Chunshan Song, distinguished professor of fuel science in the Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering and director of EMS Energy Institute at Pennsylvania State University, has been elected to the 2010 class of Fellows of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Randy Vander Wal, associate professor, Energy and Mineral Engineering, recently had his work highlighted in the July edition of NASA Tech Briefs. The article, Processing Nanostructured Sensors Using Microfabrication Techniques, details the outcome of a three-year project, in which researchers developed a new approach to the fabrication of microsensors with nanostructures.

These microsensors have many potential applications, including emissions monitoring, leak detection, engine monitoring, security, fire detection, personal health monitoring, and environmental monitoring.

Combustion and Flame, the official journal of the Combustion Institute, chose an original research paper from Yu Zhang as the feature article for the October 2010 issue. Zhang recently finished a PhD in Energy and Mineral Engineering in the spring of 2010. The paper, Oxidation of 1-butanol and a mixture of n-heptane/1-butanol in a motored engine, discusses work Zhang completed as a side project while working on his PhD in order to complete an MS in Mechanical Engineering.

Randy Vander Wal, associate professor, department of Energy and Mineral Engineering, gave the presentation “Airport Air: What are we Breathing” as part of the session Environmental Health Volatiles and Aerosols: Novel Direct Measurement Methods Relevant to Lung Disease at the Fall 2010 American Chemical Society (ACS) Meeting. ACS chose to record meeting presentations in select theme, award, and other prominent sessions. Vander Wal’s presentation was chosen to be recorded and published on the ACS Web site.

On August 19, the NASA Alternative Aviation Fuel Experiment (AAFEX) Team received a NASA Group Achievement Award. Randy Vander Wal, associate professor in energy and mineral engineering, and his team supported the AAFEX field campaign studying alternative fuels and recently presented some of this work at the American Chemical Society National Fall Meeting.