Summer Standards Institute, Grants and Scholarships, and Visiting Students

ASTM Hosts Event for Drexel University's Summer Standards Institute Program

ASTM staff welcomed several graduate students to headquarters on July 21 as part of Drexel University's Summer Standards Institute Program.

The program, "Standards in Society," was an immersive two-week exposure to the world of standardization. Focusing on social, scientific and policy approaches, the program explored the disciplinary, legal and ethical conditions under which standards are produced and deployed. The participating, high-achieving graduate students came from various universities across the U.S., in addition to two students from Greece and England. Each student held a unique interest in some area of standards research, but all were ready to learn about how ASTM "helps our world work better."

ASTM was more than happy to give these students an in-depth look at everything we do, from discussing the process of developing standards to simulating what a technical committee meeting is really like.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology, sponsor of Drexel's program, funds standards-focused academic initiatives with the goal of preparing and educating the future generation who will likely work with standards in technical, legal, academic or regulatory capacities. Drexel's program exemplified this goal, drawing on methodologies from history, science and technology studies, policy, anthropology and other disciplines to survey existing understandings and formulate critical questions about the social origins and impacts of standards.

Project Grants and Graduate Scholarships

ASTM International is offering a limited number of $500 grants to university students to help with student design projects that contain an ASTM standards component. The application deadline is Oct. 31.

In other news, ASTM has awarded three graduate scholarships this year. The $10,000 scholarships reward graduate students in master's or doctoral programs who have demonstrated high levels of interest in or involvement with ASTM standards.

  • Janet Gbur is matriculating in the Ph.D. program at the Materials Science and Engineering Department at Case Western Reserve University. Gbur is conducting her research work on the mechanical behavior of wires used in the biomedical industry. A member of ASTM Committees E08 on Fatigue and Fracture and E28 on Mechanical Testing, Gbur received the 2014 Committee E08 M.R. "Mitch" Mitchell Best Student Presentation Award. She earned her M.S.E. in mechanical engineering and B.E. ICP-materials engineering at Youngstown State University and her B.S. in biology/pre-medicine at Kent State University.
  • Joel Kulesza is working on his Ph.D. in nuclear engineering and radiological sciences at the University of Michigan. His studies focus on nuclear reactor theory, nuclear core design and analysis, transport theory, parallel computing, linear spaces and matrix theory. He worked as a software and nuclear engineer from 2001 until entering the doctoral program in 2014 and was a member of ASTM Committee E10 on Nuclear Technology and Applications. Kulesza received his M.S. at the University of Tennessee and his B.S.E. at the University of Michigan.
  • Mohsen Seifi is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Case Western Reserve University. His research area is the mechanical reliability of materials in various naval, aerospace and biomedical applications, and he has extensively used ASTM standards developed by Committees B07 on Light Metals and Alloys and E08 on Fatigue and Fracture. Seifi earned an M.S. in materials science and engineering from Case Western, and a B.S. in materials engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology.

In August, ASTM staff welcomed students and faculty from China Jiliang University's Standardization College, Hangzhou, for a weeklong introductory program about U.S.-based standardization. In addition to more than two days of activities at ASTM headquarters, James Olshefsky (fourth from right), ASTM director of external relations, accompanied the group on excursions to Tinius Olsen, a Pennsylvania-based testing equipment manufacturer; Drexel University; and ASTM's Washington, D.C., office.


Issue Month
September/October
Issue Year
2015