Cross-disciplinary academic partnership produces new materials journal
Virginia Tech’s staff of the Journal of Undergraduate Materials Research (JUMR), a journal created for undergraduate student research in materials science and engineering, has published the “Alfred Knobler Inaugural Issue” and presented it to the Virginia Tech Materials Science and Engineering Advisory Board.
The creation of this journal fulfills Virginia Tech alumnus Alfred Knobler’s vision of increasing communication and cooperation between the English and Materials Science and Engineering departments as well as among graduate and undergraduate students. This innovative concept provides an opportunity for exposing and publicizing a generally unacknowledged subject, undergraduate research, said David Clark, head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.
Research faculty member and Materials Advantage Chapter Advisor, Diane Folz, and Clark proposed the new research journal for undergraduate work. The JUMR editorial board took on the responsibility publishing the first issue.
In an interview for The Knobler Review, Ben Poquette of Florence, Wisc., the student editor-in-chief of JUMR said, “There aren’t many forums for undergraduate students to publish their work. The collaboration with the English Department should serve to build a strong interdepartmental relationship while improving the quality and professionalism of the journal.”
To plan and create this innovative journal, students from the English and Materials Science and Engineering departments formed the student editorial board. The student board members are graduate students Poquette; Davis Eichelberger of Christiansburg, Va.; Susan Holt, of Pittsburgh, Penn.; and Navin Manjooran, of Cochin, India; along with undergraduate students Steven Kyriakides of Chesterfield, Va.; Sarah Lewis, of Forest, Va., and Seth Price, of Jersey, Va.
Six Virginia Tech faculty members — English professor Eva Brumberger and Materials Science and Engineering faculty Christine Burgoyne, Diane Folz, Stephen Kampe, Marie Paretti, and Gary Pickrell — form the faculty editorial board, providing review and advice to the student editors.
Working together, the two editorial boards shared ideas and expertise to publish the “Alfred Knobler Inaugural Issue of JUMR”. The editorial board also worked with Brumberger’s class, “Designing Documents for Print,” which took on the task of designing the layout for the journal as a service project. Not only does the journal “bridge arts and engineering” as Knobler envisioned, but it also brings graduate students, undergraduate students, and faculty together for a common project.
The JUMR student editorial board outlined their primary goals for the journal, stating: “We hope that this annual publication will provide a venue for undergraduates to showcase their research, improve their technical writing skills, and be exposed to the rigors of peer-reviewed [graduate student and faculty] publishing… [and] that this periodical will be a strong voice of the research achievements of undergraduates in the field of MSE.”
The inaugural issue of JUMR emphasizes the journal’s connection to the Materials Science and Engineering Department. However, inclusion of papers in future issues will not be limited to Virginia Tech or its Materials Science and Engineering Department. If you are working, or have recently worked, on a materials research-related project as an undergraduate such as: nanotechnology, metallurgy, biomaterials, etc., please submit a self-contained abstract, consisting of no more than 200 words, which outlines the aims, scope, and conclusions of your work. Based on these abstracts, selected authors will be contacted and asked to provide a 2-5 page manuscript to be reviewed for publication in the 2006 issue of JUMR. Abstracts are due by February 17, 2006.
For more information, to submit an abstract, or to request a copy of the journal, send an email to jumr@mse.vt.edu, or log onto the JUMR website at http://www.jumr.mse.vt.edu.
