Thursday, January 10, 2002Volume 2, Issue 1
Director's Message
Happy 2002! After a busy year with many changes, let me review a few points to ensure that we are all reading from the same page:
- The MRI-MRL merger has created one organization and administrative unit for interdisciplinary materials research called MRI; it is not appropriate to use 'MRL' when referring to the organization, its administration, its faculty or its activities. However, there is still an MRL Building where there are many MRI Faculty and MRI programs. And of course, there is an outstanding history of accomplishments that will always be 'MRL'!
- The Materials Research Institute (MRI) is dedicated to the University-wide materials community at Penn State. Its mission is:
- to improve the local, national and international visibility of Materials at Penn State,
- to provide support and services for a broad spectrum of intercollege activities in materials education and research, and
- to strategically position Penn State to make important and significant advances in materials science, materials engineering, and their technological applications for computers, energy, manufacturing, medicine, national security, telecommunications and transportation.
- The University-wide materials community at Penn State is a large enterprise that is made up of various sub-units; in general, these fall into three broad categories. MRI markets and represents the best interests of all.
- Research Centers - interdisciplinary teams of faculty and staff focused on specific research topics with a common source of industry and/or government funding.
- Facilities - large scale analytical, computing or processing facilities with permanent staff present to service the needs of users.
- Academic Departments - disciplinary science and engineering departments with faculty who perform materials research.
- Any faculty member with an interest in materials, materials education or interdisciplinary research is eligible to be MRI Faculty, and will be included in the MRI Directory and on the MRI Web Site (with direct links to your own personal site); MRI will help market you and your research. MRI Faculty will also be included on mailing lists to receive information about MRI initiatives, multi-investigator proposal activities, MRI Advisory Board Minutes, eMaterials @ Penn State, special events and seminars, and occasional MRI Faculty Meetings; i.e., you will know what is going on in Materials at Penn State. Most importantly, MRI Faculty are eligible to request MRI seed grants, equipment matching, other relevant support (and perhaps in the future, space). The expectations are that you will contribute towards the goals of the MRI and will be an advocate for Materials at Penn State; of course, there will be differing degrees and mechanisms of interaction from one faculty to another. The fact that some faculty are co-funded by MRI does not add any special privileges or expectations; co-funding is a strategic partnership between MRI and Departments/Colleges to add faculty in specific areas that will foster interdisciplinary materials research.
- MRI Faculty are encouraged, but not required, to add 'Materials Research Institute' as an additional by-line (after your academic affiliation) to publications, presentations and proposals. This will enhance the external visibility of Materials at Penn State, and in turn, should favorably impact rankings and proposal reviews. For Materials at Penn State, the sum is greater than the parts, and by joining together, we can all take credit for (and advantage of) the bottom line!
- If you would like to add Materials Research Institute and the MRI logo to your business card, contact April Benson; MRI will cover the cost.
Have a great year!
Carlo Pantano
NSF Penn State Materials Award Data
NSF publishes on their web site award data for universities. This complete database can be found at http://ntalpha.bfa.nsf.gov/starth.asp. In Fiscal 2000, MRI faculty at Penn State received a total of $4,247,000 from the Division of Materials Research which ranks 11th by institution. In Fiscal 2001, MRI faculty have received to date, a total of $4,571,000 which ranks 10th by institution.
Faculty Contracts & Grants
Materials research accounted for nearly $3.3 million in contracts and grants for the months of November and December! The largest of these contracts and grants (those greater than $200K) are listed below, along with a link to the complete list of contracts and grants. These data are provided by OSPs Strategic Information Management System.
Tikalsky, Paul, Metal Casting Industry of the Future: Development of Technical Data to Validate Performance of Foundry By-Products Hot-Mix Asphalt and Controlled Low-Strength Material, U.S. Department of Energy
Fonash, Stephen; NSF National Nanofabrication Users Network, Cornell University
Heaney, Peter; Komarneni, Sridhar; Time-resolved structural analysis of heavy metal cation exchange reactions in an anionic clays and manganese oxides, National Science Foundation
Shrout, Thomas, Novel Piezo Materials for High Performance Actuators and Transducers, U.S. Department of the Navy
Materials Seminars
As it is shortly into the new semester, there are no materials seminars listed for the next two weeks. However, we invite you to regularly check the seminars page of the MRI web site to view updates as seminar announcements are made.
