Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Virginia Tech Master of Public Health students have served as case investigators and contact tracers in the New River Valley, Roanoke City, Alleghany County, and beyond the region in Central Shenandoah. These roles, which support confirmed and probable cases and notify possible contacts of exposure, are key to limiting COVID-19 transmission.

Clark, professor of theriogenology and a diplomate in the American College of Theriogenologists, has been a faculty member in the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine since 2011. Her teaching and research focus on advanced reproductive techniques in a variety of species, with a concentration in conditions that cause infertility.

Niesha Savory, a clinical neuroscience and psychology undergraduate student at Virginia Tech who conducts research at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, has always been fascinated with how the brain works.

Among the first faculty members to join the new Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine in 1979, Larsen was an avian health and disease researcher and a poultry specialist with Virginia Cooperative Extension.

Hundreds of volunteers, including many Virginia Tech students, faculty, and staff, are part of the Medical Reserve Corps in the New River Valley and are serving at COVID-19 testing and vaccine sites.

Melina Schuh, esteemed scientist and pioneer in chromosomal abnormalities in ovarian cells, will speak at the Virginia Tech Life Science Seminar, a universitywide seminar series funded by the Fralin Life Sciences Institute at Virginia Tech, on Jan. 29.

Students in the University Libraries' Applied Research in Immersive Experiences and Simulations program have successfully transitioned to all virtual work while learning new collaboration skills, time management practices, and resiliency along the way.

Established in 2013, the Diversity Incentive Fund aims to create new opportunities that increase the understanding of, appreciation for, and advocacy of diversity issues through an annual fund amount of $2,000.

A team of Virginia Tech scientists identified a new link between seizures and deficits in connexin 36, a protein essential to the development of electrical synapses connecting neurons. The discovery, published Jan. 11 in Frontiers of Molecular Neuroscience, found that this interaction may make the brain more prone to having seizures.

The Association for the Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International has awarded Virginia Tech’s animal care and use program continued full accreditation after an onsite triennial visit this summer.