The School of Materials Engineering is pleased to announce the addition of three Assistant Professors for 2012.

Dr. John A. Howarter received his B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from The Ohio State University (2003) and his PhD in Materials Engineering from Purdue University (2008).  Prior to joining the Purdue University faculty, he served as National Research Council Post-Doctoral Fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).  Dr. Howarter has 11 peer-reviewed publications and has served in numerous leadership roles including Post-Doc Association Leadership Team and Polymers Division Representative at the SACNAS Conference. Dr. Howarter’s research interests are centered around reducing the operational energy footprint of polymer membranes through material design. This includes a focus on material improvements of polyamide membranes used in desalination and functional composite membranes for targeted separation of industrial wastewater. Dr. Howarter has a joint appointment between the School of Materials Engineering and Environmental and Ecological Engineering.

Dr. Kendra A. Erk obtained her B.S (2006) and PhD (2010) in Materials Science and Engineering from Purdue University and Northwestern University, respectively. Prior to joining the MSE faculty, Dr. Erk was an NRC Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Polymers Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. She has 8 published archival journal articles and has been the recipient of numerous awards including the National Research Council Postdoctoral Research Associateship in 2010. In 2009, she was awarded the Northwestern Graduate Leader of the Year as well as the Jane G. Hines Endowed Scholar, the P.E.O Sisterhood. In addition, Dr. Erk was a finalist for the APS Padden Award for Graduate Research in Polymer Physics in 2011. She is a member of the American Chemical Society, American Physical Society, The Society of Rhelogy and the Materials Research Society. Dr. Erk’s research interests broadly focus on characterizing the structure-property relationships that control the mechanical properties of soft materials and complex fluids, which includes polymer gels and surfactant-stabilized emulsions.  Her current focus is on understanding the controlling mechanisms of interfacial friction in these materials, a topic which is directly relevant to the study of biological lubricants and biomaterial mechanics.

Dr. Volkan Ortalan, formerly, a postdoctoral scholar at Physical Biology Center for Ultrafast Science and Technology at California Institute of Technology, began his undergraduate studies at the Middle East Technical University in Turkey and received two BS degrees in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering and in Mechanical Engineering. He received his PhD from University of California-Davis in 2010, where he received the Microbeam Analysis Society Distinguished Scholar Award (2009) and Microscopy Society of America Poster Awards (1st Place Physical Science in 2008 and 2009). He was a visiting scientist at the National Center of Electron Microscopy at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 2007-8 and at the Advanced Microscopy Laboratory at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 2008-9. His research interests include the development of ultrafast dynamic transmission electron microcopy for atomic-scale visualization in space and time and applications of in situ (ultrafast dynamical) TEM to phase and structural transformations, materials under extreme conditions, nucleation and growth of nanomaterials, molecular-level dynamic imaging of biological structures and high resolution environmental TEM for heterogeneous catalysis.