UDRI Presents Annual Awards
Dr. G.P. Tandon and Dr. R.Y. Kim are the recipients of UDRI’s Wohlleben-Hochwalt Outstanding Professional Research Award for 2002, for their research aimed at advancing the fundamental understanding of composite material behavior at the constituent level.
Failure in composites, and hence their performance, is governed by stress transfer across the fiber-matrix interface. However, available methods for characterizing interface strength are difficult to model rigorously because failure initiates at or near a stress singularity, leading to ambiguous and often misleading results. Drs. Tandon and Kim pioneered a test method that avoids failure at a stress singularity. In this test, the composite sample (with an embedded single fiber) takes the shape of a cruciform with a wide gage section. Under load, interface debonding occurs in the center of the cross so that the estimated bond strength is free of edge effects. This geometry also produces stable debond growth, thereby allowing both interface strength (debond initiation, from the first loading) and energy release rate (debond propagation, from subsequent loadings) to be determined from the same sample. Such data are critical for establishing design methodologies based on micromechanical failure theories.
Dr. Tandon is cited for his analytical work to optimize the specimen design and model the interfacial failure process, while Dr. Kim is cited for the development of novel experimental techniques to detect interfacial failure and measure the interfacial debond strength.
Cindy O’Brien has been named the 2001 UDRI Outstanding Support Person. Cindy receives the award as a result of her dedicated support for the Center for Materials Diagnostics (CMD) and the Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) program. In addition to her normal technical duties supporting the on-campus MURI staff of over 20 students, scientists, and technicians, Cindy performed administrative duties for the CMD. This combination of duties included coordinating and preparing presentations, annual, final, and other technical reports, papers, proposals for MURI staff members, handling the MURI budget, time cards, travel requests, purchase requests, interfacing with staff offices, and providing direct support to the CMD director to develop graduate-level classes on nondestructive testing. Cindy adapted quickly to these new responsibilities while maintaining her usual technical duties at the CMD.
Since 2001 was the last year of the MURI program, Cindy was also required to organize the final review meeting and oversee preparation of the annual and final report. Cindy's talents were best exemplified through her efforts to organize the final MURI review meeting. This event, which attracted more than 100 scientists from the United States and other countries, required her to correspond with scientists all over the world to develop the program, coordinate facilities and catering services, and establish the logistics of the meeting, workshops, and vendor displays.
Gregory J. Hartman has been named the 2001 UDRI Outstanding Technician. Greg receives the award for his significant contributions to the overall success of programs conducted by the Integrated Methods Materials Characterization (IMMC) group. Greg’s contributions to IMMC and the Material Characterization Laboratory (MCL) were particularly significant due to the large volume of program activity in the MCL and the unprecedented demand on the laboratory personnel to accommodate the unique equipment for the Turbine Engine Sustainment Initiative (TESI) program. Research activities were further complicated by unusual environmental problems that developed in the MCL when a facilities system malfunctioned. In spite of these extraordinary circumstances, Greg contributed significantly to all of the highly demanding technical programs conducted in the lab through his technical ability, innovation, and conscientious work practices.
All award recipients are honored at the Research Institute Annual Awards Banquet, to be held on April 17, 2002.
UDRI established the Support Person and Technician Awards in 1996 as a way to recognize outstanding performance in the previous calendar year. Each award is accompanied by a prize of $500 and an engraved plaque.
The Wohlleben-Hochwalt award commemorates Brother William Wohlleben, S.M., founder of UD’s chemistry and chemical engineering departments, and UD alumnus Ted Hochwalt, a successful researcher for General Motors and the Monsanto Chemical Co. Wohlleben, a mentor of Hochwalt’s, set Hochwalt up with a lab at UD in 1925 that sparked the invention of a new type of fire extinguisher and the beginning of the Thomas and Hochwalt Laboratories, which became the research labs of Monsanto Chemical Company. Moved by Wohlleben and his support for research, Hochwalt created an endowment in 1981 to fund the Wohlleben-Hochwalt Award to recognize excellence in sponsored research at UDRI.
April 2002
For more information, please contact Pamela Gregg (pamela.gregg@udri.udayton.edu), UDRI Communication Administrator, at 937-229-3268.
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