For media

Fast facts

• Virginia Commonwealth University is the largest university in Virginia and ranks among the top 100 universities in the country in sponsored research. Located on two downtown campuses in Richmond, VCU enrolls nearly 32,000 students in 205 certificate and degree programs in the arts, sciences and humanities. Sixty-five of the programs are unique in Virginia, many of them crossing the disciplines of VCU’s 15 schools and one college.

• VCU ranks among the top 100 universities in the country in sponsored research, with more than $227 million in sponsored programs during fiscal year 2007.

• Nineteen VCU graduate and professional programs are ranked among the best in the nation in U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Graduate Schools.” These include the No. 1 ranked sculpture and nurse anesthesia programs.

• VCU Life Sciences is developing as a university-wide discipline that builds upon the university’s traditional scientific strengths in the biological sciences, basic biomedical sciences, patient care, biomedical engineering and biotechnology. VCU Life Sciences is comprehensive in its involvement of all levels of students in the study of life sciences, from freshmen to students in the professional programs to Ph.D. candidates, and integrates diverse disciplines from all over the university, including the academic medical center as well as arts and humanities.

• Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center is one of the nation’s leading academic medical centers and stands alone as the only academic medical center in Central Virginia. The medical center includes the 780-bed MCV Hospitals and outpatient clinics, MCV Physicians — a 600-physician-faculty group practice, and the health sciences schools of Virginia Commonwealth University. The VCU Medical Center offers state-of-the art care in more than 200 specialty areas, many of national and international note, including organ transplantation, head and spinal cord trauma, burn healing and cancer treatment. The VCU Medical Center is the site for the region’s only Level 1 Trauma Center. As a leader in healthcare research, the VCU Medical Center offers patients the opportunity to choose to participate in programs that advance evolving treatment, such as those sponsored by the National Cancer Institute through VCU’s Massey Cancer Center, Virginia’s first NCI-designated cancer center.

• VCU’s nationally recognized theater, music and dance programs offer more than 365 concerts, performances and recitals a year. The VCU Anderson Gallery showcases regional art as well as work by international artists.

• VCU is an urban leader, forging ties with business, industry and government in such innovative projects as the VCU School of Engineering and the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park. With the completion of the new Philip Morris Research and Technology Center, the Park is now two-thirds developed and encompasses more than 1.2 million square feet of space in nine building and houses more than 2,000 scientists, researchers, engineers and technicians in fields that include drug development, medical diagnostics, biomedical engineering, forensics and environmental analysis.

• The university is the largest-single employer in the Richmond area, with more than 10,700 full-time and 6,000 part-time employees, including 1,700 full-time instructional faculty — many of them nationally and internationally recognized in their fields. Dr. John B. Fenn, research professor in the department of chemistry and affiliate professor of chemical engineering, was one of three international scientists to be awarded the 2002 Nobel Prize in chemistry.

• VCU’s 16 varsity sports compete at the NCAA Division I level as members of the Colonial Athletic Association. In recent years, VCU has participated in NCAA Tournaments in basketball, baseball, golf, men’s soccer and men’s and women’s tennis.