’s more hardline approach.”

While at UVA, Merritt has been a facilitator for the Women’s Asian American Leadership Initiative; a small-group leader and secretary for the Women’s Leadership Development Program; a language consultant for the Volunteers with International Students, Staff, and Scholars; and a member of the Batten Undergraduate Council External Committee and the Rotaract Club at UVA. She has lived at Shea House, a total immersion language dormitory, for the past three years. She received a Critical Language Scholarship for Korean and spent two months last year in Gwangju, South Korea.

A graduate of the Seoul American High School, Merritt plans to work for the U.S. government after graduation, using her Korean language skills, cultural literacy and background in Korean studies while working in the diplomatic or intelligence field in order to assist with advancing U.S. foreign policy and military relations.

“I knew that to better facilitate mutual understanding between the U.S. and South Korea and to help strengthen critical U.S.-Korean bilateral relations, I would need more than a summer or two abroad to focus on Korean studies,” Merritt said. “Fulbright offers this incredible award and it made sense to pursue a total immersion program in the country itself.”

• Sara Pancerella of Manassas, who is graduating with a double major in foreign affairs and Spanish and a minor in Latin American studies, who will be an English teaching assistant at the Universidad Nacional in Manizales, Caldas, Colombia.

“While I’m there, I will also be developing a social project, which will be determined once I arrive, to work on for the duration of the grant,” Pancerella said. “One of the most important aspects of my grant is that I will be a cultural ambassador for the United States.”

A member of the Sigma Delta Pi Spanish Honor Society, she has been a Spanish tutor for the past two years, a Madison House volunteer as an English as a second language classroom assistant, and a language consultant for Volunteers with International Students, Staff, and Scholars this semester. A graduate of Stonewall Jackson High School, Pancerella wants to continue her studies on Latin America.

“I definitely plan to pursue a master’s degree following the Fulbright with a regional focus on Latin America, possibly Latin American studies itself,” she said. “Before I jump into that, I would like to take a year or two off to work, gain more experience and save up money for my degree.”

• Melissa Roggero of Venice, Florida, a 2014 graduate with a degree in foreign affairs and a minor in French, who will be teaching English-language and American culture classes at a federal university in Brazil.

Roggero, who has been working as a Peace Corps English Education Volunteer in Ozurgeti, Georgia, eventually plans to return to graduate school.

“After the Fulbright, I hope to return to school to get my master’s degree and eventually work in international development and education policy,” she said. “I want to eventually work in international educational policy, so working within a different educational framework will be very important.”

• Elizabeth Doe Stone of Concord, Massachusetts, a Ph.D. candidate in art and architectural history in the McIntire Department of Art, who will conduct archival research in Stockholm and Mora, Sweden, at the National Museum, the Zorn Museum and Stockholm University.

“My dissertation, ‘Cosmopolitan Facture: John Singer Sargent and Anders Zorn, 1871-1915,’ situates these two painters in relation to one another and locates their artistic experimentation within a broader community of international artists, sitters and philosophers at the turn of the century,” she said. “I knew that my dissertation research necessitated prolonged engagement with archival material, so the Fulbright research grant was a perfect fit.

“On a personal level, I was drawn to the Fulbright’s diplomatic mission and I look forward to the cultural immersion it facilitates.”

Stone, who earned a bachelor’s degree in art history from Dartmouth College in 2012, has had her research at UVA supported by the Institute for the Humanities and Global Cultures, the Center for Global Inquiry and Innovation, the Dumas Malone Fellowship, the Rare Book School, the Double Hoo Research Grant and the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Summer Research Fellowship. She plans to teach as a college professor.

• Mitchell Wellman of Marietta, Georgia, graduating with a dual major in political and social thought and Spanish (linguistics and philology track), with a minor in economics, who will teach English to high school students in Madrid and conduct linguistic research.

“This scholarship will provide me a great opportunity to apply classroom experience in the real world,” he said. “Learning a language is more than just remembering words and grammar; it’s about experiencing the culture and the people who utilize that language. I believe the Fulbright program offers all of these things.”

Wellman was a Lawn resident and a member of the University Judiciary Committee and the Raven Society. He was an assistant managing editor of the Cavalier Daily; founder and executive editor of Q* Anthology of Queer Culture; and a student lecturer in the “Everyone’s a Journalist” course offered by the Cavalier Education Program. An Echols Scholar, Wellman also received a 2017 Reider Otis Endowed Prize, presented by the UVA Serpentine Society, for advancing rights of the LGBTQ community. He earned a 2016 Wyatt Family Fellowship for Spanish Distinguished Major Program thesis research in Barcelona, Spain, awarded by the UVA Spanish Department. He was a digital producer for the USA TODAY College section this spring. A graduate of Carl Harrison High School, he plans to attend law school and focus on education policy.

A lot has changed in the four years since the Class of 2017 arrived at the University of Virginia. Jefferson’s Rotunda has been restored and readied to face another century, University researchers have forever changed the field of medicine with new discoveries about the brain, and legions of UVA graduates have taken on mantles of leadership.

Just as UVA is always growing as a community, students walk their own path of growth from the moment they set foot on Grounds. Often, the hesitant first-year they once saw in the mirror is unrecognizable to the confident scholar who will walk the Lawn this weekend.

To celebrate their transformative years on Grounds, UVA Today asked graduating fourth-years to share “then and now” photos from their earliest days at UVA and their final days before graduation.

Photos came in from across the University and many grads-to-be used their submissions to highlight the lasting friendships they’ve forged here.

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In her submission, Curry School of Education student Aubree Surrency explained that she and her three best friends – Alysse Dowdy, Shontell White and Alexis Jones – met through a combination of dorm assignments and shared classes first year.

“After that we all started hanging out and we solidified our friendship our first year with an Easter weekend trip to Shontell’s house,” she said. “We just ended our fourth year with a trip to Myrtle Beach together. It’s safe to say we are forever friends!”

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Growing friendship was the same theme for Chanel Dupree, a McIntire School of Commerce student graduating with a B.S. in accounting and finance. She and fellow friends Deanna Madagan, Abby Systma, Kaitlyn Colliton and Jennifer Cifuentes all met in the first-year dorms.

“We took one picture at the end of first year, before the Rotunda went under construction and I started laughing and fell off. We decided to recreate it this year for graduation,” Dupree said.

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Other students decided to show a more personal transformation with their photos.

History major Malcolm Dunlop joined UVA’s Naval ROTC as a first-year and will be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps on the steps of the Rotunda on Friday morning. He’ll take four years of leadership experience at UVA with him when he heads to Quantico for further training this year.

"NROTC has been massively influential during my time at UVA," he said. "I am emerging a far more confident individual, and this confidence extends to other realms at UVa including my academic and social endeavors."

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Architecture student Renee Ritchie was shaped not only by her days on Grounds, but by the additional global perspective she gained through a study-abroad program in her final year at UVA.

“From looking out over ‘Mount Kellogg’ during my first year in dorms, my view changed to looking out over the Dolomites in Bressanone, Italy during my fourth-year architecture study-abroad experience,” she said. “I gained courage, knowledge and a passion for architecture over these past four years, thanks to UVA and the Architecture School.”

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Some students, like Carrie Bohmer, chose to trace their time at UVA by looking back on their favorite annual activities and events. The psychology and women, gender and sexuality double-major sent in photos of visits to UVA’s “Teeny Tiny Zoo,” during her first and fourth years. The regular event is designed to offer a fun stress-reliever during spring midterms every year.

Along with her cheerful photos, Bohmer included some reflection on just how much she’s changed as a person during her time at UVA.

“Over the past four years I have grown from a girl to a woman and learned who I am as a person,” Bohmer said. “UVA has given me the best gift possible – myself.” 

Below, readers can scroll through the fourth-year submissions sent in the last days before graduation.

Final Exercises 2017 was built of moments that graduates and their parents will carry with them forever. The University of Virginia conferred 6,698 degrees over two joyous days.

Watch the video above for a look back at the weekend and see a comprehensive index of photos, videos and stories on the Final Exercises 2017 aggregation page. 

What do you do when the building believed to be President James Monroe’s home – a building that attracts a consistent stream of visitors each year – wasn’t actually the Founding Father’s residence?

That’s the question that leaders at Highland, the fifth president’s estate in Albemarle County, enlisted University of Virginia School of Architecture students to help answer this spring. The 14 students enrolled in architectural history professor Lisa Reilly’s “Museum Interpretation: Highland” course developed four revamped tours for the site, some using augmented reality technology to take visitors back in time.

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Each tour takes into account Highland’s 2016 discovery of the previously buried remains of Monroe’s true house, a much larger house than what currently exists on the property. That more modest home is now believed to be a guest house commissioned by the fifth president at least 15 years after he bought the estate in 1793 and moved in 1799.

“For us, this discovery was a tremendous opportunity and one that we intentionally sought through years of research,” said Sara Bon-Harper, Highland’s executive director. “I don’t know of any other case where a presidential house has been lost and found.”

Monroe – who also lived at the site of UVA’s Brown College – owned the Highland estate until 1826, a time period that included his tenure as governor of Virginia and his two terms as president. Archeologists will excavate what is left of his home– now believed to have burned down – in the yard of the present property, which was previously called Ash Lawn-Highland, but recently returned to “Highland,” the name used during Monroe’s era. So far, they have found remnants of stone wall foundations and the brick foundation for a chimney, as well as fragments of furniture, ceramics and other artifacts.

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Bon-Harper and her team now embrace the dual tasks of discovering more about Monroe’s original home and sharing their findings with the visitors who travel to Highland daily – a challenge that they shared with the UVA students.

“We have an opportunity to be really creative in how we interpret the site,” she said. “The research we are doing will shed light not just on Highland itself, but on history’s understanding of Monroe.”

The architecture, architectural history and art history students met several times with Bon-Harper, architectural historian Carl Lounsbury and others who made the discovery. They also visited similar sites nearby, including Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello.

Lounsbury, a faculty member at the College of William & Mary, showed students how small clues like the techniques used to create nails and bricks for the house led his team to suspect it was constructed much later than 1799. Subsequent tree-ring dating tests confirmed that the building’s wooden beams were cut at least 15 years later, between 1815 and 1818. In an 1818 letter to his son-in-law, Monroe made passing reference to the construction of a guest house on his property.

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Students split into four groups to develop new plans for presenting the property to visitors, given the new discovery. Their final presentations, delivered to Highland officials in early May, included ideas for revamping the guest house to more accurately reflect its origins, new ways of displaying the Monroes’ furniture currently housed there, new exhibits for Highland’s information center and new tour scripts.

Two of the four student teams elected to partner with Art Glass, a technology firm that has developed augmented reality glasses and tours for several museums and historical sites in Europe. The firm hopes Highland can be one of its early test clients in the United States.

In the final presentations, fourth-year architectural history student Hannah Glatt told Bon-Harper and the assembled team that augmented reality tours allow visitors see how the site might have looked without interrupting ongoing excavations.

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“You can see buildings or look closely at foundation stones while still protecting them,” Glatt said. Her classmate, fourth-year architecture student Seth Pantalony, also said that augmented reality tours could be adjusted quickly.

“We were really drawn to AR because it is easy to build out new versions of the tour as more information is known,” Pantalony said.

Glatt and Pantalony’s team developed plans for a tour featuring virtual narrators – including Monroe himself – taking visitors through the property and explaining how archeologists uncovered the truth about the guest house. Other ideas for augmented reality tours included audio tracks immersing visitors in the sounds of a bustling plantation and narrations by its inhabitants, from the enslaved men and women toiling there to Monroe’s famous neighbor, Thomas Jefferson. Students also suggested using iPads – perhaps more familiar to older visitors than augmented reality glasses – to guide visitors through the guest house and archeology site.

Some groups focused closely on the guest house itself, exploring which of Monroe’s political associates might have stayed there and how the visitors – and the estate itself –influenced Monroe’s illustrious career.

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“When Elizabeth Monroe, 25, and James Monroe, 35, purchased Highland, James Monroe had already begun his political career,” graduate architecture student Henry Hull said. “It was a built environment that undoubtedly shaped his political aspirations and school of thought.”

Others were interested in expanding the tour to include the estate’s agricultural fields and network of trails, some of which connected Monroe to Jefferson’s Monticello. Bon-Harper told students that improvements to the trails are underway and play a significant role in her team’s long-term plans for the estate.

“One of the things that we identified in our strategic planning was that we are not capitalizing on the tremendous potential of the property,” she said. “Right now, visitors are only seeing a handful of the hundreds of acres.”

Bon-Harper said that she and her creative team will carefully review and consider the students’ ideas as they continue to update the estate’s exhibits and tours in light of last year’s discovery. Ultimately, she and the students agree that, almost two centuries after Monroe sold the property, historians and tourists alike still have much to learn about Highland and the role it played in American history.

“This place has an extended, complicated history that is still in the process of being unpacked and is really changing how we think of James Monroe,” Hull said. “There were so many different factors that contributed to his development as one of the most qualified people to be president at that time.”

The huge societal challenges of global infectious diseases and a rapidly changing climate are now key transdisciplinary focus areas at the University of Virginia under two newly established, pan-University institutes.

The UVA Environmental Resilience Institute and the Global Infectious Diseases Institute will each bring together top researchers from a range of disciplines at UVA to tackle some of the biggest problems facing society.

Three years ago, the University began an initiative under its strategic Cornerstone Plan to tackle major 21^st-century issues by establishing up to five institutes drawing on the University’s broad and specific intellectual capital. The UVA Data Science Institute – the first, and established in 2014 – facilitates data-intensive research, analytics, management and education across the University. The UVA Brain Institute, established last year, focuses on better understanding the human body’s most complex organ.

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And now, major UVA resources are being dedicated to problems involving the environment and infectious diseases, globally related issues with myriad challenges. Each institute is initially funded with a three-year, $2 million grant from the University, and spearheaded by the offices of the Executive Vice President and Provost and of the Vice President for Research. The institutes use this seed money to organize and then produce multi-faceted grant proposals to earn additional long-term funding from federal and state agencies, foundations and private donors.

“We know that the solutions to many of our most challenging global problems lie at the intersections of disciplines,” UVA President Teresa A. Sullivan said. “By assembling talented, multi-disciplinary faculty teams to address environmental change and to study infectious diseases, we are confronting two of the 21^st century’s most vexing problems head-on.”

Environmental sciences professor Karen McGlathery will lead the Environmental Resilience Institute. Alison Criss, an associate professor of microbiology, immunology, and cancer biology, will head the Global Infectious Diseases Institute.

“Both of these proposals really captured the essence of the pan-University challenge, expertly bringing together multiple disciplines in a novel way to address complex societal issues,” Thomas C. Katsouleas, executive vice president and provost, said. “These institutes have great teams with extraordinary leaders at the helm, and I am excited about the advances they will make over the next few years.”

The Environmental Resilience Institute will seek to accelerate solutions to urgent social-environmental challenges such as coastal flooding and storm impacts in coastal regions, as well as water security. This requires collaborative research where human, natural and infrastructure systems converge and that integrates new models, sensing tools, big data, narratives, designs and behavioral research.

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UVA already has a strong multidisciplinary research department in environmental sciences, and the new institute will bring together faculty and resources there with problem-solvers in disciplines across the University to deal with big-picture, long-term environmental problems affected by societal decisions of the present.

“The pace and dimensions of environmental change are now greater than at any other time in human history,” McGlathery said. “This affects economics, security and the human condition throughout the world.”

She noted that well over half the world’s population lives along coasts and the rivers that feed them, including 11 of Earth’s 15 largest cities, which are increasingly affected by flooding, frequent storms and declining water quality.

“These are wicked problems that cannot be solved by a single discipline,” McGlathery said. “They require the kind of transdisciplinary collaboration and training that the Environmental Resilience Institute will catalyze between environmental scientists, engineers, designers, social scientists, humanists, educators, lawyers and business innovators. UVA has never been in a better position to achieve preeminence in this space – we are building on a strong faculty community in all 11 schools, new cluster hires in Arts & Sciences, Engineering and Architecture, and partnerships in the U.S. and abroad.”  

The Global Infectious Diseases Institute will catalyze transdisciplinary research to combat the most notorious and urgent infectious threats afflicting humankind, including epidemics like Ebola, untreatable “superbugs” and the diarrheal infections that kill hundreds of thousands of children around the world each year. This institute will solidify UVA’s global footprint through international partnerships and collaborations while seeking new funding for high-impact, transformative research. By promoting scholarly activity revolving around infectious diseases, the institute will educate and train the next generation of lab, social science and clinical researchers, engineers, educators, policymakers and entrepreneurs.

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“Infectious diseases continue to wreak global havoc – the current outbreaks of Ebola in Congo and cholera in Yemen as two examples,” Criss said. “With an infectious agent a flight away from anywhere in the world, infectious diseases are inextricably linked to issues of human health as well as national security, human rights, international law, cultural practices and public health infrastructure.

“Concerted responses to global infectious threats require research and communication across traditional disciplinary lines, spanning science, engineering, medicine, social sciences, nursing, law, education and public policy. With a thriving culture of cross-Grounds collaborations and longstanding international partnerships, the UVA Global Infectious Diseases Institute is poised to have a major impact in local, national and international communities.”

Katsouleas; Phillip A. Parrish, interim vice president for research; and a committee involving vice provosts and a representative of the UVA Faculty Senate selected the two new institutes from among several proposals by faculty leaders across Grounds during an invited competitive selection process over the past several months. A team of expert reviewers from within and outside the University evaluated the ideas, and ultimately the University selected both environmental change and infectious diseases as the subjects on which to build the University’s newest institutes.

“It is our intention that these institutes will elevate UVA from prominence to preeminence in these two areas,” Katsouleas said.

The pan-University initiative is designed to distinguish the University in a handful of key areas and establish its research and educational tone for the next decade and beyond. Hundreds of current faculty members from more than a dozen departments across Grounds and from the Data Science Institute will participate in these new efforts.

“UVA’s strategy to distinguish itself through transdisciplinary research and scholarship addressing areas of critical global societal need is being further realized through the formation of these two new pan-University institutes, and positions UVA to be highly competitive in pursuit of major grant and philanthropic opportunities,” Parrish said.

The University will recognize the two new institute teams and finalists during a celebration event in the fall. At that time, a seed grants competition will open to enable faculty teams to work together toward creating the next pan-University institute.