Maxwell Institute for Mathematical Sciences and the University of Edinburgh's School of Mathematics invited Professor Akhlesh Lakhtakia, Charles G. Binder Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, to give a public lecture entitled "From Maxwell to Nanotechnology." The lecture will be delivered on the University of Edinburgh campus on April 17 and chaired by Sir Michael Atiyah. For more details about Professor Lakhtakia's lecture, please visit this University of Edinburgh's website.

Dr. Elena Semouchkina, Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics and Senior Research Associate, MRI, recently became an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Antennas and Propagation Society (AWPL) Associate Editor. In this role, Elena will be responsible for selecting papers for publication and assigning reviewers. The scope of the journal is to publish novel contributions in the field of interest of the IEEE. It’s goal is to maintain a rapid turnaround of each issue to keep current with changing activities. To learn more about the IEE AWPL, please visit their website.

Professor Elena Semouchkina, Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics and Senior Research Associate, MRI, has been appointed with the European Commission Research Directorate as an expert-evaluator. As an acting evaluator for the Commission, Elena will be in the evaluation of research proposals. Additionally, Dr. Semouchkina has been invited to give a lecture on her topic: “Dielectrics for metamaterials,” at the Women in Photonics (WiP) School on Photonic Metamaterials in Paris in April.

Ms. Karen Powers joins the ESM staff as an assistant to Professors Rose and Lissenden in the administration of their research efforts including the operational efforts of Dr. Lissenden's Structural Health Monitoring Center. Ms. Powers has extensive experience in the academic and business environments. We are pleased to welcome her to the ESM Department.

Ms. Carrie Friday has joined the ESM staff as Budget Assistant, effective March 6, 2008. Ms. Friday has over 25 years of Penn State experience including student services as well as financial. Her most recent experience has been as an assistant to the Department Head of the University Libraries, Department for Information Technologies. Ms. Friday has an Associate Degree in Science, Business Administration from Penn State and is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Business at Penn State Altoona.

We are please to have her join the ESM team.

Dr. Akhlesh Lakhtakia, Charles Godfrey Binder Professor, delivered two seminars at the Faculty of Engineering, Multimedia University, Cyberjaya, Malaysia, on March 11. The seminars are entitled "Nanoengineered metamaterials" and "Polarization engineering through nanoengineered metamaterials". The Multimedia University, owned by the partially state-run Telekom Malaysia, is situated in the Multimedia Science Corridor of the country.

Corina Drapaca, assistant professor of engineering science and mechanics, has been appointed as a member of the Penn State Graduate School.