Appointments, honors and activities
May 30, 2014
• Campus activities:
- Video of Purdue University's the April 10 "At the Intersection of Liberal Arts and STEM" panel discussions is available online. The event was organized by the College of Liberal Arts, and explored how liberal arts and science fields are enriched and have greater capacity for meaningful change when the disciplines intersect. The keynote event "At the Intersection of Liberal Arts and STEM" was moderated by Moira Gunn, a Purdue alumna and host of National Public Radio's "Tech Nation" and director of Business of Biotechnology Programs at the University of San Francisco. The panelists were Bracken Darrell, president and chief executive officer of Logitech; Leah Jamieson, the John A. Edwardson Dean of Engineering; Charles Jones, a Purdue alumnus and chief design & research & development officer, Newell Rubbermaid; and Jacqueline Jones Royster, Ivan Allen Jr. Dean in Liberal Arts and Technology at Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts at Georgia Institute of Technology. The other panel discussions were "Best College Major" and " Purdue @ The Intersection."
• Faculty and staff honors:
- J. Paul Robinson, a professor of cytomics in Purdue's College of Veterinary Medicine and professor in Purdue's Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, has received the Membership Award from the International Society for Advancement of Cytometry, ISAC. The award recognizes exceptional service to the society and cytometry community, and achievements that have advanced the field. The award includes a plaque and lifetime membership in the society. Robinson, who is the director of the Purdue University Cytometry Laboratories, served the society in many positions on committees, as a member of the managing council and served as president from 2006-2008. He also was involved in the establishment of a student award program and the ISAC Scholars program. Robinson's lab developed hyperspectral flow cytometry technology that is currently commercialized by Sony Corp. and has developed fully automated cell analysis technologies. Robinson also is the founding editor of Current Protocols in Cytometry. More information is available at http://isac-net.org/ISAC-Cytometry.aspx
• Student honors:
- Purdue University College of Agriculture biochemistry major Emily Erickson of Clarks Hill, Indiana, has been awarded a second Astronaut Scholarship of $10,000. Erickson plans to earn both a doctor of medicine degree in oncology and a Ph.D. in cancer biology to help develop more effective methods of breast cancer treatment. Erickson was an intern in the summer of 2013 at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C., where she studied the ability of the mouse mammary microenvironment to redirect cancerous human cells to a cancer-free phenotype. After a semester abroad in Ireland, she is now an intern at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. She will be assisting in research on a new class of fungal drugs to treat lung infections in patients who have a compromised immune system. Erickson earlier this year won a Barry Goldwater Scholarship, another national award for undergraduates pursuing a career in science, math or engineering. The Astronaut Scholarship is funded by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, a nonprofit organization created by the Mercury 7 astronauts in 1984. The foundation strives to aid the U.S. in science and technology by providing scholarships to college students pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering or math. Purdue is one of a handful of institutions eligible to nominate students. Member institutions are selected based on their history of producing significant numbers of professional or academic scientists, engineers and researchers. To secure Purdue's nomination, students undergo a faculty selection process through the National and International Scholarships Office.
• Rankings:
- Purdue University was recently named one of the top colleges in social media by the website CollegeAtlas.org. Purdue was named No. 5 for Most Engaged Social Media Communities, No. 12 for Most Influential College in Social Media and No. 15 for Most Influential College on Twitter. The listing also included Purdue at No. 16 for Most Influential College on LinkedIn and No. 19 for Most Influential College on Facebook.
