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eMaterials Newsletters

 

Wednesday, February 12, 2003Volume 3, Issue 2

 

Director's Message

Materials Day at Penn State
April 15, 2003
10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
HUB-Robeson, Alumni Hall

 

Please mark your calendars and plan to attend and participate in this campus-wide event....it's about you and for you....so we need your input.

 

We will expand this year's event by inviting various industry representatives to attend. Please send us a list of your industrial contacts or sponsors who could benefit from a broader perspective of materials activity at Penn State. You can forward the information to Donna Lucas (dzm4@psu.edu) immediately so we can send them the first announcement. We will reserve the afternoon (2p-5p) for individual meetings and lab visits, and to the extent possible, MRI will serve as a clearing house to connect you with those industry representatives who want a chance to speak with you or visit your lab.

 

We will present the MRI Student and Post-Doc Awards for outstanding accomplishments based on a published paper, thesis or formal report; the post-doc award is a new feature this year. Please take a moment to reflect on the students and post-docs in your area who might qualify.

 

The criteria, eligibility requirements can be found at:
http://www.mri.psu.edu/ematerials/v03i02/Criteria.pdf

 

The nomination form can be found at:
http://www.mri.psu.edu/ematerials/v03i02/Nomination_form.pdf

 

NOW, is the right time to take a look and begin to put the package together.

 

We will include a Poster Session again this year, but will focus it on specific areas of science, engineering or technology, rather than research group overviews. The Call-For-Posters will be distributed shortly.

 

Finally, I would like to encourage faculty to update your one page profile (at least the publications list) on the MRI web site at: http://www.mri.psu.edu/directory and click on "Update Your Profile".

 

Thank you,
Carlo Pantano

MRI Faculty Spotlight

Dr. Joseph Irudayaraj, Associate Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering

The quality of agricultural products is important to us all. That the products are free from contamination and of utmost purity are the chief concerns to regulatory agencies such as the USDA, FDA, and consumers. These are also two of the main research themes of his research group. Dr. Irudayaraj is developing new methods for detecting food borne pathogens using IR and Raman spectroscopy, Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) and fiber optic Fluorescence based biosensors. As for the purity of agricultural products, Dr. Irudayaraj uses IR and Raman spectroscopy coupled with Chemometrics to determine to what level products have been adulterated with lower quality ingredients.

 

For the full story go to:
http://www.mri.psu.edu/articles/JosephIrudayaraj/

Contracts & Grants

Materials research accounted for more than $7.2 million in contracts and grants for the month of January! 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.

 

Diehl, Renee D; Complex He Scattering Instrument (HUGO II) Equipment donation, Industry

 

Harris, Karl A; Management of the Navy's Electro-Optics, U.S. Department of the Navy

 

Mayer, Theresa S; Jackson, Thomas N; Mallouk, Thomas E; Keating, Christine D; Directed Assembly of Molecular Logic Architectures Using Functionalized Metallic Nanowires, U.S. Department of the Navy

 

Roy, Rustum; Directed Energy Materials Processing: Microwave (and Hybrid) Systems, U.S. Department of the Navy

 

Snyder, David W; Development of Techniques for the Production and Characterization of Damage Free Surfaces on Semi-Insulating and Conducting Silicon Carbide, U.S. Department of the Army

 

2003 Funding Outlook

Department of Defense (DoD)

The Administration's FY 2004 budget request for DoD is $379.9 billion, a $15.3 billion increase over the FY 2003 appropriations - DoD is the only department to have a passed spending bill this year. Overall funding for defense science and technology research, which is defined as basic research, applied research, and advanced technology development, drops by $160 million in the FY04 request. The breakdown is as follows:

 

Basic Research - $1.315 billion (1.8 percent decrease)

 

 

Applied Research- $3.735 billion (10 percent decrease)

 

 

Advanced Technology Development- $5.367 billion ($278 million increase)

 

 

Other DoD programs of interest include:

 

 

The following two programs would not receive funding under the Administration's FY04 budget request:

 

 

National Science Foundation

The Administration's FY 2004 request for NSF is $5.48 billion, an 8.1 percent increase over the FY 2003 request and more than 13 percent over the FY 2002 appropriation. Congress, however, is poised to provide NSF with more than the Administration requested in FY03. Congress also passed a measure last year that the President signed to double NSF's budget over five years beginning in FY04, similar to a previously successful commitment for the National Institutes of Health. To meet that goal for NSF, the FY04 budget request would have needed to reflect a double-digit increase.

 

Several new initiatives are outlined in the foundation's FY04 request, including:

 


For the National Nanotechnology Initiative, $248.99 million is requested in FY04 (11.8 percent increase) to advance fundamental research of nanoscale phenomena. The request includes $46 million for the Centers and Networks of Excellence (21.2 percent increase) to fund research and education centers within the Nanoscale priority area.

 

Funding requests for additional programs of interest include:

 


The request for selected environmental and biological sciences programs include:

 

 

Information Technology Research - $302.61 million ($17 million increase) to deepen fundamental research between fields and disciplines and explore new applications to advance research across all fields. Additionally, NSF's budget for Networking Information Technology Research and Development Program, a multi-agency program to encourage advances in computing, would be $723.6 million ($45 million increase).

 

The NSF FY04 request also includes a 60 percent hike in major research equipment and facilities and, for the first time, more than $1 billion for its mathematics and physical sciences activities. In the mathematical sciences priority area alone, NSF will seek more than $89 million, a 48 percent increase over its 2003 request of $60 million, to continue its focus on fundamental research and integration of mathematics, statistics and education research across the full range of scientific and engineering disciplines. Funding requests for related programs includes:

 

 

To broaden participation in engineering and the sciences, NSF will heighten its emphasis in FY04 on the programs that encourage women and minorities in undergraduate through postdoctorate levels. These include the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Undergraduate Program, with a $20 million investment (+43 percent increase), the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, helping minorities toward undergraduate degrees in science and engineering, $32.7 million in FY04 (+23 percent increase), and ADVANCE, a program achieving more diversity among successful scientists with family responsibilities, $21.2 million (+23 percent increase).

Nanotechweb.org - The world service for nanotechnology

This fully searchable and interactive site features:

 

 

http://www.nanotechweb.org

Materials Seminars

February 12, 7:00 PM
112 Walker Building

Space Shuttle Thermal Protection System - Myths and Realities
David J. Green, Materials Science and Engineering

February 26, 10:00 AM
140 Fenske Laboratory

Novel Polymeric Materials and Strategies for DNA Sequencing and Genotyping by Capillary/microchip Electrophoresis
Annelise E. Barron, Northwestern University

March 3, 11:15 AM
S5 Osmond

Metal Encapsulated Carbon Nanotubes
Diane Wilson (Mallouk Group)

 

For a complete list of upcoming materials-related seminars go to:
http://www.mri.psu.edu/seminars.asp

Funding Opportunities

DARPA: Harsh Environment Robust Micromechanical Technology (HERMIT)
DOE: Theory, Modeling and Simulation in Nanoscience
DARPA: Super-High Efficiency Diode Sources (SHEDS)
Air Force: Research & Development On Multifunction Electro-Optical Photonics
DOE: Research and Development for Fuel Cells for Stationary and Automotive Applications
NSF: Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) Letter of intent due February 27, 2003