 Congratulations to Michael Ortiz, Dotty and Dick Hayman Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering, who has been awarded a Hans Fischer Senior Fellowship by the Institute for Advanced Study, Technical University of Munich (TUM). This Fellowship is named after TUM Professor Hans Fischer (1881-1945) who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1930 for his pioneering work on hemoglobin. 12.24.09
 Congratulations to graduate student Aydin Babakhani, the 2009 winner of the Charles Wilts Prize for his research in Near-Field Direct Antenna Modulation (NFDAM) for on-chip mm-wave transceivers. Dr. Babakhani’s advisor was Ali Hajimiri, Professor of Electrical Engineering. 12.23.09
 Oskar Painter, Associate Professor of Applied Physics, along with colleagues Darrick Change, Postdoctoral Scholar at Institute for Quantum Information, and H. Jeff Kimble, William L. Valentine Professor and Professor of Physics have proposed a new paradigm that should allow scientists to observe quantum behavior in small mechanical systems. Their idea offers a new means of studying the nature of quantum superposition and entanglement in progressively larger and more complex systems. Read More... 12.21.09
 Winner of the Richard P. Feynman Prize for Excellence in Teaching Jehoshua "Shuki" Bruck, Caltech's Gordon and Betty Moore Professor of Computation and Neural Systems and Electrical Engineering, talks about the art and science of sharing information. Read More... 12.18.09
New techniques are used to image the evanescent electrical fields produced by the interaction of electrons and photons, and to track changes in atomic-scale structures. Read More... 12.17.09
A Joint Center for Translational Medicine is established with the aim of advancing experimental research in clinical applications, including the diagnosis and therapy of diseases such as cancer. Read More... 12.17.09
 Paul E. Dimotakis, John K. Northrop Professor of Aeronautics and Professor of Applied Physics, and Chief Technologis at Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been elected to the grade of Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Professor Dimotakis is being recognized “for contributions to fluid dynamics, turbulent mixing, chemically reacting flows and combustion; digital imaging and laser diagnostics; air-breathing propulsion; and leadership in space-technologies development.” Read More...(pdf) 12.10.09
Strategic research alliance announced between Sanofi-aventis and Caltech "to support bioengineering for the development of therapeutic and diagnostic solutions in human health." Read More... 12.10.09
 The collaboration of Pietro Perona, Allen E. Puckett Professor of Electrical Engineering, Michael Dickinson Esther M. and Abe M. Zarem Professor of  Bioengineering, and David J. Anderson, Seymour Benzer Professor of Biology, is highlighted in a Nature article entitled "Flies on film". Read More...(pdf) 12.02.09
A recent Economist article entitled "Lagrangian Coherent Structures: The
skeleton of water" draws on the work of alumni George Haller (PhD '94 in
Applied Mechanics) and Francois Lekien (PhD '03 in Control and Dynamical
Systems), as well as John Dabiri, Associate Professor of Aeronautics and
Bioengineering and Jerrold Marsden, Carl F Braun Professor of Engineering,
Control and Dynamical Systems, and Applied and Computational Mathematics. Read More... 12.02.09
 John Dabiri, Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Bioengineering, Beverley McKeon, Assistant Professor of Aeronautics, and Joel Tropp, Assistant Professor of Applied and  Computational Mathematics, will be recieving the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers  (PECASE) at a special White House ceremony in January 2010. Wright Patterson Air Force Base Press Release on McKeon. [view picture] 11.30.09
 Congratulations to Ali Hajimiri, Professor of Electrical Engineering, who has been named Fellow of IEEE for development of high-speed silicon integrated-circuit oscillators, power amplifiers, and phased arrays. Elevation to IEEE Fellow is one of the most prestigious honors given by the IEEE which is the world’s largest professional association. 11.24.09
 Harry A. Atwater, Jr., Howard Hughes Professor and Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science, and Nathan S. Lewis, George L. Argyros Professor and Professor of Chemistry, are leading a new solar-research collaboration between Caltech and Dow Chemical Company aimed at developing the use of semiconductor materials that are less expensive and more abundant than those used in many of today's solar cells. In addition, they announced the creation of the Dow Chemical Company Graduate Fellowship in Chemical Sciences and Engineering. Read More... 11.12.09
Hareem T. Maune, a graduate student studying carbon nanotube physics, and Si-ping Han, a graduate student investigating the interactions between carbon nanotubes and DNA have developed DNA origami nanoscale breadboards for carbon nanotube circuits. "This collaborative research project is evidence of how we at Caltech select the top students in science and engineering and place them in an environment where their creativity and imagination can thrive," says Ares Rosakis, chair of the Division of Engineering and Applied Science at Caltech and Theodore von Kármán Professor of Aeronautics and Professor of Mechanical Engineering. The work of these students was supervised by: Erik Winfree, Associate Professor of Computer Science, Computation and Neural Systems, and Bioengineering; William A. Goddard III, Charles and Mary Ferkel Professor of Chemistry, Materials Science, and Applied Physics; Paul W.K. Rothemund, Senior Research Associate, and Marc Bockrath, Associate Professor of Physics at University of California Riverside. Read More... 11.10.09
 Sergio Pellegrino, Professor of Aeronautics and Civil Engineering and Jet Propulsion Laboratory Senior Research Scientist, has received the NASA Robert H. Goddard Exceptional Achievement Award as a member of the superpressure balloon team. The award is for sound engineering and operational development, outstanding teamwork, and perseverance in building a new scientific balloon capability for NASA. 11.04.09
 Congratulation to Julia R. Greer, Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering, for been selected to participate in the DARPA Young Faculty Award program. She is among 33 "rising stars" from 24 U.S. universities who each will receive grants of approximately $300,000. Greer's project is aimed at understanding and subsequently mimicking the superior mechanical robustness and strength of naturally occurring protective layers—such as nacre, or mother of pearl, a composite produced by some mollusks to line their inner shell—to create strong, ductile, damage-tolerant materials that maintain a relatively low density. Read More... 11.04.09
 Timothy E. Colonius, Professor of Mechanical Engineering has been elected Associate Fellow of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, as well as being chosen by the membership to serve on the executive committee of the Division of Fluid Dynamics of the American Physical Society. 11.04.09
An aggression-promoting pheromone has been discovered in flies; as well the neurons in the fly's antenna, that detect this pheromone and relay the information to the brain to elicit aggression, have been pinpointed. Read More 12.08.09
Earthquake researchers plan to use cell phones to create a network for measuring earthquakes at locations all over Southern California. [Pasadena Star-News Article] 12.02.09
Nobel Laureate Ahmed Zewail, the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemistry and professor of physics, has been named an envoy in the new U.S. Science Envoy Program. Read More... 11.17.09
 "I pronounce the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Center for Information Science and Technology at Caltech officially open!," said Ares Rosakis, Chair of the E&AS Division, at the October 30, 2009 dedication ceremony. Of the many attendees, VIPs included Caltech President Jean-Lou Chameau, Leonard Aube, Executive Director of The Annenberg Foundation, Frederick Fisher of Frederick Fisher and Partners Architects, Lauren Bechtel Dachs of the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, Peter Hero VP for Development and Alumni Relations, and Mathieu Desbrun, Caltech Professor of Computer Science. Read more... [See a Pasadena Star News slideshow] 10.30.09
A highly specific intrabody (an antibody fragment that works against a target inside a cell) is capable of stalling the development of Huntington's disease in a variety of mouse models. Read More... 11.04.09
 James K. Knowles, William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Applied Mechanics, Emeritus, passed away on Sunday November 1, 2009. He was a remarkable teacher and mentor; he inspired and influenced generations of students and scholars. He made fundamental research contributions to the Theory of Nonlinear Elasticity, to Wave Propagation and Phase Transformations. His seminal contributions were recognized by the Eringen Medal of the Society of Engineering Science and the Koiter Medal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. 11.02.09
 Congratulations to Tracey Ho, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and ComputerScience, and Andrew D. Straw, Postdoctoral Scholar in Bioengineering for being awarded 2010  Young Investigator Research Program grants by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. They are among only 38 scientists and engineers who will be awarded a total of $14.6 million in grants. Read more... 10.29.09
 Oskar Painter, Associate Professor of Applied Physics, and Kerry J. Vahala Ted and Ginger Jenkins Professor of Information Science and Technology and Professor of Applied Physics; Director, The Lee Center for Advanced Networking have created a nanoscale crystal device that, for the first time, allows scientists to confine both light and sound vibrations in the same tiny space. "This novel approach ... exemplifies the forward-thinking work being done by the Engineering and Applied Science division," says Ares Rosakis, Chair and Theodore von Kármán Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering at Caltech. Read More... 10.26.09
 Brent Fultz, Professor of Materials Science and Applied Physics, is the recipient of the 2010 TMS-EMPMD Distinguished Scientist Award of The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS). The award includes a TMS conference symposium in honor of Professor Fultz that will emphasize the vibrational entropy of materials, and studies of vibrational entropy by inelastic neutron scattering and modern computational methods of materials science. This work was the basis for the award. 10.23.09
 Tsien Hsue-Shen (Aeronautics PhD '39), passed away on October 31, 2009. He was a student of Professor Theodore von Kármán and one of the founders of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “Dr. Tsien Hsue-Shen was one of the great scientist-engineers of the past century. He played an important role in the history of Caltech and the development of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. We are also very proud of his many accomplishments in China.” said President Chameau. Read More... 11.02.09
 Sandra Troian, Professor of Applied Physics, Aeronautics, and Mechanical Engineering, and Dr. Mathias Dietzel have uncovered the physical mechanism by which arrays of nanoscale pillars can be grown on polymer films with very high precision, in potentially limitless patterns. "This is an example of how basic understanding of the principles of physics and mechanics can lead to unexpected discoverieswhich may have far-reaching, practical implications," said Ares Rosakis, Division Chair and Theodore von Kármán Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering at Caltech. "This is the real strength of the EAS division." Read More... [video] [Download real player] 10.23.09
 Top view of polymer film undergoing shaping process:
red = warmer surface temperature, blue = cooler surface temperature.
 Wilfred Iwan, Professor of Applied Mechanics, Emeritus, has received the Bruce Bolt Medal. The medal is awarded jointly by the Consortium of Organizations for Strong Motion Observation Systems, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute and Seismological Society of America to recognize individuals worldwide whose accomplishments involve the promotion and use of strong-motion earthquake data and whose leadership in the transfer of scientific and engineering knowledge into practice or policy has led to improved seismic safety. Iwan is honored for his many accomplishments in advancing earthquake strong-motion monitoring networks and instrumentation in the US and internationally, his research accomplishments in earthquake engineering and engineering seismology, and his effective leadership roles in professional organizations to further the acquisition and application of strong-motion data. 10.14.09
Congratulations to Professor Iwan who was elected to the grade of Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. This is in recognition of his research on seismic performance of structures, for leadership in earthquake hazard mitigation and improvement of public safety, and for service to the structural engineering and engineering mechanics professions. 10.14.09
 Event Processing: Designing IT Systems for Agile Companies is the title of a new book by K. Mani Chandy, Simon Ramo Professor and Professor of Computer Science. 10.08.09
 John O. Dabiri, Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Bioengineering, was featured in Rose magazine. Read more...09.28.09
 The precise arrangement of chemoreceptors--the receptors that sense and respond to chemical stimuli--in bacteria has been visualized and described. Read More... 09.25.09
 Congratulations to David Rutledge, Kiyo and Eiko Tomiyasu Professor of Electrical Engineering, for winning the 2010 Kenneth J Button Prize for pioneering contributions to millimeter wave technology, including integrated-circuit antennas for sub-millimeter waves, imaging antenna arrays, and quasi-optical systems.
 The Walter and Leonore Annenberg Center for Information Science and Technology and the GALCIT Guggenheim project have both won top honors from the American Institute of Architects -Pasadena/Foothill Chapter. This is the second time Guggenheim has won an award from the American Institute of Architects! 10.01.09
 Julia R. Greer, Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering, has been recognized as a rising star by Advanced Functional Materials. Her latest publication is entitled Emergence of New Mechanical Functionality in Materials via Size Reduction. Read Julia Greer's interview... 10.01.09
 David MacKay (CNS PhD '92), Professor in the Department of Physics at
Cambridge University and author of the influential book Sustainable
Energy - Without the Hot Air has been appointed Chief Scientific Advisor to
the Department of Energy and Climate Change, UK. He is internationally known
for his research in machine learning, information theory, and communication
systems, including the invention of Dasher, a software interface that
enables efficient communication in any language with any muscle. He has
taught Physics in Cambridge since 1995. Since 2005, he has devoted
increasing amounts of time to public teaching about energy. Read More... 09.21.09
 
Ares Rosakis, Chair, Division of Engineering and Applied Science and Chair, Aerospace Historical Society, presented the awards to Abdul Kalam (left) and Yannick d'Escatha (right).
Making the world a better place was the theme of the September 15, 2009 International von Kármán Wings Award ceremony which honored international leaders and aerospace pioneers Abdul Kalam, the 11th president of India and distinguished professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, and Yannick d'Escatha, chairman and chief executive officer of the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES). Ares J. Rosakis, chair of the Aerospace Historical Society, chair of the Division of Engineering and Applied Science, and Theodore von Kármán Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering presented the awards to the honorees and stated, "along with their tremendous accomplishments in aerospace, this year's honorees are leaders in international collaboration, climate monitoring, and energy harvesting". Read more ... 09.15.09
 Mani Chandy, Simon Ramo Professor and Professor of Computer Science, has a new blog discussing sense and respond systems. Sense and respond systems are employed in diverse applications such as helping disabled people live independently in their own homes, interdicting radiological weapons, and managing a stock portfolio. Check it out! 09.04.09
 Kerry Vahala, Ted and Ginger Jenkins Professor of Information Science and Technology and Professor of Applied Physics; Director, The Lee Center for Advanced Networking along with colleagues at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics have created the first-ever phonon laser--a device that amplifies phonons in much the way that optical lasers amplify photons of light. Read More... 09.01.09
 Antonio Rangel, Associate Professor of Economics, and colleagues show how brain imaging can be used to create new and improved solutions to the public-goods provision problem. Read More... 09.15.09
 Dr. Paul Rothemund, Senior Research Associate in Bioengineering, Computer Science, and Computation and Neural Systems, and colleagues have developed a new technique to orient and position self-assembled DNA shapes and patterns--or "DNA origami"--on surfaces that are compatible with today's semiconductor manufacturing equipment. They "have removed a key barrier to the improvement and advancement of computer chips. They accomplished this through the revolutionary approach of combining the building blocks for life with the building blocks for computing," said Professor Ares Rosakis, Chair of Division of Engineering and Applied Science and Theodore von Kármán Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering. Read More... 08.18.09
 The molecular computational research of Erik Winfree, Associate Professor of Computer Science, Computation and Neural Systems, and Bioengineering, focuses on understanding how chemical systems can perform information processing and how to program a set of molecules to carry out instructions. This exciting research was recently featured in Discover. Read more... 08.18.09
The Walter and Leonore Annenberg Center for Information Science and Technology (IST), designed by the architectural firm Frederick Fisher and Partners, is near completion. The building which is nicknamed "the green building" will be home to some participants of the IST initiative, an interdisciplinary research and instruction program addressing the growth and impact of information as it relates to all science and engineering practices. The building dedication ceremony is scheduled for October 30, 2009 please visit the EAS division website for more information on the event. Read more... 08.12.09
 The amygdala—a pair of almond-shaped regions located in the medial temporal lobes- is found to be responsible for ones sense of personal space. This finding could offer insight into autism and other disorders. Read more... 08.31.09
 Tapio Schneider, Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering, and his colleagues have discover storms on Saturn's largest moon, Titan, which is generally "a very bland place, weatherwise," says Mike Brown, Richard and Barbara Rosenberg Professor and Professor of Planetary Astronomy. "The first cloud was seen near the tropics and was caused by a still-mysterious process, but it behaved almost like an explosion in the atmosphere, setting off waves that traveled around the planet, triggering their own clouds. Within days a huge cloud system had covered the south pole, and sporadic clouds were seen all the way up to the equator." Schneider, an expert on atmospheric circulations, was instrumental in helping to sort out the complicated chain of events that followed the initial outburst of cloud activity. Read more... 08.12.09
 Dr. Michael Hucka, Senior Research Fellow in Control and Dynamical Systems and Co-Director of the Biological Network Modeling Center, and colleagues in 30 laboratories worldwide have released a new set of standards for graphically representing biological information—the biology equivalent of the circuit diagram in electronics. This visual language should make it easier to exchange complex information, so that biological models are depicted more accurately, consistently, and in a more readily understandable way. The new standard, is called the Systems Biology Graphical Notation (SBGN). "As biology focuses more on managing complexity with quantitative and systematic methods, standards such as SBGN play an essential role. SBGN combines an intuitive notation with the rigorous style of engineering and math," says John Doyle, the John G. Braun Professor of Control and Dynamical Systems, Bioengineering, and Electrical Engineering. Read more... 08.12.09
 Paul Wennberg, the R. Stanton Avery Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Environmental Science and Engineering and director of the Ronald and Maxine Linde Center for Global Environmental Science, and John Seinfeld, the Louis E. Nohl Professor and professor of chemical engineering, have shown that biogenic emissions—organic carbon compounds given off by plants and trees— affect air quality. Wennberg states that, “if you mix emissions from the city with emissions from plants, they interact to alter the chemistry of the atmosphere." Seinfeld adds, "particles in the atmosphere have been shown to impact human health, as they are small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs of people. Also, aerosols impact Earth's climate through the scattering and absorption of solar radiation and through serving as the nuclei on which clouds form. So it is important to know where particles come from." Read more... 08.06.09
 Chiara Daraio, Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Applied Physics, has been selected to participate in the 2009 Science & Technology in Society (STS) Forum - Future Leaders Initiative. Daraio will join nine other outstanding young scientists from Japan, England, Germany, Chile, Uruguay, Malawi, China and the United States to discuss the impact of their research on societal development. Daraio's research focuses on synthesizing and testing so-called "smart" materials that have a variety of potential applications, ranging from novel methods for sustainable engineering and nondestructive evaluation of civil and mechanical infrastructure (e.g., bridges, power plants) to new acoustic lenses for biomedical imaging and surgery.
The STS Forum is organized and sponsored by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). Guruswami Ravichandran, director of the Graduate Aerospace Laboratories and John E. Goode, Jr. Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering, said, "I am delighted that Dr. Daraio will be representing GALCIT and Caltech at this internationally renowned, interdisciplinary, and cross-sectoral forum". "Dr. Daraio's selection to participate in this world forum is yet another indication of the importance and far reaching impact of the research conducted by the engineering and applied science faculty", said Professor Ares Rosakis, chair of Caltech's Division of Engineering and Applied Science and Theodore von Kármán Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering. 08.04.09
Caltech ranks fourth in undergraduate engineering in the latest U.S. News & World Report America's Best Colleges survey. Read more... 08.25.09
 Two groups of neurons that control obesity in fruit flies have been pinpointed by researchers. The existence of this sort of control over fat deposition and metabolic rates makes the flies a potentially useful model for the study of human obesity. Read more... 08.19.09
 Shang-Li Huang (PhD ‘76 Mechanical Engineering) and his wife Betty have pledged $1 million to endow the Shang-Li and Betty Huang Endowed Graduate Fellowship Fund in Mechanical Engineering. "S.L. was my graduate student and did an outstanding PhD thesis back in the 1970s—a thesis whose results are still widely used in the rocket-engine design business," said Chris Brennen, the Richard L. and Dorothy M. Hayman Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Caltech. "He and Betty are deeply interested in education—in particular, graduate education. They have been instrumental in rallying support for mechanical engineering at Caltech. We are most grateful for their generous help and advice." Read more… 08.04.09
 John Dabiri, Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Bioengineering, and graduate student Kakani Katija have discovered a new mechanism that explains how some of the ocean's tiniest swimming animals can have a huge impact on large-scale ocean mixing. Dabiri describes, "we've been studying swimming animals for quite some time, the perspective we usually take is that of how the ocean—by its currents, temperature, and chemistry—is affecting the animals. But there have been increasing suggestions that the inverse is also important—how the animals themselves, via swimming, might impact the ocean environment." Ares Rosakis, the Theodore von Kármán Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering and chair of the EAS Division described the research as, "truly reflective of the type of exciting, without-boundaries research at which Caltech engineering professors excel." Read more… 07.29.09
 Elizabeth Tito is named President of the Associates of Caltech. Starting in October 2009 she will direct programs and activities to ensure that this 83-year-old organization continues to fulfill its founders' goals of supporting Caltech as a world leader in science and engineering. Read more... 08.19.09
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 Some of the most ancient stromatolites on our planet were built with the help of communities of equally ancient microorganisms, a finding that "adds unexpected depth to our understanding of the earliest record of life on Earth," notes JPL astrobiologist Abigail Allwood. Read More... 07.20.09
 Regina Dugan (PhD '93 Mechanical Engineering) has been named director of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of Defense. Dugan, the founder and CEO of RedXDefense, LLC, a Maryland-based firm that develops technologies to detect and counter explosives, becomes the 19th director and first woman to head DARPA, the DoD's principal research and development agency. Read More... 07.14.09
  Michael L. Roukes, Professor of Physics, Applied Physics, and Bioengineering; Co-Director, Kavli Nanoscience Institute, and colleague Akshay Naik have created the first nanoscale mass spectrometer. This new technique simplifies and miniaturizes the measurement of the mass of molecules through the use of very tiny nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS) resonators. Askshay Naik explains, "the frequency at which the resonator vibrates is directly proportional to its mass. When a protein lands on the resonator, it causes a decrease in the frequency at which the resonator vibrates and the frequency shift is proportional to the mass of the protein". Professor Roukes points out, "the next generation of instrumentation for the life sciences must enable proteomic analysis with very high throughput. The potential power of our approach is that it is based on semiconductor microelectronics fabrication, which has allowed creation of perhaps mankind's most complex technology." Read more... 07.22.09
 Michael Elowitz, Associate Professor of Biology and Applied Physics; Bren Scholar, and Avigdor Eldar, Postdoctoral Scholar, show how evolution can allow for large developmental leaps.  Most evolutionary changes happen in tiny increments: an elephant grows a little larger, a giraffe's neck a little longer. Elowitz and Eldar's team have shown that such changes may at least sometimes be the result of noise, working alongside partial penetrance. Eldar, states "if you take a bunch of cells and grow them in exactly the same environment, they'll be identical twin brothers in terms of the genes they have, but they may still show substantial differences in their behavior". Elowitz adds that "noise—these random fluctuations of proteins in the cell—is not just a nuisance in this system; it's a key part of the process that allows genetically identical cells to do very different things." Read more... 07.20.09
In a special White House ceremony, President Obama will be presenting three EAS faculty: John Dabiri, Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Bioengineering, Beverley McKeon, Assistant Professor of Aeronautics, and Joel Tropp, Assistant Professor of Applied and Computational Mathematics, with the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). "These extraordinarily gifted young scientists and engineers represent the best in our country," President Obama said. Dabiri,describes the idea behind his PECASE-winning research as "giving underwater vehicles the enhanced performance of fish (e.g. efficiency, stealth, and maneuverablity) without mimicking the shape and swimming motions of fish. Instead, we replicate the vortex dynamics in the wakes of swimming fish." His "bio-inspired systems" were used by Lydia Ruiz (PhD '09 Mechanical Engineering), to demonstrateincreases in vehicle propulsive efficiency of over 50 percent.
McKeon is receiving the PECASE for her research on fundamental questions in complex turbulent boundary layers. McKeon states that "the ultimate goal is to incorporate recent advances in the understanding of flow physics in order to develop low order models of flow over surfaces for Air Force applications". Tropp's PECASE-winning research "focuses on developing new algorithms for solving inverse problems, a basic challenge that arises throughout the mathematical sciences. Inverse problems also appear in medical imaging, in communication systems, in statistical data analysis, and a host of other areas." He uses tools from modern applied mathematics, such as optimization techniques and randomized algorithms to collect partial information about an object of interest, and incorporate additional background knowledge to develop a complete picture of the object.
Other researchers receiving the PECASE award this year are Joshua K. Willis from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the following Caltech Alumni Elizabeth Boon, (PhD '03 CCE), Markus J. Buehler, (Post doc in CCE) Michael J. Hochberg, (Ph.D. '06 EAS - Applied Physics), Justin K. Romberg, (Post doc in EAS - Applied and Computational Mathematics), Cecilia R. Aragon, (B.S. '82 PMA), Jason Graetz, (Ph.D. '03 EAS - Materials Science), and Ioannis Chasiotis, (Ph.D. '02 EAS - Aerospace). 07.10.09
 Hans Wolfgang Liepmann, the Theodore von Kármán Professor of Aeronautics, Emeritus, passed away at the age of 94 on June 24. He was a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences, and a recipient of the National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology. He mentored more than 60 students became leaders in the aerospace industry as well as universities around the world. Read More... 07.06.09
 Kent Kresa, interim chairman of General Motors, and his wife have pledged $2 million to Caltech to endow the Joyce and Kent Kresa Professorship in Engineering and Applied Science. Kresa is chairman of the Caltech Board of Trustees. The Kresa gift is matched with an additional $1 million provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Matching Program. "Endowed chairs offer our faculty the ultimate freedom to pursue the research thrusts they are most passionate about—and this is truly invaluable to Caltech and our continued vitality," said Ares Rosakis, the Theodore von Kármán Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering and chair of the EAS Division. Read more... 07.02.09
 Dr. Matt LaHaye, Professor Keith Schwab, Professor Michael Roukes, and colleagues have developed a new tool to search for quantum effects in ordinary objects. Matt LaHaye is a postdoctoral research scientist working with Michael L. Roukes, a Professor of Physics, Applied Physics, and Bioengineering and Codirector of Kavli Nanoscience Institute. "Quantum jumps are, perhaps, the archetypal signature of behavior governed by quantum effects," says Roukes. "To see these requires us to engineer a special kind of interaction between our measurement apparatus and the object being measured. Matt's results establish a practical and really intriguing way to make this happen." Read more... 07.02.09
 Research by Michael H. Dickinson, the Zarem Professor of Bioengineering and David Lentink of Wageningen, reveals that, by swirling, maple seeds generate a tornado-like vortex that sits atop the front leading edge of the seeds as they spin slowly to the ground. This leading-edge vortex lowers the air pressure over the upper surface of the maple seed, effectively sucking the wing upward to oppose gravity, giving it a boost. The vortex doubles the lift generated by the seeds compared to nonswirling seeds. "There is enormous interest in the development of micro air vehicles, which, because of their size, must function using the same physical principles employed by small, natural flying devices such as insects and maple seeds," says Dickinson. Read more... 07.02.09
Oskar Painter, Associate Professor of Applied Physics, has developed a nanoscale device that can be used for force detection, optical communication, and more. The nanoscale device is called a zipper cavity because of the way its dual cantilevers-or nanobeams, as Painter calls them-move together and apart when the device is in use. "If you look at it, it actually looks like a zipper," Painter notes. The device exploits the mechanical properties of light to create an optomechanical cavity in which interactions between light and motion are greatly strengthened and enhanced. These interactions are the largest demonstrated to date. Read more... 07.02.09
Graduate student Michael Winterrose, and Brent Fultz, professor of materials science and applied physics, and colleagues, describe the exotic behavior of materials existing at high pressures in a paper in the June 12th issue of Physical Review Letters. By squeezing a typical metal alloy at pressures hundreds of thousands of times greater than normal atmospheric pressure, the material does not expand when heated, as does nearly every normal metal, and acts like a metal with an entirely different chemical composition. This insight into the behavior of materials existing at high pressures becomes doubly interesting when you consider that some 90 percent of the matter in our solar system exists at these high pressures. Read more... 07.01.09
 Robert McEliece, Allen E. Puckett Professor and Professor of Electrical Engineering, has won the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal for exceptional contributions to the advancement of communications sciences and engineering. In particular, McEliece is being recognized for fundamental contributions to the theory and practice of error-correcting codes and to the design of deep space telecommunication systems. 06.24.09
 Professor G. Ravichandran, the John E. Goode, Jr. Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering, and Director of GALCIT has been elected Fellow of the Society of Experimental Mechanics. Designation as an SEM Fellow is reserved to a select group of individuals that have made notable contributions to the Society and to the field of Experimental Mechanics. 06.17.09
This fall, up to 10 Pasadena City College (PCC) students will work with stem cells in several Caltech labs including the Genetically Engineered Mouse services (GEMs) facility, thanks to a $1.7 million grant and the leadership of Pamela Eversole-Cirea, director of the Biotechnology Program at PCC and a former Caltech postdoc. Read more... 07.06.09
 Caltech's 115th Commencement Ceremony was held on Friday, June 12th. The graduates were addressed by Steven Chu, renowned physicist, U.S. Secretary of Energy, and Nobel Laureate. Read more... 06.15.09
On June 12, 2009 president Jean-Lou Chameau announced $30 million in gifts as the first phase of a proposed $90 million initiative for a new institute. The funds will go towards the creation of the Resnick Sustainability Institute at Caltech. Read more... 07.06.09
This fall, up to 10 Pasadena City College (PCC) students will work with stem cells in several Caltech labs including the Genetically Engineered Mouse services (GEMs) facility, thanks to a $1.7 million grant and the leadership of Pamela Eversole-Cirea, director of the Biotechnology Program at PCC and a former Caltech postdoc. Read more... 07.06.09
 Sheila Shull has won one of the two 2009 Schmitt Staff Prizes! The Schmitt
Prize recognizes a staff member of the Caltech community whose contributions
embody the values and spirit that enable the Institute to achieve excellence
in research and education. Sheila has been with Applied and Computational
Mathematics (ACM) for almost 30 years and takes care of almost every aspect
of the day-to-day activities in ACM, including proposal submission and grant
management; management of staff members, visitors, and students;
organization of international conferences; recruitment of students and
instructors; utilization of space; and, most importantly, "care and feeding"
of the ACM faculty, which is not without its challenges. As one of her
nominators wrote: "It is people like her, in direct daily contact with
faculty and students, that truly define the atmosphere in our Institute."
Kudos Sheila! Read more... 06.08.09
DOE Names Harry Atwater as Director of EFRC Focusing on Light-Material Interactions. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science has announced that it will fund the creation of 46 Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs) over the next five years, including one that will be housed at Caltech. That $15 million EFRC will be headed by Harry Atwater, the Howard Hughes Professor and professor of applied physics and materials science. Read more... 05.11.09
U.S. News & World Report collected data from more than 12,000 graduate programs to determine their annual Best Graduate Schools rankings, and Caltech received top honors in several categories: number one in aeronautical engineering, chemistry, Earth sciences, geochemistry, geophysics and seismology, cosmology, and elementary particles/fields/string theory. Many other Institute programs also placed highly. The rankings are published in the April 28 issue of the magazine. For details, check the U.S. News website.
Caltech's world rankings: 2nd in the nation (Forbes); 6th in the nation (US News & World Report); 5th in the world (Times Higher Education); best value in private colleges (Kiplinger's 2007, 2008, 2009).
 Scientists Discover Importance of Fire in Global Climate Change. Researchers including John Doyle, Caltech's Braun Professor of Control and Dynamical Systems, Electrical Engineering, and Bioengineering, Emeritus, have determined that fire must be accounted for as an integral part of climate change. Their research shows that intentional deforestation fires alone contribute up to one-fifth of the human-caused increase in emissions of carbon dioxide. According to the article, increasing numbers of natural wildfires are influencing climate as well. Read the Science Magazine article...
 Niles Pierce, Associate Professor of Applied and Computational Mathematics and Bioengineering, and the Executive Officer for Bioengineering at Caltech, to give Earnest C. Watson Lecture "In Pursuit of Programmable Molecular Technologies" Our bodies contain amazing molecular machines whose function is encoded within the molecules themselves – RNA and protein sequences programmed by evolution to synthesize molecules, haul cargo within our cells, or regulate our development and repair. These remarkable biological proofs-of-principle inspire the emerging field of molecular programming and suggest the possibility of new technologies in which the function of therapeutic drugs and scientific instruments can be programmed at the molecular level. The lecture takes place May 20 at 8:00 p.m. in Beckman Auditorium.
Caltech Researchers Pinpoint the Mechanisms of Self-Control in the Brain. Study of dieters shows how two brain areas interact in people with the willpower to say no to unhealthy foods. "A very basic question in economics, psychology, and even religion, is why some people can exercise self-control but others cannot," notes Antonio Rangel, a Caltech Associate Professor of Economics and the paper's principal investigator. Read more... 04.30.09
 Caltech Faculty Members and Board Chair Named to American Academy of Arts and Sciences: Caltech  professors Marianne Bronner-Fraser and Ares Rosakis, as well as Chairman of the Board Kent Kresa, are among the 210 new fellows elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences this year. They join an assembly that was founded in 1780 by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock, and other scholars to provide practical solutions to pressing issues. Read More... 04.21.09
 The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) has awarded Anatol Roshko, Theodore von Karman Professor of Aeronautics, Emeritus, the AIAA Reed Aeronautics Award. This award is presented to honor notable achievement in the field of aeronautical science and engineering. Presentation of the award will take place on May 13, 2009 at the AIAA Aerospace Spotlight Awards Gala in Washington, D.C. This annual black-tie event recognizes the most influential and inspiring individuals in aerospace, whose outstanding contributions merit the highest accolades. Read More... 04.21.09
 A memorial service for George W. Housner (1910 - 2008), who was the Braun Professor of Engineering and considered the father of earthquake engineering,
was held on Saturday, April 18, 2009. For more on the life and legacy of Housner, see the Caltech Archives presentation of the life of George W. Housner. 04.26.09
"Flowers, dogs, and just about all biological objects are created from the bottom up," says Erik Winfree, associate professor of computer science, computation and neural systems, and bioengineering at Caltech. Along with his coworkers, Winfree is seeking to integrate bottom-up construction approaches with molecular fabrication processes to construct objects from parts that are just a few billionths of a meter in size that essentially assemble themselves. In a recent paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Winfree and his colleagues describe the development of an information-containing DNA "seed" that can direct the self-assembled bottom-up growth of tiles of DNA in a precisely controlled fashion. In some ways, the process is similar to how the fertilized seeds of plants or animals contain information that directs the growth and development of those organisms. Read more... 04.08.09
Over the past few decades, the transistors in computer chips have become progressively smaller and faster, allowing upwards of a billion individual transistors to be packed into a single circuit,
thus shrinking the size of electronic devices. But these circuits have an intractable design flaw: if just a single transistor fails, the entire circuit also fails. One novel way around the problem is a so-called self-healing circuit. Such circuits are "inspired by biological systems that constantly heal themselves in the presence of random and intentional failures," says Caltech professor Ali Hajimiri. Read more... 04.08.09
Researchers led by Pietro Perona, the Allen E. Puckett Professor of Electrical Engineering, and David J. Anderson, the Roger W. Sperry Professor of Biology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, have trained computers to automatically analyze aggression and courtship in fruit flies, opening the way for researchers to perform large-scale, high-throughput screens for genes that control these innate behaviors. The program allows computers to examine half an hour of video footage of pairs of interacting flies in what is almost real time; characterizing the behavior of a new line of flies "by hand" might take a biologist more than 100 hours. "This is a coming-of-age moment in this field," says Perona. "By choosing among existing machine vision techniques, we were able to put together a system that is much more capable than anything that had been demonstrated before." This work is detailed in the April issue of Nature Methods. Read more... 04.08.09
Ares Rosakis, Theodore von Kármán Professor of Aeronautics and MechanicalEngineering, has been named chair of the Division of Engineering and Applied Science, effective May 1. After earning his BSc from University of Oxford and his ScM and PhD from Brown University, Rosakis joined the Caltech faculty in 1982. Since 2004, he has served as director of the Graduate Aerospace Laboratories (GALCIT). Provost Ed Stolper stated that "his remarkable breadth and the leadership skills he has shown as director of GALCIT have demonstrated the mix of interests, temperament, and skills required to lead the EAS division creatively and effectively as it addresses its needs, opportunities, and challenges in research and education." 03.05.09
 Kevin Noertker and Marc Sells of Team Newt N' Salamander won the 25th Annual ME 72 Contest which was held on Tuesday, March 10, 2009. Teams of two students each competed to design and build an amphibious craft that would crawl into and swim across Millikan pond, clean up floating debris, and crawl out at the opposite end, depositing its cargo at the top of the bridge. Marshall Grinstead and Edmond Wong of Team Ramen and Cheesesteaks won second place this year. Congratulations to all the participants! View NBC video coverage. View CBS video coverage. 03.11.09
Four EAS alumni have garnered the highest honor the Institute bestows and been named Caltech Distinguished Alumni: David B. Kirk (MS '90 Computer Science, PhD '93 Computer Science); Robert J. Lang, (BS '82 Electrical Engineering, PhD '86 Applied Physics); François M. Morel (MS '68 Civil Engineering, PhD '72 Engineering Science) and David W. Thompson (MS '78 Aeronautics). Kudos to all! Read more... 03.25.09
Jehoshua "Shuki" Bruck, Caltech's Gordon and Betty Moore Professor of
Computation and Neural Systems and Electrical Engineering, has
won the Richard P. Feynman Prize for Excellence in Teaching. Caltech's
most prestigious teaching honor, the prize was established in 1993 "to honor
annually a professor who demonstrates, in the broadest sense, unusual
ability, creativity, and innovation in undergraduate and graduate classroom
or laboratory teaching." A member of the Caltech faculty since 1994, Bruck
was the founding director of Information Science and Technology (IST) at
Caltech. His research combines work on the design of distributed information
systems and the theoretical study of biological circuits and systems. Kudos! 02.25.09
Thomas McGill, professor of applied physics, emeritus, passed away on March 19. An expert in nanostructures, he discovered how to stack silicon layers on chips in a way that could lead to significant new advances in silicon-based electronics. Read more... 02.27.09
Christopher Brennen, Richard L. and Dorothy M. Hayman  Professor of Mechanical Engineering, has been elected as a Fellow of the School of Engineering at The University of Tokyo in recognition of his contribution to the research and education of the school, as well as his outstanding accomplishments in research and education in the field of engineering. 02.23.09
Mechanical Engineering graduate student Roseanna Zia has won the overall best poster prize in the first campus-wide Graduate Student Poster Session sponsored by the Graduate Student Council (GSC). Her poster was titled "Single particle motion in colloids: force-induced diffusion". The other winner, Anthony Roy, also a graduate student in Mechanical Engineering, won in the interdisciplinary category with his poster titled "Genetic programming of an artificial neural network for robust control of a 2-D path following robot". Congratulations! 02.17.09
 Carver Mead, Gordon and Betty Moore Professor of Engineering and Applied Science, Emeritus, and Caltech alumnus Gordon Moore, are among the fifteen 2009 inductees into the National Inventor's Hall of Fame. Mead helped to develop the standards and tools that permitted tens of thousands of transistors to be packaged on a single silicon chip, what is known as very large-scale integration (VLSI). Gordon Moore credits Mead with coining the term "Moore’s Law" to describe the notion that the number of transistors that can be packaged on an integrated circuit will double every two years, and Mead performed the physics calculations to prove it. As a cofounder of both Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel, Moore set the pace and standards for Silicon Valley’s chip manufacturing methods. His work established the model of the computer industry researcher-entrepreneur and help make Intel a world-leading chip maker. 02.13.09
Ares Rosakis, Theodore von Karman Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering, and Hiroo Kanamori, John E. and Hazel S. Smits Professor of Geophysics, Emeritus, with their students and colleagues will be featured in the documentary How the Earth Was Made airing on the History Channel on February 10, 6pm (PST) or 9:00pm (EST). The segment concerns the San Andreas fault and features a part which was filmed in the Solid Dynamics Lab at GALCIT. It also features an interview on supershear earthquake ruptures with Rosakis and Kanamori. 02.07.09
Julie Kornfield, Professor of Chemical Engineering, is the featured speaker at Neurons on the Run: Brain, Brawn, and Algorithms, February 7, 2009. This event is part of the Caltech/MIT Enterprise Forum. Kornfield specializes in discovering chemical and mechanical changes that occur in biological material with the ultimate goal of using such understanding to develop methods that will delay, stop, or even reverse degenerative processes. This event is free to Caltech students. Read more... 01.14.09
For the third year in a row, Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine has ranked Caltech as the best value among private universities in the United States. According to an article in the February issue, "A tiny institution that has the highest percentage of incoming freshmen with 700-plus SAT scores on the Kiplinger 100, Caltech boasts one of the world's top programs in science and technology. Its three-to-one student-faculty ratio gives Caltech students serious face time with a faculty that includes five Nobel Prize winners." The Institute is also commended for its shift to mostly need-based financial aid by reducing the amount of merit aid it offers and replacing loans with grants for families earning $60,000 or less. 01.08.09
Pianist Julia Greer, Assistant Professor of Materials Science, and violinist Christopher Kovalchick, graduate students in Aeronautics, performed a program of works by Brahms, Beethoven, Stravinsky, and Prokofiev on Sunday, January 11, 2009 at 3:30 p.m. in Ramo Auditorium. 01.08.09
 Visiting scientist Douglas Hofmann (MS '06) and and colleagues, including William Johnson, Ruben F. and Donna Mettler Professor of Engineering and Applied Science, have created structural metallic-glass composites, based in titanium, that are lighter and less expensive than any the group had previously created, while still maintaining their toughness and ductility--the ability to be deformed without breaking. They are among the toughest engineering materials that currently exist. Read more... 12.19.08
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