The Virginia Tech Scholarly Review

The Virginia Tech Scholarly Review was established to enhance the exchange of information within the university community about the scope and significance of scholarly activity at Virginia Tech. It is a forum that allows faculty members from diverse disciplines to share their excitement, methods, and achievements with their colleagues across the Virginia Tech community. Poets and playwrights can step outside their disciplines to engage engineers and biologists and share what is at the core of their creativity. Likewise, chemists and sociologists can capture the interest of philosophers and veterinarians by relating the dynamic processes that lead to major advances and insights. The review is intended to encompass all aspects of scholarship and focus on creative processes that lead to major advances in research and creative endeavor. The writers are individuals motivated to share their knowledge and excitement outside of their disciplines, knowing that they will be denied the shorthand of jargon and a readership made patient by a shared interest in the subject. The stated Goals of The Virginia Tech Scholarly Review are • To enhance the exchange of information within the university community about the scope and significance of scholarly activity at Virginia Tech. • To provide material that can be used to communicate to outside constituencies about the nature and impact of scholarly work at Virginia Tech. The Virginia Tech Scholarly Review is a project of the University Distinguished Professors and Alumni Distinguished Professors, a group of individuals who have enjoyed lively exchanges and discovered shared interests across disparate disciplines. From that experience, they conceived the scope of and invited the articles for this first issue. We trust that members of the Virginia Tech faculty will be inspired to submit articles for future issues. We invite feedback from all members of the university community regarding what you like and don't like in this issue and what you would like to see in future issues. Cover photos by Sarah Newbill. This fall, architecture students expressed their creativity with a project called " Block Out. " In previous years, this project was a competition, but this year it was changed to a 'free-for-all' enabling the students to informally arrange and rearrange the concrete blocks each day, creating and recreating sound (and not so sound) structures. The creations were documented by photos taken by students in the student American Institute of Architects organization and displayed in Cowgill Hall. Marshall Concrete has …