On July 31st, 2014, the Center for Emergent Materials hosted a vacuum course taught by the Kurt J. Lesker Company. The course covered basic vacuum technology, gauging, and physical vapor deposition. Graduate student participation was enthusiastic and the course was well received.
With tin sometimes described as one of the base (think homeliest) metals, perhaps it should come as no surprise that it, like the misidentified cygnet in Hans Christian Andersen’s tale The Ugly Duckling, may actually be inherently beautiful — at least in the eyes of those who appreciate the potential of thermoelectricity.
To draw the analogy, Professor Joseph Heremans, borrowed the title “Thermoelectricity: The ugly duckling” for an article that he authored and which appears in the April 17, 2014 print edition (Volume 508) of the journal Nature. The article, which can be found on pages 327-328 in the News and Views section of the journal, details why there’s beauty (or higher than imagined thermoelectric efficiency) in the single crystals of tin selenide. The article also serves as context for a research paper authored by a group Northwestern University researchers whom belong to the same Energy Frontier Research Center as Professor Heremans and his research team. According to Heremans, the study led by Professor Mercouri Kanatzidis at Northwestern University, his graduate student Li-Dong Zhao and colleagues further underscores the fact that progress in the thermal sciences relative to thermoelectric power applications has been unrelenting and discoveries about thermal conductivity often quite surprising.
This year Columbus Business First has named the CEM Associate Director, Prof. Jessica Winter from the OSU departments of Biomedical Engineering and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, as one of the 20 People to Know in Technology in the region! Please join us in congratulating Prof. Winter in this achievement. You can read more about this distinction and see her interview here.
In September, Emily Lakdwalla from The Planetary Society visited OSU and gave a talk on giving better presentations, scientific or otherwise. If you were unable to attend the colloquium her full presentation is now available on YouTube. For more information about Emily and her work, please visit The Planetary Society website.
Abstract: Bad presentation often gets in the way of great science. Professional meetings are an opportunity for scientists to communicate with potential collaborators, employers, or funders about their exciting work. Unfortunately, many people squander their opportunities in the spotlight by delivering confusing, boring, or just plain bad presentations. I’ll provide guidelines on how to prepare a conference talk that will educate and perhaps even entertain, whether your audience is one of skeptical peers or the general public. Much of the advice also applies to writing about your science.
The annual OSU Business Plan Competition is under way! This event, hosted by the Center for Entrepreneurship at Fisher College of Business, will kick-off with a Launch Day on Wednesday, October 2 from 6:00 – 8:00 PM.
Materials-related projects have participated and placed well in past competitions, with past winners even starting in successful spin-off companies! For more information about the OSU Business Plan Competition, including details about past winners, visit: http://fisher.osu.edu/centers/entrepreneurship/osu-business-plan-competition/