Three members of the Engineering Science and Mechanics Community will receive 2007 Penn State Engineering Society (PSES) awards at an Engineering Awards Ceremony on Friday, March 30, at 1:30 p.m. in the Kunkle Activities Center.

Sam Y. Zamrik will receive a Distinguished Service Award;
Francesco Costanzo will receive a Premier Teaching Award' and
Susan Croyle will receive an Outstanding Staff Award.

Joseph W. Haus
Director, Electro-Optics Graduate Program, University of Dayton

Wednesday, February 28, 2007
3:35 p.m.
114 Earth-Engineering Sciences Bldg.

Dr. Judith A. Todd, Engineering Science and Mechanics Department Head has announced the winners of the 3rd Annual ESM Today Graduate Research Symposium. ESM Today is a showcase for the research done by the graduate students of the Engineering Science and Mechanics department. <View photos from this event>

The 2007 winners are as noted below.

GRAND-PRIZE WINNER:
Matt Kelly "Quantitative Structural Analysis of Thermal Barrier Coating Produced by Electron Beam Physical Vapor Deposition with Relations to Processing Parameters".

PRESENTATIONS
Joint First-Prize Winners:
Jonathan Pitt "A Dynamic Parallel Finite-Element Implementation of a Linear Thermo-Elastic Material with Damage",
and
Yun Zhu "Aircraft Ice Detection and Deicing with Ultrasonic Guided Waves".

Third-Prize Winner:
Luke Breon "Tomographic Imaging of Wall Thinning in Pipes".

POSTERS
First-Prize Winner:
Matt Kropf "Ultrasonic Magnetostrictive Transducers for Guided Ultrasonic Waves".

Joint Second-Prize Winners:
Nick Chernyy "Prototype for Low-Frequency, Sub-Threshold Neural Stimulation and Recording",
and
Guneet Sethi "Development of Structure-Property Relationships in Amorphous Zirconia Thin Films for High Energy Density Capacitors".

ESM Today is organized by the ESM Graduate Student Council. Special thanks are given to this year's organizers:

Jonathan Pitt : President
Jason Van Velsor : Vice-President
Matt Guers : Secretary
Eric Hauck : Treasurer

Dr. Judith A. Todd, Engineering Science and Mechanics Department Head, is pleased to announce that fifty-four Engineering Science students achieved Dean's List status for fall semester 2006. Congratulations to the following students:

Daniel Ahmed, Michael Anderson, Hitesh Basantani, Dustin Bauknight, Alan Berger, Brian Bontempo, Luke Breon, Shaun Campbell, Elise Corbin, Carolyn Denomme, Mukul Dixit, David Engels, Nicholas Fieldhouse, Matthew Frank, Kevin Graves, Michael Hayward, Brittany Hedrick, Miranda Hitchcock, Cory Hixson, Matthew Hollander, Kevin Howorth, Scott Jacobs, Eli Katz, Sarah Klinetob, Scott Kozlowski, Lydia Krefta, Kevin Lawler, Shane Lani, Wei Luo, Louis Mangino, Marc McNeill, Brandon Montemuro, Abdalla Nassar, Ruth O’Hehir, Chad Ostrowski, Stacy Pagliocca, Bobby Parchuri, Brendan Purcell, Nicholas Pytel, Jesse Rodgers, Benjamin Russo, Katelyn Smith, Sally Smith, Stanton Sollenberger, James Strand, Zackary Stratton, Aaron Todd, Aimee Tu, Jacqueline Van Pelt, Matthew Verlinich, John Waldeisen, Thomas Walker, Daniel Weaver, and Christopher Winter.

The ESM Department is very pleased to have you honor our department with your outstanding academic achievement.

Jong-in Hahm
Penn State Department of Chemical Engineering

Wednesday, February 21, 2007
3:35 p.m.
114 Earth-Engineering Sciences Bldg.

The Engineering Science and Mechanics community is mourning the passing of Professor Emeritus William Thompson, Jr. (December 4, 1936 - February 13, 2007). Professor Thompson retired from the University in February 2001 after 34 years of service. He continued to be active with the department after his retirement. He will be remembered for his excellence in teaching, for his devotion to engineering researcher, for his care and attention as a departmental student adviser, and for the energies he devoted to the State College community. We will miss his wit, cheerful smile, and the warmth he brought to us.

Dr. Thompson's obituary appears in the February 15, 2007, issue of the Centre Daily Times.

The Banaras Hindu University, India shall confer the degree of Doctor of Science (Electronics Engineering) on Akhlesh Lakhtakia, the Charles Godfrey Binder professor of engineering science and mechanics, at a convocation ceremony to be held on March 18, 2007. Lakhtakia received the D.Sc. degree for his contributions over a 5-year period on elucidating the characteristics of electromagnetic fields in many types of complex materials. The D.Sc. degree is granted for a significant body of research to BHU alumni who already possess the Ph.D. degree. Lakhtakia shall be the first recipient of the D.Sc. degree from BHU in engineering. Engineering education commenced at that university in 1918. Lakhtakia obtained a Bachelor of Technology degree in electronics engineering from its Institute of Technology in 1979. After receiving a Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Utah in 1983, he joined Penn State.

Jorge Sofo
Penn State Department of Physics

Wednesday, February 14, 2007
3:35 p.m.
114 Earth-Engineering Sciences Bldg.

Dr. Melik Demirel, Assistant Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics and immediate past Pearce Development Professor will present a talk entitled "How do insertions affect Green Fluorescent Protein?" on Wednesday, February 7, 2007, as part of Arizona State University's Biological Physics Seminar for spring 2007. An abstract of the talk follows.

The green fluorescent protein (GFP) is an intrinsically fluorescent protein extracted from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria. The GFP chromophore formation and its mutants have been extensively studied. However, a precise understanding of fluorescence loss is still lacking. Particularly, our aim is to create GFP molecules carrying random amino acids insertions and understand the effect of these insertions (e.g.by change in excitation and emission) experimentally and computationally. A computer-based modeling and bench-top experiments are combined to understand the fluorescence of GFP. Random octapeptides are inserted into individual loops of the GFP. Amino acid sequences and fluorescence levels of clones from each loop are determined. The effect of peptide insertions into the loop regions of GFP are studied computationally using quantum mechanics and molecular dynamics calculations. Both computational and experimental results show that random peptide insertions change the excitation and emission intensity of GFP. We showed that the location of the peptide insertion affects the fluorescence levels of the GFP.

Akhlesh Lakhtakia, Binder Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, recently launched the International Society for Optical Engineering's (SPIE) Journal of Nanophotonics.

He will serve as editor in chief of the online-only journal. the publication focuses on the fabrication and application of nanostructures that facilitiate the generation, propagation,manipulation and detection of light. Its online delivery will enable rapid, worldwide di8ssemination of nanoresearch.

Source: College of Engineering

Joseph P. Cusumano, Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, will be presenting an invited lecture at the Mathematical Stability Analysis in Biomechanics and Robotics workshop to be held at the University of Bielefeld, Germany, February 14-18, 2007. The workshop is sponsored by the university's Center for Interdisciplinary Research, and will bring together 18 international researchers in robotics, mathematics, and movement science.

Professor Cusumano's talk is entitled "Trial-to-Trial Task Dynamical Systems", and was prepared in collaboration with Engineering Science and Mechanics doctoral student, Mr. Joby John.

Akhlesh Lakhtakia
Penn State Department of Engneering Science and Mechanics

Wednesday, February 7, 2007
3:35 p.m.
114 Earth-Engineering Sciences Bldg.