Momentum - The Magazine for Virginia Tech Mechanical Engineering Vol. 3 No. 1 Spring 2018 | Page 9

Mirzaeifar in PRM
Assistant Professor Reza Mir-
zaeifar, along with post doc Ayoub
Yari Boroujeni and doctoral
student Fatemeh Yazdandoost
Mirzaeifar
were recently published in Phys-
ical Review Materials. Their paper is "Nano-
crystalline Nickel-graphene Nanoplatelets
Composite: Superior Mechanical Properties
and Mechanics of Properties Enhancement at
the Atomistic Level."
Yelton receives certification
Lance Yelton, program manager,
recently received his Research
Administrator Level II Certificate
after taking a total of 15 classes
and workshops to complete both
the Level 1 and Level 2 programs.
Three
mechani-
cal engi-
neering
doctoral
Padhi
Jana
students Mukherjee
presented
posters or talks at the following events.
Abinash Padhi, talk: "Nanonet Force Mi-
croscopy: Measuring Forces in Anisotropic
Single Cell Migration." BMES conference.
Aniket Jana, poster: "Plasticity in Cell Mi-
gratory Modes on Orthotropic Fiber Architec-
tures." Annual ASCB conference.
Yelton
Williams diversity advocate
Melissa Williams, operations
manager, completed the required
training to become a Diversity Ad-
vocate in November. People can
sign up for the training through
the university organizational and
professional development office.
Student talks
Williams
ME alum gets Innovation Award
Brian Goode
(Ph.D. '11), a
research scientist
at Virginia Tech's
Discovery Analytics
Center in the Na-
tional Capital Re-
gion, received one of two Innovation Awards
for his work in predictive modeling. You
can read the entire story about his work and
award on VTNews.
Apratim Mukherjee, talk and poster: "Nano-
fiber Curvature Enables Quantitating Single
Protrusions." Annual ASCB conference.
The students are advised by Associate
Professor Amrinder Nain. Mukherjee is
co-advised by Associate Professor Bahareh
Behkam. Jana and Mukherjee were awarded
Worthington Biochemical Association Travel
and VT GSA travel fund program awards.
Lei Zuo receives grant
Professor Lei Zuo, John R. Jones
III Faculty Fellow, and Muham-
mad Hajj, director of the Center
for Energy Harvesting Materials
and Systems, have received a grant
Zuo
from the National Academies of
Sciences, through the U.S.-Egypt
Science and Technology Joint Fund, titled:
"Evaluation of Combinations of Energy
Harvesting and Desalination Technologies."
The pair will collaborate with Professor Aly
Elzahaby of Tanta University, Egypt. The
Virginia Tech portion of the grant is $148,129
over three years.
MOMENTUM
SPRING 2018
PAGE 9