The appointment of Heinz W. Engl to the position of dean of science was made public early in March.

Formerly the dean of science and engineering at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Germany, Engl has earned world renown in the field of inverse problems and has published many works on inverse techniques. He will take his new position at RPI effective September 1.

Several other faculty have also been added to the school in the last year. Ten new faculty—in the areas of chemistry; computer science; mathematical sciences; and physics, applied physics, and astronomy—had joined the school as of February 27, with more hires expected in the weeks and months to come.

Research is an important part of the School of Science, and the initiative to double research outlined by The Rensselaer Plan has a lot to say for the school.

"We’ve been working very hard with The Rensselaer Plan in terms of what contributions and activities we have for the coming year," said Sandra Nierzwicki-Bauer, interim dean of science.

One of the school’s newest research centers in the school is the Center for Terahertz Science and Technology, directed by Dr. Xi-Cheng Zhang. The center is doing research with the band of the electromagnetic scale between visible light and microwaves, with frequencies in the terahertz range.

Zhang says this range of the spectrum, which can be used for a number of processes, is often overlooked for lack of equipment. "There are not useful or efficient terahertz transmitters or recievers," he said.

Zhang and the center have developed a number of techniques for sending and receiving terahertz signals, and have earned several patents for their work.

They have also demonstrated the importance of the terahertz range in an number of applications. A properly interpreted terahertz signal transmitted through a stack of bills can determine not only how much money is there, but also whether or not it is counterfeit by reading the watermark on each bill.

The Rensselaer Center for Terahertz Science and Technology is one of the leading centers for research in this area.

Another area where Rensselaer is strong among its peers is in the New York Center for Polymer Synthesis. The center is one of the largest such con entrations in the country.

According to Center Director Brian Benicewicz, polymers have been a major focus at RPI since the 1940s. "[The center has] helped to integrate polymers all over the campus."

In addition to providing focus, the center is often approached by large or small companies that need a polymer with specific properties. "We have the recognized area of expertise," Benicewicz said.

Currently, the center is working on research into materials for use in electrical engineering, biomaterials, materials for photolithography, and materials for fuel cells.

Polymers are especially important to electrical engineering, where making smaller and smaller circuits has become an area of major interest.

"It’s the polymer that lets you write smaller or not," Benicewicz said.

The New York Center for Studies on the Origins of Life is another area that is generating a lot of interest.

The center’s goal is to determine how life first appeared on earth, and what conditions are necessary for such an event to occur. "It’s hard to find anybody who’s not interested in how life got started," said Dr. Wayne Roberge.

Roberge studies the powerful forces that occur within the formation of a solar system, and tries to determine what effect they would have on organic molecules that already existed in the nebula before the formation began.

His research is only one of the areas of focus in the center. Other areas include the possibility of organic molecules coming to earth inside meteors and the chemistry of forming organic materials here on earth.

The center is a NASA Specialized Center of Research and Training, meaning it is "specifically for training the next generation of scientists in fields that NASA thinks are important," Roberge said.

The research going on in the center is of particular interest to NASA, according to Roberge, because of the implications it has for the existence of life on other planets. Understanding the factors that affected the generation of life on Earth will lead to a more accurate prediction of the chances of finding life on other planets.

The School of Science has also made several changes to its academic offerings this year.

Notable among the changes is the Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in multidisciplinary science, designed to reflect the multidisciplinary emphases that have been making appearances all over the campus.

Approved by New York State just last year, the program places a graduate student under the tutelage of professors from different disciplines within the schools of science and engineering. The professors decide what courses and material the student must learn in order to earn their degree, and conduct appropriate examinations to determine the student’s progress.

The school has submitted a proposal for a Bachelor of Science degree in computational physics. Proposals for a Ph.D. degree in biochemistry/biophysics and Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in bioinformatics are also being prepared for submission in the coming year.

The school is undergoing other changes as well. The campuswide emphasis on the first-year experience is not lost on the School of Science.

The Passion for Physics course is one example of the first-year initiative. The one-credit course, designed for freshmen but open to students of any class year, gives students a taste of how fundamentals of science are applied to real-world problems.

Faculty are invited to give talks to the students about state-of-the-art research. The faculty discuss their research in-depth, but at a level that freshmen—having a limited understanding of the material—can comprehend.

Gwo Ching Wang, chairperson of the physics department, said the course teaches students "why it is necessary to learn some fundamental knowledge, and how to apply that to real-life problems."

First-year physics students are also aided by the Society of Physics Students, a student-run program that offers new students a way to network in the physics department, find information on research and scholarship opportunities, and get help from upperclassmen, among other things.

In the computer science department, a new lab funded by a grant from RPI startup MapInfo is in the planning stages.

The lab will be a completely automated classroom, outfitted by a gift from Sun Microsystems, which provides file servers and 40 Sunray workstations. Another gift from Cisco will provide ethernet routers and other infrastructure hardware for wireless networking.

The Center for Initiatives in Pre-College Education has been conducting a number of interesting programs with primary and secondary schools.

CIPCE was formally created by the Board of Trustees in May 1995 to enhance local schools. Primarily, this is entails the integration of technology into the classroom.

One of CIPCE’s programs, Capital Area Technology and Inquiry in Education, provides Technology Mentors to capital area schools, who serve as resources to teachers who want to integrate educational technologies into their classrooms.

CIPCE also provides instruction to teachers, including a six-week Master’s of Natural Science program held in the summer.

The program attracts teachers from all over the world to RPI. These teachers are instructed in computer technology, processes of thinking and doing in math and science, and math and science content.