MRSEC Highlights

MRSEC PI Professor Jeffrey Kysar of the Columbia MRSEC and the Department of Mechanical Engineering has been selected for the highest honor that any young scientist or engineer can receive in the United States. He was awarded a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) and received the honor at a special award ceremony at the White House on November 1, 2007. Prof. Kysar was nominated for the award through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for his outstanding fundamental research into the deformation of materials at small length scales, under high-strain-gradient, and under high-rate-loading conditions. His research concentrates on the mechanical properties of materials at small length scales and under extreme conditions. ?The overall thrusts are to develop verified, physics-based predictive models of mechanical behavior and to develop new nanostructured materials that can be employed in microscale and nanoscale device,? he said. In the MRSEC, Prof. Kysar investigates the mechanical properties of films containing nanocrystals. Prof. Jon Spanier, of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and an alumnus of the Columbia MRSEC, was also selected for this prestigious honor throught the Department of Defense. The PECASE was established in 1996 to recognize and honor outstanding scientists and engineers at the outset of their independent research careers. The award was instituted to foster innovative developments in science and technology, increase awareness of careers in science and engineering, give recognition to the scientific missions of participating agencies, enhance connections between fundamental research and national goals,and highlight the importance of science and technology for the nation?s future. (Kysar is the third from left in the back row and Spanier is the fifth from left in the front row.) ------------------------------------ For more information, please see: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/11/images/20071101-4_p110107cg-0212-515h.html http://www.engineering.columbia.edu/include/wildfire/index.php?populations=&Story_ID=1381&Story_Version=2 http://www.drexel.edu/news/headlines/materials-science-professor-receives-early-career-award-for-scientists-and-engineers.aspx