November 21, 2005

6 faculty members receive Asian Initiative grants

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Six Purdue University faculty members have been awarded nearly $50,000 in grants to spearhead collaborative research projects with China and India.

The grants are the first given through Purdue's Asian Initiative, created earlier this year with support from the Office of the President to encourage research collaborations, recruitment of international students, study abroad opportunities for Purdue students, alumni development and fund raising in China and India.

"The goal of the Asian Initiative is to tap into some of the success that China and India are experiencing in areas such as business, engineering and the sciences," said Asian Initiative coordinator Matthew Sikora. "In the last decade, these countries have made great strides, and with Purdue researchers collaborating with partners from several key Asian universities, we're hoping groundbreaking research and projects will result."

Sikora said the greatest number of Purdue's international students, as well as many faculty, come from China and India. Purdue alumni clubs are well-established in both countries, and their support is growing, he said. There are 268 Purdue alumni living in China and 774 in India.

There are 1,020 students from India and 782 students from China currently enrolled at Purdue, and there are 85 Indian and 141 Chinese faculty and researchers at the university.

"We have these built-in relationships with Asia, and now with this initiative, it's all coming together," Sikora said.

He said additional grants will be awarded next year, and programs are being developed to send more students and faculty to study in China and India.

The recipients of the $8,000 Asian Initiative grants are:

• Lynn A. Bryan, an associate professor in the College of Education's Department of Curriculum and Instruction and the Department of Physics, for "Sino-American Center for Science Education Research and Engagement." Bryan is partnering with Jiangsu Institute of Education and Peking University in China.

• Liping A. Cai, a professor in the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, for "International Tourism Research Center in Hangzhou, China." Cai is partnering with Peking University and the government of Hangzhou, China.

• Klein E. Ileleji, an assistant professor in School of Agriculture and Biological Engineering, for "Development of Sustainable Enterprises for Bio-Fuel Briquette Production in China and the United States." Ileleji is partnering with Zhejiang University in China.

• Linda Prokopy, an assistant professor in the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, for "Integrating Community Needs into Models and Assessment of Climate Change and Variability." Prokopy is partnering with the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology and the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.

• Mileta Tomovic, W.C. Furnas Professor in Enterprise Excellence in the College of Technology, for "International Collaboration with Beihang University in Beijing, China."

• David K.Y. Yau, an associate professor in Department of Computer Science and the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, for "Collaborative Interdomain Networking Research with Tsinghua University."

Writer: Kim Medaris, (765) 494-6998, kmedaris@purdue.edu

Source: Matthew Sikora, (765) 494-9399, mvsikora@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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