Around Campus

Trani statue unveiled at life sciences building

An enduring image of Eugene P. Trani will be part of his legacy at Virginia Commonwealth University. A life-size bronze statue of the retiring Virginia Commonwealth University president has been installed in the life sciences building that bears his name.

The $60,000 sculpture was financed entirely by VCU donors and initially had been part of a project documenting the school's history, VCU spokeswoman Pam Lepley said. The statue was included in that effort because Trani has been president for nearly half of VCU's 40-year history, she said.

Work on the sculpture began in 2005 to be timed for Trani's original retirement date in 2007. It's been in storage for some time, Lepley said, but was quietly unveiled May 14 in a corner of the lobby of the Eugene P. and Lois E. Trani Center for Life Sciences.

Trani will retire as president June 30. Next week, his wife, a retired registered nurse, will be honored when the VCU Massey Cancer Center dedicates its patient resource library at Stony Point in her honor.

Lois Trani is a longtime Massey Advisory Board member and volunteer. The library serves nearly 1,000 people annually as staff and volunteers assist patients and their families in finding cancer information.

VCU graduate receives NSF research fellowship

Nicole Constance, a May graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, has received a National Science Foundation research fellowship to support her doctoral studies.

A psychology and anthropology major from Fredericksburg, Constance will use the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship to attend Penn State to participate in doctorate programs in human development and family studies and in demography.

NSF Graduate Research Fellows receive three years of graduate support, including a $30,000 annual stipend and a $10,500 cost-of-education allowance.

Elsewhere

Brian S. Crockett has been named chief executive officer of the Virginia Military Institute Foundation. Crockett, vice president for development at the West Point Association of Graduates, will assume his new post June 29. . . . Timothy Lubin, associate professor of religion at Washington and Lee University, has received two national fellowships for work on his research project "Authority, Law and the Polity in India, 300-1700." He will spend next year in India supported by a Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad Fellowship and will continue his work in Lexington with the support of an American Philosophical Society Sabbatical Fellowship. . . . Two VCU School of Pharmacy professors are among nine pharmacy faculty nationwide selected as 2009 fellows by the American Pharmacists Association's Academy of Pharmaceutical Research and Science. They are William Garnett, professor, and David Holdford, associate professor.

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