Marc Edwards

An agreement between Virginia Tech and a private company could facilitate construction of an overseas campus in southeast India, the university announced Monday.

Neither projected costs nor a timeline for the project were mentioned in a news release.

The proposed Virginia Tech-India campus -- a partnership with Indian company MARG Limited -- would be on about 30 acres in the state of Tamil Nadu, where a 70,000-square-foot facility would be built.

The school would offer master's and doctorate programs for about 300 students in engineering and science, the release stated. All academic and research functions would be overseen by Tech.

Three years of high-level planning, including input from Tech President Charles Steger, have gone into the effort, which is part of Tech's international strategic plan to build learning centers in all regions of the world, according to the release.

The institution -- called Virginia Tech MARG Swarnabhoomi, India -- would be located within a two-hour drive of Chennai, India's fourth-largest city and the capital of Tamil Nadu.

Researchers from the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute are expected to be part of the initiative.

Tech oversees two other international learning centers, one in Switzerland and another the Dominican Republic.

Researchers honored for work during crisis

Marc Edwards and Simoni Triantafyllidou of Virginia Tech's College of Engineering, along with colleague Dr. Dana Best of Children's National Medical Center, published a 2009 article in Environmental Science and Technology that demonstrated a major increase in childhood lead poisoning of Washington, D.C., children during the 2001-04 lead-in-water crisis, the university announced.

The research contradicted years of government assertions that no residents in Washington, D.C., had been harmed by years of unnecessary exposure to very high levels of lead in their potable water.

These discoveries prompted investigations by Congress and the Washington, D.C., office of inspector general into potential wrongdoing by the government agencies that made the claims, a university news release stated.

An academic paper chronicling that investigation written by Edwards, Triantafyllidou and Best was named the Best Science Paper of 2009 out of nearly 1,500 papers published in the journal.

Jewish student group volunteers in Miami

Hillel at Virginia Tech is sponsoring an alternative spring break community service program in Miami called "Hokies in Miami, Serving to Make a Difference."

Ten women are spending seven days in Florida, where they are working on service projects and organized group discussions highlighting issues important to women, according to a Hillel news release.

The women, who will post their experiences to a blog at the Hillel Web site, are scheduled to return to Blacksburg on Monday. Follow their trip at jewishlifeatvirginiatech .blogspot.com.

Hillel at Virginia Tech is a student organization dedicated to supporting and preserving Jewish life and culture and encouraging Jewish college students to give back to their communities.

Radford earns advocacy grants

Two early childhood advocacy grants were recently awarded to programs affiliated with Radford University.

The federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention awarded a $27,814 grant in December to the Children's Advocacy Center of the New River Valley that will provide money to hire a part-time director. The program is coordinated by Radford professor Alice King Ingham.

An $89,000 grant from the Virginia Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Education was awarded to the Virginia Consortium for Teacher Preparation in Early Childhood Special Education project directed by Radford professor Kathryn Hoover. The consortium provides tuition support and coursework to teachers and students across Southwest Virginia.

Additionally, Radford University's College of Science and Technology has received a $523,028 grant from the National Science Foundation to provide scholarships and other support for students through the four-year Bridges and Pipelines to Success and Leadership in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics program.

Radford opens diversity center

Radford University's Center for Diversity and Inclusion is now open to the public.

Located in Tyler Hall, the center is dedicated to enhancing diversity and multicultural understanding among students, faculty, and staff.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Thursday.

Radford recognizes women's history

As part of its Women's History Month events throughout March, Radford University will celebrate milestones, including the founding of the university 100 years ago as a women's teaching college.

The monthlong series of events will center on the theme of "Writing Women Back into History" and will emphasize international women and the founding of Radford in 1910 as a state women's teaching college, according to a university news release. It will also mark the 10th anniversary of the founding of the women's studies program at Radford.

Radford's first female president, Penelope Kyle, will give the closing address set for 4 p.m. March 31 in Muse Hall. Memoirist and activist Judy Ayyildiz will also be a featured speaker this month.

Community submissions for the annual listserv online story network, which features essays, photo journals, poems and stories about women and their lives are being accepted throughout the month at wstudies@radford.edu. Each day subscribers receive one of these pieces electronically.

Find a full list of events at tinyurl.com/y9y5wtm.

Researcher warns of catastrophes in U.S.

John Harrald, research professor at the Virginia Tech Center for Technology, Security and Policy, warned in testimony last week before a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that the United States is particularly vulnerable to large-scale disasters, according to a news release from the university.

The testimony comes on the heels of disastrous earthquakes in Chile and Haiti.

Because large populations live and work in U.S. cities targeted by terrorists, as well as in the path of natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes, preparation for catastrophic events is crucial, Harrald told the committee during a hearing on New Paradigms for Private Sector Preparedness.