ASTM Staff Manager Speaks on Importance of Standards in Education

On April 16, Molly Lynyak, ASTM’s consumer products committee (F15) manager, spoke at the American Council on Consumer Interests (ACCI) Symposium in Pittsburgh. She was joined by two ASTM members, Courtney Griffin, director of consumer product safety at the Consumer Federation of America, and Ken d’Entremont, professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Utah. 

Lynyak, Griffin, and d’Entremont spoke to the importance of voluntary standards for consumer product safety, with an emphasis on how standards are developed, why the consumer and academic voices are important stakeholders in the process, and how standards can be valuable tools in the classroom. 

ACCI has been a leading membership organization for academicians and other professionals involved in consumer and family economics since its founding in 1953. Today, the association is the professional home for more than 350 members, at all stages of careers, around the world. Programs include an annual educational conference and the prestigious peer-reviewed Journal of Consumer Affairs.

ASTM to Sponsor Four Students for 2025 WISE Program

ASTM International will sponsor four students for the 2025 Washington Internships for Students of Engineering (WISE) program, which will run from June 2 to August 1 in Washington, D.C. During the WISE program, interns learn about the public policy process, including how government officials make decisions on complex technological issues and how engineers can contribute to legislative and regulatory public policy decisions. 

The WISE interns, and the topics they’ll be focusing on during the internship, are:

Ethan Andrews, a chemical engineering majoring, Case Western Reserve University. Andrews is working on BPA in food and products.

Shrika Paramasivam, a mechanical/religious major, University of Texas at Austin. Paramasivam’s topic will be additive manufacturing/3D printing.

Andrew Avila, a civil engineering major, California State Polytechnic University. Avila will be working in environmental policy/climate change.

Liam Cassidy, mechanical engineering/economics, Pennsylvania State University. Cassidy’s area of interest is nuclear/sustainability.

The ASTM member-in-residence for the 2025 WISE program will be Joe Sinicrope, a member of ASTM’s radiation processing committee (E61) and the student advisor for ASTM’s student chapter at Florida International University. 

For more information on the WISE program, visit https://wise-intern.org.

Professor of the Year Nominations Now Being Accepted

ASTM International is currently accepting nominations for the 2024 Professor of the Year award. The deadline for submissions is Aug. 31.

Established in 2009, the goal of the Professor of the Year award is to reward professors who introduce students to standards and encourage their use. The award is given to an educator, professor, or teacher at an accredited university who uses ASTM standards in the curriculum or classroom.

Professor of the Year winners receive an honorarium in the amount of $2,000. The university of the award winner will also receive a $2,000 honorarium.

For more information: Travis Murdock, ASTM; tel +1.610.832.9826; tmurdock@astm.org.

Cynthia Annett, ASTM International’s 2024 Professor of the Year, received her award during ASTM’s April committee week in Toronto, Canada. As a research associate professor at Kansas State University, Annett uses standards from the environmental assessment, risk management, and corrective action committee (E50) in her graduate classes to demonstrate how consensus-based standards can be used to improve the social and economic fabric of underserved and at-risk communities. Annett is shown here (center) with E50 members Timothy Haley (left) and Tripp Fischer (right). 

Request a Guest Lecture

ASTM International staff and members are readily available to provide students and faculty with an overview of the world of consensus standards.

These sessions are designed to expose future subject matter experts to the importance of standards, the development process, resources available to students, and ways to get involved
with ASTM.

Lectures can be presented in person or remotely. For more information, contact Travis Murdock at tmurdock@astm.org.

University of Alabama Student Receives Mary R. Norton Scholarship for Metallurgy

ASTM’s metallography committee (E04) has chosen Skylar Elliot, a first-year graduate student at the University of Alabama, to receive the Mary R. Norton Memorial Scholarship for Women. The $1,000 scholarship honors the legacy of Mary Rose Norton and the impact she made for women studying in the fields of physical metallurgy or materials science.

Elliot, a metallurgical engineering major, was scheduled to be recognized by the E04 committee at their committee week on May 5-6 in Toronto, Canada.