March 12, 2008

Panelist added to Global University Convocation

Renu Khator, who also is chancellor of the University of Houston system, received her master's and doctoral degrees in political science from Purdue. She is a scholar in the field of global environmental policy.

C-SPAN President and CEO Brian Lamb, a Purdue alumnus, will moderate the convocation, which will be 2:30-4:30 p.m. in Stewart Center's Loeb Playhouse. The event is free and open to the public.

The panelists, who will talk about the characteristics of global universities, represent three continents.

Other panelists include:

* Jorge Allende, vice president for research and development, University of Chile.

* Robert Berdahl, president of the Association of American Universities.

* Nina V. Fedoroff, science and technology adviser to the U.S. Secretary of State.

* Maurilio Alves Moreira, dean of research and graduate studies, Federal University of Vicosa, Brazil.

* Sigmar Wittig, rector emeritus, University of Karlsruhe; chair emeritus, European Space Agency; and professor of turbomachinery, University of Karlsruhe, Germany.

* Gebisa Ejeta, Distinguished Professor of Plant Breeding and Genetics and International Agriculture at Purdue.

* Leah Jamieson, John A. Edwardson Dean of Engineering and Ransburg Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering .

France A. Córdova was selected in May as the 11th president of Purdue. She took office in July, after having served as chancellor of University of California, Riverside, since 2002. She previously served at the University of California at Santa Barbara, where she had been vice chancellor for research and a professor of physics. Before that, she was the first woman and youngest person to hold the position of NASA chief scientist, working on projects that included the Hubble Space Telescope.

The convocation, part of the Discovery Lecture Series, is funded, in part, by the Lilly Endowment, Inc."" to all news releases that mention the Convocation.

Writer: Amy Patterson Neubert, (765) 494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu

Source: Joseph L. Bennett, vice president for university relations, (765) 494-2082, jlbennett@purdue.edu

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

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