CESCA Newsletter : September 2010

A new academic year is upon us, and we are at full steam through the fall 2010 semester. Soon the picturesque yellow, red, green foliage will show up on the mountains around Blacksburg. As I was pondering what to write in my very first column as the new CESCA director, such matters descended upon my mind. Since its very inception in 2003, Prof. Dong Ha bravely, valiantly, and judiciously led CESCA as the director, and more recently made strong efforts to reinvigorate CESCA into a cohesive but diversified portfolio of expertise in research. His efforts to inculcate a sense of community among the CESCA members – faculty and students alike - has made CESCA a great place to work, and a great source of support for its members, in terms of various resources. Prof. Ha, not only impregnated the CESCA vision with community based striving for excellence, but also financially supported CESCA through its various ups and downs. Today, I can proudly say that I have taken the torch from his hand to take it to higher grounds, and I hope to accomplish it with the support of you – all the CESCA faculty and students. When we founded CESCA in 2003, we did not have the mature integrative vision that we have today. So I ask you all to join me in thanking Prof. Dong Ha for his contributions, and his insistence to make CESCA what it is today, and his vision for even better tomorrow. Prof. Ha will remain in charge of the corporate affiliate program, the website and publicity of CESCA, while I will struggle with other mundane issues of directorship.