Virginia Commonwealth University

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality recently awarded researchers at VCU a $1.04 million grant to launch a coordinated initiative to reduce food waste across VCU and VCU Health. The grant will fund activities from June 2026 through June 2029.

At VCU and VCU Health, the transdisciplinary Food Rescue and Composting initiative will:

•Establish a coordinated, data-driven food system framework across academic and hospital operations.

• Deploy technological and behavioral interventions that minimize pre-consumer waste at academic and hospital dining venues.

• Expand engagement by dining service contractors (Aramark on VCU’s campuses and Morrison Healthcare for VCU Health) along with student volunteers in food rescue, redistribution and composting.

• Develop institutional policies and reporting systems that embed food waste mitigation into VCU’s long-term sustainability and carbon neutrality goals.

Read more: https://news.vcu.edu/article/new-initiative-to-reduce-food-waste-increase-composting-at-vcu-and-vcu-health

“My favorite thing about myself is everything.”

The statement came from a 17-year-old Richmond girl who participated in a new study examining the lived experiences of Black girls in Virginia's capital city. For Nakeina E. Douglas-Glenn, Ph.D., a professor and director of the Research Institute for Social Equity at VCU's L. Douglas Wilder School of Government & Public Affairs, it also captures the spirit of the project.

“Too often, conversations about Black girls begin with challenges and deficits,” Douglas-Glenn said. “We wanted to create space for Black girls to tell their own stories and help us understand the strengths, assets and support systems that shape their lives.”

Read more: https://news.vcu.edu/article/new-research-examines-the-experiences-of-black-girls-in-richmond

Outside the protective field of Earth’s outermost atmospheric layer, the magnetosphere, lies an invisible cascade of danger. Ionizing radiation from both the remnants of distant supernovas and from the sun can damage our cells, causing cancer and other harmful effects.

Shielding astronauts from those and other sources of ionizing radiation is an important step for manned spaceflight to Mars and beyond. Arvind Agarwal, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering at VCU in the VCU College of Engineering, develops spacesuit coatings to protect astronauts from radiation and safeguard their suits against rogue rocks and dust on the moon and Mars.

Now, his work is on board the International Space Station, carried there by a Japanese cargo shuttle earlier this year.

Read more: https://news.vcu.edu/article/radiation-resistant-coating-developed-by-vcu-engineer-will-protect-future-artemis-astronauts

As World Cup fever sweeps the country this summer, two recent graduates of the VCU Center for Sport Leadership are helping fuel fan excitement – and highlighting the power of alumni networking.

Hannah Kaloi and Ashley Karn were part of the Class of 2026 at the CSL, whose acclaimed 12-month master’s program prepares leaders for the evolving global sport industry. They quickly became attached to arguably the biggest sporting event in the world. As event executives with Octagon, a prominent sports and entertainment agency, they are supporting a major client initiative at the five-week soccer spotlight: Bank of America’s FIFA World Cup 2026 fan activation.

Read more: https://news.vcu.edu/article/two-new-vcu-center-for-sport-leadership-graduates-join-the-world-cup-lineup

John Duval, who led VCU Health through more than a decade of significant growth as CEO of VCU Hospitals and Clinics and vice president for clinical affairs, died on June 9 in Tucson, Arizona. He was 73.

Read more: https://news.vcu.edu/article/john-duval-a-visionary-vcu-health-leader-dies-at-73

Unequaled excellence on display! 💛🖤

has once again been ranked among the world’s top 20% of universities by US News.

🔗: https://news.vcu.edu/article/vcu-ranks-among-worlds-top-20-of-global-universities

Garret Westlake, Ph.D., vice provost for innovation and strategic design at VCU, will join the inaugural Google Higher Ed Faculty AI Fellowship for North America program.

The fellowship supports university faculty using artificial intelligence in teaching, research and institutional innovation. Fellows join a global network of academic leaders, gain opportunities to share expertise and collaborate with peers to advance responsible AI adoption and improve student success in higher education. The program culminates in an in-person meeting at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California, where fellows present their final projects to industry and technology leaders.

Read more: https://news.vcu.edu/article/garret-westlake-selected-for-google-ai-faculty-fellowship

VCU professor Peter Uetz, Ph.D., was one of the dedicated notable contributors featured in the recent annual report from the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that hosts Wikipedia.

Uetz is an associate professor of systems biology in VCU Life Sciences and Sustainability, part of the VCU College of Humanities and Sciences. Since the creation of his Wikipedia account in 2007, he has made more than 6,000 edits – enough to put him in the top 0.1% of users. His work ranges from making small edits to developing entire pages, many of them related to his research interests: genes, proteins and reptiles, including the Reptile Database, which he founded as a graduate student in 1995 and which provides a catalog of more than 12,000 species of living reptiles.

Read more: https://news.vcu.edu/article/this-vcu-professors-extracurricular-gig-wikipedia-editor

Up on the top floor of the Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU’s Children’s Pavilion, the pediatric dental clinic buzzes with children’s voices and the whirring of machinery. It’s a safe space for clinical care and education.

For Benjamin Bloom, D.D.S., and Blake Carroll, D.D.S., it’s their new home base.

Bloom and Carroll graduated from VCU Dentistry with their Doctor of Dental Surgery degrees in May, but that doesn’t mean they are going to say goodbye to Richmond. Both will serve residencies in pediatric dentistry – a continuation of their clinical journeys at VCU.

Read more: https://news.vcu.edu/article/class-of-2026-new-dentistry-grads-land-residencies-at-childrens-hospital-of-richmond-at-vcuT

Becoming a physician-scientist requires dedication, endurance and patience. The path to earning two doctorates stretches across passions and disciplines — and, in the case of Shady Azzam and Nada Nassif, across continents.

After completing medical school in their home country of Egypt, Azzam and Nassif decided to also pursue research, with the shared goal of becoming better physicians. Driven by personal connections to medicine, the married couple left everything behind last year and moved across the globe to Richmond to begin Ph.D. programs at the VCU School of Medicine on the MCV Campus.

“We had heard about people leaving their home countries to study, but actually living it is different,” Azzam said. “I believe it has widened our perspectives, and I feel like a different person now.”

Read more: https://news.vcu.edu/article/couple-finds-a-home-at-vcu-to-pursue-research-projects-with-personal-meaning