The Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges (VFIC) has awarded its inaugural William E. Betts, Jr. Undergraduate Science Research Fellowship to Hampden-Sydney’s Henry Loehr ’13 in support of his upcoming summer research project with Professor Mike Wolyniak.

William “Ping” Betts was a long-time friend of the VFIC, serving as an active trustee from 1970 to 1986 and moving to the distinguished level of Honorary Life Trustee in 1986 where he served until his death in 2009. In 1938 in Lynchburg, Ping and his friend, A. P. Montague Jr., founded the Montague-Betts Company, a structural steel fabricator of a number of major construction projects, including New York’s World Trade Center. Mr. Betts became chairman of the company in 1956 following the death of Mr. Montague and remained in the position until his death.

The Betts Fellowship will support a student at a Virginia independent college each year in their summer research work in the sciences.  Henry will use this fellowship to work with Professor Wolyniak this summer at Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, NH, on a molecular analysis of lines of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana that possess random disruptions across their genomes.

Henry Loehr '13