Akhlesh Lakhtakia delivered an invited lecture entitled "Polarization engineering through nanoengineered morphology" at Photonics West, a conference and trade-show organized by SPIE at San Jose, CA, Jan 22-26, 2007.

Coray Colina
Penn State Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Wednesday, January 31, 2007
3:35 pm
114 Earth-Engineering Sciences Bldg.

Akhlesh Lakhtakia, The Charles G. Binder Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, discusses the public's understanding of the nano world with Penn State Live. For the full story visit Penn State Live.

Iam-Choon Khoo
Penn State Department of Electrical Engineering

Wednesday, January 24, 2007
3:35 p.m.
114 Earth-Engineering Sciences Bldg.

Matt Kelly, ESM doctoral student, will present an invited paper titled "Quantitative Microstructural Analysis of Thermal Barrier Coatings Produced by Electron Beam Physical Vapor Deposition", at the 31st International Cocoa Beach Conference & Exposition on Advanced Ceramics and Composites to be held in Daytona Beach, FL, January 21-26, 2007. Mr. Kelly's doctoral research is being conducted in collaboration with Drs. Judith A. Todd and Jogender Singh.

Complete listing of the E MCH/E SC 514 seminars.

Dr. Alan Zehnder
Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics
Cornell Univeristy

Wednesday, January 17, 2007
3:35 p.m.
114 Earth-Engineering Sciences Bldg.

The Penn State College of Engineering is celebrating 50 years of honors education. In 1953 twenty-five students were invited to participate in the inaugural Engineering Science (E SC) program, with their selection being based upon outstanding academic achievement. The international scientific achievements of that time period, namely Sputnik and the hydrogen bomb, made clear the need for visionary and multi-talented scientists and engineers. The Engineering Science curriculum was created to prepare students for careers in research, development, and academics.

Mr. Eric So (ESM doctoral student) will attend the NIH-UMN (University of Minnesota) Embryonic Stem Cell Training Program in Minneapolis, MN, January 8 - 12, 2007. The 3-day training course provides hands-on training in the culture of human embryonic stem cells (hESC). Participants will be offered written training materials, laboratory instruction and practice, as well as lectures from experts in the field on stem cell research and clinical applications.

Mr. So is conducting graduate student research under the direction of Dr. Melik Demirel.

Carolyn Denomme (Engineering Science senior) will be attending the Women and Science/Technology Policy Seminar to be held January 8-12, 2007, in Washington, DC. The seminar is designed for women students majoring in science and technology and provides an opportunity for the participants to interact with women policymakers in science and technology. Student participants will meet women leaders in the Congress, government offices and agencies; discuss public policy issues, and learn about the connections between science/technology and public policy by visiting the National Institutes of Health, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Congressional offices and the National Science Foundation.

Ms. Denomme's participation in this event is sponsored by the Engineering Science and Mechanics Department, Women in Engineering and Shreyer Honors College.

A Center of Excellence in Structural Health Monitoring has been created with initial funding from the Ben Franklin Technology Partners. The Center will be administered through the Engineering Science and Mechanics Department, with Cliff Lissenden serving as the Director. The breadth of the Center spans the College of Engineering and beyond with participants in ESM, AERSP, ME, CE, EE, ARL, and Food Science. The Center will provide a forum for the participants to interact with companies doing business in structural health monitoring. The objectives of the Center are:

1. Spur the research and development of new technologies that will improve public safety;

2. Transfer technology to Pennsylvania companies to give them a competitive advantage;

3. Make Pennsylvania a hotspot for structural health monitoring, creating a new high tech job market that will provide jobs for residents and draw people to Pennsylvania;

4. Train students to provide an outstanding workforce pool.

The first meeting will be held this spring in State College. For more information contact Cliff Lissenden at the following e-mail address: lissenden@psu.edu

Professor Scott R. White is the Donald Biggar Willett Professor of Engineering at the University of Illinois. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri-Rolla in 1985 and a master’s degree from Washington University, St. Louis, in 1987; both in mechanical engineering. In 1990, he received a Ph.D. in Engineering Mechanics from Penn State.

He came to the Department of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering at the University of Illinois as an assistant professor in 1990. Professor White also holds appointments in the Departments of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics and Materials Science and Engineering. In 2000, he joined the faculty of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology where he leads the Autonomic Materials Group bringing together students and faculty from a broad cross-section of scientific and engineering disciplines.