Top 5 stories from Purdue University

‘Purdue News Now’

Purdue University’s homecoming weekend kicks off Friday with a special celebration at Mackey Arena and the grand reopening of the Mechanical Engineering Building and University Hall. Trevor Peters has these details and more of the latest Boilermaker news in this week’s edition of “Purdue News Now.”

Plus, check out five good stories below you may have missed.

STEM-powered business innovation: Purdue accelerates growth of business school

From cutting-edge semiconductor research to industry-leading pharmaceutical practicum, Purdue University has built a reputation for advancing research and creating solutions to some of the world’s toughest challenges. The university is now utilizing that same analytical thinking and strategic planning DNA in the business arena, preparing students for an economy where business and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) are inseparable. Since taking the helm of the business school in August 2023, James “Jim” Bullard, the Dr. Samuel R. Allen Dean of the Mitch Daniels School of Business and Distinguished Professor of Service and professor of economics, has focused on a set of strategic priorities aimed at transforming the school into a top-tier, tech-driven institution to redefine business education through the lens of STEM disciplines.

Media contact: Trevor Peters, peter237@purdue.edu

Fire in the sky: Strong summer storms in the Midwest send wildfire smoke into the previously pristine stratosphere

While the Indian subcontinent is famous for its monsoon season, what many people don’t know is that the midwestern United States has its own monsoon season, very nearly as strong. And those Midwest monsoons, increasingly, are breaking through the ceiling of the sky and into the stratosphere, a typically undisturbed layer of the atmosphere, introducing burning biomass and aerosols from western wildfires with potentially concerning consequences for the ozone layer and the climate. Like a hole in the hull of a boat leaking in dirty seawater, these storms allow aerosols and particles in from the lower atmosphere, new research shows.

Media contact: Trevor Peters, peter237@purdue.edu

BioTrain fellows work to advance biopharmaceutical manufacturing workforce in Indianapolis

A select group of Purdue University engineering and pharmacy graduate students are advancing Indiana’s biopharmaceutical workforce training opportunities through the BioTrain Fellows program. Co-developed with Heartland BioWorks, BioCrossroads and Ivy Tech Community College, the BioTrain Fellows program is a part of Heartland BioWorks, a U.S. Economic Development Administration-funded Tech Hub, and its BioTrain initiative to grow the biomanufacturing workforce and strengthen Indiana’s talent pipeline for high-paying jobs in biotechnology and biomanufacturing. Selection of the first fellows is also an important milestone for Purdue’s One Health strategic initiative.

Media contact: Derek Schultz, dcschultz@purdue.edu

AP video — How storms push wildfire smoke into ozone layer

Daniel Cziczo is a professor of atmospheric chemistry in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences in the College of Science at Purdue University. In this video, he explains how summer storms can push wildfire smoke into the upper atmosphere and how that might impact the ozone layer. Cziczo’s research group participated in a NASA field study to investigate how summer thunderstorms impact the stratosphere. The team used a high-altitude research aircraft called the ER-2 to take measurements over the midwestern United States. They discovered that powerful thunderstorms can act like an escalator, punching up wildfire smoke from the surface into the next layer of the atmosphere. The stratosphere contains the ozone layer, which protects people on the surface from harmful radiation from the sun. Changes to this sensitive layer of the atmosphere could have negative impacts as the climate continues to change.

Media contact: Trevor Peters, peter237@purdue.edu

Purdue surpasses $1B in total research expenditures for the first time

Purdue University set a new research benchmark for fiscal year 2025, receiving resources that were spent on a record of over $1 billion on research, underscoring the university’s growing role as a national leader in critical fields such as life sciences, computing technologies, advanced manufacturing and AI. Owing to strong award funding levels across all sources, overall research expenditures for the fiscal year that ended June 30 rose 12% over the previous fiscal year and increased almost 40% over the past three years. The $1 billion fiscal 2025 figure includes record levels from all funding categories including federal and industry research funding as reported two months ago, as well as other sources such as the state, nonprofits, foundations, philanthropic organizations and Purdue institutional support.

Media contact: Trevor Peters, peter237@purdue.edu

MORE: Recent AP video stories

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About Purdue University

Purdue University is a public research university leading with excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities in the United States, Purdue discovers, disseminates and deploys knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 106,000 students study at Purdue across multiple campuses, locations and modalities, including more than 57,000 at our main campus locations in West Lafayette and Indianapolis. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 14 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap — including its integrated, comprehensive Indianapolis urban expansion; the Mitch Daniels School of Business; Purdue Computes; and the One Health initiative — at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives.