From the Dean

This is one of my favorite times of the year. The long Indiana winter is over—we hope—and spring is blooming on the Purdue campus.

The real reason, though, why this is my favorite time of the year has to do with all the celebrations of our faculty, staff, students, and alumni. On April 15, we honored 10 Distinguished Science Alumni for 2005—a truly impressive group of people who have excelled as leaders and innovators. Their careers have spanned an impressive range of areas, and we are proud to salute their accomplishments. They are testimony to the value of a Science education: a deep and solid foundation, along with a broad perspective that speaks to a variety of applications and opportunities. You can see bios and photos of our 2005 Distinguished Science Alumni, plus a complete list of past award recipients, on our Distinguished Science Alumni web site. Better yet, have an online look at the video of their accomplishments.

Two days later we got together again to congratulate student and faculty award recipients at the Purdue Honors Convocation, followed by our own College celebration. Professors Mike Atallah and Steve Konieczny were inducted into Purdue’s Teaching Academy. Eric Calais, Zhiyuan Li, and Jiu-Kang Yu were named University Faculty Scholars. And a very impressive five were appointed Distinguished Professors: William Cleveland (Shanti Gupta Distinguished Professor of Statistics), John Cushman (Distinguished Professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences), Nick Giordano (Hubert James Distinguished Professor of Physics), Laszlo Lempert (Distinguished Professor of Mathematics), and Alexandre Eremenko (Distinguished Professor of Mathematics). Professor David Nolte received Purdue’s Herbert Newby McCoy Award, the University’s most prestigious award given for outstanding contributions to science.

Two awards have special meaning to our faculty because the students make the selections. Each year the Purdue Science Student Council polls junior and senior Science majors to choose the Top 10 Teachers of Undergraduate Science Majors and the Science Outstanding Undergraduate Teacher. This year they voted Professor Dennis Minchella as the Science Outstanding Undergraduate Teacher. Several of the Top Teachers have appeared on the list for many years, which says a lot about the continued high quality of their teaching.

Science students were also well represented among the winners of top-level awards. 31 were inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa national honor society. Anna Treaster, a junior in Physics, received the prestigious and very competitive Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, and Michael Armbrust, a junior majoring in Computer Science and Mathematics, won Purdue’s Bruce Helfert Memorial Award for academic achievement. We awarded 237 merit-based scholarships this year, with a total value of $450,000, and we gave another 44 awards, totaling $18,000, for specific accomplishments. The generosity of our alumni and friends make these scholarships possible, and we are grateful for their investment in the future of our students. I have no doubt that many of these students will become our future Distinguished Science Alumni.

You can see the complete list of faculty, student, and staff awards in the Science People section of this newsletter. Very soon we’ll celebrate again as we congratulate a new crop of Purdue Science graduates. Stay tuned for more in our next issue of Science @ Purdue.

Best regards,

Jeff Vitter


 SCIENCE PEOPLE

Science Faculty and Student awards

During the month of April, the College of Science and its seven departments honored outstanding faculty, staff, and students for their achievements in 2004-05. For a list of Science faculty awards and honors, click here. For a list of Science student awards and scholarships, click here.

Rodrigo Bañuelos appointed Mathematics Department Interim Head

Dean Jeff Vitter announced that Professor Rodrigo Bañuelos has agreed to serve as Interim Head of the Department of Mathematics beginning in mid-June. He will serve while Prof. Leonard Lipshitz is on sabbatical leave for the Fall 2005 semester. Prof. Bañuelos has been a member of the Department of Mathematics since 1987. Full story.

College mourns death of Professor Tong

Professor Yue Lin (Larry) Tong died on May 2 in Lafayette. Born in Shanghai, China, he had resided in Baltimore, MD before coming to West Lafayette in 1971. Prof. Tong received his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University in 1969, and joined the faculty of the Department of Mathematics in 1969. He served as Assistant Head of the department from 1998 to 2001. Professor Tong is survived by his wife, son, and daughter. Contributions in memory of Professor Tong may be sent to the Mathematics Department, c/o Purdue Foundation, 1800 Purdue Memorial Union Room B50, West Lafayette, IN, 47907.

Sabre Kais wins Guggenheim Fellowship

Sabre Kais, Professor of Chemistry, has been selected as a 2005 Guggenheim Fellow by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. The Fellowship winners for 2005 include 186 artists, scholars, and scientists selected from over 3,000 applicants for awards totaling $7.1 million. Guggenheim Fellows are appointed on the basis of distinguished achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment. Full story.

John Cushman appointed Distinguished Professor

Professor John Cushman was appointed as a University Distinguished Professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences by the Board of Trustees at its meeting on April 8. These appointments bring the number of designated professors to 109. Professor Cushman is an expert in microporous systems and nanofilms, porous media physics, applied mathematics, statistical mechanics, stochastic modeling, multiphase transport in swelling polymers, fate and transport of chemicals in the environment, and genetic evolution in microbial populations. Full story.

 

 PROFILES OF SUCCESS

Each month we spotlight the personal accomplishments and career successes, whether mainstream or unique, of Science alumni. This month’s spotlight is on Matt Martin, who received his B.S. in Biological Sciences in 2000. Full story.

 

 SCIENCE NEWS AND RESEARCH

Symposium showcases undergrad student research

More than 75 students showed off their research at the 2005 College of Science and College of Agriculture Undergraduate Research and Poster Symposium on April 11. The event spotlights undergraduate research activity in the two Colleges and recognizes the many faculty/student research interactions that are a vital part of students’ educational experience. Participants vied for more than 20 awards that carried cash prizes. Barnes and Thornburg LLP and Monsanto Corporation donated the prize money for the awards. Complete list of award winners.

Pi seems a good random number generator—but not always the best

If you wanted a random number, historically you could do worse than to pick a sequence from the string of digits in pi. But Purdue scientists now say other sources might be better. Physicists including Purdue’s Ephraim Fischbach have completed a study comparing the “randomness” in pi to that produced by 30 software random number generators and one chaos-generating physical machine. After conducting several tests, they have found that while sequences of digits from pi are indeed an acceptable source of randomness—often an important factor in data encryption and in solving certain physics problems—pi’s digit string does not always produce randomness as effectively as manufactured generators do. Full story.

Findings reinforce theories about how viruses evolve

Two viruses that split from a common ancestor possibly a billion years ago still have the same protein “fold” in their outer shells, shedding light on how viruses evolved, Purdue Structural Biology researchers have found. The outer shells—or capsids—of viruses contain proteins, which are made of amino acids. Proteins fold into specific shapes, depending on the sequence of amino acids. The team of structural biologists led by Marc Morais, a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Michael Rossmann has determined that the phi 29 virus, which attacks the soil bacterium bacillus subtilis, possesses the same protein fold in its capsid as the fold found in the HK97 virus, which infects E. coli bacteria. Full story.

Service-learning projects to benefit community, students

From designing public relations campaigns for non-profit organizations to preserving and categorizing collectibles for the Tippecanoe County Historical Association, service-learning projects at Purdue will benefit the Lafayette-West Lafayette community during the next academic year. Five Purdue professors, including Prof. Mark Haugan of the Department of Physics, have been named as the 2005-2006 Community of Service-Learning Faculty Fellows. Each will receive a $5,000 learning grant from the Office of the Provost to create more service-learning projects, through which students use their classroom experience to help the community. Full story.

Computer Science to host summer camps for middle school students

The Department of Computer Science’s annual middle school summer camp, held in June on the Purdue West Lafayette campus, provides middle-school-age students with fun and educational experiences using computers. Although the availability and use of computers in K-12 classrooms is growing, students tend to apply them in rather limited ways, and classroom activities tend to be limited to navigating the Internet and to applying various educational software packages. In response to this limited exposure to computer science, the Department of Computer Science has developed a summer camp program for middle-school aged youth. Full story.

SpringFest brings thousands to campus

Spring Fest dominated Purdue’s campus on April 16 and 17 with a variety of free and fun activities for kids and adults. Warm, dry weather drew more than 40,000 people to the weekend activities. College of Science Outreach Coordinators had a variety of hands-on activities dealing with density. One was to build a boat using a single sheet of aluminum foil and to see how many washers participants could load into their boats with before the boat would sink. Volunteers also made ice cream from liquid nitrogen, using 26 gallons of milk and 150 litres of liquid nitrogen to feed thousands a sample of the sweet treat.

Purdue nanotechnology research showcased at children’s museum

Kids will have the opportunity to learn firsthand about nanotechnology through video animations, a wall of nano-art, hands-on activities, posters and a LEGO scanning probe microscope at a special exhibit presented through May 31. Purdue’s Department of Physics and the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, in conjunction with the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge, will present “Nanotechnology: The Science of Making Things Smaller” through May 31 at the museum in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Full story.

 

PURDUE NEWS

Purdue anchors Indy's newest technology park, 3 companies move in

Purdue is expanding its business development services to Indianapolis as the university sponsor for INTECH Park, the capital city’s second Certified Technology Park. Three Purdue-related life sciences companies will open offices at INTECH Park, located on the northwest side of Indianapolis. “With Purdue’s track record as an economic engine for Indiana, technology startups that want to be close to Purdue researchers and still have convenient access to the many assets Indianapolis offers, now can have both,” said Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson. Full story.

Purdue University Libraries to sponsor Bioinformatics Week

Responding to the expressed concerns and bioinformatic needs of the West Lafayette Purdue University campus community, the Purdue University Libraries is pleased to announce Bioinformatics Week, May 16-20, 2005: A unique series of free expert-level lectures and hands-on workshops on a wide variety of bioinformatic topics. More information.

Purdue pilots national information and technology literacy test

Educational Testing Service, creator of the SAT, is administering a new test at several colleges, including Purdue, that will help set the national benchmark on how efficiently 21st century college students are able to use information and communication technology. Nationally, 8,000 students will take the computerized, simulation-based Information and Communication Technology Literacy Assessment. The exam is designed to measure students’ability to define, access, manage, integrate, evaluate, create and communicate information in a technological environment. It consists of a series of tasks rather than multiple-choice questions. Full story.

Purdue, St.Vincent Health embark on three-year research initiative

The Purdue Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering and St.Vincent Health have teamed up to re-engineer health-care delivery in a three-year agreement that includes a research component and an endowed professorship. The first phase of this partnership will focus on the mission of the Indiana Health Information Exchange to have all health-care facilities across the state share timely and appropriate patient information. While ultimately the initiative will be used statewide, the processes will be implemented first at 16 St.Vincent Health facilities. Full story.

RESEARCH FUNDING REPORT

Science researchers received funding totaling nearly $3.6 million in March 2005. Complete list of funded proposals.

CALENDAR

Department of Statistics Fourth Prem S. Puri Memorial Lecture 2005, May 13

Purdue University Commencement Ceremonies, May 14 & 15

Women In Academia Conference: Institutional Change to Enhance Success, May 16-18

Bioinformatics Week, May 16-20

Day On Campus begins, June 14

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