Dana Elzey Wins Kinnier Award

Kinnier Award To Help Elzey Engage a New Generation of Engineering Teachers

— By Charlie Feigenoff
 Dana Elzey, associate professor of materials science and engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Virginia, was a logical choice to be the inaugural recipient of a new award named for Henry Lee Kinnier.

Dana Elzey

Kinnier was an engineering alumnus (chemical engineering, 1942) and professor known for his kind and helpful guidance to generations of engineering students. He died in 2009.
The new award in his name represents an expansion of the Ernest “Boots” Mead Endowment program, which, in honor of the longtime U.Va. music professor, annually provides faculty with modest funds to find new ways to work closely with students outside the classroom. A new endowment honoring Kinnier allowed engineering faculty to participate this year for the first time.
“Professor Kinnier was a much beloved faculty member in the Engineering School, who, like Ernest Mead, was a special friend to students for many decades,” said Tom Darbyshire, a 1982 alumnus who heads the Mead Endowment. “In his honor, former students are contributing money so that an engineering faculty member will be able to participate each year.”
Like Kinnier and Mead, Elzey is known for engaging with students, just as Thomas Jefferson intended with his design for the Academical Village. “Dana helps students understand the power of engineering to change the world as well as to change the way they think about the world,” said Engineering School Dean James H. Aylor. “He’s also a great believer that our students learn best through doing.”
The project Elzey developed with his Kinnier Award funding illustrates this approach. One of his goals is to give students who are considering a career in engineering education the opportunity develop an engineering class and teach it. He plans to recruit a small group of interested third-year students and host a series of dinner seminars to expose them, as he says, “to the inner workings of the teaching profession.”
One method is to invite colleagues to talk over dinner about their motivations for becoming professors and their experiences as faculty members. “It’s important that students begin to see faculty as people and to imagine living their lives,” he said.
But as is typical for Elzey, he moves beyond empathy to experience, challenging students to develop an introduction to engineering presentation for 11th graders. Students will be asked to approach the challenge as they would a design project: setting goals and delivering a program that best meets their requirements. “There are a million ways of doing this,” Elzey said. “Their goal is to find the idea that has the highest probability of success.”
Elzey’s Kinnier Award program serves another goal: raising the profile of engineering among high school students who have strengths beyond math and science. “As an engineer, you have to know your math and science,” he said, “but you also need to be able to manage and organize a project, place it in the larger context and communicate your decisions clearly. I see the Kinnier Award as an occasion to make engineering a consideration for a broader selection of students.”

 http://news.virginia.edu/content/kinnear-award-help-elzey-engage-new-generation-engineering-teachers

Wadley garners "Distinguished Scientist Award"

Wadley is known for both broad and deep scientific contributions and scholarship that span fundamental materials research and materials design, and materials synthesis and processing. He has published more than 400 technical papers, which have been cited nearly 4,300 times in the archival literature.

Hadyn Wadley
(Photo: Dan Addison)

His work merges science and engineering, using fundamental physics principles to guide the design and development of sophisticated processing and fabrication of materials for use in engineering, such as blast- and impact-resistant materials for defense against improvised explosive devices.

Wadley has served as president of the former U.Va. Patent Foundation, now UVa Innovation, and is a 15-year member of the Defense Sciences Research Council of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, for which he has served as both associate chair and chair. The council, made up of 16 eminent scientists, engineers and physicians, identifies major areas for new scientific inquiry for transformational advances to national security, such as exploitation of space, new approaches to highly functional prostheses for injured service members and mitigation of blast injuries, among others.

"Professor Wadley's scientific contributions, scholarship and service to his profession, the University and the nation are extraordinary," said James H. Aylor, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science. "Since he arrived at U.Va. 16 years ago as professor and senior associate dean for research, he has been a model for productivity, leading research that spans fundamental materials research and materials design and materials synthesis and processing."

Wadley's research and innovation have resulted in 18 patents, which have led to the creation of two Charlottesville companies, Directed Vapor Technologies Inc. and Cellular Materials International Inc., and to intellectual property licensing by U.Va. to the commercial sector.

Three of the University of Virginia's most prominent faculty researchers – infectious diseases physician Dr. Michael M. Scheld, materials science engineer Haydn Wadley and cell biologist Judith White – have been selected as its 2012 Distinguished Scientists.



The U.Va. Distinguished Scientist Awards, created in 2006 by the Office of the Vice President for Research, annually honor faculty members who have made extensive and influential contributions in the sciences, medicine or engineering during their careers at U.Va.

Scheld, Wadley and White were honored in July during a reception and dinner at the Colonnade Club.

"These scientists have created new paths in their respective fields, with impact on the world," Thomas C. Skalak, vice president for research, said. "From the mysteries of the living cell to sophisticated design of engineered materials to treating infectious diseases, they have moved into territories that had never been explored before. In doing so, they've provided a role model for the next generation of scientists."

Nominations for the Distinguished Scientist Award are accepted each year from U.Va. department chairs and faculty. A panel of faculty peers judges the nominees based on their publications, awards and comments from peers outside the University regarding quality and societal impact of their research. They are chosen for distinguishing U.Va. through a significant body of nationally and internationally recognized research conducted at the University over a lengthy period of time. The winners each receive a $10,000 grant to enhance their research activities.

Reposted from UVA TODAY | by Fariss Samarrai

Wadley previously named Inventor of the Year

In addition to his 2012 honor receiving the  "Distinguished Scientist Award," Professor Wadley previously was honored by the U.Va. Patent Foundation as the 2004 Inventor of Year.  That award recognized his both his "path-breaking research" as well as "entrepreneurial spirit".  He is currently the only faculty member to have been honored with both awards.

University of Virginia News

May 19, 2004:

“Haydn is a good example of a 21st-century, university scientist who maintains his intense focus on fundamental research, while appreciating the practical importance of the technology he is developing,” said Robert S. MacWright, executive director of the U.Va. Patent Foundation. “His work has the potential to make significant contributions both to the U.S. economy and to our national defense.”
Herr noted that potential contributions to the local economy also were a factor in the decision.
“Haydn is an example of an inventor who is working in an entrepreneurial way to form Virginia companies to keep his technology in Charlottesville so the local community can benefit,” he said.
Wadley currently has 25 patent applications at varying stages of approval, said Alan Bentley, Patent Foundation assistant director. The U.S. Patent Office can take up to five years to issue a patent, particularly when the applicant plans to secure international, as well as domestic, intellectual property protection, he said.

Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing Builds Core Team

From CCAM "In the News" :

Matt Stremler (MSE CGEP 10') join CCAM as one of the project leaders for surface engineering and will manage and perform research projects in surface engineering, primarily in coatings and related processes and materials.   Stremler, who holds an MS in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Virginia, joins CCAM from Newport News Shipbuilding. His background is primarily in polymeric coatings and associated preparation, application and inspection processes.
 

About the Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing

CCAM is a research-based collaboration between the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, Virginia State University and manufacturing companies worldwide. Manufacturers join CCAM as members and guide research leveraging both university faculty and CCAM scientists in two focus areas: surface engineering and manufacturing systems. CCAM is building a 60,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art research facility in Prince George County, Va., adjacent to Rolls-Royce’s jet engine components plant. 

It will open in September 2012.

Congratulations to Kevin West, Jiwei Lu, and Stu Wolf on their recent publication in the Journal Nature

Kevin West, Jiwei Lu, and Stu Wolf were among affiliated authors on the article "Terahertz-field-induced insulator-to-metal transition in vanadium dioxide metamaterial" in the July 11, 2012 issue of Nature.

 The lead authers were Mengkun Liu and Harold Y. Hwang.  The research furthers the understanding of materials that will potentially shape the next generation of electronic materials.  Specifically, this research "provides a powerful platform to investigate low-energy dynamics in condensed matter and, further, demonstrates that integration of metamaterials with complex matter is a viable pathway to realize functional nonlinear electromagnetic composites"