The 2009 Metal Powders Industry Federation Basic P/M Short Course toured the Center for Innovative Sintered Products (CISP) laboratory on Tuesday July 28th. Over 35 participants were present.

Jian Xu, associate professor of engineering science and mechanics, has been awarded an NSF Career Award to study "Two-Photon Pumped Lasing Using Semiconductor Nanostructures by Design".

The project focuses on the development and use of two-photon pumped lasers based on engineered seminconductor nanostructures.

Xu's research interests include seminconductor optoelectronics, nanophotonics and bioelectronics. At Penn State he established an optoelectronics laboratory which bridges the basic research on nanoscale semiconductor materials and engineering studies of their device applications in solar energy, display, lightwave communication and optical sensing.

Congratulations to Jian on his success!

In August 2009, Dr. Akhlesh Lakhtakia, Charles Godfrey Binder Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, is to chair two conferences, Biomimetics and Bioinspiration, with Raúl J. Martín-Palma, and Nanostructured Thin Films II, with Geoffrey Smith and Cheng-Chung Lee.

While at the meeting, Dr. Lakhtakia will present four papers entitled “Structural colors, cosmetics, and fabrics,” by Natalia M. Dushkina and Akhlesh Lakhtakia, “The homogenization of piezoelectric metamaterials via the strong-property-fluctuation theory,” by Andrew J. Duncan, Tom G. mackay, and Akhlesh Lakhtakia, “Towards replication of the exoskeleton of Lamprocyphus augustus for photonic applications,” by Akhlesh Lakhtakia, Raúl J. Martín-Palma, and Carlo G. Pantano, and “On limitations of conventional approaches to homogenization applied to dissipative and active composite materials,” by Tom G. Mackay and Akhlesh Lakhtakia.

The conference will be held in San Diego California and for more information, please visit their web site.

Sahar Maghsoudy-Louyeh, PhD candidate in Engineering Science, under the advising of Dr. Bernhard Tittmann, Schell Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, will present a paper entitled “Characterization of Silicon Surface after Hydrophilic and Hydrophobic Treatment by Atomic Force Microscopy” at the Seeing at the Nanoscale VII conference. The meeting will be held in Santa Barbara, California from July 28-31, 2009. For more information about the meeting, please visit their web site.

The inaugural IEEE Women in Electromagnetics (WiEM) workshop was held on the University of Utah campus June 5-8, 2009. Penn State associate professor of engineering science and mechanics, Elena Semouchkina, was one of three organizers of the international workshop. She is a senior research associate in the Materials Research Institute. Dr. Semouchkina’s interests are in electromagnetic metamaterials and the development of materials integration concepts for electronic and photonic devices.

Read more about the conference in the latest issue of Materials@Penn State.

Source: eMaterials Volume 9, Issue 3

Dr. Jian Xu, Associate Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics and Adjunct Professor in Electrical Engineering is attending the Asian Optical Communications Annual Meeting. The conference will be held in Hongkong from July 12 – July 20. Another stop on Dr. Xu’s agenda will be at the OSA Optoelectronic Symposium in Wuhan, China on August 8 – August 10.

Dr. Patrick Lenahan, Distinguished Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, is to attend and present at the Rockey Mountain Conference on Analytical Chemistry. The conference is scheduled from July 19 – 23 in Snowmass Colorado. For more information about the conference, please visit their web site.

Barbara Bogue, associate professor of engineering science and mechanics and women in engineering, appeared before a House subcommittee on July 21 to discuss female student involvement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Bogue spoke to the Committee on Science and Technology's Subcommittee on Research on Science and Education at a hearing titled "Encouraging the Participation of Female Students in STEM Fields." The meeting was held in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C.

For Bogues testimony, visit, this website.
Read the full story on Live.

Source: Penn State Newswire

ESM graduate student Daniel Ahmed will attend the 8th annual “How to Engineer Engineering Education” workshop held at Bucknell University in cooperation with NSF, July 20-22, 2009. The workshop was an active learning experience and culminated with participants developing an instructional module.

David E. Robinson, undergraduate student in Engineering Science under the advising of Dr. Joseph Rose, Professor in Engineering Science and mechanics is participating in a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program called Experimental Methods of Mechanical Engineering. David is working in the Mechanical Engineering Department’s Micro-sensor Laboratory under the direction of Dr. Volkan Ötügen, Professor and Chair of Mechanical Engineering Department, and Dr. Tindaro Ioppolo, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering.

Murat Cetinkaya, Ph.D., a former member in Prof. Melik Demirel's group and ESM graduate (2008) , won the prestigious Humboldt Fellowship in Germany. Humboldt Fellowship promotes academic cooperation between excellent scientists and scholars from abroad and from Germany. Hamboldt Foundations research fellowships and research awards allow scientists and scholars to come to Germany to work on a research project chosen by themselves, together with a host and collaborative partner.

Congratulations Murat!

Jia Hua, graduate student in Engineering Science and Mechanics, under the advising of Dr. Joseph Rose, Professor in ESM, received the American Society for Nondestructive Testing (ASNT) Fellowship Award in support of the NDT project, “Defect Characterization Potential in Buried Pipe with Ultrasonic Guided Waves.” Once the project is complete, Jia is to submit a report that will be published in Materials Evaluation, technical journal.

There will be a presentation of the award at the ASNT’s 2009 Fall Conference and Quality Testing Show in Columbus, Ohio on Wednesday, October 21. To read more about the conference, please visit their website.

Zakaria Al Balushi, undergraduate student in Engineering Science and Mechanics, under the advising of Dr. Osama Awadelkarim, Professor in ESM, is attending the Northwestern University NSEC REU this summer.

Balushi’s project is on the Synthesis of Alloy Au/Cu core-shell Nanoparticals for Ge Nanowire Growth. Upon completion of this project with the Lincoln Lauhon Group at the Department of Material Sciecne and Engineer, he projects having a publication in Nanoscape. Additionally, Zakaria received the “Park Espenschade Memorial Scholarship” to assist him in his educational needs.

To learn about the summer program, click below to read more.

Nicolas Godici, BS ’72, has been names Special Consultant to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Department. Mr. Godici was appointed by the U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to look at ways to strengthen the management structure of the USPTO and provide an up-to-date assessment of the challenges the office faces.

Dr. Shanker Balasubramaniam, MS ’92, PhD ‘93, is a Professor of Electrical Engineering at Michigan State University. After obtaining his PhD under the supervision of Professor Akhlesh Lakhtakia, he served in research positions at the Iowa State University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, before taking up an Assistant Professorship of Electrical Engineering at Iowa State. He moved to Michigan State as an Associate Professor. Prof. Balasubramaniam is well known for solving gigantic scattering problems. To read more of Dr. Balasubramaniam, please visit this website.

Dr. Dinesh Agrawal, Professor of Materials, Engineering Science and Mechanics, and Director of Microwave Processing and Engineering Center gave an invited public lecture at Bangkok, Thailand on June 29, 2009. The lecture was jointly sponsored by the National Science & Technology Development Board, Thailand and Siam Cement Group Companies, Thailand. He also gave an invited talk at the International Conference on Materials for Advanced Technologies (IUMRS-ICA 2009) held at Singapore on “ Microwave High Temperature Materials Processing: A Global Perspective” on July 3, 2009.

Abdalla Nassar, graduate student in Engineering Science and Mechanics, under the advising of Dr. Judith A. Todd, P.B. Breneman Department Head Chair, received a 2009 National Science Foundation Graduate Research award. This award is based on Abdallas abilities and accomplishments as well as his potential to contribute to strengthening the vitality of the U.S. science and engineering enterprise.

Abdallas research goal is to seek fundamental understanding of multienergy synergies of Laser-Sustained Plasma at an atomic, ionic, molecular and electronic level with the potential to control species and reaction pathways to obtain desired results. These results include low-cost coatings for industrial, consumer, and biomedical products, development of more energy efficient processes, and expanded scientific understanding of multi-energy processes, potentially transformative to materials processing and synthesis and propulsion.