Faculty Research News

With funding from the Justice Department, Emanuele Alves, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Forensic Science, is developing a breathalyzer that can differentiate between THC and CBD, leading to fewer false-positive results for THC. (Tom Kojcsich, Enterprise Marketing and Communications)

VCU forensic science professor hopes a better THC breathalyzer will increase road safety

Aug. 25, 2023

Emanuele Alves, Ph.D., is developing a device that could offer results within minutes and reduce false positives.

Victor Tan Chen, Ph.D., an associate professor of sociology, studies economic inequality, labor movements and trends around unions in the U.S., where union support is rising while union membership is at an all-time low. (Tom Kojcsich, Enterprise Marketing and Communications)

How will the Hollywood strike end? VCU sociology professor and union expert shares what history tells us.

Aug. 21, 2023

Streaming services and AI may be the new battlegrounds for actors, writers and studios, but echoes from the 1960 and 1980 picket lines are familiar and strong, says Victor Tan Chen.

Suzanne Ruder, Ph.D., associate chair and professor in the Department of Chemistry, is a recipient of the 2023 James Flack Norris Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Teaching of Chemistry. (Contributed photo)

VCU professor Suzanne Ruder to receive national award for excellence in chemistry instruction

Aug. 17, 2023

Ruder will be honored for her work with two colleagues on an NSF-supported research project focused on process skills in undergraduate STEM classrooms.

Discrimination, and anticipation of it, can contribute to social distrust and anxiety, which can cause shorter sleep duration and increased sleep complaints, according to a new VCU study. (Getty Images)

VCU-led study finds discrimination over time leads to poor sleep

July 21, 2023

The study showed that experiences of discrimination can lead to taking longer to fall asleep, spending more time awake at night, and worse overall sleep quality.

Rohan Rathi is a rising senior in the VCU Honors College who is majoring in bioinformatics in VCU Life Sciences. (Tom Kojcsich, Enterprise Marketing and Communications)

Honors student, faculty member research how to improve medical trust in Kenya

July 18, 2023

As part of a VCU summer research program, Rohan Rathi is working with professor Christopher Brooks on a project framed by pandemics.

The study, “Aggression As Successful Self-Control,” led by David Chester, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University, was published in the journal Social and Personality Psychology Compass. (Getty Images)

Controlled cruelty: New study from VCU finds aggression can arise from successful self-control

July 13, 2023

A new study by a Virginia Commonwealth University researcher has found that aggression is not always the product of poor self-control but, instead, often can be the product of successful self-control in order to inflict greater retribution.

Rebecca Martin, Ph.D., a professor in the School of Medicine, is a co-founder of Pleros Therapeutics. Its leading product is a molecule drug that targets enzymes involved in allergy responses, specifically asthma. (Kevin Morley, Enterprise Marketing and Communications)

More than ever, startups at VCU are turning ideas into businesses

July 11, 2023

Where science meets commerce, TechTransfer and Ventures is helping inventors find an audience beyond campus.

Carolyn Eastman, Ph.D., is a historian of early America with a special interest in 18th- and 19th-century histories of political culture, the media and gender. (Contributed photo)

History well-spoken: VCU professor Carolyn Eastman to explore speechifying in the Revolutionary Era

July 5, 2023

Oratory – and how it shaped the early American identity – will be the talking points of July 20 address at St. John’s Church in Richmond.

Marco Aldi, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, leads students in a braiding activity. (Contributed photo)

Twisted in knots? That’s a good thing at VCU Geometry Camp for middle-schoolers

June 23, 2023

The weeklong summer day program uses hands-on learning to make math meaningful at an impressionable age.

Nicholas Farrell, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Chemistry, is retiring from VCU after a decorated career. (Contributed photo)

Nicholas Farrell, VCU chemist with a major legacy in cancer treatment, retires after 30 years

June 15, 2023

Professor helped develop Triplatin, a drug with the potential to treat ‘some of the most aggressive cancer types’ – and helped develop countless student researchers.