Penn State President Eric Barron talked with Ishana Shekhawat, grad student in mechanical engineering and founder of PlayPhysio, about entrepreneurship and small business development on a recent episode of "Digging Deeper."
FEBRUARY 2017
FEATURES
Presidential Early Career Award
for Michael Tonks
The assistant professor of mechanical engineering and nuclear engineering was selected by former U.S. President Barack Obama to receive a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on scientists in the early stages of their careers.
NSF CAREER Award Provides $500K to Develop New Class of Synthetic Optical Materials
Chris Giebink, the Charles K. Etner Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, received the award for his project, "Non-Hermitian Organic Photonics." >>
Predictive Kinetic Model Paves the Way for Designing Microbial Factories
Researchers in Penn State's
Chemical and Biological Systems Optimization Lab have developed a near genome-scale kinetic model of Escherichia coli's metabolic processes, which will allow scientists to quickly and efficiently use computer modeling to predict the effects that multiple gene interventions have on the microbial factories.
"This could eventually be transformative in our ability to reliably design novel overproducing microbial strains," said
Costas D. Maranas, Donald B. Broughton Professor of Chemical Engineering.
>>
Using Stem Cells to Regenerate the External Layer of a Human Heart
A process using human stem cells can generate the cells that cover the external surface of a human heart -- epicardium cells -- according to a multidisciplinary team of researchers.
Distinguished Professorships for Karen Thole and Anand Sivasubramaniam
Penn State's Office of the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs has named Karen Thole and Anand Sivasubramaniam as distinguished professors.
Distinguished professors are acknowledged leaders in their fields of research or creative activity; demonstrate significant leadership in raising the University's standards in teaching, research, or creative activity and service; and exhibit excellent teaching skills.
Paul Heinemann, head of the agricultural and biological engineering department, is on a team of researchers that received a $7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, to design a low-cost, integrated system that can identify and screen for high-yielding, deeper-rooted crops. >>
RECOGNITIONS & AWARDS
Forbes names
Huanyu (Larry) Cheng to 30 Under 30 Science list
>>
American Concrete Institute elects Farshad Rajabipour a Fellow >>
IEEE Education Society Helen Plants Award for the Leonhard Center >>
AIMBE Fellowships for Yong Wang andPak Kin Wong >>
NAHB Outstanding Junior Educator Award for Brian Wolfgang >>
Thomson Reuters recognizes Bruce Logan as Highly Cited Researcher >>
U.S. News and World Report ranks Penn State World Campus No. 4 for best online graduate engineering programs >>
Minerals, Metals and Materials Society Fellowship for Long-Qing Chen >>