Dr. Peter B. Lyons, commissioner of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, will give a talk Tuesday (April 21) at 5:30 p.m. in Room 106 of the Jack E. Brown Engineering Building on campus.

Dr. Peter B. Lyons

Lyons’ talk, “The Role of a Nuclear Regulator,” will be preceded by a reception at 5 p.m.

Lyons will give his perspective on a strong independent regulatory authority that is not only necessary but valuable for any country that utilizes nuclear energy in its quest for energy diversity and security. He will more specifically elaborate on areas of: the value of the independent role played by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC); the NRC’s licensing new reactors; the current status of new reactor licensing work; some of the current challenges; and what the future may hold.

Lyons became a commissioner of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Jan. 25, 2005. As a commissioner, Lyons has focused on the safety of operating reactors and on the importance of learning from operating experience, even as new reactor licensing and possible construction emerges. He has emphasized that NRC and its licensees must remain strong and vigilant components of our nation’s integrated defenses against terrorism, and he has been a consistent voice for improving NRC partnerships with the states.

An extensive research background underlies his advocacy for an active and forward-looking NRC research program to support sound regulatory decisions, address current issues and anticipate future ones. Because NRC’s success depends directly on maintaining a competent and dedicated workforce, Lyons continues to be a strong proponent of science and technology education, recruiting for diversity, employee training and development programs, and an open and collaborative working environment.

From 1969 to 1996, Lyons worked in progressively more responsible positions at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. During that time, he served as director for industrial partnerships, deputy associate director for energy and environment, and deputy associate director-defense research and applications. While at Los Alamos, he spent over a decade supporting nuclear test diagnostics. Before becoming a commissioner, Lyons served as science advisor on the staff of U.S. Senator Pete Domenici and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources where he focused on military and civilian uses of nuclear technology, national science policy, and nuclear non-proliferation.

Lyons has published more than 100 technical papers, holds three patents related to fiber optics and plasma diagnostics, and served as chairman of the NATO Nuclear Effects Task Group for five years.

Shannon Pope

Popularity: 11% [?]

The Texas A&M University Association of Former Students has selected two professors in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering to be honored with 2009 Distinguished Achievement Awards.

Jennifer Welch, the Chevron Corporation Professor, and Bjarne Stroustrup, holder of the College of Engineering Chair in Computer Science, were two of 24 outstanding faculty members to be selected for this award.

These awards were first presented in 1955 and more than 850 faculty members have been awarded since. The 2009 awards will be presented April 28 at 1:30 p.m. in Rudder Theater. All recipients will receive a $4,000 check, an engraved watch and a commemorative plaque.

Welch came to Texas A&M in 1992 after working as an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina. Welch has also worked for companies such as GTE Laboratories, Inc. and AT&T Bell Laboratories.

She is on the editorial board for Distributed Computing and the Chicago Journal of Theoretical Computer Science. In 2008, Welch was named Regent’s Professor and received the Crawford Service Award from Texas A&M. She was awarded the IEEE Education Society Hewlett-Packard Harriet B. Rigas Award in 2004. She is also a Texas Engineering Experiment Station Fellow.

Her research interests include algorithms and lower bounds for distributed computing systems; specification, implementation and applications of distributed shared objects; communication network protocols; timing models and clock synchronization; and modularity in design analysis of distributed algorithms.

Stroustrup is the original designer and implementer of C++ programming and author of The C++ Programming Language. He is a member of the Parasol Lab at Texas A&M.

He has been a member of the AT&T Labs since its inception and is serving as an AT&T Fellow. He is also an Association for Computing Machinery Fellow. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2004. That same year, he received the 2004 IEES’ Computer Entrepreneur Award. In 2005, he became an IEEE Fellow.

His research interests include distributed systems, design, programming techniques, software development tools, and programming languages. He is actively involved in the ANSI/ISO standardization of C++.

Lauren Kern

Popularity: 6% [?]

Graduate students in the Department of Mechanical Engineering have received prestigious awards from the Metals, Minerals and Materials society (TMS) and the Materials Research Society (MRS).

Nan Li, left, receiving his TMS award

At the TMS annual meeting in San Francisco, Nan Li received first prize in the Graduate Student Paper Contest for his paper, “He Ion Irradiation Damage in Fe/W Nanolayer Films.” Nan received the award and a $1,000 monetary prize from TMS president Dr. Diran Apelian.

At the same conference, Osman Anderoglu received the best poster award based on his work, “Plastic Flow Stability of Nanotwinned Polycrystalline Cu Foils.”

Engang Fu received the best poster award at the 2008 MRS fall meeting for his poster presentation, “Impact of He Ion Irradiation on the Microstructure and Hardness of Sputtered Cu/V Nanolayers.” The research based on this presentation will be published in the Journal of Materials Research as an outstanding symposium paper.

Osman Anderoglu, far right

All three students are Ph.D. candidates major in Materials Science and Engineering under the supervision of Dr. Xinghang Zhang. Nan and Engang’s Ph.D. theses on radiation damage in nanolayer composites is funded by DOE-NERI. Osman’s research on nanoscale growth twins is funded by NSF-CAREER in DMR-Metallic Materials and Nanostructures Program.

Zhang said he is very proud of his students’ outstanding achievement.

“These prestigious awards not only recognize the high-quality graduate students we have in the mechanical engineering department, but also demonstrate the quality of research conducted at Texas A&M University.”

Zhang’s research focuses on nanostructured metallic materials for advanced nuclear energy systems, high-strength and high-conductivity metallic interconnects, and magnetic shape memory alloy thin films.

The TMS and MRS are two of the largest materials research society with several thousands of attendees at the meetings.

Popularity: 11% [?]

M. Sam Mannan, director of the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center, will discuss emerging trends in process safety management as part of the keynote address at the national meeting of the Auditing Roundtable April 21-23 in San Antonio.

Dr. M. Sam Mannan

Mannan, Regents Professor and holder of the Mike O’Connor Chair I in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, is scheduled to deliver his presentation at noon Tuesday (April 21) at the Hyatt Regency San Antonio.

The Auditing Roundtable is a professional organization dedicated to the development and professional practice of environmental, health and safety (EHS) auditing. This year’s theme, “Doing More with Less,” is intended to showcase the ways companies can improve EHS performance through enhanced auditing, which conference organizers say has become essential in an environment of transparency and accountability.

The conference is expected to focus on new regulations, standards and interpretations related to environmental health and safety while detailing opportunities for better program design, use of resources and using information technology more effectively.

Mannan, a professional engineer and certified safety professional, is an internationally recognized expert on process safety and risk assessment. He is a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, American Society of Safety Engineers, International Institute of Ammonia Refrigeration and National Fire Protection Association.

In addition to his many professional honors and achievements, Mannan has served as a consultant to numerous entities in both the academic and private sectors, including the Columbia Accident Investigation Board.

He also has testified before the U.S. Congress on multiple occasions, lending his expertise on matters of national security as it relates to chemical safety and infrastructure. Mannan is a co-author of “Guidelines for Safe Process Operations and Maintenance.”

The Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center is jointly operated by Texas A&M University’s Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering and the Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES), the engineering research agency of the State of Texas and a member of The Texas A&M University System.

For more information on the Auditing Roundtable, visit http://www.auditing-roundtable.org.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Dr. Tahir Cagin, professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, will give a talk Friday (April 24) at 4 p.m. in Room 124 of the H.R. Bright Building on campus.

Dr. Tahir Cagin

Cagin’s talk, “Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Structure, Assembly, Thermo-mechanical Properties and Transport in Cyclic Peptide Nanotubes,” is part of the Alliance for Bioinformatics, Computational Biology and Systems Biology seminar series.

ABSTRACT
Cyclic peptides self assemble into nanotubes and further into two-dimensional crystalline arrangements with interesting properties that might be relevant for many technologically important applications.
Using molecular dynamics simulation methods we have simulated structure and stability of these self assembled cyclic peptide nanotubes. We determine the thermal and mechanical stability of these structures as a function of temperature and pressure as well as investigating the transport of water and ions through these structures.

BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Tahir Cagin, currently serving as chair of the interdisciplinary materials science and engineering program, received his Ph. D. in 1988 in physics (computational condensed matter physics) from Clemson University; M.S. in mathematical physics in 1983 from the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, Turkey; and B. S. in physics in 1981, also from METU.

He was previously a research associate in the chemistry department at the University of Houston and a visiting research scientist at Wright Patterson Air Force Base’s Materials Laboratory in Ohio. Before joining Texas A&M’s chemical engineering department in 2005, he served as director of Materials Science and Technology of the Materials and Process Simulation Center at Caltech.

During his scientific career, he developed methods and algorithms for studying properties of materials in condensed phases (both in equilibrium and under steady state non-equilibrium conditions), and applied atomistic-level simulation methods to a wide variety of materials ranging from polymers/biopolymers, to metals, alloys, ceramics, minerals, zeolites and functional materials, such as carbon nanotubes, ferroelectrics, dendrimers and biopolymers. He has published more than 140 research articles, reviews and book chapters. He received the Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology (Theory) in 1999 for the work on modeling and studies on molecular level machines/motors.

For more information please visit the ABCS Web site at http://abcs.tamu.edu/abcs-seminar.html.

Tony Okonski, tonyo@cse.tamu.edu

Popularity: 9% [?]

Shell Zhang, an undergraduate student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been named a Microsoft scholarship recipient.

Shell Zhang

Zhang, an international student from China, will receive the scholarship from Microsoft for the 2009-2010 school year.

“This is impressive considering we had applicants from all across North America,” said Rian Sammy Sacquitne, Microsoft recruiter. “Texas A&M should be proud of this accomplishment.”

Zhang currently is a junior in the department who transferred from Michigan Technical University a year ago. She is a co-chair for the engineering summer camp programs for the Texas A&M chapter of the Society of Women Engineers, and last summer worked for Gentex Corp. as a project engineering intern. Her interest area is artificial intelligence and she hopes to go to graduate school doing research in a related field.

“I am very excited about winning the Microsoft scholarship,” Zhang said. “It’s an acknowledgment of my passion and work on software technology; also it is a bit of financial relief for me.”

Popularity: 9% [?]