Collegiate Times

The National Science Foundation ranked Virginia Tech sixth in the nation for agricultural and natural resource research expenditures in 2007, a four-spot jump in the annual NSF nationwide ranking of programs.

"The institutional ranking is a byproduct of expenditure information we collect, and universities use it for benchmarking themselves among other universities," said Ronda Britt, survey manager for the Research and Development Statistics Program in the Division of Science Resources Statistics for NSF.

Britt said all of the funds given to a university, such as state funds, university allotments and industrial and non-profit grants and contracts are included in the amount used to rank each university.

Tech has the largest research program among Virginia universities and spends $366.9 million a year on research. Twenty-five percent of this goes toward agriculture and natural resources. The NSF reported that Tech's agricultural and natural resource spending was approximately $92 million in 2007.

"I think our ranking speaks in volumes about our faculty and their accomplishments," said Sharron Quisenberry, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. "They're really responsible for changing our ranking because of the grants and contracts they've brought in over the last several years."

This year, the college has experienced a 125 percent increase in grants and contracts received.

The college's research focuses on key areas such as nutrition and health, particularly obesity, biodesign and bioprocessing, as well as infectious disease.

"We really are solving issues for the well-being of people, and we are an economic driver for Virginia in the areas of energy and development of products," Quisenberry said. "The types of research we're doing not only relate to the critical issues facing Virginia but also have a global implication."

The Virginia Cooperative Extension works with Tech and the state's other land-grant university, Virginia State University, to share information gathered from university research with the people of the state.

"The Extension tries to improve the lives of Virginians by providing research-based education based on identified needs," said Mark McCann, director of the Virginia Cooperative Extension. "Those efforts in research benefit Virginia citizens, farmers, people in forestry, families and youth and beyond. One example of an Extension outreach program is the 4-H program, which is geared toward young people from the third grade through high school to give them a hands-on learning experience."

Tech and the Virginia Cooperative Extension also work in conjunction with the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, consisting of 13 Agricultural Research and Extension Centers across the state.

The series of facilities, 12 agricultural facilities and one forestry facility, are all involved in the state's agricultural enterprise from a research perspective.

"Our mission is to research and also to educate to benefit the people," said Craig Nessler, associate dean and director of the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station. "The real power of this enterprise is that the people at these centers not only generate new information through research; they also develop programs to deliver that information to the people."

"A truly great university has great students, does great research and gets that information out to the public," Nessler said.

Tech's research is not limited to Virginia or even to the country. The university's Office for International Research, Education and Development manages research projects taking place in 44 countries around the world, most of which are undeveloped.

"We want to help internationalize the university and the university's research, and we do that through these different development projects that involve Tech faculty and graduate students in work overseas," said Michael Bertelsen, associate dean of international programs and associate director of office of international research and development.