Some Professional Activities of College Faculty

Coutu Appointed as NASA Advisor

15 April 2005—Stephane Coutu, associate professor of physics and of astronomy and astrophysics, has been appointed a member of the Universe Working Group of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which provides scientific advice to NASA on issues related to the Research Analysis Program of the Office of Space Science. Coutu's research involves searches for dark matter and studies of cosmic antimatter and the highest-energy cosmic rays and neutrinos, including the composition, origin, acceleration, and propagation of cosmic rays. He will serve a three-year term on the NASA committee.

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Milton Cole Appointed to Editorial Board

22 December 2004—Milton Cole, Distinguished Professor of Physics, has been appointed to the editorial board and policy committee of the Journal of Low-Temperature Physics, which is published by the Kluwer Publishing Company.

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Ashtekar Gives Plenary Lecture in Honor of Einstein

15 March 2004-- Abhay Ashtekar, Holder of the Eberly Family Chair in Physics and the director of the Center for Gravitational Physics and Geometry, delivered the invited plenary lecture at the 15 March 2004 meeting of the German Physical Society in Ulm, the birthplace of Albert Einstein. The meeting, which was a special conference organized in honor of the 125th anniversary of Einstein's birth, was inaugurated by the President of Germany, Johannes Rau. The title of Ashtekar's lecture was "Geometry, Gravity and the Quantum: Building on Einstein's Legacy."

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Professor Helps Coach High-School Math Club

18 February 2004 -- Students in the math club at State College Area High School are getting a taste of mathematics in the real world through the efforts of a Penn State professor. Bryna Kra, assistant professor of mathematics, is a volunteer coach for the high school's math club. She meets with the students about once a month and aids them in their quest to learn more about math.

During the first half of the year, the students in the club attend lectures given by Kra or other Penn State faculty members. The lectures typically focus on current research involving mathematics, and at each one the students are given one problem to consider until the following month's meeting.

"A few advanced students come to Penn State for lectures that are part of the math program for undergraduates," she said, adding that this gives them the opportunity to hear from famous researchers in the field.

During the second half of the year, the students participate in contests and attend competitions around the region. The club's adviser, Jim Banyas, a math teacher at the high school, said, "State College High usually places first or second in these competitions, sometimes by a landslide."

Banyas said the program with Penn State is very beneficial to the students in the club. "We try to immerse them in different aspects of math," he said. "It gives them an exposure to mathematics outside the high school realm."

Kra, who is in her fourth year of teaching at Penn State, said she began her role as the club's coach last year, although the program has been going on for several years now. Both Banyas and Kra agreed that the students seem to enjoy the program. "The same students come back every month," Kra said.

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Weiss Lectures in Japan and China

12 November 2003 -- Paul Weiss, professor of chemistry and physics, presented a lecture in Japan titled "Creating Nanostructures Through Self-Assembly and Directed Assembly," which was the initial symposium in a series designed to begin the establishment of a new international interdisciplinary research university in Okinawa. Weiss presented this symposium during a meeting titled "New Horizons in Molecular Sciences and Systems: An Integrated Approach," which was hosted by the Japanese Cabinet Ministry of Science and Technology and the Development Authority of Okinawa.

He also presented a lecture titled "Measuring and Controlling Molecular-Scale Properties for Molecular Devices" during the Workshop on Molecular Functional Materials hosted by Hong Kong University in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.

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Finn Appointed to NASA Committee

5 March 2003 -- Lee Samuel Finn, professor of physics and director of the Center for Gravitational Wave Physics, has been invited to serve on NASA's Structure and Evolution of the Universe sub-committee, which provides advice to NASA's Office of Space Science on such topics as fundamental physics, high-energy astrophysics, cosmology, gravitational physics, and the cosmic microwave background.

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Katok Honored by Science Society in Japan

5 March 2003 -- Anatole Katok, Shibley Professor of Mathematics, has been honored by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science with its prestigious Invitation Fellowship. Katok is a specialist in the theory of dynamical systems, which is the mathematical foundation for the field of nonlinear dynamics and the theory of chaos. He plans to spend part of the 2003-2004 academic year lecturing and conducting research in Japan.

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Weiss Appointed to Editorial Board, Gives Invited Talks in Japan

13 January 2003-- Paul Weiss, professor of chemistry and physics, has been appointed a member of the editorial board of the American Institute of Physics journal Review of Scientific Instruments. Weiss will serve the journal, which concerns scientific instruments, apparati, and techniques, for a three-year term in this position.

Weiss also recently presented two invited talks in Japan. In Nagoya at the 2002 International Conference on Solid-State Devices and Materials, he presented a talk titled, "Measuring and Controlling Molecular-Scale Properties for Molecular Electronics." In Tokyo, at the University of Tokyo Institute of Solid-State Physics, he presented a talk titled "Exploring and Controlling the Atomic-Scale World."

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Andrews Tapped by Discover Magazine and National Science Foundation

29 October 2002 -- George E. Andrews, the Evan Pugh Professor of Mathematics, was among the eminent mathematicians selected by the National Science Foundation to participate in a roundtable discussion at the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. Excepts from the discussion are published as a feature story in the October 2002 issue of Discover magazine titled "Does Math Matter Anymore?"

 

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Petrunin Gives Invited Talk in China

29 October 2002 -- Anton Petrunin, assistant professor of mathematics, gave an invited lecture concerning differential geometry at the 2002 International Congress of Mathematicians in Beijing, China.

 

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Weiss Elected to Leadership Role in American Physical Society

21 August 2002 -- David Weiss, associate professor of physics, has been elected a member-at-large of the executive committee of the American Physical Society Topical Group on Precision Measurements and Fundamental Constants. The group facilitates communication among the many subfields within physics that make precision measurements, especially of fundamental physical constants, such as the speed of light in a vacuum and the mass of the electron.

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Lee and Weiss Organize Workshop in Korea

18 June 2002 -- Haiwon Lee, visiting professor of chemistry, and Paul Weiss, professor of chemistry, organized and hosted a binational meeting on advances in nanofabrication for approximately 200 participants, including South Korean representatives from academia, industry, and government as well as an invited US delegation. Titled the "First US-Korea Nanofabrication Workshop," the meeting took place from 3 to 5 June 2002 in Seoul, South Korea, at Hanyang University, where Lee is head of the chemistry department.

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Anderson Gives Plenary Lecture in Germany

28 March 2002 -- James B. Anderson, Evan Pugh Professor of Chemistry, presented a plenary lecture titled "Overview of Diffusion and Green's Function Quantum Monte Carlo Methods" at the Euro Winter School in Kerkrade, The Netherlands, on February 25, 2002. The School was organized to discuss Quantum Simulations of Complex Many-Body Systems and sponsored by the John von Neumann Institute for Computing of the Research Center Juelich at Juelich, Germany.

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Schiffer Elected Vice-Chair of Physics Group

20 March 2002 -- Peter Schiffer, associate professor of physics, has been elected vice-chair of the American Physical Society Topical Group in Magnetism and Its Applications. The position will lead to Schiffer's becoming chair of the group in 2004.

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Crespi Appointed to Editorial Board of Physics Journal

6 March 2002 -- Vincent Crespi, associate professor of physics and the Downsbrough Faculty Development Professor in Physics, has been appointed to a two-year term as a member of the editorial board of Physical Review B, a journal of the American Physical Society.

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Pazur Lectures in The Netherlands

10 October 2001 -- John H. Pazur, Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry, presented a lecture concerning the preparation and function of antibodies for the hormone that regulates the synthesis of red blood cells at the International Symposium on Glycobiology, which took place recently in The Hague, The Netherlands. The hormone, erythropoietin, is used medically for treating some types of anemia. It also is used illegally by some athletes for enhancing performance in competitive sports, according to Pazur, who says its antibodies may be useful in developing a precise analytical method for monitoring patients on hormone therapy and for detecting illegal uses of the hormone.

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Peterson Receives Research Grant for Novel Breast-Cancer Treatment

8 October 2001 -- Blake R. Peterson, assistant professor of chemistry, has been awarded a three-year grant from the American Cancer Society to investigate a novel strategy for the treatment of breast cancer.

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Anderson Presents Inviced Talks in Austria

5 October 2001 -- James B. Anderson, Evan Pugh Professor of Chemistry, presented a series of lectures at the 3rd Seminar on Monte Carlo Methods of the International Association for Mathematics and Computer Science in Simulation, which was held in Salzburg, Austria, from 10 to 14 September 2001. His lectures were titled: "The Simulation of Detonations," "Monte Carlo Methods in Electronic Structure for Large Systems," "Quantum Monte Carlo: Direct Calculation of Corrections to Trial Wave Functions and Their Energies," and "Monte Carlo Treatment of UV Light Imprisonment in Fluorescent Lamps."

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Weiss Presents Invited Talks in Japan

27 September 2001 -- Paul S. Weiss, professor of chemistry, presented a series of invited talks during a recent trip to Japan. In Kyoto, his talks included "Controlling and Measuring Local Composition and Properties in Lipid Bilayer Membranes" at the 4th International Conference on Biological Physics and "Exploring and Controlling the Atomic-Scale World" at the Kyocera Corporate Headquarters. In Yokohama his presentations included "Controlling and Measuring Local Composition and Properties in Lipid Bilayer Membranes" at the Tokyo Institute of Technology Laboratory of Biodynamics and "Measuring and Controlling Molecular-Scale Properties for Molecular Electronics" at the Tokyo Institute of Technology Department of Biomolecular Engineering.

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Ashtekar Gives Plenary Lectures in Poland and South Africa

8 August 2001 -- Abhay Ashtekar, Holder of the Eberly Family Chair in Physics and director of the Penn State Center for Gravitational Physics and Geometry, was invited to present lectures at three international events this summer. He delivered two plenary lectures in Warsaw, Poland--one titled "Meeting Challenges of Quantum Gravity" during the E. T. Newman Fest, and the other titled "Semi-Classical Issues in Quantum Gravity" at the Workshop on Canonical and Quantum Gravity held at the Banach Institute.

At the Tri-annual International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation in Durban, South Africa, Ashtekar presented the plenary lecture, titled "Quantum Geometry and Gravity: Recent Advances; an invited review lecture titled "Isolated Horizons and Their Applications" during the session on Complex Methods, Twistors and Connection Variables; and an invited lecture titled "Semi-classical Issues in Loop Quantum Gravity" in the session on Quantum General Relativity.

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Finn Gives Invited Talk in Australia
17 July 2001 -- Lee Samuel Finn, associate professor of physics, Presented an invited paper titled "Perspectives on Detector Networks, and Noise" at the Fourth Edoardo Amaldi Conference on Gravitational Waves. This international conference was held from July 8 to 13 at the University of Western Australia, in Perth.

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Mészáros Presents Lecture at International Meeting

12 January 2001 --Peter Mészáros, distinguished professor and head of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, presented the 2001 Bruno Rossi Prize lecture, titled "Gamma-Ray Bursts: Origins and Consequences," at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society in San Diego, California.

Mészáros was one of three astrophysicists jointly awarded this year's Bruno Rossi Prize by the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the society for their pioneering work on gamma-ray bursts, mysterious explosions from deep space that outshine the entire universe before rapidly fading away, sometimes in just a few seconds. Mészáros and his colleagues, Bohdan Paczynski of Princeton University and Sir Martin Rees of the Royal Observatories in England, were honored for their development of theoretical models of gamma-ray bursts years before observational scientists had adequate tools to study the phenomena.

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Diehl Named to Editorial Board of Physics Journal

2 January 2001 -- Renee Diehl, professor of physics, has been named to the editorial board of Journal of Physics-Condensed Matter. A member of the Penn State faculty since 1990, Diehl was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society earlier this year. Her research focuses on the adsorption of atoms onto metal surfaces.

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Maynard Selected as Divisional Associate Editor for Physical Review Letters

2 January 2001 -- Julian Maynard, distinguished professor of physics, has been selected as divisional associate editor for Physical Review Letters. A member of the Penn State faculty since 1977, Maynard's research includes work with physical acoustics.