A select group of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows are helping forge a new path toward climate adaptation preparedness for Virginia Tech.

This fall, Virginia Tech will join universities, tribal nations, and federal agencies across the region in the Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center (NE CASC). As a result, the center has accepted 10 graduate students and postdocs to join its 2025-26 fellows program, where Hokies will then make up 40 percent of the 2025 cohort.

“This partnership with the Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center positions both our students and faculty to have a greater voice, presence, and impact in the global scientific community,” said Aimée Surprenant, dean of the Graduate School. “The center’s academic consortium and its members provide a great opportunity to advance research and support the education and professional development of graduate students and postdoctorates. I congratulate these students and faculty on this partnership and for advancing impactful, interdisciplinary research at Virginia Tech.” 

The Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center is a federal-university-tribal research partnership that provides scientific information and tools needed to help fish, wildlife, and ecosystems adapt to the impacts of environmental change. Since 2012, it has launched more than 150 climate adaptation research projects as one of nine regional climate adaptation science centers managed by the U.S. Geological Survey National Climate Adaptation Science Center.

Virginia Tech will partner alongside Cornell University, University of Vermont, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, Delaware State University, United South and Eastern Tribes Inc., the United States Forest Service Northern Research Station, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, which serves as the host institution.

“This is an incredibly exciting time for Virginia Tech to join NE CASC, elevating our reputation as a leading research institution focused on complex environmental challenges,” said Bill Hopkins, director of the Fralin Life Sciences Institute’s Global Change Center and Virginia Tech’s institutional principal investigator. “In addition to eventually expanding our research portfolio and collaborations with federal scientists and tribal nations, it is going to positively influence the careers of our trainees who will be developing relationships with decision-makers and land managers at the state and federal levels.” 

Hopkins is a professor in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation in the College of Natural Resources and Environment.

The Global Change Center has been heralded for its successful model of promoting impactful interdisciplinary research and student training to tackle new frontiers of global socio-environmental challenges such as water pollution, biodiversity loss, climate change, invasive species, ecological restoration, and rural environmental health. 

“Virginia Tech’s fantastic work through the Global Change Center is perfectly aligned with NE CASC’s mission to produce science that supports effective natural resources management,” said Bethany Bradley, co-director of the center at the University of Massachusetts. “Continued federal funding for the CASCs will be critical as we look forward to building more partnerships to support healthy lands and waters in Virginia.”

Joining the center will provide faculty the ability to apply for competitive research funding, such as the annual Department of Interior’s CASC grants programs, exclusive to the U.S. Geological Survey scientists and faculty who are part of member institutions.

For students and postdocs, the two-year early career training program will help them develop skills in engagement, communication, and collaboration to prepare them for careers focused on adapting to  environmental change. They will join a combined 15 new or returning fellows for weekly seminars, small group interaction, and a three-day on-site intensive training course.

The Virginia Tech trainee cohort representing five colleges includes:

  • Mary Adebote, Ph.D. student, Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation in the College of Natural Resources and Environment
  • Amaryllis Adey, postdoctoral associate, Department of Entomology in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
  • Hailey Conrad, Ph.D. student, Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation
  • Erin Crone, Ph.D. student, Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Science
  • Ying-Xian Goh, Ph.D. student, Charles E. Via, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the College of Engineering
  • Lucas Goodman, Ph.D. student, School of Public and International Affairs in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences
  • Sadia Afrin Khan, Ph.D. student, Department of Biological Systems Engineering in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
  • Emily Matthews, Ph.D. student, Charles E. Via, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Atticus Murphy, postdoctoral researcher, Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation
  • Nicole Zdrojewski, Ph.D. student, Department of Sociology in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences 

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