ROANOKE TIMES 

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

DATE: THURSDAY, June 3, 1993                   TAG: 9306030315
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: New River Valley bureau
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

PETERS NEW RESEARCH HEAD, GRADUATE DEAN

After an eight-month search, Virginia Tech has named Leonard K. Peters, professor of chemical engineering and veteran administrator at the University of Kentucky, as vice provost for research and dean of the graduate school.

Peters will begin work July 15, Provost E. Fred Carlisle announced Wednesday.

Peters was chosen from a field of more than 150 candidates from all over the United States and Canada.

He replaces Gary Hooper, who left in September to pursue a career at Brigham Young University in Utah.

Peters was vice chancellor for research and graduate studies at the University of Kentucky's Lexington campus from 1988 until 1990. He served as acting vice president for research and graduate studies in 1990-91, then a visiting scientist with the atmospheric sciences department of Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory in 1991-92.

Like Tech, the University of Kentucky is a land-grant institution.

In a news release issued Wednesday, Carlisle called Peters "an accomplished researcher and educator, as well as an administrator. . . . He is a successful planner and innovator, active public servant, and articulate advocate for research and graduate studies, all qualities important to Virginia Tech."

During Peters' tenure as vice chancellor and acting vice president, Kentucky saw a 50 percent increase in external funding for research from 1990 to 1992 and the formation of a visiting scholars program for faculty from regional public and private universities.

Peters' specialization is atmospheric transport and chemistry, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide chemistry in the atmosphere, and physico-chemical behavior in aerosol systems.

As a researcher, he created a nationally recognized aerosol-chemistry and physics research group in chemical engineering and developed a research program in atmospheric modeling that received continuous external funding for 15 years.

He has written or collaborated on 76 publications, given 39 presentations at society meetings, and supervised 34 graduate student thesis and dissertations.

Peters' degrees are all in chemical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh. 


 by CNB