School of Life Sciences and Sustainability

College of Humanities and Sciences

Current StudentsGive

News

The Distinguished Faculty Awards honorees will be recognized at the VCU Faculty Recognition Gala on Tuesday, Oct. 27.

VCU honors seven with 2026 Distinguished Faculty Awards

Aug. 27, 2026

Their work touches on medicine, the humanities, public service and education.

This summer, Aarushi Rao worked with Guangwei Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in the School of Medicine, to develop a tool that helps researchers analyze screening images from experiments more efficiently. (Dean Hoffmeyer, Enterprise Marketing and Communications)

In VCU neuroscience lab, undergraduate Aarushi Rao brought brainpower to new software

Aug. 27, 2026

The sophomore Honors College student and biology major spent her summer with researcher Guangwei Zhang, developing a tool to improve analysis of images.

Isra'a Nour, a 2015 VCU graduate, serves as a program manager for Open Society Foundations. (Contributed photo)

Meet-a-Ram: Isra’a Nour’s humanitarian work is rooted in her VCU anthropology and biology courses

Aug. 19, 2026

The 2015 graduate, powered by her service in Sudan, now works in the U.S. to support human rights, equity and justice.

Melody Ngo with medical student Sarah Lewicki and Adolfo Mauro, Ph.D., assistant professor in the School of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics. Ngo worked on a research project this summer with Lewicki and Mauro. (Dean Hoffmeyer, Enterprise Marketing and Communications)

VCU summer program propels undergraduate student's research

Aug. 18, 2026

Biology major Melody Ngo embraces how the Honors College and Wright Center offer ‘a crash run in what it is like to work in a lab day to day.’

Environmental studies major Cree Taylor (left) spent her summer flying in planes, working in the field and learning to code through NASA’s Student Airborne Research Program. (Contributed photo)

NASA summer program helped Cree Taylor soar – and land on her academic focus

Aug. 10, 2026

The agency’s Student Airborne Research Program encouraged the self-identified ‘dabbler’ to home in on research with a personal connection.

Students in the Field Experiences in Anthropology course helped research the ancient DNA of corn pollen. (Contributed photo)

VCU Rice Rivers Center offers its first coordinated summer session

Aug. 10, 2026

With hands-on learning and high-tech tools, the field station hosts five courses that explore the land, water and air along the James River.

Here’s how one VCU lab keeps watch over the James River

Aug. 6, 2026

For almost two decades – and with a new $1M grant to cover at least five more years – this research duo has braved the elements year-round to track the river’s health.

VCU environmental studies major Jasmine Cuellar turned her passion for birds into a multi-year research project. (VCU Social Media staff, Enterprise Marketing and Communications)

Jasmine Cuellar spends summer with the songbirds

Aug. 4, 2026

Along the James River and its system of nesting boxes, the VCU environmental studies student is researching how temperature affects prothonotary warbler nestlings.

Mary Carson sets up a game camera for collecting behavior and diet data outside a focal box. (Contributed image)

Internship amid falcons takes Mary Carson’s research to new heights

July 23, 2026

Working at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Pennsylvania is a natural fit for the biology and environmental studies major who is part of VCU’s Avian Ecology Lab.

Isra'a Nour surrounded by a large group of smiling children and women wearing vibrant, colorful hijabs and headscarves

Anthropology and biology major manages humanitarian work at home and abroad

June 29, 2026

Isra’a Nour (B.S.’15) serves as a program manager at Open Society Foundations, a nonprofit organization focused on human rights, equity, and justice, where she supports advocacy work.