Seagrasses are a vital part of the solution to climate change and can store up to twice as much carbon as the world's temperate and tropical forests, new research indicates. The study was published yesterday, May 20, in the journal Nature Geoscience. ..."One remarkable thing about seagrass meadows is that, if restored, they can effectively and rapidly sequester carbon and reestablish lost carbon sinks," study researcher Karen McGlathery, of the University of Virginia, said in a statement.
“Some said I lacked ‘gravitas,’ which I’ve since decided is Latin for ‘testicles.’” — Katie Couric on the skepticism she faced as a woman climbing the career ladder in broadcast news, in a commencement speech on Sunday to graduates at the University of Virginia.
Monday, a small group of 11 student-athletes received their diplomas at the University of Virginia. They were playing their final lacrosse game while the rest of their classmates walked the Lawn on Sunday.
The ink's been dry for 160 million years—but scientists have for the first time confirmed pigment in two fossilized ink sacs from cuttlefish-like animals, a new study says. The ancient ink's similarity to modern squid ink suggests this defensive weapon hasn't evolved much since the Jurassic period. ... said study co-author John Simon [a chemistry professor and U.Va. executive vice president and provost]. ... Studying soft tissue, he added, "could give us a whole new window into species that are extinct and their relationships to modern-day" life-forms.
The University of Virginia has named its art museum after Board of Visitors member and former rector W. Heywood Fralin and his wife, Cynthia, after the Fralins announced the donation of their collection of American art to the university. The museum will be known as the Fralin Museum of Art, the Board of Visitors unanimously voted Monday. ... Fralin, a 1962 UVa graduate, and his wife have agreed to a bequest passing 40 works they’ve collected, including pieces by John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt and Robert Henri, to the university.
Robert Bruner
Dean of the Darden School of Business
Contracts bind, shield parties
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette / May 20
Dewey Cornell
Bullying expert and clinical psychologist and professor of education
No single factor accounts for changes in schools' bullying policies
Lynchburg News and Advance / WSLS / May 19
Risa Goluboff
Law professor
Video: Virginia Law Professor Risa Goluboff on “The Criminal Procedure Revolution”
Second Class Justice (blog) / May 18
Jonathan Haidt
A professor of psychology
Our Opinion: Discourage demonizing to encourage civility
Grand Forks Herald / May 20
Jeff ...
... This excerpt describes the visit Matt [Miller] and his parents, Mike and Nancy, made 5½ weeks after the accident to see Mark Harris, the [U.Va.] doctor who saved Matt’s life. ... Mark Harris stood on his front walk. Seeing Matt get out of the car and approach, the tears just flowed down his face. To see this young man, who he was sure was going to die on the mountain, or die within the hour, striding up his front walk was immensely moving for the doctor. And then to be embraced by him, wrapped in a hug of gratitude, this was so utterly satisfying and rewarding and unexpected and wonderful...
... Much of the battle will take place in the suburbs and exurbs of Northern Virginia -- Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William counties -- which have been the site of an ongoing population boom that includes young, Hispanic, and Asian-American voters. Over the next 20 years, about 30 percent of Virginia’s expected population growth will be in those three counties, according to statistics from the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia.
Lauren Webster joined the Sterling Volunteer Rescue Squad at 18, and even after entering the University of Virginia, she returned every Friday to pull a 12-hour night shift as a paramedic with the group. “She lived for that,” said Michael W. Tompkins, an Alexandria lawyer who volunteers with the Friday crew. ... Lauren, 25, a Phi Beta Kappa student, was scheduled to graduate with honors today from the University of Virginia and start a job in two weeks at a National Institutes of Health genetics laboratory. Her new apartment in Bethesda was ready.
Ryan Thompson and his mother, Colette Mitchell Thompson, will graduate Sunday at the same time, miles apart. Ryan, 27, will be walking the Lawn at the University of Virginia. His mother will be at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Va. ... Ryan, who is graduating from the Clinical Nurse Leaders program, said he chose the field to help people.
Kirsti Campbell is a University of Virginia undergraduate. But she does science like someone with a couple of degrees. After walking the Lawn Sunday and collecting her degree, she’ll be heading to medical school at Harvard. Campbell first joined Dr. Coleen A. McNamara’s lab as a volunteer, and later worked there as part of the distinguished majors program in biology. ... In the laboratory she performed at the level of a post-doctoral fellow, according to McNamara.
Indian River grad Ari Dimas was an unlikely soccer star when he showed up on the campus of U.Va. in 2008. He eventually walked on to the men's team and proved himself. Turns out, he's equally known as the nice guy on campus. Dimas is one of two graduating students receiving Sullivan Award Saturday for character and service at The University of Virginia.
For a lot of University of Virginia students, the week before final exercises is a chance to take a trip, to get away, to do something wild. It’s beach week. But about 15 residents of UVa’s storied Lawn approached the week differently, hanging around the place, spending time with one another and taking one last, slow look at Mr. Jefferson’s university.