John Lee Pratt (an industrialist who provided financial support for Virginia Tech as early as 1957) died in 1975, leaving in his will approximately $12 million for Virginia Tech, half to be used to support programs within the College of Engineering. In his will, Pratt specified that the funds had to be put towards the support of research and scholarships. It was decided that the Pratt funds were going to be put towards four distinct programs: one half towards a scholarship program, one fourth towards a graduate fellowship program, one eighth used for the funding of international travel for facility, and the remaining one eighth for a study abroad program for undergraduate students. One of those study abroad trips was one taken from March 16 to March 30 in 1979 to the USSR, and documented in Doug Burton’s diary, as seen in this collection.

Thomas Douglas (Doug) Burton graduated from Virginia Tech in 1980 with a B.S. in electrical engineering. While a student, Burton was one of about 30 students and professors to visit the USSR and Finland in the Spring of 1979 as part of a study abroad trip for the Virginia Tech College of Engineering. Following graduation, Burton joined Bell Telephone Labs and earned a master's at Cal Tech. He later worked for GE, Otis Elevators, and other companies, before returning to Blacksburg, Virginia, to join Luna Technologies and Luna Innovations in 2001. He retired in January 2019.