Westwood Lecture Series spring lineup announced

Purdue President Mung Chiang has announced the spring lineup for the Westwood Lecture Series, which provides an opportunity for university faculty to interact with colleagues on scholarly work from a wide range of fields.

The Westwood Lecture Series is a program aimed at enhancing the intellectual vibrancy of the West Lafayette campus.

Each lecture will take place from 4:30-5:30 p.m. at Westwood, the Purdue president’s residence.

Space is limited to the first 50 faculty who register online. Registration will be available beginning two weeks prior to each lecture. Look for details in Purdue Today.

Spring 2025 Westwood Lecture Series events

Jan. 28: Suresh Mittal, Distinguished Professor of Virology in the College of Veterinary Medicine, will present “Universal Influenza Vaccine — An Aspiration or Reality?”

Mittal has extensive research expertise in adenoviral vector-based vaccines for seasonal and potential pandemic influenza viruses. His ongoing work has contributed to the development of vaccines for influenza, COVID-19 and tuberculosis.

Feb. 19: Alina Alexeenko — the Reilly Professor in Aeronautics and Astronautics and Chemical Engineering in the College of Engineering — and Elizabeth Topp — a professor of industrial and molecular pharmaceutics in the College of Pharmacy and chemical engineering in the College of Engineering — will present “Onshoring Pharmaceutical Manufacturing: Towards the Next Revolution.”

Alexeenko’s research is centered on computational and experimental studies of rarefied gas flow phenomena occurring in both high-altitude flight and in emerging technologies such as microelectromechanical systems for space communications and micropropulsion and in vacuum manufacturing processes. Topp’s research focuses on the chemical and physical stability of protein drugs, with particular emphasis on chemical degradation reactions in the amorphous solid state.

March 11: Libai Huang, professor of chemistry and director of Quantum Photonics Integrated Design Center in the College of Science, will present “Capturing the Motion of Electrons in Quantum Materials.”

Huang leads a pioneering research program focused on directly imaging energy and charge transport with femtosecond time resolution and nanometer spatial resolution using ultrafast microscopy.

April 8: Majid Kazemian, associate professor of biochemistry in the College of Agriculture, and computer science in the College of Science, will present “Drug Discovery: From In Silico Insights to In Vivo Validation.”

Kazemian’s research focuses on gene regulation in viral-associated cancers, autoimmune disorders and infectious diseases.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a public research institution demonstrating excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities and with two colleges in the top four in the United States, Purdue discovers and disseminates knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 105,000 students study at Purdue across modalities and locations, including nearly 50,000 in person on the West Lafayette campus. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 13 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap — including its first comprehensive urban campus in Indianapolis, the Mitch Daniels School of Business, Purdue Computes and the One Health initiative — at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives