Navy Midshipman Peyton B. Walsh, son of Mary O. and Patrick B. Walsh of Glen Allen, recently completed Plebe Summer while attending the U.S. Naval Academy. Plebe Summer is the summer training program required of all incoming freshmen to the naval academy. Walsh will go on to complete the academic year as a midshipman. He is a 2010 graduate of Deep Run High School.

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Andy Pham, a graduate student in packaging science at Clemson University, recently demonstrated the latest in consumer eye-tracking technology at the 2011 PACK EXPO trade show in Las Vegas, Nev. Pham, of Glen Allen, was among a group of students participating in the Sonoco Institute of Packaging Design and Graphics’ exhibit, “The Consumer Retail Experience by Clemson University.” Visitors to the exhibit put on digital eye-tracking glasses that recorded their eye movements at 30 movements per second and showed on a computer where they looked and what attracted their attention. The experiment took place in a simulation of a small mini-mart, complete with shopping aisles, shelves of boxes and items commonly found in a grocery store. When participants finished shopping they received a computer printout of a "heat map" showing what they looked at. The team is searching for trends in packaging design elements that impact the perceived quality of products. The 2011 edition of PACK EXPO Las Vegas was the largest to date with more than 25,000 visitors, including 1,600 exhibitors, and approximately 630,000 net square feet of exhibit space.

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Two members of the University of Richmond faculty recently won 2011 Theresa Pollak Prizes for Excellence in the Arts. Myra Daleng, director of dance, won the Lifetime Achievement Award and Tanja Softic, professor and chair of the Department of Art and Art History, won in the fine arts category. Daleng has been director of dance at Richmond for 27 years, administering the dance program and teaching ballet, jazz, modern, tap, choreography and kinetics. In 1985, she founded University Dancers, a student performing ensemble, and has been its artistic director for 25 years. Softic’s prints, drawings and paintings address factors of cultural hybridity that shape the identity and world view of an immigrant: displacement, longing, translation and memory. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts of the University of Sarajevo and earned an M.F.A. in printmaking from Old Dominion University. The awards are named for painter Theresa Pollak, who graduated from the University of Richmond before founding and teaching in the fine arts programs at Virginia Commonwealth University and her alma mater.

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Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell recently appointed the following local residents to state boards and commissions: Board of Veterans Services – Don Lecky of Richmond, president and CEO of Westminster Canterbury; and Soil & Water Conservation Board – Thomas M. Branin of Henrico, vice president of CCM, Inc.

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University of Richmond President Edward L. Ayers recently was selected to lead a reading-and-discussion program exploring the Civil War’s impact on modern American culture. Organized by the American Library Association (ALA) and funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the “Let’s Talk About It” program will present a series of five discussions at each of 65 community libraries from coast to coast. They will be led by local American history and literature scholars over the coming months. Ayers, a scholar of the American South, was named by the ALA as the national project scholar and chose the texts to be used to teach the theme, “Making Sense of the American Civil War.” He also edited an accompanying text, “America’s War: Talking about the Civil War and Emancipation on Their 150th Anniversaries,” an anthology of historical fiction, speeches, diaries, memoirs, biography and short stories that frame the discussion series.

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Navy Seamen Jonathon D. Brush, son of Selina C. Brush of Glen Allen and Jeffrey D. Brush of Henrico, and Justin A. Mulligan, son of Leann Jacobs of Henrico and David Mulligan of Powhatan, recently reported for duty at Navy and Marine Intelligence Training Center in Virginia Beach, Va. Brush is a 2009 graduate of Hermitage High School and joined the Navy Reserve in July 2011. Mulligan is a 2002 graduate of Powhatan High School and joined the Navy in July 2011.