Letter From The Department Head

I am proud to report that The Chronicle of Higher Education has announced that Drexel University’s doctoral program in Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) is rated among the top ten MSE programs nationwide. Determined by the 2006 Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index, this rating is based on faculty publications, awards, honors, and grants received.

Thanks to a generous gift from MSE alumna Anne L. Stevens (MSE, ’80), $1 million total in scholarships and a professorship have been established for female students and professors in CoE and MSE. This gift is the largest ever given to the department and will help us to support those students most in need.

This year, we also welcome two new faculty, who will lead groundbreaking research at Drexel and continue to cultivate outstanding students. Dr. Ulrike Wegst (Ph.D.; University of Cambridge) joins the department as the Anne Stevens Assistant Professor in September 2007. Dr. Mitra Taheri (Ph.D.; Carnegie Mellon University) will join the department as the Hoeganaes Assistant Professor of Metallurgy in the 2008-2009 academic year. In addition to bringing two new faculty on board, the department bid a fond farewell to Dr. Frank Ko, an MSE professor since 1984, who retired this year.

With each passing year, we have been host to an increasing number of topnotch students. Undergraduate numbers have gone up by about 30 percent since 2002 and our students continue to exemplify success. Ph.D. student Aaron Sakulich (advisor: Michel Barsoum) has been selected as a Fulbright student grantee to Morocco. Recent B.S./M.S. graduate David Steinmetz (advisor: Surya Kalidindi) will also represent Drexel in Germany as a participant in the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals (CBYX). In addition, other MSE students have earned prestigious international awards and have gone on to fill positions in world-class companies such as Exxon-Mobil; Merck & Co., Inc.; and Micron Technology.

Since our last report, the department has seen tremendous growth in research. Led by PI Dr. Yury Gogotsi, Drexel has received a $1,000,000 grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation for the project titled “Keck Institute of Attofluidic Nanotube-Based Probes.”

In addition, Dr. Antonios Zavaliangos, Dr. David Fullwood, and myself received a $511,524 Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) award from the Department of Education to fund Ph.D. students in the field of computational materials science and engineering. This is the second GAANN grant in our department.

Dr. Gogotsi, Dr. Jonathan Spanier, and colleagues have also received a $3 million NSF-IGERT grant to fund a total of twelve Ph.D. fellowships at both Drexel and the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Christopher Li received a $240,000 NSF grant with the aim of achieving directed assembly of metal/semiconductor nanoparticles using soft materials.

Drexel’s NSF-sponsored DREAM Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) and Research Experience for Teachers (RET) Nano programs have also been renewed for an additional three years.

In research, our faculty have been making their mark on the scientific world. Dr. Michel Barsoum’s theory that the Great Pyramids of Giza were cast of a reconstituted limestone concrete has been widely publicized internationally. Dr. Michele Marcolongo was chosen to participate in the National Academy of Engineering’s (NAE) 13th annual U.S. Frontiers of Engineering symposium. Dr. Richard Knight was chosen as the ASM Liberty Bell Delaware Valley Materials Person of the Year.

Our superior research accomplishments have been enabled by our advanced equipment. Most recently, the Materials Characterization Facility (MCF) has acquired a new JEOL 2100 transmission electron microscope (TEM), which features X-ray energy-dispersive mapping and nano-beam electron diffraction, among other capabilities. In addition, Dr. Spanier, Dr. Caroline Schauer, Dr. Gogotsi, and colleagues received a $498,073 award from the NSF Division of Materials Research under the Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program to acquire a metrology and nano-fabrication system.