media studies research uva

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Application

The  applications to become a Media Studies major  opens this summer from Monday, July 8 - Tuesday, August 6, 2024. Rising 3rd year undergrads who have met all prerequisites as well as 3rd year transfer students are eligible to apply. The application portal will close at 11:59PM on August 6th and late applications will not be accepted.

Q1. I am interested in applying to the Media Studies major. When can I do it?

The  application to become a Media Studies major  is now open to rising 3rd year undergrads who have met all prerequisites as well as to 3rd year transfer students

In general, a matriculated student may apply in the Spring semester of the 2nd year or the summer prior to the start of the Fall semester of your 3rd year. If you are a third year  transfer student , you can apply in the summer before your third year. ( Please note:  you must attend the summer orientation and be in enrolled in MDST 2000 in order to apply as a third year transfer.)  Rising fourth year students cannot apply to the major.

Q2. Are there any requirements that I have to fulfill before applying?

Yes. You can apply to the major  ONLY  if you have fulfilled at least one of the following conditions:

• If you already took either MDST 2000 and your grade was a C+ or higher
• If you are currently enrolled in MDST 2000
• If you have completed two courses that can be applied towards the MDST major and you earned a C+ or higher in both
• If you have completed one course that can be applied toward the MDST major with a C+ or more  AND  you are enrolled in one course that can be applied toward the major
• Newly matriculated rising third year transfer students should request enrollment in MDST 2000 and another Media Studies class this fall and can apply to the major in December.

Q2.1. Besides MDST 2000, what courses can I use to apply to the major?

You can use all 3000 and above courses that start with MDST. In addition, Media Studies accepts some pre-approved courses from other departments. You can find these in the following lists. Some are in the  Practice of Media Approved Course List  (note that  ONLY  one course from this list can be applied toward the MDST major). Some are in the  Diversity and Identity Approved Course List . And some are in the Media Concentrations list of courses.

Q3. Is there a minimum GPA to apply to the MDST major?

Yes. You must have an average GPA of 2.000 or higher as well as a GPA of 2.4 or higher in all classes that count toward the major.

Q4. When is the application process?

There are  TWO  application periods each year, one in the spring and one in the summer. The summer application is  ONLY  for rising third years and third year transfer students. The spring application is for second year students.

Q4.1. I am a second year student who did not transfer, when do I apply?

In the spring or summer prior to your third year.

Q4.2. I am a second year transfer student, when do I apply?

You can apply in either the spring of your second year or in the summer before your third year.

 Q4.3. I am a third year student who did not transfer, when do I apply? 

You can apply in the summer prior to the start of your third year. 

Q4.4. I am a third year transfer student, when do I apply?

You can only apply in the summer prior to your third year. You must have taken MDST 2000 or two other courses that count toward the major to apply.

Q4.5. I am a fourth year student. Can I apply to the major?

No. Fourth year students cannot apply to Media Studies.

Q5. When is the spring application process?

The application is typically due in the Spring semester (prior to Spring break), but the date changes year to year. Check our website for deadlines.

Q5.1. When is the summer application process?

Summer dates will be announced on this page prior to summer orientation. 

Q6. What do I need to do to apply?

The application is an online form, linked from our website. It consists of a report of your overall GPA and MDST courses taken to date (and your MDST GPA), two essays, and the contact information (generally email) for one professor or TA who has agreed to act as your reference.  You do NOT need to obtain a letter from this person, but they must have agreed to provide a short reference upon our request.

Q7. How long does it take to know whether I was accepted to the major?

We strive to get our decisions to you as soon as possible. For summer admissions, we expect decisions to me made within 10 days of the closing of the application.

Q7.1. If I didn’t get in, can I re-apply?

Yes, if you are a second year or first semester third year student.

Q8. If I am accepted into the major, do I have to fill out a Major Declaration Form?

Yes. As soon as you are accepted into the major, you need to set up an appointment with your assigned advisor and together complete a Declaration Form. One copy of the form needs to be turned into the Media Studies office and one copy is submitted to the Registrar located in Room 101, Monroe Hall. Declarations appear on SIS typically one week after the declaration was submitted.

Q9. Do courses from other departments at UVA count toward the major?

We will accept up to two elective courses from another department or university toward the major, this includes study abroad courses. Courses will be evaluated by the Director of Undergraduate programs prior to acceptance toward major requirements. Please see our website regrading transfer courses.

Q10. How many transfer credits can I apply toward the major?

We will accept up to two courses from another university toward the major. Courses will be evaluated by the Director of Undergraduate programs prior to acceptance toward major requirements. These will count as your non-departmental courses.

Media Studies

Research Institutes UvA

• Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA)
• Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC)
• Centre for Digital Humanities (CDH); a joint initiative with the Free University of Amsterdam (VU) and the Royal Netherlands Academy of  Arts and Sciences (KNAW).

National Research Institutes

• Research School for Media Studies  (RMeS); a collaboration of eight Dutch universities led by the University of Amsterdam, for PhD training and research dissemination.
• Netherlands Institute for Cultural Analysis (NICA)
• Huizinga Institute ; National research network for cultural history

Research projects

• CREATE (Creative Amsterdam: An E-Humanities Perspective); investigates how cultural industries have shaped Amsterdam’s unique position in a European and global context, from the seventeenth century until the present day.
• DATACTIVE ; about big data collection, privacy and surveillance, social movements, activism and internet activism.
• ASCA Cities Project ; '   brings together a diverse group of scholars, research students, and practitioners particulary interested in comparing the cultural dimensions of cities.
• CHINA CREATIVE ; from  Made in China  to  Created in China . A Comparative Study of Creative Practice and Production in Contemporary China.
• Every year, the New Media Team organises a 'Summer and Winter School'.

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Media research and data collection

In the 2023-2024 academic year, the following thesis projects are being done within the MA New Media & Digital Culture program. These projects may be collecting public social media data in the public interest at the University of Amsterdam, department of Media Studies.

  Justina Kecoriūtė – Examining Surveillance and Women’s Agency in Reproductive Healthcare: Insights from Poland’s Abortion Landscape

Please see the full data collection notice .

If you have any remarks regarding these research projects, you can contact the secretary of the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Amsterdam, [email protected], phone number: +31 20 – 525 3054; Binnengasthuisstraat 9, 1012 ZA Amsterdam.

Media Studies

Media Studies focusses on subjects such as media-archaeology, the creative industry, the creative city, datafication, digital methods, and information analysis. The UvA offers two study programmes: Media and Culture, and Media and Information.

Here you can find relevant information for Media Studies students and staff.

If you have any questions, please contact: [email protected] . 

Media Studies:

• All databases
• Bibliographies
• Encyclopedias 
• Reference works
• New arrivals (books)
• Library Guide for Video Game Studies  [pdf]
• Guide on Finding and Accessing Audio Video Collection  [pdf]

Related disciplines:

• Archival Science
• Book Studies 
• Communication Science
• Computer Science

All disciplines - databases by type:

• Book collections
• Encyclopedias
• Primary sources
• Journals  (search by title or ISSN)
• Journal collections
• Dictionaries

The collection Media Studies can be found in the  P.C. Hoofthuis Library en Library Learning Center .

Description

The UvA library holds a lot of material relevant to Media Studies and they can be found across several locations. Parts of this collection are of such a magnitude that they qualify as research collections. With hundreds of new books annually the Media Studies source material is continuously expanding. Furthermore, the library offers access to countless full text scientific articles, relevant databases, and electronic journals. The library also still holds a few subscriptions to print journals.

The discipline of Media Studies examines a wide range of subjects from both a disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspective. Some areas of focus are new: New Media and Digital Culture, Comparative Media Studies, Journalism and Media, Cultural Information Science, and Digital Humanities. Materials pertaining to certain areas have traditionally been accumulated making for a vast collection; these include theory formation concerning film and audio-visual media, and the analyses of picture and publications concerning directors, actors, and producers that shaped the landscape.

Electronic Sources

The library offers access to electronic sources relevant to Media Studies. These include millions of articles, a growing number of e-books, journals, and discipline specific files. The source materials can be found by searching  in  CataloguePlus , through the Database-selector, or via the tab ‘E-journals’. If an electronic publication is available within the UvA one is usually only a few clicks away from the full text.

Open Shelving System

The literature in the open shelving system relevant to Media Studies has been organised according to the  Library of Congress Classification  (LCC).  Some of the categories important to Media Studies include:

De  Outline LCC for Media Studies  offers a comprehensive overview.

Printed sources in the repository

In order to create space for new acquisitions materials that are used less frequently are moved from the open shelving system to the library’s repository (Book depot, IWO).  This applies to older books and older journal issues. These sources can be requested with the use of a valid library card. 

Rika Theo  provides library support for students and staff of the Media Studies department. Students and staff can contact her ( [email protected] ) for:

Individual assistance

Students working on assignments (paper, thesis), professors teaching courses or researchers working on projects (articles, PhD-thesis) may at all times contact the Subject Librarian if they need help with any of the following:

• purchase suggestions,
• search skills,
• citation tools  and citation styles,
• Online access troubleshooting,
• Open Access  and copyright.

All workshops aim to develop information literacy skills within an academic environment. The instructions are tailored to subjects relevant to the study program and the participants' knowledge level (BA, MA, PhD, staff). Topics of the workshop:

• Search terms, techniques, and strategies for academic research,
• Searching CataloguePlus and Library Collection effectively,
• Finding publications on a specific topic,
• Evaluating information,
• citation tools  and citation styles.

Other information

The short tutorial for students on searching academic sources and citation management is available on Canvas:  Finding Academic Resources for Media Studies (uva.nl) .

Information Specialist Media Studies

[email protected] +31 (0)20 525 1405

Media scientists usually work with audio visual sources, texts, or (un)structured data. Data can be derived from existing collections. The research currently taking place in the Netherlands and the data that is collected for these projects can be found on  NARCIS .

While you can collect data yourself, the access to source materials such as online audio, newspapers, or  social media content  is usually copyright protected and the materials can be located in several storage places.

The data will usually be studied from different perspectives. The context in which the data are produced, disseminated, and observed is critical for research into the construction, dissemination, and reception of specific social or cultural phenomenon, see for example  CREATE .

Managing Digital Data

With Research Data Management (RDM) you ensure that your data remains locatable, accessible, and understandable during your research, as well as after your research has been completed. Furthermore, you provide documentation on, for example, how the data was collated, adjusted, enriched, or in any way edited, so that it can be used for network, topic, or prediction analyses.  You also justify the presentation tools, such as  Gephi , because your research will not always result in a book or article; it could result in a  3D reconstruction  or a database such as  Cinema Context .

A well executed RDM allows for means of examining the work and enhances the research’s integrity, and impact. The FGw has its own  Research Data Management Protocol .  Furthermore, the Research school for Media Studies offers a manual specifically for MA students, i.e.,  Academic Integrity in Media Studies .

Data Management Plan

A prominent part of managing research data is the Data Management Plan (DMP). The DMP names all aspects of data management for conducting and finishing research. Other institutions apart from the UvA, such as the KNAW, NOW, and ERC, set their own requirements for managing data and offer their own DMP.

You cannot immediately record all that happens in a research project. This is especially the case when several people are involved in collecting and editing data because it involves frequently making new agreements.

Metadata are an important element in RDM. They are indispensable when describing and or enriching data and data files, and when researching different source materials together. Of course one is free in their choice of metadata. It is preferred however, when possible, to use standards within the field, such as GIS coordinates.

Due to the specific nature of audio visual material there are additional measures in place to search through them on a larger scale. These measures involve matching the material to a description of the content and some of its contextual details (metadata, subtitle file), and on the other hand it involves using new technology such as speech recognition in order to automatically generate a transcript or image recognition.

If everything goes smoothly you might just be in need of storage capacity. Since September 2017 all UvA and AUAS researchers have access to UvA/AUAS figshare where you can securely save your DPM, your schedule, the data and the edited data, the used tools, and the accompanying documents. Each faculty has appointed a  data steward  to help you with UvA/AUAS figshare.

Naturally you are also free to use other storage capacities. There are several UvA communities, such as the Amsterdam Centre for the Study of the Golden Age, that have their own storage capacities, and SURF offers storage on their SURFdrive.

Upon completing your research you can archive your data (files), or a representative selection thereof. Doing so has its advantages: the data can be made available for future research, teaching purposes, and peer review. Sealed datasets can be archived in  DANS Easy , the most important data archive in the Netherlands for the Humanities. Other data archives, such as  Fine Arts, Music, Theatre and Media Studies , can be found via  Archiving .

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Course Catalogue

For more information, see the Course Catalogue External link .

Department of Media Studies

Major requirements.

The information contained on this website is for informational purposes only.  The Undergraduate Record and Graduate Record represent the official repository for academic program requirements. These publications may be found at  http://records.ureg.virginia.edu/index.php .

The bulk of your major must be completed in the Media Studies Department.  You are allowed to take any practice of media course on our list. Your 4000 level course is a capstone course and must be a Media Studies course taught by a member of our faculty. For your remaining 6 electives, 4 must be Media Studies courses, taught by a member of our faculty. The remaining two courses may be study abroad or courses from other departments at UVA. All courses from outside the department must be on our approved lists  or approved by the Director of Undergraduate Programs prior to being accepted toward the major. Please see the Course Offerings and/or Transfer courses for information regarding course approval.

• MDST 3050  (pre-req MDST 2000)
• One (1) Practice of Media Course  from  approved list.   Only one (1) Practice of Media course may be applied toward the major.

Seven(7) MDST electives  at the 3000-level or above (3 or more credits per course) with at least:      -  one (1) MDST Capstone course . The MDST capstone course is an intensive seminar intended for fourth-year MDST majors.  The course is limited to 20 students. The final assignment in the course will entail a rigorous research project (scholarly or creative), minimum 15 pages or equivalent.  This course is offered at the 4000 level and must be an MDST mneumonic and taught by Media Studies faculty.      -  one (1) Diversity and Identity Course  from an  approved list      -  one (1) Non-U.S. Media Course  from an  approved list

Academic Standards : Students are expected to maintain a 2.000 Cumulative GPA per university policy, an average GPA of 2.500 for all courses applied towards the major, and a 2.300 minimum grade for each MDST course. Students who are unable to maintain these academic standards will be put on probation by the Media Studies department for one semester. Students who are not able to raise their grade point averages in the subsequent semester will be asked to leave the major.

Transfer Students : Students transferring to UVA and interested in pursuing the Media Studies major must complete MDST 2000 in their first fall semester at UVA. Exceptions made only at the discretion of the Director of Undergraduate Programs.

Media Studies students are strongly urged to choose the balance of their MDST courses according to an individual plan of study. Students should consider the broad range of topics relevant to a full understanding of media studies: media aesthetics (rhetoric and the shape of argument in media, formal analysis, media criticism, and theory of a specific medium); the history of media (film, photography, television, digital, and print media); the experience of media (sociology); the social experience and effects of media (political science and government, law, or public policy, ethics, anthropology, and sociology); and the economics and business of media.

Media Studies Declaration:   Here  is a sample of a completed declaration form, demonstrating an understanding of the courses needed to complete the requirements.

Media Studies

• Books and Journals
• Film and TV
• Streaming Video

UVa Video Holdings

The Robertson Media Center video collection is located on the fourth floor of Clemons Library. Videos can be checked out by faculty, students, and staff for a week at a time.

See the Video and Media Resources Guide for a complete description of UVa-owned video content.

Resources around the Internet

• AFI Catalog The catalog of the American Film Institute is a filmographic resource providing detail on every feature-length film produced in America or financed by American production companies. Click on "Display Movie Details" within a film's catalog record to access notes and bibliographic information.
• Film Studies for Free Privately maintained film blog of "examples of, links to, and comment on, online, Open Access, film and moving image studies resources of note."
• Hulu Streaming television series and movie content.
• Internet Movie Database
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• Last Updated: Jun 20, 2024 1:53 PM
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15 Best colleges for Media Studies in Virginia

Updated: February 29, 2024

• Art & Design
• Computer Science
• Engineering
• Environmental Science
• Liberal Arts & Social Sciences
• Mathematics

Below is a list of best universities in Virginia ranked based on their research performance in Media Studies. A graph of 29.3K citations received by 5.38K academic papers made by 15 universities in Virginia was used to calculate publications' ratings, which then were adjusted for release dates and added to final scores.

We don't distinguish between undergraduate and graduate programs nor do we adjust for current majors offered. You can find information about granted degrees on a university page but always double-check with the university website.

1. University of Virginia

For Media Studies

2. George Mason University

3. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

4. Virginia Commonwealth University

5. College of William and Mary

6. James Madison University

7. Old Dominion University

8. University of Richmond

9. Washington and Lee University

10. Marymount University

11. Regent University

12. Radford University

13. University of Mary Washington

14. Christopher Newport University

15. Virginia Wesleyan University

Closest to Virginia states to learn Media Studies

Liberal Arts & Social Sciences subfields in Virginia

Active Campus Alert

For more information visit: emergency.wvu.edu

New XR Suite funded for Media Innovation Center

Tuesday, August 06, 2024

The West Virginia University College of Creative Arts and Media is developing an Extended Reality (XR) Suite, thanks to a gift from WVU alumnus George Singleton (BSJ 1977, Communications Studies, MA 1979) and his wife, Jackie.  

The XR Suite will provide opportunities for cross-collaboration between different majors and colleges and will provide the latest gear for XR projects, including high-tech workstations for game design and immersive audio production. 

“Just as it has in the past, technology will continue to change nearly everything that’s done at the College of Creative Arts and Media,” Singleton said. “The XR Suite is just one aspect of keeping up with technological change. Given the size and importance of the gaming and interactive media industry, we felt it was important that our students have the hardware, software and innovative curriculum to prepare for - and be in the position to help shape - the future.” 

Extended reality is becoming more prevalent in many careers, including immersive technologies, gaming, 3D graphic design, spatial computing, interactive brand strategy and communications. Singleton said that while estimates vary, online global gaming total revenue exceeds $200 billion a year, more than the global music and movie businesses combined.  

Singleton attended WVU, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism with an emphasis in advertising and a master’s degree in communication studies. His career in advertising and marketing strategy has included work for global advertising agencies, including McCann Erickson in their Atlanta and Hong Kong locations, Interpublic Group in Atlanta and Publicis Asia Pacific in Hong Kong. After more than 20 years working in Asia, he and his wife moved back to West Virginia in 2021. 

 “After returning to West Virginia, we decided we wanted to give something back to the College, which served as a foundation for my career,” Singleton said. “My experience at WVU was terrific, and we are happy to be able to help the next generation of students.” 

The XR Suite will be the latest addition to the Media Innovation Center. Located in Evansdale Crossing on the WVU campus, the Center was launched by the WVU Reed College of Media (now the Reed School of Media and Communications) in 2016 to provide space, technology, curriculum and culture for building a highly collaborative community of entrepreneurs and problem solvers. 

“Our goal is to prepare students to enter the modern media landscape,” said Diana Martinelli, Vice Dean of the College of Creative Arts and Media and Director of the Reed School. “This goal was the driving force behind the design and construction of the Media Innovation Center, and the XR Suite is a logical new component. We’re incredibly grateful to the Singletons for providing this opportunity for our students, and we look forward to continuing to evolve our curriculum to best position them for success” 

For more information about the Media Innovation Center, visit mediainnovation.wvu.edu . If you would like to make a gift to support media students or the Media Innovation Center, contact Mary Esposito at [email protected]. 

The Singleton’s gift was made through the WVU Foundation, the nonprofit organization that receives and administers private donations on behalf of the University.

Underground carbon storage project takes root

Virginia Tech is serving as the technical lead of the U.S. Department of Energy-funded project that aims to store more than 1.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year and reduce the risk and costs of future projects.

• Travis Williams

31 Jul 2024

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For six years, Uzezi Orivri was a petroleum engineer, focused on extracting oil and gas from the ground.

Now, as a part of a U.S. Department of Energy-funded project, the former petroleum engineer is helping revolutionize efforts to keep harmful amounts of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) out of the atmosphere by putting it in the ground.

“Carbon sequestration was something I really wanted to do my Ph.D. research on,” said Orivri, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Mining and Minerals Engineering. “My work experience as a petroleum engineer highlighted the necessity of reducing carbon emissions while simultaneously increasing energy accessibility. This project really aligns well with my research objectives.”

Recently announced by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management and administered by the National Energy Technology Lab under federal award number DE-FE0032447, the Atlantic Coast CO 2 Emissions Storage Sink, commonly referred to as Project ACCESS, is a CarbonSAFE Phase II feasibility study in South Florida that will evaluate the potential for safe and permanent geological carbon dioxide storage at depths exceeding 7,500 feet below the Earth’s surface. Overseen by the Southern States Energy Board with Virginia Tech serving as the technical lead, Project ACCESS aims to store more than 1.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year and reduce the risk and costs of future projects.

“With many industrial emitters and a limited history exploring carbon dioxide capture, utilization, and storage opportunities, Project ACCESS represents an initial step toward understanding the opportunities and challenges associated with commercial deployment in South Florida,” said Ben Wernette, principal scientist and strategic partnerships lead for Southern States Energy Board. “Virginia Tech is responsible for the design and oversight of the surface characterization program, including all field data acquisition programs and modeling efforts.”

Orivri is a part of the Virginia Tech team, which is led by Ryan Pollyea, associate professor in the Department of Geosciences . Pollyea’s research program works with industry partners to deploy geologic carbon storage while linking students with research partners to get real world experience through internships and career opportunities. His graduate students have taken internships at Chevron and Schlumberger-Doll Research Labs, and this past spring, Pollyea mentored a student team through the Society of Exploration Geophysicists’ EVOLVE Carbon Solutions Professional Program. As a result of their work, the student team was selected to host the society's first virtual U.S. regional geoscience trivia contest.

“We’re working to keep carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and doing it in a way that’s economically, technically, and scientifically sound,” Pollyea said. “Our research aims to put carbon dioxide permanently underground, while also developing long-term plans to monitor and verify that the carbon dioxide is stored securely.”

The Virginia Tech Project ACCESS team also includes

• Steve Holbrook , professor, Department of Geosciences
• Nino Ripepi , associate professor, Department of Mining and Mineral Engineering
• Rohit Pandey , assistant professor, Department of Mining and Minerals Engineering
• Piyali Chanda , research associate, Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Resources

“Our hope is to use projects like this one, working hand-in-hand with industry, to create an enabling environment for decarbonization technologies. This effort builds on significant momentum and we are looking forward to using it as a launchpad for others,” Pollyea said.

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Each year, the typical passenger vehicle emits about 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Based on those numbers, if Project ACCESS develops, it could eliminate the annual carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to 370,000 passenger vehicles.

Pollyea began studying geologic carbon sequestration in 2007. He said the technology is especially applicable to industries that have extreme difficulty lowering their greenhouse emissions, such as steel and cement production. By successfully retrofitting production plants with carbon capture technology, the emissions could be contained and injected into deep geological formations, allowing those industries to greatly reduce their carbon footprint without sacrificing production.

The end result of this process would deposit and trap carbon dioxide in many of the same types of geological formations that hold other resources, such as oil and gas, thousands of feet below drinking water reservoirs.

“If your deepest water well is 1,000 feet underground, we’re going a mile or more deeper that,” Pollyea said.

Not only will Project ACCESS help industrial sectors with hard-to-reduce carbon dioxide emissions, it will do so by storing the emissions in the challenging types of rocks many previous efforts have avoided.

 “We’re looking at geology that is not the thick, porous sandstone that is a more common target for geologic carbon dioxide storage,” Pollyea said. “Project ACCESS is targeting limestone formations in South Florida, and we’ve also been working to unlock carbon dioxide storage in Appalachian-style fold-and-thrust belts. This is new geology for carbon dioxide storage. This is the hard stuff, but unlocking new geology means that carbon dioxide storage can be deployed in more places, and with fewer pipelines transporting carbon dioxide from industrial facilities to storage sites. That giving more options for a broad range of emitters”

Pollyea said by expanding to different types of rocks there is potential for economic benefits to regions of the country previously hurt by declining industries, such as coal in Appalachia. Part of these benefits could come in the form of repurposing and building on the workforce’s existing skill set for the accompanying employee opportunities.

The opportunity to contribute to such innovative work alongside Pollyea is what drew Orivri to Virginia Tech after working for six years in the oil and gas industries.

“There really are not a lot of projects globally doing this with carbonates,” Orivri said. “And there’s a lot of academic research and microscopic stuff that goes into it, but he [Pollyea] was focused on project execution in very practical terms – how do we get this thing working. How do we get carbon dioxide in the ground.”

Having arrived at Virginia Tech last fall, Orivri said the work had already taught him a lot about the value of working with a variety of partners.

“To make a project like this work, you need a lot of collaboration with people like government agencies and industry partners, not just academia,” Orivri said.

He said the project had also illuminated the importance of having the type of interdisciplinary research team Virginia Tech had drawn together.

“My main challenge right now is that I’m not a geologist, I’m an engineer,” Orivri said. “So I need folks like Lars [Koehn, a Ph.D. candidate in geosciences] who is a geologist and geochemist to help me have a proper understanding of the geological model to make the engineering work.”

That combination of academic expertise, alongside the support and know-how of industry and government partners, has created a situation with a high upside for the work below the surface of the Earth.

“If we can get this to work, we can unlock a lot of real estate for carbon storage and take a critical step towards Virginia Tech becoming a destination for the kind of interdisciplinary research, innovation, and talent development needed to advance the control of carbon emissions,” Pollyea said.

Lindsey Haugh

• Advanced Research Computing
• Center for Coastal Studies
• Climate Action
• College of Engineering
• College of Science
• Fralin Life Sciences Institute
• Geosciences
• Graduate Research
• Mining and Minerals Engineering
• Responsible Consumption and Production

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Why, Exactly, Are Ultraprocessed Foods So Hard to Resist? This Study Is Trying to Find Out.

Understanding why they’re so easy to overeat might be key to making them less harmful, some researchers say.

Supported by

By Alice Callahan

Photographs by Lexey Swall

Alice Callahan spent two days at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., and interviewed more than a dozen researchers about ultraprocessed foods.

• Published July 30, 2024 Updated July 31, 2024

It was 9 a.m. on a Friday in March, and Ernest Jones III was hungry.

From a hospital bed at a research facility at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland, he surveyed his meal tray: Honey Nut Cheerios with fiber-enriched whole milk, a plastic-wrapped blueberry muffin and margarine.

Listen to this article with reporter commentary

“Simple, old school,” one of those “Saturday morning breakfasts from back in the day,” said Mr. Jones, 38, who is studying to become a pastor.

He was about halfway through his 28-day stay at the N.I.H., and Mr. Jones was one of 36 people participating in a nutrition trial that is expected to be completed in late 2025. For one month each, researchers will draw participants’ blood, track their body fat and weight, measure the calories they burn, and feed them three meticulously designed meals per day.

The subjects don’t know it, but their job is to help answer some of the most pressing questions in nutrition: Are ultraprocessed foods harmful to health? Are they a major driver of weight gain and obesity? And why is it so easy to eat so many of them?

If researchers can answer these questions, they say, perhaps there are ways to make ultraprocessed foods healthier.

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