To Our Readers
Graduate students are critical to the University’s research and education mission. Working with faculty mentors, they provide much of the hands-on effort required for innovation in basic and applied projects. Comprising almost one-quarter of the student body, they serve a unique role, contributing to faculty productivity and undergraduate teaching while furthering their own education. Through their participation in innovative research, they also act as agents of knowledge transfer, linking mentors and even disciplines and institutions. It thus should be no surprise that many of the graduate students featured here are engaged in interdisciplinary research, in which knowledge from one field is a catalyst for innovation in another.
The University offers advanced degrees in 75 graduate programs, with exceptional strength in the humanities, architecture, and selected fields in the sciences and engineering. Research projects that build on fundamental inquiry form the centerpiece of a graduate student’s final training. As these examples suggest, graduate study at the University of Virginia can lead to careers in higher education and industry, but also in fields such as public health and K-12 education, where research can inform governmental decision making and pedagogical practices.
We hope that this snapshot of the great range and high quality of research by graduate students at the University illustrates the important impact of their creativity, commitment, and passion and the enormous potential for these programs in the future.
R. Ariel Gomez, M.D.
Vice President for Research & Graduate Studies
Professor, Pediatrics and Biology
Roseanne M. Ford
Associate Vice President for Research & Graduate Studies
Professor, Chemical Engineering
