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VCU's nuclear engineering program to expand

Nuclear engineering program to grow at VCU

Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Engineering will expand its curriculum in the fall with new programs to train nuclear engineers.

The School of Engineering will offer a program leading to a master's degree in mechanical and nuclear engineering. An undergraduate track in nuclear engineering also will be added to the mechanical engineering program.

The school's dean, Russell Jamison, said the two programs together will be the most complete offering of nuclear engineering education in the state.

Nuclear power produces about 20 percent of the electricity in the United States, but more plants have been proposed as a way to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.

The American Nuclear Society has estimated that 700 nuclear engineers need to graduate every year to support the potential demand. Currently, about a third of that need is met.

The VCU programs are being developed in conjunction with Dominion Virginia Power, which plans to build a third nuclear reactor at its North Anna power plant in Louisa County.

GMU will offer new public health degree

George Mason University will offer a new master's of public health degree this fall. The degree will help address a shortage of public health professionals needed to respond to natural and manmade disasters as well as disease outbreaks.

The 42-credit program can be completed in two years or taken on a part-time basis. The application deadline for fall is April 1.

A baccalaureate degree with a minimum grade point average of 3.0 in the last 60 credits is required. A background in statistics, biology and the social sciences is preferred.

An information session will be held March 5 at 5:30 p.m. in Student Union Building II Room I on George Mason's Fairfax campus.

Grants and awards

Manorama (Mano) Talaiver, director of Longwood University's Institute for Teaching through Technology & Inno vative Practices, will receive a national award for her work with low-income and minority students and rural school divisions. Talaiver will receive the 2009 Black Engineer of the Year Award for Promotion of Elementary Education at a conference Saturday in Baltimore. . . . Mike Leopold, associate professor of chemistry at the University of Richmond, has received an $85,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to continue his research on proteins. Leopold and a student team are researching specialized nanoparticles and their role in electrochemistry. . . . Courtney Schroeder, a fourth-year student at the University of Virginia, has received a $50,000 scholarship from the Winston Churchill Foundation of the United States. The scholarship will allow Schroeder, a chemistry major from South Boston, to study at the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England.

Karin Kapsidelis reports on higher education. Contact her at (804) 649-6119 or .