2012 News Archive

April 13, 2012 - For the first time, researchers at Penn State University and Rice University have created solid, spongy blocks of carbon nanotubes that have an astounding ability to clean up oil spills in water. Separating oil from seawater is just one of a range of potential applications for the new material formed using carbon and a dash of boron. The international team, which includes Mauricio Terrones, a professor of physics and of materials science and engineering at Penn State; Pulickel Ajayan, the Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson Professor in Engineering at Rice University; and other scientists from the United States, Spain, Belgium and Japan, has published the results of its research in Nature's online journal Scientific Reports. (Photo Credit: Jeff Fitlow, Rice University)

April 13, 2012 - On April 5, 2012, the Department of Materials Science and Engineering welcomed Dr. Subra Suresh, director of the National Science Foundation, to Penn State to receive the 39th annual Nelson W. Taylor Award. Dr. Suresh joins a roster of esteemed scientists and engineers, including Nobel Laureates, who have received the award, which honors the head of Penn State's Department of Ceramics during its rise to prominence. Subra Suresh was recognized for his innovations in materials design and characterization, and for his recent work at the interface of materials science and human disease. (Photo Credit: Mike Fleck, Penn State)

February 5, 2012 - For the first time, a group of chemists, physicists, and engineers has developed crystalline materials that allow an optical fiber to have integrated, high-speed electronic functions. The potential applications of such optical fibers include improved telecommunications and other hybrid optical and electronic technologies, improved laser technology, and more-accurate remote-sensing devices. (Photo Credit: Badding Laboratory, Penn State)

January 11, 2012 - When Penn State's Millennium Science Complex opened its doors to researchers this fall, it inaugurated a new era of scientific discovery at the intersection of materials science, engineering, nanoscience and the life sciences at Penn State. (Photo Credit: Tim Tighe, Penn State)