Dr. Tombes speaking at the grand opening of the VCU Rice Rivers Center Research Facility

VCU's River Campus

The VCU Rice Rivers Center, VCU's river campus, supports scholarship and student instruction across diverse disciplines, including water resources, climate science, wildlife conservation and wetlands restoration.

Located midway between Richmond and Williamsburg, Virginia along the historic James River, our 360 acres of riparian marshes, tidal creeks and mature forests represent a unique outdoor laboratory for important applied research and innovative, experiential classes. The center’s modern facilities offer offices, classrooms, laboratories and overnight lodging for students, faculty, visiting scholars and community groups. State-of-the-art technologies are deployed onsite to collect information on air and water quality, fish and avian migrations, changing sea levels and a host of other critical data sources. Our ongoing partnerships with state and federal natural resource and earth science agencies provide significant training opportunities for student scholars.

News & Events

News

After completing her Ph.D., Milan Marsh hopes to begin a career in industry, applying mathematical modeling to real-word problems. (Contributed image)

June 16, 2026

VCU and math have long been part of the equation for systems modeling student Milan Marsh

A high school program on campus helped propel her Ph.D. studies, which touch on biology and disease.

Since the creation of his Wikipedia account in 2007, VCU professor Peter Uetz has made more than 6,000 edits – enough to put him in the top 0.1% of users. (Dean Hoffmeyer, Enterprise Marketing and Communications)

June 11, 2026

This VCU professor’s extracurricular gig? Wikipedia editor

School of Life Sciences professor Peter Uetz, Ph.D., uses the online encyclopedia as a teaching tool, both inside the classroom and out.

David Coogan (bottom left) co-authors Stanley Craddock upper left), Ron Fountain (upper right), Naji Mujahid (middle left), Kelvin Belton (middle right), and Dean Turner (bottom right) wrote “After Jail, Before Freedom.” (Photo of jail by John Dooley. Photos of authors by Skip Rowland)

June 4, 2026

In ‘After Jail, Before Freedom,’ VCU author David Coogan revisits his co-authors

The English professor’s new sequel to ‘Writing Our Way Out’ continues exploring incarceration, and its aftermath, through storytelling.

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