Virginia Tech Life Science Seminars

The Virginia Tech Life Science Seminars (VTLSS) is a university wide seminar series funded by the Fralin Life Sciences Institute at Virginia Tech. The seminars run throughout the Spring and Fall semesters and take place on Fridays at 12:20pm in the Fralin Auditorium, Fralin Hall Room 102.  These interdisciplinary seminars are open to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as faculty and staff. You are not required to be in life sciences to attend; if a subject matter is of interest to you, we welcome your participation. 

Seminars have been given by high caliber scientists, including some who serve as officers in Federal agencies and a Nobel prize-awardee. You can view the list of previous seminars in our archive and watch some of them on our Youtube playlist.

We also extend an invitation to graduate students to join the speaker after the talk over a free lunch, to continue the discussion in a more informal setting.  Lunch places are limited so please email the host to sign up.  Don’t forget to add the seminar dates to your schedules. We look forward to seeing you!

What do previous presenters think about the VTLSS?

“I just wanted to thank the Life Sciences Seminar committee members for the opportunity to visit VT as part of the series. It means a great deal to me to have been invited, especially since when I looked over the series I noticed how senior were many of the other speakers. I do appreciate your questions and active participation during my seminar, and I do hope that I gauged the audience background well in terms of the content and delivery.  I was particularly impressed with the graduate student lunch. Sometimes it is difficult to get graduate students to talk freely about their scientific work and aspirations, but the attending students really stepped up and I thought we had a positive and useful discussion.”

John Meitzen, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Biological Sciences 
North Carolina State University

“I had such blast hanging out with you at Virginia Tech. You are truly wonderful people, and I thank you for your generosity of picking me up and dropping me back to the airport. I loved the food, company, and science. It was an all around wonderful visit.”  

Samer Hattar
Chief and Senior Investigator
National Institute of Mental Health

“I wanted to thank you again for helping with all those arrangements for my trip and seminar. I had a great time.
I am especially enjoying the VT life-sciences shirt, which I wore to the office the other day and got several comments on what a nice shirt it was, and also how I was a traitor for not wearing University of Washington apparel.”

Evan Gallagher
Professor
Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
University of Washington

" Thank you so much for inviting me and hosting a wonderful visit to Virginia Tech. I had a great time and learned a lot from your colleagues and your trainees. You have an all-around fantastic community there! ”

Elizabeth Haswell
HHMI-Simons Faculty Scholar
Director of Research, NSF Center for Engineering MechanoBiology
Associate Professor
Washington University in St. Louis

"Thank you all for a wonderful visit. I was very impressed by the students, faculty members, and campus."

Joy Wolfram
Assistant Professor
Mayo Clinic