
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 9, 1991                   TAG: 9102090105
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: New River Valley bureau
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

BOUCHER SAYS CHAIRMANSHIP WILL AID AREA

Congressman Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, was elected chairman of a science subcommittee this week, a role that he says will help him assist Virginia Tech with federally funded research projects.

The subcommittee, under the umbrellas of the Science, Space and Technology Committee of the House of Representatives, has authority over the federal government's spending for basic science research and mathematics, science and engineering education programs.

It has jurisdiction over all programs of the National Science Foundation, which spends about $2 billion annually in federal monies.

Tech, one of the nation's leading research institutions, receives about $6.7 million from the National Science Foundation each year.

"I have a very close working relationship with the faculty and administration at Virginia Tech, and we have cooperated in the past in a broad range of programs," Boucher said Friday at a news conference at the Montgomery County Courthouse.

"As chairman of the Science Subcommittee, I look forward to an expanding role in cooperating with and assisting Virginia Tech's many federally funded basic science research projects," he said.

The subcommittee's staff includes four Ph.D's focusing on subjects ranging from engineering and manpower concerns to the development of high-speed computers and the deployment of a fiber optic data transmission network, Boucher said.

The network would link university and industry research centers throughout the country.

"I feel that this can go a long way to helping us be competitive," Boucher said. "It is my goal to help accomplish that task."

The projects supported by the National Science Foundation are examined first by a group of scientists - and Boucher said he's not about to interfere with that procedure.

"But I will make sure that Tech's projects get consideration by this prestigious agency."

Gary Hooper, vice provost of research and dean of Tech's graduate school, said Boucher has worked on projects with the university in the past.

Now, he said, that relationship will become even closer.

"We'll try to do our part in the nation's effort to do basic research in science and technology," he said.

by CNB