Purdue News
Purdue News
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April 7, 2000 Trustees confirm four faculty designationsWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The Purdue University Board of Trustees today (Friday, 4/7) approved the appointments of four faculty members to named or distinguished professorships. Jay P. Gore, a professor of mechanical engineering, is the new Reilly Professor in Combustion Engineering. The named professorship was previously held by another mechanical engineering professor, Normand M. Laurendeau, who has been named to the newly established Ralph and Bettye Bailey Chair of Combustion Engineering. Arden Bement, head of the School of Nuclear Engineering, will relinquish the Basil S. Turner Distinguished Professorship in Engineering to become the David Ross Distinguished Professor of Nuclear Engineering. Mamoru Ishii's Distinguished Professorship of Nuclear Engineering has been designated the Walter Zinn Distinguished Professor of Nuclear Engineering in honor of the first director of the National Argonne Laboratories. "A named professorship is an excellent way to recognize specific contributions from our faculty members related to their areas of expertise," said Robert L. Ringel, executive vice president for academic affairs. "A distinguished professorship recognizes outstanding performance in teaching, research and service, and it is the ultimate peer recognition for faculty." Purdue now has 49 distinguished professors and 21 named professorships. Gore is an internationally recognized leader in combustion engineering. He received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Poona, India, in 1978. He earned his master's and doctoral degrees in the same field from Pennsylvania State University in 1982 and 1986, respectively. Gore served as a research fellow in aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan from 1986 to 1987 and as an assistant professor in mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland beginning in 1987 until joining the Purdue faculty in 1991. The Reilly Professorship is named for Vincent P. Reilly, a 1922 engineering alumnus who bequeathed approximately $4.5 million to Purdue to be used to promote excellence in engineering education. Laurendeau has been a member of the mechanical engineering faculty at Purdue since earning his doctoral degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1972. A nationally recognized expert on coal combustion, pollutant formation and flame diagnostics, he was named the Reilly Professor in Combustion Engineering in 1995. The new Bailey chair is named for 1949 mechanical engineering graduate Ralph Bailey and his wife, Bettye Bailey, of Greenwich, Conn. Bailey is the chairman of American Bailey Corp. and has a long-standing interest in education and research in the fields of energy production, conversion and utilization. Bement's career in science and engineering has included positions as vice president for science and technology at TRW Inc., the U.S. deputy undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, and professor of nuclear material at MIT. He was named head of Purdue's School of Nuclear Engineering in 1998. Bement and the selection committee agreed that his university-designated distinguished professorship should be named for David Ross, a Lafayette entrepreneur whose company, Ross Gear, eventually became part of TRW. He is also one of the Purdue benefactors for whom the football stadium is named. Ishii is the director of Purdue's Institute of Thermal-Hydraulics and an international authority on nuclear thermal-hydraulics and reactor safety. He was honored with a distinguished professorship in nuclear engineering last November, and the school has requested that it be named for Walter Zinn, the first director of the National Argonne Laboratories. Source: Robert L. Ringel, (765) 494-9709, aaschumpp@evpaa.purdue.edu Writer: Sharon A. Bowker, (765) 494-9723, sbowker@purdue.edu Other sources: Jay P. Gore, (765) 494-1452, gore@ecn.purdue.edu Normand M. Laurendeau, (765) 494-2713, laurende@ecn.purdue.edu Arden Bement, (765) 494-5742, bement@purdue.edu Mamoru Ishii, (765) 494-4587, ishii@ecn.purdue.edu Related Web site:
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