Jacob A. Lutz III Eminent Scholars Award Winners
2024 Jacob A. Lutz III Eminent Scholars
Notable Numbers
- 120-plus publications with more than 7400 citations
- 9 invited conference talks
- 35 Ph.D. graduate students mentored during the last 9 years, 13 of which are from underrepresented groups, including 10 females.
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Zheng “Phil” Xiang
Professor and Head of the Howard Feiertag Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management
Pamplin College of Business
Xiang’s scholarship broadly focuses on the use of information technology and its impact on hospitality businesses and tourist destinations. His research has evolved from the early digital representation of tourism to a much more diverse and complex field, where technology plays a crucial role in understanding consumer behavior within a travel and service context. His work explores the emerging frontiers of the travel-related digital information space and provides new conceptual foundations for understanding the opportunities and challenges faced by hospitality and tourism businesses.
Notable Numbers:
- 21,000 citations, including a combined 7,500 citations between two studies
- 5 straights years being named a “Highly Cited Researcher” by Claivate
- Editorship of the “Journal for Information Technology and Tourism, has elevated it to the top 10% of journals in the hospitality and tourism management category of the Social Sciences Citation Index.
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John Rossmeisl
Associate Department Head and Dr. and Mrs. Dorsey Taylor Mahin Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery
Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences
Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine
Rossmeisl’s scholarship includes pioneering work to improve outcomes of patients-both human and animal-that have been diagnosed with malignant brain tumors. He also helped plan, design, and build the Animal Cancer Care and Research Center in Roanoke and was a member of the faculty design team for the Adaptive Brain and Behavior Destination Area.
Notable Numbers:
- 153 peer-reviewed publications, seven of which have received highly or top-accessed distinction
- 9 patents and 4 more are pre-patents
- 24 book chapters written or co-written, 18 of which he was the primary author
- 27 keynote speeches delivered in a variety of regional, national and international venues including China, Chile, France, Slovenia, Poland, Italy, and Great Britain
More About Rossmeisl:
Markus Breitschmid
Professor
Department of Architecture
College of Architecture, Arts, and Design
Breitschmid’s scholarship and research is in the field of architectural theory. His international impact in the discipline of architecture stems from a series of bestselling books and articles published in the world’s preeminent architecture journals in America, Asia, and Europe. He has also garnered many invitations from international architecture exhibition venues.
Notable Numbers
- 8 books authored, many of which have multiple prints and translations including Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish
- A No.1-bestselling architecture book on Amazon
- 8 exhibitions in Berlin, Chicago, Lima, Lisbon, London, Milan, Paris, Venice
- Lectured by invitation in 16 countries on 4 continents
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About the awards
In 2024 Jacob “Jake” A. Lutz III '78 established the Jacob A. Lutz III Awards for Eminent Scholars Endowment to fund the awards. The $1.15 million supports awarding four faculty members — one per disciplinary category — at $10,000 each for long-term, substantive contributions to research and creative scholarship.
The Lutz Awards are Virginia Tech’s first named award for research at the university level, establishing high visibility and prestige for some of the university's most accomplished scholars and bolstering the university’s upward trajectory in scholarly research.