About Us NewsNuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Graduate FellowshipsDepartment of Mechanical Engineering and MaterialsSwanson School of Engineering, University of Pittsburgh The Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science (MEMS) of the Swanson School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh has established a Graduate Fellowship Program with support from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The NRC Graduate Fellows will be enrolled in the PhD program in Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) to pursue dissertation research under the guidance of Professor Wiezorek. The research projects include collaborations with the Westinghouse Electric Company and address the development of more quantitative and mechanistic understanding of the degradation of austenitic stainless steels used as materials for reactor internals in nuclear power plants. In addition to the research infrastructure at Pitt, Fellows will have access to the unique materials testing facilities of Westinghouse’s Science and Technology Department, including specialized autoclave, remote metallography and hot-cell laboratories, enabling study of irradiated materials. Fellowship applicants must be US Citizens with strong academic record, ≥ 3.3 (4.0 scale), and background in MSE, Metallurgy or a closely related field. The Fellows must maintain through graduation > 3.5 GPA (4.0 scale), engage in a nuclear engineering related research project as part of their PhD dissertation, and have an expressed commitment to complete Pitt’s Graduate Nuclear Engineering Certificate Program. Fellows must agree to the NRC’s terms for this program, including the commitment to spend six months in nuclear-energy-related employment for each partial or full year of fellowship support. Up to two Fellowships will be awarded for a one-year period with the option for annual renewals for up to four years. Each NRC Graduate Fellow receives a tuition scholarship and an attractive monthly stipend, equivalent to about US$45,000.- in support per annum. Interested candidates apply for admission to the PhD degree program in MSE at Pitt (see http://www.engr.pitt.edu/admissions/graduate/index.html), indicating their interest in the NRC Graduate Fellowship. Additionally, NRC Graduate Fellowship candidates must submit separately an application document including (1) cover-letter, (2) an up-to-date CV, (3) a statement of purpose, and (4) two references to: Attn.: Carolyn Chuha, Re: - “NRC Graduate Fellowship MSE” - Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Swanson School of Engineering, 848 Benedum Hall, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15261. Applications are accepted year-around and review continues until the NRC Graduate Fellowships are filled. For additional information, please contact Dr. Jorg Wiezorek, Associate Professor, Director and Graduate Director MSE, wiezorek+@pitt.edu . Plazek awarded the Fernley H. Banbury AwardDr. Donald J. Plazek was awarded the Fernley H. Banbury Award at the Science and Technology Awards Banquet in Akron, OH on May 5, 2009. Dr. Plazek invented and developed an instrument which covered unprecedented and unexpected responses. In the four broad ranges of viscoelastic response, glassy, transition, plateau and terminal, the operative molecular mechanisms could and did have different temperature dependencies. He then collaborated with others in examining and testing both theoretical molecular origins of response and practical applications of molecular and architecture. Dr. Plazek received his BS in Chemistry and PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin. He joined the Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Department at the University of Pittsburgh as an Associate Professor and later made Professor and Professor Emeritus. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Chemistry Department at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Plazek was the 1995 recipient of the Bingham Medal from the Society of Rheology for his extensive investigations of the viscoelastic behavior of amorphous polymers and other glass forming materials. He received the George Stafford Whitby Award in 1993 for his innovative and inspirational teaching and research. An author of 129 publications, Dr. Plazek was also the Associate Editor of Rubber Chemistry and Technology and a member of the Journal of Polymer Science (Physics) advisory board. Funded Research for Cole, Ludwick, and Vipperman7/10/09 Heightened performance requirements have driven improvements in precision motion equipment that now boast accuracies in the nanometer range. However, such accuracies require expensive noncontacting bearings, while roller bearings provide the best performance/cost benefit. Despite past research in this area, adequate friction mitigation remains the limiting factor for precision mechanical motion stages. This research, conducted in collaboration with Aerotech, a Pittsburgh company and a leader in precision motion technology, will investigate techniques for improving precision motion control using knowledge of friction. Hysteresis models will be used to identify, evaluate and predict friction experimentally, and to design improved motion control systems that mitigate friction's effects. This research will also investigate the ability to reject disturbances caused by roller bearings on precision motion stages by sensing the ball bearing position and relate that to fluctuations in velocity. Finally, control approaches for minimizing the effects of bearing disturbances and bearing friction on the ultra-slow motion of stages will be studied. Lee Awarded NSF Career Award7/6/09 Jung-Kun Lee, assistant professor was awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award to perform a research entitled “Electron Injection in Nanostructured Materials: New Paradigm of Transparent Conducting Oxides.” The project addresses basic electronic/photonic materials research issues with high technological relevance. Improvements in transparent conducting oxide conductivity have the potential to increase the energy conversion efficiencies of solar cells as well as increase the speed and energy efficiency of optoelectronic devices. The research explores novel nanocomposite materials that allow independent control of the carrier concentration and mobility of transparent conducting oxides for potential electro-optical applications. This will be accomplished through the self-assembly of high carrier concentration metallic nanoparticles in high mobility transparent conducting oxide materials. The project examines how microstructure and morphology of embedded nanoparticles influence the electrical and optical properties of such systems and determines the fundamental mechanisms responsible for the improved conductivity. Faculty Awarded DOE BES Grant9/22/08 Jörg Wiezorek, associate professor, was awarded funding from the Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Science ($450,000 over 36 months) to conduct a research project entitled “Electron Density Determination, Bonding and Properties of Tetragonal Ferromagnetic Intermetallics”. This effort combines quantitative experimentation by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and magnetometry with materials theory to study relationships between the electronic structure and intrinsic properties of the tetragonal ferromagnetic intermetallics FePd and FePt. The isostructural tetragonal L10-phases of FePd and FePt are model systems for basic research of details of interactions of 3d (Fe) electrons with 4d (Pd) and 5d (Pt) electrons and their role for key materials properties. This research advances the state of the art in quantitative electron beam and X-ray diffraction, provides new experimental data uniquely suited for the critically needed evaluation of competing computational models and enables development of improved, robust materials theory tools for reliable and ideally predictive studies of L10-FePt and FePd. Application and extension of the experimental and theoretical tools resulting from this activity to other chemically ordered intermetallics and transition metal based solid-solution alloys involving d-electron atoms, especially those involving ferromagnetic species (Fe, Co, Ni), can impact advanced metals based technologies of relevance for energy production and distribution, hydrogen production and storage, advanced catalysts, shape-memory devices, superconductors and permanent magnets. This project involves a collaboration with Dr. Oleg Mryasov, currently at Seagate Research LLC, and provides training and education of students (one graduate and several undergraduates) and young researchers (one post-doctor) in areas of basic science and in technologies for the pursuit of research in design, synthesis and discovery of novel materials, as well as to advance the state of the art of electron beam methods. Faculty Awarded NSF GrantLisa Mauck Weiland, assistant professor, was awarded a National Science Foundation grant to carry out a reseach project entitled "Enabling Miniature Ionomeric Sensors."The work is motivated by current limitations in implementing ionomeric sensors, which have superior sensitivity as compared to other active materials, because of an inadequate understanding of the physics responsible for the observed sensing response. Moreover, the transduction properties which make this material a superior sensor also enable it as a energy harvesting material. This work presents and tests the hypothesis that the sensing mechanism of ionic polymers is directly analogous to streaming potential. The proposed effort will enable the reliable use of this novel class of polymer material to function in combined sensing and energy scavenging applications. Team members include Barbar Akle and Don Leo of Virginia Tech. While both Virginia Tech and Pitt will engaged in experimentation and modeling, Virginia Tech will lead the experimental aspect of the program while Pitt will focus on developing models appropriate to validating the hypothesis of streaming potential. Faculty Awarded NSF Grant5/14/2007 Judith C. Yang, associate professor, was awarded a $300,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to carry out a research project entitled "Fundamental In Situ Nano-Oxidation Mechanisms of Metals and Metallic Alloys." Surface oxidation processes play critical roles in environmental stability, high temperature corrosion, electrochemistry, catalytic reactions, gate oxides and thin film growth as well as fuel reactions. At present, however, the nanoscale stages of oxidation - from the nucleation of the metal oxide to the formation of the thermodynamically stable oxide - represent a scientifically challenging and technologically important terra incognito. The objective is to fundamentally understand nanoscale oxidation processes by coordinated experimental (in situ UHV-TEM) and theoretical efforts, where the impact is potentially a new paradigm for oxidation. Faculty Awarded IREE Grant04/27/2007 Qing-Ming Wang, associate professor, was recently awarded an IREE (International Research and Education in Engineering) supplemental grant from NSF to support two students to have summer research experience at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China for about three months in the summer, 2007. |
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