Each year, the Virginia Council of Graduate Schools (VCGS) hosts the Graduate Student Research Forum. The forum provides an opportunity for the public, legislators, and the business community to hear about current graduate student research, which promotes economic, social, and civic development in Virginia.

The Seventh Annual Graduate Student Research Forum will be held on February 16, 2012 from 4:00 to 6:00 pm at the University of Virginia. So that we may plan accordingly, please RSVP to Beth Beal at bjb4d@virginia.edu.

DID YOU KNOW?

Virginia graduate students serve in a variety of capacities throughout the Commonwealth, the United States, and the world. Their research is transforming lives and their talent is serving the public in countless ways. For example, did you know that a Virginia graduate student [pdf]:

◊ Invented a mechanical leech that outperformed live medicinal leeches used for more than 3,000 years.

◊ Won a Nobel Prize in physics for discovering how helium-3 can transform itself into a liquid that flows without friction at temperatures near absolute zero.

◊ Currently serves as the secretary of health and human resources for the commonwealth of Virginia.

◊ Invented novel supercapacitors with applications in renewable energy generation and electric vehicles.

◊ Flew on the space shuttle Discovery and another served twice as the scientific astronaut with the space shuttle Columbia.

◊ Developed a hearing aid that uses magnetic waves to transmit vibrations.

◊ Served as the first U.S. Department of Agriculture’s under secretary for food safety.

◊ Served as director of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the U.S. Department of Energy’s largest science and energy laboratory.

◊ Exhibited at a cutting-edge European art center in London with works symbolizing mysteries of Central Virginia, entitled “Madison’s Cave” after a historic limestone cave in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains.

◊ Designed a software application that runs on mobile devices that actively link doctors and patients.

◊ Patented a process to improve manufacture of nanometer-scale silicon chips.

◊ Discovered an unpublished poem by Sylvia Plath.

◊ Reconstructs the development of forests using geographic information systems and analysis of tree rings, maps and other documentary evidence to show how people interact with forests and respond to environmental change.

PROGRAMS

We invite you to browse the programs and photographs, from previous research forums, at the links below.

Sixth Annual Graduate Student Research Forum (2011, pdf)

Fifth Annual Graduate Student Research Forum (2010, pdf)

Fourth Annual Graduate Student Research Forum (2009, pdf)

Third Annual Graduate Student Research Forum (2008, pdf)

Second Annual Graduate Student Research Forum (2007, pdf)

First Annual Graduate Student Research Forum (2006, pdf)

PHOTOGRAPHS