12/15/03 · Monica Rixman , PPST doctoral student, defends her doctoral thesis!
Monica is the 2nd PhD student from the Ortiz group to graduate this year and has accepted a job offer with Mitek Worldwide, which is a division of ETHICON, Inc. a Johnson & Johnson company in Norwoord, MA. Monica will be working on product development in the polymer end of orthopaedics, in particular reattachment of soft tissue to bone. Read about Mitek here.

12/10/03 : Ben Bruet, DMSE M.S. student, will stay in the group for a PhD
· Ben Bruet, DMSE M.S. student, will stay in the group for a PhD continuing his work on nanomechanical properties of natural biocomposites in conjunction with the MIT Institute of Soldier Nanotechnologies. Ben was recently awarded the 2003 $2,000 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Robert Guenassia Award.

12/01/03 : Kristin Brodie, DMSE MENG student, wins MIT $1K Competition
· Kristin Brodie, DMSE MENG student, wins the life sciences section of the MIT $1K Competition for her proposal on new endotracheal tube designs. Links here.

11/15/03 : Celia Macias, DMSE senior undergraduate, wins 1st place in Poster Competition
· Celia Macias, DMSE senior undergraduate student, wins 1st place in Technical Poster Competition and a $1000 prize at the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers Eastern Technical Career Conference 2003 (Washington DC) and will go on to the National Technical Career Conference January 2004 (Chicago IL) as a finalist in the Technical Paper Competition. Links here and here.

10/06/03 : Jen McKeehan's 1st paper submitted to Biomaterials!
· Jen McKeehan's 1st paper submitted to Biomaterials! "Molecular Origins of Bioactivity of Synthetic Hydroxyapatite: Variation in Surface Charge Detected by Chemically and Spatially Specific High Resolution Force Spectroscopy " Read the full text here!

10/01/03 : Laurel Ng's 1st paper chosen for the cover of J. Struct. Bio.
· Laurel Ng's 1st paper chosen for the cover of J. Struct. Bio.! "Direct Visualization of Individual Aggrecan Monomers and their Constituent Glycosaminoglycans." Read the full text here!

08/25/03 : Group Hiking Trip to the White Mountains
· Group Hiking Trip to climb Mount Jefferson, White Mountains, New Hampshire, see Photos : here!

07/22/03 : Poly(HEMA-g-EG) Copolymer Paper Accepted to Macromolecules
· Dong Zhang's paper to submitted to Macromolecules! "Synthesis and Single Molecule Force Spectroscopy of Graft Copolymers of Poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate-g-ethylene glycol)." Read full text here. The paper was accepted 12/10/03.

07/14/03 : 3 OPML graduate students will present research at the 2004 50th Annual Meeting of the Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS)
·3 OPML graduate students submit abstracts to the 50th Annual Meeting of the Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS) in San Francisco, CA March 7th-10th, 2004. Read them here :
· Kuangshin Tai, "Ultrastructure and nanomechanical properties of bovine cortical bone"
· Laurel Ng, "Aggrecan conformation, persistence length, and stiffness depend on the nanomolecular properties of its constituent GAG chains"
· Delphine Dean, "Measurement of Nanomechanical and electrical interaction force within intact aggrecan molecules using high resolution force spectroscopy"


05/29/03 : 2 OPML Graduate Students Pass Doctoral Qualifying Exam, Miao Ye and Lin Han
· Congratulations to OPML graduate students Lin Han and Miao Ye who have passed their PPST and DMSE general doctoral qualifying exams!!

05/25/03 : OPML UROP Student Lauren Frick wins 2 DMSE Awards!
OPML student Lauren Frick wins two DMSE awards : 1) Award for Outstanding Service to the DMSE Community for Active and Innovative Participation in the DMSE Community as the President of SUMS and 2) Outstanding Student: DMSE Class of 2003 $500 award.

05/25/03 : Check out the new OPML Photo Album here!


05/25/03 : OPML student Ben Bruet Moves Into ISN Facility 500 Technology Square
· MIT and U.S. Army officially open the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies.
· Dedication of MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnogies features living testimonial to advanced technology.
· Link to ISN website here.

05/01/03 : Joonil Seog defends Ph.D. Thesis
Joonil Seog defends Ph.D. Thesis "Molecular Mechanics of Cartilage : Glycosaminoglycan Intermolecular Interactions."

04/27/03 : Christine Ortiz Gives Keynote Address at Annual SHPE Banquet
· Christine Ortiz gives keynote adress at annual end-of-year Society of Hispanic Professional Engineering (SHPE) Awards Banquet.

04/22/03 : Ben Bruet Award Robert Guenassia Award
· Congratulations to Ben Bruet who has been awarded the 2003 $2,000 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Robert Guenassia Award !!

04/22/03 : Monica Rixman Finishes Boston Marathon
· Monica Rixman finishes the Boston Marathon! Here are the statistics :
Number of registered runners to start the race: 17,567.
Number of registered runners to finish the race by 6pm: 17,046.
Monica's bib number: 17964.
The time she crossed the start line: 12:13:28.
The time she crossed the finish line: 4:36:18.
Her run time: 4:18:50.
Her placing: 13,468th.
Her beginning average run pace (at 10Km): 9:40 min/mile.
Her ending average run pace: 9:58 min/mile.
The winners of the race can be found at: http://www.bostonmarathon.org/.


04/17/03 : Joonil Seog Submits 2nd Paper on Electric Field Functionalization of Nanoscale Probe Tips to JACS
· Joonil Seog submits 2nd paper to JACS : "Preparation of End-Grafted Polyelectrolytes On Nanoscale Probe Tips Using An Electric Field." Delphine Dean is 2nd author. Read the full text here.

04/17/03 : Christine Ortiz Gives Invited Talk at UNESCO/IUPAC Conference in South Africa
· Christine Ortiz gives talk in Kruger National Park, Mpumalanga, South Africa at the 6th Annual UNESCO School & IUPAC Conference on Macromolecules & Materials Science.


04/10/03 : Joonil Seog Accepts Post-Doctoral Position at Harvard Medical School
· Joonil Seog has accepted a post-doctoral research position starting July, 2003!! in the Springer Research Group, Center for Blood Research, Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. Jump to Springer group here.


04/01/03 : Delphine Dean's 1st Paper on Polyelectrolyte Theory Accepted to Langmuir
· Delphine Dean's paper accepted to Langmuir! "A Molecular Level Theoretical Model for Electrostatic Interactions within Polyelectrolyte Brushes: Applications to Charged Glycosaminoglycans." Read full text here.


03/21/03 : Kristin Brodie Wins 2003 J&J-BMES Biomedical Engineering Prize
· Kristin Brodie, a senior DMSE undergraduate student, recently won the 2003 BMES Johnson and Johnson Excellence in Biomedical Engineering Prize for her research done in our lab on tracheal tubes! Kristin won $1500.00 and an all expense paid trip to present her work at the BMES national conference where she will compete at the national level. She will be honored at the spring BMES membership meeting on Tuesday April 1, 2003 at 7:30pm in 4-237 where she will give a short 5-10 minute presentation about her research.


03/21/03 : Kristin Brodie and Lauren Frick, Ortiz Group UROPS Accepted to Graduate School
· Lauren Frick (DMSE senior undergraduate) was accepted to the MIT Biological Engineering (BE) graduate program! Lauren is currently working on "Multiscale Design and Evaluation of Nanostructured Synthetic and Biological Composites As a Guide for New Energy-Absorbing Body Armor Materials Technologies," in conjunction with the MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies.
· Kristin Brodie (DMSE senior undergraduate) was accepted to the MIT Masters of Engineering (MENG) program, the University of Cambridge (UK) graduate program, and University of California, San Diego graduate program! Kristin has decided to stay at MIT for her MENG and continue her work on tracheal tubes in our group for the next year.

03/10/03 : 9 Ortiz Group Members Give Presentations at the 2003 APS meeting (Austin, TX)
Click below for photos of the presentations :
·Kristin Brodie
·Delphine Dean
·Celia Macias
·Jen McKeehan
·Laurel Ng
·Christine Ortiz
·Monica Rixman
·Kuangshin Tai
·Dong Zhang
·Dinner


01/27/03 : Christine Ortiz Becomes a US Army Soldier for 3 Days
· Christine Ortiz becomes an soldier for 3 days at the US Army Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) at Fort Polk, Louisiana in conjunction with the MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN).
· A description of the ISN research project is given here
· Click here for the photo album.
· Click here to read the MIT Tech Talk Article,"ISN Takes Basic Training," on the trip.

01/27/03 : 2 Ortiz Group Graduate Students Pass DMSE Doctoral Qualifying Exam
· Congratulations to Jen Mckeehan and Kuangshin Tai (DMSE graduate students) who passed the Department of Materials Science and Engineering doctoral oral exam!

01/16/03 : Paper on Biocompatibility Accepted to Langmuir
· Monica Rixman's (DMSE graduate student) 1st paper : "Nanoscale Intermolecular Interactions Between Human Serum Albumin and Alkanethiol Self-Assembling Monolayers," accepted to Langmuir. Read the full text here.