Purdue Notebook

November 5, 2004

Campus activities

– The "Survey of Greek Literature in Translation" class is making the classics available to the community with four dramatic readings and discussion groups. All of the events are free and open to the public. The activities are:

• Nov. 11. 7:30 p.m. Dramatic Reading: Adaptation of (Scenes from) "Philoctetes," Rawls Hall, Room 1011.

• Nov. 12. 6 p.m. Community outreach discussion. A Discussion of Euripides' "Hecuba." Renaissance Academy, 635 Ferry St., Lafayette.

• Nov. 17. 7:30 p.m. Symposium. "Troy: The Film and the Reality." Grissom Hall, Room 280.

• Dec. 8. 7 p.m. Sappho Poetry Slam. JAVA ROSTER Coffee Shop, Third and Main streets, Lafayette.

Faculty and staff honors

– Mohit Tawarmalani, a professor in the Krannert School of Management, and the University of Illinois' Nikolaos V. Sahinidis have won the 2004 INFORMS Computing Society prize from the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) for research excellence in the interface between operations research and computer science. The award was conferred for contributions to the field of nonlinear global optimization summarized in their book "Convexification and Global Optimization In Continuous and Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Programming," and embodied in the their software package, called BARON. The prize includes a $1,000 honorarium. Tawarmalani, an assistant professor of quantitative methods, received his doctorate in industrial engineering in 2001 from the University of Illinois, where Sahinidis, a professor of chemical engineering, was his major professor. INFORMS is an international scientific society with more than 10,000 members dedicated to applying scientific methods to aid decision-making, management and operations. The Computing Society is one of INFORM's largest subdivisions and is concerned with the relationship of computer science to operations research and management sciences.

– Physicist Daniela Bortoletto has been selected by the American Physical Society to co-organize a national particle physics community "town meeting" to provide crucial input to the Experimental Particle Physics Committee, which will set the priorities for U.S. particle physics over the following decade. The committee is charged with identifying, articulating and prioritizing the scientific questions and opportunities that define particle physics, as well as recommending a plan for realizing these opportunities. This first meeting, which Bortoletto is co-organizing with Michael Tuts of Columbia University, will take place Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 at the Keck Center of the National Academies of Science in Washington, D.C.

– Robert B. Jacko, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, was awarded the Lyman A. Ripperton Award during the 97th annual Air and Waste Management Association Conference. The award, established in 1980, recognizes achievements in the field of air pollution control and educators who have inspired students to achieve excellence. According to the association, recipients of the award are "representative of the educators we would have chosen if we had a choice." Jacko, who has been at Purdue for 32 years, has instructed more than 3,000 undergraduate and graduate students in the field of air pollution.

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