Household Plastic in Space? Cassini craft finds curious conditions in Titan's atomospere

Since 1990, Engineering Physics Professors Raul Baragiuola and Bob Johnson have been part of the  Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) team.  The spacecraft recently picked up evidence of propylene on Titan, a moon of Saturn.

From NASA:

NASA's Cassini Spacecraft Finds Ingredient of Household Plastic in Space

Sep. 30, 2013

NASA's Cassini Spacecraft Finds Ingredient of Household Plastic in Space

Cassini looks toward the night side of Saturn's largest moon and sees sunlight scattering through the periphery of Titan's atmosphere and forming a ring of color.
PASADENA, Calif. – NASA's Cassini spacecraft has detected propylene, a chemical used to make food-storage containers, car bumpers and other consumer products, on Saturn's moon Titan.

This is the first definitive detection of the plastic ingredient on any moon or planet, other than Earth.

A small amount of propylene was identified in Titan's lower atmosphere by Cassini's composite infrared spectrometer (CIRS). This instrument measures the infrared light, or heat radiation, emitted from Saturn and its moons in much the same way our hands feel the warmth of a fire.

Propylene is the first molecule to be discovered on Titan using CIRS. By isolating the same signal at various altitudes within the lower atmosphere, researchers identified the chemical with a high degree of confidence. Details are presented in a paper in the Sept. 30 edition of the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

"This chemical is all around us in everyday life, strung together in long chains to form a plastic called polypropylene," said Conor Nixon, a planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and lead author of the paper. "That plastic container at the grocery store with the recycling code 5 on the bottom -- that's polypropylene."

CIRS can identify a particular gas glowing in the lower layers of the atmosphere from its unique thermal fingerprint. The challenge is to isolate this one signature from the signals of all other gases around it.

The detection of the chemical fills in a mysterious gap in Titan observations that dates back to NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft and the first-ever close flyby of this moon in 1980.

Voyager identified many of the gases in Titan's hazy brownish atmosphere as hydrocarbons, the chemicals that primarily make up petroleum and other fossil fuels on Earth.

On Titan, hydrocarbons form after sunlight breaks apart methane, the second-most plentiful gas in that atmosphere. The newly freed fragments can link up to form chains with two, three or more carbons. The family of chemicals with two carbons includes the flammable gas ethane. Propane, a common fuel for portable stoves, belongs to the three-carbon family.

Previously, Voyager found propane, the heaviest member of the three-carbon family, and propyne, one of the lightest members. But the middle chemicals, one of which is propylene, were missing.

As researchers continued to discover more and more chemicals in Titan's atmosphere using ground- and space-based instruments, propylene was one that remained elusive. It was finally found as a result of more detailed analysis of the CIRS data.

"This measurement was very difficult to make because propylene's weak signature is crowded by related chemicals with much stronger signals," said Michael Flasar, Goddard scientist and principal investigator for CIRS. "This success boosts our confidence that we will find still more chemicals long hidden in Titan's atmosphere."

Cassini's mass spectrometer, a device that looks at the composition of Titan's atmosphere, had hinted earlier that propylene might be present in the upper atmosphere. However, a positive identification had not been made.

"I am always excited when scientists discover a molecule that has never been observed before in an atmosphere," said Scott Edgington, Cassini's deputy project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "This new piece of the puzzle will provide an additional test of how well we understand the chemical zoo that makes up Titan's atmosphere."

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The CIRS team is based at Goddard.

For more information about the Cassini mission, visit: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini .

John Scully recognized with International U R Evans Award from I-Corr

This September the Institute of Corrosion presented Professor John Scully with 2013 U R Evans Award. The award recognizes outstanding International Achievements in pure or applied corrosion science.  In addition being granted an Honorary Life Fellowship of the Institute, awardees are presented  a mounted sword on an engraved plaque.





Established in 1959, the Institute of Corrosion is the largest community of corrosion professionals in the UK.   The presentation was part of a joint meeting with the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Electrochem2013 at the University of Southampton .


Professor Scully is the Charles Henderson Chaired Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Co-Director of Center for Electrochemical Science and Engineering.

Professor Petra Reinke among first cohort of ADVANCE program awardees

The birth of stars. Gender and globalization. Municipal wastewater treatment. Surface reactions of nanostructures. These are the research areas of The first four female scientists and social scientists to receive grants from the University of Virginia’s National Science Foundation-supported ADVANCE Program. 

September 5, 2013 - UVA TODAY  by Anne E. Bromley

 

Two faculty members from the College of Arts & Sciences – Rachel Rinaldo, assistant professor of sociology, and Kelsey Johnson, associate professor of astronomy – and two from the School of Engineering and Applied Science – Lisa Colosi Peterson, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, and Petra Reinke, associate professor of materials science and engineering – are the first recipients of the fellowships, which will help them strengthen research networks and collaborations and advance their careers at critical junctions.
The program aims to support the representation and advancement of women in academic science, technology, engineering and math – referred to as “STEM” fields – and social, behavioral and economic science, or SBE, careers.

“U.Va. ADVANCE’s transformational work will improve the University’s capacity to recruit, compete for and advance top faculty talent. This work seeks to engage everyone in attaining these goals,” said Gertrude Fraser, the principal investigator for the ADVANCE grant. .
Fraser, vice provost for faculty recruitment and retention and associate professor of anthropology, leads a team of faculty that runs the ADVANCE Program. Other team members include Pamela Norris, associate dean of research and graduate programs and Frederick Tracy Morse Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; Joanne Cohoon, associate professor of science, technology and society in the Engineering School; and Sophie Trawalter, assistant professor of public policy and psychology.

The ADVANCE Enhancement Fellowships are being awarded twice a year, and the next deadline is Sept. 30. For information, click here.

The four professors, at critical junctures in their mid-careers, will be able to pursue specific career-enhancing activities with the one-year fellowships, worth up to $5,000.
For an American sociologist, Rinaldo has an unusual area of study: Indonesia. In researching gender, globalization and culture, she uses ethnographic fieldwork in studying Muslim and secular women activists in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, to look at how Islam and feminism are not as totally incompatible as they might seem.

“Gender and globalization is an emerging topic of interest among sociologists, anthropologists and specialists in gender studies,” said Rinaldo, who came to U.Va. in 2009. “Scholars in this field examine subjects such as how the global economy or international institutions are gendered; cross-border gender issues such as migration, transnational feminism and women’s movements; and transnational processes that are shaping gender and sexuality in various local and regional contexts.”

Rinaldo, whose first book, “Mobilizing Piety: Islam and Feminism in Indonesia,” was published this year, will use her grant to organize a symposium bringing together gender and globalization scholars to discuss emerging theoretical and empirical issues in this sub-field, as well as spur new research and potential collaborations.

“I am also hoping that faculty and students from other departments will participate, and that it will spur interdisciplinary discussion and collaboration,” Rinaldo said.
Astronomer Johnson has a specific reason for wanting to re-establish networks in her field: the associate professor took time off last year when she had her third child, and is ready to renew her professional activities full time. She will use her grant to attend an international meeting of the National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics in Mexico City focusing on massive young star clusters.

The ADVANCE grant is important, she said, because “it will facilitate my getting plugged back into my research community. ... I’m anxious to get my new data into the research field.”
Johnson is excited to present her research from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, known as ALMA, an observatory in Chile. She has observed the first known example of a short-lived stage of extreme star formation that is believed to have an important role in the early universe.

Reinke, the materials scientist, also will use her grant to support travel: she plans to visit several universities and national laboratories “to strengthen nascent collaborations and to present my work with several research groups who are at the forefront of science in my area of research,” she said.

At U.Va. for 10 years, Reinke defined her field briefly as “nano- and surface science, or materials science at surfaces.” She researches building blocks for nanotechnology and spintronics on very small surfaces. Spintronics is “an emerging technology using the intrinsic spin of the electron and its associated magnetic moment, in addition to its fundamental electronic charge, in solid-state devices.”

Reinke hails from Germany, where she worked before coming to Virginia.

“Coming to the U.S. was a unique opportunity and allowed me to move into a field of research which is truly interdisciplinary,” she said. “However, while I have retained many contacts in Europe and therefore am well-known internationally, my network in the U.S., both in terms of collaborations and national recognition, is not as strong and diverse, and needs to be developed in more depth to move my career to the next level.”

Using her grant close to home, Peterson will enhance not only her career but also those of graduate students. One of her goals over the next phase of her career is helping get more women into the STEM pipeline, as well as on her research team.

A member of the U.Va. civil and environmental engineering faculty for five years, she realized that her research team would benefit from having members at different stages of their education. She will offer a fellowship to an incoming graduate student next summer.

“It is my hope that offering a student a prestigious paid research position for the summer before she officially starts graduate school will make my group more attractive to qualified candidates,” Peterson said. “Also, by having the new student come in the summer, I can make myself more available to work with him or her before classes begin.”

She plans to visit several local colleges this fall to meet qualified applicants, encourage them to apply to the civil and environmental engineering department for their master’s and doctoral degrees – and invite them to consider working with her.

“I hope this approach will be successful and that I can build up networks of contacts to draw from in subsequent years,” she said.

In addition to the Enhancement Fellowships, the U.Va ADVANCE program consists of four other initiatives that aim to improve departmental climate, document the experiences of senior and retired women faculty, support search and selection and encourage innovative approaches to addressing underutilization of women in STEM and SBE academic careers.

Welcome New Students

Wadley's Group acquired 3 new students for the Fall 2013.  Welcome Anne Kyner, Xiaoyu Wang, and Prabha Senarath Pathirana. Click here for student directory.

Wadley's Group Concept Selected for ONR Testing

The Office of Naval Research has recently selected the groups thermal protection concept for deck thermal management for full scale ship trials after a series of tests on 24 ft by 24 ft test structure at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station using an Osprey helicopter.

JMPS Paper Ranked Amongst Most Popular of 2013

The Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids has recently announced the groups paper "Deformation and Fracture of Impulsively Loaded Sandwich Panels" was the 2nd most downloaded paper of the Journal in 2013.

Scott Kasen Awarded Ph.D.

Congratulations to Scott Kasen who was awarded his Ph.D. in Materials Science. Scott's thesis titled, Thermal Management at Hypersonic Leading Edges, explored the integration of liquid metal heat pipes into the leading edges of hypersonic vehicles.

Scott is employed at Cellular Materials International, Inc. as a Research Scientist.

Bradley Richards Receives Award

Congratulations to Bradley Richards for winning the 2013 Fred D. Rosi Outstanding Citizen Award recognizing his "overall contributions to the academic, educational and outreach goals of the MSE department and for exemplary teamwork."  Brad has also recently received a fellowship from the Virginia Space Grant Consortium for the coming year.

Emma Mitchell nets NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship

Congratulations to Engineering Physics student Emma Mitchell who was recently notified she has been selected to receive a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship.  The NESSF awards are awarded competitively and provide support for three years.  Emma, advised by Raul Baragiola, has concentrated her research on surface science and is currently investigating the formation and physical properties of ices on outer solar system surfaces by performing experiments on laboratory-scale analogs of extraterrestrial environments.

Need a 7 Kelvin, ultra low vacuum planetary environment? 
Emma Mitchell, pictured above in front of her lab equipment can
help create those conditions in LASP.  

 According to NASA:

The purpose of NESSF is to ensure continued training of a highly qualified workforce in disciplines needed to achieve NASA’s scientific goals:

Study planet Earth from space to advance scientific understanding and meet societal needs;
Understand the Sun and its effects on Earth and the solar system;
Advance scientific knowledge of the origin and evolution of the solar system, the potential for life elsewhere, and the hazards and resources present as humans explore space; and Discover the origin, structure, evolution, and destiny of the universe and search for Earth-like planets.

LASP lab-mate and fellow EP student Micah Schaible also won an Earth and Space Science Fellowship in 2010.   Having two winners of the competitive award in the same group reflects well on the high quality of work within the Laboratory for Atomic and Surface Physics.

Discrete Element Calculations of the Impact of a Sand Column Against Rigid Structures

A recently published paper in the IJIE explains the discovery of the fundamental mechanisms by which novel aluminum alloy sandwich structures interact with high velocity (explosively accelerated) sand particles that control the dynamic response.  To read the full article, click here.

Bailey Risteen and Lark Washington take top honors, make Rob Kelly proud

The top two undergraduate research competitions which feature engineering students are the SEAS- wide Undergraduate Research and Design Symposium (URDS) and the pan-University  President's Research Poster Competition.  This year's winners both had research based in materials science and both had Rob Kelly as their research adviser.  Not only did Lark Washington and Bailey Risteen each win a competition, but they both did so as non-4th years competing against students who had just wrapped up their 4th year undergraduate research projects.

L to R: Rob Kelly, Bailey Risteen, and Eric Schindelholz.

Third year Chemical Engineering student and Rodman Scholar Bailey Risteen (CHE '14) won first place at the SEAS-wide Undergraduate Research and Design Symposium with her poster and talk titled “Marine Aerosol Drop Size Effects on the Corrosion Behavior of Plain Carbon Steel.”  Eric Schindelholz, (MSE PhD Candidate in Kelly's group), designed and built the instrument Bailey used.  

L to R:  Lark Washington, Rob Kelly, and Jay Srinivasan. 

Lark Washington (CE '15) was the 2013 first place winner for Engineering Undergraduates in the President's pan-University Research Poster Competition, which recognizes research as central to the University's mission and seeks to showcase the  research endeavors that have significant impact for innovation and the Commonwealth.  Awards are divided into seven broad impact areas spanning the academic disciplines.  From the seven areas, three graduate and three undergraduate finalists are selected who then are ranked 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. Washington's poster, "The Cathodic Kinetics of 17-4 PH Stainless Steel," compared corrosion potential across atmospheric, coating, and surface variables.  Her research in Prof. Kelly's lab, assisted by graduate student Jay Srinivasan, was part of a REU offered in materials science by Prof. Jerry Floro in the summer of 2012.

In his typical self-effacing style, Professor Kelly remarked of the outstanding coincidence that "even a stopped watch is correct twice a day." 

Installation of robotically controlled TSD system complete

Wadley's research group has installed a state of the art thermal spray deposition system for robotically controlled coating of

ceramic matrix composites with multilayer thermal and environmental barrier coatings.

Beth Opila Elected ECS Fellow

Beth Opila was recently elected a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society, and will be formally inducted as part of the Class of 2013 at the ECS meeting in San Francisco.  This honor recognizes her scientific achievement and service to the society.

Beth joined the Materials Science and Engineering department in 2010 and has quickly established a thriving research group exploring high temperature materials, coatings, and oxidation of ceramic materials.  Much of her previous work at NASA Glenn Research Center focused on durability and protective coatings as well.

The ECS fellows program:

"Established in 1989 for individual contributions and leadership in the achievement of science and technology in the area of electrochemistry and solid-state sciences and current active participation in the affairs of The Electrochemical Society."

Congratulations Beth!


  

MSE Celebration and Recognition Tea Time

On Wednesday, May 1st, the MSE community gathered at 3:00 in Wilsdorf 101 to celebrate the accomplishments of our graduate and undergraduate students.



2013 Doris Kuhlmann Wilsdorf Outstanding Graduate Student Award – Eric J. Schindelholz: recognizing his “outstanding research achievements and exemplary contributions to the advancement of the MSE academic mission.”



2013 Fred D. Rosi Outstanding Citizen Award – Bradley T. Richards: recognizing his “overall contributions to the academic, educational and outreach goals of the MSE department and for exemplary teamwork.”



“In recognition of notable teaching and considerable skill in motivating and inspiring students, the University of Virginia presents its 2012-2013 Outstanding GTA Award in the School of Engineering and Applied Science Department of Materials Science and Engineering to” Matthew A. Steiner.



2013 Materials Science and Engineering Distinguished Undergraduate Award—Mark Hrdy: recognizing his “outstanding academic achievement and good citizenship.”

2013 Engineering Science Distinguished Undergraduate Award- Jeffrey R. O’Dell: recognizing his “exceptional achievement in research and academics.” 

 

4th Year Engineering Science student Carolyn Pelnik was recognized at the Tea Time for having received the SEAS Outstanding Student Award at the SEAS garden party on April 26th.

2013 Engineering Science Poster Symposium Awards:

Individuals:

First place: Matthew Perez

Second place: Dylan Royston and Jeffrey O’Dell (tie) 

Third place: Regan O’Brien

Groups:

First place:

Patrick Andersen

Keith Thomas

Niduk Basnayake



Second place:

Venita Jones

Mary Wright

Leanna Foster lands NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

Congratulations to Leanna Foster on earning a National Science Foundation Fellowship.  NSF graduate fellowships are among the most prestigious and competitive fellowships within STEM fields.  Foster, advised by John Scully, is currently researching potential applications leveraging the

inherent antimicrobial properties of copper alloys for use in medical surface applications.

The research has the potential to significantly decrease the risk of healthcare associated infections - among them, MRSA.  Foster plans to investigate model copper alloys in order to determine the effect of secondary alloys (zinc, nickle, aluminum, and tin) on ion release rates; copper ion release rates dictate both an alloy's antimicrobial effectiveness and its tarnish resistance rate.

While studying Chemistry at Christopher Newport University, Foster interned with The Mariners' Museum in their conservation lab, where she gained a keen interested in metallic corrosion.  Additionally,  at NASA Langley she worked on polymer research in the Materials Development and Processing branch.

...and she bakes great cakes.

Jack Dorning recieves Gerald C. Pomraning Memorial Award from ANS

The American Nuclear Society recently selected Jack Dorning, the Whitney Stone Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering Physics, for the 2013 Gerald C. Pomraning Memorial Award. The award from the American Nuclear Society recognizes individuals who have made "outstanding contributions toward the advancement of the fields of mathematics and/or computation."

The award is named for Dr. Pomraning, co-founder of SAIC (Science Applications International Corporation).   The award is administered by the Mathematics and Computations Division of the American Nuclear Society.

Additionally, Professor Dorning will deliver an invited plenary lecture at the meeting in which the award is given. 
The recipient of the Gerald C. Pomraning Memorial Award is determined by critical review and assessment of the credentials and qualifications of the candidate, and of her/his outstanding accomplishments and contributions that have benefited the fields of mathematics and/or computations that advance the understanding of topics of interest to the American Nuclear Society.

Ryan Comes: Perfect Spring

March was an excellent month for EP student doctor Ryan Comes: 

First, on March 15th Ryan, who is advised by Stu Wolf, successfully defended his PhD dissertation.  Also in mid-March, Ryan received word back from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.  Selected for the Linus Pauling Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship, he will hold a position within the Environmental and Molecular Sciences Laboratory at PNNL working on oxide molecular beam epitaxy.  He will start this summer.

image: pnnl

Finally, At the 2013 Spring Materials Research Society meeting (okay technically April not March) , Ryan received a Silver Award in the Graduate Student Awards final session.

During his career as a PhD candidate, Ryan has earned numerous awards including: Doris Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf Outstanding Graduate Student Award, 2012; SEAS Graduate Teaching Fellow in 2012;  he was a finalist for the 2012 Presidential Research Poster Competition, won 1st place at UVERS 2012, and 5th place at UVERS 2011.  Ryan also earned a highly competitive national NDSEG National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship in 2010.

An exciting spring to cap off a great graduate career indeed!

Matt Steiner Picks Up UVERS Award

Engineering Physics PhD student Matt Steiner took 5th place for his poster entry at the 2013 U.Va. Engineering Research Symposium (also known as UVERS) held Friday April 5th.  His research poster covered "Magnetic and Crystallographic Behavior of Epitaxial Fe38.5Pd61.5 Films Grown by Pulsed Laser Deposition."

Matt Steiner in 2012 preparing to run electron microscopy demos for the public

UVERS is a joint event between the Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies and the Graduate Engineering Student Council.  The symposium was initiated by graduate students nine years ago and has continued annually.  Each year graduate students present  research on topics ranging across disciplines at SEAS for top honors as well as cash awards.

CESE students take top honors at the National Association of Corrosion Engineers conference

 Over 6,000 people attended the National Association of Corrosion Engineers meeting last week. UVa had some notable accomplishments in the category of student awards.   In addition to the award winners below, there were numerous CESE students who gave excellent technical talks.

Highest student honor

Went to Andrew King, who received the A.B. Campbell Award for the best paper published in CORROSION in 2012 by an author under 35 years of age.  His paper was on the Mechanism of Function of a Magnesium Rich Primer Coating

This is the 4th time a student has won this award from CESE in recent years. Past students and faculty at UVA MSE/CESE have also won the award.

Awards for graduate poster session
There were 106 student posters presented in the graduate poster session.  Rebecca Schaller and Jay Srinivasan each received student poster awards.   Jay received the Third Place, Marcel Pourbaix Prize for the Best Poster in Corrosion Science.   Rebecca received the Mars Fontana - Corrosion Engineering 3rd place award. 

Rob Kelly Endowed AT&T professor of Engineering Chairship

Professor Robert G. Kelly will become the AT&T Professor in Engineering.

After joining the MSE department in 1990, Kelly became a full professor in 2004. In addition to serving as Co-Director of the Center for Electrochemical Science and Engineering at UVa, Professor Kelly is a Fellow of Nace, an H. H. Uhlig Award recipient, author of over 100 papers, and an often-lauded "best" teacher - having been selected as a favorite teacher by his students numerous times for his skills as an educator.

His research focus includes:

Studies of the electrochemical and chemical conditions inside localized corrosion sites in various alloy systems, corrosion in aging aircraft, development of embeddable corrosion microinstruments, microfabrication methods to probe the fundamentals of localized corrosion, and multi-scale modeling of corrosion processes. [Past] work has included work on the corrosion of metals and alloys in marine environments, non-aqueous and mixed solvents as well as stress-corrosion cracking and other forms of localized corrosion.


According to his bio, Rob is married "to a wonderful lady and their home is completed with a son and daughter, as well as two whippets and three two fish"

Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing holds Grand Opening

From CCAM news:  The Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing (CCAM) near Richmond, Va., today unveiled its new 62,000 square foot research facility during a grand opening event.   “The new CCAM manufacturing research center represents the expertise and passion of our industry members and university partners,” said Dr. Mike Beffel, CCAM Interim President and Executive Director. “With the goal of bridging the gap between leading edge research and product development, CCAM is at the forefront of new manufacturing processes.”

CCAM is a public–private collaborative research center that undertakes research critical to the surface technology and advanced manufacturing industries. The Prince George County, Va., facility was completed in late 2012 and features computational and engineering research labs, high bay production space for commercial scale equipment, and tools required for research in surface engineering and manufacturing systems.

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, who has helped further CCAM’s research and manufacturing goals, said, “Today’s opening of the CCAM research facility marks a pivotal moment for America’s global competitiveness. Companies that take the important step to join the CCAM research center in the Commonwealth of Virginia become partners of a one-of-a-kind asset in the U.S.—one that drives competitive advantage in the rapidly-transforming advanced manufacturing segment of our nation’s economy. The innovations produced at CCAM are cutting-edge, and the new facility will further Virginia as a hub for advanced manufacturing technology and high-skill jobs in the 21st century.”

Research is currently under way in the areas of surface engineering and new manufacturing systems. Approximately 50 student interns from Virginia’s participating universities – Virginia State University, the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech – will work alongside industry experts in several research areas at the new facility and in labs around the state.

CCAM industry members include Canon Virginia Inc., Chromalloy, Newport News Shipbuilding, Rolls-Royce, Sandvik, Siemens, Sulzer Metco, Aerojet, Hermle Machine Company, Mitutoyo, TurboCombustor Technology Inc., Buehler, Cool Clean Technologies, GF AgieCharmilles, and Blaser Swisslube. University members include Virginia State University, the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech.

The CCAM facility is located adjacent to the 1,000-acre campus of the Rolls-Royce engine component manufacturing facilities, Rolls-Royce Crosspointe.


by Cathy Gedvilas on the CCAM new: http://www.ccam-va.com/news/

ARCS Foundation awards Luk-Kun Tsui additional scholarship

Luk-kun Tsui, advised by Giovanni Zangari, recently earned a second ARCS Foundation (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists) scholarship.  ARCS, through these awards, aids in maintaining the scientific and technological edge of the United States and supports STEM field candidates working in areas of global impact.

Luk-kun's research seeks to advance utilization of TiO2 nanotubes to harness ultraviolet energy for photoelectric hydrolysis.  The potential implications of his research could lower the cost of harnessing solar energy, a key infrastructural concern.  This award is the second for Luk-Kun from ARCS the foundation.






From the ARCS website:

ARCS Foundation Metropolitan Washington Chapter (MWC), located in the Nation’s seat of government, is surrounded by our country’s largest defense, technology and research companies. It leverages an unparalleled opportunity to influence and respond to the National STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics - agenda.

Founded in 1968 by women from the District of Columbia, Virginia and Maryland, MWC is an integral part of a national organization committed to supporting the ARCS Foundation mission of advancing science and technology in the United States by providing financial awards to academically outstanding United States citizens studying to complete degrees in STEM fields.

NACE awards Mary Lin Lym and Cindy Shi book scholarships

NACE International announced the winners of the Book Scholarships for 2013: Mary Lyn Lim and Cindy
Shi. Only two awards were given out, and CESE students won both of them. Each will receive scholarships for $1,000 from the NACE foundation at the Corrosion 13' conference in 2013 in Orlando this March.  The NACE Foundation Book Scholarship:

"The NACE Foundation provides Book Scholarships to assist graduate students in the development of their corrosion libraries. This scholarship is given in the form of a credit to be used on-line in the NACE Bookstore"

Cindy Shi

Mary Lyn Lim giving a demonstration at 2012 Nanodays

Nanodays 2013: March 23, 2013

Jerry Floro put together a great Nano-days last year for the SEAS-wide open house which had over 650 visitors.  Part of a nationwide science effort, "NanoDays is a nationwide festival of educational programs about nanoscale science and engineering and its potential impact on the future." 

Ryan Comes selected as MRS Graduate Student Award finalist

Congratulations to Ryan Comes on being selected as a finalist for the Graduate Student Awards from the Materials Research Society for 2013 Spring meeting. During the MRS Spring Special Talk Sessions on April 2, selections for gold and silver levels will be made based on the presentations by award finalists.

According to MRS the awards:

Ryan Comes in the U.Va  Rotunda
presenting to President Sullivan

MRS Graduate Student Awards are intended to honor and encourage graduate students whose academic achievements and current materials research display a high level of excellence and distinction. MRS seeks to recognize students of exceptional ability who show promise for significant future achievement in materials research. Information regarding upcoming Graduate Student Awards is available below.

Ryan Comes is advised by Stu Wolf and conducting research in magnetic thin film  materials for electronic applications and next generation computing.

Andrew King earns NACE 2013 A.B. Campbell Award

Congratulations to Andrew King (MSE PhD) who has recently been selected as the 2013 A.B. Campbell Award recipient from the National Association of Corrosion Engineers. The A.B. Campbell Award recognizes the most outstanding manuscript published in Materials Performance or CORROSION Journal during the previous year by an author under 35 years of age at the time of submission.

Amongst the previous award winners are two U.Va faculty with the Center for Electrochemical Science and Engineering, a former MSE CESE student currently completing her post-doctoral experience, and four other UVa MSE CESE students, including Josh James (MSE MS 08').

King will give his award acceptance address at the CORROSION/13 conference in March.

John Scully Earns Willis Rodney Whitney Award

The WR Whitney Award is the highest technical honor given by NACE International, the largest international professional society concerned with corrosion science and engineering.

The award is given "in recognition of individuals who have made significant contributions to corrosion science, such as the development or improvement of a theory that provides a more fundamental understanding of corrosion phenomena and/or the prevention of corrosion." Prof. Scully will be speaking on his many contributions in the area of hydrogen embrittlement when he gives the award address at the NACE International meeting in Salt Lake City in March of 2013.

Having won the Campbell Award of NACE (for best paper by a young author, in 1985) and the Uhlig Award, Scully has achieved the “triple crown” of awards bestowed in electrochemical and corrosion engineering.

For those in the field, previous Whitney Award winners include Evans, Uhlig, Wagner, Hoar, Stern, Brown, Vermilyea, Parkins, Staehle, Kurger, Rapp, Shibata, Galvele and Newman.

In January, Prof. Scully also began his term as technical editor of the journalCorrosion. Scully was a unanimous choice of the NACE Publications Administration Committee for this editing post.