E. Scott Geller named Alumni Distinguished Professor

The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors conferred the title Alumni Distinguished Professor (ADP) to E. Scott Geller, professor of psychology, in recognition of his extraordinary academic citizenship and distinguished service within the Virginia Tech community.

Through the generous support of the Virginia Tech Alumni Association, the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors bestows the Alumni Distinguished Professor designation to recognize members of the faculty who have made outstanding contributions to the instructional program of the university and who have touched the lives of generations of alumni. Only 11 professors throughout the university hold the title.

Geller began working at Virginia Tech in 1969 and has since received numerous awards and honors for instruction, research, and outreach. Virginia Tech has awarded him the Alumni Award for Excellence in Research, Alumni Award for Outreach, and Alumni Award for Graduate Student Advising. For excellence in the classroom, he has received the Alumni Teaching Award, Sporn Award, Wine Award, and election to the Academy of Teaching Excellence.

Among his off-campus recognitions, he has received a Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education, a teaching award from the American Psychological Association, the Outstanding Technical Writing Award from the American Society of Safety Engineers, and the Award for Effective Presentation of Behavior Analysis in the Mass Media from the Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, American Psychological Society, American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology, and World Academy of Productivity and Quality Sciences.

A past editor of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, he currently serves as consulting editor for Behavior and Social Issues, Behavior Analyst Digest, and Journal of Organizational Behavior Management and as associate editor of Environment and Behavior.

He has been the principal investigator for more than 75 research grants that involved the application of behavioral science for the benefit of corporations, institutions, government agencies, and communities in general, and his work has attracted national media attention. He has authored more than 350 research articles, 25 books, 40 book chapters, and hundreds of articles for journals and conference proceedings.

Geller earned a Ph.D. and Master of Arts degree in psychology from Southern Illinois University and a bachelor's degree from the College of Wooster.

The College of Science at Virginia Tech gives students a comprehensive foundation in the scientific method. Outstanding faculty members teach courses and conduct research in biology, chemistry, economics, geosciences, mathematics, physics, psychology, and statistics. The college is dedicated to fostering a research intensive environment and offers programs in nano-scale and biological sciences, information theory and science, and supports research centers—in areas such as biomedical and public health sciences, and critical technology and applied science—that encompass other colleges at the university. The College of Science also houses programs in pre-medicine and scientific law.

Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech has grown to become among the largest universities in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Today, Virginia Tech's eight colleges are dedicated to putting knowledge to work through teaching, research, and outreach activities and to fulfilling its vision to be among the top research universities in the nation. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg and other campus centers in Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls more than 28,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 180 academic degree programs.