Global ozone change. New avenues for drug development. Even a good fish tale.
Those are some of the topics being tackled by Virginia’s top scientists and industrialists. They were toasted last night during a gala at Richmond’s Science Museum. About 250 guests came to honor the state’s 2008 award winners.

Yet, it wasn’t a night for weighty speeches. The evening’s best line came from Jack A. Musick, winner of Virginia’s Life Achievement in Science. He told the audience: “My wife says she can’t believe that I get paid to go fishing.” Musick, a professor of marine science at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, has won international acclaim as an expert in the ecology and conservation of sharks and sea turtles.

Virginia’s Outstanding Scientist Awards went to James M. Russell III of Hampton University and Sarah Spiegel, chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Medicine.  Russell’s research is being used to understand changes in global ozone while Spiegel stood out for work on a signaling molecule that influences whether a cell lives or dies. 

In business, Virginia’s Life Achievement in Industry went to Charles H. Foster Jr. of Richmond, chairman emeritus of LandAmerica Financial Group Inc.  He is credited for leading a dramatic turnaround for Lawyers Title in the early 1990s and building it into the Fortune 500 that LandAmerica is today. Following a spin off from Universal Corp., a successful public offering on the New York Stock Exchange and corporate acquisitions, Foster transformed Lawyers Title into one of the largest title insurers in the U.S., with LandAmerica earning annual revenue of more than $3.5 billion. 

Virginia’s Outstanding Industrialist is Randal J. Kirk of Pulaski County. Kirk is senior managing director and CEO of Third Security LLC, an investment management firm he founded in 1999. One of his start ups, New River Pharmaceuticals — a company that was on the path to coming out with a new drug for attention deficit disorder — sold for $2 billion last year. The deal made Kirk a billionaire.  He serves as rector of the Board of Visitors for Radford University, where he earned his undergraduate degree.