Two Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering faculty and one staff member has been selected to receive PSES awards for 2008. The awards recognize outstanding contributions, research, teaching, advising, and service in the College of Engineering and are sponsered by the Penn State Engineering Society.

Dr. Timothy Simpson, Premier Research Award (Coordinator:  Dr. Mary Frecker)

Dr. Simpson has had a number of remarkable research achievements in his work, which is at the interface of design methodologies and product realization. Dr. Simpson has been involved as a PI or co-PI in over $10M of joint research grants.  He has published 59 peer-reviewed journal papers, over 80 conference papers, a book, and eight book chapters.  Nationally and internationally, Dr. Simpson has been recognized through the General Electric Learning Excellence Award and the Society of Automotive Engineering (SAE) Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award.  In 2007, Dr. Simpson was recognized by the President’s Award for Excellence in Academic Integration at Penn State.

Dr. Talmage is the faculty advisor to the PSU Formula Society of Automotive Engineers (FSAE) Team, which did very well during the 2007 competition.  It is extremely prestigious for a group, particularly a university group, to compete in such a contest and when they do well it brings much recognition to the institution. In 2007, the Penn State FSAE Team placed second at the 17^th overall out of more than 100 teams. Through Dr. Talmage’s guidance, the team has provided professional presentations to the Dean and Provost on their accomplishments and these presentations have been extremely impressive.  Dr. Talmage and her team have worked tirelessly to acquire the needed resources through corporate sponsorship as well as university support.  Whenever the team is called upon to visit with potential donors, they are always willing to put on a show as I have witnessed throughout the year.

Ms. Dianne Crust, Outstanding Staff Member (Coordinator:  Dr. Eric Mockensturm)

This past year, Dianne has been a key player in forming our new Penn State Society of Mechanical Engineering (PSMES) and in publishing our MNE News.  In August 2007, we invited our 10,000 mechanical engineering alums to join our PSMES and as of today, we have 760 members from 38 states and 4 countries.  Dianne has largely been responsible for drafting the membership form and for cataloging all 760 members into our database.  The already active PSMES members have been extremely impressed with Dianne’s dedication to the formation of this group and she helps add to the reputation of our Department through her professional interaction with the members.