Manias Awarded the Virginia S. and Philip L. Walker, Jr. Faculty Fellowship in Materials Science and Engineering

Evangelos Manias, Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, has been named the Virginia S. and Philip L. Walker, Jr. Faculty Fellow in Materials Science and Engineering, in recognition of his outstanding contributions in the field of polymer/inorganic nanocomposites. The fellowship provides funds to an outstanding faculty member of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering to assist in teaching, research, and service to the university and the public.

Manias, a graduate of the Physics department of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, received his Ph.D. from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, in polymer physical chemistry in 1995. He then joined the Materials Science and Engineering Department of Cornell University as a post-doctoral research scholar and in 1998 took his current position at Penn State as an Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. He was awarded an invited lectureship at the École d'Été de Physique Théoretique des Houches, France, on "Molecular aspects of confined liquids" (organized by P.G. de Gennes), as well as the distinction of highest honors from the Academy of Sciences of the Netherlands for his Ph.D. research.

Manias' research group focuses on polymers in nanoscopic confinements and near solid surfaces, and includes polymer/layered-inorganic nanocomposite materials, as well as AFM and molecular modeling studies of polymeric nanostructures. He is a member of the American Physical Society, AlChE, SPIE, and the European Science Foundation. More information about his research and teaching activities can be found at: http://zeus.plmsc.psu.edu.