One Brick Higher Award presented to Discovery Park centers' leader

President Mitch Daniels and Marietta Harrison, recipient of the One Brick Higher Award. (Purdue University photo/Charles Jischke) Download image

President Mitch Daniels on Wednesday (Dec. 14) honored Marietta Harrison, interim director of the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering (RCHE) and professor in the College of Pharmacy, with the One Brick Higher Award.

The One Brick Higher Award is a special recognition given to Purdue faculty, staff, and students who go beyond the requirements of their role and, through extraordinary effort, improve the lives of those around them, increase the effectiveness of the workplace or prevent or solve problems.

A member of Purdue's Discovery Park, the Regenstrief center has responsibilities encompassing large-scale interdisciplinary research projects, tool development for communities of practice and the implementation of innovations and improvements in health care delivery. Harrison has served as RCHE's interim director since April 2015. In that time, she has helped bring enthusiastic faculty participation to the center and strengthen its relationship with the Indianapolis-based Regenstrief Foundation.

“It’s just the most recent of Marietta’s many achievements at Purdue,” Daniels said. “It seems there’s no assignment she can’t handle with skill and grace.”

Harrison joined Purdue’s faculty in 1989 as an assistant professor of medicinal chemistry and molecular pharmacology and has since filled many roles. Currently, she also serves as director of the Oncological Sciences Center in Discovery Park, associate director of the Center for Cancer Research, and special advisor for strategic initiatives in the Office of the Executive Vice President for Research and Partnerships. Her research focuses on cellular signal transduction pathways and she has published over 70 peer reviewed scientific articles.  

“Marietta Harrison is the perfect exemplification of what it means to continuously build this university ‘one brick higher,’” Daniels said.

Writer: Samantha Boram; sboram@purdue.edu