Professor Bernhard Tittmann has been elected Fellow of ASM International “For contributions to materials characterization and remote sensing in high temperature materials processing.”

Akhlesh Lakhtakia, distinguished professor of engineering science and mechanics, delivered a colloquium entitled 'Negative refraction' at the Instituto de Física of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City on May 25, 2006. He also delivered a colloquium entitled 'Emerging trends in research on sculptured thin films,' at the Instituto de Investigaciones en Materiales of the same university on May 26, 2006.

William Ames, ESM Information Technology Specialist, has been awarded a College of Engineering Peer Review of Exceptional Performance (PREP) Silver Level Award.

Bernhard R. Tittmann, Schell Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, has been recognized by the Acoustical Society of American in recognition of twenty-five years of continuous membership in which he increased and diffused the knowledge of acoustics and promoted its practical applications. Dr. Tittmann has been a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America since 2000.

Jason Ryan, a graduate student in ESM won a best poster paper award at the spring Materials Research Society (MRS) meeting held in San Francisco last month. His paper entitled “Electron Spin Resonance and Spin Dependent Recombination Studies of Silicon Dangling Bond Centers in Hafnium Oxide MOS Structures” was one of only three among over 300 poster papers to win this award, which included a check for $500. His coauthors include his advisor P.M. Lenahan, collaborators at SEMATECH G. Bersuker, P. Lysaght, and S.C. Song, Intel collaborator W. Tsai, and Penn State Students J. Campbell and T. Pribicko.

P.M. Lenahan will present an invited talk titled Point Defects Involved in MOS Reliability Problems at the Workshop on Modeling of Reliability Issues of the International Workshop on Computational Electronics on May 25-27, 2006, in Vienna Austria. This meeting has been organized by the Christian Doppler Laboratory of the Technical University of Vienna. His talk will deal with the structure and electronic properties of trapping centers involved in fundamental physical limits to the stability of the most important devices in present day microelectronics, metal oxide silicon field effect transistors (MOSFETs).

Jackie Van Pelt, E SC sophomore, is the recipient of a summer Cooperative Extension Internship for Schreyer Honors Scholars. Jackie will participate in the Adams County Ag Innovations Initiative where she specifically will be involved with engineering investigations on Retooling Pennsylvania Orchards with Innovative Technologies.

The College of Engineering has named Renata Engel as its new associate dean of undergraduate studies. Engel, who begins her new role on Aug. 1, takes over from Robert Pangborn. Pangborn left the college to serve as Penn State's vice president and dean for Undergraduate Education in January. Arthur Miller, distinguished professor of civil and environmental engineering, has been serving as the college's interim associate dean for undergraduate studies.

Melik Demirel, Pearce Assistant Professor and Assistant Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics has been awarded a Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences Seed Grant for his proposal titled Nanoengineered Bioactive Sculptured Thin Films. Funding is being provided by both the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences and the Materials Research Institute.

Three Engineering Science and Mechanics faculty have been awarded Johnson and Johnson Innovative Technology Research Seed Grants. The Johnson and Johnson funds were matched by the Huck Institutes, The College of Medicine and the Materials Research Institute. The merit-based awards are presented to PSU faculty for innovative research in the life sciences on a competive basis.

Barbara A. Shaw, Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, Elizabeth Sikora, Senior Research Associate in Engineering Science and Mechanics, and Ian Gilchrist, Staff Physician, College of Medicine, for their proposal titled An Engineered Materials Approach to Developing a Bioabsorbing, Drug-Eluting, Bare-Metal Stent from Nanostructured Magnesium Alloys.

Jeff Catchmark, Assistant Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics and the team of Christopher Siedlecki, Associate Professor of Surgery, College of Medicine; Alan Snyder, Professor of Bioengineering, College of Medicine; and Conrad Zapanta, Assistant Professor of Surgery, College of Medicine for their proposal titled Integral Nanotexturing of Non-Planar Biomaterials.

Source: The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences Newsletter, Vol. 16; Spring 2006.

Samia A. Suliman, Assistant Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, will present two papers at The 6th International Workshop on Junction Technology, to be held May 15-16, 2006, in Shanghai, China.

Session: Heterojunction Device and Contact
Paper Title: Current-voltage characteristics and charge-carrier traps in n-type 4H-SiC Schottky structures (Invited); co-authored with K. Sarpatwari, L. J. Passmore, S. A. Suliman, and O. O. Awadelkarim

Session: Si-Based Novel Structures and Devices
Paper Title: Properties of Si/SiO2 interfaces in vertical trench MOSFETs

Robert Harbaugh, M.D., F.A.C.S., F.A.H.A., chair, Department of Neurosurgery, and Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, Penn State University, was recently appointed as the Associate Director for Clinical Neuroscience of the Penn State Hershey Neuroscience Research Institute (PSHNRI). He will join Thomas Uhde, M.D., (Director) and Robert Milner, Ph.D. in helping to lead the Institute. PSHNRI was founded in 2004 to promote neuroscience research, research training and treatment of individuals with disorders of the nervous system. The Penn State Neuroscience Institute of Penn State University Park and the PSHNRI work togeter to advance the field of neuroscience and to continue serving the community. (The Crescent, March 8, 2006).

The Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics at the Pennsylvania State University is commemorating its 100th birthday, June 1-2, 2006. The schedule of events will include a picnic, recognition dinner, tours, speakers, and other special events.

At the family picnic on Thursday, alumni may reconnect with fellow classmates, faculty and students. Friday morning’s opening session will highlight the current department and program activities and features a special Guest Speaker, Mason Walsh. Tours of the Nanofab Facility and EES Labs will be given in the afternoon. A Memorabilia Room will be open during the entire event.

The weekend culminates in a Gala Recognition Dinner and celebration, recognizing Distinguished Alumni, Outstanding Engineering Alumni, Alumni Fellows, and the Departments newly named Centennial Fellows. This unique award of Centennial Fellow recognizes a select group of alumni who lead in disciplines and professions in Engineering in this centennial year. The Centennial Fellows provide a benchmark of excellence as the Department enters its second century. They are an exclusive group of alumni representing academia, the corporate and private sectors, and government.

Matt Frank (E SC junior and Schreyer Scholar) has been selected to intern at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a national bi-partisan policy "think tank" in Washington, D.C. The institute has made special internship opportunities available to Penn State Schreyer Scholars for the past eight years. Scholars at CSIS conduct research and develop policy recommendations for government, non-profit agencies, industry and the military for various geographic areas in the world and on a variety of issues ranging from cyberterrorism, to the WTO, the nuclear arms race in India, policy, and the efficacy of trade embargoes.

We congratulate Matt on his outstanding success.

Benjamin Ross, Engineering Science senior, took first place in the Student Songwriters Competition in April 2006. The competetion was organized by students in Recreation, Park and Tourism Management (RPM) 356.

Bernhard R. Tittmann, Schell Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, has been named secretary of the ASM International Penn State Local Chapter effective June 1, 2006. The ASM International Penn State Chapter has been dedicated to the education and dissemination of information regarding the importance of materials in our society for over fifty years.

Engineering Science senior Benjamin Ross will be this year's spring 2006 commencement ceremony student marshal.

He has chosen Akhlesh Lakhtakia, distinguished professor of engineering science and mechanics, to be his faculty escort.