Members

Upon election, members of the National Academy living or working in Virginia automatically become members of the Virginia Academy. There are 121 National Academy members in our membership. In addition, VASEM members may nominate individuals with an outstanding record of accomplishment in science, engineering, or medicine to join our ranks.

2024 New Members

Dr. Peggy Agouris

Provost
William & Mary
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Dr. Kathleen Alexander

William E. Lavery Professor
Virginia Tech
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Dr. Kenneth Ball

Dean of the College of Engineering and Computing
George Mason University
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Lt. Gen. (ret.) Steven Boutelle

MITRE Senior Visiting Fellow; Former CEO, Cisco IRIS Inc.; Former Chief Information Officer, U.S. Army
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Dr. Thomas Dingus

Endowed Professor in the Virginia Tech Department of Biomechanical Engineering and Mechanics
Distinguished Fellow in the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science
Virginia Tech
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Dr. M. Daniel Givens

Dean of the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine
Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine
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Dr. B. Frank Gupton

Floyd D. Gottwald Chaired Professor
Department Chair, Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering
Founder of the Medicines for All Institute
Virginia Commonwealth University
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Dr. James Kinter

Director of the Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies and the Virginia Climate Center
George Mason University
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Dr. Susan Kornstein

Executive Director, Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women's Health
Virginia Commonwealth University
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Vice Adm. (ret.) Mike Loose

Member, National Academy of Engineering
Vice Admiral (ret.)
U.S. Navy
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Dr. Dennis Manos

CSX Professor of Applied Science and Physics
Vice-Provost for Research
William & Mary
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Dr. Susan Margulies

Member, National Academy of Engineering
Member, National Academy of Medicine
Assistant Director
U.S. National Science Foundation
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T.M. Murali

Professor and Associate Department Head for Research in the Department of Computer Science
Virginia Tech
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The Honorable Sethuraman "Panch" Panchanathan

Member, National Academy of Engineering
Director
U.S. National Science Foundation
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Dr. Amy Pruden-Bagchi

W. Thomas Rice Professor and University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Virginia Tech
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Dr. Amarda Shehu

Inaugural VP and Chief AI Officer
George Mason University
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Dr. Joyce Shirazi

Dean of the School of Engineering and Technology
Hampton University
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Dr. Daniel Sui

Senior Vice President and Chief Research and Innovation Officer
Professor of Geography and Public & International Affairs
Virginia Tech
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Dr. Bevlee Watford

Associate Dean Equity and Engagement Director CEED
Virginia Tech
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Dr. Aidong Zhang

Thomas M. Linville Professor
University of Virginia
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VASEM Members

Membership Directory

VASEM members have world-leading expertise in a host of fields vital to improving the quality of life Virginia’s citizens enjoy and enabling the Commonwealth to address challenges and seize opportunities as they emerge.

Member Recognition

Linsey Marr Wins Prestigious Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award

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Dr. Linsey Marr, environmental engineer at Virginia Tech and Virginia Academy member, has won a fellowship from the Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation popularly known as a “genius grant.”

Marr and 19 others — artists, scientists, writers, musicians, scholars, and researchers among them — each will receive an $800,000, no-strings-attached award. The foundation annually gives fellowships to people who show originality, dedication, and self-motivation.

Linsey Marr examines indoor and outdoor air quality and airborne pathogens that affect human health. Working at the intersection of atmospheric science, public health, and infectious disease, she clarifies the transmission of airborne diseases such as influenza and COVID-19 and identifies effective public health interventions.

Her work has made her a regular expert source for The New York Times. She has been interviewed more than 500 times by outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Scientific American, NPR and CNN, according to the university.

Marr is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, American Association for Aerosol Research, and the International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate. She received a B.S. in Engineering Science from Harvard and a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from UC Berkeley and completed her post-doctoral training in Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at MIT.

More on this award and Dr Marr can be found at Linsey Marr – MacArthur Foundation (macfound.org)

VASEM Member Dr. Vint Cert Wins the 2023 Marconi Lifetime Achievement Award

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Vinton (“Vint”) G. Cerf, a Virginia Academy member, received the Marconi Society Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023 for decades of selfless devotion to the advancement of the Internet, its technologies, and numerous supportive organizations, including the Marconi Society.  This award acknowledges Cerf’s numerous contributions to the society we all live in today.

His significant work in co-creating both the Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) that power today’s vast Internet and the global governance structure that has allowed the Internet to continuously grow and adapt to meet evolving scale, technology and applications needs has formed the foundation for our connected world. Cerf has given generously of his time, expertise and connections to numerous nonprofits and organizations that are creating a better world.

The Marconi Society Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes individuals with an established history of distinguished work who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions and positive impact to the field of communications and to the development of the careers of others.

(Excepted from Marconi Society website)

In Retirement, Dennis Bushnell, NASA Scientist and Lecture, Continues His “Wild Ride”

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When it comes to knowledge, Dennis Bushnell is an omnivore. Recently retired as chief scientist after 60 years at NASA Langley Research Center, Bushnell has always been, as he admits, “terminally curious.”

In high school, he read his way, shelf by shelf, through the local library. In college, he found a way to fit courses in business law, sociology and other subjects into a tightly packed engineering curriculum. Even today, he spends his first working hour culling articles from the 34 abstracting services he subscribes to.

Bushnell credits this foundation—what he calls knowledgeability—not only for the breakthroughs he has achieved over his long career, but also their breadth. During his first 30 years at NASA Langley, he conducted groundbreaking research in a wide range of areas, including viscous flow modeling and control, turbulent drag reduction, hypersonic flight, and advanced materials. He contributed to the Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle programs, oversaw technology for the National Aero-Space Plane, and worked on the delta wing X-15. He has also applied his insight in such decidedly non-NASA areas as Americas’ Cup racers and MAGLEV trains.

For his achievements, Bushnell was elected to the National Academy of Engineering and named a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Royal Aeronautical Society and an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Tackling Challenges that Matter

Naturally, Bushnell took his appointment as NASA Langley chief scientist in the mid-1990s as a license to range further afield. “I was in charge of every technical area at the center,” which undertakes research on atmospheric sciences and structures, materials, acoustics, and hypersonic airbreathing propulsion among other fields. He added other issues to his brief because he felt them equally compelling and significant.

One of the stated rationales for the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 was “the general welfare and security of the United States,” which Bushnell interpreted as a mandate to explore national security threats and vulnerabilities with a 20+-year timeframe. His projections have been remarkably prescient. “The types of conflicts I foresaw for 2025 have materialized,” he notes. His success led the military services to call on him to help develop wargames to counter the “enemy after next.” It also set the stage for his work as NASA’s representative to the technology group at the National Intelligence Council as well as for his research on efforts to help the world adapt to climate change.

As the scope of his investigations broadened, Bushnell found himself drawn to futurism, giving talks on a wide variety of topics including autonomous robotics and quantum computing to U.S., Canadian, and NATO security organizations as well as corporate planning boards and universities.

Bushnell’s Credo: I Invent

Fundamentally, Bushnell sees himself as an inventor—he has 16 patents—and he finds the most complex, difficult problems to be the most appealing. He sees what he calls his “maverick” sensibility as a key part of his success. If his research leads him to bold new ideas, he doesn’t hesitate to embrace them. For instance, he has been working with a group of researchers who think it may be possible to address hunger caused by desertification in sub-Saharan Africa by piping in seawater to grow edible, salt-tolerant land plants called halophytes. He has also immersed himself in resolving one of the biggest obstacles to travel to Mars, finding a balance between cost on one hand and human health and safety on the other. He recently wrote a series of papers identifying an approach that provides both. As he says, if he finds a challenge “intellectually interesting,” he takes it on.

At the same time, Bushnell discoveries are founded on the hard work. His breakthrough research on laminar flow control required months in the library, reading and summarizing everything written on the topic since 1938. And he has been generous in sharing his insights, producing more than 300 publications and giving more than 500 invited lectures around the world.

Now that he has retired, there is little sense that Bushnell is going to slow down. He already has a half-dozen projects on his desk awaiting his attention. Looking back on his career, he says “It has been a wild, wonderful ride,” and for Bushnell, it’s clear that ride will continue.

VASEM News

May 2024
VASEM Spring 2024 Newsletter
October 2023
VASEM and VIPC Celebrate Their Anniversaries with Smart Communities Summit
April 2023
VASEM Spring 2023 Newsletter