Jackson-Hope Faculty Development Leave

Col. Joe Blandino and two cadets inspect a lightweight deployable boom that could be used to construct a solar sail or solar array. His research was funded in part by a Jackson-Hope grant. -- VMI File Photo by H. Lockwood McLaughlin.

The Board of the Jackson-Hope Fund recognizes the importance of faculty development and has provided funds for faculty members to travel to professional conferences and to conduct research.

It also has supported leave time to allow faculty members to engage in scholarly activities within their respective disciplines, such as conducting research and writing books, as well as providing technology training grants to prepare them for teaching in the 21st century.

In recent years, Jackson-Hope funds have provided leave time so that mechanical engineering professor Col. Joseph Blandino could study solar arrays, biology professor Col. Paul Moosman could study bat habitat and behavior, and chemistry professor Col. Dan Harrison could embark on a new area of research developing optical materials for use by the Army Research Lab.

Leave periods allowed history professor Col. Eric Osborne to complete a book manuscript and his colleague, Col. Geoffrey Jensen, to conduct research in archives in Spain.  English Professor Col. Polly Atwell used her leave to complete her second novel, The Good Ones, and to conduct research in London for an upcoming novel.

Economics and business professor Col. Barry Cobb used his leave to develop a model for monitoring deterioration in a production process to determine the optimal point for conducting system maintenance while psychology professor Col. Scott Frein used his leave to study memory and his colleague, Col. Glenn Sullivan, completed a draft of a book on combat trauma.

The Jackson-Hope Fund sharpens the edge of academic excellence at VMI by ensuring that faculty have the time and resources to contribute to the existing body of knowledge in their fields.