Murat Cetinkaya, a doctoral student in Prof. Melik Demirel’s group, gave an invited talk at the Nanomaterials session of American Chemical Society New Orleans meeting on April 6-10.. His talk was entitled: “Crystalline phase transitions of nanostructured poly-(p-xylylene) films”. Mr. Cetinkaya has defended his PhD thesis recently and would start a postdoctoral research position in Europe this summer. More details are available at the ACS web site.

Jon Pitt, Doctoral candidate in Engineering Science and Mechanics, under the advising of Dr. Francesco Costanzo, has been selected as a recipient of the Science, Mathematics And Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship program. The program is designed to support undergraduate and graduate students pursuing degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. ESM Congratulates Jon on his educational achievements to receive such an award. To learn more about the SMART scholarship program, please visit their website.

The College of Engineering, Tuesday, hosted their 2008 College of Engineering Research Symposium. John Petrilli, master’s degree candidate in engineering science, under the advising of Dr. Barbara Shaw, won first place for his graduate paper. The Engineering Graduate Student Council presented John with a certificate of recognition for his work on an outstanding paper. This award is the highest honor awarded at the Symposium event.