All members, families and friends of Polish-American Engineers Association are cordially invited to attend our May meeting.

DATE:	Friday, April 21, 2006
TIME:	7:30 p.m. - 8:00 pm - Social 1/2 hours 8:00 pm - Business and Technical Session
PLACE:	Holiday Inn O’Hare” 8201 West Higgins Rd. Chicago, Illinois
SPEAKER:	Professor John J. Dykla Department of Physics Loyola University, Chicago.
TOPIC:	What’s the Matter with the Dark Energy of the Universe?
SUMMARY:	The first scientific prediction that the universe must be evolving came in 1916, from the original form of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. The present expansion of the universe began with all matter and energy in an exceedingly small volume at enormous pressure and temperature, an event we call the “Big Bang”. Since the pioneering observations and early models of the 1930's there has been much progress in understanding the development of the universe from a time only a small fraction of a second after the initial singularity until its present form. During the last decade, several groups of observers have found evidence for an “accelerating universe”, whose dynamics must be dominated by “dark energy” and “dark matter”, and in which the familiar stuff our senses perceive is a quite minor component. Attempts to understand the “dark energy” from standard particle physics yield embarrassingly large “predictions” (too big by well over 100 powers of ten!) for the mass of particles associated with this universal anti-gravity. I’ll present a speculative “cure” for this conflict of theory and observation, and point to other puzzles ripe for exploration.

Professor Dykla was born and grew up in Holy Trinity parish in the Polish community of Chicago, the only child of a father born on a farm in northern Wisconsin and a mother from Chicago. All of his grandparents were born and grew up in Poland, in the country or small towns near Cracow. They never met until coming to America as young adults. His parents lived in an apartment in a building owned by his maternal grandparents, who lived in another of the 6 apartments. Thus he had opportunity to learn Polish language and culture from them. After education in the parish grammar school and high school, Professor Dykla got his BS with a physics major at Loyola University Chicago and then his PhD at Caltech, in Pasadena, California, with a thesis about the generation of gravitational waves during the collapse of a star to form a black hole in space. He spent two years as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Texas at Austin, before returning to Chicago to join the faculty at LUC. Throughout his career, his research has focused on theoretical astrophysics using the general theory of relativity. In recent years, he has been particularly interested in cosmology, the study of the large scale structure and evolution of the universe.

A business meeting will precede the technical presentation. Coffee and pastries will be served during the intermission.

SPECIAL INVITATION for Polish engineers and technicians who recently came to Chicago.

RALPH MODJESKI SCHOLARSHIP. Applications for the 2006 scholarship will be accepted till end of May. The scholarship Committee will review the applications by the end of June, the award is planned for our September 2006 meeting. For additional information and application forms please contact Mirek Niedzinski at 773-415-1818, Jan Plachta at 773-775-7599 or Walter Rymsza at 847-806-1704.

MAY 3rd PARADE. We will be again participating at a May 3rd parade. Mr. Richard Kaczmarek will be representing our group at the Parade Organizing Committee. We are hoping for a good place, preferable someway closer to the head of the marching line. It has been recommended that engineers present at the parade wear white safety helmets. Mr. Walter Rymsza volunteered to provide the helmets from his company. His office is located just above the restaurant where we usually stop, after the parade, for a pizza and a glass of beer.

PAEA PICNIC. In June we are planning again to have a picnic at the previous location, Fourth Lake Resorts. Proposed are following dates, 10, 17 or 24th of June depending on the resort availability.

DUES: Only 30% of PAEA members paid their dues for 2005. Please remember that organizing a meeting is connected with significant expenses. Renting a room for example at our present location is costing us over $200 for an evening. Additionally we have newsletter printing, mailing and speaker gifts expenses. We are trying very hard to provide an interesting and diversified program for our meetings. We provide great opportunity for socializing, exchanging of ideas, networking, and providing information on job opportunities. We are supporting the E-week activities, paying dues for the membership at the Illinois Engineering Council, occasionally assisting in various other expenses. Additionally out of the dues we are receiving we are assisting the scholarship program for engineering students of Polish heritage. As you very well know, our dues are the lowest of any professional engineering association in the Chicago land area. All of the organizational, time consuming efforts are provided free of charge by the members of the administration. Please keep this in mind and pay the dues at your next opportunity".
New members of our organization, Mr. And Mrs. Palczewski started a project aiming at revamping our Web page. Expecting to finish the project before the May 2006 meeting.
POLONIA TECHNICA from New York is informing us about a group of students from the Warsaw Polytechnic in Poland that is coming to United States for model airplane competition. This competition will be held in Atlanta, Georgia. They are coming to Chicago on April 18, 2006. Competition will be held from 21-23 of April. On 28th of April they are flying back to Warsaw. They are asking for financial help to cover their expenses in United States. Any donation will be greatly appreciated.