Diorio, Dick Recieve Graduate Awards

Congratulations to Andrew Dick, who has won a one-semester Dean's dissertation Fellowship for the 2006-2007 academic year. Andrew is a Ph.D. student working with Professor Bala Balachandran performing research on the oscillations of micro-resonators.

Andrew was also recently awarded funds to study at The University of Tsukuba in Japan this summer, thanks to research and travel support from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science and the National Science Foundation's East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes for U.S. Graduate Students (EAPSI). Andrew will be hosted by Professor Hiroshi Yabuno in Tsukuba's Institute of Engineering Mechanics and Systems. There he will pursue additional research into his project, the application of bifurcation control to promote grazing-type behavior for soft-impacts between atomic force microscope probes and biological samples.

In 2004 Andrew was awarded the 2004-2005 Litton Industries Graduate Fellowship in Engineering Education, a supplemental stipend added to either a Graduate Teaching Assistantship or Graduate Research Assistantship award by the department.

Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. student James Diorio was recently recognized by Maryland's Center for Teaching Excellence with a nomination for the 2005-2006 Distinguished Teaching Assistant award. The award will be given at the Distinguished Teaching Assistant Ceremony on Friday, May 12 at the Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center.

Last year the Tau Mu Chapter of Pi Tau Sigma, the University of Maryland's Honorary Mechanical Engineering Society, honored Diorio with their Spring 2005 Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award.

Last month Diorio earned the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Endowment Fellow award for the 2006-2007 academic year.

Congratulations to Andrew and James for all these outstanding recognitions.

Published May 15, 2006