In The News

Francis Collins U.Va. chemistry graduate (and memorable 2001 graduation speaker/singer) now nominated to head the National Institutes of Health Obama Picks Francis Collins as NIH Director Washington Post/ July 9 Emily Wade Art graduate who leads art therapy sessions at he Centra Alan B. Pearson Regional Cancer Center in Lynchburg Art therapy helps cancer patients put emotions to paper Lynchburg News & Advance / July 9

Christopher Gorman Chief resident in the department of dermatology Farming calls for sun protection Southeast Farm Press / July 8 Andy Mink Director of outreach and education at U.Va.'s Virginia Center for Digital History Area schools get U.S. history grant Charlottesville Daily Progress / July 9 James C. Turner Executive director of U.Va.'s Elson Student Health Center Binge Drinking: Purge the Drinking Age Campus Progress / July 9 Scott Wallace Batten Fellow at U.Va.'s Darden School of Business In Retooled Health-Care System, Who Will Say No? Washington Post / July 8

… In the meantime, they're working on a product that remedies the cause of dry eye. That affects millions of patients — and potential buyers — a year. Instead of using manufactured saline to re-wet the eye, it stimulates the tear ducts to produce tears and decreases inflammation, Williams said. For this project, the company is working with researchers at the University of Virginia and James Madison University with grant funding from the National Institutes of Health.

When University of Virginia chemistry professor Cassandra Fraser and her research team crossed a light-emitting dye with a corn-based polymer, they discovered a material with some very unusual properties.

The Charlottesville Transit Service is celebrating a major milestone. For the first time ever, CTS had more than two million passengers board its buses in a single year. That's an 18% increase over the previous year. Officials say new routes and University of Virginia ridership can be credited for the rise in passengers.

University of Virginia police issued a security alert Wednesday afternoon warning people about an armed robbery that happened near grounds Tuesday night.

County attorneys statewide could have an influence on efforts to revise Henry County’s noise control ordinance. The Local Government Attorneys of Virginia Inc., a group affiliated with the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia, formed a committee to “come up with a model ordinance” that localities across the state can use in revising their noise ordinances, said Henry County Attorney George Lyle, a member of the group and the committee.

Recycling is part of the construction process at the University of Virginia. Dobie House, the first of three residence halls at the University of Virginia has been stripped and demolished, but the material from the dormitories are not going to waste.

The UVA School of Nursing has received grants to eliminate underage alcohol, tobacco and drug abuse. The grants totaling $1.2 million are from the Virginia Tobacco Settlement Foundation.

The University of Virginia may double investments in private-equity, real estate and commodities as U.S. colleges are squeezed by commitments to fund managers made before financial markets collapsed. Virginia’s holdings will increase to about $2 billion in the next six years because the Charlottesville school is contractually obligated to make the investments, Christopher Brightman, chief executive officer of the University of Virginia Management Co., said in an e-mail.

The University of Virginia is encouraging incoming first-year students to think about the environment when they go shopping for dorm room supplies.

George Allen Former U.Va. football player who became governor of Virginia and a U.S. Senator Governor, Senator, Author Washington Post Virginia Politics blog / July 7 Ned Hooper Darden graduate Cisco Appoints Ned Hooper as Chief Strategy Officer CNNMoney.com ([press release) / July 8

Robert Fatton Julia A. Cooper Professor of Government and Foreign Affairs Debt Relief Brings Hope For Troubled Haiti's Future Embassy / July 8 Trisha Gordon Portal Webmaster at ITC 4 Universities Move to Cooperative Support Program for Open Source LMS Campus Technology / July 7 Larry Sabato A politics professor and director of U.Va.'s Center for Politics Bunning to stay in race despite fund-raising news Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader / July 8 and Palin to Punditry? Probably Not New York Observer / July 7 Marc Selverstone Associate professor, Presidential Recordings Program at U.Va.’s...

Mild, regular exercise, such as a few hours of walking every week, appears to help keep the mind sharp in old age. Researchers from the University of Virginia School of Medicine, USA, reviewed information about physical activity collected from 2,257 men between the ages of 71 and 93 years old, BBC radio reported.

A Web-based insomnia intervention using established face-to-face cognitive behavioral therapy techniques appears to improve patients’ sleep. … Lee M. Ritterband, Ph.D., of the University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, and colleagues evaluated the effectiveness of an Internet intervention based on cognitive behavioral therapy techniques among 44 adults (average age 44.9) who had a history of sleep difficulties lasting longer than 10 years on average.

Joseph H. Maroon, director of the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, has been given the 2009 Gerald P. McCarthy Award for Leadership in Environmental Conflict Resolution. The University of Virginia's Institute for Environmental Negotiation presents the award annually on behalf of the Virginia Natural Resources Leadership Institute, a partnership of the Virginia Department of Forestry, Virginia Cooperative Extension and the institute.

Bethel Hill Charter School Principal John Betterton has been named a recipient of the 2009 Outstanding Principal Award, given by the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education Foundation.

"I don't think there's a man in government as valuable as McNamara," [President Lyndon] Johnson said in 1964 on Oval Office tapes available at the University of Virginia's Miller Center. "He just gives you the answers, and he gives you cooperation, and he's a can-do fellow."

As documented in a new book by Kevin Mattson — with the unwieldy title “‘What the Heck Are You Up To, Mr. President?’: Jimmy Carter, America’s ‘Malaise,’ and the Speech that Should Have Changed the Country” — it was into this maelstrom that President Jimmy Carter marched with one of the most remarkable of presidential speeches. … A video and transcript of the entire speech is available on the Internet from the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, and it is worthwhile and extraordinary viewing.