Jerzy Nowak is the head of the horticulture department at Virginia Tech.

A Virginia Tech professor and widower of one of the 32 victims of last year's campus massacre has been tapped to be the first director of the university's new Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention.

Professor Jerzy Nowak, head of Tech's horticulture department, will assume the post July 1 and eventually run the center in the building where his wife was killed. His wife, French instructor Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, was shot on the second floor of Norris Hall on April 16, 2007, when gunman Seung-Hui Cho carried out his deadly attack.

Nowak said he hopes to have the peace center open on the second floor of Norris by next spring.

"My approach has always been positive," Nowak, 61, said yesterday. "We have to rebuild and turn this into something positive. Norris Hall is symbolic, and I feel a moral obligation to see Norris Hall turned into something positive."

Nowak, who championed the idea of creating the peace center, said he envisions it bringing together students and professors from various disciplines to work together to find ways to work for peace, both at an interpersonal level and globally. Tech also plans to develop a minor in peace studies.

Nowak co-founded the Institute for Sustainable and Renewable Resources five years ago and also has played a role in the economic diversification program at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research in Danville.

"Jerzy Nowak has demonstrated excellent leadership skills in several key areas over the past eight years," Tech Provost Mark McNamee said in announcing Nowak's appointment. "He believes in collaboration and teamwork."

Nowak said he has worked on the concept of the peace center since June, assembling a team to promote it to Tech administrators, developing broad themes for a curriculum, organizing conferences, writing grant proposals and marshalling the many volunteers who have offered to help.
Contact Rex Bowman at (540) 344-3612 or rbowman@timesdispatch.com.