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New Associate Director for Research Development given warm welcome by NVE faculty and staff |
Dr. Randy Murch
NVE's New National Capital Region Associate Director for Research Development
Murch received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington, a Master of Science degree in Botanical Sciences from the University of Hawaii, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Plant Pathology from the University of Illinois.
Murch served as Deputy Assistant Director for the Federal Bureau of Investigations and has earned an international reputation as a leading expert in biosecurity and forensics. During his career, he was responsible for science and technology R&D and applications programs. Murch was instrumental in overhauling the FBI forensic science lab and envisioning and establishing new programs in forensic science and counterterrorism.
Murch has held leadership positions in relevant communities and led an advanced study group in the Defense Department while working on biological weapons and bioterrorism issues.
After 23 years with the Bureau, he accepted a position at the Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA), a federally funded research and development center in Alexandria. The goals of Murch's new position include assisting the University in developing the life sciences and biosecurity programs both on campus and in the National Capital Region. One of his responsibilities will be to help shape its new collaboration with TIGR (The Institute for Genomic Research).
Founded in 1992, TIGR is a not-for-profit research institute whose primary research interests are in structural, functional and comparative analysis of genomes and gene products from a wide variety of organisms including viruses, eubacteria (both pathogens and non-pathogens, archaea (the so-called third domain of life), and eukaryotes (plants, animals, fungi and protists such as the malarial parasite). |
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To welcome the new National Capital Region Associate Director for Research Development, Dr. Randy Murch, the faculty and staff of Northern Virginia Engineering hosted a department informational meeting on December 10, 2004.
Murch will assist Virginia Tech in expanding and developing life science and biosecurity programs. |
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Rahman welcomes Murch to NVE |
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Dr. Saifur Rahman, director of the Alexandria Research Institute, introduced Murch to the faculty and staff of NVE and provided him with a summary of the overall organizational structure. Rahman also discussed graduate programs and presented information on student demographics and sources of funding.
Dr. Rahman reviewed future goals of NVE, which include expanding marketing efforts for the Northern Virginia Division graduate research and education opportunities. |
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Attendees listened as Eltoweissy discussed new graduate programs in Information Assurance |
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Dr. Yue (Joseph) Wang, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, listed examples of joint research projects with institutions such as Georgetown University Medical Center and National Institute of Health.
Wang also provided details on some of the ongoing studies at the institute, including Computational Decomposition of Composite Molecular Signatures and Computational Analysis of Heterogeneous Disease Phenotypes. For more information on these projects, contact Dr. Wang at yuewang@vt.edu. |
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Example of tumor microvasculature by angiogenesis, a research project under the direction of Wang |
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Information regarding activities in Medical Informatics was provided by Dr. Csaba Egyhazy, associate professor of computer science. Several research proposals were outlined, including HL7 and genomic standards-based database implementation for comparative toxicogenomics and pharmacogenomics studies as well as agent software for the dynamic generation of relational genomic database schemas in discovery research. For more details, contact Dr. Egyhazy at cegyhazy@vt.edu. |
Egyhazy presented background on Medical Informatics |
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Dr. Mohamed Eltoweissy, associate professor of computer science, delivered information regarding the new Information Assurance (IA) graduate programs at NVE. Degrees to be offered include the Executive Master's of IA, the Certificate Program in IA, and the IA Colloquium.
Eltoweissy also touched upon the simulation laboratories that will integrate research, education and practice in a realistic environment. For more information on these projects, please contact Dr. Eltoweissy at toweissy@vt.edu. |
If you are a staff or faculty member of NVE and have information that you would like to share in an upcoming newsletter, please contact: Sarah Channing at:
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Northern Virginia Center
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