The first woman to win a Nobel Prize in economics is a researcher for a Virginia Tech-managed international program. Elinor Ostrom has won a share of the 2009 prize based on her work on how community institutions can prevent conflict. The 40th Nobel Prize goes to Ostrom, a researcher for the Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Collaborative Research Support Program (SANREM CRSP), managed by Virginia Tech's Office of International Research, Education, and Development. Ostrom shares the $1.4 million prize with Oliver Williamson, a professor in the graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley. In announcing the award on Oct. 12, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited Ostrom "for her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons." Ostrom is the principal investigator for SANREM CRSP on how government policy reforms do not automatically translate into new property rights for forest users or show clear benefits to the environment.
VBI AWARDED $27 MILLION FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE RESEARCH
On Oct. 12, Congressman Rick Boucher (D-VA 9th District) joined senior Virginia Tech officials to announce the award of approximately $27 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) at Virginia Tech. The five-year, $27,670,448 contract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the NIH, is the largest one-time federal award in the history of Virginia Tech. The funding will be used by the CyberInfrastructure Group to support infectious disease research across the globe, namely to integrate vital information on pathogens, provide key resources and tools to scientists, and help researchers to analyze genomic, proteomic, and other data arising from infectious disease research.
LIBRARY ACQUIRES CARTER-CASH FAMILY MEMORABILIA
Materials related to musicians of the Carter and Cash families, including June Carter and Johnny Cash, are now available in Virginia Tech University Libraries' Special Collections. The collection includes biographies and memoirs, sheet music, programs from performances and festivals, funeral programs, photographs, newspaper and magazine articles, and other family memorabilia. In addition to the newspaper and magazine articles, sheet music, programs, and photographs, the collection contains personal items, such as Maybelle Carter's hunting and fishing license and her Holiday Inn "Inner Circle" card. You can search the collection's finding aid online at Virginia Heritage.
