Dartmouth Engineer

Professor Eric Fossum has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, the highest honor the engineering community bestows. He also has been named a Charter Fellow of the National Academy of Innovators in recognition of his invention of the CMOS active pixel image sensor, now found in nearly every cell phone and digital camera.

Professor Jifeng Liu was named a 2012 recipient of the National Science Foundation’s CAREER Award for outstanding young faculty who through their work “exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research.” The award will enable Liu to pursue research on low-temperature growth of high crystallinity germanium tin (GeSn) on amorphous materials for advanced optoelectronics.

Professor Keith Paulsen was named a Fellow of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, for his achievements in multi-modality medical imaging technologies for the detection and treatment of cancer, especially in the breast and brain.

Professor Brian Pogue was named a Fellow of the Optical Society of America for his contributions to optical tomography and spectroscopy of breast cancer and advancement of optical diffusion modeling software for tissue spectroscopy and imaging.

Professor Ulrike Wegst was one of 78 young engineers selected to take part in the National Academy of Engineering’s 18th annual U.S. Frontiers of Engineering symposium in September. The materials scientist also serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Bionic Engineering.

The world’s most exciting, groundbreaking technology is pointless if it is unable to address an urgent and relevant need, Professor Tillman Gerngross argued in a recent issue of Nature Biotechnology magazine. “As basic scientists, our impact is measured by generating new knowledge and advancing our understanding of how the world works,” stated Gerngross, cofounder of  therapeutic protein companies GlycoFi and Adimab. “Not all problems are worth solving, and your job as a bio-entrepreneur is to figure out which ones are.”

Ph.D. candidate Kaitlin Keegan provided a critical data point to a NASA announcement last summer regarding extreme melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet. “An estimated 97 percent of the ice sheet surface thawed at some point in mid-July,” reported NASA, pointing to Keegan’s analyses of ice cores. Keegan and Professor Mary Albert are among the coauthors of a new paper published in Nature reconstructing the climate of the Eemian interglacial period, based on the analysis of a 2,540-meter-long ice core from northern Greenland.

Elizabeth Chang Th’12, Amanda Christian Th’12, and Christopher Ng Th’12 were finalists in the annual Collegiate Inventors Competition sponsored by Invent Now, Inc. The Thayer team—advised by Professor Douglas Van Citters ’99 Th’03 ’06—invented an “Expandable Hydrogel Sphere for Orbital Implantation” for patients either lacking an eyeball or having a small eyeball. This was the third time in four years that Thayer students have won or been finalists in the competition.

Robbie Cholnoky ’13, Kevin Dahms ’12, Annie Saunders ’12, and Robbie Moss ’12 traveled to Fond des Blancs, Haiti, in November to examine the town’s water pump system and research ways to increase its durability. The students undertook the project in post-earthquake Haiti as part of ENGS 89/90, Thayer’s capstone B.E. engineering design course.

Professor Brian Pogue has been named chair of the National Institutes of Health’s new grant review panel for biomedical imaging technology. The panel will review applications in optical imaging, ultrasound imaging, X-ray imaging, nuclear medicine, and magnetic resonance imaging. Pogue also won the Light Path Award from the American Society for Photobiology for “substantial and innovative contributions to the fusion of photobiology with other disciplines, thus broadening the frontiers of photobiology.”

Professor Jifeng Liu has led a research team developing a process for creating less expensive solar cells that are up to twice as efficient as the current technology. Because current methods can harness only a “very small portion” of solar energy (less than 10 percent), the team’s findings could be “groundbreaking” in the field of renewable energy studies, Liu says. His team, which included Haofeng Li Th’15 and research scientist Xiaoxin Wang, developed a method of manufacturing single crystal thin films directly on ordinary glass over a large area, allowing for the commercialization of single crystal silicon thin-film solar cells for the first time.

Professor Eric Fossum delivered the keynote address, “Quanta Image Sensor: A Possible Paradigm Shift for the Future,” at the Image Sensors Conference in London in March. Fossum, who coordinates Thayer’s Ph.D. Innovation Program, invented the CMOS active pixel image sensor, which is used in cellphone cameras, webcams, digital-still cameras, and medical imaging.

Dartmouth’s Class of 2012 chose Professor Vicki May as the recipient of the College’s Jerome Goldstein Award for Distinguished Teaching. May, whose research focuses on engineering education, inquiry-based learning, and seismic engineering, says, “Teaching, to me, is about the students, connecting with them in ways that encourage them to learn and grow.  I enjoy experimenting with different teaching approaches.”

Vermont Public Radio featured recordings from the Dartmouth Jewish Sound Archive. The treasure trove of 36,000 recordings, ranging from the UN announcement of the creation of Israel to comedy from Groucho Marx, was established in 2002 by Professor Alex Hartov Th’88 and Dartmouth Hebrew Professor Lewis Glinert as a resource for researchers and students.

Adjunct Professor Michael Mayor, a Dartmouth orthopedic surgeon and past chairman of the FDA’s Advisory Panel on Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Devices, discussed the issues surrounding hip-replacement surgeries on Alaska Public Radio’s “Line One” show.

The Big Green Bus kicked off its summer cross-country tour in June, stopping in Washington, D.C., to meet with U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu. The waste vegetable oil-fueled vehicle will travel through 30 states while its crew of 12 students and recent grads promotes sustainable living. “I am greatly looking forward to adventuring through the country in a way I never have before, all the while addressing the most important issues that face humanity and the Earth,” says engineering major Ari Koeppel ’15. The bus is scheduled to pull back into Hanover on September 5. Follow its progress at thebiggreenbus.org.

Dartmouth Humanitarian Engineering has earned a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency for its work in Rwanda. The project, which was also one of three finalists out of 1,800 applicants in the Dell Social Innovation Challenge, involves using small-scale hydropower to generate electricity in Rwandan communities that are decades away from accessing the national grid.

M.S. candidate Rezwan Khan has been named a 2012-13 New Hampshire-Vermont Schweitzer Fellow. As one of about 240 Schweitzer Fellows nationwide, he will organize a group of students from different disciplines at Dartmouth who will provide consulting services to nonprofits and social service organizations working to improve the health and well-being of people in the Upper Valley.

Thayer graduate students Yang Shen Th’12, Yicai Bao Th’12, Vedant Rathi Th’12, and Boyu Zhang Th’12 won first place in the Oliver Wyman Case Competition in March. The competition, organized by the Thayer Consulting Club, the Dartmouth Society of Investment and Economics, and the Graduate Consulting Club, rated student teams on how closely their strategic planning resembled that of an actual consulting firm. Second place went to Haider Syed Th’13, Saaid Arshad ’14, and Jonathan Pedde ’14. Judges included Tuck and Thayer faculty, Oliver Wyman consultant John Engstrom Th’10, and Axia consultant Mat Ackerman ’05 Th’06.

Engineering major Eric Packer ’12 was selected for a new elite professional ski team at Stratton Mountain School. Last winter he earned All-America honors at the NCAA Championships, competed in the U23 World Championships in Turkey, and won the classic sprint at SuperTour Finals to cap off a strong final collegiate season.

Professor Lee Lynd Th’83 Th’87 has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for his contributions to research, technology development, and policy work on renewable cellulosic biofuels.

The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society has named Professor Ian Baker a fellow for his “pioneering contributions to the characterization of microstructure and mechanical properties of metals and materials.”

Professor Eugene Santos has been named a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers for his “contributions to decision support systems and reasoning under uncertainty.” He also received the Best Paper Award at the International Defense and Homeland Security Simulation Workshop last fall for “Modeling and Simulating Dynamic Healthcare Practices,” a paper he coauthored with Ph.D. candidates Keumjoo Kim and Fei Yu, Deqing Li Th’11, Elizabeth Jacob ’11, project assistant Phoebe Arbogast, and Adjunct Professor Joseph Rosen, M.D.

The U.S. military has turned to a team of researchers led by Professor Fridon Shubitidze to help develop technology for tracking buried, unexploded bombs. “The goal is to dig up all the explosives—100 percent—and leave behind 75 percent of the clutter,” Shubitidze told Innovation News Daily. The Department of Defense gave the team a Project of the Year Award and a $1.4-million grant for a new three-year effort to boost detection of smaller and deeper-buried explosives.

An international consortium led by Thayer Professor Margaret Ackerman and Galit Alter of the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, MIT, and Harvard has been awarded approximately $8 million to develop a new type of HIV vaccine. Funded by Partners Healthcare through a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-sponsored Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery, the project will focus on inducing production of antibodies that would recruit cells of the innate immune system to block HIV infection soon after viral transmission. The innate immune system is an early-response system that keeps pathogens in check until the more specialized adaptive immune system can respond. Ackerman and Alter have teamed experts from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Tulane University, University of Oxford, and Germany’s Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg to collaborate on the vaccine.

Thayer School, Dartmouth Medical School, and injury-prevention company Simbex will investigate brain injuries in contact sports with a $1.3-million grant from the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment. “This is a great opportunity to answer important questions related to the link between head impact biomechanics, brain tissue motion, and neuroimaging findings,” says Simbex president and Adjunct Professor Rick Greenwald Th’88, a principal investigator with Professor Songbai Ji.

The National Science Foundation’s Partnerships for Innovation program has awarded $600,000 in academic support to students in Thayer’s Ph.D. Innovation Program, which provides skills for commercializing research findings.

The Dartmouth Aires singing group, including engineering major Will Hart ’12, finished second on NBC’s The Sing-Off. In this video Hart discusses links between music and engineering:

Professor Lee Lynd received the 2011 Mines Medal, awarded annually by the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology “to honor engineers, scientists, and researchers who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and innovation.” In June Lynd and Jeremy Woods published an article in the journal Nature. “Perspective: A New Hope for Africa” argues that bioenergy could help bring food security to the world’s poorest continent.

Professor Ian Baker has been named a fellow of the Materials Research Society. He was recognized for his scientific leadership in exploring the structure-property relationships of materials.

Professor Mary Albert accepted an invitation from the National Academy of Sciences to serve on its Committee on the Legacies and Lessons of the International Polar Year.

Dean Joseph Helble discussed the importance of technological literacy in the 21st century during a TEDx lecture, “The World’s ‘Sputnik Moment’?”:

Arsanis Inc. of Lebanon, N.H., co-founded by Professor Tillman Gerngross, Errik Anderson ’00 Tu’07, and Eszter Nagy, has raised $10 million in funding. The startup is developing fully human monoclonal antibodies to treat a variety of infectious diseases.

Avedro, a startup based on technology developed by Professor B. Stuart Trembly, has completed $25-million series C financing. The Waltham, Mass.-based company offers thermal techniques for reshaping corneas.

Engineering majors Eric Packer ’12 and Stephanie Crocker ’12 have been named to the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association’s All Academic Intercollegiate Ski Team. Packer was also awarded the Francis L. Town Scientific Prize for the class of 2012 for meritorious work in engineering sciences.

Saryah Azmat ’11, an engineering major, was one of five students chosen to represent Dartmouth at a global health case competition at Emory University in March. The team won an honorable mention and $1,000 for a hypothetical plan to efficiently allocate resources for 800,000 refugees in East Africa.

Engineering physics major Jeremy Brouillet ’13 received an honorable mention from the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program. Brouillet, who has worked in the laser lab at Thayer, plans to pursue a Ph.D. in materials science.

Lucas Ellis Th’12 attended the annual National Biodiesel Board Conference in February as co-chair of Next Generation Scientists for Biodiesel. See an interview with him:

Anne Kwei Th’11, Ilya Bendich DMS’14, and Joe Gigliotti DMS’14 joined together to win the first Dartmouth Medical Technology Business Plan Competition in May. Their plan was for Rytek Medical, a company commercializing a cancer-sensing biopsy needle invented by Professor Ryan Halter Th’06. The competition was the brainchild of Jay Miller ’82.

Professor Reza Olfati-Saber, an expert on self-organizing complex systems, has been awarded a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the government’s highest such honor. The award will support his research on the next generation of smart cars.

Professor Olfati-Saber, second from left in second to last row, with President Obama and fellow award winners. Official White House photograph by Chuck Kennedy.

Professor Solomon Diamond ’97 Th’98 was one of 53 early-career engineering educators chosen to participate in the National Academy of Engineering’s Frontiers of Engineering Education symposium in December in Irvine, Calif. The program focused on ways to ensure that students learn skills necessary to be effective engineers or researchers.

ICECODE LLC founded by Professor Victor Petrenko, is one of five innovation award-winners in the 2010 GE Ecomagination Challenge. ICECODE was cited for a technology — using high-power pulses to apply heat from the inside — “that instantly de-ices wind turbine blades so they never slow or shut down.”

The GE Ecomagination Challenge named SustainX Inc., founded in 2007 by Dax Kepshire Th’07 ’09, Ben Bollinger ’04 Th’04 ’08, and Troy McBride Th’01 with the help of former Thayer Dean Charles Hutchinson, as one of 12 new partners selected for investment by GE “to develop and commercialize technologies vital to helping build the next-generation power grid.”

Biomedical product development firm Simbex, led by founder and adjunct professor Rick Greenwald Th’88, will partner with Thayer School and the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice to create the Center for Translation of Rehabilitation Engineering Advances and Technology (TREAT). With a $3.4-million, five-year award from the National Institutes of Health, TREAT will offer technology assessment, intellectual property evaluation, concept prototyping and testing, market evaluation, and clinical trials development for rehabilitation technologies.

Recent B.E. students Devon Anderson Th’10, Jonathan Guerrette Th’10, and Nathan Niparko ’09 Th’10 earned the second-place, $5,000 prize in the undergraduate category of the 2010 Collegiate Inventors Competition for the bioresorbable surgical sponge they created as a project for Thayer’s design methodology course ENGS 190/290 (now known as ENGS 89/90). The team used a novel combination of materials, including cellulose and alginate, and a novel fabrication method involving electrospinning to create a sponge that, if accidentally left in a patient’s body during surgery, breaks down into harmless substances that can be absorbed by the body. Anderson, now a visiting research assistant at Thayer, and Guerrette, a master’s candidate, are continuing research on the sponge.

Master’s candidate Lucas Ellis co-chairs the Next Generation Scientists for Biodiesel initiative, formed to increase support for biodiesel among tomorrow’s scientific leaders. Chosen for the position by the National Biodiesel Board, Ellis will help create a forum where students can collaborate and share ideas, including through virtual conferences and Facebook exchanges.

A team of Dartmouth students was recently selected to participate in NASA’s 2011 Microgravity University, a program that allows university students to perform research in a zero-g environment similar to that experienced by astronauts.

The team will fly aboard an aircraft that performs a series of parabolic arcs to simulate spaceflight. Four team members, B.E. candidates Sean Currey ’11, Broghan Cully ’11, Maxwell Fagin, and Michael Kellar, will test their ENGS 89/90 (formerly 190/290) project, which is sponsored by NASA’s Glenn Research Center. The project is a condensing heat exchanger that uses porous graphite to extract moisture from spacecraft cabins. Julianna Scheiman ’11 and William Voigt, a dual-degree student, will also be aboard. NASA has also featured Currey’s summer internship work on alternative fuels.

Sean Currey ’11 during his summer internship at NASA. Photograph courtesy of Sean Currey.

A Dartmouth Outing Club crew led by Greg Sokol ’10 Th’11 spent last summer rebuilding Titcomb Cabin, located on the Connecticut River’s Gilman Island about a mile downriver from campus. The original cabin, which was built in 1952, burned down in a May 2009 fire. The crew floated nearly all the construction materials — including almost 100 logs harvested from a College-owned lot — to the island via canoes and boats.

CABIN CREW: Left to right, Lucas Schulz ’08 Th’09, engineering major Jordan Nesmith ’11, Greg Sokol ’10 Th’11, Max Friedman ’10, Claire Frazer ’10, Charlie Grant ’11, and engineering major Kodiak Burke ’11. Photograph by Steve Smith.

This spring the crew plans to finish the loft and install windows, a door, and a woodstove. “Working with fellow engineers was great — the project is what it is only because of their abilities and their willingness to learn and pick up new skills,” Sokol says. “The trickiest part of the cabin was probably putting the last log on. The roof is supported by five logs called purlins which run the length of the roof. The one that supports the peak of the roof, the ridge pole, is the largest log we had, with a 21-inch diameter at the butt. It needed to be raised up carefully with a chain hoist and positioned perfectly onto four supporting posts. I think we had 15 to 20 volunteers that day helping steady the log as it was lowered into place.” Read the crew’s blog at  rebuildingtitcomb.blogspot.com.

A Formula Hybrid exhibition competition will be held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway May 7 as part of the 100th Anniversary Indy 500 Emerging Tech Day. The exhibition follows the fourth annual Thayer-organized Formula Hybrid International Competition, which takes place May 1–4 at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, N.H. Meanwhile, you can follow the progress of this year’s Formula Hybrid teams in a new blog written by veteran racing writer Gordon Kirby.

Three groups from Thayer participated in the USA Science and Engineering Festival, held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on October 23 and 24. Professor Mary Albert, Ice Drilling Program Office educational outreach coordinator Linda Morris, Thayer Ph.D. candidate Kaitlin Keegan, B.E. candidate Casey Stelmach ’10, and three Dartmouth earth sciences grad students presented Polar Detectives, an interactive exhibit about ice core research and climate change.

Ph.D. candidate Kaitlin Keegan shows an ice core to visitors to Thayer’s Polar Detectives booth at the USA Science and Engineering Festival. Photograph courtesy of Nancy Serrell.

Professor Solomon Diamond ’97 Th’98 and Ph.D. candidates Broc Burke, Mohammed Talukdar, and Katherine Perdue presented Biosignals! Synchronizing Rhythms in the Human Body, about what scientists are discovering about the brain’s function in synchronizing our biological rhythms.

Professor Solomon Diamond ’97 Th’98, and Ph.D. candidates Broc Burke, Mohammed Talukdar, and Katherine Perdue in their booth at the USA Science and Engineering Festival. Photograph courtesy of Nancy Serrell.

B.E. candidate Elizabeth Dain-Owens ’10 was among the crew of the Big Green Bus discussing energy efficiency and alternative fuels.

Dartmouth earned the top spot in The Daily Beast’s listing of “Tech’s 29 Most Powerful Colleges.” The website praised the Dartmouth Regional Technology Center, a nonprofit tech incubator supported by Thayer School faculty and alumni through the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network.

Professor Elsa Garmire was honored as a “Laser Pioneer” at the Smithsonian Museum in February as part of LaserFest, a celebration marking the 50th anniversary of the first working laser. As a graduate student at MIT, Garmire first demonstrated important nonlinear effects produced by laser beams acting on atoms and molecules.

Professor Tillman Gerngross, co-founder and CEO of biotech firm Adimab Inc., and his colleagues, co-founder Dane Wittrup and COO Errik Anderson ’00 Tu’07, earned a 2010 Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the New Hampshire High Technology Council. Last October, Google took an ownership stake in Adimab, which identifies therapeutic proteins, for an estimated $10 to $13 million.

Douglas Fraser, research engineer and director of Formula Hybrid, was awarded the 2010 Carroll Smith Mentor’s Cup by Formula SAE and the Sports Car Club of America. The award recognizes extraordinary levels of personal time and expertise given to engineering education. The citation praises Fraser’s mentoring of Formula Hybrid students.

Brent Bilger ’80 Th’81 and Chris McConnell ’75 have been appointed to Thayer School’s Board of Overseers. Bilger is an executive in residence with U.S. Venture Partners in Menlo Park, Calif. McConnell is the founder and president of Adondo Corp., a Wayne, Pa.-based company that develops custom enterprise and web-based solutions for mobile content delivery and advertising.

Professor Alex Hartov Th’88 has been appointed director of Thayer School’s M.S. and Ph.D. programs.

Professors Charles Sullivan and Christopher Levey and researchers from MIT, Georgia Tech, and the University of Pennsylvania have received a $92-million grant from the Department of Energy for improving integrated power electronics to increase energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions.

Dartmouth has been designated a Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence with a $12.8-million grant from the National Institutes of Health. Thayer Professors Ian Baker, Keith Paulsen Th’84, Tillman Gerngross, Karl Griswold, John Weaver, Jack Hoopes, and Brian Pogue will work with medical colleagues on using magnetic nanoparticles to destroy tumors.

Professor Sue McGrath is a project team member on a patient surveillance system being implemented by anesthesiologists at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. The system, which earned the 2009 Health Devices Achievement Award from the healthcare nonprofit ECRI Institute, helps doctors identify and treat post-surgical problems before they develop into medical crises.

U.S. Patent 7,701,317, “Low AC resistant foil winding for magnetic coils on gapped cores,” has been issued to Professor Charles Sullivan and Jennifer D. Pollock Th’06.

U.S. Patent 7,713,268 B2, “Thermokeratoplasty Systems,” has been issued to Professor Stuart Trembly Th’83, Adjunct Professor Jack Hoopes, and Dr. Paul Manganiello of Dartmouth Medical School.

The Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice named a paper co-authored by Professor Daniel Lynch its “Best Paper for 2009.” In “Experiential Learning in Engineering Practice” Lynch argues that the current system of pre-licensure experience is inadequate to meet contemporary expectations for professional engineering leadership.

Ph.D. candidates Broc Burke DMS’09 and Claire McKenna ’10 have received 2010-11 Albert Schweitzer Fellowships to carry out service projects in Vermont and New Hampshire that address the health needs of underserved individuals and communities. Burke plans to connect mentors from Thayer and Dartmouth athletic teams with children who suffer from chronic illness. McKenna plans to combat obesity and diabetes by creating cooking classes and spreading nutritional information.

Emily Koepsell ’09 Th’10 has been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to study abroad for one year. She plans to take classes in sustainable energy and energy savings at the Technical University of Denmark’s National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy in Copenhagen.

Ashley Morishige ’11 has earned a 2010-11 Bengt Sonnerup Fellowship to support further research and implementation of her honors thesis project, “A quantification of global pasture yield and the potential to increase biofuel production through pasture intensification.” The award encourages applied research that addresses global climate change.

Sam Tanyos ’11 was awarded a Mazilu Engineering Research Fellowship for 2010-11 in support of his project, “Improving the activity of alginate lyase, a potential enzyme therapy for cystic fibrosis patients.” The award will enable him to continue enzyme engineering research in the lab of Professor Karl Griswold. The fellowship was created by Jaime Mazilu ’05 Th’06.

Hannah Payne ’11, a neuroscience and engineering sciences double major, was awarded a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, which supports outstanding students who intend to pursue careers in science, math, and engineering.

Sproxil Inc., co-founded by Ph.D. candidate Ashifi Gogo Th’09, was selected as a winner in the 7th Annual MITX Technology Awards in the Mobile Infrastructure category in June. Sproxil’s mobile-phone based anti-counterfeiting service enables consumers to confirm a brand’s genuineness via text messaging.

Thayer School won the grand prize in a video contest sponsored by the National Engineers Week Foundation and the American Society of Civil Engineers that addressed the question: How do you make your mark on the world? The video, made by Bonnie Hennessee ’08, Betsy Dain-Owens ’10, Calvin Krishen Th’08, Ph.D. candidate Tao Mao, dual-degree student Evan Lipinski, and Grayson Zulauf ’12, highlights ways Dartmouth students get kids excited about engineering: running a Lego League robotics tournament; mentoring high-school students during Summer Enrichment at Dartmouth; helping middle-schoolers make model solar racecars; and running an after-school science program for elementary students.

A manufacturer of software that can help engineers determine a product’s carbon footprint has agreed to donate funds from its sales to support Formula Hybrid, the annual international student competition based at Thayer. Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp. will donate $1 for every download of its SolidWorks SustainabilityXpress software, up to $10,000, to Formula Hybrid, which encourages students to design high-performance fuel-electric hybrid vehicles. “SustainabilityXpress will aid in students’ decision-making processes regarding sustainability and the life cycle of components or materials they use in building their plug-in hybrid or electric vehicles for the Formula Hybrid competition,” says Formula Hybrid deputy director Wynne Washburn.

Scientific American recently featured Professor Victor Petrenko’s technology for de-icing car windshields, power lines, airplane wings, and bridge cables. Petrenko’s IceController delivers a swift jolt of high-power electricity that immediately melts ice where it meets surfaces, letting the ice slide away. “The objective is to heat an interface in between the ice and the surface from ambient temperature to ice[’s] melting point quickly and with a lot of power,” Petrenko told Scientific American. His company, Ice Engineering LLC, has installed the technology on the Uddevalla cable bridge in Sweden and a 107,639-square-foot glass dome in a mall in Moscow.

Scientists from around the world are joining forces to help resolve issues related to the sustainable production of energy from biomass. The Global Sustainable Bioenergy (GSB) project, led by Professor Lee Lynd, kicked off in November with a meeting in Malaysia. “A key focus of our project is to look at future scenarios that are not continuous with current trends,” says Lynd. “By showing that bioenergy-intensive futures that honor other important priorities are physically possible on a global scale, it is my hope that the GSB project will motivate and inform action toward this end.” Lynd, the Paul H. and Joan A. Queneau Distinguished Professor in Environmental Engineering Design, describes the project — and his longtime passion for biofuels — in a Jones Seminar that is available on YouTube.

The Eastern Snow Conference awarded Si Chen Th’10 the Wiesnet Medal for best student paper at its conference last June. Chen presented the paper “In-situ Observations of Snow Sublimation Using Scanning Electron Microscopy.”

A $2-million award from the National Science Foundation will enable Professor Simon Shepherd to help expand the international Super Dual Auroral Radar Network, or SuperDARN, used to study the space plasma environment that surrounds the Earth. Shepherd is part of a collaborative project with colleagues from three other schools to construct an array of ground-based remote sensing instruments. “This data will help us better understand the near-Earth space environment and ultimately better predict geomagnetic storms and their effects on terrestrial and space systems,” says Shepherd, who will oversee the construction and operation of at least one of four new radar sites. He will be joined in that effort by co-principal investigator Raymond Greenwald Adv’70.

Professor Tillman Gerngross, following on the heels of his successful GlycoFi yeast manufacturing system (which he and co-founder Professor Charles Hutchinson sold to Merck in 2006 for $400 million), is driving progress at his latest biotech start-up, Adimab, which re-engineers yeast cells to create antibody factories. “We’ve created a synthetic human immune system in yeast, and the yeast will do what a normal B cell does, which is create an antibody,” says Gerngross. Adimab recently announced major new research collaborations with Merck and Roche.

Assistant professor Petia Vlahovska has earned a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award. Her research aims to mimic the design of biological cells.

Professor Ian Baker has been named the Sherman Fairchild Professor in Engineering in recognition of his research, scholarship, teaching, and mentoring. His most recent research is developing iron nanoparticles for cancer treatment.

Thayer School has been awarded a grant to support two women as Clare Boothe Luce Graduate Fellows in its new Ph.D. Innovation Program, the nation’s first such program addressing the need for engineers with both technical and entrepreneurial expertise.

Ashifi Gogo Th’09 and Shivam Rajdev Tu’09 placed first in the United States and second globally in the 2009 Global Social Venture Competition, earning $10,000 for their business plan for mPedigree Logistics. Citing the “huge problem” of counterfeit drugs in developing countries, the World Economic Forum also recognized mPedigree as a Technology Pioneer for 2009, and Forum Nokia awarded mPedigree first place in the emerging markets category of its Calling All Innovators competition. With mPedigree, all drugs distributed in participating countries are labeled with a scratch panel that reveals a unique code, or “pedigree.” When a drug is purchased, the patient can text the code to a designated number and receive a response confirming whether the drug is genuine or fake. Piloted successfully in Ghana in January 2008, mPedigree is now working to expand its platform to all 48 sub-Saharan African countries, starting with a trial in Nigeria this summer. Gogo is in Thayer’s Ph.D. Innovation Program.

Alison Stace-Naughton ’11, an engineering major, has been awarded a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship in recognition of her drug delivery research. Receiving the scholarship “has really confirmed my desire to become a great bioengineer,” she says. The foundation awards scholarships to outstanding students who intend to pursue careers in science, mathematics, and engineering.

Engineering majors Sarah Rocio ’10, Mike Wood ’10, and Lucas Schulz ’08 are the technical experts for the fifth annual Big Green Bus summer cross-country tour. The 15 crew members of the veggie-oil-powered bus want to raise public awareness of energy conservation and environmental responsibility. Follow the tour at thebiggreenbus.org.

For photos of more breakthrough work, visit our Research and Innovations set on Flickr.

Professor Brian Pogue, internationally known for his research on biomedical optics and imaging of cancer, has been named the new dean of graduate studies at Dartmouth. In the lab, Pogue and his research team develop and refine new medical technologies that use near-infrared light and spectroscopy to characterize cancer pathophysiology and guide cancer therapy. He also serves as deputy editor of the journal Optics Letters, is on the editorial boards of Medical Physics and the Journal of Biomedical Optics, and holds adjunct appointments in the surgery department at Dartmouth Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.

In the August-September 2008 issue of PE: The Magazine for Professional Engineers, Thayer Dean Joseph J. Helble makes the case for the ability of colleges to prepare engineering students who are technically proficient and creative leaders who understand broader societal issues. “This call to a holistic approach is, in fact, a call to regain the true mission of the engineering profession,” Helble and three co-authors write in “Dispelling the Myths of Holistic Engineering.” “Engineers are eloquent in distinguishing themselves from other scientists as the science-based professionals who apply their creative and technical knowledge in service to humanity, specifically by designing and building to improve the quality of life for society in both the built and natural environments.”

The International Metallographic Society has awarded professor Ian Baker and three of his students honors in its International Metallographic Contest (PDF) and Exhibit, held in conjunction with the society’s annual convention in August. The contest, which offers microstructural analysts the opportunity to display their work and communicate significant scientific information, covers all fields of optical and electron microscopy. Baker and Yifeng Liao Th’09 earned an honorable mention in the “Electron Microscopy — Transmission and Analytical” division for their work on “Microstructural Refinement of a Eutectoid Fe-Ni-Mn-Al Alloy.” Baker and Si Chen Th’10 received third-place honors in the “Electron Microscopy Scanning” division for their work on “Mechanisms of Sintering Ice Spheres.” And the professor and Rachel Lomonaco Th’09 received an honorable mention for the Dubose-Crouse Award for Unique, Unusual, and New Techniques in Microscopy for their research on “Classification of Firn Using Micro CT and SEM.” Baker is Thayer’s Sherman Fairchild Professor of Engineering Sciences and senior associate dean of academic affairs.

Dartmouth has been awarded nearly $3 million to develop an interdisciplinary doctoral program in the polar sciences and engineering, with a focus on rapid environmental change. The five-year grant from the National Science Foundation “will allow us to train a desperately needed cohort of climate change scientists,” says environmental studies professor Ross Virginia, director of the Institute of Arctic Studies at Dartmouth. His co-investigators in the project include Thayer professors Ian Baker and Mary Albert Th’84.

Professor Ursula Gibson ’76 spent the fall term at the VTT Technical Research Center of Finland in Espoo, Finland, under a Fulbright Scholarship. A nanomaterials specialist, she is investigating the use of zinc oxide nanostructures as a way of imparting UV protection capabilities. “My collaborators in Finland are interested in improved protection for wood products,” said Gibson, who hopes to connect this research to the timber industry in Vermont and New Hampshire. “Zinc oxide is a particularly attractive material to use as a UV blocker because it absorbs a wide range of UV light, and doesn’t degrade as it does its job.” Gibson returned in January to become the new director of Thayer’s M.S./Ph.D. programs.

Adjunct professor Mary Albert Th’84 has been named director of the new Ice Drilling Program Office, part of National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs. The IDPO is responsible for drilling and obtaining ice core samples, which contain data about past climate conditions, levels of pollution, and even levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases over the last 800,000 years. Albert is a research engineer with the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, part of the Army Corps of Engineers, and will head-up research at IDPO, which will be headquartered at Thayer School.

A group of Dartmouth researchers, including Thayer research associate and scientist Robert Savell Adv’05, has developed a mathematical tool that can be used to unscramble the underlying structure of time-dependent, interrelated, complex data — such as the career-long votes of legislators, second-by-second activity of the stock market, or levels of oxygenated blood flow in the brain. Their study was published in a December online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. “We think this tool can be useful when applied in the financial realm, to portfolio and risk management,” says study co-author and mathematics professor Dan Rockmore. “We expect similar results as it is applied to different complex systems like the brain, or even the collections of brains that are societies.”

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Professor Reza Olfati-Saber has earned a CAREER Award, the National Science Foundation‘s top award for young faculty, for his work on mobile sensor networks.

Two professors have been named to endowed chairs. Ian Baker, an expert in metallurgy, ice physics, and nanomaterials science, has become the Fairchild Professor of Engineering. Keith Paulsen Th’84, co-director of the Dartmouth Advanced Imaging Center in Radiology, is the inaugural holder of the Robert A. Pritzker Chair in Biomedical Engineering.

Ursula Gibson ’76 and Brian Pogue have been promoted from associate to full professor.

Professor Anatoly Streltsov Th’95 has been elected secretary of the Commission H (Waves in Plasma) of the U.S. National Committee for the International Radio Science Union.

Professors Laura Ray and Eugene Santos Jr. are two of three New Hampshire scientists who have been awarded research grant funding from the U.S. Department of Defense totaling nearly $1.6 million. Ray will employ wireless sensor networks to develop and test a theory that could improve the interpretation of sound by humans in remote or battlefield environments. Santos will develop an advanced cognitive-based communication protocol for medical teams to improve decision making and problem solving in trauma environments.

Tom Scanlon, research associate, has been named the third annual Carol Basbaum Memorial Research Fellow by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Scanlon has been working with professor Karl Griswold on enzyme therapeutics for treating complications associated with cystic fibrosis. The two-year fellowship provides $86,100 for new therapeutics for cystic fibrosis.

Professor Mark Borsuk has received an Early Career Research Excellence Prize from the International Environmental Modelling and Software Society.

Thayer School has been awarded a place in the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine, a multi-institutional, network developing advanced treatment options, such as tissue engineering, for severely wounded U.S. servicemen and women. “This new program will provide state-of-the-art technologies to help the wounded in the present wars,” says Dr. Joseph Rosen, the Thayer principal investigator and an adjunct professor of engineering and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center plastic surgeon. “It will also have long term dual use for civilian-related problems.”

Schweitzer Fellows Philip Wagner ’09 and Caitlin Johnson ’10 organized two events at Thayer in April to introduce kids to robotics. Through Dartmouth’s FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Lego League, Thayer students showed elementary and middle school students how to build and program robots made of Legos.

Jessica Ogden ’08 Th’08 won first prize in Dartmouth’s Christopher G. Reed Science Competition for her research poster on “Toxicity and Efficacy of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for Cancer Therapy.” Her advisor was Thayer adjunct and Dartmouth Medical School radiobiology professor Jack Hoopes.