Jonathan Pitt, M. S., EMch, presented a paper titled "Electrochemical Model of Activity Transport in Pressurized Water Reactors" at the 13th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE 13), held in Beijing, China, May 16-20, 2005. Mr. Pitt's paper was selected as one of the best which earned him an honor that was given to only eight out of the fifty-three students who attended the conference.

Carol Winkler, ESM Accounting Assistant, and Susan Croyle, Administrative Manager, are recipients of the College of Engineering's Peer Review of Exceptional Performance Awards.

In 2001, the College of Engineering started a new staff program known as The Peer Review of Exceptional Performance (PREP). PREP is designed to recognize, reward, and retain exceptional staff employees within the College. PREP provides every staff employee the potential for two promotions within their current position.

Ms. Winkler was awarded the PREP award at the Silver rank and Ms. Croyle was awarded at the Gold rank.

Congratulations to both.

Several Engineering Science and Mechanics Staff recently received Legacy Awards that recognized their unique contributions to the department during the last year.

Carol Ritter received the ESM Legacy Award for Planning and Organizational Effectiveness;
William Ames received the ESM Legacy Award for Creativity and Innovation;
Carol Winkler received the ESM Legacy Award for Service; and
Scott Kralik recieved the ESM Legacy Award for Management.

The awards were presented at a staff luncheon held at the Nittany Lion Inn on May 25, 2005. Each award carries a small monetary valey for the recipients to use toward professional development.

Congratulations to the recipients.

Parker Steven Owens entered the world Sunday, May 22, 2005, at 2:07 a.m. in the morning. He is the son of Kelly and Steve Owens and weighs 7 lbs., 15 ounces. He is 22 1/2 inches long.

Kelly and Steve will be sending us pictures in the near future.

Please send them your congratulations at klm218@psu.edu.

Engineering Science and Mechanics welcomes new staff assistant Cheryl Markley. Cheryl joins the department after having served severalyears as a College and Alumni Relations Assistant with Development and Alumni Relations in the Smeal College of Business. Ms. Markley received her B.A. in Sociology from Penn State with minors in Information Systems and Statistical Analysis, and Business/Liberal Arts.

Please join us in welcoming Cheryl to the department.

Sgt. Andrew Jodon, son of Sandra Watson was killed in action in Iraq on May 12, 2005. He was stationed at Camp Razor near Sammara.

Sgt. Jodon of Pine Glen, Burnside Township, Centre County is surved by his wife, Bobbi Jo, his father, Jeff Jodon of Milesburg, four brothers, and his mother Sandra (Sandy) Watson.

Funeral details are being completed under the direction of the Wetzler Funeral Home in Milesburg, PA. Additional information can be found at the Centre Daily Times.

The Engineering Science and Mechanics Family extends their deepest sympathy to Sandy and her family.

ESM is accepting contributions that will be given to Sgt. Jodon's family to help defray expenses. Please give your donation to Cheryl Markley in 212 EES Building.

Engineering Science Class of 2005.

Click here for photos from the annual Senior Tea and Awards Ceremony.

ESM faculty Cliff Lissenden and Christine Masters are proud coaches of a team of local students who participated in the TOYchallenge™ 2005 East Coast National Showcase. Team members were Jessie Lissenden, Sarah Masters, Riley Sunday, Nora Adams, Sarah Culver, and Suzie Shoffner. The team was one of 207 teams of students that participated in the toy and game design competition created by Sally Ride Science™.

TOYchallenge News Release (PDF)

Congratulations to Professors Francesco Costanzo and Gary Gray who have just learned their paper titled "The Dynamics Concept Inventory Assessment Test: A Progress Report and Some Results," has been awarded the American Society of Engineering Education's (ASEE) 2005 Annual Conference Mechanics Division Best Paper Award.

The paper was co-authored with Brian Self, U.S. Air Force Academy, Don Evans, Arizona State University, Jill Lane, Penn State, and Phillip Cornwell, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

The award will be presented at the annual Awards Banquet on Tuesday evening, June 14, at the ASEE Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon.

Akhlesh Lakhtakia, Distinguished Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, will present a two-part lecture series on Sculptured Thin Films and Topics in Electromagnetics at the Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), Islamabad, from July 15-25, 2005.

The series, co-sponsored by the International Commission for Optics, the Department of Electronics at QAU, and the National Center for Physics, will focus first on the morphology of sculptured thin films at the 1-1000 nm length scales with emphasis on growth techniques and ways to achieve distinct morphologies and, second, on advanced topics in electromagnetics including Complex Mediums, Voigt Waves and Negative Refraction in Outer space.

Mr. Huidong Gao, doctoral student in Engineering Science and Mechanics (ESM), has received a 2005 American Society for Nondestructive Testing (ASNT) Fellowship Award for the nondestructive testing research of "An Optimized Sensor Grid for Structural Health Monitoring of Modern Aircraft". Mr. Gao received B.S. and M.S. degrees from Nanjing University, China. His current research focuses on ultrasonic guided wave based structural health monitoring technologies and is being performed in the Engineering Science and Mechanics Department's Non Destructive Evaluation (NDE) Laboratory under the direction of Professor Joseph Rose.

Mr. Gao will be recognized during the Annual Awards Banquet during the ASNT 2005 Fall Conference and Quality Testing Show in Columbus, Oh, October 17-21, 2005.

The ESM Department will host Engineering Science students and their families at a graduation celebration during the afternoon of May 13, 2005. The program begins at 1:30 p.m. Refreshments will be served at the conclusion.

Visitors may park in the Red A lot located at the back of the Earth-Engineering Sciences Building (the lot between the Earth-Engineering Sciences Building and the Leonhard Building).

Directions to the Earth-Engineering Sciences Building

Addendum: Click here for photos from the annual Senior Tea and Awards Ceremony.

Ivi Smid, Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, has been appointed to the Editorial Board of the "International Journal of Refractory Metals and Hard Materials".

Benjamin Ross, Engineering Science junior, has been awarded a 2005 Undergraduate Summer Discovery grant to support his research project titled Nano-Engineered Elliptical Polarization Filter.

The $2,500 grant is provided by Penn State's Office of Undergraduate Education and is supported by an endowment from the Penn State Alumni Association and funding from the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and International Programs.

Mr. Ross is conducting his research under the direction of Professor A. Lakhtakia.

Please congratulate Benjamin on his success.

Ivi Smid, Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, has been awarded a Materials Research Institute (MRI) Seed Grant in the amount of $50,000 for his proposal titled "Functionalization of CNT's as Building Blocks of Metal-Matrix-Composites".

To learn more about Dr. Smid's research, please visit his website at the following link:

http://www4.esm.psu.edu/people/faculty/?ID=IUS1

Engineering Science and Mechanics has been selected as the host institution for the 2010 US National Congress on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics.

Every four years a National Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics is held in the United States at a site chosen by the U.S. National Committee. The 14th congress was held at Virginia Tech, June 23-28, 2002. The 15th congress will be held June 25-30, 2006 at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

For more information about the 2006 meeting, please visit: http://www7.nationalacademies.org/usnctam/Meetings.html

A local website for the 2010 Congress will be developed in the near future.

We are pleased to announce Ms. Katherine Weaver as the 2005 Engineering Science Commencement Student Marshal. Dr. Akhlesh Lakhtakia will serve as the Department's Faculty Marshal.

In addition to her outstanding grade point average, Ms. Weaver's academic career includes her participation in the Society of Women in Engineering, Phi Sigma Rho ,the Society of Engineering Science, and Tau Beta Pi. She was the recipient of a Barry Goldwater Goldwater Research Scholarship and the Engineering Science and Mechanics Kearns-McNitt Service Award. She was recently awarded the prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship Award.

Ms. Weaver is enrolled in the Schreyer Honors College Integrated Undergraduate-Graduate Program and will complete a Master's degree during 2005-06. Thereafter, she plans to pursue a doctoral degree.

Ms. Weaver is the daughter of James and Marily Weaver of Rochester, NY, where she attended the Irondequoit High Schoool.

Please extend your heartiest congratulations to Katherine on her contributions and successes.

Dr. Christine Masters, Assistant Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, will present a paper entitled "How to Assess or How Not To Assess...That Is The Question" at the National Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) June 12-16, 2005, in Portland, Oregon. The paper was written in collaboration with Sarah Rzasa and Jill Lane of the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence and Richard Behr of the Architectutral Engineering Department.

Dr. Masters will also participate in the conference by moderating the session titled "Teaching Outside the Box In Civil Engineering". She is the 2006 Program Chair Elect for the Mechanics Division of ASEE.