Friday, May 11 , 2007Volume 7, Issue 3
Upcoming Events
Faculty Information Session on Fabrication and Characterization Users Facilities
Faculty and administrators are invited to an information session on fabrication and characterization user facilities on Monday, May 14 from 3:30pm to 5:00pm in Room 243 Technology Center, Innovation Park (across the street from the MRI Building). Join the Nanofacilities Network for light refreshments, discussion about the changes that have occurred in the Network, and an optional tour of the facility.
Summer TEM Lunch Series Established
MCL has announced a new summer lunch series to provide the research community with a regular forum to share and discuss how the Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) technique has or could be utilized for their research projects. This brown-bag lunch series will run every other Tuesday over the summer beginning May 22 through August 14 at 12 noon in Room 250 MRL Building.
Summer 2007 MCL Open Houses
MCL will be hosting free open houses on Thursday mornings throughout the summer for researchers interested in learning more about materials characterization and sample analysis beginning June 7th through August 23rd.
Conference Results
Materials Day 2007 Nano: Expanding the Frontier
The theme of Materials Day at Penn State on April 10-11was the science, the future, and the commercial viability of nanotechnology, which is the ability to control and manipulate matter on the scale of atoms, molecules, and macromolecules. Organized by Penn State's Materials Research Institute to bring University materials faculty and students together with industry representatives, and to showcase the results of University research, Materials Day 2007 was rich in both scientific information and opportunities for interaction among the materials community.
Prior to the official opening address on Tuesday afternoon, several important University/Industry Centers held their meetings in conjunction with Materials Day. Among those, the Center for Dielectric Studies, with a focus on electronic and piezoelectric materials and devices, is the premier university/industry center in terms of longevity in the nation, with many worldwide partners sponsoring research in capacitors, integrated components, and microwave materials. The youngest center, as of Materials Day, was the Center for the Study of Polymeric Systems (CSPS), which conducted its kick-off meeting on April 10th. Leveraging Penn State's expertise in polymer research and education, the CSPS has already entered into partnership with nine leading chemical and product manufacturers.
With its inaugural meeting beginning the day after the close of Materials Day, the Center of Excellence in Structural Health Monitoring quickly took over the position of youngest center. This Ben Franklin-sponsored center of excellence intends to advance the state of the art in structural health monitoring and make central Pennsylvania a magnet for the wide range of companies providing fitness-for-service diagnostics and prognostics for buildings, aircraft, bridges and roadways, and even the human body. Also meeting in conjunction with Materials Day was the Center for Sintered Products, a long-running partnership with the powder metal industry.
NSF Looking for Transformative Research, Director Bement Tells Workshop
The National Science Foundation is on the lookout for investigators who can see beyond today's frontiers of knowledge and will take a stab at the moving frontiers that lie beyond our current horizon, NSF director Arden L. Bement, Jr., told a group of top international glass scientists and high-level glass industry representatives gathered in Washington, D.C., earlier this month.
The International Materials Institute for New Functionality in Glass (IMI-NFG) was established by the NSF in 2004 to promote wide ranging collaborations between U.S. glass researchers and their counterparts in business and academia worldwide. These partnerships are meant to ensure that glass, which has contributed immeasurably to modern technology, will remain a high-tech material of choice in the 21st century.
This 1st International Workshop on Scientific Challenges of New Functionalities in Glass focused on two technical advances of importance to industry: glass for electronic applications and Nanostructured glasses. From shrinking electronic components to hybrid electric vehicles and all-solid-state lithium batteries, glass will be the material of choice said researchers from Penn State University in the U.S. and Osaka Prefecture University in Japan. George Sakoske of Ferro Corporation highlighted the importance of glass in energy conservation when he pointed out that more energy is lost in the U.S. through the windows of buildings than is pumped through the Alaskan pipeline.
Awards
Young Scientist Given Award to Develop Antifouling Film
Discovering a unique method for fabricating highly nanostructured thin films won MRI researcher Melik Demirel, assistant professor of engineering science and mechanics, one of only 33 prestigious awards offered nationwide by the Office of Naval Research in 2007. The ONR Young Investigator Award recognizes and supports new faculty who can help solve problems of interest to the Navy. Prof. Demirel's thin films show promise of creating coatings that would keep organisms from growing to the hull of vessels, which can slow ship's speed, increase fuel consumption, and cause corrosion. As one example of the importance of this research, the heavy growth of marine life such as barnacles and mollusks, algae, and bacteria on a vess's hull can cause a 6% to 45% increase in fuel consumption.
"Not only is the Navy interested," says Demirel, "this will apply to the whole marine and biomedical industry." Since the late 1990s, the navy has discontinued use of copper-based coatings, which were hazardous to marine shell life. But beyond even a tremendous savings in fuel and dockyard time, the research is so fundamental that it can be applicable to biomedical devices, for example prosthetic devices in the human body that are attacked by proteins, Demirel says. Nanostructured polymer coatings improve surface properties of traditionally coated medical devices by providing superhydrophobic and self-decontaminated surfaces.
NSF: 2006 R&D Spending Up, But Growth Rate Slows
The National Science Foundation (NSF) projects U.S. spending for R&D in 2006 will be 6 percent higher than it was in 2005, once all figures are compiled for all sources of funds surveyed: industry, the federal government, universities, colleges and other nonprofit institutions. (Note: State sources of funds are captured only through the separate surveys of industrial and university performers.) Total 2006 U.S. R&D expenditures are expected to surpass $342.9 billion, up $19 billion from 2005.
Estimated figures for 2005 were 7.8 percent higher than 2004 in current dollars, NSF reports in its April 2007 InfoBrief. Accounting for inflation increases the difference between 2005 and 2006 growth rates even more, as inflation picked up speed in 2006. Increases in R&D spending outpaced inflation in both years, however. The 2005 figures are 5 percent greater than 2004 after inflation, while 2006 is only 3.5 percent higher than 2005.
NSF notes the increase in real R&D in 2006 primarily reflected growth in R&D performed by for-profit companies operating in the U.S. R&D performed by the federal government declined by $800 million over 2005 estimates, while industrial R&D grew by more than $9 billion.
The InfoBrief is available at: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf07317/
Materials Seminars
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
2:30 PM - 250 MRL Building
"Quantified Analysis of Interfacial Processes"
Neville Freeman, Farfield Scientific Inc.
For a complete list of upcoming materials-related seminars go to: http://www.mri.psu.edu/seminars.asp
