From the Dean

The adage, “change is the only constant,” is both familiar and true. In the College of Science, we’ve been using the motto, “The Shape of Science is Changing.” Progress involves change and we embrace it. Of course, it is also true that not all change is good, with climate change being an excellent example. “Climate change is perhaps the greatest challenge humanity has faced,” says Paul Shepson, newly appointed director of the Purdue Climate Change Research Center and a professor of earth and atmospheric sciences and chemistry.

What makes the PCCRC unique is the broad approach it takes to climate change as much more than a problem for scientists to solve. Because climate change will affect everyone, and because it is important to identify and implement good public policy regarding mitigation options, the climate change issue is very broad. PCCRC brings together researchers from all over the university to study scientific, policy, economic, and sociological implications. Sometimes those implications are not at all what you might expect. Are you a California wine connoisseur? Well, you may have read several months ago about Prof. Noah Diffenbaugh’s research on the grave impact that unchecked climate change is expected to have on the California wine industry. In a collaboration involving earth and atmospheric sciences, computer science, computer graphics, engineering, economics, and others, professors Kevin Gurney and Shepson are launching the Hestia Project. Named for the Greek goddess of hearth fire, the project’s aim is to develop a computer graphical database similar to Google Earth that would show in real time the carbon dioxide emissions in a given area. While the project is a tremendous undertaking, it also has the promise to provide our policymakers with real-time data to inform their decisions.

Climate change was one of the seven multidisciplinary priorities that emerged from our strategic planning efforts four years ago. Dubbed COALESCE areas, to reflect the broad range of skills and expertise needed to address the societal problems they represent, these seven priorities have guided some of our very successful hiring and faculty growth. You can read about them on the web at www.science.purdue.edu/COALESCE.

This spring, we have started a new phase of strategic planning to ensure that our research priorities remain vital as we continue the momentum of our multidisciplinary hiring. Current priorities will be evaluated and new ones proposed. Faculty members will be submitting their suggestions and I look forward to discussing them at our College-wide retreat on May 9. Our last College-wide retreat—which took place four years ago today on March 1, 2003—was a great success. It was attended by half of all the faculty members in the College of Science and led to many invigorating discussions and newfound collaborations. Like last time, the upcoming retreat on May 9 will help identify priorities for future investment.

The faculty committee that oversees the process will also be getting input from other colleges at Purdue and sharing ideas. Our problems and questions are multifaceted, and our solutions must be too. Stay tuned in the coming months for further updates.

Sincerely,
Jeff Vitter

 

 SPOTLIGHT ON NEW FACULTY

Brenda Beitler Bowen

Brenda Beitler Bowen joins the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences as an assistant professor. Bowen earned her doctorate from the University of Utah, and was a post-doctoral research assistant at Central Michigan State University. At Purdue, she is a member of the Sedimentary Geology Group. Her research interests include interactions among sediments and fluids in both modern and ancient sedimentary environments on scales from microscopic to regional; the effects of depositional and tectonic environment, structure, and hydrogeochemical conditions on burial history and diagenesis; spatial changes in authigenic minerals; redbeds; Mars geology and fluid-rock history; and combining field-based studies with analytical laboratory work including petrography, major and trace element geochemistry, stable isotope geochemistry, fluid inclusion analyses, and reflectance and imaging spectroscopy. Personal Web page

 

Melvin Leok

Melvin Leok comes to Purdue as an assistant professor of mathematics. Leok earned his doctorate from the California Institute of Technology. Before joining Purdue, he was a T. H. Hildebrandt research assistant professor of mathematics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he received a Horace H. Rackham Faculty Fellowship and Grant and a Margaret and Herman Sokol Spring/Summer Research Grant. He is a member of the Center for Computational and Applied Mathematics and does research in the areas of computational geometric mechanics, computational geometric control theory, and numerical analysis. Personal Web page

 

Mike Baldwin

Mike Baldwin is a new assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. A native Hoosier, Mike grew up in nearby Frankfort, Indiana where major weather events, such as the January blizzards of 1977 and 1978, spurred his interest in meteorology. Baldwin expands the department’s capabilities in synoptic-scale weather processes as part of the departmental focus on Climate and Extreme Weather (CLEW). He comes to Purdue from the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma where he spent several years researching improvements in weather analysis and forecasting methods. Baldwin earned his PhD from the University of Oklahoma in 2003. He also spent several years developing and improving numerical weather prediction models at the Environmental Modeling Center (a part of the National Weather Service) in Camp Springs, Maryland. He plans to examine the connections between weather and climate and determine if global climate change can be observed in the changing characteristics of weather systems. He is also interested in developing more meaningful ways of measuring the quality of weather forecasts. His primary professional goal is to improve the understanding and prediction of the behavior of extreme weather and climate events. Personal Web page

 

 SCIENCE PEOPLE

Jin honored with NSF CAREER award

Jiashun Jin, assistant professor of statistics, earned a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation. He was recognized for his work on statistically analyzing high dimensional massive data. His contributions to our understanding of when it is possible to discern which of thousands of characteristic variables are important to a phenomenon is a fundamental breakthrough. It is of critical importance in situations where one must test thousands of hypotheses simultaneously or estimate very large numbers of parameters at the same time. A CAREER award is the most prestigious award for a young faculty member and recognizes both achievement and potential. Jin joins computer scientist Patrick Eugster as an awardee this year.

Chemistry professor has a “Hot Paper”

Ton Ren’s paper, “Diruthenium s-Alkynyl Compounds: A New Class of Conjugated Organometallics”, published in Organometallics, is currently featured as a “Hot Paper” on the American Chemical Society’s Web site. “Hot Papers” are articles published within the last two years that have received the most citations over a two-month period. Full Story

Chaturvedi honored as a “Federal 100”

Alok Chaturvedi, a professor of management with a courtesy appointment in computer science, was named to the Federal 100 list by Federal Computer Week magazine. The list recognizes the top 100 executives from government, industry, and academia who had the greatest impact on the government information systems community in 2006. Chaturvedi’s photo, along with the other award winners, will be in the March 26 issue of Federal Computer Week.

So much more than plate tectonics

Eric Calais, associate professor of earth and atmospheric sciences, has always felt that plate tectonics was somehow amiss in explaining phenomena like earthquakes deep inside plates. Now, after ten years of research in Eurasia, he has compiled the most detailed study to-date, featured on the cover of January’s Geophysical Research Letters, and the work is shaking previously accepted models of how continents collide. Full Story

The beginning of biochemistry

Research by Professor R. Graham Cooks’ group reveals that serine likely played a significant role in the beginning of Earth’s biochemistry. The research was published in the January 2007 issue of Chemical Communication. His next step, says Cooks, is to continue creating more realistic conditions in the laboratory to test the research. Full Story

Jie Shen awarded internal sabbatical

Jie Shen, a professor of mathematics, was awarded an internal sabbatical in mechanical engineering. He plans to use this opportunity to learn the theoretical and modeling aspects of turbulence and to conduct research on “Large Eddy Simulations for Turbulent Flows” in collaboration with Professor Steven Frankel of Mechanical Engineering. Personal Web page

Cooks will serve on Science and Technology Council

R. Graham Cooks, the Henry Bohn Hass Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, will serve on the Science and Technology Council at ICx Technologies. The council’s role is to provide the company’s leadership with strategic insight on scientific discoveries that can help with ongoing and future product development. Cooks’ work in ultra-compact technology led to the development of the ICx Griffin portable mass spectrometer, a device with implications ranging from cancer screenings to airport security.

College celebrates the contributions of dozens of faculty, staff

The College of Science employs more than 300 professors, and 400 staff, all of whom dedicate themselves to keeping the college running like a well-oiled machine. The Faculty and Staff Recognition Luncheon was an opportunity to formally recognize some of the many people who continue to provide excellent service to the college, their colleagues, and the students. Full Story

Awards and accomplishments

The College of Science is proud to celebrate the many accomplishments of our faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends. These often include departmental honors or organizational awards. To see a complete list of recent awards and accomplishments, please read the Full Story

 

SCIENCE NEWS

EAS celebrates 40 years young

The first 40 years is just the beginning for the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. To celebrate, the department invites all faculty, students, alumni, and friends to an official anniversary banquet and awards celebration on April 13, 2007. For questions regarding the 40th Anniversary Celebration or to RSVP for the banquet, please contact Kathy Kincade at (765) 494-5984 or kkincade@purdue.edu.

Mathletes advance to state finals

Pencils up, and go! 77 students from 12 schools gathered at Purdue for the regional MATHCOUNTS competition on February 17. MATHCOUNTS is a national math enrichment, coaching, and competition program that promotes middle school mathematics achievement across the United States. Full Story

Applying computational mathematics to today’s issues

Established through a partnership between Purdue’s College of Science and industry partners ExxonMobile, Total, and BP, the Geomathematical Imaging Group (GMIG) will host its inaugural workshop on March 4–5. This new center will work to develop improved technology to meet the complex challenges of modern day prospect evaluation, enhanced oil recovery, and general geological study of the Earth's subsurface by expanding the boundaries of knowledge of seismic imaging, inverse scattering and tomography through collaborative scientific activities and breakthroughs. Full Story

Mission: Possible as Purdue hosts the Science Olympiad

More than 150 junior high and high school students from throughout Indiana tested their scientific knowledge in the Science Olympiad regional competition on the West Lafayette Campus of Purdue University on February 24. Science Olympiad featured 23 science and technology events that emphasize problem solving, scientific processes, and technology. The event was sponsored by the College of Science and the Purdue Science Olympiad Club. Full Story

Bring on the bulldozers! Trustees approve construction of Hockmeyer Hall

The Board of Trustees officially approved the construction of the $30 million Hockmeyer Hall of Structural Biology to house Prof. Michael Rossmann and the other members of Purdue’s highly regarded group. Fundraising is continuing toward the $30 million goal. URS Corp. of Indianapolis will serve as the design firm and construction bids are expected before the summer. The building will provide state-of-the-art facilities to the already world-class research group, including a biosafety level 3 laboratory, and space for protein production, cell and virus culturing, crystallization, and x-ray diffraction. Groundbreaking will take place this fall. The building is expected to be completed in the summer of 2009. Full Story

Biology creates Simon Scholarship Fund

Alumni and friends of Purdue Biological Sciences and Mrs. Cyrelle Simon created the Professor and Mrs. Edward H. Simon Scholarship Fund upon Professor Simon’s death in October 2006. Professor Simon taught thousands of students over his long career. For many of these students he left a lasting impression of his scientific knowledge and his unique wit. The scholarship fund will support first-generation and low-income students involved in the HORIZONS student support program. The scholarship will be awarded to returning students in the Department of Biological Sciences. Preference will be given to students with a GPA of 3.0 and above.

To make a gift, please make checks payable to Purdue Foundation and mail to Bente Fein, 225 W. State Street, West Lafayette, IN, 47907. If you prefer, an online giving site has been created specifically for the Simon Scholarship Fund. Simply visit here to make a gift.

 

PURDUE NEWS

Scientists develop portable generator that turns trash into electricity.Full Story

Paralympic rugby player to headline Purdue’s Project Respect series.Full Story

Trustees honor 3 professors, approve two new degree programs.Full Story

Scientists use nanoparticle to discover disease-causing proteins. Full Story

Purdue financial management program is money in the bank. Full Story

 

SCIENCE ALUMNI NEWS

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Click here for this month's Alumni News.

 

SCIENCE EVENTS AND CALENDAR

March 4-5: GMIG Kick-off workshop
Visit http://ccam.math.purdue.edu/

March 20–21: CERIAS — 8th Annual Information Security Symposium. Deadline for priority registration is March 1, 2007. To register, visit www.conf.purdue.edu/cerias.

March 22: Presentation on College of Science by Dean Vitter to President's Forum. 8:00 a.m.; Purdue Memorial Union, South Ballroom.

March 30: Computer Science, Statistics, and Actuarial Science Outstanding Alumni Awards

April 6: Distinguished Science Alumni Awards

April 12–14: Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Outstanding Alumni Awards

April 13: Earth and Atmospheric Sciences 40th Anniversary Celebration

April 15: College of Science Honors Reception

April 21: H. C. Brown Distinguished Lectures in Chemistry

April 23–24: Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering Annual Conference.
“Advancing the Future of Healthcare Delivery: Access, Quality and Responsibility.” For more information, please visit www.purdue.edu/dp/dls/rche/

April 26–27: Biological Sciences Alumni Advisory Committee meeting

May 3–4: Dean’s Leadership Council Spring Meeting

 

Science Events

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