Faculty of Engineering Bulletin for Monday, March 6, 2006

Speakers:

Mon., March 6,
4:00 pm, Mason 107.
Monday Evening Seminar:
   "Quantum Activation out of a Metastable State
   in a Sriven Oscillator," Rajamani Vijayaraghavan,
   Applied Physics.
   Adviser: Prof. Michel Devoret.
   Refreshments at 3:30 pm.

Tues., March 7, 2:30 pm, Becton Faculty Lounge.
Special Mechanical Engineering Seminar:
   "BMG-A High Strength Metal that Can be Processed
   like Plastics," Dr. Jan Schroers, California Institute
   of Technology.
   Host: Prof. Udo Schwarz.

Wed., March 8, 1:00 pm, Mason 107.
Solid State and Optics Seminar:
   "Synthesis and Electrical Characterization of
   Group IV Semiconductor Nanowires," Prof. Joan M.
   Redwing, Pennsylvania State University.
   Host: Prof. Mark Reed.

Thurs., March 9, 2:30 pm, Becton 408.
Department of Mechanical Engineering Seminar:
   "Multi-Scale Modeling of Materials: A Path
   Towards a Unified Perspective," Dr. David Reynolds,
   Department of Physics, University of Texas-Austin.
   Host: Prof. Corey O'Hern.
 
NSF Career Grant:
   Prof. Eric Dufresne, ME, ChE & Phys, has received
   an NSF Career Grant for his proposal "Self-Assembly
   and Direct Fabrication of Stimuli-Responsive
   Colloidal Materials Governed by Proteins." His
   research will seek to mimic nature and use proteins
   to create new materials that interact dynamically
   with their environments. The award is $400,000.
 
On the cover:
   ACS Environmental Science & Technology, the premier
   journal in the field, highlighted on its February 14 cover
   “A Vista for Microbial Ecology and Environmental Biotechnology,”
   a paper co-authored by Prof. Jordan Peccia, ChE & EnvE.

   Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PNAS:
   The February 21 cover of one of the world's premier
   publications highlighted an article describing recent
   work by Prof. Erin Lavik, BME& ChE, and Yale School of
   Medicine collaborators.
 
Poster award:
   There were 800 posters from U.S. and Argentina, Brazil,
   Canada, China, Japan, Ireland, Israel, Russia, South
   Africa, South Korea, and Turkey, and only 11 winners of a
   Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Poster Award last
   fall. One of the winners was “Poly(Ethylene Glycol)/Poly(L-Lysine)
   Hydrogels Promote Formation Of a Microvascular Network,” with
   3rd year BME graduate student
Millicent Ford as first author
   (she will receive a certificate and a check). Prof. Erin Lavik,
   BME & ChE, was the Faculty Adviser. Winners will be honored
   at the 2006 BMES fall meeting in Chicago.
 
Doctoral area examination:
   Blair Connelly­“Quantitative Characterization of Steady
   and Time-Varying, Sooting, Laminar Diffusion Flames Using
   Optical Techniques.” Committee: Prof. Marshall Long,
   Prof. Mitchell Smooke, and Prof. Richard, Chang.
   Feb. 28.
 
Submit a CRISP “seed” proposal:
   CRISP, the Yale NSF-MRSEC Center for Interface Structures
   and Phenomena, invites proposals for “seed” research in
   interface structures and phenomena. The CRISP Seed Committee
   will provide $20,000 per year for two years, primarily for equipment.
   Funding for student support is possible. Deadline: April 1.
   For specifics, visit < http://www.eng.yale.edu/aphy/crisp-seed.htm>
   or contact any member of the Seed Committee: Prof. Charles Ahn,
   Prof. Sean Barrett, Prof. Victor Henrich,
or Prof. John Tully.
 
National Engineers Week Trivia Tournament:
   A hilarious “Jeopardy”-style contest in Davies Auditorium ended
   National Engineers Week with students cheering on their
   departmental teams Men in Black (AP: Prof. Shankar, Prof. Ismail-Beigi),
   Hall and Oats (BME: Prof. Saltzman, Prof. Levene), Atoms’ Family
   (ChE: Prof. Haller, Prof. Loewenberg), Team Z Mismatch (EE, Prof.
    Köser, Prof. Yeh
), Earth and Sky (EnvE: Prof. Mitch, Prof. Peccia), and
   The Burninators (ME: Prof. Smooke, Prof. Dufresne). The teams
   competed answering student-generated questions on home repair, celebrity
   gossip, geography, musical instruments, engineering, and robots.
   Yale Engineering Design Team's
James Salzano ’06 was the suave MC.
   The Burninators clinched the prize with an answer to "This is
   the solution to this differential equation: y”+6y’+13y=0." A look
   at the fun event is provided by ME graduate student
Weiwei Deng,
   < http://pantheon.yale.edu/~wd65/trivia/>

End of Faculty of Engineering Bulletin 689

Current Engineering Bulletin