The Ohio State University

James P. Schmiedeler, assistant professor in mechanical engineering, has been awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the nation's highest honor for independent professionals at the outset of their independent research careers. Nine federal departments and agencies annually nominate scientists and engineers at the start of their independent careers whose work shows exceptional promise for leadership at the frontiers of scientific knowledge during the twenty-first century. Participating agencies award these talented scientists and engineers up to five years of funding to further their research in support of critical government missions.

Schmiedeler was nominated by the National Science Foundation.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has announced this year's fellows and Somnath Ghosh, John B. Nordholt professor in mechanical engineering, is a 2007 recipient in engineering.

AAAS selected Ghosh for outstanding contributions to computational micromechanics, multi-scale modeling of structure-material interaction and research in failure analysis for reliability predictions. Ghosh has also sustained ambassadorship across mechanics and materials communities.

In July, Ghosh was named a Fellow of the US Association of Computational Mechanics (USACM). Along with that recognition, USACM has also selected him to organize the 2009 US National Congress of Computational Mechanics in Columbus, Ohio.

Throughout October, Ohio State will observe National Work and Family Month. National Work and Family Month is the result of U.S. Senate Resolution 210 passed in September 2003 to build awareness about the importance of work-life effectiveness. It states that the ability to effectively manage work, family, and personal responsibilities contributes to the well being and productivity of the American worker and their workplaces. Please see the list below, for some of the events planned by the Office of Human Resources. For a complete list of events go to our work life website at: http://hr.osu.edu/worklife/nationalwork.aspx

To register for any event go to http://hr.osu.edu/ohrd/training/index.asp

As improved recruitment and retention of women programs are put into place at engineering schools across the country ; five women in mechanical engineering, sit down to discuss some of the key issues surrounding females in the field.

Mechanical engineering is the largest discipline in the engineering field, yet the discipline does not exhibit a representative number of women, when compared to other engineering areas. According to data provided by the American Society for Engineering Education, biomedical engineering had 43.7 percent of women enrolled in the discipline, compared to 12.5 percent in mechanical engineering.