January 2009

"Faculty"

• Associate professor Boon S. Ooi of Electrical & Computer Engineering and his team which includes a number of students working in Lehigh’s Center for Optical Technologies have developed a new type of broadband semiconductor laser. Not only is Ooi’s laser smaller than conventional broadband lasers, but it can also be generated at a fraction of the cost. The laser may be applied in areas such as biomedical imaging, optical telecommunications, and data transmission. Within the last year, Ooi’s group has been published in IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics and Compound Semiconductor.
• Wei-xian Zhang, associate professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering has invented nanoparticles that clean toxic waste sites 10 times faster than traditional methods. Lehigh Nanotech LLC , a Bethlehem-based environmental cleanup company that formed with help from Lehigh’s Office of Technology Transfer worked with Zhang to commercialize his invention. Zhang’s nanoparticles, made mostly of iron, have been used in 10 states and several countries in Europe and Asia in their efforts to clean toxic sites.

"Alumni"

• Dr. Stephen Klasko, who graduated from Lehigh in 1974 with a bachelor’s degree in Biology, is the new CEO of The Johnnie B. Byrd Alzheimer’s Center & Research Institute. Klasko, who is also the dean of the University of South Florida College of Medicine and senior vice president for USF Health Services, was unanimously approved for the position in the Fall of 2008. Part of Klasko's duties will be to serve as a liaison as the Institute and USF form a collaboration to fight Alzheimer's disease. He will work to consolidate funding and combine each institution's individual strengths.
• Ronald Rivlin, former professor of mathematics and mechanics was posthumously inducted into the International Rubber Science Hall of Fame in late 2008. Rivlin, who helped establish the Center for the Application of Mathematics at Lehigh and directed it until his retirement in 1980, is famous for his revolutionary work in formulating theories that explain the elastic behaviors of rubber and rubber-like materials.

"Programs"

• Lehigh’s Office of Technology Transfer is partnering with the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation to use a large grant from Wall Street West to create an intellectual property management model. The money will be used to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship by supporting new inventions.
• Lehigh’s department of Computer Science & Engineering has created The Sandbox - an isolated computer lab comprised of HP Workstations that allows students to perform system security testing, experiment with operating systems, and remove hard drives without causing any damage to a network. Students have practice controlling computer systems and building security infrastructure without corrupting the larger Lehigh network.

     

P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science
Lehigh University • Packard Laboratory, 19 Memorial Drive West, Bethlehem, PA 18015 • (610) 758-4025