RELEASE ON RECEIPT


U.VA. BOARD EARMARKS $5.3 MILLION IN PRIVATE FUNDS FOR UNUSUALLY
PROMISING RESEARCH AND TEACHING PROGRAMS


     CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., June 9 -- The University of Virginia's
Board of Visitors today selected 10 unusually promising U.Va.
research-and-teaching programs to receive more than $5.3 million
in private funds over the next three years to support further
advances in their fields.
     The winning proposals for Academic Enhancement Program (AEP)
grants were selected from more than 70 projects proposed since
the board approved renewal of the program a year ago.
     The grants, the second set awarded since the board began the
innovative program in 1989, are aimed at enhancing the national
status of already distinguished programs.  The 10 projects
selected promote links between teaching, technology and research
and are expected to contribute to economic development by
attracting substantial outside funding.
     Projects in the initial group, in which the University
invested a total of $10 million over a five-year period,
attracted an additional $20 million in outside support.  Together
these funds created 200 new jobs, said Gene D. Block, vice
provost for research at U.Va.
      Three of the newly funded projects focus on environmental
issues, three involve physics, and the remaining four are in the
areas of radiology, molecular physiology, biology and humanities. 
Principal investigators of the research groups include:
     Brian R. Duling, Robert M. Berne Professor of Cardiovascular
Research, will receive $457,041 over three years to expand the
expertise of faculty in molecular genetics and gene regulation. 
"The ultimate aim of our work is to extend basic research in gene
transfer to gene therapies for the treatment of cardiovascular
diseases," says Duling.   Duling's group plans to develop
tissue-specific promoters (which turn genes 'on' and 'off'), 
reporter molecules (which signal altered gene function), and a
mouse physiology laboratory, where scientists can observe the
results of gene manipulation in experimental animals.
     James R. Brookeman, professor of radiology and biomedical
engineering, was awarded $409,032 to be used over three years in
a program for advanced medical imaging technology.  "The rapid
integration of computers into the health care environment and the
impetus for the nationwide development of computerized medical
records means that imaging scientists must develop novel methods
for acquiring, manipulating, archiving, and displaying images,"
says Brookeman.  The development and integration of these new
technologies into the health care setting present an attractive
opportunity for cooperation between medical professionals and
engineers and for mutually beneficial corporate-academic
partnerships, he adds.
     Steve A. Kay, assistant professor of biology, will use
$696,629 in AEP monies to develop an Advanced Cellular Imaging
Facility at U.Va.  "Progress in cutting-edge biomedical studies
has become increasingly dependent upon the technology required to
measure biological processes as they occur in living organisms,
tissues and cells," says Kay.  Kay's goal is to assemble a
critical mass of investigators who will seek ways to study gene
expression and protein activity in intact living cells.
     Richard Rorty, University Professor of the Humanities, will
receive $308,120 over three years to establish a visiting
lecturer program on the topic of `theory' in the social sciences
and humanities.  Visitors will lecture and participate in
symposia designed to encourage interdisciplinary discussion among
U.Va. faculty and students.
     Janet Herman, associate professor of environmental sciences
and director of U.Va.'s Program of Interdisciplinary Research in
Contaminant Hydrogeology (PIRCH), was awarded $322,435 over three
years for interdisciplinary education and research in
quantitative contaminant hydrogeology.  "Groundwater
contamination is clearly an urgent technical issue in our
society," says Herman.   The PIRCH faculty take an
interdisciplinary approach to the subject, with the goals of
understanding the fundamental technical issues of groundwater
contamination and producing competent professionals who can
address these issues from many vantage points, she adds.   Since
1989, PIRCH has trained 28 M.S. and seven Ph.D. students.  There
are currently 38 students pursuing advanced degrees in the
program.   PIRCH faculty have also directed 52 independent
research projects by undergraduates since 1989.
     Herman Shugart Jr., W.W.  Corcoran Professor of
Environmental Sciences, will receive $705,662 over three years to
establish a Global Environmental Change Program.  "This program
will build on the existing strong U.Va. research in this area to
study large-scale dynamics of the earth's surface and to develop,
test, and apply mathematical models that simulate terrestrial
responses to environmental change," says Shugart.  The new
program will consolidate the activities of faculty conducting
research and teaching into an interdisciplinary undergraduate and
graduate curriculum in large-scale environmental change, Shugart
added.    The group intends to develop and test a dynamic global
vegetation model capable of predicting changes in the terrestrial
surface.
     Giorgio Carta, associate professor of chemical engineering,
will use $470,538 to begin a program in environmentally conscious
chemical manufacturing (ECCM).   "This program emphasizes
pollution prevention, rather than waste treatment or
environmental restoration, and has broad applications for
industries that produce chemicals, drugs, paper, textiles, and
plastics -- all of which are strongly represented in the economy
of the Commonwealth,"  says Carta.   The ECCM program will
conduct fundamental research leading to new technologies needed
to prevent pollution in chemical processing.   The teaching
aspect of the program will give chemical engineers an in-depth
knowledge of environmental issues,  Carta notes.
     James McCarthy,  W. L. Lyons Brown Professor of Physics,
will receive $561,056 over three years to direct a grant titled
"The Fundamental Structure of the Neutron and Proton." 
Everything in the universe is made up of three atomic particles:  
electrons, protons, and neutrons, explains McCarthy.  While
electrons are fundamental -- they have no size and thus no
underlying structure -- neutrons and protons may have more
fundamental properties of size, mass, charge, and spin, which
combine in various ways to make up their physical properties, 
McCarthy adds.   Until 1987 the spin of the combined neutron and
proton (called the nucleon) was thought to be a well- understood
phenomenon, in which three quarks contributed to the overall spin
of the particle.   However, experiments in that year indicated
that only a small amount of the proton's total spin is carried by
quarks.   Recent studies, including one proposed by U.Va.
physicists,  confirmed the 1987 findings.   "One of the
outstanding problems in particle physics is to understand the
structure and origins of the nucleon's spin.  This program will
permit Virginia to build the essential equipment for the next
generation of experiments to help resolve this challenging
question.  The graduate and undergraduate students involved in
this program will be doing world-class basic research, and this
is crucial to the education of superior and enthusiastic
scientists," remarked McCarthy.
     Thomas Gallagher, Jesse W. Beams Professor of Physics, will
receive $622,100 over three years with the goal of building a
laser capable of probing and controlling chemical reactions.  
Laser pulses of extremely short duration (10-13 second, a
femtosecond) can be used to take `snapshots' of a chemical
reaction as it happens, explains Gallagher.   Similarly, with
sequenced pulses it may be possible to control the results of a
reaction.  "To realize our goals we must address many questions
ranging from basic issues in chemical physics, such as how
molecules interact with intense laser pulses, to those of
immediate practical importance, such as how heat is transferred
from a surface on a femtosecond time scale," says Gallagher.  "An
attractive feature of the program is that processes with
commercial potential can be transferred to the free electron
laser now under construction at the Continuous Electron
Accelerator Facility in Newport News," he adds.
     Physics professor S. Joseph Poon and material science
engineering professor Gary Shiflet  are among the six-member team
that will receive $799,876 over three years for a program in the
science and technology of metallic glasses and nanocrystalline
materials.   This three-component program will capitalize on the
pioneering work of Poon and Shiflet and colleagues, who
discovered `glassy' metals  in 1988.  The glassy aluminum alloy
is three times as strong as aluminum metal, but just as light as
aluminum.  Researchers will develop a fundamental understanding
needed to synthesize metallic glasses with superior properties. 
General Motors will seek ways to use these new alloys in the
transportation industry.  The instructional goals, say the U.Va.
researchers, are to provide broad involvement of graduate and
undergraduate students in the full range of projects, from the
stage of discovery and development to that of manufacturing and
commercialization.    

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                                                     June 9, 1995


REPORTERS AND EDITORS   For more information, contact:

     Brian Duling (804) 924-5092
     James Brookeman (804) 924-2596
     Steve Kay (804) 982-5479
     Richard Rorty (804) 924-4052
     Janet Herman (804) 924-0553
     Herman Shugart Jr. (804) 924-7642
     Giorgio Carta (804) 924-6281
     James McCarthy (804) 924-6783
     Thomas Gallagher (804) 924-6817
     S. Joseph Poon (804) 924-6792
     Gary Shiflet (804) 982-5653