University Park, Pa. -- The Materials Science and Engineering Graduate Colloquium will take place from 11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Thursdays beginning March 19, in 26 Hosler Building on the University Park campus. Refreshments will be served from 10:45 to 11 a.m. in 301 Steidle.

The schedule is as follows:

March 19 -- Jorg Neugebauer, director of computational materials design, Max-Planck-Institut, Dusseldorf, Germany, “Understanding and Designing Engineering Materials Based on ab initio thermodynamics."

March 26 -- John Kerr, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, Calif., "Polyelectrolyte Materials for Batteries, Fuel Cells and other Energy Applications."

April 2 -- David Seidman, 2008 Turnbull Awardee of MRS, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., “Genesis of Nuclei and Phase Decomposition on an Atomic Scale."

April 9 -- Alexandra Navrotsky, director, Peter A. Rock Thermochemistry Laboratory and NEAT ORU, University California - Davis, "Calorimetric Studies of the Energetics of Nanomaterials and their Surfaces and Interfaces."

April 23 -- Frances M. Ross, Manager, Nanoscale Materials Analysis Department, IBM, T. J. Watson Research Center, “Dynamic Electron Microscopy of the Growth of Semiconductor Nanowires."