Appointments, honors and activities
July 26, 2013
• Appointments and promotions:
- Tom Berndt is the senior associate dean for administration and senior associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Health and Human Sciences. His appointment was effective July 1. Most recently Berndt served as associate dean for HHS.
- Richard Voyles has been appointed associate dean for research and professor of electrical and computer engineering technology in the College of Technology. The appointment, effective Aug. 12, was announced July 25 by Gary Bertoline, dean of the college. Voyles comes to Purdue from the University of Denver and the National Science Foundation, where he is a program director in Computer and Information Science and Engineering. He received his bachelor's degree from Purdue and his doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University.
• Faculty and staff honors:
- David F. Radcliffe, Purdue University's Kamyar Haghighi Head of Engineering Education and Epistemology Professor of Engineering Education, has been named a Fellow by the American Society for Engineering Education. He is one of 12 Fellows newly elected by the society. The grade of Fellow is one of unusual professional distinction and is conferred by the ASEE board of directors to ASEE members "with outstanding and extraordinary qualifications and experience in engineering or engineering technology education or allied field, who has made appropriate and important individual contributions," according to the society.
- Purdue University's Hall of Music Productions received a Golden Matrix Award for Best In-Game Feature by the Information Display and Entertainment Association on July 17 at their conference in Montreal. Using the concept and look of a 1980s 8-bit video game, the video takes the traditional housekeeping and public service announcements for Ross-Ade Stadium and presents them in a new and entertaining manner. IDEA is an international association for professionals in the big screen/sports presentation industry.
- Arvind Varma, the R. Games Slayter Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering and Jay and Cynthia Ihlenfeld Head of the School of Chemical Engineering, is the winner of the 2013 AIChE Warren K. Lewis Award for Chemical Engineering Education. The award, which will be presented during the AIChE annual meeting in November, recognizes his "profound contributions to chemical engineering education through authorship and editorship of books, outstanding administrative leadership, creative research with students, teaching and inspiration of students." Varma joined the School of Chemical Engineering as distinguished professor and head in 2004.
• Alumni honors:
- Satoshi Ishii, who received a doctorate in engineering from Purdue in 2012, has won the Fuji Television High Technology Award for Originality. The High Technology Award for Originality is a research article competition held annually in Japan. Ishii's article was based on research he did at Purdue. "It is a great honor for me to receive this award," Ishii said. "I had the privilege to work in an outstanding and wonderful group led by professor Vladimir Shalaev. All the work at Purdue would not have been accomplished without the guidance and effort of my adviser and committee members. I also would like to thank my friends in Shalaev's group. It is essential to appreciate the fellowship which I received from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan through the Project for Establishing Core Universities for Internationalization."
• Student honors:
- Five Purdue students are among 25 from across the country selected to receive NASA Aeronautics Scholarships for the 2013-14 school year. The program, in its sixth year, assists undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in fields of study related to aeronautics and aviation. Recipients were selected from hundreds of applications. Undergraduate scholarship winners will receive $15,000 per year to cover tuition costs for two years and a $10,000 stipend during a summer internship with NASA. As interns, the students will work with NASA researchers developing technologies for managing air traffic more efficiently; reducing aircraft noise, fuel consumption and emissions; and improving air safety. The Purdue students are Joseph Lorenzetti of Fairborn, Ohio; Samuel Otto of Pittsburgh; Christian Vuong of Greenwood, Ind.; Keith Wittmer of Paxton, Mass.; and Emily Zimovan of Chapin, S.C. Wittmer is in mechanical engineering. The others are in aeronautics and astronautics.
