The inaugural meeting of the Center of Excellence in Structural Health Monitoring is scheduled for Thursday and Friday April 12 and 13, 2007, at the Nittany Lion Inn on the Penn State University Park Campus. The Center of Excellence in Structural Health Monitoring is funded through the Ben Franklin Technology Devleopment Association. The Center goals include spurring the research and development of new technologies to improve public safety; transfer technology; create new high tech job markets for Pennsylvania; and workforce pool development.

Keynote speakers for this event are Professor Fu-Keuo Chang of Stanford University, Richard Ross of NASA Langley's Structures and Materials group, and Professor Aditi Chattopadhyay of Arizona State University.

The meeting will showcase current structural health monitoring research across Penn State including activities in the Departments of Engineering Science and Mechanics, Aerospace Engineering, Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Food Science, and the Applied Research Laboratory. Participants will have an opportunity to learn about the state of the art and future directions of structural health monitoring.

For additional information, contact center director Dr. Clifford J. Lissenden at 814.863.5754.

Melick Demirel, assistant professor of engineering science and mechanics, has received an Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator grant for $364,000. His project is titled "Hierachically and Spatially Organized Polymer Coatings for Marine Antifouling Applications" and is funded for three years. The ONR grants are designed to support new faculty members in their teaching efforts and work related to naval research. Demirel received his master's and doctoral degrees in materials science and engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. He most recently held the Pearce Development professorship from 2003 to 2006, an endowed position given to a young faculty member for three years. His research interests include biomaterials, nanofabrication, protein engineering, biosensors, molecular modeling and computational materials science.

Judith A. Todd, P.B. Breneman Department Head Chair, is the recipient of the Commission for Women’s 2007 Achieving Women Award. The Commission for Women annually honors recipients in seven categories. Professor Todd receives the administrator category honor for her outstanding role in encouraging minorities and women to seek and retain careers in engineering, for inspiring you engineers, and for inspiring and motivating others while fostering excellence.

Since its formation in 1981, the Commission for Women has been a forum for exchanging ideas that can translate into improved practices to support women at Penn State and also identifies areas of concern to women employees and students and suggests changes in existing policies and the creation of new policies that improve the climate for women.

Akhlesh Lakhtakia, the Charles Godfrey Binder professor of engineering science and mechanics, was honored by the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, on March 6, 2007 as one of its four Distinguished Alumni selected for 2007, in recognition of his distinguished services to the university and the community.

A film commemorating the event was produced by the University of Utah. The film includes an interview with Professor Lakhtakia as well as reflective comments about Dr. Lakhtakia's career by ESM faculty.