Tom G. Mackay, Adjunct Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, and his wife Sophie have a new baby: a daughter named Freya. She was born at 0115 BST in Scotland. Tom, a Reader in Applied Mathematics at the University of Edinburgh, and Sophie, a Lecturer in Pure Mathematics at the University of St. Andrews, also have a two-year old son named Magnus.

Akhlesh Lakhtakia, Charles G. Binder Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, will present a paper titled "Nanoengineering, Metamaterials, and Sculptured Thin Films " at the 2009 Society for Experimental Mechanics (SEM) Conference and Exposition on June 1, 2009, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

On June 11-12, 2009, Dr. Cliff Lissenden, professor in engineering science and mechanics, is hosting the spring 2009 Center of Excellence in Structural Health Monitoring meeting. The meeting will bring designers and owners of platforms that benefit from SHM technology together with researchers and developers of SHM systems and grow the Center by building relationships that lead to fruitful multidisciplinary collaborations between industry, academia, and government. For additional information about the meeting, please visit their web site.

Niranjan Malvadkar, (doctoral candidate) will present two papers at the 215th Electrochemical Society Meeting, May 24-27, 2009, in San Francisco, CA. The papers are titled "A Template Based Method to Prepare Inexpensive Metal Catalyst for Hydrogen Release Application" and "Conformal Growth of Nanostructured Titania on Spatially Organized Poly (p-xylylene) Nanocolums". Mr. Malvadkar's research is supervised by Dr. Melik Demirel and is supprted by a Young Investigator Program Award from the Office of Naval Research.

The spring 2009 award winners were announced at last weeks ESM graduation and tea ceremony which was enjoyed by the graduating seniors and their families.

The Francis H. Fenlon Award was given to Michael Anderson in recognition of his outstanding Engineering Science senior thesis in honor of the late Dr. Fenlon, a dedicated teacher and exceptional researcher in the ESM department. Michael also received the honor of student marshal for the E SC program’s commencement ceremony. This honor is given to a student in the graduating class who represent the best of the program graduates.

Stephen Koytek and Matt Verlinich received the Kearns/McNitt Award. The award was given to these students for their outstanding academic achievement.

Dr. Paul A. Lester Award was accepted by Ashkar A. Kunju for his doctoral thesis work in the area of microelectronics.

In honor of his graduate teaching assistant techniques, the students and faculty felt it was best suited to award the J. Conway Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award to David Engels.

The P.B. Breneman Best Portfolio Award presented to Lydia Krefta.

The P.B. Breneman Best Design in Research granted to Zackary Stratton.

Congratulations to all our award recipients and graduates!

Kathryn Barber engineering science junior, has won a 2009 Goldwater Scholarship. Ms. Barber is one of 278 students selected from over 1,097 nominated nationwide.

Ms. Barber is pursuing an Honors degree in Engineering Science with minors in Bioengineering and German. During her first year of studies, she enrolled in the Women in Science and Engineering Research (WISER) Program and worked with Dr. Mary Frecker (Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering) in consultation with Dr. Abraham Matthew, gastroenterologist, Hershey Medical Center, to prototype "endoscopic forceps" for "incision-less" surgery. Subsequently, Ms Barber was one of four Penn State students selected to present at the Undergraduate Research at the State Capitol in Harrisburg, fall 2008 (show above with the Honorable Art Hershey). Ms. Barber's future plans include a doctoral degree in biomedical engineering.

The purpose of the Goldwater Foundation is to provide a continuing source of highly qualified scientists, mathematicians, and engineers by awarding scholarships to college students who intend to pursue careers in these fields.The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program was established by Congress in 1986 to honor Senator Barry M. Goldwater, who served his country for 56 years as a soldier and statesman, including 30 years of service in the U.S. Senate.

Jason Ryan (M.S., E SC) presented a paper titled "Atomic Scale Defects and Their Impact on NBTL, PBTL and Other Reliability Mechanisms at the Digitial Complimentary metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) Technologies and Memory Technology Review Conference, held in Berkely, CA, May 18 - 22, 2009. The meeting was sponsored by the Semiconductor Research Corporation.

Melik Demirel, Associate Professor of Engineering Science, presented two invited talks on biodetection using nanostructured polymer films at the SPIE Defense, Security and Sensing, April 13-17, Orlando, Florida, 2009 and the Massachussett Institute of Technology (MIT), Polymer Science Seminar, March 3-4, Boston, MA, 2009

Melik Demirel, associate professor in engineering science and mechanics, will present a summer short course on "Medical Nanotechnology"at the Koc University Istanbul, Turkey between June 22-26th 2009. The course notes will be published as a textbook by a major book publisher. The course is open to all interested students and faculty.

Tony Huang, Assistant Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, and the work of his research group on tunable liquid lens continues to gain coverage in the media. Most recently, U.S. News and World Report profiled their work. The article may be viewed at the U.S. News and World Report website.

Akhlesh Lakhtakia, Charles G. Binder professor of engineering science and mechanics, participated in the Symposium on Nano-sculptured Optical Thin Films at the National Taipei University of Technology, and delivered two lectures: (i) Sculptured Thin Films: Nanoengineered Metamaterials, and (ii) Replication of Bugs' Eyes and Wings, Etc.. The one-day symposium was held May 13, 2009.

Dr. Osama O. Awadelkarim has joined the Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems' (EOLSS) as a Vice President and member of the Committee on the Development of Nanoscience and Nanotechnologies.

The EOLSS is an interdisciplinary encyclopedia sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It is the "world's largest online publication dedicated to the health, maintenance, and future of the web of life on planet Earth".

Drs. Andrew Pytel and Jaan Kiusalaas, professors emeritus in Engineering Science and Mechanics recently published the 3rd editions of Engineering Mechanics: Statics and Engineering Mechanics: Dynamics. For more information, please visit this website.

Lei Fang’s, recent doctoral graduate, research to appear in the May issue of the Journal of Materials Research in an article titled, "Augmented instrumented indentation using nonlinear electrical contact current-voltage curves." This research was performed with his Penn State colleagues, Christopher L. Muhlstein, associate professor in Materials Science, Amber L. Romasco, graduate student in Materials Science, James G. Collins, graduate student in Materials Science and Lawrence H. Friedman, assistant professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, and it is a detailed study of using electrical contact behavior to aid in measuring the mechanical properties through instrumented indentation.

Lei Fang recently defended his Ph.D. dissertation and currently works at Ametek, Inc. in Pittsburgh, PA.

Daniel Zindel recently completed a 6-month visit to the ESM Composites Laboratory to work on his master’s thesis with Dr. Charles Bakis. In April, Daniel passed his thesis examination and earned the Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology - Zurich (ETH). Daniel was co-advised by Prof.
Bakis and Dr. Gerald Kress of the Center of Structure Technologies, ETH Zurich. His thesis topic was Mechanical Modeling of Filament Wound Flexible Matrix Composites.

The Center for Innovative Sintered Products is proud to announce the arrival of new scientific equipment for particle sizing. In a collaboration between CISP’s director Dr. Donald Heaney and Keith Swain of Horiba Instruments, Inc., CISP now has the newest Horiba LA-950 installed and operating in 136 Research West.

The Horiba LA-950 extends CISP's testing capabilities down to fine particles in the 10 nanometer (0.01 micrometer) range all the way up to 3.0 mm (3000 micrometers). Particles are initially dispersed in an aqueous or organic fluid, then introduced into the circulation system. The proper refractive index is selected and the dispersion streamed between two light sources and ring, side, and rear-mounted detectors which collect scattering data. Mie theory analyzes and interprets the scattered light patterns, reporting information about the size and distribution.

CISP can test metals, ceramics, pharmaceuticals and other powders in a variety of fluids. Most recently CISP has successfully tested tungsten, aluminum, and silicon carbide powders. If you’d like your powders tested or have interest and questions please contact the CISP lab or Kristina Cowan-Giger directly at 814-865-1393, kcc126@psu.edu.

Corrosion is a “thin film” layer of attack on any type of metal. Dr. Barbara Shaw’s Corrosion Short Course provides researchers and scientists information on the latest experimental methods to study corrosion. Now in its thirteenth year, past Corrosion Short Course attendees include those in the fields of engineering, biomedical (to reduce corrosion of implants), gas and oil industries, and even a museum curator who is responsible for maintaining an environmentally safe exhibit for the Civil War icon USS Monitor.

For additional information on short course topics and to register for the Thirteenth Annual Short Course on Corrosion scheduled June 7-12, 2009, visit: www.esm.psu.edu/corrosion