Purdue Notebook
November 17, 2006
Appointments and promotions
— John Dinkens has been named as director of development for the School of Civil Engineering. He begins his duties on Dec. 1. Dinkens was director of development for the Kiwanis International Foundation in Indianapolis since 2002.— Claire Chandler has been named as director of development in the College of Science. Chandler had served as director of advancement for the School of Veterinary Medicine since 1998.
Campus activities
— The 76th Annual Literary Awards Competition is seeking submissions by Feb. 16. The competition, which awards more than 70 prizes in writing categories such as journalism, Asian studies, linguistics, philosophy, history, playwriting, business writing, and poetry and the short story, is sponsored by the Department of English, Purdue Libraries and the College of Liberal Arts. Nearly $14,000 will be distributed in award money to the winning students. For information, go online. The Literary Awards banquet and reading on April 19 will feature award-winning writer Sherman Alexie. He is the author of novels "Reservation Blues" and "Indian Killer" and the screenplay "Smoke Signals." The reading, which is free and open to all, is 8 p.m. in Stewart Center's Fowler Hall.
Faculty and staff honors
— Willie M. Reed, who will be the new dean for Purdue University's School of Veterinary Medicine effective Jan. 2, was presented with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Animal Health Award during the U.S. Animal Health Association meeting dinner in October. The award is given each year to an individual who has made a significant difference in protecting and improving the health of animal agriculture in the United States. Reed was given the honor in recognition of his contributions to developing the National Animal Health Laboratory Network. Reed will come to Purdue after serving as chairman of the Department of Pathobiology and Diagnostic Investigation at Michigan State University.— The Purdue University Black Cultural Center received the Kemet Award for "Best Web Page Design" from the Association of Black Culture Centers. The award was presented at the group's national conference in Raleigh, N.C., Nov. 2-4. This was the inaugural year for the award, which was given to Purdue because the Web site was considered comprehensive with content that is well-organized, logical and easy to navigate, said Renee Thomas, director of the Black Cultural Center. Ingram London, a senior from Houston, Texas, majoring in computer and information technology, is the Web administrator for the Black Cultural Center's Web site. The Association of Black Culture Centers is a national organization of college and university black and multicultural centers. According to Fred Lee Hord, director of the association, the organization has more than 120 cadre centers, which are current or recent institutional members and/or has attended a recent national conference, that are at the heart of ABCC. The organization seeks to critically reclaim and perpetuate the culture of people of African descent through networking, caretaking and institutionalizing of black and multicultural centers.
– David Devine, assistant professor of civil engineering technology at Purdue University-Fort Wayne, has been named the president of the Indiana Section of the American Society of Civil Engineering. As a member of the organization for nearly 20 years, Devine previously served as secretary and vice president of the Indiana section and as president of the Northeast Indiana branch. Founded in 1853, the group is the nation's oldest national engineering society and has about 140,000 members worldwide. The Indiana section is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year.
— Alan Welch, director of advising for the College of Science, chaired the 30th annual National Conference on Academic Advising, sponsored by the National Academic Advising Association. Approximately 2,600 professional and faculty academic advisers from across the United States and several foreign countries gathered to review best practices, current theoretical models and benchmarking standards in higher education related to academic advising.
— Mike Atallah, assistant director of the Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security, has been named a fellow of the Association of Computing Machinery. The Association of Computing Machinery Fellows Program recognizes and honors outstanding members for their contributions in computer science and information technology. Atallah is being cited for contributions to parallel and distributed computation, secure protocols and information hiding.
— Eugene Spafford, executive director of the Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security, was awarded the Association of Computing Machinery's SIGSAC (Special Interest Group on Security, Audit and Control) Outstanding Contributions Award for his role in influencing national cybersecurity policy, education and research. Spafford's research is focused on the prevention, detection and remediation of information system failures and misuse. He has represented the security community on several national panels responsible for establishing the nation's cybersecurity policy.
— Vladimir Shalaev, the Robert and Anne Burnett Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue and a lead faculty researcher at the Birck Nanotechnology Center in Discovery Park, recently was named among the "Nano 50" by Nanotech Briefs as one the top 50 innovators in the field of nanotechnology. Nano 50 nominations were entered via an online submission form and were judged by a panel of industry experts. Nanotech Briefs magazine is the monthly digital publication of NASA Tech Briefs. Winners were honored at the NASA Tech Briefs National Nano Engineering Conference on Nov. 9-10 in Boston.
— Purdue's Introductory Composition program is a winner of the Conference on College Composition and Communication's Writing Program Certificate of Excellence for 2006-2007. Established in 2004, this award is presented to 20 writing programs each year. Purdue and the other recipients will be honored at the conference's March meeting. The award was given to Purdue for many reasons, including the program's success in mentoring and training its teachers and innovative technological approaches to teaching composition. The program is part of the College of Liberal Arts' Department of English.
— Marvin Smith, Purdue's associate director of financial aid, has been awarded the Midwest Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators Leadership Award for the state of Indiana at the group's 2006 annual conference. The award is presented annually to recognize the outstanding leadership of a member from each of the nine states within the group's coverage area. Smith has been a member of the Midwest Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators since 1990 and in the financial aid profession since 1988.
Alumni honors
— Anne Marie White, who received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue, has been hired as an associate by DunnhumbyUSA, a Cincinnati marketing firm. White previously worked as a senior engineer with Proctor & Gamble. She lives in Lawrenceburg, Ind.
Student honors
— The American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists honored three Purdue pharmacy students with awards at the 2006 AAPS annual meeting. Graduate students Hakan Wikstrom and Patrick Marsac presented research judged as outstanding by AAPS leadership in analysis and pharmaceutical quality, and drug delivery and pharmaceutical technology, respectively. Both received a cash award and plaque following their presentation. Daniel P. Romary was presented with the Gateway to Research Pharm. D. Research Scholarship.
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