The Member News section of the February issue of JOM features Nikhilesh Chawla, a professor of materials engineering in the School of Materials at Arizona State University.

Chawla has been playing the violin for nearly 25 years and believes that not only drawing the bow across the strings, but listening to the music it produces is relaxing and soothing. In 2004, Chawla and his wife, Anita, visited Cremona, Italy, the hometown of the great violin maker Antonio Stradivari. It was there that he saw the details of Stradivari's wonderful craft of violin-making.

Here are a few pictures of Chawla during his visit to Italy.