International collaborative research and engagement thrive at the Steger Center

There are no off seasons for the Steger Center for International Scholarship. 

This summer, between student study abroad programs, the university’s academic center in southern Switzerland hosted more than 80 faculty members from Virginia Tech and from institutions across Europe and around the world — all keen to engage in intensive workshops aimed at igniting joint research initiatives and strengthening scholarly partnerships.

Researchers traveled from as far as Thailand and Ecuador to attend three very different workshops: the International Workshop on Pandemic Science, the Coding Theory and Cryptography Summer School and Collaboration Workshop, and the Hanbury Architecture Design Retreat.

“This year was like a proof of concept for these types of collaborations at the Steger Center,” said Sara Steinert Borella, executive director of the center, part of Outreach and International Affairs. “I wanted to see if we opened our space to faculty when we didn’t have students — not just would the faculty be interested, but would the center be conducive to gathering, collaborating, and creating. That is exactly what happened. Proof positive.”

Fostering the 'social nature' of science

T.M. Murali, professor of computer science and director of the Pandemic Prediction and Prevention Destination Area, chose the center as the venue for the group’s inaugural International Workshop on Pandemic Science. He found the setting ideal for fostering collaboration.

“Coming to the Steger Center, you’re in this beautiful region and you’re away from your day-to-day responsibilities, worries, and tensions. It allows you to relax and just start thinking about science,” he said. “One of the key aspects of science is its social nature, and this setting really nurtures that.”

The workshop’s goal was to establish a forward-looking agenda for the destination area, one of the transdisciplinary communities at Virginia Tech tackling complex issues impacting humanity. But within the Steger Center’s intensely collaborative environment, participants also outlined a white paper they plan to publish within the year.

“To say it was exhilarating seems too simple,” Murali said. “But it was exhilarating and also inspiring because we were sharing new ideas, and now we have a specific shared purpose for the Pandemic Prediction and Prevention Destination Area and our growing number of collaborators.”

Rafael Obregon, a UNICEF representative in Nicaragua with extensive experience in pandemic preparedness and response, was invited to share his expertise on community engagement.

“The purpose of the conference was to facilitate a strategic dialogue among the interdisciplinary teams involved in the project, explore synergies across each component, and provide practical inputs for its implementation,” Obregon said. “The Steger Center was a wonderful place for these types of focused discussions. Beyond achieving our stated goals, we also made important recommendations to ensure that the project can become a crucial part of public policymaking discussions and decisions and that it reaches a broader audience, beyond the scientific community.”

Murali and his collaborators in the destination area, in conjunction with the newly formed COMPASS Center, have already begun planning for future activities at the Steger Center.

A 'top-notch' environment for collaboration

If the International Workshop on Pandemic Science served as a proof of concept, the Coding Theory and Cryptography Summer School tested the center’s capacity to host larger gatherings.

Mathematics Professor Gretchen Matthews and Assistant Professor Hiram López, along with seven collaborators from institutions across Switzerland and the U.S. East Coast, hosted more than 60 attendees from 20 countries at a unique conference designed to foster collaborative research in quantum coding, post-quantum cryptography, DNA storage, and other topics.

Beyond cultivating such research, the conference was also a space for mentorship and networking.

“The location is just exceptional for the type of work we do,” Matthews said. “There are large networks of institutions across Europe working in this field. For them to be able to convene with us at the Steger Center makes collaboration possible and brings Virginia Tech to the table on a different scale.”

The organizers invited 10 senior researchers to define and lead 10 projects, then assigned groups of junior researchers to each project.

“There’s a definite need for junior people to meet and begin collaborations with others in the community and grow their research portfolios. In these small groups, everyone is contributing something regardless of where they’re coming from, what their background is, or what they’ve done up to that point,” Matthews said.

Some of the participants said this was the best conference they had ever attended, Matthews said.

“People are already asking when the next one will be,” she said. “It’s clear the environment of the Steger Center, which really facilitates people naturally meeting one another, had a lot to do with this success. One of the participants summed it up well, saying that the conference was great but that it doesn’t hurt that the excursions, food, and environment at the Steger Center are all top-notch as well.”

Alumni bring back energy

A third gathering this summer at the Steger Center revealed a previously unexplored opportunity with an entirely different audience: alumni.

Although the Hanbury architecture firm’s annual design retreat is not technically a gathering of Virginia Tech alumni, these architects’ professional development workshop had a distinctly Hokie feel this year. Twenty-two Hanbury architects — roughly half of them Virginia Tech alumni — spent three nights at the center.

CEO David Keith ’87 said his colleagues who developed the retreat were inspired by their undergraduate study abroad experiences.

“When an architect gets started working, a lot of the energy of school and academia is sucked out of the profession. You miss those unique interactions — people talking about what’s possible, the latest research, how to draw, how to look at things, how to experience architecture. We created the design retreat as a way to get that energy of academia back,” Keith said.

Helping to capture that energy, the professional development curriculum for the design retreat was created by Heinrich Schnoedt, associate professor of architecture. Schnoedt drew on his 23 years of experience leading study abroad programs at the center and leveraged the School of Architecture's long-standing connections in southern Switzerland.

Beyond the retreat, the firm has a strong tint of maroon and orange at its core. Not only has Hanbury hired many alumni over the years, but the firm regularly engages with the College of Architecture, Arts, and Design and has even designed some of the buildings around the Blacksburg campus.

Jane Cady Rathbone ’80 is a Hanbury design principal, former CEO, and one of the original organizers of the retreats. “I did my study abroad 45 years ago close by the Steger Center in Lugano,” she said. “When I got to return there with my firm for the first time in 2004, we had many Hokies with us. Jack Davis, the former dean, and Professors Donna and Bob Dunay led our retreats and set this precedent for continuous learning and collaboration.”

During subsequent retreats, Lucy Ferrari, who was named director emerita of the Steger Center in 2023, also became involved. Ferrari and her husband, Professor Emeritus Olivio Ferrari, are both key figures in Rathbone’s own study abroad experience in 1979 and contributing founders of the center. Charles Steger, the center’s namesake, joined the retreats twice while he was university president.

Over the years, the Steger Center and town surrounding it have become so deeply a part of the company’s culture that one of the conference rooms in Hanbury’s Norfolk office was named Riva San Vitale.

“In Riva, removed from the hustle and bustle of your typical setting in this quiet town, we have an absolutely delightful place for dialogue. The center creates an environment that allows us to reflect and talk about what matters to us — good design — to be inspired, to sketch, and to stretch our minds,” Rathbone said.

Steinert Borella added that the Steger Center is always delighted to welcome back alumni such as Rathbone and Keith. “Their return visits strengthen our community and provide inspiring examples for our current students of the lifelong impact of international education.”