News & Events

09-15-10

The Terrestrial Hazard Observation and Reporting Center (THOR) has been launched in an effort to find ways to minimize the damage caused by natural hazards. THOR will span two academic divisions at Caltech, Engineering and Applied Science (EAS) and Geological and Planetary Sciences. "The interdisciplinary and interactive nature of engineering at Caltech allows us to translate scientific knowledge and discovery into applications with direct societal impact," says Ares Rosakis, Theodore von Karman Professor of Aeronautics and Professor of Mechanical Engineering; EAS Chair. "One of the areas of pioneering research and innovation made possible by THOR is seismo-engineering. The boundaries of seismo-engineering are fuzzy ones and lie exactly in the interface between seismology and earthquake engineering. We are delighted to have the opportunity to explore these boundaries." [Caltech Press Release]

Tags: research highlights MCE ESE

09-10-10

Congratulations to José E. Andrade, Associate Professor of Mechanical and Civil Engineering, and colleagues whoes paper "Multi-scale calculation inside compaction bands: from the field to the lab" has been recognized by the DOE Basic Energy Sciences Office, with an award for outstanding contributions in geosciences research.

Tags: honors research highlights MCE Jose Andrade

09-10-10

Niles A. Pierce, Associate Professor of Applied & Computational Mathematics and Bioengineering, and colleagues have engineered a fundamentally new approach to killing cancer cells. The process uses small RNA molecules that can be programmed to attack only specific cancer cells; then, by changing shape, those molecules cause the cancer cells to self-destruct. [Caltech Press Release]

Tags: research highlights health CMS Niles Pierce

09-09-10

Peter H. Siegel, Faculty Associate in Electrical Engineering and a Member of the Professional Staff in Biology, has been selected by the IEEE to spearhead a new journal: IEEE Transactions on Terahertz Science and Technology. The journal will highlight activities in the emerging field of far-infrared technology (wavelength range between 1mm and 10 microns) with applications in high frequency communications, space, Earth and planetary science, ultrafast chemistry and physics, defense and security and even art history and preservation. The inaugural issue is slated for the fall of 2011.

Tags: EE research highlights Peter Siegel

09-03-10

Aerospace engineer and executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company Joanne Maguire is the 2010 recipient of the prestigious International von Kármán Wings Award for her sustained and visionary accomplishments in aerospace. The von Kármán Wings Award acknowledges outstanding contributions by international innovators, leaders, and pioneers in aerospace and is presented by the Aerospace Historical Society, which is part of the Graduate Aerospace Laboratories at Caltech (GALCIT). [Caltech Press Release]

Tags: honors GALCIT Joanne Maguire Guruswami Ravichandran

08-30-10

Professor Guruswami Ravichandran and Justin L. Brown, graduate student in Mechanical Engineering, have been chosen to receive the Best Paper Award at the Society for Experimental Mechanics (SEM) 2010 Conference. The title of the paper is "High Pressure Hugoniot Measurements Using Converging Shocks".

Tags: honors GALCIT MCE Guruswami Ravichandran

08-25-10

Michael H. Dickinson, Esther M. and Abe M. Zarem Professor of Bioengineering, and his team find that fruit flies follow horizontal edges to regulate altitude. This finding contradicts a previous model, which posited that insects adjust their height by visually measuring the motion beneath them as they fly. [Caltech Press Release]

Tags: research highlights Michael Dickinson

08-24-10

Congratulations to Changhuei Yang, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Bioengineering on being selected as a 2010 NIH Director's New Innovator. As part of NIH's commitment to increasing opportunities for new scientists, it has created the NIH Director's New Innovator Award to support exceptionally creative new investigators who propose highly innovative projects that have the potential for unusually high impact.

Tags: EE honors Changhuei Yang

08-18-10

Congratulations to William Chueh, graduate student in the Department of Applied Physics and Material Science, who has won the President Harry S. Truman Fellowship in National Security Science and Engineering. Chueh is one of only two recipients this year. The winners are expected to have solved a major scientific or engineering problem in their thesis work or have provided a new approach or insight to a major problem, as evidenced by a recognized impact in their field. Chueh has won this fellowship for his work in advancing the fundamental understanding of elevated-temperature materials for solar-to-fuel and fuel-to-electricity conversion processes. [Caltech Press Release]

Tags: APhMS honors William Chueh

08-18-10

Congratulations to Julia R. Greer, Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering, whose paper entitled Size dependence of mechanical properties of gold at the micron scale in the absence of strain gradients is the highest cited original research paper, in the past five years, in Acta Materialia.
[Find and read the paper by clicking the "Top 10 Cited" link]

Tags: APhMS honors MCE Julia Greer