NSF Director to Speak at Symposium Honoring Achenbach, Marks

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Northwestern University will host a special daylong symposium May 14 to honor the accomplishments of faculty members Jan D. Achenbach and Tobin J. Marks who last year received the 2005 National Medal of Science, the nation's highest award for lifetime achievement in fields of scientific research.

The National Medal of Science Symposium will be held from 8:45 a.m. to 5:20 p.m. Wednesday, May 14, in the McCormick Tribune Auditorium, James Allen Center, 2169 Campus Drive, on Northwestern's Evanston campus. (Breakfast is from 8 to 8:45 a.m.) The symposium is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Colleagues of Achenbach and Marks from across the country, including Robert H. Grubbs, who won the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, will deliver technical presentations. Arden L. Bement, Jr.,
 director of the National Science Foundation, will be the symposium's special guest speaker, delivering the last talk of the day. He will discuss "Science and Technology in the 21st Century: How Will America Continue to Compete?"

Achenbach is Walter P. Murphy Professor and Distinguished McCormick School Professor of the Departments of Mechanical Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics, and Marks is Vladimir N. Ipatieff Research Professor of Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and professor of materials science and engineering.

The morning sessions will relate to Achenbach's general areas of research and will begin at 9 a.m. with Achenbach making the first presentation, "Ultrasonics for Materials Characterization and Structural Health Monitoring." Achenbach is a preeminent researcher in solid mechanics and quantitative non-destructive evaluation who has made major contributions in the field of propagation of mechanical disturbances in solids.

After a lunch break, the program will turn to Marks' areas of research with Marks kicking off the afternoon sessions at 1:30 p.m. with his talk, "Materials and Interface Engineering in Organic, Organometallic and Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Electronic Circuitry." His research focuses on the design, synthesis and in-depth characterization of new compounds and materials with important chemical, physical and/or biological properties.

NSF Director Bement, who plans to spend the entire day at the symposium, will begin his talk at 4:40 p.m.

For more information on the National Medal of Science Symposium, including a complete list of speakers and topics, and to register, go to http://www.nmss.northwestern.edu.