Eric P. Beers honored with emeritus status
Eric P. Beers, professor of plant science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech, has been conferred the title of professor emeritus by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.
The emeritus title may be conferred on retired faculty members who are specially recommended to the board by Virginia Tech President Tim Sands in recognition of exemplary service to the university. Nominated individuals who are approved by the board receive a copy of the resolution and a certificate of appreciation.
A member of the Virginia Tech community for more than 32 years, Beers made significant research contributions to the regulation of xylem and phloem differentiation and function. He received $4.2 million in grants funded by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the U.S. Department of Energy for his groundbreaking research of plant programmed cell death and the functional genomics of wood formation. His research resulted in over 43 original research articles, reviews, and book chapters that have been cited more than 5,000 times.
Beers served for 12 years as a member of the Faculty Senate Committee on Faculty Ethics and as a committee member for research integrity inquiries and investigations conducted by the Office of Scholarly Integrity and Research Compliance.
Beers was a dedicated mentor to graduate students in his research program for more than 27 years. He served in the Translational Plant Sciences Graduate Program for 17 years, and he served as the graduate program director for the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences for seven years.
In the classroom, he taught a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate courses on the topics of plant biology, advanced plant physiology and metabolism, and crop physiology.
Beers received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Delaware and his doctoral degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Written by Emily Southern ’26
