Data and Decision-Sciences Building Groundbreaking
March 12 at 11 a.m. ET
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Join us for the virtual celebration of the historic groundbreaking of the first building in our Global Business and Analytics Complex (GBAC), the Data and Decision-Sciences Building.
The event will include remarks from President Timothy D. Sands, Dean of the Pamplin College of Business Robert T. Sumichrast, the Paul and Dorothea Torgersen Dean of Engineering Julia M. Ross, and Interim Dean of the College of Science Ron Fricker.
The groundbreaking ceremony will be followed by a town hall with Dean Sumichrast and Lynne Doughtie ‘85, former CEO KPMG and Boundless Impact Campaign tri-chair, and other special guests: Willis Blackwood ’72, Mary McVay ’78, MBA ’81, Chris Shean ’87, and featured students and faculty to discuss the impact of this initiative and participate in a Q&A.
Don’t miss this chance to witness university history and learn more about Virginia Tech’s growing prominence in data and decision-sciences.
About the speakers
Julia Ross, the Paul and Dorothea Torgersen Dean of Engineering, began her tenure as dean on July 31, 2017. She holds tenured appointments in the departments of chemical engineering and engineering education. Her research focus centers on the role of fluid mechanics in infection formation in the cardiovascular system. During her career, Ross has received $12.9 million in external funding with a personal share of $9.97 million. Learn more
Sumichrast, who began his academic career at Virginia Tech in 1984, has a distinguished record as an educational leader, scholar, and teacher.
For almost 20 years, Sumichrast taught at Virginia Tech, and served four years as Pamplin’s associate dean for graduate and international programs. He served on 40 graduate committees throughout the university and taught 17 different courses in the Department of Business Information Technology. He is a recipient of Pamplin’s Certificate of Teaching Excellence, the University Certificate of Teaching Excellence, and Pamplin’s MBA Faculty Award. Learn more
Fricker joined Virginia Tech in 2015 as the head of the Department of Statistics and has served as the senior associate dean in the College of Science. Prior to Virginia Tech, he was a faculty member in the Operations Research Department of the Naval Postgraduate School and, before that, asenior statistician at the RAND Corporation and the associate director of the RAND National Security Research Division.
Fricker’s research is focused on studying the performance of various statistical methods for use in disease surveillance and statistical process control methodologies more generally. Recently he co-authored a book published at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic, Monitoring the Health of Populations by Tracking Disease Outbreaks: Saving Humanity from the Next Plague.
Lynne Doughtie is the retired U.S. chairman and CEO of KPMG. She was the first female top executive at KPMG and the first woman to serve as chairman and CEO for one of the Big Four professional services firms. She was also the first person in her family to go to college. Doughtie is an engaged alumna of the Pamplin College of Business, where she is a member of the advisory council. She also is one of the tri-chairs of the Boundless Impact campaign.
About the Global Business and Analytics Complex
The Pamplin College of Business is at the forefront of the GBAC initiative. Analytics is being integrated into all business disciplines.
Virginia Tech produces 24 percent of the Commonwealth’s four-year public institution STEM-H degrees, more than any other institution in Virginia. In 2017, 54.5 percent of Virginia Tech’s graduates earned a STEM-H degree. Business information technology, Pamplin College of Business’ largest major, with more than 1,000 students, and the universities second largest major – is STEM-H designated.
Amazon’s decision to locate its second headquarters in Northern Virginia was based on the value proposition Virginia Tech offers, the core of which is the proposed Innovation campus in Northern Virginia and the undergraduate talent pipeline from the main campus in Blacksburg via GBAC.