October 2003

Around DMSE

Prof. Subra Suresh will present a seminar on "Nanomechanics of single biological cells and connections to human diseases" on Oct. 27 at 4:00 in room 10-250. This is the first of the SMA (Singapore-MIT Alliance) Seminar Series on Advanced Materials for Micro- and Nano-Systems and is co-sponsored by the Mechanics Seminar Series and the Materials Research Society University Chapter at MIT.

Awards

Nduka O. Enemchukwu '05 was awarded the 2003 American Chemical Society Scholarship. He spent the summer in Cincinnati working on raw materials for for a manufacturing firm. We congratulate him for this homor.

Upcoming Events

With support from the National Science Foundation, MIT will convene the third annual Summer Institute in the Materials Science of Material Culture (SIMSMC). Fifteen faculty members from liberal arts colleges around the country, representing
fields from art history to physics, will participate during the two-week period, 7-18 June 2004.

Working together with these colleagues, the MIT SIMSMC faculty demonstrate, through modules that explore materials engineering in the context of material culture, how undergraduate teaching can incorporate the subject matter of materials science in imaginative and intellectually stimulating ways that are congruent with and relevant to the pursuits of liberal arts institutions. Archaeological science is the vehicle through which the SIMSMC instructors accomplish this educational goal.
In morning lectures and afternoon laboratories, the Summer Institutes concentrate on the materials processing technologies that transform natural and synthetic materials into cultural objects. Our template joins archaeology and materials science and engineering, but art history, classics, environmental science, geography, history and other fields are all excellent vehicles for providing students with an integrated educational experience as they explore the relations between people and their material world.

SIMSMC pays participant expenses: round-trip travel to MIT, housing on campus, and meals. Visit the SIMSMC web site for an on-line APPLICATION FORM and further information. Please review our web site to learn more about this innovative educational experiment and how you can participate.

MIT Resources

SciFinder Scholar 2004 is now available! What's new:

• Limit Structure Searches by Substance Classes (SSM only)
• New Refine Options for a set of substances
• Find relevant reaction information faster
• Get reactions from a substance answer set

Please upgrade your SFS2002 (or SFS2001) to this newer version. The instructions are availabe from the MIT libraries. Note that SFS2001 is not supported after March 31, 2004!

New School of Engineering orientation web site. This site is meant to help with the orientation of new employees AND provide a starting point for finding answers to a myriad of situations that administrators, both new and experienced, face in the course of performing their jobs. Dean of Engineering Tom Magnanti has recently announced the availability of this new online resource for administrative and support staff. It's expected that this resource will serve as a model for others across the Institute to adapt to their organizations. Please take a look and, for those of you in the School especially, please spread the word, too.

New Environmental Management System. Anyone who works in a lab must complete the Training Needs Assessment and training. Contact the appropriate EHS coordinator with questions. (Prof. David Roylance is the DMSE coordinator.).

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.