Here’s a roundup of education briefs from around Southwest and Southside:
Tech professor receives Virginia’s highest faculty honor
Eli Vlaisavljevich, an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics, has received a 2023 Outstanding Faculty Award from Virginia’s state agency for higher education.
The award, administered by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV), is the highest honor for faculty serving public and private colleges and universities in the commonwealth. It spotlights exemplary work in teaching, mentoring, research, scholarship, and public service.
SCHEV also designated Vlaisavljevich as one of two Rising Star honorees this year. The category highlights the early career achievement of faculty with two to six years of full-time experience.
Vlaisavljevich, who joined Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering in 2017, has championed interdisciplinary research projects centered on focused ultrasound, noninvasive tissue ablation, cavitation physics, nanoparticle-mediated histotripsy, biomaterials, tissue regeneration, cancer, clinical translation, and more.
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John Lysaker is the next speaker in the Mudd Lecture Series
John Lysaker, the William R. Kenan Professor of Philosophy at Emory University, will present a lecture on Jan. 30 at 5 p.m. in the Stackhouse Theater as part of Washington and Lee University’s Mudd Center for Ethics’ series on “Beneficence: Practicing and Ethics of Care.”
Lysaker’s lecture, which is free and open to the public, is titled “Become Who You Aren’t: Friendship as Spectacle.” This event can also be accessed via Livestream at livestream.com/wlu.
Lysaker’s research centers around phenomena such as the good life, the nature and social function of art, and the nature of the self and its fate in schizophrenia. He approaches his work through the interdisciplinary lenses of ethics, the philosophy of art and literature, philosophical psychology, and nineteenth- and twentieth-century American and continental philosophies. Lysaker has a particular interest in the study of friendship, examining it as a site of non-obligatory goodwill and care, and exploring the enriching impact a benevolent regard for others has on a person’s life.
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Virginia Tech helping study how to reduce spoilage of pears
Virginia Tech researchers are collaborating with the University of Georgia to examine different storage methods to reduce spoilage and food safety issues associated with the long-term storage of pears.
The research is funded by a two-year, $335,000 grant from the Center for Produce Safety.
Alexis Hamilton is the co-principal investigator of the project. She is an assistant professor of food processing microbiology in the Department of Food Science and Technology, and Virginia Cooperative Extension specialist.
The researchers, including Laura Strawn, an associate professor in the department and the principal investigator of the project, will initially look at microbial communities on the surfaces of pears and study how the communities change during the storage environment. Then, the top three key players will be identified and tested against a foodborne pathogen.