Purdue News

April 10, 1998 Food Science receives $500,000 Kresge Grant WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Students and researchers in the new Food Science Building at Purdue University will study ways to improve food quality thanks to a $500,000 challenge grant from the Kresge Foundation. The Kresge Foundation is a private, independent foundation that funds projects in higher education, health, science and the environment, arts and the humanities, public affairs, and human services. Half of the money awarded to the Department of Food Science will be used now to purchase analytical laboratory equipment for the new $22 million building under construction on the West Lafayette campus. The other $250,000 will be set aside in an endowment to maintain the equipment if Purdue meets the terms of the Kresge challenge grant. "We are very excited about this new equipment and the opportunities it will provide for student research," said Philip E. Nelson, head of the Department of Food Science. "The equipment will help students learn and will allow them to experiment with ways to improve food products. Having hands-on, analytical experience is extremely valuable in today's food manufacturing industry." The grant, the fourth Kresge Foundation award received by Purdue, also is giving a boost to fund-raising activities for the new building. "Based on the conditions of the Kresge Grant, we must raise $1 million for an equipment maintenance endowment within 18 months to qualify for the second $250,000," Nelson said. "At the present, we're more than half the way there, but we only have until March of 1999 to raise the rest." Completion of the 120,000-square-foot facility is scheduled for this summer, with classrooms and laboratories ready for use by fall semester. The new building, funded by the state of Indiana, will feature 36 teaching and research laboratories, a 9,000-square-foot pilot laboratory, a 60-station computer laboratory, and a computer-integrated manufacturing laboratory. Nelson said the new research facilities and equipment will help the Department of Food Science recruit and retain high-caliber students and faculty and to competitively seek industry and government research grants. Purdue's Department of Food Science is the fastest-growing food science program in the country and has a 100 percent placement rate for its graduates. Purdue President Steven C. Beering has said that the new food science and biotechnology complex "will help spur tremendous economic development within the state's food processing industry, a business sector with huge international growth potential and for which Indiana is very well positioned to become a leader." CONTACT: Nelson (765) 494-8256; e-mail, nelson@foodsci.purdue.edu; Web, http://www.foodsci.purdue.edu Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; e-mail, purduenews@purdue.edu To the Purdue News and Photos Page