I N S I D E T H I S

I S S U E :

A Vaccine for Nicotine 2

Grants to Fund

Tissue Regeneration 2

Materials Science Team

Scores Honors 4

Developing Green

Energy Technology 5

Engineering

Outstanding Women

Graduate Student

Award

6

Yang Zhong Awarded

GEMS 6

Supramolecular

Polymerization 6

Early Intro To

Engineering Set Course

For Grad Student

7

Koerner Family Grad

Fellows Selected 9

Engineering Grad

Students Making

A Difference In Tech

School Classrooms

10

Engineering Ambassa-

dors Visit Magnet 8

Institute of

Materials Science

Distinguished Lecture

9

Department Spring

Seminars

12

Employment Web Page 15

Toxic and

Contaminated Samples

15

Mid-Length Projects

Program

15

Sample Preparation 15

Spring Semester Classes 16

Materials by Design 

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A Vaccine for Nicotine

tional Institutes Drug Abuse, a part of the National Institutes of Health, to develop and test a new vaccine for nicotine.

The vaccine, which borrows from the principles of how viruses stimu-late the immune system, could eliminate addiction in people de-pendent on cigarettes and other tobacco products.

From UConnToday, by: Christine Buck-ley. For the complete article see: http://today.uconn.edu/blog/2011/10/a-vaccine-for-nicotine/?

When Peter Burkhard first heard the idea of a nicotine vaccine eight years ago, he thought it was funny – how could a vaccine affect some-thing that’s not technically a disease?

But the more he thought about the impact such a vaccine could have, the more it drew his attention.

“If you look at the consequences of cigarettes, it’s mind-boggling,” says the Swiss-born scientist. “Seven million people are killed by the causes of nicotine addiction every year. That’s like wiping out Switzer-land, every year.” Burkhard, an associate professor of molecular and cell biology in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has just received a five-year, $2.5 million Avant-Garde Medications Development Award from the Na-

the design of spaces and capabilities to meet the high tech demands of development efforts in ad-vanced materials and advanced manufacturing, the two main thrust areas to be addressed with indus-try in the building. Construction will start shortly after the preliminary plans are developed with completion expected in FY15.

As previously announced (http://today.uconn.edu/blog/2011/04/plans-to-build-tech-park-at-uconn-announced/) plans are well under way for the design and construction of a multi-million dollar tech park building on the University of Connecti-cut Storrs campus. Hiring of an architect for the new Technical Park Building is in process. The preliminary plans for the building will be estab-lished in the near future. These plans will include

Progress Continues on Plans for Tech Park

The IMS Associates Program Newsletter 

When you smoke, nicotine trav-els from your lungs to your blood, and finally to your brain, where it acts as a stimulant and produces a good feeling, or a “kick,” as Burkhard says. This is what makes it so addictive.

But if the immune system could be trained to recognize and bind nicotine molecules in the blood,

(Continued on page 2) 

Biologist Peter Burkhard with the molecule he developed to deliver nicotine to the immune system. (Daniel Buttrey/UConn Photo)  

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potentially harmful, immune cells would generate antibodies that can specifically bind nicotine.

Once such antibodies are in circu-lation in the bloodstream, as soon as a person smokes a cigarette, the antibodies would bind the nicotine before it reaches the brain, pre-venting a buzz.

“This could work for people who are already addicted,” says Burkhard.

The compound is made up of pro-teins that assemble themselves into a nanoparticle. But since it’s made of proteins, says Burkhard, the compound isn’t toxic like some other nanomaterials.

“It’s no different than any other protein your body uses on a daily basis,” he says. “You could eat it if you wanted to, and it wouldn’t harm you.”

Burkhard emphasizes that the vac-cine would not protect against any other risks of tobacco use, such as lung cancer and heart problems.

The goal, he says, is to help people quit by breaking their addiction to nicotine.

The goal of his grant will be to test the compound’s safety in clinical trials. These tests will observe different reactions to the drug to help the researchers optimize it for use in the general population.

Burkhard will conduct his clinical trials with colleague and medical doctor Thomas Cerny, who is head of the oncology department at the hospital Kantonsspital St. Gallen in Switzerland. Two post-doctoral researchers will be hired to work on the project at UConn.

before they reach the brain, then the addiction loop would be short-

circuited, and people could more easily quit smoking, he says.

Burkhard, who is also a faculty member in the Institute of Ma-terials Science, has been work-ing on vaccines for diseases like malaria for the last decade. Like a vaccine for a disease, the nicotine vaccine would introduce a foreign sub-

stance – a virus-like particle with nicotine molecules attached to it – into the body. Because the com-pound looks to the immune system like a virus and thus appears to be

(Continued from page 1) 

A Vaccine for Nicotine

Grants To Fund Tissue Regeneration

The nanoparticle carrier molecule developed by Burkhard and his colleagues to deliver nico‐tine to the immune system. The red portions on the edges represent nicotine molecules. 

By John C. Giardina. From the School of Engineering emagination. For the complete article see: http://news.engr.uconn.edu/grants-to-fund-tissue-regeneration-research.php

Mei Wei, a faculty member in the department of Chemical, Materials & Biomolecular Engineering and the Institute of Materials Science, has recently received two large grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) in collaboration with David Rowe, M.D., Director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine & Skeletal Biology and a professor of Reconstructive Sciences in the School of Dental Medicine at the UCHC. This funding will allow her to expand upon her ongoing work in tissue regeneration and engineering.

For the NSF-funded study, she seeks to develop a scaffold that can mimic human tissue and encourage cartilage regeneration around joints. A project like this has important implications for joint disorders, especially osteoarthritis, a painful and debilitating disease. The NIH-funded project involves the explora-tion of new bone imaging techniques that will offer researchers insight into the interaction of scaffolds and

(Continued on page 3) 

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cells at different stages of bone repair.

Osteoarthritis is the top cause of chronic disability in the U.S., costing billions of dollars every year and incalculable pain for mil-lions of people. Imagine how the future would change for sufferers if they were able to undergo a procedure that would

reverse the progression of osteoarthritis and let them reclaim their quality of life. This is essentially what Dr. Wei is attempting to do.

Dr. Wei’s imaging project focuses on developing means to watch the progress of bone repair procedures. As with cartilage regeneration, in bone repair a scaffold is seeded with the proper donor progenitor cells and placed at the site of the injury, facilitating regenera-tion. To evaluate and analyze a certain repair technique, researchers would find it helpful to determine how the different components involved in repair, namely the scaf-fold and the different cells, are interacting. Current im-aging platforms, however, do not allow real-time imaging of cell-cell or cell-scaffold interactions in living ani-mals. To overcome this problem, Dr. Wei and her team will be working with a transgenic mouse model to test a four-dimensional imaging technique that will be able to track the progression of different bone repair tech-niques. This technique takes advantage of the fact that every cell lineage shows a different color at different stages of development. Dr. Rowe will create transgenic mice in which a specific reporter protein is expressed when cells differentiate into certain stage. These re-porter proteins, called Green Fluorescent Proteins (GFP), give off a specific color when exposed to a spe-cific wavelength of light. With the GFP-labeled cells, Dr. Wei and her team can visualize cell-cell and cell-scaffold interactions and identify the origin of the cells, whether they are from the original bone or from donor cells, how each of those sources of cells contributes to bone repair and how those cells interact over time. This information can provide important insights into the analysis and de-

(Continued from page 2) velopment of new and existing bone repair proce-dures.

In addition to these grants, Dr. Wei has also re‐cently received funding to organize a symposium at the Materials Research Society fall meeting, entitled “Biomaterials for Tissue Regenera‐tion.”  This symposium will bring together 12 dis‐tinguished members of the field to present their research and facilitate the development of new, important research in the field of tissue regenera‐tion. 

Grants To Fund Tissue Regeneration

Dr. Wei’s imaging project focuses on de-veloping means to watch the progress of bone repair procedures. As with cartilage regeneration, in bone repair a scaffold is seeded with the proper donor progenitor cells and placed at the site of the injury, facilitating regeneration.

Prof. Mei Wei CMBE/IMS 

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Doctoral students Vincent Palumbo (MSE) and John Doyle (Marine Sciences), along with Dr. J. Evan Ward (Marine Sciences) and associate professor Dr. Bryan Huey (MSE), won the Roland B. Snow Best of Show Award, also receiving 1st place in the Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) category. A second UCONN team won 1st place in the Scanning Probe Microscopy category for its image of never-before-seen details of interfaces found at domain boundaries in the technically important field of multiferroic thin films. A third poster, prepared by Palumbo and fellow doctoral student Arif Mubarok, assistant professor Dr. Rainer Hebert (MSE) and Dr. Huey, received 3rd place in the SEM category.

multiferroic thin films. This work was based on im-ages acquired by undergraduate student Joseph Des-marais. as part of a work-study project in collabora-tion with Sandia National Laboratory. Partnering with him were doctoral student Linghan Ye (MSE), Jon Ihlefeld of Sandia National Laboratory, and Dr. Huey. The image recently appeared in the journal Applied Physics Letters, and is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.

A third poster, prepared by Palumbo and fellow doctoral student Arif Mubarok, assistant professor Dr. Rainer Hebert (MSE) and Dr. Huey, received 3rd place in the SEM category. Their poster in-cluded a single photo of a 6 μm particle found at the fracture surface of a steel specimen. The research pertains to the mechanical properties of steel that will be used in the construction of the new World Trade Center towers, as part of a Department of Homeland Security-sponsored project on blast resis-tance structures.

Images of these posters can be seen on pages 14 and 16.

Materials Science Teams Score Honors From the School of Engineering News and Events. For the complete article see: http://news.engr.uconn.edu/materials-science-teams-score-honors.php

Three interdisciplinary teams (each with members of IMS, ed) won honors at the Material Science & Tech-nology (MS&T) 2011 conference for their photo-graphic images of a variety of natural and manufac-tured phenomena taken using electron and atomic force microscopes. The posters were presented at the American Ceramic Societyʼs Ceramographic Exhibit and Competition sponsored by the ACerS Basic Science Division.

The competition is an annual poster exhibit promot-ing the use of microscopy and microanalysis as tools in the scientific investigation of ceramic materials.

Each of the winning teams from UConn included students and faculty from the Materials Science & Engineering (MSE) program, part of the Department of Chemical, Materials & Biomolecular Engineering.

Doctoral students Vincent Palumbo (MSE) and John Doyle (Marine Sciences), along with Dr. J. Evan Ward (Marine Sciences) and associate professor Dr. Bryan Huey (MSE), won the Roland B. Snow Best of Show Award, also receiving 1st place in the Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) category. Their poster depicted four crisp images of nano and microscale structures that resemble archaeological ruins. In fact, the features are naturally occurring diatoms, along with agglomerations of man-made TiO2 nanoparticles such as those used in consumer prod-ucts ranging from sunscreen to toothpaste to Oreo cookie filling. Diatoms are sea-dwelling phytoplank-ton distinguished by their silica shell; diatom commu-nities are one indicator of environmental health and water quality. The winning poster will appear in an upcoming issue of the Bulletin of the American Ce-ramic Society. The research reflects interdisciplinary work being conducted in Dr. Huey’s NanoMeasure-ments lab in collaboration with Dr. Wardʼs group and Roger Ristau, an electron microscopy expert who oversees the TEM and SEM labs in the Institute of Materials Science (IMS). The group is investigat-ing the influence of nanoparticles in the environ-ment, particularly how they enter the aquatic and possibly human food chains.

A second UCONN team won 1st place in the Scan-ning Probe Microscopy category for its image of never-before-seen details of interfaces found at do-main boundaries in the technically important field of

P A G E 5 V O L U M E 1 7 , I S S U E 1

 a $158,000 investment of its own.

The UConn School of Engi-neering plans to use the DOE grant to continue its groundbreaking research into the development of advanced thermal barrier coatings for turbine engines using a novel process called “solution precursor plasma spray” technology or SPPS. This process allows for the creation of a unique thermal barrier coating microstruc-ture that dramatically re-duces damage from the intense heat found in gas turbines. UConn research-ers believe that the coatings

developed through the SPPS process are superior to traditional powder coatings applied to turbine engine parts and can withstand more intense heat and strain, Eric Jordan, the United Technologies Professor of Advanced Materials Proc-essing in the School of Engineering and principal investigator on the project (and member of IMS, ed.), says UConn was chosen for the work because it is a leader in developing the technology used to create the advanced surface coatings.

“UConn has been the primary developer of the [SPPS] process,” he says. “We started working on it about 12 years ago with Inframat, a Connecticut-based com-pany.”

The Inframat Corp. was created in 1995 by former UConn professor Peter Strutt and his research colleagues in academia and the private sector, with the intent of developing and commercializing ad-vancements in nanotechnology. The new corporation was supported by funding from the Nanoprecision Manufacturing Program run by Connecticut Innovations Inc. Inframat has since become a re-search leader in advanced thermal spray

products and industrial coatings that are used by the federal government. Its headquarters are in Manchester, Conn.

Aside from the novel coating micro-structure, Jordan says, another main advantage of the SPPS process is the time it takes to develop a solution.

“It can take up to six months to develop traditional powder coatings, but solution coatings have been developed as quickly as two in a single day,” he says.

The Department of Energy is seeking UConn’s assistance in developing an SPPS coating for use on a new type of turbine that will burn gasified coal. These new turbines will rely on the coating developed at UConn to protect against the extreme heat that is gener-ated by burning this type of coal.

A five-member team of scientists will conduct the research, led by Jordan. A member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, Jordan has 30 years’ experience in academic research and his work has been cited in about 2,000 journals. Maurice Gell, professor-in-residence in the Department of Chemical, Materials, and Biomolecular Engineering (and member of IMS, ed.), will serve as deputy program manager. Gell has 27 years of high-temperature materials, experience with Pratt & Whit-ney, and 16 years of academic research experience at UConn. He holds 20 pat-ents and is the author of more than 125 publications. Many of the oxidation-resistant thermal barrier coatings in commercial use today were developed by Gell’s research group at Pratt & Whitney. Jeffrey Roth, a plasma spray technician with more than 25 years’ experience, and two Ph.D. students round out the team.

Support is also provided by Siemens Corp. and by Pratt & Whitney.

From UConn Today, By Andrew Sparks. For the complete article see: http://today.uconn.edu/blog/2011/10/developing-green-energy-technology/

Researchers in the School of Engineering are working with the U.S. Department of Energy to develop advanced coatings for a new energy-producing turbine that produces dramatically lower greenhouse gas emissions than traditional turbines.

UConn is one of nine universities cho-sen to conduct advanced turbine tech-nology research for the clean and effi-cient operation of turbines using fuels derived from coal and containing high amounts of hydrogen, according to a U.S. Department of Energy announce-ment. These high-hydrogen-content fuels are crucial to developing advanced coal-based power generation systems that can capture and store carbon diox-ide, a major greenhouse gas.

The University received a grant of nearly $500,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil to pursue the research as part of the department’s University Turbine Research Program. UConn will match the federal grant with

Developing Green Energy Technology

Eric Jordan, United Technologies Professor of Advanced Materials Processing, right, and research assistant Jeffrey Roth, in the lab with the coating apparatus. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo)

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Engineering Outstanding Women Graduate Student Award From CMBE Website. For the complete article see: http://www.cmbe.engr.uconn.edu/archived_news2011.html Xuefei Wan receives "Engineering Outstanding Women Graduate Student Award". Xuefei is an ex‐ceptional graduate student in the MSE Graduate Program and is graduating in May 2011. Her doc‐toral research is in the area of solid‐state hydrogen storage materials for fuel‐cell vehicles, a pro‐ject sponsored by the US Department of Energy, in collaboration with the Pacific Northwest Na‐tional Laboratory. Xuefei’s research has resulted in the publication of 15 papers in high‐impact journals such as J. Power Sources, Appl. Phys. Lett., and J. Phys. Chem. Xuefei's PhD thesis advisor is Leon Shaw, Professor, CMBE and member of IMS.  

M A T E R I A L S B Y D E S I G N

Yang Zhong awarded GEMS From CMBE Website. For the complete article see: http://www.cmbe.engr.uconn.edu/archived_news2011.html

Yang Zhong, a fourth-year graduate student from Professor Leon Shaw’s group who is cur-rently doing his thesis research focused on the simultaneous improvement of hardness and fracture toughness of WC-Co material, has been awarded one of ten Graduate Excellence in Materials Science (GEMS) Awards by the Basic Science Division of The American Ce-ramic Society.

The GEMS awards “recognize the outstanding achievements of graduate students in Mate-rials Science and Engineering” and are open to all graduate students who make an oral presentation in any symposium or session at the annual Material Science & Technology (MS&T) Conference. Zhong presented his research on “Sintering and Characterization of Nano-WC Co Powder – On the Formation of WC Platelets” at the 2011 MS&T Conference held in Columbus this past October.

Zhong has been working with Prof. Shaw to study the influence of processing and microstructure on the mechanical properties of WC-Co in the last 2 years. They have developed a process for the pro-duction of WC-Co with outstanding hardness and fracture toughness. They have also published 3 papers in Acta Materialia, Ceramics International and Journal of Materials Science on the synthesis and microstructure control of WC-Co.

Engineering Outstanding Women Graduate Student Award From CMBE Website. For the complete article see: http://www.cmbe.engr.uconn.edu/archived_news2011.html Xuefei Wan receives "Engineering Outstanding Women Graduate Student Award". Xuefei is an ex‐ceptional graduate student in the MSE Graduate Program and is graduating in May 2011. Her doc‐toral research is in the area of solid‐state hydrogen storage materials for fuel‐cell vehicles, a pro‐ject sponsored by the US Department of Energy, in collaboration with the Pacific Northwest Na‐tional Laboratory. Xuefei’s research has resulted in the publication of 15 papers in high‐impact journals such as J. Power Sources, Appl. Phys. Lett., and J. Phys. Chem. Xuefei's PhD thesis advisor is Leon Shaw, Professor, CMBE and member of IMS.  

Yang Zhong awarded GEMS From CMBE Website. For the complete article see: http://www.cmbe.engr.uconn.edu/archived_news2011.html

Yang Zhong, a fourth-year graduate student from Professor Leon Shaw’s group who is cur-rently doing his thesis research focused on the simultaneous improvement of hardness and fracture toughness of WC-Co material, has been awarded one of ten Graduate Excellence in Materials Science (GEMS) Awards by the Basic Science Division of The American Ce-ramic Society.

The GEMS awards “recognize the outstanding achievements of graduate students in Mate-rials Science and Engineering” and are open to all graduate students who make an oral presentation in any symposium or session at the annual Material Science & Technology (MS&T) Conference. Zhong presented his research on “Sintering and Characterization of Nano-WC Co Powder – On the Formation of WC Platelets” at the 2011 MS&T Conference held in Columbus this past October.

Zhong has been working with Prof. Shaw to study the influence of processing and microstructure on the mechanical properties of WC-Co in the last 2 years. They have developed a process for the pro-duction of WC-Co with outstanding hardness and fracture toughness. They have also published 3 papers in Acta Materialia, Ceramics International and Journal of Materials Science on the synthesis and microstructure control of WC-Co.

Engineering Outstanding Women Graduate Student Award

From CMBE Website. For the complete article see: http://www.cmbe.engr.uconn.edu/archived_news2011.html

Xuefei Wan receives "Engineering Outstanding Women Graduate Student Award". Xuefei is an exceptional graduate student in the MSE Graduate Program and is graduating in May 2011. Her doctoral research is in the area of solid-state hydrogen storage materials for fuel-cell vehicles, a project sponsored by the US Department of Energy, in collaboration with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Xuefei’s research has resulted in the publication of 15 papers in high-impact journals such as J. Power Sources, Appl. Phys. Lett., and J. Phys. Chem. Xuefei's PhD thesis advisor is Leon Shaw, Professor, CMBE and member of IMS.

Yang Zhong awarded GEMS From CMBE Website. For the complete article see: http://www.cmbe.engr.uconn.edu/news2011/News_Zhong_GEMS.html

Yang Zhong, a fourth-year graduate student from Professor Leon Shaw’s group who is currently doing his thesis research focused on the simultaneous improve-ment of hardness and fracture toughness of WC-Co material, has been awarded one of ten Graduate Excellence in Materials Science (GEMS) Awards by the Basic Science Division of The American Ceramic Society.

The GEMS awards “recognize the outstanding achievements of graduate students in Materials Science and Engineering” and are open to all graduate students who make an oral presentation in any symposium or session at the annual Material Science & Technology (MS&T) Conference. Zhong presented his research on “Sintering and Characterization of Nano-WC Co Powder – On the Formation of WC Platelets” at the 2011 MS&T Conference held in Columbus this past October.

Zhong has been working with Prof. Shaw to study the influence of processing and microstructure on the mechanical properties of WC-Co in the last 2 years. They have developed a process for the production of WC-Co with outstanding hardness and fracture toughness. They have also published 3 pa-pers in Acta Materialia, Ceramics International and Journal of Materials Science on the synthesis and micro-structure control of WC-Co.

Yang Zong 

Supramolecular Polymerization University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; and co-workers have now synthesized peptide-grafted comb polymers and have assembled them into su-pramolecular polymers.”

“This work is an important step toward precise control over the dimension and shape of stable su-pramolecular polymers made of large macromole-cules, which often proves to be challenging” com-ments Honggang Cui of Johns Hopkins University.

More complete details are found in the associated article in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2011, 133 (33), pp 12906–12909.

The work of Yao Lin (http://www.ims.uconn.edu/faculty/ylin.html), Assistant Professor of Chemistry and member of IMS was highlighted in the August 15, 2011 issue of Chemical and Engineering News. Quoting from the article:

“In work that could lead to light materials with high mechanical strength, researchers have assembled large peptide-based polymers into a new family of giant-hydrogen-bonded supramolecules. Su-pramolecular polymers such as actins and tubulins, made biosynthetically from proteins, have great material strength and stability, but success in creat-ing such materials has been limited. Yao Lin of the University of Connecticut; JIanjun Cheng of the

            

Xuefei Wan 

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toward a career in engineering,” he said.

Palumbo, who previously received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in materials science and engineering at UConn, plans to use his education to teach at the college level and hopes to “someday relay the wonders and power of engineering to future stu-dents.”

Shifting from the interdisciplinary work of his M.S. degree, which fo-cused on the interactions between nano-scale forces and structures with living cells, Palumbo’s current thesis research is on studying the combined blast and fire resistance for construction steel used in vari-ous infrastructures, including build-ings, bridges, tunnels, and other structures. The work directly re-lates to the collapse of the World Trade Center towers in 2001. “The collapse was found to be a result of prolonged exposure to high tem-peratures after the blasts, degrading the structural properties of the steel in the buildings,” he said.

Since the attack, new materials and designs are being developed in an effort to reduce such damage in the future. Palumbo’s research specifi-cally focuses on how the microstruc-ture of construction steel, especially the type of steel used in the new World Trade Center building, is affected by exposure to shock waves and subsequent high temperatures.

As for his continued affiliation with UConn, Palumbo attributes it, yet again, to his academic mentor. “My advisor, Dr. Bryan Huey, played a big role in my staying here,” he said. “[Dr. Huey] advised me through my

independent study as an under-graduate as well as for my M.S., and he recommended that I pursue a Ph.D. with UConn as well.”

Palumbo is a recipient of the Ko-erner Family Fellowship for his Ph.D. research, in addition to being awarded the Graduate Assistance In Areas Of National Need (GAANN) fellowship for his master’s work in biology. He was the 2010-2011 president of the UConn student chapter of the Materials Research Society (MRS) and is the president of Alpha Sigma Mu, an honor soci-ety for materials science and engi-neering students. Palumbo plans to graduate in 2013.

By Nick Gagliardi: From the School of Engineering emagination. For the com-plete article see: http://news.engr.uconn.edu/early-intro-to-engineering-set-course-for-grad-student.php

Vincent Palumbo, a Ph.D. candidate in materials science and engineering at the University of Connecticut, has a special bond with the School of Engineering that first took root during his high school years.

In an effort to introduce younger students to engineering fundamen-tals and career paths, the School of Engineering operates an annual summer program for outstanding high school students interested in the field. As a junior at Daniel Hand High School, Palumbo was nominated by one of his teachers to attend the week-long residential program at the Storrs campus, and the experience sparked his affinity for engineering and UConn. “It really exposed me to devoted fac-ulty and students, excited me about engineering, and set me on a path

Early Intro To Engineering Set Course For Grad Student

Vincent Palumbo 

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By John C. Giardina, From the School of Engineering News and Events. For the complete article see: http://news.engr.uconn.edu/engineering-ambassadors-visit-magnet-school.php

On September 2nd, 10 UConn engineering students kicked-off the new school year with science and technology classes at CREC Two Rivers Magnet Middle School in East Hartford, CT. The UConn students are Engineering Ambassadors, mem-bers of an outreach program that presents engineering con-cepts to school age students in the form of interactive demon-strations. The Engineering Ambassadors program was started in fall 2009 with a $50,000 grant from United Technologies Corporation and aims to introduce K-12 students to engineer-ing and problem solving and to foster an interest in the science and technology fields as a career.

For the students at CREC Two Rivers Magnet Middle School, there are myriad benefits of a visit from the Engineering Ambas-sadors. The Ambassadors work with the students to complete a few labs that are tied into their science goals for the year and are all designed to present an example of engineering in an exciting and accessible way. Courtney Zuckerman, the science curriculum coordinator at the school, said the experiments “provide our students hands on opportunities in math and sci-ence.” After completing the labs, the students are able to ask the Ambassadors about engineering and college in general. This

part, Zuckerman said, was a highlight of the visit. “Our students loved the opportunity to interact with college students. The question and answer session at the end was a great way to demonstrate the importance of a college education to our students.”

The 10 UConn students who visited the school included: Kayla Johnson (ME ’13), Stephany Santos (BME ’12), Ryan Darin (CSE ’13), Andre Silva (ECE ’12), Dave Golfin (CMBE ’14), Milos Atz (CMBE ’14); Rose Cersonsky (MSE ’14), Aaron Eaddy (ECE ’14), Monica Sawicki (MSE Ph.D. student), and Vincent Palumbo (MSE Ph.D. stu-dent).

The program introduces these bright middle school students to the field of engineering, something they may not have been exposed to before. It also gives UConn the opportunity to make a positive first impression with these promising students. The development of middle and high school students who are talented in math and the sciences puts UConn at the forefront of the next generation of innovative engineers and builds rela-tionships that will pay off for years to come.

Sonya Renfro, UConn School of Engineering outreach and diversity programming coordinator, said she hopes the September visit represents the start of a long-term partnership with CREC Two Rivers Magnet School and the beginning of a new phase in the Engineering Ambassadors program. he said, “The continued relationship at CREC Two Rivers Magnet School will allow our Ambassadors to form relationships with the students and will provide them with role models in engineering.” She also said she is in the process of expanding the pro-gram. “We have partnerships with multiple schools and we have requests from schools across the whole state that we will meet as time permits.”

Engineering Ambassadors Visit Magnet School

Milos Atz and David Golfin, Engineering Ambassadors 

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Institute of Materials Science Distinguished Lecture On Thursday November 10, 2011, Martin P. Hamer of Lehigh University gave the annual IMS Distinguished Lecture. “Tailoring of Grain Boundary Complexions for Mechanism-Informed Materials Design”

There is full recognition that grain boundaries are a decisive factor in determining the processing and properties of engineering ma-terials. However, owing to geometrical and chemical complexities, the description of grain boundaries has defied a satisfactory con-ceptual scientific framework of explanation. An exciting new scientific opportunity now exists, with the concept of grain boundary complexion, which promises to provide a new mechanism- informed conceptual framework for understanding and tailoring grain boundaries and their related physical phenomena.

A grain boundary complexion is a “phase” that is thermodynamically stabilized by its adjoining grains. It is chemically and structurally distinct from any bulk phase. Complexion phases can interconvert between well-defined equilibrium structures, which can be repre-sented on complexion phase diagrams analogous to bulk phase diagrams. A progressive series of six possible complexion conforma-tions has been proposed, whereby the discrete number of atomic layers, the layer thickness and the degree of structural and chemi-cal ordering defines the stability of each type of complexion. One well-studied complexion conformation is the equilibrium thickness (1-2nm) intergranular film (IGF). Newly revealed thinner layer complexion conformations include bilayers and trilayers.

This talk will present direct evidence obtained by aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy for the existence of various complexion conformations in metals, ceramics and semiconductors. The findings have important implications to the de-velopment of new materials with improved performance by mechanism-informed design.

Koerner Family Grad Fellows Selected From the School of Engineering News and Events. For the complete article see: http://news.engr.uconn.edu/koerner-family-grad-fellows-selected.php

Five engineering doctoral students who aspire to careers in an academic setting have been selected to receive Koerner Family Fellowships, which confer $10,000 to each. The Koerner Family Fellowships are made possible thanks to the generosity of Professor Robert and Mrs. Paula Koerner and their children – Dr. Michael Ko-erner, Dr. George Koerner and Ms. Pauline Koerner.

The 2011-12 recipients were nominated by their departments and chosen by a School committee. They are:

Lance Fiondella, Computer Science & Engineering (advisor: Swapna Gokhale).

Kathryn Gosselin, Mechanical Engineering (advisor: Michael Renfro).

Chad Johnston, Civil & Environmental Engineering (advisor: Marisa Chrysochoou).

Vincent Palumbo, Chemical, Materials & Biomolecular Engineering (advisor: Bryan Huey, Associate Professor, CMBE, and member of IMS). Research interests: methods of enhancing the blast and fire resistance of the nation’s infrastructure, including bridges, buildings, tunnels, and the like

Ernesto Suarez, Electrical & Computer Engineering (advisor: Faquir Jain).

Dean of Engineering Mun Y. Choi, said “Professor and Mrs. Koerner have been stalwart supporters of higher education for more than four decades. Through their generous gift, a group of highly-talented Ph.D. stu-dents will pursue advanced studies in trans-disciplinary topics in engineering.”

L‐R Koerner Fellows Vincent Palumbo, Chad Johnston, Lance Fiondella, Ernesto Suarez, and Kathryn Gosselin 

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Engineering Grad Students Making A Difference In Tech School Classrooms From the School of Engineering From the School of Engineering News and Events. For the complete article see: http://news.engr.uconn.edu/engineering-grad-students-making-a-difference-in-tech-school-classrooms.php

Technical High School students across Connecticut enjoyed a unique opportunity to explore engineering principles, get in-volved in hands-on technical pro-jects and competitions, and inter-act with UConn engineering graduate students throughout the 2010-11 academic year, thanks to an NSF-sponsored program called Graduate STEM Fellows in K-12 Education.

The GK-12 program in the School of Engineering is supported by a $2.7 million NSF award and is intended to provide graduate students unique learning opportu-nities that will broadly prepare them for professional and scien-tific careers in the 21st century, while invigorating K-12 class-rooms with valuable STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) lessons. UConn elected to focus on the often underserved Connecticut Tech Schools, which provide an excel-lent education for technically-inclined students across the state.

Remarking on the benefits of hav-ing a doctoral student embedded in her A.I. Prince Technical High School class, teacher Deirdre Shaw said, “It has been a reward-ing experience for my students to have had the opportunity to par-ticipate in the STEM program and have a GK-12 Fellow available to work with them.” .

The engineering graduate students serve as classroom resources, working closely with teachers to organize engaging, hands-on pro-jects to convey fundamental engi-neering concepts, with a focus on the issues of sustainable design, efficiency, and conservation. In doing so, they seek to spread their enthusiasm for engineering and technology to a new genera-tion of students.

At the Ella T. Grasso Southeast-ern Technical High School in Groton, GK-12 Fellow Jason White interacted regularly with teachers Larry Fritch of the Biosciences and Environmental Technology Department (BET), Jamie Lamitie of the Electrical Department, and mathematics teachers Heidi DeCosta and Car-los Flores and their stu-dents. With his assistance, stu-dents worked with hydroelectric energy to power small LED de-vices and built a portable hydroe-lectric demonstration that can be used to teach other students about this green energy source. The BET students also experi-mented with biodiesel fuel pro-duction from waste cooking oil, and plan to start making large batches of fuel to power the school’s diesel tractors. In the two mathematics classes, students engaged in “hands-on” math les-sons including modeling a bounc-ing ball, paper airplane engineer-ing, and modeling can implosion.

At Ellis Tech, Fellow Greg Wrobel encouraged students to participate in competitions, such as CL&P’s Live Green Win Green

and his own Green Battle, in which students could submit their own ideas on how to make a building, workshop or vehicle more “green.” One group, “The Green Eagles,” designed a radiant floor heating sys-tem that stores excess heat from the sun and shower/dish water to help heat a house.

One popular activity that captivated students at several of the schools involved the design and construction of an electricity-generating wind turbine. Vinal Tech students and GK-12 Fellow Martin Huber expect to install their wind turbine this fall and continue learning from the de-vice as it produces energy for the school. Norwich Tech students also designed and built a wind turbine, with guidance from Fellow Kyle Brady. Kyle also engaged the stu-dents with classroom activities such as a trebuchet egg-toss competition that helped to foster creative and critical-thinking skills inherent to the engineering process. Fellow Neil Spinner led Cheney Tech CADD students in the design and fabrica-tion of parts for a fully-functional wind turbine.

At Windham Tech, Fellow Alex Lassman introduced students to various clean energy technologies throughout the school year, and the students applied their lessons to the design, construction and testing of a solar-powered electric scooter. The proud students showcased their scooter at UConn during a celebra-tion of Earth Day attended by State Rep. Sue Johnson, and also demon-strated their vehicle in appearances on local television and radio pro-grams.

(Continued on page 11) 

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Engineering Grad Students Making A Difference In Tech School Classrooms At Goodwin Tech, Fellow Jason Arena worked with two after-school student organizations in addition to his class-room activities. Helping out the FIRST Robotics Team with their rookie sea-son was a learning experience; how-ever, both Jason and the team look forward to the upcoming sea-son. Jason also assisted members of the Goodwin Green Technology Club to promote environmentally responsi-ble living and technology.

In the coming year, UConn’s team of GK-12 students will continue to work

(Continued from page 10)  with Tech School students and their teachers, to enhance engineering awareness and interest in STEM ca-reers. Read more about the GK-12 program here. View three short vid-eos of simple demonstration projects developed by GK-12 Fellows and their students by clicking on the links below:

Fun with Chemistry

Science in a Minute: Fuel Cells

Science in a Minute: Water Flux

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Department Seminars: Spring 2012

POLYMER SEMINAR SERIES

January 25 “Nanoparticles and Biology. Engineering the Interface for Therapeutics and (Wed) Diagnostics” Dr. Vincent Rotello, University of Massachusetts (A joint seminar with Chemistry Dept.)

January 26 “Will We Ever Drive Fuel Cell Cars?” (Thurs) Prof. Yossef Elbad, Drexel University

February 3 “Highly Permeable Nanofibrous Membranes for Water Purification” Prof. Benjamin Hsiao, SUNY Stonybrook

February 10 “Crystallizable Block Copolymers: Directing Crystallization via Polymer Architecture” Prof. Richard Register, Princeton University

February 17 “Rheology of Physical Gelation” Prof. Henning Winter, University of Massachusetts

March 9 “A Novel Membrane/Core Type Nanoparticle for Drug/Gene Delivery” Prof. Leaf Huang, UNC Chapel Hill

April 13 “Material-based Feedback Control of Cell Adhesion” Prof. Harry Bermudez, UMass Amherst

April 20 “The Influence of Irreversible Aggregates on the Rheology of Monoclonal Antibody Solutions” Dr. Jai Pathak, MedImmune LLC, Gaithersburg

April 27 “Wrinkles and Folds Enhance Light Harvesting Efficiency and Increase Mechanical Flexibility of Polymer Solar Cells” Prof. Yueh-Lin (Lynn) Loo, Princeton University

All seminars are held on Fridays at 1:30 PM in IMS Room 20, unless noted otherwise. Coffee will be served at 1:00 PM outside the seminar room. For more information, please contact YH Chudy at ychudy@ims.uconn.edu, (860) 486-3582 or visit www.ims.uconn.edu/polymer.

All spring seminar schedules have not been finalized at the time of this writing. Seminar schedules will be available near the beginning of the semester and can be found on the department web sites (http://www.ims.uconn.edu/polymer/seminars.html and http://www.cmbe.engr.uconn.edu/seminars.html). This infor-mation will be updated as additional seminars are added. Abstracts of seminars are usually available about a week in advance. We can also put you in touch with the faculty member sponsoring the seminar to learn more about the specific seminar of interest. We suggest you call before attending to be sure the seminar has not been canceled due to illness or weather.

Here are the schedules for the Polymer Program spring seminar series and the CMBE.

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CMBE SEMINAR SERIES January 17 Rainer Hebert (UConn) “Elastic Behavior of Metallic Glasses” January 24 Terri Camesano WPI January 31 Debbie Kaiser (National Institute of Standards and Technology) “Measurement Standards for Nanotechnology” (Related Environmental, Health and Safety Assessment (Nano/EHS)

February 7 Geoffre Bothun (U. Rhode Island) “Role of Lipid Composition in Modulating the Effects of n-Butanol on Biomembrane Phase Behavior “

February 10 Paul R. Van Tassel, (Yale University) "Polyelectrolyte Nanofilm Biomaterials: (Friday; 2:00pm Optimizing Mechanical Rigidity and Bioactivity" UTEB #150) February 14 Sudhangshu “Sudha” Bose, (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Hartford) “Modeling of High Temperature Oxidation and Hot Corrosion of Gas Turbine” February 20 William Koros* (Georgia Tech) (Monday; 4:00pm Dodd)

February 21 William Koros* (Georgia Tech) February 28 C. Heath Turner (University of Alabama) March 6 Marianthi Ierapetritou (Rutgers - The State University of New Jersey)

March 20 Eric Lifshin (University of Albany, State University of New York College of Nanoscale Science & Engineering) March 27 David C. Venerus (Illinois Institute of Technology) “Anisotropic Thermal Conduction in Polymers and its Molecular Origins” April 3 Eli Sutter (Brookhaven National Laboratory) April 10 Mike Betenbaugh (Johns Hopkins University) April 17 Kurt Sickafus (The University of Tennessee Knoxville) April 23 Joe Michael* (Sandia National Labs)

(Monday; 4:00pm,; Dodd)

April 24 Joe Michael* ( Sandia National Labs)

*These Lectures are part of the CMBE Spring 2012 Distinguished Lecture Series. All seminars are held on Tuesdays at 11:00 am in IMS Room 20 unless otherwise noted.

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 Prize‐Winning 

Posters From 

Materials  Science  

& Technology 2012 

See related article on p. 4 

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In many projects that the Associates Program deals with, such as adhesion and coatings, surface analysis techniques are extremely important. The techniques used for such analysis, particularly GC/MS, Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) are extremely sensitive to small amounts of material on the surface. It is important to make efforts not to contaminate these surfaces during sample preparation, collection and shipment. Shipment in common plastic bags should be avoided! Common plastic bags typically contain significant amounts of additives used to prevent the plastics from adhering to themselves and other materials. These additives will migrate to the sample during shipment and at best make interpretation difficult and sometimes impossible. It is much better to ship such samples in common kitchen aluminum foil (not industrial aluminum foil which is often coated with an oil or other release agent). Samples can also be shipped in glass containers with aluminum foil over the opening under the cap.

Alternatively, special polyester bags that do not contain such additives can be purchased. One source of such bags is the Kapak Corporation (now Ampac). Typical price is about $200 per thousand depending on the exact size. Be sure to specify non-contaminating/non-plasticized material.

Sample Preparation

On a small number of occasions, member companies have sent us toxic samples for examination. IMS is not set up to handle such materials. We operate in a very open environment with multiple users and shared laboratory facilities. We cannot accept toxic materials, materials that present biological hazards or similar materials such as drugs that require very specialized handling. If we do receive such a sample we must return them (and may need your assistance to do so, as shipping these materials can be time consuming and expensive). We cannot dispose of these types of material at UConn when they are created by external sources.

Toxic and Bio-Contaminated Samples

The Institute of Materials Science (IMS) announces the continuation of a program that addresses seed research/development projects of an intermediate length. This program is designed to encourage university/industry collaboration on projects that are too extensive for the existing Associates Program yet smaller than full-blown university research projects. Typical student/post-doc supporting research projects at IMS (and most of UConn and other institutions) last for some number of years. Industry often has exploratory projects of intermediate length between these extremes, projects that may require several months to a year of full time effort. Through the Mid-Length Projects (MLP) Program IMS will assist industry in matching the available resources of IMS to those required for the project of interest.

For more information or to discuss specific projects please contact Ed Kurz (860) 486-4186, ekurz@mail.ims.uconn.edu or Harris Marcus (860) 486-4623, hmarcus@mail.ims.uconn.edu.

Mid-Length Projects (MLP) Program

Employment Web Page The Institute of Materials Science has a web page to help match students with potential employers. The IMS Employment Center can be accessed from the IMS home page http://www.ims.uconn.edu/ and clicking on Outreach.

The initial job page has brief information concerning each position and a link for more details. Please forward any open position announce-ments you wish to post to Rhonda Ward (Rhonda.Ward@ims.uconn.edu).

We have several positions on the website now, with your help we can continue to build this database of information, which benefits both students and employers.

University of Connecticut

Institute of Materials Science

97 North Eagleville Road, Unit 3136

Storrs, CT 06269-3136

Spring Semester Starts Spring semester classes:

5352 Polymer Properties R. Parnas

5394-1 Responsive Polymers R. Kasi

5384 Polymer Characterization II A. Asandei

5394-2 Carbon Nanotubes and F. Papadimitrakopoulos Nanomaterials, Laboratory Practical Training

5345 Organic Structure Determination D. Adamson

5305-1 Phase Transformations in Solids P. Alpay

5309-1 Transport Phenomena R. Maric

5317-1 Electronic & Magnetic Properties R. Ramprasad 5323-1 Transmission Electron Microscopy B. Carter 5700-1 Biomaterials and Tissue Eng. L. Kuhn

IMS Associates Program  Edward Kurz, Ph.D., Director Ph. 860-486-4186 Fax 860-486-4745 ekurz@ims.uconn.edu Fiona Leek, Ph.D. Associate Director Ph. 860-486-1040 Fax 860-486-4745 fleek@ims.uconn.edu Research Assistants Mark Dudley Gary Lavigne Laura Pinatti Administrative Assistant Rhonda Ward Visit us on the web at: www.ims.uconn.edu/associate/associates

Prize‐Winning Poster From Materials Science & Technology 2012 

See related article on p. 4