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

DATE: FRIDAY, June 23, 1995                   TAG: 9506230013
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: VIRGINIA   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Short

NEW CONTRACT CAUSES TECH INSTITUTE TO EXPAND

The Waste Policy Institute, one of the oldest of the innovative business ventures housed in Virginia Tech's Corporate Research Center, has won a $49.6 million, six-year contract from the Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence in San Antonio, Texas, officials have announced.

As a result, the institute - which provides consulting services and solutions for environmental cleanup problems - will transfer a seven-member staff from its headquarters in Gaithersburg, Md., to Blacksburg and will hire up to 18 more engineers, economists, chemists and others to work at its offices there, said the company's president, Dean Eyman. The company also will build and move into another building in the center by 1996.

The contract calls for the institute to advise the Air Force on cleanup at bases around the country.

The Waste Policy Institute, formed in 1989 with a $700,000 budget and three employees, now operates with a $35 million yearly budget and employs 137, with about 30 employees in Blacksburg and the rest in Gaithersburg. It has offices in San Antonio and Moscow.

The biggest job to date for the nonprofit firm was fulfilling a multiyear contract with the U.S. Department of Energy, advising the department on cleanup procedures for former nuclear-weapon production sites. In 1992, it received a $40 million contract from the department. After contract extensions, that has now translated into a $128 million contract, Eyman said.

by CNB