Paul E. Allaire (Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering) received an NIH grant on artificial hearts.

Matthew R. Begley (Civil Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering) received a National Science Foundation grant through the Sensor Small Team Initiative, with Prof. James Landers (Chemistry). This $400K award is for development of polymeric bio-chemical sensors. This program is complemented by a related $200K grant from the Carillion Biomedical Institute. Dr. Begley also received funding from the Semi-Conductor Research Consortium to characterize nano-porous low-k materials for microelectronics. This past summer, Dr. Begley was named an associate editor of the ASME Journal of Applied Mechanics.

Stuart S. Berr (Radiology and Biomedical Engineering) received a grant from the NIH National Center for Research Resources. The award is entitled “9.4 Tesla MR Scanner for Murine Imaging and Spectroscopy.”  The Schools of Medicine and Engineering have established successful research programs in the development and application of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spectroscopy (MRS) for non-invasive serial studies of the molecular mechanisms underlying ischemic heart disease (IHD), atherosclerosis, and gastric cancer in transgenic and knockout mice. This $2 million award will support the purchase of a 9.4 Tesla MRI/MRS system with state-of-the-art magnet, gradients and radio-frequency coils to enhance research.

Brett R. Blackman (Biomedical Engineering) and co-PI Brian Wamhoff (Molecular Physiology) received a Funding for Excellence in Science and Technology (FEST) grant for work on smooth muscle and endothelial cells. Blackman was nominated for the Packard Foundation Fellowship in Science and Engineering by the University of Virginia .

W. Bernard Carlson (Science, Technology & Society) was quoted in an article in the May 30 edition of Fortune magazine, headlined: “The Amazing Rise of the Do-It-Yourself Economy.”

Joanne M. Cohoon (Science, Technology & Society) participated in the National Engineers Week Foundation global marathon for, by, and about women in engineering in March 2005. The goal of the project was to increase awareness of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) issues among pre-college, college and young career women and to address issues of concern such as retaining women in college engineering programs and the workplace. Presentations originated from the United States, Europe, Qatar, India, China and other points around the globe. Cohoon’s session was sponsored by Lockheed Martin Corp.

David E. Evans (Computer Science) was appointed as one of two citizen members to the Virginia subcommittee on certification of voting equipment.

Cornelius O. Horgan (Civil Engineering), Wills Johnson Professor of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, received the A. C. Eringen Medal for his “seminal contributions to applied mathematics and the theory of elasticity.” Previous recipients of this medal have been selected from a diverse international group of outstanding engineers and scientists including three Nobel laureates.

James M. Howe (Materials Science & Engineering) received the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society's “Champion H. Mathewson Award.” He and William A. Soffa (Materials Science & Engineering) organized the International Conference on Solid-Solid Phase Transformations in Inorganic Materials (PTM2005) in 2005. The conference occurs every five years and over 325 scientists from 29 different countries attended, with about 60 students, many from U.Va. presenting their research. Prof. Howe received the Department of Materials Science and Engineering Graduate Teaching Award in 2005. He and Dr. Vladimir P. Oleshko received a second place award in the Transmission Electron Microscopy Category for their poster, “Viewing Solid-State Properties of Metastable Gamma-TiHx Nanoprecipitates in Alpha-Ti by EFTEM/EELS,” in the 2005 International Metallographic Contest.

John L. Hudson (Chemical Engineering) was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for his contributions to the understanding and engineering of complex chemical and electrochemical reacting systems. His work focuses on processes involving large numbers of interacting chemical reaction sites. The work has been shown to be important in understanding the onset of corrosion in metals such as stainless steel and it has potential applications in describing the rhythms of circadian oscillations and epilepsy.

The tradition of AAAS Fellows began in 1874 and is regarded as a prestigious distinction among scientists. AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society and includes 262 affiliated societies and academies of science serving 10 million individuals.

Robert Hull (Materials Science & Engineering) received a grant from the Micron Foundation to support his work on electron diffraction contrasts (EDC) studies for mapping stress fields at nanoscale features using TEM and inverse modeling.

William C. Johnson (Materials Science & Engineering) won the 2006 University of Virginia Engineering Foundation Distinguished Faculty Award.

Anita K. Jones (Computer Science), with Yacov Y. Haimes (Systems and Information Engineering) and Barry M. Horowitz (Systems and Information Engineering), organized a Summit on Digital Tools for the Humanities and a Counter-Terrorism Conference titled “Improvising in the Face of Catastrophe.” Both events were held at the University of Virginia .

Jack Knight-Scott (Biomedical Engineering) received $20,000 from the U.Va. Institute on Aging for a pilot project using MR spectroscopy to measure normal age-related changes in brain tissue water content.

Emerita faculty Doris Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf will be recognized with the Class of 2006 Materials Society Fellow Award in March.

Michael B. Lawrence (Biomedical Engineering) was elected Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering for pioneering work in immune cell trafficking to sites of infection.

Klaus F. Ley (Biomedical Engineering), Director of the Cardiovascular Research Center, has been elected as a Fellow to the Biomedical Engineering Society. He is a project investigator on a renewed NIH Program Project Grant (PPG) for Crohn's disease, awarded to principal investigator Fabio Cominelli (Gastroenterology). Klaus Ley and Brent French (Biomedical Engineering) are lead investigators on a second NIH Program Project Grant, along with principal investigator Joel Linden (Cardiovascular Medicine), to study the molecular and cellular mechanisms that are responsible for pathological inflammation in the lung and heart.

Zongli Lin (Charles L. Brown Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering) was appointed the corresponding editor for conference activities of IEEE Control Systems Magazine.

David P. Luebke (Computer Science) received a “Test of Time Award” for his paper “Portals and Mirrors: Simple, Fast Evaluation of Potentially Visible Sets” written with Chris Georges. The award recognized the paper with the most impact from the first 5 years of the ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics (1990-95). This is the primary conference devoted to interactive 3D graphics, such as virtual reality, video games, and flight or driving simulators. The paper was particularly cited for its impact on the video game industry.

Craig H. Meyer (Biomedical Engineering) received a $100,000 Funding for Excellence in Science and Technology (FEST) Grant for his work developing MR methods to image coronary artery disease.

Matthew Neurock (Chemical Engineering) won the 2005 Paul H. Emmett Award in Fundamental Catalysis from the North American Catalysis Society. The award recognizes the contributions of an extraordinary individual in the field of catalysis, with emphasis on discovery and understanding of catalytic phenomena, proposal of catalytic reaction mechanism, and identification of and description of catalytic sites and species.

Catalysis involves the use of substances to modify or increase the rate of chemical reactions. “Matt is recognized for his pioneering contributions to theoretical methods for the analysis and prediction of catalytic rates and selectivities,” the society noted in the award announcement.

Neurock's studies have shed light on the roles of surface structure, crystallite size, surface coverage and alloys.

Richard Price (Biomedical Engineering) was awarded a $130,000 American Heart Association grant for work using ultrasound to guide polymer nanoparticles to oxygen-deprived skeletal muscle. The nanoparticles contain growth factors that stimulate the growth of new blood vessels. Price was elected to the executive council of the Microcirculatory Society.

Michael Reed (Charles L. Brown Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Biomedical Engineering) received a grant under the Nanoscale Science and Engineering program at the National Science Foundation for a program entitled "Science and Technology of Nanoporous Metal Films." Reed is the PI; the co-PIs are Hilary Bart-Smith (Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering), Giovanni Zangari (Materials Science & Engineering), Robert Kelly  (Materials Science & Engineering), and Matthew Begley (Civil Engineering).  This program aims to develop the fundamental understanding and technology of thin films of nanoporous metal alloys.

Reed is also PI on a Nanoscale Exploratory Research (NER) grant by the National Science Foundation.  Whye-kei Lye (Charles L. Brown Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering) and Brian P. Helmke (Biomedical Engineering) are Co-PIs on the project entitled "Electronic Devices from Viral and Cytoskeletal Templates".  The project will use well characterized, self-organizing biological systems as templates to fabricate nanoscale active electronic devices and to form directed electrical pathways to these devices. 

Larry G. Richards (Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering) was elected to serve as the ASEE Educational Research & Methods (ERM) division Chair for the next two years.

William W. Roberts, Jr. (Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering), Commonwealth Professor of Engineering and Applied Science, was recently named Engineering School 2005 Instructor of the Year for Distance Learning.  The award was presented at the September 2005 Faculty Meeting where Mr. Roberts received an engraved plaque and monetary award in recognition of his exceptional performance.

Mr. Roberts has taught five courses in the distance environment over his tenure. During this time he has made an exceptional effort towards continuous distance teaching improvement. He has demonstrated an exceptional responsiveness to distance education administrative requests for course information and has effectively utilized the university’s Instructional Toolkit system to post lecture notes and homework assignments.

The efforts of this individual have been recognized by our distance education students who have made favorable comments on evaluations such as, “Throughout the semester, you’ve shown a mastery of the subject matter and a genuine concern for your students…. It is difficult to take graduate classes, especially while working at a full-time career. However, because of the resources you provide for this class, working students can focus on learning the material without neglecting the rest of their lives.”

Edmund Russell (Science, Technology & Society) received the Leopold-Hidy Prize for the best article published in Environmental History in 2003, for his article “Evolutionary History: Prospectus for a New Field.” The award was given by the American Society for Environmental History and Forest History Society.

Joost R. Santos (Systems and Information Engineering) won a travel award competition from the International Input-Output Association (IIOA) for a paper titled "Impact Assessment of Major Economic Disruptions using the Inoperability Input-Output Model (IIM)" presented in Renmin University, Beijing in June.

John R. Scully (Materials Science & Engineering) had a paper titled on “On-demand release of corrosion-inhibiting ions from amorphous Al-Co-Ce alloys” published on the Advance Online Publication (AOP) of Nature Materials in August. Also, he was elected ECS Fellow of the Electrochemical Society and received the Francis L. LaQue Award from the American Society for Testing and Materials. He gave keynote lectures at the 16th International Corrosion Congress in Beijing, China, the International Conference on Passivity in Paris, France and the International Conference on Non-destructive Testing of Materials in Maine.

Gary J. Shiflet (Materials Science & Engineering) and Joseph Poon (Physics) had their work on amorphous metals cited in the May 16 edition of Fortune magazine, in an article headlined: “Steel Dreams.”

Kevin Skadron (Computer Science) gave an invited luncheon presentation titled “Designing Cool Chips in an Era of Gigascale Integration” at the IEEE/ASME Semiconductor Thermal Measurement, Modeling, and Management Symposium (Semi-Therm XXI) in March 2005. He also served as general co-chair of the IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Microarchitecture (MICRO-37) in December 2004.

Mircea R. Stan (Charles L. Brown Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering) won first prize at the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) Design Contest. He was technical program chair for the International Symposium on Low-Power Electronics and Design (ISLPED), general chair for the International Symposium on Low-Power Electronics and Design (ISLPED), chair elect for the IEEE CAS VLSI Systems and Applications Technical Committee (VSATC) and IEEE CAS Distinguished Lecturer 2004-2005

John A. Stankovic (Computer Science) gave Distinguished Lectures at Johns Hopkins University, the University of Pennsylvania, Stony Brook University and on the Triangle Research Park Distinguished Lecture Series (Duke University, the University of North Carolina and North Carolina State). He is general chair for the Information Processing in Sensor Networks conference (IPSN'06) to be held in April 2006.

Edgar A. Starke Jr. (Materials Science & Engineering) received the Materials Society Structural Materials Division award in recognition of his significant contributions that integrate fundamental science with engineering and technology impact in the microstructure/processing/properties of light metals. Starke is considered the preeminent researcher internationally in this field. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of ASM International and the Materials Society of AIME.

Kevin J. Sullivan (Computer Science), with the support of a grant from the National Science Foundation, is working with Carliss Baldwin, the William L. White Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School , in a new, cross-disciplinary study that connects financial economics and theoretical software engineering. Sullivan and Baldwin are investigating the role of "design rules" in defining the architectures of complex computing systems, and how architectures based on design rules in turn create economic value and influence the structure of the computing industry.

The goals of their work include the validation of hypothesized relationships between modularity in design and economic value (chiefly in the form of real options), new models of modularity in software design, and new methods for designing software-intensive systems based on established relationships between design structure and economic value.

Sullivan organized the first Virginia Summit on Secure and Dependable Computing Systems in April. The summit was held in Darden Business School . More than 50 faculty members and administrators participated, to begin to plan how, as a state, we will address fundamental problems in research, education and policy in secure and dependable computing systems. Dr. Gary McGraw, the Chief Technology Officer of Cigita, a company in the business of computer security and software dependability provided the keynote address.

Kathryn Thornton (Science, Technology & Society), former NASA astronaut and engineering professor, was quoted on the CBS Early Show in a segment headlined “Extra Day in Space: the Human Side.” She was also quoted in a Richmond Times-Dispatch article headlined “Spacewalk Fix Will Test nerves, Skill/Langley Veteran Will Try to Make First External Shuttle Repairs in Weightlessness.”

Alfred C. Weaver (Computer Science) received a $200k gift from Microsoft Research to work on the topic of protecting the privacy and security of medical data.

Weaver also won two other competitive awards from Microsoft Research: one to develop educational coursework and materials for an introductory course on Trustworthy Computing, and one to discover whether the introduction of Tablet PCs in the classroom has any effect on learning outcomes in his electronic commerce class. He provided an invited keynote talk on the topic of computer security at the International Conference on Industrial Technology, in Hong Kong in December. His research group was one of thirty groups worldwide that were invited to attend DemoFest, sponsored by Microsoft Research, in August 2004. The group’s demo showcased a prototype system for supporting medical data privacy and security.

In addition, Weaver also gave an invited keynote speech on the topic of “Industrial Data Privacy and Security” at the Emerging Technology and Factory Automation conference in Catania, Sicily, Italy, in September 2005.

K. Preston White (Systems and Information Engineering) began his tenth year as a member of the Winter Simulation Conference Foundation Board of Directors, having previously served terms as Board Secretary (2002), Vice Chair (2003), Chair (2004), and Trustee of the WSC Foundation (2005).

Houston G. Wood III (Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering) was a guest on National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition.” He discussed the history of gas centrifuges.

William A. Wulf (Computer Science), President of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), made a presentation before the House Science Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives in May on the "State of Computer Science Research in the U.S. and The Evolution of Federal Support for It."

Wulf was also honored by the Washington Academy of Sciences and presented with the Distinguished Career in Science and Engineering Award in May 10, 2005. He was recognized for his work as NAE president, particularly his efforts to prepare engineers for 21st century challenges. He was recently elected to the Chinese Academy of Engineering and he is a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

For more information on faculty research see the Faculty Notes section of the Fall 2005 University of Virginia Engineering Magazine.