Martha Bushong

George Mason University will establish Virginia’s first grid-interactive AI data center research lab, addressing emerging challenges at the intersection of data centers and the power grid. The lab will advance clean energy integration, grid resilience, and sustainable data center operations while preparing the next generation of digital infrastructure professionals.

The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) approved the move to establish a School of Computing at Mason—the first such school in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Mason Presidential Chief of Staff Ken Walsh's career is about building bridges. The story of the Brooklyn Bridge inspired him as a freshman engineering student, research on the soil near a bridge over the Salt River near Tempe, Arizona, kept him in graduate school, and his career in higher education has built bridges for students and communities around the world.