T
he mission of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering
is to produce B.S./M.S./Ph.D. graduates who can excel in leadership
positions in industry and academia at national and international levels.
Facts at a Glance
Tenure-Track Faculty FTE
11.2
Auxiliary Faculty FTE
1
Research Faculty FTE
2
Office Staff FTE
3
Technical Staff FTE
1
Undergraduate Students
84
Graduate Students
79
Ph.D. Awarded (06-07)
5
M.S. Awarded (06-07)
9
B.S. Awarded (06-07)
14
New Research Awards
$4.03M
Research Expenditures
$3.8M
Books, Chapters, Editorials
2
Refereed Journal Publications
70
Nat’l and Internat’l Awards Won
28
Drexel’s Materials Science and Engineering Listed
Among Top Ten MSE Programs Nationwide
In January 2007, The Chronicle of Higher Education announced that Drexel University’s doctoral program in Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) is rated among the top ten MSE programs nationwide,
according to the 2006 Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index, a research initiative partly funded by The State
University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook and produced by Academic Analytics.
Academic Analytics, a for-profit company, rates faculty members’ scholarly output at nearly 7,300
doctoral programs around the country. The company examines the number of book and journal articles
published by each program’s faculty, as well as journal citations, awards, honors, and grants received.
For more information about the 2006 Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index, visit
http://chronicle.com/stats/productivity/page.php?year=2006&primary=5&secondary=53&bycat=Go
read the complete annual report online at
2006-2007 Highlights
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14
19
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MSE Welcomes Two New Faculty
The Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Drexel University is pleased to
announce the addition of two faculty members. Dr. Ulrike Wegst joined the department as the
Anne Stevens Assistant Professor in September 2007. Dr. Mitra Taheri will join the department
as the Hoeganaes Assistant Professor of Metallurgy in the 2008 academic year.
Four Key Educational Programs Receive Funding
Three NSF-sponsored educational programs, the Drexel/UPenn IGERT graduate fellowship program, Research Experience for Undergraduates Site Drexel Research Experience
in Advanced Materials (DREAM), and Research Experience for Teachers-Nano, received
renewal funding. In addition, a Department of Education Graduate Assistance in Areas of
National Need program in the area of Computational Materials Science and Engineering
has been awarded to MSE.
Aaron Sakulich Receives Fulbright Scholarship
MSE Ph.D. student Aaron Sakulich (advisor: Dr. Michel Barsoum) has been selected as a
Fulbright student grantee to Morocco. Aaron is the first Drexel MSE student to receive a J.
William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship while enrolled as a student in the department.
Dr. Michel Barsoum Solves the Mysteries
of the Great Pyramids of Egypt
Professor Michel Barsoum, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Materials Science
and Engineering at Drexel University, and colleagues have found scientific evidence that
parts of the Great Pyramids of Giza were built using an early form of concrete, debunking
an age old myth that they were built using only cut limestone blocks. The results of his
study have been published in The Journal of the American Ceramic Society and syndicated
internationally.
MSE Alumna Anne Stevens Gives $1 Million to CoE
Anne L. Stevens (MSE, ’80), President and CEO of Carpenter Technology, Reading, PA,
has donated $1 million to Drexel University’s College of Engineering for a professorship and
four scholarships.
Please read on for a comprehensive look at
the department’s activities over the past year
www.materials.drexel.edu/ar/
From The Department Head
W
elcome to the 2006-2007 edition of the Annual Report of
the Department of Materials
Science and Engineering at Drexel University! I am pleased to share our accomplishments from this past year.
I am proud to report that The Chronicle
of Higher Education has announced that
Drexel University’s doctoral program in
Materials Science and Engineering (MSE)
is rated among the top ten MSE programs
nationwide. Determined by the 2006 Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index, this rating
is based on faculty publications, awards,
honors, and grants received.
Thanks to a generous gift from MSE
alumna Anne L. Stevens (MSE, ’80), $1
million total in scholarships and a professorship have been established for female
students and professors in CoE and MSE.
This gift is the largest ever given to the department and will help us to support those
students most in need.
This year, we also welcome two new
faculty, who will lead groundbreaking research at Drexel and continue to cultivate
outstanding students. Dr. Ulrike Wegst (Ph.
D.; University of Cambridge) joins the department as the Anne Stevens Assistant
Professor in September 2007. Dr. Mitra
Taheri (Ph.D.; Carnegie Mellon University)
will join the department as the Hoeganaes
Assistant Professor of Metallurgy in the
2008-2009 academic year. In addition to
bringing two new faculty on board, the de-
partment bid a fond farewell to Dr. Frank
Ko, an MSE professor since 1984, who retired this year.
With each passing year, we have been
host to an increasing number of topnotch
students. Undergraduate numbers have
gone up by
about 30 percent since 2002
and our students
continue to exemplify success.
Ph.D.
student
Aaron Sakulich
(advisor: Michel
Barsoum)
has
been selected
as a Fulbright
student grantee
to Morocco. Recent B.S./M.S.
graduate David
Steinmetz (advisor: Surya Kalidindi) will also represent
Drexel in Germany as a participant in the
Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for
Young Professionals (CBYX). In addition,
other MSE students have earned prestigious international awards and have gone
on to fill positions in world-class companies
such as Exxon-Mobil; Merck & Co., Inc.;
and Micron Technology.
Since our last report, the department
has seen tremendous growth in research.
Led by PI Dr. Yury Gogotsi, Drexel has
received a $1,000,000 grant from the
visit us online at
W.M. Keck Foundation for the project titled “Keck Institute of Attofluidic Nanotube-Based Probes.” In addition, Dr. Antonios Zavaliangos, Dr. David Fullwood,
and myself received a $511,524 Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need
(GAANN) award from the Department of
Education to fund Ph.D. students in the field
of computational materials science and engineering. This is the second GAANN grant
in our department.
Dr. Gogotsi, Dr. Jonathan Spanier, and
colleagues have also received a $3 million
NSF-IGERT grant to fund a total of twelve
Ph.D. fellowships at both Drexel and the
University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Christopher
Li received a $240,000 NSF grant with
the aim of achieving directed assembly of
metal/semiconductor nanoparticles using
soft materials.
Drexel’s NSF-sponsored DREAM Research Experience for Undergraduates
(REU) and Research Experience for Teachers (RET) Nano programs have also been
renewed for an additional three years.
In research, our faculty have been making their mark on the scientific world. Dr.
Michel Barsoum’s theory that the Great
Pyramids of Giza were cast of a reconstituted limestone concrete has been widely
publicized internationally. Dr. Michele Marcolongo was chosen to participate in the
National Academy of Engineering’s (NAE)
13th annual U.S. Frontiers of Engineering
symposium. Dr. Richard Knight was chosen
www.materials.drexel.edu
as the ASM Liberty Bell Delaware Valley
Materials Person of the Year.
Our superior research accomplishments
have been enabled by our advanced equipment. Most recently, the Materials Characterization Facility (MCF) has acquired a
new JEOL 2100 transmission electron microscope (TEM), which features X-ray energy-dispersive mapping and nano-beam
electron diffraction, among other capabilities. In addition, Dr. Spanier, Dr. Caroline
Schauer, Dr. Gogotsi, and colleagues received a $498,073 award from the NSF
Division of Materials Research under the
Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program to acquire a metrology and nanofabrication system.
On behalf of MSE, I invite you to explore the rest of this report to learn more
about our recent activities. As always, I
hope that if you are in the Philadelphia
area, you will stop by and see us. You can
also visit us at www.materials.drexel.
edu to learn more about our department’s
achievements.
Cheers,
Surya Kalidindi
Department Head and Professor
skalidin@coe.drexel.edu
Our Faculty
MAT E R I ALS FACULTY
Michel W. Barsoum (Ph.D., MIT)
Michele Marcolongo (Ph.D., U. of Penn.)
Roger D. Doherty (Ph.D., Oxford, UK)
Caroline L. Schauer (Ph.D., SUNY Stony Brook)
David T. Fullwood (Ph.D., London University, UK)
Wei-Heng Shih (Ph.D., Ohio State University)
Yury G. Gogotsi (Ph.D., Kiev Polytechnic, UA)
Jonathan E. Spanier (Ph.D., Columbia University)
Surya R. Kalidindi (Ph.D., MIT)
T.S. Venkataraman (Ph.D., WPI)
Richard Knight (Ph.D., Loughborough, UK)
Gleb Yushin (Ph.D., N. Carolina State University)
Frank K. Ko (Ph.D., Georgia Tech)
Antonios Zavaliangos (Ph.D., MIT)
Distinguished Professor
A. W. Grosvenor Professor (67% reduced position)
Research Assistant Professor
Professor
Department Head and Professor
Auxiliary Professor
Professor
Associate Professor
Assistant Professor
Professor
Assistant Professor, Interim Assoc. Dept. Head
Professor (50% in Physics)
Research Assistant Professor
Associate Department Head and Professor
Christopher Y. Li (Ph.D., University of Akron)
Assistant Professor
A F F I L IATED FAC ULTY
Franco Capaldi
Anthony Lowman
Bakhtier Farouk
Bahram Nabet
Adam Fontecchio
Giuseppe Palmese
Alexander Fridman
Karl Sohlberg
Haviva Goldman
Yen Wei
Selçuk Güçeri
Margaret Wheatley
Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering & Mechanics
J. Harland Billings Prof. of Mech. Engineering & Mechanics
Assistant Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering
John S. Nyheim Chair Prof. of Mech. Engr. and Mechanics
Assistant Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy
Dean of the College of Engineering
Associate Professor of Chemical & Biological Engineering
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Department Head of Chemical & Biological Engineering
Professor of Chemistry
Professor of Chemistry
John M. Reid Prof. of Biomedical Engineering and Science
E M E R I TUS FAC ULTY
Roger Corneliussen
Ihab Kamel
Jack Keverian
Alan Lawley
Fellow of the National Academy of Engineering
Samuel K. Nash
Harry C. Rogers
visit us online at
New Faculty
The Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Drexel University is
pleased to announce the addition of two faculty members. Dr. Ulrike Wegst joined
the department as the Anne Stevens Assistant Professor in September 2007. Dr. Mitra
Taheri will join the department as the Hoeganaes Assistant Professor of Metallurgy in
the 2008 academic year.
Dr. Ulrike G.K. Wegst
Dr. Mitra L. Taheri
Ulrike G.K. Wegst received her Ph.D. in
2001 from the University of Cambridge for
her analysis of the Mechanical Performance of
Natural Materials. From
2001 to 2007 she was a
staff scientist at the Max
Planck Institute for Metals
Research, Stuttgart, Germany. Since 2005, she has
been a Visiting Scientist
at the Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory.
Dr. Mitra L. Taheri is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow with Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory in the Chemistry,
Materials, and Life Sciences
Division and a Guest Scientist in the National Center
for Electron Microscopy at
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She earned
her Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering at
Carnegie Mellon University
in Pittsburgh, PA, in 2005.
The goal of Dr. Wegst’s research on biological materials is to understand the relationship
between their structure, mechanical properties and function. To achieve this, she combines mechanical property measurements at
a number of length scales of the material’s
hierarchical structure, ranging from macroscopic to in-situ testing in SEM and FIB, with
microstructural examination by electron microscopy and X-ray tomography, and modeling. Her research results, such as the development of novel nanocomposites for bone
regeneration, have been captured in her
software-based Biomimetic Design Guide
tool to enable the systematic transfer of biological principles of function and efficiency
to technology.
Dr. Taheri’s research interests range from the development of the ultrafast Dynamic Transmission Electron Microscope (DTEM) for the study of
laser-induced microstructural evolution/phase
transformations in nanostructured materials such
as Al Alloys, GaN nanowires and Silicon nanowires, to the use of various in-situ Transmission
Electron Microscopy techniques. Specific applications of these techniques include In-situ TEM
annealing and laser-induced transformations
using the DTEM, In-situ TEM-based deformation
and nanoindentation of nanostructured metallic
and ceramic materials, and In-Situ TEM-based
electrical biasing of conducting materials, including nanowires and nanotubes. Dr. Taheri’s
groundbreaking research has been published
in Science, Journal of Applied Physics, and other
reputable peer-reviewed journals.
www.materials.drexel.edu
Faculty News
Dr. Michele Marcolongo Appointed
Associate Vice Provost for Research
Dr. Michele Marcolongo, Associate Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE), has been appointed Associate Vice Provost for Research. Dr. Marcolongo will be responsible for external research
affairs and interfacing with the community outside Drexel.
Dr. Marcolongo joined the MSE Department in 1997. She is a graduate
of the University of Delaware (B.S., Mechanical Engineering), Drexel University (M.S., Mechanical Engineering) and the University of Pennsylvania (Ph.
D., Bioengineering). Her industry experience includes positions she held at GE
and DuPont before joining Drexel. Her research focuses on orthopaedic biomaterials and implant biomechanics, such as the development of technology
for intervertebral disc replacement, which was adopted by a major medical
device manufacturer for further development.
MSE Alums Come Together for a Fond Farewell to Dr. Frank Ko
More than 70 Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) faculty, staff, students, and alumni gathered on May 4 at the University Club in MacAlister Hall to celebrate the retirement of Dr. Frank
Ko—who joined the department in 1984—as
part of Drexel University’s Alumni Weekend.
The admission costs gathered from guests for
the event will be used to support the A.W. and
Dorothy Grosvenor and Michael J. Koczak Scholarships. In addition, alumnus Frank Nowicke, Jr.,
made a generous donation of $1,000 to the department’s scholarship funds.
Research Faculty Members Accept Faculty Positions
Two MSE research faculty members have accepted faculty positions.
Dr. David Fullwood (left), Research Assistant Professor in the Department
of Materials Science and Engineering, has accepted a position as tenure-track
Associate Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Brigham
Young University in Provo, Utah. Dr. Fullwood joined the small materials science
and engineering group that is part of BYU’s mechanical engineering department beginning on August 15, 2007.
Dr. Gleb Yushin (right), Research Assistant Professor in the Department of
Materials Science and Engineering, joined the School of Materials Science and
Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology as a tenure-track Assistant
Professor in July 2007.
visit us online at
Our Staff
Materials Department
Sheila Berninger
A. J. Drexel Nanotechnology
Institute (DNI)/MCF/MFF
Dustin Doss
Director of Microscopy
Stephanie Janes
Nanotechnology Program Coordinator
Andrew Marx
Director of Microfabrication Facilities
Keiko Nakazawa
Nanotechnology Business Coordinator
MSE Program Coordinator
Technical Staff
Office Assistant
Technology Coordinator
Office Assistant
Dorilona Rose
Dee Breger
Holly Burnside
Peter Finkel
Shirin Karsan
Zhorro Nikolov
Director of MCF
Operations Manager
Judy Trachtman
Academic and Financial Coordinator
MSE staff members are no strangers to busy schedules
and busy lives. In addition to hard work at Drexel, the MSE
staff can be found engaging in graduate degrees, hobbies,
and time with family.
In March of this year, Dorilona Rose was promoted to
Operations Manager. In her new position, Dorilona acts as
the primary liaison between faculty and staff and is responsible for the oversight of staff activities in MSE. Dorilona also
oversees recruitment and retention for the department, as
well as the proposal submission process, the administration of
the GAANN programs, and strategic growth initiatives. Outside of MSE, Dorilona is currently working on her M.S. thesis
in arts administration and settling into her new house.
Together, Dorilona and Sheila Berninger, Materials Program Coordinator, co-wrote a story about Dr. Michel Barsoum, distinguished professor of materials science and engineering, published in LiveScience.com on May 18, 2007.
The story, which focuses on Dr. Barsoum’s findings that the
Great Pyramids of Giza are partially constructed of limestone-based concrete, was syndicated on News.Softpedia.
com and Yahoo.com.
Staff member Andrew Marx, Technology Coordinator, is looking forward to
finishing his M.S. in MSE in the coming year. When not sitting in front of a computer,
he can be found biking, gardening, or
critiquing microbrews. He also promotes
his environmental mantra of reduce, reuse,
recycle--in that order.
www.materials.drexel.edu
Long-time MSE staff member Judy Trachtman, Academic and Financial Coordinator, is pleased to have welcomed first grandchild Chava Bennah Trachtman into the
family, daughter of son Marc and daughter-in-law Tracey,
born on January 9, 2007. This past year, Judy and husband, Lou, also visited son Adam and daughter-in-law Petra at their home in Prague with a stop in Amsterdam along
the way.
Newest MSE staff member, Keiko Nakazawa, Office
Assistant, is also pursuing her M.S. in Arts Administration at
Drexel. Keiko is a member of the Drexel Gospel Choir and
previously interned at the Kimmel Center. Keiko hails from
Japan and during her undergraduate studies, participated
in an exchange program at Earlham College in Richmond,
IN. She is thrilled to be experiencing the rich and vibrant
Philadelphia arts community.
We are also proud of the achievements of our fellow
technical staff members. In particular, Materials Characterization Facility staff member Dee Breger, director of microscopy, was recently quoted in a lead story in the Science
section of The New York
Times for her involvement
with the Holocene Impact
Working Group. The story
has also led to a one-hour
documentary called “Holocene Oceanic Impacts” on
the History Channel’s Mega
Disasters series.
Materials Students
A Colorful Background
Taking the Initiative
B.S./M.S. student Holly McIlwee started her research
experience early in her student career in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Drexel
University. In her pre-junior year, she began working in
Dr. Caroline Schauer’s lab
on colored thin films, something that she found very
interesting and unlike any
science she had studied
before.
MSE students have a reputation for taking the
initiative. B.S./M.S. student Lemoda (Lee) Laim first
approached his advisor Dr. Jonathan Spanier as a
sophomore and requested to work in his research
group. Throughout his course of study, Lee exhibited tremendous initiative in Dr. Spanier’s laboratory in his research on the chemical vapor deposition system for nanowire growth. He also became
highly skilled in using scanning electron microscopy,
electron beam lithography, and scanning probe microscopy. His research has focused on identifying
growth conditions to synthesize nanostructures that
will be the building blocks of the next generation
of electronics and the fabrication and characterization of plasmonic lenses for nano-photonics.
“In the Natural Polymers and Photonics (NPP)
lab, we are working to fine
tune structural color for applications such as a novel
camouflage or an optics
based sensor,” Holly says. “We primarily use chitosan,
an abundant, nontoxic, and biodegradable biopolymer
which is found in nature in crab shells and fungus.”
In the NPP lab, Holly uses chitosan to fine tune structural color for applications such as an optics based sensor. Chitosan makes the brilliant color found in butterflies,
crab shells, and other natural materials. Holly, along
with other researchers in Dr. Schauer’s lab, is working to
replicate the stacked thin film layers of chitosan and air
that make the color, and to produce tunable color. The
resulting product, a biopolymer chitosan, would have
the potential to replace synthetic polymers used for
food packaging and medical applications.
Lee’s work has
been published in
JACS Communications and he has
co-authored a review paper on the
optical properties
of nanocones in the
Journal of Raman
Spectroscopy.
“Sharing ideas and getting advice from other
graduate students in the lab during this experience has
really made me excited about grad school and the
project I will be working on then. I have worked in this
lab for 3 years and will have a wealth of experience
when I graduate,” Holly says.
In addition, he
is the recipient of the department’s Undergraduate Research and Outstanding Undergraduate
Awards, the Dean’s Scholarship, the Michael J. Koczak Scholarship, and the University’s Outstanding
Graduate Student Award. Lee also served as the
president of MESPO, the undergraduate Materials
Science and Engineering society at Drexel. Upon
graduation, he accepted a position at Micron Technology, Inc.
In addition to studying and spending time in the lab,
Holly was also a member of Drexel’s crew team and
spends her free time biking around Philadelphia, running, and doing arts and crafts. She expects to graduate in June 2008.
10
“The research caught my interest from the start.
It provided me with more opportunity than I could
have ever expected,” Lee says.
“The last 5 years I have spent here have been
busy, but very worthwhile,” Lee says.
to read more student profiles, visit Profiles in Excellence
From Research to Applications
Never Too Late
Stephen Niezgoda first became interested in
materials while working as an aircraft mechanic.
“I witnessed vibration-induced fatigue cracking in
sheet metal, stress corrosion, and delamination in
composite materials. I became curious and wanted to learn more about why
materials break,” he says. It
was Stephen’s curiosity that
led him—although somewhat indirectly—to Drexel.
Not everyone recognizes their interest in materials science and engineering at an early age. For
some, it takes years of working in a different arena
before they realize that materials is the right field
for them.
Stephen came across a
story in American Scientist
written by Dr. Michel Barsoum, Distinguished Professor in Materials Science
and Engineering, and began corresponding with him
about machinable ceramics. “Dr. Barsoum always politely wrote me back
and answered my questions in layman’s terms. I
decided that if the faculty at Drexel were this
helpful, then Drexel was the right place for me to
finish my degree,” Stephen says.
Stephen now performs his own interesting research as a B.S./Ph.D. student on the development
of a mathematical framework based on statistics
to explain how the structure of materials and material properties change with time during many
processing applications. His research will help engineers choose the best possible material for their
design projects and develop the best material for
a project if one does not already exist.
“The results of the research I am doing has
the potential to save countless person-hours of research and development, and to push the level of
material performance to new levels. The applications to aerospace and the automotive industry
are limitless,” Stephen says.
Zakiya Carter, currently pursuing a B.S. in MSE,
worked as a computer programmer for more than
five years before she gave even a second thought
to a degree in MSE. The September 11, 2001
tragedy affected many IT
companies, including hers,
and she soon found herself
working a government job
that was not in her field at
all.
“It was then that I realized it was time to go back
to school,” Zakiya says.
Zakiya was looking into
physics and chemistry degrees that she could pursue
on a part-time/evening basis at Drexel when Professor John DiNardo, current
Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and professor of
physics, turned her on to materials.
“I initially thought the field would be too small
and narrow, but I read an introductory text on nanotechnology that Dr. DiNardo suggested, and I was
hooked,” she says.
Now Zakiya’s experience at Drexel has literally created her post-graduation plans. She hopes
to attend graduate school to pursue her interest in
organic electronic devices, eventually becoming a
professor.
“I would have never imagined myself as a professor, or pursuing a Ph.D. before I came to Drexel.
I wasn’t even sure if I could handle the coursework
until I did it, and did it as well or better than many
of my classmates, even though I was a little bit older
than the traditional students.”
www.materials.drexel.edu/ar/studentprofiles
11
EXCELLENCE IN SCHOLARSHIP
Doctor of Philosophy
Elizabeth Hoffman, Ph.D.
Zuyan Shen, Ph.D.
Carbide Derived Carbon from Max-Phases and
Their Separation Applications
Supervising Professors: M. Barsoum & Y. Gogotsi
Current position: Senior Research Engineer,
Savannah River National Laboratory, Aiken, SC
Synthesis, Fabrication and Characterization
of PZT/SiO2 Piezoelectric Micro-Cantilever
Sensors
Supervising Professor: W.-H. Shih & W.Y. Shih
Current position: Yield Engineer III, FUJIFILM
Dimatix Inc., Santa Clara, CA
Lingyu Li, Ph.D.
Polymer Crystallization Enabled Carbon
Nanotube Functionalizations: Morphology,
Structure and Applications
Supervising Professor: Christopher Li
Current position: Senior Engineer, Analytical Science,
Dow Chemical Co., Freeport, TX
María Pía Rossi, Ph.D.
Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy
Study of the Interaction of Carbon Nanotubes
with Fluids
Supervising Professor: Yury Gogotsi
Current position: Post-doctoral Fellow, Tissue
Engineering and Biomaterials Science, Rutgers
University, Piscataway, NJ
Master of Science
Stephen Kodjie (Li)
Lemoda Laim (Spanier)
Benjamin Legum (Gogotsi)
Alex Moseson (Barsoum)
Pamela Panos (Zavaliangos)
David Steinmetz (Kalidindi)
Wenhai Wang (Zavaliangos)
Jennifer Vondran (Schauer)
Saujanya Yachamaneni (Gogotsi)
12
Xianping Wu, Ph.D.
Prediction of Crystallographic Texture Evolution
and Anisotropic Stress-Strain Response During
Large Plastic Deformation in 2-Titanium
Alloys
Supervising Professor: Surya Kalidindi
Current position: Corporate Strategic Research,
ExxonMobil Research and Engineering,
Annandale, NJ
Bachelor of Science
Yujia Dong
John Murphy
Adrian Gurga
Pamela Panos
Young Ham
Melanie Patel
Bryan Kulesza
David Schlier
Gus LaBella
David Steinmetz
Lemoda Laim
Ryan VanderMeulen
Alex Moseson
Cristin Yavorsky
visit us online at
Alumni Impact
MSE Alumnus Accepts
Position with ASEE
MSE Alumnus Ranjan Dash
Receives Carbon Award
MSE Alumnus Dr. Thomas Juliano
(2005, advisor: Yury Gogotsi) accepted the
position of Academic Programs Manager
with the American Society for Engineering
Education (ASEE). Dr. Juliano officially started
the position at ASEE’s
headquarters in Washington D.C. in late May.
Dr. Ranjan Dash (2006, advisor: Yury
Gogotsi) was the recipient of the 2007
Elsevier (CARBON) Prize from Carbon,
the international journal sponsored by the
American Carbon Society and published
by Elsevier, for his research on Nanoporous
Carbons Derived from Binary Carbides and
their Optimization for
Hydrogen Storage.
The Carbon prize
of $1,000 is given
to
recent
Ph.D.
graduates. According
to Professor Peter A.
Thrower,
Editor-inChief, Carbon, there
were a record number
of candidates for
this year’s prize and nearly 100 pages of
nomination letters and thesis summaries had
to be carefully read and evaluated.
As an Academic Programs Manager at ASEE,
Dr. Juliano will primarily
lead efforts to promote
the National Science
Foundation (NSF) graduate student fellowship.
Included in these efforts will be organizing
outreach programs for universities nationwide, increasing the visibility of fellowships
administered by ASEE, and streamlining
the fellowship application process.
Dr. Juliano also hopes to get involved
in activities such as creating workshops for
educators and students alike, publishing
articles in engineering education journals,
helping with K-12 engineering education
development, and presenting at various
conferences.
“I wholeheartedly encourage more
Drexel students, faculty and administration
to become more involved with fellowship
opportunities, whether it is in the form of
applying, motivating others to apply, or
serving as a panel review judge for the
awards,” Juliano says.
www.materials.drexel.edu
Dash graduated in 2006 from Drexel
with a dual Ph.D./M.B.A. He was the first
Drexel student to complete these degrees
simultaneously, and was the recipient of the
Most Likely to Enhance Drexel’s Reputation
Award (Engineering and Physical Sciences)
presented by the Graduate Studies Awards
Committee. Since graduating from Drexel,
Dash has been working for Maxwell Technologies, the leading U.S. manufacturer of
supercapacitors and other energy storage
and power delivery devices. He was also
invited to serve on a Department of Energy
(DOE) panel on the future of electrical energy storage.
13
Educational
Summer Programs
Each year the Department of Materials Science
and Engineering is host to several exciting summer
programs for students. Drexel Research Experience
in Advanced Materials (DREAM) supports 10 to 15
undergraduates to work with Drexel faculty members
in nanomaterials, biomaterials, and the design and
processing of advanced materials. SENSORS: From
Design to Implementation is a ten-week research
program on sensors from science to application for
undergraduate students. Materials Camp—a weeklong academic camp that features highly interactive,
lab-based activity tailored to individual student interest—catered to high school students in their junior
and senior years. The Summer Engineering Experience at Drexel (SEED), which allows high school students an opportunity to gain hands-on experience
and knowledge about the world of engineering,
holds Materials Mondays for its participants, where
they get face time with materials students, faculty,
and staff to learn more about materials.
DREAM Receives Funding
for Three More Years
The Department of Materials Science and Engineering is proud to announce that three-year-old Drexel Research Experience in Advanced Materials (DREAM) has
been renewed for an additional three years.
Funded by the National Science Foundation,
DREAM was launched in 2004. It will be funded for
$300,000 for the next three years. DREAM continues
as one of three REU programs in the College of
Engineering at Drexel.
DREAM student Kelly Ware
works on polymer membranes
for methanol fuel cells
14
Professor and Head
of the Department of
Materials Science and
Engineering, Dr. Surya
Kalidindi, has acted as
the director of the program since its beginning.
Professor Antonios Zavaliangos is Co-Director.
In addition to running the program, Dorilona Rose,
Operations Manager, contributed significantly to the
writing and renewal of the DREAM proposal. This
year, Sheila Berninger, MSE Program Coordinator,
assisted Rose in administering the program.
Dr. Yury Gogotsi Receives
Renewal for RET-Nano
Dr. Yury Gogotsi, Director of the A.J. Drexel
Nanotechnology Institute (DNI) and Professor of MSE,
along with Dr. Dawn Bonnell, Trustee Professor of
MSE at the University of Pennsylvania, has received a
renewal for his National Science Foundation Research
Experience for Teachers grant in Nanotechnology
(RET-Nano). This grant will renew a successful collaboration with Penn. The RET-Nano program will fund
18 teachers from regional high schools and community colleges for six-week summer research experiences each year. With help from faculty and graduate
student advisors and program staff, RET participants
will design web sites, technical posters, and classroom
activities based on their research topics.
Nanotechnology spans a wide variety of traditional science and engineering disciplines, making it
possible to be integrated into high school science and
mathematics classes. This program will expose hundreds of prospective students to the outstanding work
done in the College of Engineering. Holly Burnside,
DNI Program Coordinator, and Joanne Ferroni, Director of Outreach and Development, have contributed to the management of the RET programs and to
the preparation of this proposal. The budget for this
three-year project is $500,000.
$3M NSF-IGERT Grant
Awarded to Drexel and Penn
Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania have been awarded a $3 million grant from
the National Science Foundation entitled “IGERT Fellowships in Nanoscale Science and Engineering: The
Two-University/One Campus Approach.” Dr. Yury
Gogotsi (MSE) serves as the PI along with co-PIs Drs.
Jonathan Spanier (MSE) and Mun Young Choi (MEM)
visit us online at
I niti a tive S
and Dawn Bonnell and
Alan T. Johnson from the
University of Pennsylvania. Holly Burnside, Program Coordinator for
the Drexel Nanotechnology Institute, manages the
IGERT program and was
instrumental in putting this
proposal together.
This grant will fund
six Ph.D. traineeships at
Drexel and Penn each per
year for the next 5 years.
This renewal continues an
NSF-IGERT Trainee Christopher
ongoing successful educaHobson in his second year of Ph.D.
tional collaboration bestudy involving the production and
tween Drexel and UPenn.
characterization of nanodiamondOver the last five years,
metal composites
the IGERT program has
helped to attract high-quality graduate students to
Drexel’s College of Engineering.
MSE Receives Second
GAANN Award
Drs. Antonios Zavaliangos (PI), Associate Department Head and Professor in the Department of MSE,
Surya Kalidindi (Co-PI), Department Head and Professor of MSE, and David Fullwood, Research Professor of MSE, are the recipients of a $511,524 Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN)
award from the Department of Education. The threeyear grant, titled “Computational Materials Science
and Engineering GAANN,” began August 15, 2007. Dr. Mun Choi (MEM) and Mr. Stephen Cox (Director
of Regional AMP) serve as project co-directors. Dorilona Rose, Operations Manager in the Department
of Materials Science and Engineering, significantly
contributed to the writing of the grant and will take
the lead on administering the program.
GAANN provides need-based fellowships to fund
Ph.D. students who will receive exceptional training in
research and education in the field of computational
www.materials.drexel.edu
materials science and engineering in the critical areas
of novel materials and nanotechnology; defense applications; manufacturing, design, and optimization;
digital signal processing in materials characterization;
and bioengineering and bioinformatics. This year’s
GAANN marks the second award of its kind for MSE,
bringing the total number of current GAANN site programs for Drexel to five (there have been six GAANN
awards total in Drexel’s history) – which is the largest
number in the country.
MSE Hosts Hands-On Experience
for Philadelphia Youths
The Department of Materials Science and Engineering welcomed about 100 young students from
the Exodus to Excellence Summer Program to learn
about materials on Friday, July 27.
Exodus to Excellence is a nonprofit organization
that serves the youth of the greater Philadelphia
area by introducing them to enrichment programs
during summer camps, school year workshops, and after school enhancement
labs. The program’s students visited Drexel as
part of a partnership
with Drexel’s Alliance
for Minority Participation (AMP), an endeavor that promotes the
success of minority students pursuing degrees
in science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics disciplines.
“The Department of Materials Science and Engineering values the opportunity to introduce local students to materials science, all aspects of engineering,
and the thriving university environment,” Dr. Surya Kalidindi, Department Head and Professor of Materials
Science and Engineering, said. “We’re delighted that
the feedback from the Exodus to Excellence participants was so positive.”
15
&
Awards
Knight Named
ASM Delaware Valley
Materials Person of the Year
Dr. Richard Knight, Auxiliary Professor,
has been chosen as the ASM International
Liberty Bell Chapter Delaware Valley Materials Person of the Year. Dr. Knight is Immediate Past President of the
ASM Thermal Spray Society (TSS), and has been
a member of TSS since its
founding in 1993. He was
named a Fellow of ASM International in 2003 in recognition of his contributions
to thermal spray research
and technology.
Dr. Knight serves as Faculty Advisor for the Drexel
University Material Advantage Student Chapter, and has served as faculty coordinator for the annual ASM Materials
Camp held by the ASM Philadelphia “Liberty
Bell” Chapter and MSE. His contributions to
ASM were recently highlighted in a profile
published in the August 2007 edition of Advanced Materials & Processes magazine.
Barsoum
Receives
University
Research/
Scholarship
Award
Dr. Michel Barsoum,
Distinguished Professor of
Materials Science and Engineering, has received the
16
inaugural Drexel University Research/Scholarship Award for the discovery of kinking nonlinear elastic deformation of solids, a fully reversible deformation mode, which is observed
in a wide range of materials, including geological and ceramic materials, graphite, and
hexagonal metals. He was recognized for this
accomplishment at a formal dinner held on
May 30th, 2007 in Behrakis Grand Hall.
The Drexel University Research/Scholarship
Award honors outstanding faculty for seminal
accomplishments in research, scholarship, and
creative works. More specifically, this award
recognizes faculty members for specific work
that has impacted a field in a way that significantly augmented thinking, understanding, or trends among other practitioners and
scholars. The award includes a citation which
summarizes the particular accomplishment and
$10,000 to be placed in a designated account to further the goals of the work.
Gogotsi Appointed
Co-Editor of Carbon
Dr. Yury Gogotsi, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Director of
the A.J. Drexel Nanotechnology Institute, has been
appointed Co-Editor of
Carbon, an international
journal sponsored by the
American Carbon Society
and published by Elsevier.
One of the top materials journals in the world,
Carbon publishes papers
about research on carbonaceous solids with an emphasis on graphene-based
materials.
for a complete list of awards, visit
&
Achievements
Alex Moseson
Receives Arthur E. Focke
LeaderShape Award
B.S./M.S. student Alex Moseson (advisor: Michel Barsoum) is the recipient of the ASM International Arthur E. Focke LeaderShape Award. The
ASM-funded scholarship sponsored Alex’s attendance at the LeaderShape
Institute in summer 2007, a
program that helps student
leaders develop valuable
skills to aid them both professionally and personally.
The six-day program held
at the University of Illinois
Conference Center at Allerton Park, near Champaign, Illinois, is designed
to help young people learn
to “lead with integrity”
with a “healthy disregard
for the impossible,” according to ASM International’s Web site. Each day of the program is dedicated to a different focus such as “Building Community” and “Bringing Vision to Reality,” among
others. Each session is comprised of approximately
60 students, ages 17 to 25, sponsored by various
organizations from diverse ethnic, religious, and
cultural backgrounds. Since 1986, over 20,000 international participants have graduated from the
program.
Moseson is the third MSE student to receive this
award in the past five years. Graduate students
Hari Duvvurru (advisor: Surya Kalidindi) and Siddartha Pathak (advisor: Surya Kalidindi) also received the award.
“I hope that my participation in the LeaderShape program will enhance my career and provide me with the knowledge I will need to pass
along to my future students once I become a university professor,” says Moseson. “I hope that our
www.materials.drexel.edu/ar/awards
research on Earth Cements will benefit society by
helping those in poorer countries to cheaply build
sustainable housing, while also reducing CO2 production.”
Dejan Stojakovic
Receives Dragomir Nicolitch
Chartable Trust Scholarship
Dejan Stojakovic (advisor: Dr. Surya Kalidindi), materials science and engineering doctoral
student, received the $3,000 Dragomir Nicolitch
Charitable Trust Scholarship from the Studenica
Foundation to support him in the 2006-2007 academic year. This is the second consecutive year in
which Dejan has received this prestigious award.
The award is given to a student of Yugoslavian descent who, in addition to having obtained
exemplary grades (Dejan
has a 4.0 GPA), shows
leadership potential at his
or her respective graduate institution and a desire
and ability to pursue a life
in some form of public service and leadership. MSE
alumni Svetlana Dimovski
(2006) and Milan Ivosevic
(2006) also received this award.
Upon receiving his Ph.D. from Drexel, Dejan
plans to apply his knowledge and leadership skills
in industry, while continuing to share his love of science with other students.
“I feel very strongly about promoting science
among high school students and that is where I see
myself doing public service and contributing to the
community,” Dejan says. “I believe that dividing my
time between working in industry and encouraging
young people to explore science and engineering
will put into practice what I was taught at Drexel
University.”
17
&
Awards
David Steinmetz Receives
Scholarship For Youth
Exchange Program
Materials Science and Engineering B.S./M.S.
student David Steinmetz (advisor: Surya Kalidindi) has received a scholarship to participate
in The Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for
Young Professionals (CBYX). Intended primarily for young
adults in business, technical,
vocational,
and agricultural fields, the
scholarship
program has
a strong focus on cultural
exchange and
is designed to
give participants an understanding
of everyday
life, education,
and
professional training
in both GerDavid in front of the Köln Philharmonic
many and the
Orchestra and the Kölner Dom
(Cologne Cathedral)
United States.
The Bureau of
Educational and Cultural Affairs of the Department of State, under the authority of the Fulbright-Hays Act of 1961, sponsors the program
in the United States. In Germany, the program is
funded through the Administration of the Bundestag and administered in Germany by InWEnt:
Capacity Building International. For the first
two months of the program, David will immerse
himself in extensive German language courses
at the Carl Duisberg Center in Köln. He will then
18
study four months at RWTH Aachen University.
For the remainder of his stay, he will focus on an
internship. David plans to complete his internship
at the Max Planck Institute for Iron Research in
Düsseldorf. David’s Drexel co-op experience
in Switzerland inspired him to pursue the CBYX
program. “I enjoyed my co-op in Switzerland
and wanted to travel to Europe again after
graduation. Germany has many excellent opportunities for engineers,” David says. “I also
want to become fluent in a foreign language,
and because of the German I learned in Switzerland, it made the most sense. CBYX fit the bill
for exactly what I wanted to do.”
Burg Eltz, owned by the Eltz family for 34 generations
for a complete list of awards, visit
&
Achievements
Aaron Sakulich Receives
Fulbright Scholarship
MSE Ph.D. student Aaron Sakulich (advisor: Dr.
Michel Barsoum) has been selected as a Fulbright
student grantee to Morocco. Aaron is the first Drexel
MSE student to receive a
J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship while
enrolled as a student in
the department.
Sponsored by the
United States Department of State, Bureau of
Educational and Cultural
Affairs, the Fulbright
Program provides funding for students, scholars,
teachers, and professionals to undertake graduate study, advanced
research,
university
Aaron wearing Moroccan garb:
a jalaba, fez, and babouches
teaching, and teaching in
elementary and secondary schools. According to its Web site, the Fulbright
program is designed to increase mutual understanding between the peoples of the United States and the
people of other countries.
Aaron no doubt will live up to the program’s expectations. He was accepted into a five-week intensive language training program in Moroccan Arabic
that began in Morocco in summer 2007. He will live in
Morocco for approximately one year. During his time
in Morocco, he will be working at the University Hassan II-Mohammedia near Casablanca. The institution
is known to be one of the premier science institutes in
the Arab world and is located in the largest city and
financial center of the country. While there, he will
continue his research that he has conducted at Drexel
with Professor Michel Barsoum: developing simple,
low-cost, natural building materials to help developing countries care for their population.
“Africa has a distinct need for an easy to make,
cheap, environmentally friendly alternative to tradi-
www.materials.drexel.edu/ar/awards
tional cement,” Aaron says. “While in Morocco, I hope
to move from making and testing formulae in a lab
environment to accelerated testing and characterization, and finally to field testing the material I develop
for use as a building material.” The location and
climate of Morocco will be especially conducive to
research of materials for an alternative to cement
and will shed light on areas of success and improvement in his project, he adds.
Aaron applied for the program in Morocco because he minored in French while at Drexel. In addition, the opportunity to travel around Africa was an
important factor. At the end of the program, he plans
to spend a few months traveling and sightseeing.
“I’ve heard that North Africa has some of the
most beautiful scenery in the world, and after seven
years of living in the city, a change of atmosphere
really appealed to me,” says Aaron. “I also hope to
gain a broader cultural understanding. I think most
of the world’s largest problems stem from groups of
people not understanding each other. That said, my
goal is that this project I am working on will help
build a better world for the international community
as a whole.”
19
Major Research
Gogotsi and Colleagues
Receive $1 Million
W.M. Keck Foundation Grant
Drs. Yury Gogotsi (MSE), Gary Friedman (ECE),
Bradley Layton (MEM), Jane Clifford (College of Medicine), and Elisabeth Papazoglou (School of Biomedical
Engineering) have received a $1,000,000 grant from
the W.M. Keck Foundation for
the project titled “Keck Institute
of Attofluidic Nanotube-Based
Probes.” A major institutional effort led by President Papadakis
and the Office of Institutional Advancement helped to add Drexel
University to the prestigious list of
Keck Foundation grantees.
The goal of the Keck Institute
of Attofluidic Nanotube-Based
Probes is to design and build
nanotube-tipped probes: tiny
and versatile tools that will create opportunities in areas such as minimally invasive intra-cellular probing
and drug delivery, single-cell surgery, molecular scale
manufacturing, and environmental sensing. These tools
may lead to breakthroughs in our ability to directly
detect and treat disease, such as cancer, at the cellular level and to dramatically improve the ability to
detect toxins in air and water at the single molecule
level, identifying possible biological attack and other
threats.
“We were among the first in the world to study fundamentals of fluid behavior in individual nanotubes,”
according to Gogotsi, Principal Investigator for the
project.
Members of the research team have already produced nanotube-tipped capillaries with the ability to
transfer fluid and to perform cell injections. They have
also created carbon nanotubes that incorporate magnetic and gold nanoparticles.
“The challenge that we now face is to fine tune
the design and function of nanotube-tipped probes
and demonstrate their usefulness for cell interrogation,
sensing and other applications,” Gogotsi said.
20
Barsoum and Spanier
Receive DURIP Awards
Drexel University’s Department of Materials Science
and Engineering has received two Defense University
Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) awards from
the Army Research Office (ARO).
Dr. Jonathan Spanier (PI), Assistant Professor in the
Department of Materials Science
and Engineering, is the recipient of
a $160,000 DURIP, titled “Acquisition of an Atomic Layer Deposition
(ALD) System,” that will support
his research on developing multicomponent semiconducting and
functional oxide nanostructured
materials and devices. Distinguished by its self-limiting reaction
chemistry, ALD is an increasingly
important and versatile vaporphase deposition process route for
producing a variety of inorganic elemental and compound thin-films with monolayer control.
Dr. Michel Barsoum (PI), Distinguished Professor in
the Department of Materials Science and Engineering,
and Dr. Peter Finkel (Co-PI), Director of Microfabrication Facilities in the Drexel Nanotechnology Institute, are
the recipients of a $90,000 DURIP titled, “Acquisition of
Equipment to Study Linear and Nonlinear Acoustic Phenomena,” to acquire a specialized complex ultrasonic
system for the study of linear and nonlinear acoustic
phenomena in solids. This equipment is capable of simultaneously measuring the attenuation of sound and its
velocity in solids, acoustic emission (AE) from the samples
under load, and determining the elastic constants by
measuring acoustic resonances using a Resonant Ultrasonic Spectroscopy (RUS). “The acquisition of this system
is not only important for research and understanding of
a huge new class of solids identified as kinking nonlinear
elastic (KNE) solids, but it also will be used for the routine measurements of elastic properties and damping in
newly developed composites and engineered materials
as a function of temperature and other external parameters,” says Dr. Barsoum.
for a complete list of grants visit
Initiatives & Activities
A Cure for Sepsis?
Designer Sorbents for
Cytokines May Help Save Lives
Researchers from Drexel University and the
University of Brighton in the U.K. have achieved
groundbreaking results, which may significantly improve the treatment of sepsis. Their article, entitled
“Mesoporous Carbide-Derived Carbon with Porosity Tuned for Efficient Adsorption of Cytokines,”
co-authored by G. Yushin, E. N. Hoffman, M. W.
Barsoum, Y. Gogotsi, and colleagues, has been
published online and opened the December issue
of Biomaterials (v. 27, pp. 5755–5762, 2006).
Sepsis is an uncontrolled immune response to
infection or severe trauma that results in 1,500
deaths worldwide every day, on a scale comparable to those caused by lung and breast cancers.
Sepsis occurs when proteins, called cytokines, released by the immune system in response to infection, create an intense state of systemic inflammation, which damages healthy tissue and can lead to
organ failure.
Sepsis can be treated by hemofiltration, but the
efficiency of treatment is limited by the filter material. The most popular filter material currently in
use is activated charcoal. In fact, its ability to treat
poisoning has been known for over three thousand
years. It works by adsorbing small organic molecules.
Despite this, even advanced activated carbon, with
a surface area over 2000 m2/g, falls short when
larger biological molecules, such as proteins with
characteristic dimensions over 5-10 nm, need to be
removed from the human body or biological fluids. Most of the pores in activated carbon are too
small and only a small fraction of the surface area
is available for adsorption. Surprisingly, technology for production of medical adsorbents has not
changed much during the last century and only a
limited control over pore size can be achieved.
The U.S./U.K. team has developed a novel method that allows the creation of carbon adsorbents
with the desired size of pores. The new method uses
www.materials.drexel.edu/ar/grants
selective etching of inorganic crystalline carbides.
The formation of pores is governed by a self-assembling process.
“The beauty and power of our technology is its
ability to fine tune the carbon microstructure and
pore-size to target a specific application,” says Dr.
Yury Gogotsi, director of the A. J. Drexel Nanotechnology Institute (DNI) and a co-inventor of the technology. Gogotsi’s team and his collaborators from
Brighton, led by Prof. Sergey Mikhalovsky, tested
the new adsorbents for the removal of inflammatory cytokines from blood for the treatment of severe
sepsis
and
obtained
groundbreaking
results.
The nano-engineered adsorbents outperformed
any
other
materials or
methods in the
Mesoporous carbon used for sorption of
efficiency of
cytokines in blood plasma.
cytokine adsorption and the results are comparable only to
highly specific antibody-antigen interactions. The
development of these materials could be a major
step towards fighting severe sepsis.
Similar materials could be used for the selective
adsorption of other large organic molecules and
possibly viruses for other bio-related or medical
applications. “Maybe one day we will be able to
apply our technology to fight Hepatitis C or bird
flu or HIV,” says Dr. Gleb Yushin, research assistant
professor at the Drexel Nanotechnology Institute
and lead author on the journal article that reports
this work.
InfectionControlToday.com, PhysOrg.com, NewsWise.com, MedIndia.com, NanoWerk.com, MarketWire.com, weekly e-mail service Nano Medicine
News and the United Press International Web site
syndicated the article.
21
Featured Publication
Barsoum’s Research on the Great Pyramids
Gains International Recognition
Professor Michel Barsoum, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Drexel University, and colleagues have
found scientific evidence that parts of the Great
Pyramids of Giza were built using an early form of
concrete, debunking an age old myth that they were
built using only cut limestone blocks.
The results of his study were published in the
December issue of The Journal of the American Ceramic Society (“Microstructural Evidence of Reconstituted Limestone Blocks in the Great Pyramids of
Egypt,” by M. W. Barsoum, A. Ganguly, G. Hug).
Although this discovery does not solve all of the
construction mysteries of the pyramids, the impact
of these findings has great potential for developing
countries and for the construction industry. The basic raw materials used for constructing these “geopolymers,” as this early form of concrete has been
dubbed, can be
found virtually
any where in the
world. Replicating this method
of construction
would not only
be cost effective
and long lasting, but would
also produce less
carbon dioxide
than the process
used for creating
Portland Cement,
the current buildExample of the legendary tightness of fit
ing material of
between blocks of outer casing of
choice.
Queen’s pyramid of Khufu
22
The outer casing of the Bent Pyramid at Dahshour. The lower side
was exposed when the underlying block fell away, revealing an
egg-shaped cavity that bridges the two massive blocks. From its
morphology, it is unlikely that this feature would have been formed
due to erosion or natural processes. It would also be extremely
unlikely that the two massive blocks were carved to accommodate
such an inclusion. Says Dr. Barsoum, “This cavity is only explainable
if these blocks were cast on an existing egg-shaped inclusion that
subsequently fell off when the lower block fell off.”
Professor Barsoum presented his findings at a
news conference on November 30, 2006, at Le Palais de la decouverte in Paris, France.
News about Dr. Barsoum’s findings have been
reported in numerous international publications and
widely syndicated. The research has appeared
in the New York Times, Natural History Magazine,
Materials Performance, on the home pages of the
National Science Foundation (NSF) and LiveScience
Web sites, and in a total of more than 50 international online and print publications, as well as radio
and television broadcasts. Dr. Barsoum’s internationally publicized research was also the topic of the
Engineering New Frontiers Lecture held on February
23, 2007 as part of the Drexel University College
of Engineering Annual National Engineers Week,
sponsored by Arkema, Inc. and Lockheed Martin.
for a complete list of publications visit
Partnerships
with Industry
Gogotsi and Colleagues’ Nanodiamond Research
Makes Front Page of Philadelphia Business Journal
Dr. Yury Gogotsi, director of the A.J. Drexel Nanotechnology Institute and Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, was featured on the front page of the June 29 to July 5, 2007, weekly edition of the
Philadelphia Business Journal for his collaboration with
NanoBlox Inc. Dr. Gogotsi’s research team, led by
Dr. Vadym Mochalin, developed a technology that
enables nanodiamonds to be used for the various applications envisioned by NanoBlox.
According to NanoBlox’s chief technology officer
Chuck Picardi, nanodiamonds can be used for drug
delivery, drug diagnostics, medical imaging, nonstick cookware surfaces and engine lubricants, among other
applications.
Before nanodiamonds can be used, however, they need to be purified.
“My group has patented and licensed to Nanoblox an air oxidation process that improves on the industry standard because it is less expensive, less harmful to the environment, more efficient, and scalable
to bulk nanodiamond powder production,” Gogotsi said.
Drexel Nanotechnology Institute’s (DNI) collaboration with
Nanoblox, Inc., was also featured in the April 2007 edition
of KEYnotes, the newsletter of
the Ben Franklin Technology Partners (BFTP). BFTP works to diversify and strengthen Pennsylvania’s
economy by focusing on entrepreneurial development and technological innovation.
Drexel’s A.J. Drexel Nanotechnology Institute is part of The
Nanotechnology Institute (NTI), a
A TEM micrograph of a 5 nm NanoBlox nanodiamond (left); a nanodiamond
particle used in computational simulations (right)
collaboration led by Ben Franklin
Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Drexel University, and The University of Pennsylvania. It is the first comprehensive model
of its kind designed to facilitate the research, development, and commercialization of nanotechnology’s
real world applications.
www.materials.drexel.edu/ar/publications/
23
Supporting MSE
MSE Alumna Anne Stevens Gives
$1 Million to MSE and CoE
Anne L. Stevens (MSE, ’80), President and CEO of
Carpenter Technology, Reading, PA, has donated $1
million to Drexel University’s Department of MSE and
the College of Engineering for a professorship and
four scholarships. This gift marks the largest contribution to MSE to date.
The Anne Stevens Scholarship Program for Young
Women was established with a $500,000 gift from
Stevens and the Lockheed Martin Corporation Directors Charitable Award Fund. The program
will provide four scholarships to
female students in the College
of Engineering. Two scholarships
will be specifically reserved for
students in the Department of
Materials Science and Engineering who demonstrate academic
merit and financial need. The
other two scholarships will be
awarded to students in any department within the College of
Engineering.
Stevens also helped the university to establish the $500,000
Anne Stevens Professorship for Young Women Faculty
in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering with a gift from the Lockheed Martin Corporation
Directors Charitable Award Fund. Recipients of the
Assistant Professorship will hold the position for up to
five years, or until they receive tenure. The initial gift
has enabled the department to hire Dr. Ulrike Wegst,
increasing the composition of the MSE faculty to 40%
female—the highest percentage in the department’s
history.
Anne Stevens became President and CEO of Carpenter Technology in November 2006. Prior to this
position, she was Executive Vice President of Ford
Motor Company and Chief Operating Officer, The
Americas at Ford. In her role at Ford, she was the first
female executive vice president
in company history. In addition,
Stevens serves on the Lockheed
Martin board of directors, the
Council of the Americas board,
and is a trustee of the Women’s
Automotive Association International. Previously she served on
the Board of Trustees at Drexel
University. In 2001, she was
honored with Drexel’s College
of Engineering’s Circle of Distinction Award and in 2003 she
received the Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Distinguished Alumna Award. She
was named a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2004 and also was
honored with a distinguished service citation from the
Automotive Hall of Fame. Stevens has been named
four times to Fortune magazine’s list of the “50 Most
Powerful Women in Business” and was named by Automotive News as one of the 2005 “Leading Women
in North American Automotive Industry.”
Support MSE!
The Department of Materials Science and Engineering gratefully acknowledges its donors.
Your generosity will benefit both current and future MSE students and faculty, reaching well
beyond the classroom and lab. If you are interested in making any form of contribution to
the department, please visit http://www.materials.drexel.edu/support/.
24
to support MSE visit
A Special Thanks to All MSE Donors!
Stephen M. Alberico
John A. Alice
Air Products Corporation
Alliance Technologies
American Ceramic Society
American Chemical Society
David A. Armbruster
Allen J. Armstron
Aileen M. Ather
ATMI
Eileen M. Bailey
Donna C. Barksdale
Thomas H. Bieniosek, Ph.D.
Boeing Philadelphia
Ronald A. Bonina
Gregory R. Booker
Peter R. Boyles, Jr.
Robin P. Brobst
Melvin Brody
Bruce C. Bucari
Donald F. Byrnes
Frank Cebular
Central Machine Products Co.
Harvey P. Cheskis
Lawrence J. Choman
Robert Edward Clark
Roland C. Cochran
Henry E. Collins
John F. Conrad
James A. Cooper, Jr., Ph.D.
Benjamin H. Cranston
William Crawford
Ernest J. Czyryca
Keith R. D’Alessio
Anthony J. DeArdo
Luciano DelGaone
Glenn A. Diehl
George E. Dieter, Jr.
Nancy R. Dieter
Roger D. Doherty
George Du
William J. Durako
E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co.
Donia S. El-Khamy
Blake L. Ferguson
Peter Finkel, Ph.D.
John W. Forney, Jr.
Thomas A. Frederick
Robert L. Freed
GCE Market, Jaydeep Patel
Allan S. Gelb
General Motors Corporation
Michael S. Gennaro, Jr.
GKN Foundation
Global Protection
Robert J. Gordon
Edwin H. Gray III
Lisa K. Gray
Harry M. Green
Frank P. Hampton, Ph.D.
Francis G. Hanejko
Kolby Harman
J. Walter Harrington III
Scott F. Harting
Louis M. Heidelberger, Esq.
Edward R. Hein
Hoeganaes Corporation
Arnold H. Holtzman
Craig A. Hoogstraten
Bruce D. Horn
Margaret Horn
Paul R. Howard
Richard Hudic, Jr.
Robert O. Hutchins
Joseph J. Junod
Daniel J. Kahan
Melvin R. Kantz, Ph.D.
Milind B. Kasbekar
Andrew J. Kegel, Jr.
Ajmal Khan
Miss P. M.Kline
Chester H. Knapp
Susan D. Kohlman
William G. Kohlman
Peter J. Koros
Bryan S. Kulesza
John T. Lahner
Hoa L. Lam, Ph.D.
Alex D. Landsperger
Alan Lawley
Ronald H. Leopold
Richard C. Lewis
Xiaoping Li, Ph.D.
Christopher Y. Li
Benjamin J. Lloyd, M.D.
Lockheed Martin Corporation
Joseph C. Lucas
Shivanand I. Majagi
Edward J. Mannion
Norman S. Marcus
Jay M. Marku
John N. Marshall
Alvin G. Massinger
Millard S. Masteller, Ph.D.
Michael W. Mato
Michael J. McDermott
Donald G. McDonnell
Michael J. McDonough
Patrick J. McGeehan
John C. McGraw
Thomas J. McIntyre
John McKelvie
John R. McLaughlin
Dennis L. Merkel
Joseph T. Michalak
Michael J. Micklus
Troy A. Miller
Eugene P. Munday III
Edward J. Murphy, Jr.
Charles I. Myers
Michael Myers
Burke E. Nelson
Michael W. Nichols
A. Stanley Norkiewicz, CFP
Frank L. Nowicke, Jr.
Kathleen D. Oliveto
Michael D. Oliveto
Michael G. Palilonis
Ruth A. Pavone
PECO Energy Co.
M. Robert Pinnel
Gwenaelle Proust, Ph.D.
Christopher S. Rapseik
Donald N. Reed
David M. Rein
Joseph H. Ricketts, Jr.
Richard D. Robinson
Anthony D. Rollett
Joseph S. Rutecki
Edward J. Ruzauskas
Edwin A. Schlotzhauer
William J. Schumacher
Ernest L. Schwenk
Jay R. Shaner
Eugene Shapiro, Ph.D.
Yakov P. Shkolnikov
Victoriya Shtessel-Nemzer
John E. Singleton
Joseph W. Slusser
Richard P. Smith, Jr.
Ryan L. Smith
Richard H. Snyder
Heru Soebroto
Charles E. Sohl III
Daniel E. Sonon
Mary B. Sordi
Charles E. Spencer
Susan P. Spurgeon
John W. Staudt
Mona S. Stenz
Anne L. Stevens
William E. Stevens
Lewis H. Stivitts, Jr.
Team PA Foundation
Steven T. Thornton
Judith L. Trachtman
Chris Vargas
T. S. Venkataraman
William E. Voss
Glenn E. Watson
Paul K. Whitcraft
Gerald B. Willbrant
Margaret A. Willbrant
David W. Williams
Walter L. Winterbottom
Cristin C. Yavorsky
Donald S. Young
Walter T. Young
Albert Zalcmann
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25
Drexel University
Department of
Materials Science and Engineering
2006-2007 Annual Report
News Editor
Dorilona Rose
Contributing Editor
Sheila Berninger
Layout and Design
Andrew Marx
1
2
4
3
5
7
6
8
9
1: SiC whiskers, as-produced (NMG)
2: Lee Laim working in MML Lab
3: Thin film produced by NPP Lab
4: SiC whiskers, etched (NMG)
5: Cristin Yavorsky working in SRG Lab
6: Wire-bonded Nanoworms (MML Lab)
7: Germanium Nanospirals (MML Lab)
8: Holly McIlwee working in NPP Lab
9: Silicon Nanocones (MML)
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