Spectrum - Volume 17 Issue 31 May 4, 1995 - Vet Med honoring Lavery

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Vet Med honoring Lavery

By Jeffrey S. Douglas

Spectrum Volume 17 Issue 31 - May 4, 1995

Former Virginia Tech President William Lavery will be honored when the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine dedicates the "William E. Lavery Animal Health Research Center" on Friday, May 12, at 11 a.m.

The 28,000-square-foot research center includes more than 65 individual scientific laboratories, as well as several related research facilities located in the Phase II and the recently completed Phase IV buildings on the regional veterinary college's Virginia Tech campus.

"Dr. Lavery played a founding role in the establishment of this college and we are very pleased to be able to honor him in this way," said VMRCVM Dean Peter Eyre. "It is especially appropriate that his name will be associated with the many contributions to society which will emerge from our laboratories."

A number of distinguished guests, including Beverly Sgro, secretary of education; Daniel Fallon, vice president for academic affairs and provost of the University of Maryland at College Park; and Virginia Tech President Paul Torgersen will join Lavery on stage during the ceremony.

Coffee and refreshments will be served from 10:30 a.m. until the ceremony begins, and tours will be offered after the dedication ceremony.

Lavery, the twelfth president of Virginia Tech, served from 1975 until 1988. During his administration, Virginia Tech's stature as a nationally regarded land-grant university was strengthened and the regional veterinary college was founded with Maryland.

Lavery joined Virginia Tech in 1966 as director of administration for the Extension Service. He became vice president for finance in 1968 and was named executive vice president in 1973. He was named president Jan. 1, 1975 and served until January 1988.

Because of his deep interest in international affairs, Lavery assumed the Preston professorship of international affairs upon completing his tenure as president.

Now retired, Lavery has received many professional awards.

In 1993, he was awarded the university's William H. Ruffner Medal. In that enabling resolution, the Board of Visitors stated that "William Lavery's vision, dedication, and achievement throughout his 24-year career with Virginia Tech...led this institution to national and international renown for excellence."

Major laboratories in the research complex which will bear his name include the Biochemistry/Pharmacology Resource Laboratory, the Flow Cytometry Resource Laboratory, the Physiology and Clinical Research Laboratory, the Toxicology Resource Laboratory, the Ultrastructure Resource Laboratory (with both scanning and electron scanning microscopes), the Clinical Nutrition Laboratory, the Center for Neurotoxicity Studies, the Epidemiology and Statistics Consulting Laboratory and others.

Approximately $3 million in funded research is currently under way in the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine.

While most programs are designed to help reduce animal disease and boost food-animal productivity, a significant number are focused on areas which directly promote human health and well-being and environmental quality.