About the Faculty of Health Sciences

Virginia Tech’s Faculty of Health Sciences seeks to strengthen health sciences research and education collaborations across the university’s colleges and research institutes and with partner institutions.

“With the Faculty of Health Sciences as a catalyst, the university will be able to be more nimble in responding to the world’s evolving biomedical and health sciences landscape,” said Michael Friedlander, vice president for health sciences and technology at Virginia Tech, in launching the program in November 2013. “We’re hoping to build creative and adaptive biomedical and health research teams that work seamlessly across disciplines to discover solutions to state, national, and international challenges in health.”

The Faculty of Health Sciences also serves as the academic home for Virginia Tech’s Translational Biology, Medicine, and Health program, the TBMH program involves faculty members in eight colleges and six institutes and centers. The TBMH program, which enrolled its first PhD class in the fall of 2014, has six focus areas: cancer; tissue engineering and reparative medicine; public health and implementation sciences; immunity and infectious disease; metabolic and cardiovascular science; and neuroscience.

“Virginia Tech will build on its new initiatives in biomedical and health science graduate education, expand its investments in health sciences research, and bring traditional and nontraditional disciplines together – all to achieve innovation in the science of health,” said Friedlander. “By facilitating the coordination of initiatives that span multiple disciplines and colleges, the Faculty of Health Sciences will both enhance opportunities for successfully competing for major grants and create a true national identity for Virginia Tech in the health sciences.”

Membership in the Faculty of Health Sciences is available to all Virginia Tech faculty members who hold a graduate or professional degree in a relevant discipline and have a primary appointment in a college, school, research institute, or vice presidential unit. Faculty members from other institutions must have an adjunct or affiliated appointment with Virginia Tech before applying for an appointment.

“The Faculty of Health Sciences will help ensure that Virginia Tech’s future is a vibrant one as the university positions itself strategically to compete and lead in health science research and education innovation,” Friedlander said.