May 05, 2023

Two Engineering Students Selected for Washington Internships (WISE)

ASTM International has announced it will be sponsoring two student interns as part of the prestigious Washington Internships for Students of Engineering (WISE) program this summer. Jean-Luc Theard, a junior at North Carolina State University, and Ryan Alimento, a junior at the University of Southern California, have been selected to take part in the program. 

Theard is majoring in industrial and systems engineering as well as political science through the Benjamin Franklin Scholars Program. He is passionate about using his skills to help others through positive impacts on communities and society as a whole. During the WISE program, Theard plans to research supply chain infrastructure specific to critical supplies that have been disrupted in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Alimento is pursuing a dual BS in chemical engineering and MS in green technologies. He plans to leverage his scientific background to pursue a career in public policy to help expedite renewable energy initiatives. During the WISE program, Alimento plans to research existing public policy issues and regulations around sustainable energy.

WISE is a competitive summer program in Washington, D.C., offered annually to about a dozen engineering juniors and seniors interested in public policy.

The WISE internship is one of many scholarships and grant programs ASTM International provides to student members.

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Founded in 1980 through the collaborative efforts of several professional engineering societies, the WISE program has become one of the premier Washington internship programs. WISE prepares future leaders of the engineering profession who are aware of, and who can contribute to, the increasingly important issues at the intersection of science, technology, and public policy in the United States. 

Students Invited to Fatigue and Fracture Mechanics Forum

Graduate and undergraduate students are cordially invited to the Dr. M.R. Mitchell Student Presentation Forum to be held in Washington, DC on November 8th, 2023.

A competition, it will be held as a part of the 21st International ASTM/ESIS Symposium on Fatigue & Fracture Mechanics and in conjunction with the meeting of the ASTM Committee E08 on Fatigue and Fracture. Presentations concerned with any aspect of fatigue and fracture mechanics are invited.

Participants are asked to prepare an abstract in addition to the presentation, but full papers are not associated with the student presentations. Abstract is requested to be submitted by July 31st, 2023.

TO GET INVOLVED
Brian Milewski
tel +1.610.832.9619
bmilewski@astm.org

Former ASTM WISE Intern Named a 2023 Truman Scholar

ASTM’s former Washington Internships for Students of Engineering (WISE) intern Jason Hess, mechanical engineering student at Youngstown State University, had been named a 2023 Truman Scholar.

The Truman Foundation is the nation’s official living memorial to the thirty-third president of the U.S. and the presidential monument to public service. For 2023, 62 outstanding college students from 60 institutions have been chosen to be Truman Scholars.

Professor of the Year

Throughout ASTM International’s 125th anniversary celebration, Standardization News is looking back on some of the many individuals who received awards, participated in programs, or otherwise contributed to the next generation of standards. In this issue, we highlight two past recipients of ASTM’s Professor of the Year award.

Dr. Darla Goeres leads the Standardized Biofilm Methods Laboratory (SBML) team at the Center for Biofilm Engineering, whose mission is the development and validation of quantitative standard methods for growing, treating, sampling, and analyzing biofilm bacteria. Goeres is a long-time member of the subcommittee on antimicrobial agents (E35.15) and facilitated the acceptance of the first approved standard methods for biofilm bacteria. She has held multiple leadership roles during her ASTM tenure and was selected ASTM Professor of the Year in 2021.

“ASTM has been an excellent venue to vet the biofilm methods developed at the Center for Biofilm Engineering. E35 is comprised of a dynamic group of scientists representing multiple interests, yet all committed to producing quality methods that enable for the assessment of antimicrobial agents in a range of application areas. The committee is supportive of its early career participants and helps to educate them on the standardization process. The wealth of knowledge and experience on the committee is impressive, and the committee members are a resource of information that is rarely found gathered in one location. Finally, ASTM methods are routinely used in my laboratory and benefit the undergraduate students just starting their research careers.”

Dr. John Germaine is research professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) department at Tufts University. He has nearly 40 years of experience teaching undergraduate and graduate-level materials and geotechnical courses, directing a significant sponsored research program, and serving the profession. Germaine was a research associate in the CEE Department at MIT before joining the Tufts faculty in 2015 and establishing the Advanced Geomaterials Laboratory. Germaine is a member of the committee on soil and rock (D18), where he served as chair. He also spent a term as a member of the ASTM Board of Directors.

“I can still remember attending my first D18 Committee Week in Louisville, KY in June 1986.  I was energized by the technical conversations and openness of the members. People were focused on improving the standards rather than self-promotion. Since then, ASTM has provided a forum for me to apply my knowledge and have a positive impact on the profession. I have written or served as technical contact on numerous standards which are routinely used in practice. On the other hand, I have benefited enormously through my ASTM activities by developing a host of management skills while serving in various officer positions from technical contacts to Chair of D18. ASTM has been a rewarding part of my professional career. In addition to the professional benefits, ASTM has provided many lifelong friendships that thrive outside of ASTM interactions.”

Sponsored by ASTM International, the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition team from Wissahickon High School in Ambler, Pennsylvania, participated in its second district competition of the year. For its stellar work, the team was presented with the Engineering Excellence Award.