One of the most important innovations might be something you throw away without a second thought. Packaging. 📦 Virginia Tech researchers are developing sustainable materials, smart medical packaging, and advanced shipping systems that change how products move around the world. 🔗: bit.ly/3ToGce8

More than a dozen Virginia Tech researchers are connected to three of the first projects selected for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission. 🔗: go.vt.edu/urPWV

Don't throw an apple at us. 🫣 Even though the common pronunciation in Southwest Virginia is "apple-atch-uh," there are many ways to pronounce "Appalachia." At least, that's what Virginia Tech research has found. 🔗: go.vt.edu/urKdP

Nine Virginia Tech faculty members have received U.S. Fulbright Scholar Awards for the 2026–27 academic year. 👏 🔗: go.vt.edu/urBlk

Graduate students in Virginia Tech's Carilion Clinic Biodesign Program developed a new translation tool designed to improve communication between dental providers and patients, helping make care more accessible for everyone. 🔗: go.vt.edu/urBkP

Virginia Tech statisticians have been recognized for their work with NASA, helping assess critical pressure vessels on the International Space Station that safely store essentials like propellants and life-support systems. 🚀 🔗: go.vt.edu/urzjG

As drought strains water supplies across much of the United States, Virginia Tech researchers have developed an artificial intelligence model designed to help policymakers manage growing competition between agriculture and semiconductor manufacturing. 🔗: go.vt.edu/urwKi

A globally recognized researcher at Virginia Tech has been inducted as a 2025 fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. 👏 🔗: go.vt.edu/urtB0

This professor has committed over $1 million to help undergraduates hone their research skills. 👏 🔗: go.vt.edu/urq0b

As silicon approaches its physical limits, this #VirginiaTech Ph.D student is helping explore what comes next for semiconductors. 🔗: go.vt.edu/uq59S

We still don’t know what exactly dark matter is, but the evidence keeps growing. New Virginia Tech-led research using echo mapping suggests dark matter may cluster around supermassive black holes like a dense cloud. 🔗: go.vt.edu/uqL3E

Virginia Tech researchers have completed the first evolutionary history of Earth’s first land animals, pushing their origins tens of millions of years deeper into the past. 🔗: go.vt.edu/uqJT2

Jefferson Lab’s future High Performance Data Facility in Newport News, which recently broke ground, will provide an opportunity for faculty and student researchers to work with real-world data in support of the Department of Energy’s mission. 🔗: brnw.ch/21x3qHN

Virginia Tech has been ranked in the top 15 percent of universities from over 100 countries in U.S. News & World Report’s 2026-27 Best Global Universities rankings. 👏 🔗: go.vt.edu/uqFCy

A Virginia Tech neuroscientist is investigating whether obesity may be accelerating the brain's aging process, contributing to earlier memory decline. 🧠 🔗: go.vt.edu/uqCf1

Women are twice as likely as men to develop post-traumatic stress disorder, and new research may offer a biological clue as to why. 🔗: go.vt.edu/uqjmd

Ordinary pet dogs outperformed trained human searchers in sniffing out pesky spotted lanternflies, finding more than twice as many egg masses. 🔗: go.vt.edu/uqjhE

These researchers are protecting Appalachian biodiversity. 🦎 Virginia Tech students and faculty are surveying a rare salamander, the eastern hellbender, to better understand and protect them. Their work informs conservation decisions and highlights the biodiversity of Appalachia.

Virginia Tech has received its largest commitment ever. 🙌 The unprecedented, $75 million in support will advance the university’s ambitious athletics strategy and expand one of its most innovative academic programs.

This Virginia Tech student’s research took her to the Arctic. 🥶 Doctoral student Sithuni Mimasha’s work builds on partnerships with Inuit communities, focusing on how climate change is reshaping food systems, livelihoods, health and well-being. 🔗: brnw.ch/21x33X3

Researchers found that yellow fever mosquitoes can learn to associate the smell of DEET with food — potentially weakening the world’s most widely used insect repellent. 🦟 🔗: go.vt.edu/upTKp

Researchers have identified a key protein that may help failing hearts regain function, offering new insight into why some hearts recover while others do not. 🫀 🔗: go.vt.edu/upS4k

Bees may hold the key to the next generation of biodegradable plastics. 🐝 A Virginia Tech lab has partnered with ecologists at the University of Tennessee to study so called “cellophane bees”, which produce a biodegradable polyethylene-like plastic for their nests. 🎥: go.vt.edu/upQhR

For the one in 10 people who suffer from kidney stones, a noninvasive treatment can provide much-needed relief. Now, a technology developed by Virginia Tech researchers has received FDA approval for a new approach that’s even less invasive.    🔗: go.vt.edu/upFZH

The five-year award from the National Science Foundation will fund research into how immersive technologies affect decision-making, spending, and privacy as well as how policy and technical interventions can protect users.

Scientists at Virginia Tech are engineering viruses to carry a cancer-killing molecule directly to brain tumors — a novel approach to treating glioblastoma, one of the most aggressive and treatment-resistant cancers.  🔗: brnw.ch/21x2HF3

Hydroponics is costly, but researchers think a new substrate might be the key to making controlled environment agriculture cost-accessible. That’s where sandponics comes in. 🌱 🔗: go.vt.edu/upofg

When transplant surgeons switched between different organ types in consecutive surgeries, one-year mortality rates in patients increased by 14.8 percent, according to new Virginia Tech research.  🔗: go.vt.edu/uoUpN

University Distinguished Professor Emeritus Michael Hochella has been elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He is among 120 members and 25 international members newly recognized for their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. 🔗: go.vt.edu/uoQKb

What if glue came from trees? 🌱 Students are developing a renewable adhesive using lignin, nature’s own “glue” that gives wood its strength. By preserving its structure, they’re unlocking a thermosetting material that could help reduce reliance on synthetic adhesives and help address microplastics.