In The News

Richard Bonnie Law professor Health law ruling only the beginning Politico (blog) | Dec. 14 John Casey Professor in the Creative Writing Program Every trick in the book C-Ville Weekly | Dec. 13 Anne Coughlin Law professor Brittany Smith reunited with family after trip across U.S. Roanoke Times | Dec. 14 Robert O’Connell Professor of astronomy The Best NASA Photographs of 2010 The New Yorker | Dec. 13 Alan D. Rogol Professor and pediatric endocrinologist Booming anti-aging business relies on risky mix of steroids, growth hormone Star Ledger (New Jersey) | Dec. 14 Larry Sabato Politic...

UVA Day In The Life Program received $10,000 to provide funds for infrastructure development from the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation. Grants from the Bama Works Fund of Dave Matthews Band in CACF also awarded the Day in the Life Program $7,500 to provide academic support to hundreds of disadvantaged children and $9,800 to the U.Va. Women's Hospital Auxiliary's Positive Image Program. University Office of Humanities/ Festival of the Book Educational Program (Authors in Schools) received  $3000 to cover stipends for ten authors to visit students in Charlottesville City Schools, A...

By Daniel Willingham, professor of psychology An "absolute wake up call."  That’s what Education Secretary Arne Duncan called the latest results of the the PISA test, which measures 10th grader’s achievement in reading, math, and science.  If we’ve all been asleep up until now, we’ve really got trouble. U.S. kids did not shine, but the latest round of results of PISA, formally known as the Program for International Student Achievement, don’t look that different than what we’ve seen in the last decade.

A few dozen of the nation's colleges have drawn notice lately for overcoming racial and ethnic disparities in graduation rates. Several of them are concentrated in the Washington region. ... University of Virginia? Grad rates are in the 90s for whites, in the 80s for blacks and Hispanics.

Older people with severe asthma may need a double dose of H1N1 vaccine for adequate protection, according to a study headed by University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) scientists. According to the first multicenter clinical trial on adequate and safe H1N1 vaccine dosages for people with asthma. The University of Virginia was one of seven research centers participating in the trials.

Charles Curry A graduate of the Law School Flair, controversy were Staunton lawyer's traits Staunton News Leader | Dec. 11 Cynthia Dinah Fannon Kinser Graduate of the Law School Next chief justice finds strength in her rural roots Richmond Times-Dispatch | Dec. 12 and History of blacks, women on high court a short one Richmond Times-Dispatch | Dec. 12 Jac Sperling Graduate of the Law School Jac Sperling, NBA-appointed New Orleans Hornets chairman, has passion for city New Orleans Times Picayune |  Dec. 12 John Charles Thomas A 1975 graduate of the Law School History of blacks, women o...

Steven Cohn Professor, Department of Medicine, Gastroenterology Human intestinal tissue grown in the lab Nature | Dec. 12 Fern Hauck A University of Virginia researcher Some parents at odds with experts about sharing beds with infants Las Vegas Review-Journal | Dec. 12 Frederick G. Hayden Professor of medicine, infectious diseases Emergence of dual-resistant influenza viruses poses public health concern Pediatric SuperSite - ‎Dec. 10‎ AE Dick Howard Professor of law Voting Rights Act bail-out 'not a priority' for Cuccinelli, spokesman says Washington Post | Dec. 10 Douglas Laycoc...

As a member of the University Police Department, his primary goal is to protect the community from explosive devices but after years on the job, Zander, the police dog is retiring.

Kudos also to all of you who were moved by 200th birthday celebrations for Schumann and Chopin and five-hour Beethoven salute to contribute to the station's Classical Marathon, which ended yesterday. I called this morning to see if the campaign reached its $40,000 goal, and the numbers weren't quite ready; but as of Saturday, they had raised an impresive $30,845, and were on track to face off against October's Jazz marathon—excuse me, Jazz-tober—which raised a record $42,000. More on this to come.

Two recent reports carry similar conclusions about the declining state of marriage among people of moderate means and education. The reports take different angles but basically say the same thing — that stable marriages are down and the ranks of children raised by single parents are up among middle-class and moderately educated Americans. ... The other study, “When Marriage Disappears,” is based on statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau and the General Social Survey, which measures long-term trends. The report was co-produced by the National Marriage Project at the University...

A 2005 study by the University of Virginia's Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service predicted that the heritage center would have a $43.2 million impact on on the region’s economy in its first five years of operation.

While debate rages in the education world about how to measure effective teaching - or whether it is even possible to do so - research funded by a prominent advocate of data-driven analysis has found that growth in annual student test scores is a reliable sign of a good teacher. The preliminary Gates findings are based on test data and student surveys from public school systems in New York, Dallas, Denver, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C., and Hillsborough County, Fla. Also participating in the study are Memphis and Pittsburgh schools. Researchers were drawn from the Educational Testing Service and...

Researchers at the University of Virginia believe they have found a link between smoking during pregnancy and psychological disorders in children and young adults. Ming Li, professor in the UVa Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences, said a yearlong study of lab mice has shown that exposure to nicotine during pregnancy affects genes important to brain development.

A group of University of Virginia researchers is leading a $1.5 million, three-year study in hopes of keeping all children in their preschool classrooms. “Preschool is a privilege and not a mandate,” said Tina Stanton-Chapman, one of the two UVa professors leading the study. “Schools typically expel children if their bad behavior is chronic and severe.” Stanton-Chapman and Marti Snell, both professors in UVa’s Curry School of Education, are working on a plan to teach positive behavior that will enable children to achieve lifelong academic success.

A team of University of Virginia astronomers is leading an international effort to take an unprecedented look at red giant stars some 25,000 light years away in the center of the Milky Way galaxy. If successful, the astronomers say, the project might provide new insight into the Big Bang, how planets formed and how life came to be.

Ed Fogels Earned a bachelor's degree in environmental sciences Inside Alaska business / Parnell appoints two to Natural Resources Anchorage Daily News | Dec. 10 Russell F. Folger Darden School alumnus Folger named Timken VP of quality advancement Canton Repository | Dec. 9

Mike Stark A law student

Linwood H. Rose, president of James Madison University, announced Wednesday that he will step down in June 2012. Rose has served since 1998, making him one of the longer-serving presidents in the area. He is -- amazingly -- only the fifth president at JMU since its founding in 1908.

Bruce Hillman Professor of radiology Studies Puncture Arguments About Benefits of Imaging Self-Referral Health Affairs (blog) | Dec. 6 James Savage Professor of politics Emptying the pork barrel would hit some states especially hard Stateline | Dec. 10 Ming Sun A research associate in the Department of Astronomy Intergalactic Weather Map Space Daily | Dec. 10 Vamık Djemal Volkan A Turkish Cypriot emeritus professor of psychiatry Peace prize nominee Volkan to brief Gül on Kurdish issue Today's Zaman | De. 9

One final point on the National Marriage Project report. I’ve been emphasizing the bad news, but I do think it’s genuinely good news that well-educated opinion — as opposed to just well-educated behavior — has been moving in a more conservative direction on divorce.