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CNRE faculty researchers cross disciplinary and global boundaries

Across Virginia Tech, there are hundreds of centers and institutes that provide support, structure, and organization for faculty-led research efforts that cross disciplinary and college boundaries.

Within the college, centers also offer opportunities for expanded faculty research and collaboration, both in Blacksburg and around the world.

The college’s newest center in Botswana will combat the challenges of wildlife trafficking through a $2.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, while also expanding the research portfolio of Professor Kathleen Alexander.

College centers as places for collaboration and innovation

The College of Natural Resources and Environment is home to a number of research centers and industrial affiliates. These units focus on developing strategies and applying technology to global challenges involving natural resources and sustainability, and offer a place for collaboration among faculty and student researchers and their industry and agency partners.

CEARS brings together experts and leaders in the field of remote sensing in order to provide instruction, outreach, research, and consulting related to understanding the effects of natural and human-induced variability and change in the Earth’s systems.

The center educates business professionals and provides market research and continuing education in order to help forest product firms manage their operations and market their products.

The faculty and staff of CGIT develop creative geospatial solutions in order to solve problems and address challenges in fields such as transportation, telecommunications, industry, geography, and emergency response coordination.

CLiGS offers graduate education and professional development opportunities for aspiring leaders in sustainability, and provides research and consultation assistance for partners and projects around the world in the area of environmentally sustainable development.

The center works with partners in industry to conduct research involving the design of packaging, pallets, and unit loads. The CPULD is the only IKEA-certified laboratory in North America and a qualified Amazon package testing location.

Research faculty, staff, and students from CMI work with state and wildlife agencies, federal refuges and parks, private conservation areas, and military installations in order to understand and develop solutions for issues involving natural resource management.

The mission of the cooperative is to develop tree growth and stand development models that advance the science of forest modeling and to provide land managers with decision support capabilities needed to practice economically viable and environmentally sustainable forest management

Virginia Tech is one partner of the Forest Productivity Cooperative, an international partnership committed to creating innovative solutions to enhance forest productivity and value through the sustainable management of site resources.

The water center offers resources and support to researchers, educators, and decision makers throughout the state of Virginia by facilitating collaborative research, extension, and education programs to develop solutions to water resource challenges.

The center advances the science and technology of wood-based composite materials through research, education, and intellectual exchange and interaction among professionals and students interested in the manufacture and performance of wood-based composites, wood material science, and wood adhesion.

As associate director of the Center for Coastal Studies and an affiliated member of the Global Change Center, Anamaria Bukvic (at left) works to address the challenges to society caused by global changes.

She studies coastal adaptation, vulnerability, and resilience and has investigated the viability of relocation as a solution to sea level rise, as well as how resilience and coping capacity differ between communities.

University centers and institutes that engage faculty

In addition to the centers that are housed within the College of Natural Resources and Environment, CNRE faculty are also affiliated with other research centers and institutes located at the university that offer opportunities for large-scale collaborative research utilizing cutting-edge laboratories and technology.

Currently, faculty members are leading and contributing to work being done in:    

Leandro Castello’s research focuses on the ecology and conservation of fish and fisheries in relation to global change processes, especially in tropical regions like the Amazon, where he has utilized NASA grants to study arapaima migration and flood and drought impacts.

Recent research, funded by the Pew Charitable Trust, addresses a critical need to understand historical harvest totals in rural regions to gain a better picture of robust ecosystems. Castello’s findings suggest that local knowledge of past harvests can provide an accurate and affordable depiction of historical fish stocks.