Dr. Melik Demirel co-organized the 1st Annual SYSTEMS BIOLOGY WORKSHOP together with Dr. Randen Patterson (Biology). The scope of this workshop was to highlight the strength of multidisciplinary approaches to Biology. Specifically the symposium demonstrated how the integration of mathematical-modeling, molecular-interaction networks, evolution, comparative genomics, bioinformatics, knowledge bases, and the physics of cellular structures can be applied to empirical experimental biology.

Scientists in the Penn State Microwave Processing and Engineering Center have developed processes that offer huge energy savings in the production of powdered metal products, a $5 billion-plus industry in the United States. Microwave sintering of powder metals can reduce energy usage by 80 percent compared to conventional sintering processes that use gas or electricity, according to Japan’s National Institute for Fusion Science.

Professor Dinesh Agrawal, director of the Penn State Microwave Processing and Engineering Center, Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics and Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, has been invited to join the World Academy of Ceramics as a Professional Member (Academician) of the Class "Science." Professional Members of the Academy are individuals who have made an international noteworthy contribution to the advancement of ceramics.

Source: Materials Research Institute Newsletter

Two articles in Science Direct’s Top 25 Hottest Articles in the materials category for the first quarter of 2006 are authored by members of the Penn State Microwave Center in the Materials Research Institute. "Anisothermal reaction synthesis of garnets, ferrites, and spinels in microwave field," an article published in Materials Research Bulletin in 2001, made the ranking at #13. Authors on the paper were R.D. Peelamedu, R. Roy, and D. Agrawal. At #14 is "Effect of powder reactivity on microwave sintering of alumina," by Y.Fang, J. Cheng, and D. Agrawal, from Materials Letters, January 2004.


Source: Penn State's Materials Research Institute Newsletter

Dr. Philip Houck, a practicing Cardiologist and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Texas A&M University, is employed at Scott and White Clinic in Temple, Texas. He is currently director of the heart failure clinic. He is most proud of winning the best clinical physician and teacher award three times and receiving a reward for the best clinical scientist. While in the Penn State Engineering Science program (B.S., 1971), he began research on the Relation of Atmospheric Pressure Changes and the Occurrence of Acute Myocardial Infarction and Stroke.

Dr. H. Thomas Hahn received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Seoul National University, Korea, in 1964 and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Engineering Mechanics from Penn State in 1968 and 1971, respectively. He is currently the Chair of the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department with a joint appointment in the Material Science and Engineering Department, UCLA. He also holds the Raytheon Chair in Manufacturing Engineering and serves as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Composite Materials.

A fellowship program aimed at helping women obtain their doctorates in engineering was recently awarded two more years of funding by the Clare Boothe Luce Program.

The Clare Boothe Luce Fellowships at Penn State are designed to identify and recruit outstanding female students into the engineering doctoral program and encourage them to pursue a faculty career.

Dr. Gary L. Gentzler graduated from The Pennsylvania State University in 1960 with a B.S. in Engineering Science and in 1970 with a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering. In 1988, he received an M.B.A. degree from Xavier University. His published papers have appeared in the Journal of Food Sciences and the Transactions of ASAE. A Paper Award for exceptional merit was received for his research in the “Effect of Bound Water in the Freeze-Drying Process.” He served on the Industrial and Professional Advisory Council of the College of Engineering for The Pennsylvania State University from 1984 through 1986.

Lieutenant Colonel David J. Gearhart is a native of Erie, PA, and a 1978 graduate of Iroquois High School. Upon earning his B.S. in Engineering Science in 1982, he was commissioned in the United States Air Force. Lt. Col. Gearhart served as a project engineer for two years before being selected for fulltime graduate study. He received his M.S. in Operations Research from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 1986, and he was assigned as a weapon systems analyst and ROTC instructor before leaving active duty in 1992. While a reservist, Lt. Col. Gearhart worked in industry as a systems analyst in the fields of public utilities, steel,

Following his graduation from Engineering Science in 1957, Dr. Rodger L. Fritz joined the Electrical Engineering department at Penn State as a full time instructor and later as an Assistant Professor. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 1964, and he joined IBM Federal Systems in Owego, NY, in 1965 with the objective of getting three years of industrial engineering experience. After thirty-five years in Owego, he retired from IBM and from Lockheed Martin. In Owego, Dr. Fritz was a Senior Technical Staff Member and manager of an Advanced Technology group. He was a Ph.D. recruiter for the IBM Corporation and served as an IPAC representative to the EE department at Penn State. Dr. Fritz received the Lockheed Martin Nova Award for his part in achieving an SEI CMM Level 5 rating for the Owego site. As an undergraduate classmate of Richard McNitt, Dr. Fritz’s biggest contribution to the ESM department was setting the bar in each class for Dr. McNitt to exceed.

Barbara Covolus Faust received her B.S. in Engineering Science from Penn State in 1964 and her M.S. in Engineering Mechanics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1967. She is the first woman to graduate with a B.S. in Engineering Science from the Penn State College of Engineering. Mrs. Faust is also the first woman to complete the Space Technology Engineering Program in what was then the General Electric Missile and Space Vehicle Division at Valley Forge, PA. Retired from a career that spanned over 33 years at GE Aerospace, Martin Marietta, and Lockheed Martin; Mrs. Faust now consults for General Sciences, Inc., in Souderton, PA.

Jonathan Pitt (Ph.D., ESMCH) is the 2006-07 ESM graduate student representative to the College of Engineering's Graduate Student Council

Eric Hauck (Ph.D., ESMCH) will be the alternate representative.

Douglas G. Evans graduated with a B.S. in Engineering Science with Honors in Bioengineering (1986) from Penn State, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering (1989) from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Masters of Business Management (1993) from Penn State.

For many years, Mr. Evans conducted research, product, and business development at GE Aerospace where he was a 1989 graduate of GE’s ABC Course and Edison Engineering Program. He is currently Chief Operating Officer for Kensey Nash Corporation, a medical device company that specializes in cardiology devices and biomaterials products. He holds 39 U.S. patents for medical devices used in interventional cardiology, orthopedic, spine, and surgical procedures. One such invention, the Angio-Seal Vascular Closure Device, has helped over seven million people to date. Medical Device and Diagnostics magazine selected Mr. Evans as one of the Medical Device Industry’s 100 most notable people in June 2004.

Andrew Michael Erdman received his B.S. in Engineering Science (1969) from Penn State, his M.S. degree from the University of Southern California, and continued his life-long learning with graduate courses at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Union College, UCLA, UCSB, MIT, and Dartmouth. In his initial position for Advanced Projects at Rocketdyne (Boeing), he contributed to the proposal for the Space Shuttle Main Engine. As Manager of Reactor Safety Analysis, Experimental Engineering, and Fulid Dynamics Technology at the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory (Lockheed Martin), he conducted research and development in two-phase flow for Naval Reactor applications.