Westwood Lecture Series

Nov. 11, 2025

Michelle Thompson   

Associate professor of earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences in the College of Science, on “A Time Machine to the Early Solar System: Analyzing Samples from Asteroid Bennu Returned by the NASA OSIRIS-REx Mission.”

Oct. 21, 2025  

Cathie Aime    

Professor of botany and plant pathology in the College of Agriculture, on “The Coffee Leaf Rust Fungus: Unraveling the Origins and Causes behind One of Earth’s Most Notorious Agricultural Pathogens.” 

Sept. 30, 2025 

Matthew Waninger  

Managing director of the Crossroads Pediatric Device Consortium, on “Accelerating Pediatric Medical Device Innovation Through Collaboration.” 

Sept. 12, 2025 

Roger C. Wiens

Professor of earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences in the College of Science on “Spectacular Failures and Brilliant Successes on the Path to Mars: How we’re Finding Potential Biosignatures There and Paving the Way for Astronauts.” 

The event also recognized Wiens as the 2024 Herbert Newby McCoy Award recipient.

April 8, 2025

Majid Kazemian  

Associate professor of biochemistry in the College of Agriculture, and computer science in the College of Science on “Drug Discovery: From In Silico Insights to In Vivo Validation.” 

March 11, 2025 

Libai Huang 

Professor of chemistry in the College of Science on “Capturing the Motion of Electrons in Quantum Materials.” 

Feb. 19, 2025

Alina Alexeenko and Elizabeth Topp

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

Jan. 28, 2025

Suresh Mittal

Distinguished Professor of Virology in the College of Veterinary Medicine on “Universal Influenza Vaccine — An Aspiration or Reality?

Dec. 4, 2024

Mohit Tawarmalani

Executive associate dean of faculty and the Allison and Nancy Schleicher Chair in Management, Mitch Daniels School of Business on optimization beyond convexity: applications in process design, networking and pricing.

Nov. 7, 2024

Louis Tay

William C. Byham Chair in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, College of Health and Human Sciences on assessing the happiness of societies.

Oct. 28, 2024

Jan Cover

Professor of philosophy, College of Liberal Arts on puzzles of portraiture.

Sept. 3, 2024 

Jennifer S. Linvill

Assistant professor of technology leadership and innovation, Purdue Polytechnic Institute on “Scaling Up: Preparing a Career-Ready Defense Microelectronics Engineering Workforce Through Needs Assessments.” 

April 17, 2024

Kristen Yeon-Ji Yun 

Clinical associate professor of music, College of Liberal Arts on “Embracing AI Technology in Music Performance.” 

March 27, 2024 

Fenggang Yang  

Professor of sociology and director, Center on Religion and the Global East, College of Liberal Arts on “The Social Significance of Religion: From China to the Global East.” 

Feb. 13, 2024 

Laurent Couëtil 

Professor of large animal internal medicine and director, Donald J. McCrosky Equine Sports Medicine Center and equine research programs, College of Veterinary Medicine on “Galloping Towards Respiratory Health: Research in Equine Asthma and Performance.” 

Jan. 24, 2024

Kathryn Seigfried-Spellar

Associate professor, Department of Computer and Information Technology, Purdue Polytechnic Institute on “Who Are Your Kids Talking To? An Interdisciplinary Approach to Understanding Online Child Sexual Exploitation Offenders.”

Dec. 13, 2023

Preeti Sivasankar

Professor and Department Head, Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences; Assistant Vice President for Strategic Health Research, Office of Research; Adjunct Faculty, IU School of Medicine-West Lafayette. “Can You Protect Your Voice? Physiological Investigations from Rats to Humans.”

Nov. 16, 2023

Edward Delp

Charles William Harrison Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, professor of biomedical engineering, professor of computer science (courtesy) and professor of psychological sciences (courtesy). “Deepfakes and Other Types of Generated and Manipulated Media: It Is Real and Coming for Our Society!”

Oct. 18, 2023

Songlin Fei

Songlin Fei, professor and Dean’s Chair of Remote Sensing, Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, on “A Digital Revolution in Forestry: AI and Lasers and Digital Twins, Oh My!”

Sept. 21, 2023

Deborah Knapp

Deborah Knapp, distinguished professor of comparative oncology, the Dolores L. McCall Professor of Comparative Oncology and director of the Evan and Sue Ann Werling Comparative Oncology Research Center, on “A New Era in Comparative Medical Research and Opportunities to Position Purdue as a World Leader.”

April 27, 2023

J. Jill Suitor

J. Jill Suitor, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and faculty associate of the Center on Aging and the Life Course, on “Maybe Mom Did Always Love You Best, But Does It Really Matter? Mothers’ Favoritism and Disfavoritism in Later-Life Families.”

March 1, 2023

Mara Faccio

Mara Faccio, the Tom and Patty Hefner Chair in Finance and professor of management, on “Politics and Finance: International Evidence.”

Feb. 23, 2023

Robert Stahelin

Robert Stahelin, the Retter Professor of Pharmacy, on “Lipid-Dependent Assembly and Budding of Emerging Viral Pathogens.”

Jan. 25, 2023

Chi Hwan Lee

Chi Hwan Lee, the Leslie A. Geddes Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and associate professor of mechanical engineering and, by courtesy, materials engineering and speech, language, and hearing sciences, on “Sticker-Like Electronics for Wearable Healthcare.”