Penn State University Professor of Physics Abhay Ashtekar, holder of the Eberly family chair in physics and director of the Penn State Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, was honored at the Loops 11 Conference "Celebrating 25 years of Loop Quantum Gravity," in May of 2011 on the main campus of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas in Madrid, Spain. The conference was scheduled to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Ashetekar's publication of a landmark scientific paper that sparked the loop quantum gravity revolution within the field of spacetime physics. The celebration featured an exhibit with loop quantum gravity-inspired art by Italian artist Luca Pozzi. During the conference, Ashtekar gave two major public lectures on loop quantum gravity. (more)
Sharon Hammes-Schiffer, a professor of chemistry and the Eberly professor of biotechnology at Penn State, has been named a 2011 Fellow of the American Chemical Society. Hammes-Schiffer is an acknowledged world leader in biophysics whose research spans the fields of chemistry, physics, biology and computer science. (more)
The treatment of hydrocephalus in African children and the effects of climate on newborn infections will be the focus of testimony when Steven Schiff, director, Penn State Center for Neural Engineering, and Brush Chair Professor of Engineering testifies before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights, at 2 p.m. on Tuesday (Aug. 2). (more)
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) will honor Penn State Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering faculty members Kenneth K. Kuo and Richard A. Yetter at the AIAA/American Society of Mechanical Engineers/Society of Automotive Engineers/American Society of Engineering Educators Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit, to be held July 31-Aug. 3 in San Diego, Calif. (more)
Candace Davison, research and education specialist and supervisor of reactor operations at the Penn State Radiation Science and Engineering Center, was recognized by American Nuclear Society (ANS) President Joe Colvin for her leadership role as chair of the ANS Public Information Committee during the Japan nuclear crisis. (more)
Lawrence W. Ramsey, professor of astronomy and astrophysics who has served as head of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Penn State University, has been appointed as chairman of the board of directors of the Gemini Observatory. The Gemini Observatory, which is operated by a partnership of seven countries, consists of twin 8.1-meter diameter optical/infrared telescopes located on two of the best observing sites on the planet -- the mountains in Hawaii and Chile. Ramsey also serves on the boards of directors or advisory councils of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, the South African Large Telescope (SALT), and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Advisory Council. (more)
Penn State Brandywine Associate Professor of Engineering Ivan Esparragoza was honored with an international award for his collaborative work on a project that provides resources and opportunity to encourage minority students to participate in the engineering and technology fields. (more)
John Liechty, professor of marketing and statistics at the Penn State Smeal College of Business and director of the Center for the Study of Global Financial Stability, testified before the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, on July 14 regarding oversight of the newly created federal Office of Financial Research (OFR). The OFR, which is Liechty's brainchild, was formed last year to begin collecting data on the financial system to allow the government to effectively monitor its stability and ward off potential threats. (more)
Dinesh Agrawal, professor of engineering science and mechanics, and the materials and director of the Microwave Processing and Engineering Center in Penn State's Materials Research Institute, gave an invited lecture on "Microwave materials processing in microwave E and H field using a single mode cavity" at ICMAT 2011 (International Conference of Materials for Advanced technologies) held in Singapore, June 26- July 1. He also gave two keynote lectures on "[NZP] A large family of low thermal expansion material" at a workshop titled National Seminar on Advanced Materials and Devices organized by GVM Girls College, Sonepat, India and MRSI, Delhi Chapter; and on "Microwave Processing of Variety of Materials: An Overview" at a workshop titled "National Symposium on Advanced Materials" organized by Sharda University, Greater Noida, India and Defense Research & Development Organization, New Delhi, India on July 6. (more)
Runze Li, a professor of statistics at Penn State, has been honored with the Norbert Gerbier-MUMM International Award for 2012 for a paper written with co-authors from other institutions spanning six continents. The paper, "Climate control of terrestrial carbon exchange across biomes and continents," which was published in Environmental Research Letters, examines relationships between climate and the carbon exchange of land-based ecosystems to predict future levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Li, who is the only statistician among the 151 authors of this paper, used the statistical techniques known as mixture regression and two-dimensional kernel regression to analyze the data presented in the paper. The purpose of the Norbert Gerbier-MUMM International Award, which is presented by the World Meteorological Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations, is "to encourage and reward annually an original scientific paper on the influence of meteorology in a particular field of the physical, natural, or human sciences, or on the influence of one of these sciences on meteorology." (more)
