Virginia Tech announces grand opening of Innovation Campus Academic Building One with Regina Dugan as keynote speaker

The sparkling exterior is close to complete and classrooms and labs are coming to life as Virginia Tech prepares to open the 11-story, 300,000-square-foot Academic Building One of the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus in January.

The official opening celebration will take place on Friday, Feb. 28, 2025, and feature a keynote address from Regina Dugan, president and CEO of Wellcome Leap, a nonprofit that builds and executes bold, unconventional programs, funded at scale, with the aim of increasing the speed and number of breakthroughs in human health. 

Dugan — a two-time Virginia Tech alumna — is an internationally recognized business executive, producer, engineer-artist, taskmaster, and product developer. She has led world-class global teams and multimillion-dollar to multibillion-dollar efforts to deliver novel products at Meta and Alphabet and as the 19th director and first woman to lead the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Dugan earned her Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology and was named a Distinguished Alumna in 2017, joining noted honorees such as Carver Mead and Gordon Moore. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from Virginia Tech, where she is a member of the Academy of Engineering Excellence and received the University Distinguished Achievement Award in 2022. She also served as an inaugural member of the Innovation Campus Advisory Board.

“We are thrilled to have Regina address the Virginia Tech community at such an important moment in the life of the university,” said Lance Collins, vice president and executive director of the Innovation Campus. “Regina’s visionary work has always been at ‘the center of next.’ The Innovation Campus – with its location, connections to industry, and future-focused research areas – will help Virginia Tech solve some of the world’s most pressing problems."

Taking place in Alexandria on the morning of Feb. 28, Dugan’s address is the cornerstone of the Innovation Campus’ opening celebration and official ribbon cutting event with corporate, government, community, and Virginia Tech leaders in attendance.

“Regina’s breadth of experience and her ability to synthesize trends in technology, government policy and business make her a perfect opening speaker for the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus,” said Sanju Bansal, co-founder of pWin.ai and chair of the Innovation Campus Advisory Council. “I cannot wait to see the impact this new Virginia Tech campus will have on both the region and the country.”