Virginia Tech College of Science

10/13/2026

Tune in tomorrow!

The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors gathers tomorrow to vote on the university's 17th president, with the intention to introduce the next leader via livestream afterward.

We hope you are just as excited as us for this big moment in Hokie history. To be among the first to meet our next president, be sure to tune in at 1 p.m. Wednesday at the link below.

🔗: go.vt.edu/utozN

10/13/2026

10/13/2026

Groundwater levels in the Lower Colorado River Basin have historically seen more dramatic declines than the Upper Basin — but the system has hit a turning point.

New research reveals that the Upper Basin is now experiencing rapid groundwater losses, with surface-water shortages increasingly spilling over into underground reserves.

Read more about the study from Esther Oyedele and Susanna Werth published today in Water Resources Research by the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

Virginia Tech-led study shows that groundwater in the Colorado River Basin is disappearing at accelerating rates, with a newly identified shift — the Upper Basin is now losing groundwater faster than the historically resilient Lower Basin.

09/29/2026

Research asked. Research answered. 🌋

THEN: In 2024, D. Sarah Stamps, PhD and team flagged a short-lived bulge in the ground surrounding Ol Doinyo Lengai, a unique volcano in Tanzania.

NOW: They've solved the mystery behind the uplift: a million cubic meters of magma pouring into an existing magma reservoir about 1.8 miles underground.

DON'T WORRY — Yes, it's 400 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of magma, but this is a "modest" amount of magma.

What's really cool about these findings is that they prove the power of Virginia Tech's early-stage volcanic detection system. The breakthrough wasn't built overnight; it relies on more than a decade of continuous, real-time data collection and on-the-ground observations from Stamps and her team.

Read our full Q&A with Stamps: https://news.vt.edu/articles/2026/09/science-volcano-q-and-a.html

Geosciences at Virginia Tech

In a new study, geoscientists traced a land bulge near a Tanzanian volcano to magma entering an underground reservoir. This finding demonstrates the team's ability to detect early signs of volcanic activity.

09/02/2026

Imagine the perfect adhesive 🪄🩹... It’s got to be recyclable and really, really sticky — until you don't need it anymore.

Then, p**f, it should go away.

John Matson, Joshua C. Worch, and their teams in the Virginia Tech Department of Chemistry are bringing adhesion dreams to life.

In two separate studies they developed super strong, degradable adhesives with fully recyclable backing.

They are continuing to refine the results of their collaboration, proving that research goes further when we work together—one of the main missions of the MII Macromolecules Innovation Institute, which connects polymer scientists
across different disciplines.

Graduate students driving this work include Isaac Addo, Clark Vu, Woojung Ham, and Udita Choudhury.

09/02/2026

The ATOMS Peer Mentor Program helps-first year science students find their footing by connecting them with upper-level peer mentors. Our program wants all students to feel welcomed, no matter their financial standing.

Your support helps us fund group activities, like visiting the local pumpkin festival, making the program accessible to all our participants.

Make a difference in our students' lives: https://go.vt.edu/usAXo

07/22/2026

It's sticky, it sticks and stays stuck:

What began as a student-led research project in a polymer chemistry lab led to an unexpected discovery. While experimenting with bottlebrush polymers, researchers realized the material behaved differently. After putting it to the test, the results were striking. The material proved to be an exceptio...

05/18/2026

05/11/2026

Welcome to Virginia Tech’s observational astrophysics course. ✨

Here, students step into the Anderson Observatory to photograph galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters, then dive into the data to uncover what those images reveal about the universe.

05/11/2026

Michael Hochella '75, M.S. '77, University Distinguished Professor Emeritus has been elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

He is among 120 members and 25 international members newly recognized for their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.

🔗: go.vt.edu/uoQDC