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

DATE: THURSDAY, May 4, 1995                   TAG: 9505040082
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-8   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

AROUND NEW RIVER

BLACKSBURG - The National Science Foundation has approved five years of funding to Virginia Tech's Center for High-Performance Polymeric Adhesives and Composites. The center will receive $8.988 million, funding the center until 2000.

With the five-year renewal, the Virginia Tech center will have funding for a total of 11 years - the maximum time under the Science and Technology Centers program as originally designed. At the conclusion of the program, the NSF will have committed more than $19.5 million to the Virginia Tech center. The center has received $2 million for 1995 from the NSF as the first portion of the most recent grant.

The Virginia Tech NSF Center is one of 11 university-based Science and Technology Centers in the nation. The STC was established to promote basic research on complex problems that require large-scale, long-term, interdisciplinary effort. Center researchers are engineers and chemists. The NSF grant will add five STC Fellowships.

The Virginia Tech center is devoted to the development of high-performance polymeric adhesives and composites. Research includes the creation of new material to the study of mechanical and molecular behavior on a microscopic level within and between adhesives and composite-material layers and measurement and prediction of large-scale mechanical properties on a larger-scale.

Torch-run director

BLACKSBURG - Chief William Brown of the Blacksburg Police Department has been named Region 10 Director of the '95 Law Enforcement Torch Run to benefit Virginia Special Olympics. Brown will oversee the local efforts in support of the Torch Run, including runner recruitment, fund-raising and public relations.

The Torch Run is divided into 12 local regions throughout the state in addition to the state, military and campus police contingencies. Region 10 includes the following jurisdictions: Alleghany, Botetourt, Buena Vista, Clifton Forge, Craig, Covington, Floyd, Franklin, Lexington, Montgomery, Radford, Roanoke, Rockbridge and Salem.

The Torch Run starts from eight points across the state in early June, covers 1,800 miles and culminates Friday, May 9, at the Opening Ceremony of the Virginia Special Olympics Summer Games. The Torch Run has raised more than $1.9 million in the past 10 years.