Purdue's summer commencement to take place Aug. 2

Among the 1,184 degrees being awarded will be 538 undergraduate degrees, six professional degrees, 360 master's degrees and 280 doctoral degrees.

Flexible circuits

The so-called "nanonet" technology - circuits made of numerous carbon nanotubes randomly overlapping in a fishnet-like structure - has been plagued by a critical flaw: The network is contaminated with metallic nanotubes that  cause short circuits.

"People in China are very friendly and welcoming," says Wei Hong, a professor of Chinese who is from Hangzhou, China. "When you meet someone, smile, say 'Ni-Hao,' and shake hands."

In a Farm Foundation commissioned report released on Wednesday (June 23), the Purdue economists - Phil Abbott, Chris Hurt and Wally Tyner - highlight key factors gleaned from examining 25 recent studies plus their own analysis. Their conclusion: a complex combination of factors are fueling agricultural commodity price increases and rising food costs.

The specialization in the Department of Building Construction Management will be offered beginning in the 2009 spring semester. It will be led by Randy R. Rapp, an engineer with more than 30 years of construction experience, which included leading rebuilding efforts in Iraq and after hurricanes Katrina and Wilma.

The find was confirmed by an entomologist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

Steve Thompson of Purdue University's School of Veterinary Medicine says mosquitoes are a potential danger to dogs, cats and ferrets because they are susceptible to heartworm infection. Heartworm can be fatal if it is untreated.

In most years, says Charlene Sullivan of the Krannert School of Management, home sales are either characterized as a buyer’s market or a seller’s market, depending on interest rates, housing starts and the state of the economy.

 (Purdue News Service photo/David Umberger)

Fuel-flexible combustion

"It isn't easy to balance the needs of industry, academics and basic research, but that's what Purdue has accomplished at Herrick Labs over the past 50 years," said Patricia Davies, Herrick director and a professor of mechanical engineering. "The labs have developed a formula for satisfying the practical requirements of industry without compromising the academic standards of Purdue's faculty and students."

Operating a "reactor"

The technology, called light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, is about four times more efficient than conventional incandescent lights and more environmentally friendly than compact fluorescent bulbs. The LEDs also are expected to be far longer lasting than conventional lighting, lasting perhaps as long as 15 years before burning out.

"Cyberinfrastructure-enabled" virtual environment

The online tools, believed to be the first of their kind for the instruments, represent a research trend, with tools for other applications also being developed, said Arvind Raman, a Purdue professor of mechanical engineering.

The Conference for Collaboration and Innovation will be held Sept. 14-17 in Stewart Center and will feature presentations on subjects including leadership and ethics, virtual teams, building trust in employees, managing conflict and responding to globalization.

Timing of runoff

Researchers, including a Purdue University professor of earth and atmospheric sciences, discovered that a critical surface temperature feedback is twice as strong as what had been projected by earlier studies.

Kenneth Kahn, the Avrum and Joyce Gray Director of the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship, says successful collegiate entrepreneurship is based on finding ways to connect students and faculty across the entire university.

Twenty-six students are coming from four of Purdue's top Chinese partner institutions -- Tsinghua University, Harbin Institute of Technology, Ningbo University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Riall W. Nolan, associate provost and dean of international programs, is overseeing the program, which is being offered for the first time.

"Approximately one in every 400 hospitalizations is associated with a medication error that adversely impacts patient care," says Craig Svensson, dean of the College of Pharmacy, Nursing, and Health Sciences.

"The conventions are like greeting cards to Americans from their political parties," says James McCann, professor of political science. "There was a time and place when conventions really did matter in candidate selection. Think back to the days of the so-called 'smoke-filled backrooms' where a group of party elites would decide whom to nominate. But that has not been true in our lifetimes.

IU's M.D./Ph.D. program, in which students receive the both degrees in seven to eight years, has received a five-year, $1.25 million Medical Scientist Training Program award from the NIH, one of only 40 such grants to medical schools nationally.

Corn stover is plentiful in Indiana because of the state's large corn acreage and could be harvested less expensively than switchgrass, said Wally Tyner, Purdue agricultural economist and the study's lead researcher. Also, with high corn prices, corn stover would provide farmers extra profit without planting additional crops, he said. Switchgrass is a primary crop and must be planted separately.

Robert F.
Kennedy Jr

Kennedy, son of the late Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy, will speak on the topic "Our Environmental Destiny." His talk is being sponsored by the College of Engineering.

Teri Lucie Thompson

Joseph L. Bennett, who has served as vice president for university relations since 1989, is retiring after more than 27 years at Purdue. Thompson will begin her new duties Aug. 11.

The McGill University-led team included Maxim Lyutikov, assistant professor of physics at Purdue, and colleagues in Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, France and Italy. The findings were published in the July 3 issue of the journal Science.

Timothy Ropp

Timothy Ropp, an assistant professor who specializes in aircraft maintenance, and Brian Dillman, an associate professor who teaches flight technology, have been selected to serve as members of the working group on safety for the Next Generation Air Transportation System (known as NextGen).