Purdue Notebook

October 28, 2005

Faculty and staff honors

– The Breaking New Ground Resource Center, a center that specializes in information and rehabilitation technology for agricultural worksites, was one of seven recipients of the New Freedom Initiative Awards from the United States Department of Labor. The award honors outstanding support of employment for people with disabilities. Breaking New Ground is part of the Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service and is internationally recognized as a primary source of information for persons with disabilities who work in agriculture.

– Allen Hammer, a professor in the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, has been selected to receive the North Carolina State 2005 College of Agriculture and Life Science's Outstanding Alumni Award. Hammer's research and teaching center around floriculture and the use of advanced technology, such as robotics and artificial intelligence, in the greenhouse.

Alumni honors

– N. Wayne Hale Jr., a graduate of Purdue's College of Engineering, has been named manager of NASA's space shuttle program. Hale, who earned a master's degree from the School of Mechanical Engineering, began his career with NASA in 1978 in the propulsion systems section of flight operations at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. While at the Johnson Space Center, he served as the head of the propulsion systems section and as deputy chief flight director for shuttle operations. In 2003, he became launch integration manager at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. During his career with NASA, he has received the agency's space Flight Awareness Leadership Award, Outstanding Leadership Medal, Exceptional Service Medal and numerous group achievement awards.

– Purdue alum Rusty Rueff was named the chief executive officer for SNOCAP, the first end-to-end provider of digital licensing and copyright management services for the digital music marketplace. Rueff, who recently served as executive vice president of human resources at the Redwood City, Calif.-based game developer and publisher Electronic Arts, earned a bachelor's degree in radio and television in 1984 and a master's degree in counseling in 1986 from Purdue. In 2004, Rusty and his wife, Patti, pledged $5 million – the single largest gift in the College of Liberal Arts' history – for the Patti and Rusty Rueff Department of Visual and Performing Arts.

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