Purdue Notebook

March 18, 2005

Appointments and promotions

– Roy S. Melendez has been named associate director of foundation relations at Purdue. Melendez previously served two tours of duty in the United States Marines, was employed by the University of California in program development, and was director of school and community relations for Indianapolis Public Schools.

– Mary Helen Nesbitt has been named the leadership annual gift coordinator. Nesbitt was previously a full-time graduate student at Purdue and worked at the Recreational Sports Center and was a member of Iron Key, Pi Beta Kappa, Delta Delta Delta sorority and was a Purdue Alumni Association student ambassador.

Faculty and staff honors

– Charlene Haddock Seigfried, professor of philosophy and American studies in the College of Liberal Arts, has been awarded the 2005 John Dewey Society Outstanding Achievement Award. Seigfried, who was recognized as the 1998 John Dewey Lecturer, also will be presenting at the University of Cologne in Germany in April as part of the ceremony to inaugurate the university's new Center for Dewey Studies. John Dewey, a founder of pragmatism, is known as the philosopher of democracy and for his innovative educational theory. Seigfried also has been named the new director for the English and philosophy doctoral program in the Department of Philosophy. She is an expert in classical American philosophy and pragmatism.

– Purdue's Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering has designated two faculty members as faculty scholars for the spring semester. Mark Lawley, associate professor of industrial engineering, and Howard Sypher, professor and head of the Department of Communication in the College of Liberal Arts, will spend full time on projects at the center. Lawley will develop funding proposals, explore the potential of expanding Purdue's Technical Assistance Program to hospitals and research the use of operations management in the delivery of health care. Sypher will develop funding proposals and use the Web and other media to engage the health-care consumer and communicate model business practices for health-care providers. It was announced in July that the Regenstrief Foundation in Indianapolis will provide three-year start-up funding of $1 million annually to launch the Regenstrief Center at Purdue. The center, which is administered by the e-Enterprise Center at Discovery Park, officially began operations on campus Jan. 1. Joseph F. Pekny is director of the e-Enterprise Center and interim director of the Regenstrief Center.

– Kathy Banks, a professor of civil engineering, has been named editor for the American Society of Civil Engineering's Journal of Environmental Engineering. The journal publishes broad interdisciplinary information on the practice and status of research in environmental and systems engineering. It is published monthly and is the second largest ASCE research journal.

–Kumares C. Sinha , Olson Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering, has been designated a national associate of the National Academies, made up of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council. The organization cited Sinha for his extraordinary service to the National Research Council over many years. Sinha also was honored by the Council of University Transportation Centers with its Award for Distinguished Contribution to University Transportation Education and Research during its annual award banquet in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 8. The council is a consortium of 62 universities in the United States.

– Miroslaw J. Skibniewski, a professor of civil engineering, was the recipient of the 50th Anniversary Medal from the Slovak University of Technology Faculty of Civil Engineering for his contributions to construction engineering research.

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