MSE Professors R. Edwin García and Alejandro Strachan and ECE Professor Gerhard Klimeck represented Purdue University for the Materials Genome Initiative on May 14th at a White House event and subsequent NIST workshop. The Administration’s Materials Genome Initiative is an ambitious challenge to double the speed and cut in half the cost of discovering, developing, and deploying new high-tech materials in the United States.

Dr. Ryan K. Roeder, associate professor in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, has been named the 2012 recipient of the Purdue University Outstanding Materials Science and Engineering (OMSE) Award for his demonstrated excellence in the area of biomedical applications of materials and his dedication and service to the School of Materials Engineering at Purdue University.

The School of Materials Engineering is pleased to announce that Lynly Horine, account assistant in the ARMS business office, is one of the recipients of the Eleanor O. Kaplan Award. This university-wide award recognizes individuals who demonstrate outstanding customer service, make significant contributions to their area through individual leadership, show creative or innovative methods of serving their customers, and provide significant contributions to improving customer service. Congratulations Lynly on this significant accomplishment.

The School of Materials Engineering is honored to announce MSE senior, Joseph Thomas Muth, as the recipient of the prestigious G.A. Ross Award (Outstanding Senior Man). Purdue University bestows this honor upon a graduating senior who excels in the areas of scholarship, leadership, research and character. Recipients of this award are selected by the Office of the Dean of Students, and are chosen based on letters of support submitted by faculty, staff, and others within the community. We in Materials Engineering have benefited from Joseph’s talents as a scholar and leader, and we are very pleased that he has received this recognition from the broader Purdue community. Congratulations Joseph on this outstanding achievement.

The School of Materials Engineering is pleased to announce that Prof. Alejandro Strachan has been named a University Faculty Scholar for a five year term beginning this fall. He was selected for this honor by a panel of senior and distinguished professors in recognition of his outstanding accomplishments and contributions to the College of Engineering. The University Faculty Scholars program, started in 1998, provides faculty scholars with additional funding to support their research. Congratulations Professor Strachan.

Purdue MSE, CGT, and ECE researchers have demonstrated geometries that suppress the pyroelectric and piezoelectric-induced Stark Effect from nanorods for (In,Ga)N-based light-emitting diodes. By controlling the aspect ratio of the deposited layers, their deleterious effects on optoelectronic performance can be mitigated.

First-year MSE graduate student Tony Chung (R. Edwin Garcia, graduate advisor) has explored the underlying physics that govern a recently developed characterization technique, electrochemical strain microscopy (ESM), that utilizes the strong coupling between ionic current and anisotropic volumetric chemical expansion of lithium-ion electrode materials to dynamically probe the sub-one-hundred-nm interfacial kinetic intercalation properties. The performed analysis demonstrates that the local intercalation dynamics within a LiCoO2 thin film and the implications that such kinetics have on the macroscopic power density performance of currently used Lithium-ion batteries.