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2016-17
BASKETBALL
4
THE UNIVERSITY
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STUDENT-ATHLETE SUPPORT
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PLAYERS & STAFF
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HISTORY & RECORDS
T
imothy D. Sands, the 16th president of Virginia Polytechnic Institute
and State University, joined the university in June of 2014. A scientist,
educator and inventor, he has dedicated much of his career to advancing
the impact of research and innovation in public education.
As president, he engaged the university community in a visionary
initiative, called “Beyond Boundaries,” that seeks to define Virginia Tech’s
role a generation into the future, and align the educational experience
with the needs and opportunities that will be created by changing world
economies and the evolving landscape of higher education.
In collaboration with the provost and academic leadership, he has
championed the development of “Destination Areas,” that leverage the
university’s signature strengths to attract talent and generate creative
energy that extends across the disciplines.
He also launched and led InclusiveVT, an initiative to provide
leadership, collaboration, guidance, and resources to support and
accelerate the implementation of inclusion and diversity goals throughout
the university community.
President Sands’ vision for Virginia Tech embraces the university’s
heritage of service and community, and its motto,
Ut Prosim
(That I May
Serve). Virginia Tech students will graduate with disciplinary mastery,
technology literacy, cultural competency, resilience, empathy for others
and the passions and strengths needed for a life and career of impactful
service to humanity.
Before coming to Virginia Tech, President Sands served as executive
vice president for academic affairs and provost of Purdue University in
West Lafayette, Indiana. He was acting president during the summer
and fall of 2012, before Mitchell E. Daniels became the 12th president
of Purdue.
He earned a bachelor’s degree with highest honors in engineering
physics and a master’s degree and doctorate in
materials science from the University of California,
Berkeley. He joined the Purdue faculty in 2002 as
the Basil S. Turner Professor of Engineering in the
schools of materials engineering and electrical and
computer engineering. Prior to becoming provost,
he served as the Mary Jo and Robert L. Kirk Director
of the Birck Nanotechnology Center in Purdue’s
Discovery Park.
From 1993 to 2002, President Sands was a
professor of materials science and engineering at
the University of California, Berkeley, and before
that, he performed research and directed research
groups at Bell Communications Research (Bellcore)
in Red Bank, New Jersey. Throughout his career,
he has participated in and led research teams and
academic programs that have been characterized by
open collaboration across a wide array of disciplines.
Sands is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Materials Research
Society (MRS) and the National Academy of
Inventors (NAI). He serves on Governor McAuliffe’s
Council on Youth Entrepreneurship.
President Sands is joined at Virginia Tech by his
wife, Dr. Laura Sands, a professor of gerontology
in the Department of Human Development at
Virginia Tech. All four of their children graduated
from Purdue and are proud members of the Virginia
Tech community.
President Tim Sands
and his wife, Laura.
UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT
@VTSandsman