The Virginia Tech media relations office has the following experts available for interviews this week surrounding issues in the news. To schedule an interview, please contact mediarelations@vt.edu.

Virginia Tech experts available to discuss headlines in the news

Keeping warm without raising your bills

Cranking up your heat on a cold winter’s night could end up putting a chill on your bank account. On average, people are paying almost 10 percent more on utility bills than they did last winter. As winter weather ramps up and demand spikes, electrical engineering experts Saifur Rahman and Scott Dunning are available to discuss the increase in demand and ways to lower your energy bill, while still keeping warm. More here.

Why snow totals can vary wildly for winter storms

The recent winter storm delivered not just a wide range of snow accumulation, but also snow types. Barrett Gutter, a meteorologist at Virginia Tech, explains that a different snow-to-liquid ratio (SLR), or how much moisture is in a snowflake, means that the same amount of total precipitation can deliver very different amounts of measurable snowfall, depending on the underlying conditions. “Lower temperatures throughout the atmosphere will lead to drier and fluffier snow (higher SLR) since there tends to be less moisture available, while higher temperatures (closer to freezing) will lead to wetter and denser snow,” he says. This explains the sheet of ice blanketing much of the East Coast, and can help determine what kind of snow to expect later this week. More here.

No agreement reached yet to end partial government shutdown 

The U.S. Senate passed legislation to fund the federal government in the near term, but it wasn’t in time to prevent a partial government shutdown over the weekend, and the House, with its razor-thin Republican majority, won’t take up the vote until Tuesday. Facing rebellion in Republican ranks, Speaker Mike Johnson appears to need help from Democrats to get a deal through. Political scientist Karen Hult and communications expert Cayce Myers can discuss the situation.

How Olympic athletes use science to win

Racing through the air at Olympic speeds, athletes at the Winter Olympics in Milan will need more than strength and skill—they’ll need science. In sports like ski jumping, skeleton, and speed skating, aerodynamics can make the difference between getting the gold and going home empty-handed. Virginia Tech aerodynamics expert Chris Roy is available to explain what athletes are doing to take advantage of the science of aerodynamics. More here.

Super Bowl LX is Sunday

The Sunday match-up between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots is one many could not have predicted. On paper, this was an unlikely matchup. Sport media analytics expert Matthew Zimmerman can break down why and talk about the likely outcomes of the game. 

For those watching for the commercials, marketing expert Donna Wertalik can break down what to expect, from the notable brands to the best commercial strategies. She calls this a “unicorn year” for the Super Bowl because of the overlap with the World Cup and Winter Olympics — two other major sporting events vying for consumer attention on a global stage.

Research highlight

New database reveals how Americans use water

Water powers our lives. It feeds our crops, keeps factories running, generates electricity, and fills our taps. But until now, no one had a clear, national picture of how much water we’re using — and for what. Landon Marston, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, and his doctoral student Yunus Naseri are changing that. They have created the United States Water Withdrawals Database, the first nationwide resource to track who is drawing water from rivers, lakes, and underground aquifers, and in what amounts.

Their study was published in Nature Scientific Data. The database is now publicly available for communities and policymakers to use and includes:

  • 188,857 unique water users

  • 353,694 points of diversion and use

  • 58 million withdrawal volumes

  • 7.5 million individual records

More here.

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