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Structure—DMSE's newsletter for alumni and friends

US News and World Report Ranking of Graduate Programs

Our Department has once again maintained its top spot. There is very stiff (and healthy!) competition from other institutions in several different areas of engineering. Overall, MIT's School of Engineering has also maintained a comfortable lead. Congratulations to everyone in DMSE!

New DMSE Academic Programs

Beginning Fall 2001, the Department will replace the present degree programs in Electronic Materials, Ceramics, Polymers, Biomaterials, Metallurgy, Materials Science and Materials Engineering with four new academic programs—Electronic, Photonic and Magnetic Materials, Bio- and Polymeric Materials, Structural and Environmental Materials, and Emerging and Fundamental Studies in Materials—which focus more on the integrative nature of the field rather than on the specific materials classes.

Major new research projects involving DMSE faculty

Several major new research efforts, funded through the MURI (Multi-University Research Initiative) and DURINT (Defense University Research Initiative on NanoTechnology) Programs, have been awarded to DMSE colleagues and their MIT collaborators in the past few weeks. The following list provides a summary of these programs. All programs are multi-departmental and, in most cases, multi-institutional efforts, which are led by DMSE faculty or which have active participation from DMSE faculty.

1. MURI on Hybrid active FSMA/Polymer Micro-Composites and Electrostrictors; (funded by the Office of Naval Research)
Dr. Robert O'Handley, co-PI's: Profs. Yet-Ming Chiang, Hagood (Aero & Astro), along with colleagues from UCLA, UCSD.
Level of funding: $950,000 per year for first three years with an optional $1,000,000 per year for two additional years. (The MIT portion accounts for 50% of the total effort).

2.MURI on Micromechanical Systems for Fuel Processing and Conversion to Electrical Power; (funded by the Army Research Office)
PI: Prof. Klavs Jensen, co-PI's: Profs. Tuller, Barton (ChemE), Schmidt (EECS), Ying (ChemE) and Spearing (Aero & Astro)
Level of funding: $3,166,727 for the first three years, with an optional $2,971,398 for an additional two years (100% MIT effort).

3. DURINT on Nanostructured and Interfacial Materials; (funded by the Office of Naval Research)
PI: Subra Suresh, co-PI's: Profs. Jackie Ying (ChemE), Lallit Anand (MechE), with additional collaborators from MIT (Argon and Yip), Rutgers University, Institute of NanoTechnology, Karlsruhe, Technical University of Berlin, Argonne National Laboratory, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Level of Funding: $3,000,000 for the first three years, with an optional $2,000,000 for an additional two year. (92% of funding for MIT).

4. DURINT Equipment Grant for A Comprehensive Experimental Facility for Nano- and Meso-Scale Mechanical Behavior of Nanostructured Materials and Coatings; (funded by the Office of Naval Research)
PI: Subra Suresh
Level of Funding: $500,000. (100% MIT)
This funding will add valuable new equipment and resources to the NanoMechanical Technology Lab. in DMSE.

5. DURINT on Polymeric Nanocomposites; (funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research)
PI: Mary Boyce (MechE), Co-PIs: Profs. Ned Thomas, Gareth McInley (MechE), Greg Rutledge (ChemE), David Parks (MechE), with external collaborators from the University of Akron.
Level of Funding: $3,000,000 for the first three years, with an optional $2,000,000 for an additional two year. (Mostly MIT effort.)

FACULTY HONORS

At its spring meeting, the Executive Committee of MIT formally approved the promotion of Professor Caroline Ross to the rank of Associate Professor with tenure effective July 1, 2001. We congratulate Caroline on reaching this important milestone in her academic career, and wish her continued success in her professional activities.

STUDENT HONORS

DMSE Seniors, Mark H. Jhon and Jennifer L. Maxwell have been nominated for initiation into the honorary Phi Beta Kappa society.

TRANSITIONS

Douglas Matson, a lecturer in DMSE for the past three years, has accepted a position as an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Tufts University. We bid Doug farewell and wish him a fulfilling and fruitful academic career.

Melanie Straight has joined ASO as a Financial Assistant effective Monday, July 9, 2001. She will be working with Fionnuala Coary, Steve Malley, and Robert Fadel. Melanie has worked as part of the financial staff at the Harvard School of Public Health. She also has experience in commercial property management as an Assistant Property Manager with the PM Realty Group. More recently she trained horses and participated in international Dressage competitions while living in Florida. Melanie holds a BS in Business Administration from Babson College.

JUNE 2001 GRADUATES

Sc.D.
Lavik, Erin

Ph.D.
Andleigh, Vaibhav
Chen, Kevin
Currie, Matthew
Freyman, Toby
Gouldstone, Andrew
Heine, Jason
Hester, Jonathan
Holman, Richard
Hwang, Min-ha
Janos, Benon
Katstra, Wendy
Kim, Jinsang
Kobrinsky, Mauro
Langdo, Thomas
Lazo, Nicole
Lee, Kevin
Li, Zhongtao
Luan, Hsin-Chiao
Luo, Jian
Park, Cheolmin
Ramirez-Argaez, Marco
Reddy, Anand
Shin, Young-Moon M.
Twisselmann, Douglas
Uhland, Scott
Van Der Ven, Anton
Vineis, Christopher
Yurko, James

SM
Allred, Clark
Balmforth, Mikal
Bellier, Benoit
Chan, Julia
Chen, Cheng-Han
Chung, Anita
Constantine, Bruce
Fan, Wendy
Frommelt, Jon
Gerstenzang, Greg
Hunsaker, Burke
Kertz, Joan
Kung, Justin
Kuroda, Melody
Lau, Yu-Hin F.
Maldovan, Martin
Martinez-Ayers, Raul A.
Meehan, Kevin
Mickiewiez, Rafal
Muir-Harmony, Ayr
Rechel, Alan
Reed, John
Rosenberg, Aron
Sheets, Sossity
Sung, Emily
Teung, Patrick
Tsang, Cornelia
Urbance, Randall
Wiese, Jocelyn

SB
Abbaschian, Lara
Chan, Venetia
Chen, Eva
Cheng, Jeremy
Gibbons, David
Gupta, Shikha
Huang, Helen
Hung, Albert
Jhon, Mark
Kirschenbaum, Abigail
Lam, Yee
Lee, Grace
Lefebvre, Michelle
Levinson, Rachel
Light, Melissa
Louis, Joseph
Maxwell, Elizabeth
McKeehan, Jennifer
Meanwell, Jennifer
Nagle, Jill
Niece, Krista
Pek, Yuri Shona
Rhim, Caroline
Salomon, Ashley
Sanz, Nelson
Shiau, Daniel
Szczepaniak, Katrzyna
Vazirani, Raj
Wu, Juwell
Zacharia, Nicole

Please contact Rachel Kemper with news and announcements for this page. The DMSE community will be informed of changes and updates to this page through regular e-mail notifications. Please see recent award opportunities and job postings in relevant fields.