Department News 2006

September 2006

• Stephen D. Sintay was awarded "best poster of the conference"
  Doctoral Student, Stephen D. Sintay (with R.Campman, G. Welsh, E.L. Anagnostou, J.M Papazian, A.D. Rollett), was awarded "best poster of the conference" for "Grain orientation influence on matrix crack initiation in AA7075-T651," during the International Conference on Fatigue Damage of Structural Materials VI: Sponsored by the International Journal of Fatigue.
• Michael Gao's recent paper was just awarded the "APDIC Best Paper Award"
  MSE Research Associate, Dr. Michael Gao's recent paper entitled "Reassessment of Al-Ce and Al-Nd Binary Systems Supported by Critical Experiments and First-Principles Energy Calculations" and published at Metall. Mater. Trans. A 36A (2005) pp3269-3279, was just awarded the "APDIC Best Paper Award" for the best published manuscript on alloy phase diagram data in the year 2005. Co-authors on the paper were N. Unlu, G. J. Shiflet, M. Mihalkovic and M. Widom. APDIC stands for Alloy Phase Diagram International Commission. This paper was done with partial financial support from Computational Materials Science Network, a program of the Office of Science, US Department of Energy.
• Professor Richard J. Fruehan selected as an Honorary Member of AIME
  In recognition of his life-long commitment to the iron and steel industry through distinguished service to AIME, ISS and AIST, and for his exceptional contributions to the fundamental knowledge of iron and steelmaking and to the development of new steelmaking technologies, Professor Richard J. Fruehan, US Steel and University Professor has been selected by the Board of Directors of the Association for Iron and Steel Technology (AIST) and ratified by the AIME Board of Trustees as an Honorary Member of AIME.
  
  AIME Honorary Membership is one of the highest honors that the Institute can bestow on an individual. It is awarded in appreciation of outstanding service to the Institute or in recognition of distinguished scientific or engineering achievement in the fields embracing the activities of AIME and its Member Societies. Candidates for Honorary Membership are generally (1) members of the AIME Member Societies who are outstanding in their respective fields and/or who have performed unusual service to the Institute; (2) United States citizens, whether AIME Member Society members or not, who are particularly outstanding; or (3) citizens of foreign countries who are outstanding in their work combined with some official position of service to the profession.
  
  This honor is given to only one tenth of one percent (0.1%) of the members of member societies of AIME, which includes Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society, Association for Iron & Steel Technology and the Society of Petroleum Engineers.
  
  Ceremonial medallion and certificate of honorary membership will be awarded to Professor Fruehan in May 2007 at the Annual AIST Meeting in Indianapolis.

August 2006

• Professor Sridhar Seetharaman has been awarded the POSCO Faculty Development Professorship in Materials Science and Engineering effective July 1, 2006.
  Seetharaman received his Ph.D. from MIT in 1998 and then spent a year as a research associate at Imperial College in London. He first came to CMU as a visiting scholar in 1999 and was appointed as an assistant professor in 2000. In 2005, he was appointed as Associate Director of the Center for Iron and Steel Making Research here at Carnegie Mellon.
  
  His work has already received extensive recognition. The Iron and Steel Society has recognized him with the Young Leader Award in 2000 and the Charles H. Herty Best Paper Award in 2002. In 2002 he also received the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Prize from the von Humboldt Foundation and the Marcus A. Grossmann Young Author Award from ASM International. In 2004 he received the CAREER award from the National Science Foundation and the Philbrook award from the MSE department. He is the principal editor for AIST transactions and has taken a leadership role in organizing a number of international conferences. He has published more than 100 papers, with 63 in archival journals.
• MSE doctoral student, Christopher Roberts has been named the 2006 International Symposium on Superalloys Scholar by TMS.
  The award, which carries a $2,000 cash award is available to undergraduate and graduate students majoring in metallurgical and/or materials science and engineering with an emphasis on all aspects of the high-temperature, high-performance materials used in the gas turbine industry and all other applications.
• MSE Senior, Nicole Cates has been awarded the TMS Electronic, Magnetic & Photonic Materials Division Gilbert Chin Scholarship.
  The 2,000 cash award is available to an undergraduate student studying subjects in relation to synthesis and processing, structure, properties, and performance of electronic, photonic, magnetic, and superconducting materials as well as materials used in packaging, and interconnecting such materials in device structures.
• Dr. Robert Heard Receives FeMET INITIATIVE'S DESIGN GRANT
  The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) and the Association for Iron & Steel Technology Foundation's (AIST Foundation) "Ferrous Metallurgy Education Today," or FeMET Initiative, which is aimed at attracting top talent to the North American steel industry, has awarded its design grants for 2006. Teams of materials science engineering students and their professors from Carnegie Mellon University and University of Missouri-Rolla have been granted $47,500 each to put toward their efforts in addressing an industry technological problem or "challenge" by working collaboratively to determine how the problem is best solved. Their proposals included exposure to important problems in the steel industry, as well as learning various technical and economic aspects in creating a solution. Click here to learn more.
  

May 2006

• Dr. Robert Heard awarded Wimmer Faculty Fellow
  The Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence has announced the Wimmer Faculty Fellows for 2006. This new fellows program, established by a grant from the Wimmer Family Foundation, is designed for junior faculty members interested in enhancing their teaching through concentrated work designing or re-designing a course, innovating new materials, or exploring a new pedagogical approach. Fellows will participate in a workshop series in May and then work on developing materials for their own courses during the summer, in consultation with Eberly Center staff and colleagues.
  Click here to learn more.

March 2006

• Kumta's Group Recognized
  A recent publication in Supercapacitors by Professor Prashant Kumta and his research group is featured in Advanced Materials and also featured on the cover. Click here to learn more.
  
  Kumta's group paper on nanostructured calcium phosphates in the first issue of Acta Biomaterialia is noted as the most downloaded article since January 2005. Click here to learn more.
• Professor Newell Washburn receives a 3M Nontenured Faculty Award
  Newell Washburn, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Biomedical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering has received a 3M Nontenured Faculty Award to support his basic research on biointeractive polymers for wound healing. His was one of 27 awards for basic research in the physical and/or biological sciences selected by 3M researchers. The award provides unrestricted funds for his research.
  
  Washburn's group develops biomimetic matrices for tissue engineering. He uses spectroscopic methods to study therapeutically effective biological materials such as demineralized bone matrix, a biological material obtained from cadavers that is used to treat patients with damaged bone tissue. Demineralized bone matrix is rich in proteins known as growth factors as well as proteins that regulate the activity of these growth factors. Understanding the dynamic interactions of growth factors with demineralized bone matrix is key to creating a successful synthetic matrix.
  
  Washburn's research centers on performing physical measurements, including fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, to measure the dynamics of growth factors as they interact with the demineralized bone matrix. His group measures the dynamics of powerful signaling molecules in these materials. With these measurements as design criteria, they then synthesize functional equivalents incorporating novel ligands for tuning interactions between signaling molecules and engineered matrices. Finally, they screen cellular responses to these complex matrices using combinatorial methods in order to develop a global understanding of the ways in which these matrices can guide cellular responses. These studies are an important first step toward developing a synthetic hydrogel with which growth factors will have similar interactions as they do with demineralized bone matrix. This novel biomimetic approach could lead to the development of synthetic matrices that have similar function as therapeutically effective matrices, such as demineralized bone matrix, without the risks associated with these biological materials.
  
  Professor Washburn is also involved in developing DNA aptamers that target pro-inflammatory cytokines in a collaboration that involves Prof. Bruce Armitage, who also received a 3M Nontenured Faculty Award in 2001.
• On Monday, May 15th at 10:00 AM, MSE will host a tribute in honor of Professor Hubert I. Aaronson who passed away last December. Several of Hub's former students and colleagues will share short remembrances of their association with Hub the "Professor" and Hub the "Man". The event is being held in the Singleton Room of George A. Roberts Engineering Hall on Carnegie Mellon's campus and will be followed by a light lunch. To confirm your attendance or for additional information, please contact Suzanne Smith at (412) 268-5936 or sb3n@andrew.cmu.edu.
  
• The Paxton Award for the Best Doctoral Dissertation in Materials Science and Engineering: This award, made possible by the generosity of Ann and Harry Paxton, is intended to promote excellence in doctoral scholarship by recognizing the best Ph.D. dissertation of the year.
  
  To be eligible, the dissertation must have been submitted in final form in the period between May 1st 2005 and April 30th 2006. Members of the MSE faculty must submit nominations to the MSE Department Head by May 1st 2006. The complete nomination consists of a brief statement explaining the superior qualities of the dissertation (approximately one page), a one sentence summary citation, and a copy of the dissertation in final form.
  
  The winner must attend the annual MSE graduation ceremony, where the Paxton Award will be presented. The winner will receive $1500.

February 2006

CMU Students Recognized at the February 16th ASM International's Young Members Night (Pittsburgh Golden Triangle Chapter), MSE students took home many awards. Junior, Scott Roberts and sophomore, Nicolas Jones were awarded the "Past Chairperson's Education Assistance Awards" and senior, Yuranan Hanlumyuang was presented the "Outstanding College Senior Award". In the graduate student poster competition, doctoral student Samuel Lim was awarded 1st place and doctoral student, Chris Roberts was awarded 2nd place. In the undergraduate student poster competition, the team of juniors, Scott Roberts, Tim Miller, Nicole Cates and Hannes Eggenschweiler won 1st place while the team of seniors, Selina Brownridge, Diana Chan, Harry Chien and Yuranan Hanlumyuang won 2nd place. Another MSE student, senior Esther Yu was awarded the 3rd place prize.

Prashant Kumta is developing microscale fuel cells that use methanol instead of expensive and unstable hydrogen, which is difficult to produce in large quantities. Click here to learn more.

Rollett Paper Highly Cited: "Current issues in recrystallization", R. D. Doherty, D. A. Hughes, F. J. Humphreys, J. J. Jonas, D. J. Jensen, M. E. Kassner, W. E. King, T. R. McNelley, H. J. McQueen and A. D. Rollett, Mat. Sci. & Eng. A., 238/2, 219-274 (1997).

For the year of 1997, it was the most cited paper of ALL articles published that year in Materials Science and Eng A, B, Philosophical Mag A, B, Scripta Mater, Jour. Mater Sci, Prog. Mater Sci, Metall. Mater. Trans, and many others. Click here to read the article.