Ketan Trivedi, of Salem, Va., and Herve Marand, of Blacksburg, both of the Department of Chemistry in the College of Science at Virginia Tech, have received the 2004 XCaliber Award.

Established in 1998 by the Center for Innovation in Learning to recognize outstanding contributions to learning that faculty and teams of faculty, staff, and students make as they develop courseware using technology, XCaliber Awards celebrate and illustrate innovative approaches to teaching using technology.

Trivedi, instructor of chemistry, and Marand, professor of chemistry, developed the Chemistry DVD, which provides a fully guided, self-paced learning environment. It provides students with three-dimensional animations and videos of chemical experiments, allowing them to experience a hands-on learning environment through technology. The DVD also affords a student at a distance the opportunity to view chemical experiments as if they were in a classroom. Students take tests at frequent intervals throughout the lessons to determine their understanding of the material. The DVD has been used on campus and at the Virginia Tech sites in Richmond, Abingdon, Northern Virginia, and Tidewater.

Marand, of St Michel sur Orge in the Southwest suburbs of Paris, has been a member of the American Chemical Society, American Physical Society and Materials Research Society, as well as the Society of Plastic Engineers. He received the National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award in 1994.

Marand, professor of polymer physical chemistry, earned his bachelor’s at Ecole Nationale Superieure de Chimie de Paris, France, and his Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He served as a postdoctoral associate at Michigan Molecular Institute.

Trivedi, a native of Bombay (Mumbai), India, received his bachelor’s from Sardar Patel University in India, his master’s from Eastern Michigan University, and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, all in chemistry. Before coming to Virginia Tech as an adjunct professor, Trivedi was chair of Biomedical Sciences in the College of Health Sciences in Roanoke. Trivedi is the originator, co-author, and publisher of a 3-CD set titled "Mathematical Operations Using a Scientific Calculator," an interactive DVD titled "Chemistry One," and a multimedia, interactive DVD titled "General Chemistry."

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.

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