Focus on Faculty

Maj. Christopher N. Shingledecker, assistant professor of chemistry at Virginia Military Institute, recently learned that a research proposal he submitted to the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) has been accepted.

For Maj. Alison Burke, research into naturally occurring viruses called bacteriophages may offer a promising solution to the growing threat of Vibrio parahaemolyticus (VP), a bacterial pathogen that causes seafood-borne illness.

Maj. Alison Burke, assistant professor in the Department of Biology at Virginia Military Institute, will discuss a cholera-like bacteria found in warm waters that lives and spreads in oysters, on the public radio program, “With Good Reason,” April 5-11.

Col. Steven Knepper, professor and Bruce C. Gottwald Jr. ’81 Chair for Academic Excellence in the Department of English, Rhetoric, and Humanistic Studies at Virginia Military Institute, recently won first place in three endowed categories of the Poetry Society of Virginia’s (PSV) annual contest.

Col. Andrew Luna, director of the Office of Institutional Effectiveness (OIE) at Virginia Military Institute, holds the distinct honor of being the only person to receive the Southern Association of Institutional Research’s (SAIR) Best Paper Award five times since its inception in 1980.
Col. Glenn Sullivan, associate professor, and Maj. Michael LaRocca, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, are concerned with those statistics, and have received a $150,000 grant from the Virginia Department of Veterans Services to conduct research on veteran suicide prevention.

Col. James C. Squire, the Jamison-Payne professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Military Institute, has been named one of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) and Dominion Energy’s 2025 Outstanding Faculty.

Col. Dimplekumar Chalishajar, professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics recently celebrated his 121st peer reviewed research publication, surpassing his achievement of 100, just twelve months ago.

Mattie Quesenberry Smith, Ph.D., instructor in the Department of English, Rhetoric, and Humanistic Studies at Virginia Military Institute, was recently appointed the commonwealth’s new poet laureate by Governor Glenn Youngkin.

When the Nobel Prize winners were announced recently in Stockholm, Sweden, a cheer went up nearly 7,000 miles away from faculty members at Virginia Military Institute as the world recognized the importance of technology embraced by professors and cadets in classes on post.