2016

Mar: Congratulations to VTSuN co-Director Dr. Mike Hochella for winning the Outstanding Faculty Award from the Virgnia State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV).

Jan: Two articles by VTSuN members were among the most downloaded articles at Environmental Science: Nano:

 

2015

Nov: VT NanoEarth was mentioned in this article by Physics Today: "NSF reconfigures nanoscience network"

Sep: VTSuN is now part of the brand new Virginia Tech National Center for Earth and Environmental Nanotechnology Infrastructure (NanoEarth). Please see this VT News article and the NSF announcement about it.

Aug: Congratulations to Gargi Singh on the successful defense of her PhD! She was advised by Amy Pruden.

Aug: Congratulations to Param Pati on successfully defending his PhD! His adviser was Peter Vikesland.

Jun: Rui Serra Maia won a poster award at the 3rd Gordon Conference on Environmental Nanotechnology held in West Dover, VT.

Jun: Congratulations to Ron Kent on the successful defense of his PhD! His dissertation is entitled "Controlled evaluation of metal-based nanomaterial transformations" and his adviser was Peter Vikesland.

May: Marina Vance was recognized as Scholar of the Week by the VT Office of the Vice President for Research.

Apr: Former VTSuN Professor Scott Renneckar (now at University of British Columbia) receives Canada Research Chair in Advanced Renewable Materials.

Apr: Amy Pruden's paper "Balancing Water Sustainability and Public Health Goals in the Face of Growing Concerns about Antibiotic Resistance" was named the top feature paper of the year of 2014 by Environmental Science & Technology.

Mar: Maren Roman was featured in a VT News article on her recent work addressing nanocellulose and human health, published in this article.

Feb: Lissett Bickford was featured in a VT News article on finding new way to use electric fields to deliver cancer treatment.

Jan: Linsey Marr and "air man" Steven Welty were interviewed for Pop Sci article "Right now, you're breathing a potentially dangerous substance"

Jan: Linsey Marr was featured in a VT News article about her work with the flu virus. Check out the video here.

Jan: An article highlighting the PhD research of VTSuN alumna Carol Johnson was published in the College of Science Research Magazine "Breakthrough"

Jan: VT News featured profile article of Linsey Marr and her group's work on health impacts of engineered nanomaterials.

 

2014

Dec: Linsey Marr was featured in two Pulse of the Planet episodes. To see listen to them, go to our Outreach page.

Nov: VTSuN student Param Pati is now a blog writer for ES Nano!

Nov: Marina Vance was featured in four Pulse of the Planet episodes. To see listen to them, go to our Outreach page.

Nov: Linsey Marr won a Virginia Tech Innovator Award, which recognizes research initiatives in interdisciplinary science.

Oct: Marina Vance gave a NACK webinar on Nanotechnology in Consumer Products. Watch the webinar here, or see the slides here.

Oct: Amy Pruden won the 2014 Paul L. Busch Award from the Water Environment Research Foundation's Endowment for Innovation in Applied Water Quality Research.

Sep: VTSuN has a new faculty member! We welcome Dr. Johan Foster, associate professor in Materials Science and Engineering at Virginia Tech.

Sep: Amy Pruden has been named associate dean and director of interdisciplinary graduate education in the Graduate School.

Aug: Marina Vance is now a blog writer for ES Nano!

Jul: Nina Quadros (now Marina Vance) was featured in a Radio Health Journal program on antimicrobial silver nanoparticles.

Jun: PhD student Marjorie Willner won the ICTAS Nanotechnology Entrepreneurship Challenge.

Jun: Linsey Marr is quoted on a C&EN article entitled "Los Angeles Airport Pollutes City Air for Miles Downwind"

Jun: The CEINT website featured recent PhD graduate Andrea Tiwari, hightlighting her research entitled: "C60 aerosols are readily oxidized by atmospheric levels of ozone".

Jun: PhD student Ron Kent won the 2014 American Chemical Society's C. Ellen Gonter award for his paper "Controlled Evaluation of Silver Nanoparticle Sulfidation: Reaction Mechanism and Particle Stability". This news was also featured in the CEINT website.

May: VTSuN and CEINT researchers, including Mike Hochella were featured in a New York Times article, entitled: "Silver too small to see, but everywhere you look".

Apr: Graduate student Hannah King won a research award from the Geological Society of America.

Apr: VTSuN graduate student Jacob Metch won best poster at the VT CEE Research Day.

Apr: Amy Pruden was quoted in a GIZMODO blog post entitled: "Concrete-dissolving bacteria are destroying our nation's sewers".

Apr: Graduate student Hannah King was a finalist on the College of Science Roundtable "make-a-difference" Scholarship.

Mar: Amy Pruden was featured in Treatment Plant Operator magazine article entitled: "Superbugs Study Findings Could Impact U.S. Treatment Plants".

Mar: Graduate student Hannah King received a Department of Geosciences research award in honor of Charles J. Gose.

Feb: Amy Pruden and Nina Quadros (now Marina Vance) were quoted in a Chicago Tribune news article entitled "Some antibacterials come with worrisome silver lining".

Jan: Linsey Marr featured in Chemistry World news piecee entitled "Nanomaterials: Bin and burn?"

Jan: Amy Pruden received a grant to study recent Colorado flood effects on antibiotic resistance.

Jan: Amy Pruden's feature article on antibiotic resistance in recycled water made the cover of Environmental Science & Technology.

Jan: Nina Quadros (now Marina Vance) was quoted on a news piece by The Guardian, entitled "The nanotechnology in your toothpaste."

 

2013

Dec: Postdoc AJ Prussin was featured in a VT News article about his research, dealing with the microbiomed of day-care centers.

Dec: Peter Vikesland gave a Keynote lecture on ‘Challenges and Opportunities for the Nanotechnology Community’ at the 2013 NSF Nanoscale Scienceand Engineering Grantees Meeting held in Arlington, VA. The presentation can be found here and the program for the meeting can be found here.

Dec: The Bickford Lab has officially moved to its permanent location in 320 Kelly Hall!

Dec: Peter Vikesland was an invited participant in the NSF funded Young Scientists Exchange Program. As part of this program, Dr. Vikesland spent a week in Japan touring laboratories and giving presentations with colleagues from a number of US universities.

Nov: VTSuN student Becky H. Lahr defended her Ph.D. dissertation entitled ‘Advanced Applications of Raman Spectroscopy for Environmental Analyses’. Congrats to Becky!

Nov: VTSuN students presented a booth Virginia Tech's second TEDx event!

Nov: Amy Pruden was featured in a video by the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science at Virginia Tech.

Nov: VTSuN members presented at the second conference of the Sustainable Nanotechnology Organization (SNO). Read all about it in our Blog! The program for the meeting along with copies of the slides of some of the presentations are available here.

Nov: VTSuN's collaborative project with the Wilson Center on the nanotechnology Consumer Products Inventory was featured on CBC News Canada and BuzzFeed.

Nov: Amy Pruden appeared on VTNews with an article about her group's reasearch on tapwater pathogens.

Oct: PhD student Carol Johnson was featured on ScienceGhost.

Oct: A team of VTSuN researchers partnered with the Wilson Center to perform a large upgrade to the nanotechnology Consumer Products Inventory. Read about their effort on a VT News article and a Wilson Center press release.

Oct: Nina Vance PhD work was featured on ScienceGhost.

Oct: Linsey Marr on won a prestigious National Institutes of Health (NIH) New Innovator Award to study the flu virus. Key collaborators will be Elankumaran Subbiah (Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine), and Peter Vikesland.

Sep: Peter Vikesland gave invited lectures on the ‘Fate of Nanomaterials in the Natural Environment’ and ‘Nanoparticle Based Sensors for Water Quality Testing’ at the IMETE Summer School at the University of Gent in Belgium.

Sep: VTSuN students Laura Reese and Virginia Brazeal won Sustainable Nanotechnology Organization (SNO) Student Awards to attend the second SNO conference in Santa Barbara, CA. SNO's purpose is to provide a professional society forum to advance knowledge in all aspects of sustainable nanotechnology, including both applications and implications (http://www.susnano.org/).

Sep: A paper by Linsey Marr and her team, entitled ‘Nanomaterial Disposal by Incineration’ has been selected as an Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts HOT Article and has been made free to access for four weeks! It has also been highlighted on the ES:P&I blog at http://blogs.rsc.org/em/

Sep: SuN director Mike Hochella joined the Editorial Board for Environmental Science: Nano. This brand new Royal Society of Chemistry journal investigates the effect of nanomaterials on environmental and biological systems and will debut in January 2014.

Sep: Lissett Bickford's research on flexible microneedle patches for drug delivery was featured on VTNews, Science Daily,
Science Newsline, Nanowerk, Medical News Today, NewsWise, WorldPharmaNews, and many other news sources.

Aug: Linsey Marr's and Nina Quadros' paper on silver nanotechnology from consumer products for children is in the Top-20 most downloaded papers for the month on Environmental Science and Technology.

Aug: Carol Johnson, a VTSuN PhD candidate is attending the 2013 Goldshmidt conference in Florence, Italy. #goldschmidt2013

Aug: VTSuN collaborators at EPA presented her work on nanotechnology from consumer products for children at the first
ISES-ISEE-ISIAQ 2013 joint conference on Environment and Health, Basel, Switzerland.

Aug: CEINT, the Center for the Environmental Implications for Nanotechnology highlighted Nina Quadros' and Linsey Marr's research on silver nanoparticle release from consumer products for children.

Jul: VTSuN PhD student Param Pati attended the ACS Green Chemistry and Sustainable Energy Summer School at the Colorado School of Mines. Read about his experience here.

Jul: Nanowerk featured a story on Nina Quadros' PhD work on silver nanoparticle release from children's consumer products.

Jul: VT news featured a story on Amy Pruden's NSF grant for pathogen detection via microfluidics.

Jun: Nina Quadros (now Marina Vance) won a poster award at the 2nd Gordon Conference on Environmental Nanotechnology held in Stowe, VT. The title of her poster was "Release of silver from children’s consumer products enhanced with nanoparticles."

May: Research Scientist Bojeong Kim has accepted a tenure track assistant faculty position at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. She will start there in August 2013.

Apr: Linsey Marr was interviewed by the director of a show on cold and flu transmission for the BBC.

Mar: Linsey Marr's research on effect of air quality on marathon runners is featured in Runner's World.

Jan: VTSuN faculty featured in the 12th issue of Connection, the ICTAS newsletter. This issue is focused on Sustainability and brings articles contributed by Amy Pruden, Mike Hochella, Sean McGinnis, Eric Vejerano (postdoctoral associate), Matt Hull, and Lissett Bickford.

Jan: Ron Kent received an ACS Division of Environmental Chemistry Graduate Student Award.

Jan: Marina Vance (Ph.D. '12 Marr group) joined VTSuN as its new Associate Director.

 

2012

Dec: Linsey Marr's research on airborne flu transmission featured in Scientific American.

Dec: Pete Vikesland was an invited speaker/panelist at the 2012 NSF Nanoscale Science and Engineering Grantees Conference held in Arlington, VA.

Nov: VTSuN members presented at the first conference of the Sustainable Nanotechnology Organization (SNO).

Nov: Pete Vikesland presented a talk at Virginia Tech's inaugural TEDx event. His talk examined the use of nanotechnology to address the impending global water crisis.

Oct: Pete Vikesland gave the 2nd annual Richard L. Valentine Distinguished lecture at the University of Iowa.

Aug: F. Marc Michel joined VT's Geosciences department as an assistant professor and is VTSuN's newest member.

Aug: PhD student Ron Kent received word from the U.S. EPA that he will receive a STAR Graduate Fellowship. This fellowship will cover Ron's research activities over the next three years. Congrats to Ron!

Jun: Pete Vikesland was informed that he was the recipient of a 2012 Environmental Science and Technology Excellence in Review Award.These awards are given annually to recognize a select numbers of reviewers for the excellence of the reviews that they contribute to the journal.

Jan: PhD student Becky Halvorson received an ACS Division of Environmental Chemistry Graduate Student Award.

 

2011

Dec: Work by Mike Hochella, Mitsu Murayama, and Rebecca French (PhD '11 Hochella group) was featured in VT Magazine's How Tech Ticks: Matter of Scale.

May: VTSuN director Mike Hochella and PhD students Matt Hull and Nina Quadros (now Marina Vance) contributed articles to in the 10th issue of Connection, the ICTAS newsletter. This issue focused on the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Thrust at ICTAS.

Feb: Linsey Marr's work on airborne flu virus is featured by VTNews.