Doctoral candidate LaChelle Waller of Chester has been selected as the 2008 Graduate Woman of the Year at Virginia Tech.

The award recognizes students with high academic achievements and contributions in research, teaching and scholarship, who are involved with professional organizations, campus activities, and the graduate school community and have shown a strong commitment to diversity on the Virginia Tech campus.

Waller is a student in Virginia Tech's genetics, bioinformatics and computational biology Ph.D. program. She earned a bachelor's degree in biology with a minor in chemistry in 2001 from Chowan University. She is working with the Tyler research group at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute on a project designed to identify the interactions among plant and pathogen genes that determine quantitative disease resistance in soybean.

Waller says her other research interests include genomic research, autoimmune diseases and disorders, pathogen and host interactions, and the education of and outreach to underrepresented and disadvantaged youth.

Waller, who is working on several research articles, has earned Citizen Scholar and Teaching the Future Professoriate certificates. She was also listed in Who's Who Among American Colleges and Universities and was awarded the Science Program for Excellence in Science scholarship from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Annotation Jamboree Fellowship.

Waller has worked with student organizations and in the community. She has held leadership positions in the Black Graduate Student Organization and the Graduate Student Assembly. She is vice president of Virginia Tech's genetics, bioinformatics and computational biology student organization.

She mentored students through the VT-Prep and VT STARS programs, as well as for the ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp. Waller also has served as the graduate representative for Hokies United and as a member of the Task Force on Race and the Institution, the Diversity Summit, the University Athletic Committee and the Women in Leadership and Philanthropy.