Beena Sukumaran, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rowan University, will discuss the "Influence of  Inherent Particle Characteristics on the Shear Strength Properties of Particulate Materials" on Oct. 12, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. in the Mechanical Engineering Center Rm. 2242. Sukumaran's lecture opens the Fall 2009 Granular and Multiphase Flows Colloquium Series, sponsored by the Granular Science Laboratory.