Alumni Spotlight is pleased to announce The Top 100 University of Virginia Alumni in Technology of 2021. UVA remains an example for other universities with its commitments to equality and diversity and vision of “discovery, innovation, and development of the full potential of talented students from all walks of life.”
University of Virginia basketball fans waited for 612 days between chances to catch their Hoos live and in-person at John Paul Jones Arena. The COVID-19 pandemic left the stands virtually empty for almost two years. But Tuesday, Cav fans were back. More than two hours before the opening tipoff of UVA’s season opener against Navy, a father and daughter were busy setting up a tailgate in the parking lot with a UVA table ready to hold the food and beverages of the special occasion.
David Hondula [who received a Ph.D. from UVA in environmental sciences] recently got a job he never dreamed of – maybe because it never existed before. He’s the director of Phoenix’s Office of Heat Response & Mitigation, which is touted as the first publicly funded municipal office of its kind.
Pumoli Malapati has always been interested in the sustainability of health care. Malapati, a University of Virginia graduate, is especially focused on the importance of implementing green operating rooms, which is why she helped create Charlottesville-based startup PeriOp Green. PeriOp Green, co-founded earlier this year by Malapati, Nafisa Alamgir, Tyler Chafitz and Dr. Matthew Meyer, is a software-as-a-service product that helps minimize perioperative waste using advanced analytics.
(Co-written by Abdullah “Arby” Abood, Ph.D. candidate, bioinformatician, and data scientist in the School of Medicine) Last year, after a casual conversation with Spanish-speaking early career scientists about the struggle of communicating their work in Spanish, Jessica Vélez was inspired to create the Multilingual Seminar Series. This series offers an opportunity for multilingual and non-English speaking scientists and science enthusiasts to talk about science in languages other than English, while also providing a space to discuss strategies for expanding science communication efforts to inc...
(Commentary by Caroline Osborn, a third-year student studying economics and anthropology with a minor in Latin American studies) In a large lecture hall last spring, my professor began talking about their work with Mayan communities in Central America. A student in the front row hesitantly raised their hand, asking, “Aren’t the Mayans dead?” My professor did not laugh at — or even look surprised by — the comment. Instead, they responded: “I get this question every year.” When we think of countries south of the U.S. border, it is easy to imagine Spanish-speaking communities and people. And maki...
Founding Student Name: Marc-Anthony Larco. Brief Description of Solution: Technology for Underprivileged Students foundation was created with the goal of providing educational resources for impoverished students in Haiti. We thought the best way to accomplish this goal would be to build computer labs in already existing Haitian schools.
As University of Virginia religious studies professor Erik Braun explained in a 2014 Tricycle article, the widespread popularity of mindfulness as a seated and still activity in a climate controlled setting might in fact be due to the British invasion of Burma in 1885, and the last ditch efforts of Ledi Sayadaw and others to preserve Buddhism by spreading the practice to the laity. Prior to that moment, Braun wrote, meditation was considered appropriate “for a rare few living in the isolation of jungles or mountain caves.”
One law professor interviewed for the story did say there was a risk Garland’s effort to weed out harassment and intimidation could be applied too broadly. Three others noted Garland specifically mentioned that spirited debate is protected and found nothing in the memo that signals he’ll seek overly broad enforcement. “If the Justice Department tried to stretch intimidation to cover any hostile speech, they should lose, and almost certainly would lose” in a court of law, law professor Douglas Laycock at the University of Virginia School of Law told PolitiFact National. Laycock voiced no opinio...
Republican Gov. Chris Sununu’s decision to forgo a Senate bid against Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) gave Democrats some much needed optimism in the midst of President Biden’s sinking poll numbers, a major electoral defeat, and a still-uncertain social-spending package that has to make it through a divided Congress. After the news broke, the University of Virginia Center for Politics changed its rating of the gubernatorial race in New Hampshire from “lean” Republican to “safe” Republican and kept the rating for the Senate race at “lean” Democratic.
David Ramadan, a resident scholar at UVA’s Center for Politics, told the Washington Examiner in the wake of Virginia’s gubernatorial losses a rethink was overdue. “It’s simple — if Democrats do reckon with this, if they take this and understand the issues that came across here, they will have a chance of holding the political gains they had over the last few years,” he said. “If they do not, they will lose continuously.”
“I never called Virginia blue,” said Larry Sabato, the director of the Center for Politics. “I have said consistently that it is blue-ish purple or purple-ish blue, because when you look at Virginia’s electorate, you realize instantly it’s no California.”
The recent gubernatorial election in Virginia should capture the attention of Michigan policymakers. A surprising victory by the Republican candidate was “powered by parents,” according to University of Virginia professor Brad Wilcox and American Enterprise Institute researcher Max Eden. Parents here are hoping for someone to champion their cause.
(Transcript) Kyle Kondik, director of communications at UVA’s Center for Politics, discusses the Virginia gubernatorial election.
(Commentary) A senior House Democratic House aide echoed that sentiment. “The bill gives parents the flexibility to choose a provider that best fits their needs ― including faith-based providers ― and it ensures faith-based providers can receive grant funding to build their capacity.” That’s not just spin. Micah Schwartzman, a University of Virginia law professor specializing in religion and First Amendment issues, reviewed the legislation at HuffPost’s request and thought the eligibility of faith-based centers was clear. “This is, in effect, a federally funded voucher program to be administer...
Fred Schauer, a University of Virginia law professor, said the message likely constituted a criminal threat under federal law by threatening gun violence at specific individuals. “There’s certainly an intent to put people in fear,” Schauer said.
Douglas Laycock, a law professor at the University of Virginia with an expertise in religious liberty and experience arguing related cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, explained: Religious exemptions don’t apply when “the objectors really do object to vaccination, but their reasons are not religious.” He added that given the opposition to COVID vaccination as an identity marker for the political right, it “could mean a flood of false religious claims” and court rejections of such exemption requests.
At UVA Health, Dr. Kathleen Haden says there’s a common gene for which people can look. “The BRCA2 mutation, the breast-ovarian cancer gene, increases the risk of breast cancer and ovarian cancer. But many people don’t know that it increases your risk of pancreatic cancer by 10%,” she said.
Once a charge is filed, the EEOC conducts an investigation and tries to get both parties to settle. If a settlement is not reached, the EEOC will issue to the charging party (in this case, Brackney), a right to sue letter, which would allow the plaintiff to take the other party to court, said George Rutherglen, Earle K. Shawe Professor of Employment Law at the University of Virginia Law School. Hundreds of thousands of charges are filed with the EEOC every year, and they must be filed quickly, within 180 days of the alleged discrimination, he said. “It’s a routine step, but it does show that s...
Julie Bargmann is the inaugural recipient of the Cornelia Oberlander Prize, an international biennial award created by The Cultural Landscape Foundation in honor of the late landscape architect. From the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s Visitors Center to Vitondale Park in Pennsylvania, Bargmann is celebrated for remediating neglected, often postindustrial parts of cities, and transforming them into new community spaces full of life. She is the founder of D.I.R.T. (“Dump It Right There”) Studio and also professor of landscape architecture at the University of Virginia. RECORD senior news editor Bridget Co...