May 4, 1998
							Contact:
Charlotte Crystal
								  (804)
924-6858

MILD-MANNERED ENGINEERING STUDENT PACKS ACADEMIC PUNCH

	Alvina Hoi Yee Lo doesn't stand out in a crowd. The graduating
fourth-year student is short, slim and soft-spoken.
	But she's a powerhouse in the classroom.
	A Jefferson Scholar from Wilbraham, Mass., Lo will receive her
bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the University of Virginia
on May 17.  Earlier this spring, she was one of three civil engineering
students given the Rader Award, which recognizes academic excellence,
hard work and the ability to get along well with others.
	Recently, she also took first place in the School of Engineering
and Applied Science's Undergraduate Research and Design Symposium, which
recognizes the best senior thesis in the engineering school.
	"Alvina is an exceptional student," said her thesis advisor,
James A. Smith, assistant professor of civil engineering.  "She is very
hard working and has a very inquisitive mind.  She thinks things through
quickly and then she always wants to know more.  She was always at my
door asking questions."
	Lo's parents immigrated to the United States from Hong Kong in
the uncertain years leading up to Britain's return of its colony to the
People's Republic of China in 1997.  Lo was 10 when she set foot in
America for the first time. 
	Growing up, she loved science and mathematics and after
graduating from Walter Panas High School in Peekskill, N.Y., looked for
a university that could nurture her interests in engineering and the
environment.  U.Va. beckoned and the Jefferson Scholarship Program made
it financially possible for her to attend.
	Under the auspices of the scholarship program, Lo was named the
Mr. and Mrs. Anson M. Beard Jr. Scholar. Anson Beard, a retired New
York-based investment banker, plans to be in the audience to watch Lo
graduate.
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	Lo has been active in her four years at U.Va.  She played violin
in the pit orchestra for the First Year Players.  She also volunteered
for Madison House and was active in the Asian Student Union and Chinese
Student Association in her first two years here.
	More recently, however, she has been focusing on her studies and
activities closely tied to engineering.  She is currently president of
U.Va.'s chapter of Tau Beta Pi, the most prestigious of the engineering
honor societies.  She has written for the Virginia Engineering
Newsletter and is a member of the Phi Eta Sigma Honor Society and the
Golden Key National Honor Society.
	"Alvina Lo is one of the best students I've taught at U.Va.,"
said Edmund P. Russell III, assistant professor of technology, culture
and communication at the engineering school.  "She's bright,
hard-working and committed to excellence in everything she does." 
	Lo is especially interested in environmental engineering and has
been working with Smith on her award-winning thesis, which discusses the
use of special clays, "colloidal organoclays," in cleaning up polluted
groundwater.
	Smith regrets his student's choice of a job outside the
engineering field -- "It's a loss to engineering" -- but Lo is looking
forward to a job with Deloitte & Touche Consulting in Hartford, Conn.,
after graduation.  In the near future, she expects to help plan and
supervise new project development in information systems.  Eventually,
Lo hopes to become involved in environmental projects for her employer.

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	For more information, Lo can be reached at (804) 977-9684.
Television reporters should call the TV News Office at (804) 924-7550.



















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