Hongyan Yuan, Graduate Student in Engineering Science and Mechanics under the advisor of Dr. Sulin Zhang, Assistant Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics will attend the 2008 ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress on October 31 - November 6 in Boston, Massachusetts. Hongyan will be presenting a paper ‘Coarse-Grained Modeling of Vesicle-Substrate Interactions.” To learn more about the conference, please visit this website.

Tom Mackay
School of Mathematics, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Wednesday, November 4, 2009
3:35pm - 4:25pm
114 Earth-Engineering Sciences Building

Dr. Cliff Lissenden, Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, presented research at the American Society for Nondestructive Testing (ASNT) Conference on October 20 – 21 in Columbus, Ohio. To learn more about the conference, please visit their website.

James K. Breakall
Department of Electrical Engineering, PSU

Wednesday October 28, 2009
3:35pm - 4:25pm
114 EES Building

Dr. Robert McGrath (B.S., E SC), Deputy Laboratory Director for Science and Technology at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, presented a seminar titled "The Present Status and Future Promise of Renewable and Efficient Energy Technologies" on October 2nd at the University Park Campus. Dr. McGrath, a former Penn State Associate Vice President of Research was on campus for a Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment (PSIEE) advisory board meeting during the same week.

Dinesh Agrawal, Professor of Engineering Science and Director of the Materials Research Institute's Microwave Processing and Engineering Center, has been elected to the grade of Fellow of the American Ceramic Society (ACerS). Dr. Agrawal will be recognized at the ACerS Honors and Awards Banquet at the 111th Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh, PA, on Monday, October 26, 2009.

Congratulations on this accomplishment.

Prof. Melik Demirel presented an invited talk on soft nanomaterials at the 2009 Discovery to Commercialization Conference at Philedelpia October 15. The meeting has been organized by Ben Franklin Institute. To learn more about the conference, please visit their web site.

Charles Bakis, Distinguished Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, will be presenting an invited lecture on Life Cycle Analysis Issues in the Use of Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites in Civil Infrastructure at the International Workshop on Life Cycle Assessment of Sustainable Infrastructure Materials, 21-22 Oct. 2009, Sapporo, Japan.

Dr. Bruce Gluckman, Associate Professor in Engineering Science has four presentations at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting on October 16 – 21 in Chicago, Illinois. Two of the talks will be presented by Dana Lynn Andre and Yina Wei, graduate students, one by Giorgio LaCorte, post doctoral scholar and Bruce Gluckman and the last is a collaborative work with Eric Liau, graduate student and a visiting scholar from Portugal, Luis Jacinto. Further, Bruce will participate in discussions and sessions relating to Ethics in Animal Science. To learn more about the conference, please visit their web site.

Mst kamrun Kamrunnahar, graduate student in engineering science and mechanics, will present a paper entitled “Towards a Robust Visual Stimulus in Brain Computer Interfaces” at Neuroscience 2009, the 39th annual meeting of Society for Neuroscience (SFN). The meeting will be held on October 17-21 in Chicago, IL.

To learn more of the annual meeting, please visit their website.

Yina Wei, graduate student in engineering science and mechanics, is presenting a poster entitled “Tracking of neuronal dynamics based on a hippocampal network model,” at the 38th Society for Neuroscience (SFN) annual meeting. The meeting is hosted in Chicago, IL on October 17-21, 2009. The SFN annual meeting provides neuroscientists a great chance for learning, sharing ideas and developing professional skills. Yina is advised by Dr. Steven Schiff, Brush Chair Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics.

To learn more of the annual meeting, please visit this website.

On September 29, 2009, Dr. Bernhard Tittmann, Schell Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, hosted a workshop on Application of Atomic Force Microscopes to the Life Sciences. The seminar was led by Senior Applications Scientists from Veeco’s Nano-Bio Labs with topics that included; Recent Advances in AFM for Biological Applications, and BioScope Catalyst: Accelerating Your Life Science Research Innate Immune Recognition of the Fungal Patogen Candida. Dr. Tittmann notes “The new generation of Atomic Force Microscopes will surely cause major breakthroughs in life sciences, I envision Penn State being at the forefront of these breakthroughs,” reflecting on his experience at the workshop.

Dr. Patrick Lenahan, Distinguished Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, will present talks at the International Conference on Silicon Carbide in Nuremberg Germany and talks at the IEEE International Integrated Reliability Workshop (IIRW) Conference at Stanford University, Sierra Camp, California from October 9-23, 2009.

The ESM Alumni Advisory Board will host a tailgate for this year's Homecoming game. Activities begin at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, October 17. For event details and alumni registration visit this web site.

Seminar given by Dr. Natalia K. Nikolova
Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering
McMaster University, Canada

Wednesday, October 7, 2009
3:35pm - 4:25pm
Room 114 Earth-Engineering Sciences Building

Jason Fritz, graduate student in engineering science and mechanics, will be presenting two accepted papers titled “A Study of the Effect of the Pulsatile Ventricular Pressure in the Development of Hydrocephalus” and “A Triphasic Mechano-Electrochemical Model of Brain Neuro-Mechanics: Application of Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus.” The presentations will take place at the 3rd International Conference of Computational Mechanics and Virtual Engineering (COMEC 2009) from October 28 – 31 in Brasov, Romania. To learn more about the meeting, please visit their web site.

Dr. Cliff Lissenden, Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, is attending a workshop at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) on wind turbine condition monitoring from October 7-10, 2009 in Denver, Colorado. To learn more of the meeting, please visit their web site.

Amber Black, graduate student in engineering science and mechanics, has been asked to serve on the Emerging Technologies Awareness Committee on behalf of the ASM International Board of Trustees. The committee is tasked with improving events, publications and services to benefit the worldwide materials community. Amber is advised by Professor Judith Todd.

Melik Demirel, Associate Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, will present a paper at the 216th annual Electrochemical Society meeting in Vienna, Austria. The meeting is scheduled for October 4 – 9, 2009 and for more information, please view this website.