Provost provides update on leadership roles

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Patrick Wolfe, Purdue provost and executive vice president for academic affairs and diversity, announced several leadership appointments and organizational updates at the Board of Trustees meeting on Friday (June 9), as the university approaches the beginning of the next fiscal year.

Search for vice provost for faculty affairs completed 

Following an internal search, Sunil Prabhakar, department head and professor of computer science, has been selected as Purdue’s next vice provost for faculty affairs. Prabhakar’s research lies in the area of data management, with a focus on developing novel database systems for managing probabilistic or uncertain data, and ensuring authenticity and integrity of outsourced databases. He joined Purdue in 1998 and has served as head of the Department of Computer Science since 2010, also helping Purdue more broadly by serving as inaugural director of its Integrative Data Science Initiative in 2019-20. Under his leadership, expanding Computer Science was designated one of the first “Purdue Moves” strategic priorities, resulting in an unprecedented and record expansion of student enrollments, faculty, staff and departmental revenue; the creation of two new majors in artificial intelligence and data science; and a new professional master’s degree in cybersecurity — all while moving the department’s undergraduate and graduate programs steadily higher in the national rankings. His efforts over the past decade have culminated in positioning Purdue for its most recently announced major strategic initiative, Purdue Computes. An interim head to lead the Department of Computer Science will be announced in due course.

Prabhakar succeeds Peter Hollenbeck, who will retire June 30 after a long and distinguished career as a Purdue neurobiologist and administrative leader. The hallmark of his work as vice provost (since 2016, and preceded by two years of service as associate vice provost) has been a strong focus on creating programs and providing resources to underpin faculty success and leadership development. Several programs he designed and piloted have proved of interest to other universities nationwide.

Search for vice provost of enrollment management started

The leading enrollment management search firm WittKieffer has been retained to assist with a national search for Purdue’s next vice provost for enrollment management. The successful candidate will succeed Kristina Wong Davis, who became inaugural vice provost for enrollment management at Carnegie Mellon University on June 1.

Vice Provost Cherise Hall has been appointed by Provost Wolfe to serve as the interim leader of enrollment management, providing leadership and oversight to the Office of Admissions, Office of the Registrar, Division of Financial Aid, Enrollment Management Analysis and Reporting, and Enrollment Management Strategic Communications and Initiatives.

Daniels School of Business and College of Science

Mohit Tawarmalani will serve as interim dean of the Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business starting July 1. Tawarmalani is the Allison and Nancy Schleicher Chair of Management and serves as academic director of the Krenicki Center for Business Analytics and Machine Learning. He joined Purdue in 2001 and teaches courses in business analytics and optimization. An award-winning researcher, students voted him the Salgo-Noren Award recipient as top teacher in the Daniels School’s master’s programs the past two years. Tawarmalani’s research, computational work and practical insights have significantly advanced nonconvex optimization and sustainable process design. He was the founding co-director of Purdue’s award-winning master’s program in business analytics and information management. Previously, Tawarmalani worked in the MIS area of Tata Engineering and Locomotive Co., and as a software engineer in geometric modeling at ComputerVision.

In November 2022, Distinguished Professor of Economics David Hummels announced his intention to step down as dean following the 2022-23 academic year after serving in the position since 2014. The Transition Steering Committee, co-chaired by Gary Lehman, vice chair of the Purdue Board of Trustees, and professor Kevin Mumford, the Kozuch Director of the Purdue University Research Center in Economics, continues its work to identify the next dean of the Daniels School. 

The goal of the Daniels School is to reimagine Purdue’s approach to a top-ranked business education that will prepare tomorrow’s leaders and entrepreneurs, grounded in the hallmarks of a well-rounded Purdue education and with a particular emphasis on STEM disciplines and business analytics. The Daniels School will extend Purdue’s land-grant mission to provide affordable and accessible education as a leading public research university, teaching its students a combination of technological excellence and business expertise.

Additionally, the search advisory committee for the next Frederick L. Hovde Dean of the College of Science has identified candidate finalists from a strong pool of applicants and is preparing invitations for these finalists to interview and make on-campus presentations. More information will be forthcoming once dates are set.

More support for graduate programs

Eric Barker, the Jeannie and Jim Chaney Dean of the College of Pharmacy, will take on the additional role of (acting) associate provost for graduate programs – overseeing graduate education across Purdue system and succeeding Linda Mason, who will complete a five-year term as the university-level leader of graduate programs on June 30.

Earlier this year, Barker accepted Wolfe’s request to undertake a thoughtful study of Purdue’s graduate student programs, aiming to maximize the success of and support for graduate and professional students and postdoctoral scholars across all departments and colleges. Purdue offers over 70 departmental and interdisciplinary graduate programs, including degree, nondegree and certificate programs. Each program offers research or study areas, which provide a total of over 600 options. Purdue will increase the support to these and future graduate programs.

A professor of medicinal chemistry and molecular pharmacology, Barker previously served as assistant dean for graduate programs (2007-10) and associate dean for research (2010-17) in Purdue’s College of Pharmacy. During his time as assistant dean for graduate programs, Barker served on the Purdue system Graduate Council. He joined Purdue in 1998 and is a member of several professional associations that include the American Pharmacists Association, Society for Neuroscience, and the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, where he has served in leadership positions for the Neuropharmacology Division.

Mason, who has been at Purdue since 1991, has had a storied career at Purdue as professor of entomology. She joined the Graduate School in 2010 as associate dean and became interim dean in 2017. A tireless advocate for graduate students, Mason has been particularly focused on the graduate student experience and professional development, including a five-year mentoring research and review program to establish standards for faculty and develop resources for graduate students to identify and receive the mentoring they need to be successful.

Master’s and Ph.D. students are the engine that powers leading research universities like Purdue, which is investing nearly $20 million over two years in raising student stipends and launching the Presidential Doctoral Excellence Awards. In addition to driving this funding increase, Wolfe has spent the last five months surveying the overall academic landscape at Purdue, conducting listening sessions with students and faculty, and identifying mechanisms to enhance graduate and professional student support and career preparation while removing administrative barriers to student success.

Barker and Wolfe, through further consultation with students and faculty, will further support graduate programs at department, college and university levels with the following principles:

• The North Star is student success. More resources will be devoted to students and processes streamlined for the ease of student life as graduate programs at Purdue grow bigger and better.
• All essential functionalities at the university central level will continue, including hosting certain interdisciplinary graduate degree programs.
• Since graduate admissions have always been run mostly at department and college levels, faculty in individual graduate degree programs will be further empowered.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a top public research institution developing practical solutions to today’s toughest challenges. Ranked in each of the last five years as one of the 10 Most Innovative universities in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, Purdue delivers world-changing research and out-of-this-world discovery. Committed to hands-on and online, real-world learning, Purdue offers a transformative education to all. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue has frozen tuition and most fees at 2012-13 levels, enabling more students than ever to graduate debt-free. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap at https://stories.purdue.edu.

Sources: Patrick Wolfe

Sunil Prabhakar

Mohit Tawarmalani

Eric Barker