ME
Student Benedict A. Samuel Receives 2008 Alumni Dissertation
Award
Mechanical Engineering Student
Benedict Samuel has been awarded the 2008 Alumni Dissertation
Award. The Alumni Association Dissertation
Award provides funding and recognition to outstanding full-time
doctoral students who have passed their comprehensive exams
and have received approval of the dissertation topic, or
to M.F.A. students in their final year. This award is considered
to be among the most prestigious available to Penn State
graduate students and recognizes outstanding achievement
in scholarship and professional accomplishment.
Benedict's advisor is Dr. Aman
Haque, he is a Graduate Teaching Fellow with the Mechanical
Engineering Department teaching ME-201 for Fall 2007 and
Spring 2008 semesters as well as working as a staff photographer
for the Daily Collegian.
Above: Dr. Aman
Haque (right) with his graduate students Benedict
A. Samuel (left, 2008 Alumni Association Dissertation
Award winner) and Amit V. Desai (center, 2007 Alumni
Association Dissertation Award winner) at the Experimental
NanoMechanics Lab. |
Benedict's thesis is titled “Multiphysics
studies on polymeric and biological nanofibers”. The
research primarily
deals with "understanding the coupling/interaction between
multiple energy domains (such as mechanical, thermal, electrical
and optical) at the nanoscale. The results of this research
will help us better understand the mechanisms at play in
multi-domain processes and for many nanoscale systems even
everyday operating conditions qualify as a multi-domain problem."
Benedict has had the results
from this research and other projects during the
course of his graduate research published. Some of
the prominent ones include: "the design of a very high resolution
micromechanical actuator/sensor, an experimental technique
to visualize crack blunting in soft polymers using fluorescence,
and reporting on room temperature relaxation in gold thin
films, the design of a test-bed for mechanical testing of
a single live biological cell." He has presented the results
of his research at many international conferences.
