February 2004

Around DMSE

Professor Subra Suresh has begun a 9-month sabbatical during which he and his family will spend time in Paris and Pasadena. In his absence, Prof. Sam Allen is Acting Department Head.

Jenna Picceri has left DMSE HQ to accept a position in the Spectroscopy Laboratory. DMSE is grateful to Jenna for the outstanding support she has given to all of us over the past two years, and we wish her much success in her new position.

Geri Sarno has accepted the position of Administrative Assistant II in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering Headquarters Office. Geri comes to us from Moseley Corporation where she was working as the Executive Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer. Prior to that, she worked at Arthur D. Little, Inc. as the Executive Assistant to the Vice President. Geri can be reached at extension 3-0948, or by email at gsarno@mit.edu. Please welcome Geri to MIT.

Robert Fadel has left the position of Fiscal Officer in ASO to become the Director of Finance of the MIT Media Laboratory. All in DMSE appreciate Robert's outstanding service over the past several years and wish him the best in this new role.

John Henriques will join ASO effective February 2 as Fiscal Officer for Chemical Engineering, DMSE and CBE. John comes to us from the Office of Budget and Financial Planning where he has served as Budget Officer for the past three years. He previously worked as a Fiscal Officer in MIT's Media Laboratory, and as an Administrative Supervisor in MIT's Information Systems Department. Prior to coming to MIT, John worked in the Office of the State Comptroller and the Fiscal Affairs Division of the Boston Housing Authority. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a Master of Public Administration degree from Suffolk University. Effective February 2, John will occupy the office previously occupied by Robert Fadel, which is located in 8-328. His telephone extension will be 3-2848.

Awards

Manish Deopura's work on the "perfect mirror" will be exhibited in the Talente 2004 competition. This project was carried out under the guidance of Prof. Yoel Fink and Prof. Chris Schuh. The fabrication was done in the MTL labs and the characterization was done in CMSE central facilities as well as the NanoLab.

Upcoming Events

Professor Donald Sadoway will give a presentation on the new Course III Undergraduate Curriculum at the TMS Annual Meeting in Charlotte. Look for "Towards a New Undergraduate Curriculum in Materials Science and Engineering" on March 17.

At MIT, wholesale revision of the undergraduate degree program in MSE is underway with the intention of devising a course of study whose aim is to educate specialists in the development and use of materials in technology. The new curriculum comprises core technical knowledge, professional development, and a capstone activity. Pedagogical considerations include integration of subject matter between subjects, reinforcement of theory through applications, and presentation of material on a need-to-know basis, i.e., in time blocks of several weeks as opposed to full semesters. In the junior and senior years students can tailor their course of study by choosing from a large number of restricted electives, each running approximately four weeks, building upon the core and moving towards the frontiers of the field. Professional development is to be embedded in the curriculum in accordance with ABET specifications.

Resources

The MIT Libraries are pleased to announce that the MIT community now has access to the SPIE Digital Library. The SPIE Digital Library, one of the most extensive resources available on optics and photonics, contains more than 70,000 full-text papers from SPIE Journals and Proceedings published since 1998. It also includes citations and abstracts for most SPIE papers published since 1990. Plans are underway to expand the DL back to 1990 by the end of 2004, an archive of nearly 200,000 papers covering a wide scope of optical technologies and applications. Approximately 15,000 new papers will be added each year. The SPIE Digital Library can be accessed through Vera.

Archives

Please contact Rachel Kemper with news and announcements for this page. The DMSE community will be informed of changes and updates to this page through regular e-mail notifications. Please see recent award opportunities and job postings in relevant fields.