The School of Materials Engineering is honored to announce MSE senior, Joseph Thomas Muth, as the recipient of the prestigious G.A. Ross Award (Outstanding Senior Man). Purdue University bestows this honor upon a graduating senior who excels in the areas of scholarship, leadership, research and character. Recipients of this award are selected by the Office of the Dean of Students, and are chosen based on letters of support submitted by faculty, staff, and others within the community. We in Materials Engineering have benefited from Joseph’s talents as a scholar and leader, and we are very pleased that he has received this recognition from the broader Purdue community. Congratulations Joseph on this outstanding achievement.

The School of Materials Engineering is pleased to announce that Prof. Alejandro Strachan has been named a University Faculty Scholar for a five year term beginning this fall. He was selected for this honor by a panel of senior and distinguished professors in recognition of his outstanding accomplishments and contributions to the College of Engineering. The University Faculty Scholars program, started in 1998, provides faculty scholars with additional funding to support their research. Congratulations Professor Strachan.

Purdue MSE, CGT, and ECE researchers have demonstrated geometries that suppress the pyroelectric and piezoelectric-induced Stark Effect from nanorods for (In,Ga)N-based light-emitting diodes. By controlling the aspect ratio of the deposited layers, their deleterious effects on optoelectronic performance can be mitigated.

First-year MSE graduate student Tony Chung (R. Edwin Garcia, graduate advisor) has explored the underlying physics that govern a recently developed characterization technique, electrochemical strain microscopy (ESM), that utilizes the strong coupling between ionic current and anisotropic volumetric chemical expansion of lithium-ion electrode materials to dynamically probe the sub-one-hundred-nm interfacial kinetic intercalation properties. The performed analysis demonstrates that the local intercalation dynamics within a LiCoO2 thin film and the implications that such kinetics have on the macroscopic power density performance of currently used Lithium-ion batteries.

The School of Materials Engineering at Purdue University is pleased to announce Dr. Elliott Slamovich has been named the School's Interim Department Head, effective August 15, 2011.

The Purdue Center for Metal Casting Research (PCMC) is hosting a one-day workshop on July 21st at Stewart Center, Room 320 from 8:00 a.m.— 3:00 p.m to discuss with potential industry partners possible future projects, our capabilities, and our upcoming proposal to the National Science Foundation for an Industry/University Collaborative Research Center in metalcasting.

MSE student Joseph Muth has received the 2011 Bruce Helfert Memorial Award as THE outstanding junior student in the Purdue Colleges of Engineering and Science.