Theme: SCI-5 TEDxPSU Salon

A showcase of projects and research from Penn State professors, researchers, and students across five branches of science: Biology, Aerospace, Physics, Chemistry, and Engineering. Learn about cutting edge research, hear intriguing perspectives, and see some live demonstrations.

Berg Auditorium
100 Life Sciences Building
Penn State University
University Park, Pennsylvania, 16801
United States

David Saint John

Instructor of Engineering Design

Dr. David B. Saint John is a researcher, technologist, and stand-up philosopher who occasionally appears to be possessed by odd ideas. He has some experience and significant interest in the areas of Nanotechnology, Crystallography, Additive Manufacturing, Cryptocurrency, and Open Source.

Michel Paul

Director of the Penn State Lunar Lions Team

Michael Paul is a space systems engineer with experience on systems flown to the innermost planet, Mercury, to Earth orbit and out to the farther reaches of our solar system. Michael is the leader of Penn State’s Lunar Lion team, directing Penn State’s first mission to another body in our solar system. Michael is leading the PSU Applied Research Laboratory’s efforts in developing a space mission leadership capability in the emerging private space exploration industry.

Sheryl Dykstra

Lecturer of Chemistry at Penn State University

Dr. Sheryl Dykstra is a Lecturer of Chemistry at Penn State University, University Park. She received her B.S. in Biochemistry from Grove City College in 2003 and her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Penn State University in 2008. After graduate school, Dr. Dykstra accepted a teaching position within the Chemistry Department at Penn State in 2009. Over the past six years, she has been involved in the teaching and innovation of a number of lecture and laboratory courses including Chem 213W, Chem 213B, Chem 202, and Chem 112. During her leisure time, she enjoys going to Penn State football games, playing video games, and advising student organizations such as the Penn State Pokémon Society.

Tim Simpson

Professor of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering

holds affiliate appointments in Architecture, Engineering Design, and Information Sciences & Technology and serves as co-Director of the Center for Innovative Materials Processing through Direct Digital Deposition, a demonstration facility for additive manufacturing of metallic parts. His research interests include product design and development, engineering optimization, and additive manufacturing (a.k.a. 3D printing). He has received over $25M in funding to support his research and collaborated on projects with over 40 different companies, including Boeing, Electrolux, GE, GM, Gillette, LG, United Launch Alliance, Volvo, and Whirlpool. He led development of an industry-focused hands-on practicum in CIMP-3D that has introduced additive manufacturing to more than 300 practitioners from a dozen different companies and government organizations. He is also active nationally in ASME, serving as on the Design, Manufacturing, and Materials Segment Leadership Team.

Wayne Curtis

Professor at Plant Science and Biomedical Engineering department

Pennsylvanian thoroughbred. Eternal college kid. Intense. Does what he loves: plants, biology, engineering, & teaching. Lives for innovation, creativity, and fun. Invented selfies. He received his Ph.D. at Purdue in Chemical Engineering, and came back to Penn State to join the now-defunct Biotech Institute, running the $20M+ Shared Fermentation Facility, where he scaled-up...anything and everything. Rather than narrowing his work to one field of expertise, this experience enabled him to leapfrog into multiple disciplines i.e. Plant Science and Biomedical Engineering, under the larger umbrella of bioreactor design. He is a happily-married father of four. In his spare time, he tries to kill himself rock-climbing, getting run over by PSU police on his bike (true story), hiking, climbing trees he shouldn’t (in the name of arboreal taxonomy of course!), rocking on guitar and playing frisbee. His research focuses on biofuels, plant propagation, and protein expression.