Abdalla Nassar (M.S., E SC) has been awarded a National Science Foundation Grant to attend the 27th International Congress on the Applications of Lasers and Electro-Optics (ICALEO®) Conference, October 20-23, 2008, in Temecula, CA. The Congress is an opportunity for "researchers and end-users to review the state-of-the-art in laser materials processing" and also predict future laser materials processing needs. Mr. Nassar will present a poster titled "Generation and Sustainment of Argon Laser-Sustained Plasmas Under Various Flow Conditions".

To learn more about the Congress visit the ICALEO® website.

Congratulations to Nassar on both accomplishments.

Professor Emeritus Andrew Pytel has announcedl his fall commonwealth campus visit schedule. During the visits, Dr. Pytel will meet with groups of students interested in pursuing engineering science as their engineering major of choice. If you are interested in participating in a meeting at your campus, please contact Stacy Smith at sls60@psu.edu.

Dr. Sulin Zhang is teaching a three-credit graduate-level course on Multiscale Modeling of Materials spring semester 2009. The course will discuss computational methods that couple different length and time scales ranging from nano to micro.

The course is offered as E MCH 597A and will be taught on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4:15 - 5:30 pm. To register for the course, use schedule code number 232048.

For additional information, contact Dr. Zhang at:

Office phone: (814) 865-7640
Office address: 411D EES BL
E-mail: suz10@psu.edu
Homepage: http://www.esm.psu.edu/zhang

Lei Fang (ESM Ph.D. student) was named a finalist in the Society of Engineering Science 2008 student paper competition.

Fang's abstract, "An electrical technique to measure in-situ contact area during instrumented indentation and its application of characterizing materials that pile-up," was selected as one of the top 16 abstracts out of 160 submitted to the SES 2008 student paper competition.

In July 2008, the Powder Metal Industry held its 44th year of offering the Basic Powder Metallurgy Short Course in State College. Course participants came from many industry segments including parts fabricators, jewelry manufacturers, medical parts end users, friction component manufacturers, abrasive component fabricators and oil drilling fabricators. Penn State's Center for Innovative Sintered Products (CISP) hosted course participants in a tour of the Center's facilities that included a presentation of research activities.

Dr. Bernhard R. Tittmann is teaching EMch 597A - "Physical Principles in Biomedical Ultrasonics" fall semester 2008. This graduate level course addresses the physical principles of advanced ultrasonic imaging and quantitative data acquisition techniques in the field of biology and medicine.

For more information contact Dr. Tittmann at 5-7827 or by e-mail at brt4@psu.edu.

Congratulations to Ashutosh Tewari who has accepted a position with United Technology Research Center (East Hartford, Connecticut) as a Senior Research Scientist/Engineer with the Systems Dynamics and Optimization Division.

Dr. Bruce Gluckman, associate professor of engineering science and mechanics and neurosurgery, along with Nick Chernyy, graduate student in the department of engineering science and mechanics, will be attending the International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology conference in Vancouver, Canada from August 19 - 23, 2008. To learn more about the IEEE conference, please visit their website.

Dr. Lawrence Freidman, assistant professor in engineering science and mechanics, will be attending the SPIE Optics and Photonics conference in San Diego, California from August 11 - 15, 2008. To learn more about the SPIE meeting, please visit their website.