Appointments, honors and activities
July 6, 2012
• Appointments and promotions:
- Sunil Prabhakar, a professor of computer science, has been named head of the Department of Computer Science. Prabhakar came to Purdue and the department in 1998 and has served as interim department head since September 2010. He earned a bachelor of technology degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and a master's and doctorate degree in computer science from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His primary area of research is database systems. He focuses on developing database systems for handling uncertain data and performance and integrity issues in large-scale, modern database applications.
Purdue University biological engineering professor Joseph Irudayaraj has been selected as the inaugural deputy director of the Bindley Bioscience Center in Discovery Park. Irudayaraj, who has been at Purdue since 2005, will focus on working across the Purdue campus to create and maintain a high level of collegiality among faculty, researchers, staff and students. In addition, he will assist in the day-to-day leadership of Bindley. Irudayaraj's research interests focus on bionanotechnology techniques that allow for multiplex mechanistic sensing and quantification of molecular markers, genetic material, DNA modifications and drug localization in biological systems. Irudayaraj, who received his doctorate degree in biosystems engineering from Purdue, has co-authored more than 168 refereed publications and is a member of the Biophysical Society, Biological Engineering and the American Chemical Society. Prior to Purdue, he was an associate professor at Pennsylvania State University, a visiting faculty at the School of Applied and Engineering Physics at Cornell University, and an assistant professor at Utah State University. A publication-quality photograph is available at http://www.purdue.edu/uns/images/2012/irudayaraj-j12.jpg
• Student honors:
- Three students from the industrial design program in the Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Visual and Performing Arts placed in the 2012 ET Foundation International Aluminum Extrusion Design Competition.
* First place, Jeffrey Fleming of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, for the design "MedStretch," an extruded aluminum stretcher designed to transport injury victims.
* Third place, Maggie Rider of Zionsville, Ind., for the design "Aqualum," a two-in-one aquarium filtration/heating system.
* Honorable mention, Brandon Trostrud of Palatine, Ill., for the design "Med+" medical shelter.
More information is available at http://etfoundation.org/dcsc2012.html
