Trustees ratify faculty positions, approve resolutions of appreciation and namings

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The Purdue University Board of Trustees on Friday (Dec. 12) ratified faculty appointments and approved resolutions of appreciation and namings.

The newly ratified faculty are:

• Tamara Moore as the Crowley Family Professor of Engineering Education
• Vaneet Aggarwal as the Reilly Professor of Industrial Engineering
• David Bahr as the Reilly Professor of Materials Engineering
• Bryan Huey as the Blacutt-Underwood Head of Materials Engineering
• Bernd Ulrich as Distinguished Professor of Mathematics

Moore joined the engineering education faculty at Purdue in 2013. She now serves as executive co-director of Purdue’s INSPIRE Research Institute for Pre-College Engineering, director of SCALE K-12 and the curriculum director for SCALE. Moore’s research focuses on the integration of STEM concepts in K-12 and postsecondary classrooms to help students make connections among the STEM disciplines and achieve deep understanding. She previously served as an associate editor for the Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research and the Advances in Engineering Education journal. Her scholarly work has resulted in many honors and awards, including being named a Purdue University Faculty Scholar, an American Society of Engineering Education fellow, a fellow of the Kavli Frontiers in Science program with the National Academy of Sciences, a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, and more. The Crowley Family Professor of Engineering Education professorship was created in 2012 through a gift from Geoffrey T. Crowley, a 1974 Purdue Engineering alumnus.

Aggarwal is a professor and University Faculty Scholar in Purdue’s Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering, which he joined in 2015. He holds courtesy appointments in the Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Computer Science. Aggarwal’s research focuses on reinforcement learning, generative AI, large language model alignment, quantum machine learning and applications of machine learning. His scholarship includes top-tier publications in 188 journal publications and 209 peer-reviewed conference publications (including 80-plus in A/A* CORE-ranked venues, the computer science equivalent of journal papers). He also holds 20 U.S. patents and was chosen as founding co-editor-in-chief of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Journal on Autonomous Transportation Systems. Additionally, he serves on the editorial board of the IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking and previously served as an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networking and IEEE Transactions on Communications. His awards and honors include being featured on the cover of Nature; being named an IEEE ComSoc Distinguished Lecturer; receiving the IEEE Communications Society William R. Bennett Prize, the IEEE Jack Neubauer Memorial Award, Princeton University’s Porter Ogden Jacobus Honorific Fellowship, IEEE Infocom Workshop Best Paper Award and the NeurIPS Workshop Best Paper Award; being named Most Impactful Faculty Inventor at Purdue; and more. The Reilly Professor of Industrial Engineering professorship honors Vincent P. Reilly, a 1922 Purdue alumnus and founder of Illinois Gear and Machine Co. The endowment was created in 1969.

Bahr came to Purdue in 2012 as a professor and head of the School of Materials Engineering. He now serves as senior associate dean of faculty in the College of Engineering. His research interests focus on how and why materials deform at the micro- and nanoscale using combinations of experimental testing and complementary theory and modeling of deformation. Bahr is well known for his efforts in identifying the onset of deformation in crystalline materials, both in bulk materials such as tungsten and molecular organic materials such as pharmaceuticals, as well as thin films used in microelectronics. Previously he led the School of Materials Engineering at Purdue from 2012-24 and was elected national chair of the University Materials Council in 2018. He currently serves as founding editor-in-chief of MRS Advances and previously held a position on the board of directors for The Minerals, Metals & Material Society (TMS) as member and student development director. Bahr’s awards and honors are many, including being named a fellow of ASM International, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Materials Research Society, as well as receiving the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, ASM International’s Bradley Stoughton Award for Early Career Teachers, TMS’ AIME Robert Lansing Hardy Award and Brimacombe Medal, the Alexander Scott Distinguished Service Award, and more. The Reilly Professor of Materials Engineering professorship honors Vincent P. Reilly, a 1922 Purdue alumnus and founder of Illinois Gear and Machine Co. The endowment was created in 1969.

Huey joined Purdue’s School of Materials Engineering in 2025 after a two-decade career at the University of Connecticut. His research focuses on measuring and manipulating materials’ properties at the nanoscale, primarily for electrically and optically functional materials. His work harnesses atomic force microscopy, especially for semiconductors, photovoltaics, piezoelectrics and dielectrics. Huey is a member of the Materials Research Society’s Society Agility Council and a past chair of the University Materials Council, the nationwide association of MSE department heads. He has held several leadership roles with professional organizations throughout his career, especially the Materials Research Society and the American Ceramic Society. Huey’s honors and awards include being named a Centennial Term Chaired Professor at the University of Connecticut and a fellow of the American Ceramic Society; delivering the Otto York Distinguished Lecture at the New Jersey Institute of Technology; receiving the American Ceramic Society’s Richard M. Fulrath Award; being selected as an NRC fellow from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine; and more. The Blacutt-Underwood Head of Materials Engineering was established in 2023 by Hugh Brian Underwood, a 1988 materials engineering alumnus, and Carol Blacutt-Underwood to support strategic initiatives in materials engineering.

Ulrich was a visiting assistant professor of mathematics at Purdue from 1982-83, returning to the university as a full professor in 2001. His research interests are commutative algebra and its nearby areas, such as algebraic geometry, with his most influential work being on linkage and residual intersections, Rees algebras, and generalized multiplicities. Ulrich has authored over 100 publications, received continuous support from the National Science Foundation since 1984, and even invented new concepts now known as “Ulrich modules” and “Ulrich sheaves.” Since 2000 he has been one of the organizers of the series of international conferences in commutative algebra at CIRM in France. He has also served as a member of five mathematical journal editorial boards throughout his career. Ulrich’s honors and awards are many, including being elected a fellow of the American Mathematical Society’s inaugural class; a Simons Foundation fellow; a Chern Professor at the University of California, Berkeley; a Clay Senior Scholar at SLMath; and more. To become a distinguished professor at Purdue, faculty must be nominated by their department and undergo a rigorous review process that examines their research, teaching, service and contributions to their respective field of study.

In other action, trustees approved resolutions of appreciation for friends of the university who recently contributed $1 million or more to Purdue. Those are:

• Bob, Terry, Doug and Julie Bowen, to support the Purdue Polytechnic Institute
• Richard and Marni Waterfield, to support the Environmental Resources Center at Purdue University Fort Wayne
• Brian and Irene Binash, to support the Mitch Daniels School of Business
• Nathan and Beth Gabhart, to support the Mitch Daniels School of Business
• David Byers, to support the Purdue Polytechnic Institute and the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics
• Geoff and Kate Cubitt, to support the College of Engineering
• Hayes Family Foundation, to support the Mitch Daniels School of Business
• Young Future Foundation, to support the College of Agriculture and Mitch Daniels School of Business
• Two anonymous gifts, to support the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics

Additionally, trustees approved the following namings:

• Bowen School of Construction within the Purdue Polytechnic Institute, in recognition of a gift by Bob and Terry Bowen, together with Doug and Julie Bowen. In addition, the Bowens are establishing the Bowen School of Construction Endowment, which will provide enduring support for experiential learning opportunities, industry connections and faculty development, ensuring students are exceptionally prepared to lead in the field.
• Room 213 of the future Mitch Daniels School of Business building the Allen Family Innovation Lab and Integrated Business and Engineering Lab, in recognition of a gift by Sam and Marsha Allen.
• Dean’s Suite, Room 550, of the future Mitch Daniels School of Business building the Nathan and Beth Gabhart Dean’s Suite, in recognition of a gift by Nathan and Beth Gabhart.
• Tribute area in the future Mitch Daniels School of Business building the Brian and Irene Hoysan Binash Atrium, in recognition of a gift by Brian and Irene Binash.
• Room 3055 in the future Nursing and Pharmacy Education Building for Kenneth and Mary Lou Dunbar, in recognition of their gift.
• Environmental Resources Center at Purdue Fort Wayne the Waterfield Environmental Resources Center, in recognition of a gift by Richard and Marni Waterfield.
• David R. Byers Professorship in Aviation, in recognition of a gift by David Byers.
• Cubitt Professor within the Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering, in recognition of a gift by Geoff and Kate Cubitt.

Trustees also approved a resolution of appreciation for Dan Hasler, who served as president and chief entrepreneurial officer for Purdue Research Foundation from 2013-18, executive vice president for communications for Purdue University from 2018-20 and chief operating officer for Purdue University in Indianapolis from 2022-25.

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.