Former Penn State student appearing in Animal Planet’s New Reality Series, Chasing Nature – Leslie Oley, a graduate student at Stanford will be one of four graduate students to appear in Animal Planet’s new reality television series, Chasing Nature. Oley received her Bachelor of Science from Penn State’s mechanical engineering program in 2004. To film the new series, Oley traveled along with four other Stanford engineers, David Lu, Alfonso Pulido, and Mark Bianco, to Royal National Park in Australia.

Their task was to work together to replicate, in only four days, a human-scale model of a specific physical characteristic of an animal, and then make sure that the model actually works. For example, a team could be asked to replicate an eagle's wings. Once the mechanism is built, a team member must wear it to test its viability.

It wasn't until the Stanford engineers arrived in Australia and filming began that they were finally given an explanation of the rules of the show and the details of their task. Then they were left with only a machine shop and their imaginations to get the job done, as camera crews documented their efforts on tape.

"Being a part of the show was a unique opportunity to work collaboratively on a challenging project with a great group of engineers," says team member Leslie Oley. "We found that rivaling the work of Mother Nature was an enormous undertaking, especially when given such a short time period."

While all of the students enjoyed being a part of the program, not all of them are begging to do it again. "Being on the show was a fantastic, once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I feel very privileged to have been included," Oley says. "But I think I would leave it as a once-in-a-lifetime experience."

Catch the new series on the Animal Planet channel Wednesdays at 2:00 p.m.

Ross T. Thomas Moving Up in the Nuclear Engineering Industry – Ross T. Thomas (NucE - M.S. 72 & Ph.D. 78) has been named the Chief Technical Officer for BWXT Services, Inc. of Lynchburg, VA.  BWXT is a major supplier of nuclear products and services for the U.S. government and has approximately 12,000 employees.  Dr. Thomas was named an Outstanding Alumni Lecturer by the Penn State nuclear engineering program in 1997.