Janice L. Tuchman, editor-in-chief of the Engineering News Record, will discuss "Five Critical issues and Five Good Ideas for the Next Ten Years of Construction" on Friday, Oct. 5, at 4 p.m. in 2150 Torgersen Hall at Virginia Tech.

The event, which is open and free to the public, is part of the university's Vecellio Distinguished Lecture series.

Under Tuckman's leadership, the Engineering News Record team won two prestigious Jesse H. Neal awards in March 2012. The awards were for the best website and for the best technical article for a feature that used mixed media to bring readers video and Web components as well as a story to print.

Tuchman is active in both the construction industry and the publishing associations. She is on the National Research Council's Board of Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment. In 2010 she was inducted into the National Academy of Construction, and she was appointed to the Industry Leaders Council of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Tuchman is a trustee of the Society of Marketing Professional Services Foundation and serves on the Industry Advisory Committee of the Department of Civil Engineering at Columbia University.

In 2002 she became the sixth woman elected to membership in "The Moles," a prestigious heavy-construction industry leaders organization. She is also a member of the American Business Media.

The Vecellio Distinguished Lecture Series is sponsored by a $1 million endowment provided for the Construction Engineering and Management Program in Virginia Tech's Via Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering by the Vecellio Family Foundation and individual family members: the late Evelyn Vecellio, wife of Leo Vecellio Sr.; Leo and Kathryn Vecellio Jr., and their sons, Christopher and Michael; and Patricia Vecellio.

The late Leo Vecellio Sr. was a 1938 civil engineering graduate of Virginia Tech who became president and CEO of Vecellio & Grogan, one of the largest highway construction and mining companies in the eastern U.S. Leo Vecellio Jr., a 1968 Virginia Tech civil engineering graduate, is now head of Vecellio & Grogan Inc. and its subsidiaries.

The Vecellio endowment at Virginia Tech also supports scholarships, fellowships, and a professorship.

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