Purdue News

May 10, 2002 Appointments and promotions; faculty, staff and student honors Appointments and promotions: – Don Blewett has been named associate director of the new Burton D. Morgan Center for Enterpreneurship at Purdue's $100 million Discovery Park. The appointment is effective June 1. Blewett completed his MBA at the Krannert School of Management this semester. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering from Purdue, has run his own business as an automotive industry parts supplier and was a product engineer with Owens Illinois. Richard A. Cosier, Krannert School dean and Leeds Professor of Management, is director of the entrepreneurship center. – Two new department heads have been named in Purdue's School of Science. The appointments take effect July 1. Susanne E. Hambrusch, professor of computer science, has been appointed head of Purdue's Department of Computer Sciences. She succeeds Ahmed Sameh, who will return to teaching and research and serve as director of Purdue's Computing Research Institute. Hambrusch's research interests include parallel and distributed computation, data management and data dissemination in wireless environments, and analysis of algorithms. She is a member of the editorial boards of Parallel Computing and Information Processing Letters, and a member of the IEEE Technical Committee on Parallel Processing. Hambrusch joined the Purdue faculty in 1982 and is an inaugural member in Purdue University Book of Great Teachers. In 1999, she was selected as one of the 10 best teachers of undergraduates. She received her master's degree in computer science from the Technical University of Vienna and a doctorate in computer science from Pennsylvania State University. She has served as associate head of the department for the past two years. Leonard Lipshitz, professor of mathematics, will become head of Purdue's Department of Mathematics. He succeeds Carl Cowen, who will return to teaching and research. Lipshitz' research areas of interest include model theory and algebra, and his research is funded by the National Science Foundation. He is a member of the American Mathematical Society and the Association for Symbolic Logic, and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Algebra. Lipshitz joined the Purdue faculty in 1972 and served as department head from 1992-97. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Natal in 1968 and was awarded a doctorate in mathematics from Princeton University in 1972. • Faculty and staff honors: – The Council for the Advancement and Support of Education has awarded the Purdue News Service, Purdue Marketing Communications and Purdue Periodicals two gold medals for their role in the "Champions Make Choices" campaign. The offices helped student groups across campus urge their peers to have fun, but make the right choices. It followed the April 1, 2001, disturbance on campus following the women's NCAA Basketball Championship and preceded Grand Prix Weekend. Purdue won the gold in the categories of Individual Student Involvement Projects and Special Individual Public Relations Projects. Students earn Women in Science fellowships — Two Purdue University doctoral students have been selected to receive Clare Boothe Luce Fellowships from Purdue. Suzanne Zurn-Birkhimer, a doctoral student in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and Belinda G. Marchand, a doctoral student in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, were honored during a recent ceremony at Purdue. The $100,000, two-year fellowships were established to encourage women to enter, study, graduate and teach in the sciences and engineering, said Barbara Clark, director of Purdue's Women in Science Programs. The fellowships were made possible by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation. Clare Boothe Luce, the widow of Henry Luce, was a playwright, journalist, U.S. ambassador to Italy and the first woman elected to Congress from Connecticut. Zurn-Birkhimer, of Coon Rapids, Minn., studies tornadoes and severe weather under the direction of Professor Ernest Agee. Her research focuses on the dynamics of severe local storms and on the fluid mechanics of convection. Her past work included a statistical analysis of U.S. tornadoes by state, as well as an investigation into a connection between tornado activity in the United States and the El Nino/La Nina phenomenon. Zurn-Birkhimer has served as a graduate teaching assistant for the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and the Department of Mathematics. She has received several awards for outstanding teaching and has been active in Purdue's Women in Science Programs. Marchand, of Chicago, is a doctoral student under Kathleen C. Howell in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Her research focuses on the dynamical evolution of natural bodies, such as comets and asteroids in the solar system and the design of interplanetary spacecraft missions. Marchand is a member of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Genesis mission design team and plans to continue her association with the team throughout her doctoral studies. She is a recipient of a Magoon Teaching Award and the Purdue University Graduate Student Award for outstanding teaching. Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu To the Purdue News and Photos Page