Appointments, honors and activities

• Notables:

- The College of Liberal Arts has sponsored the development and creation of the BRASS server, a secure research hub to perform data analysis and computing in all areas of the social sciences. The remote server was created to provide easy-to-use analysis tools for researchers, and it can be accessed from a personal computer or Mac computer on campus, or from anywhere with a secure VPN connection. The Secure BRASS server is also available for research that includes restricted data, such as protected health, personal or government information.

-The Useful to Usable (U2U) team are recipients of the Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence. U2U is a multi-university effort to improve climate information for crop production in the Midwest. Since its launch in 2011, this online tool has assisted farmers and agricultural advisors with decisions on over 15.5 million acres. Purdue University members include Linda Prokopy, Melissa Widhalm, Larry Biehl, Sarah Church, Otto Doering, Laura Esman, Dev Niyogi, Paul Preckel, Hans Schmitz, Carol Song, Lan Zhao and Ben Gramig, who was at Purdue for the duration of U2U but has since moved in Illinois. The Useful to Usable team will be honored by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) on January 31, 2018. More information is available at https://calendar.in.gov/site/idem/event/three-recipients-receive-governors-award-for-environmental-excellence/.

• Rankings:

- Krannert School of Management was the highest-rated Indiana business school in the Financial Times’ 2018 ranking of full-time MBA programs released Monday (Jan. 29). Krannert was ranked 55th globally, tied with the University of Maryland and jumping up 14 spots compared to last year’s position. Purdue’s business school was ranked 27th nationwide and ninth among U.S. public universities. In the global rankings, among Big Ten institutions, only Northwestern University at 12th and the University of Michigan at 26th, topped Purdue. More information can be found at http://www.krannert.purdue.edu/news/features/home.php?story=4429.