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Purdue News
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April 20, 2001 Purdue Schools of Engineering honor 10 distinguished alumniWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Ten graduates from Purdue Schools of Engineering were honored April 20 during the 2001 Distinguished Engineering Alumni celebration. The awards are given each year to honor graduates for professional achievements and related accomplishments. This year's recipients were honored in a daylong series of programs and events at the West Lafayette campus. The 2001 recipients are: • Gregory M. Ayers of Los Altos, Calif., venture partner of MPM Capital LP. He received his bachelor's degree in 1985 and his doctoral degree in 1989. • Robert H. Buckman of Memphis, Tenn., chairman of the board and CEO of Bulab Holdings, the parent company of Buckman Laboratories. He earned a bachelor's degree in 1959. • Donald R. Dunner of Chevy Chase, Md., lawyer/partner in Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett and Dunner. He received his bachelor's degree in 1953. • Pedro P. Granadillo of Zionsville, Ind., senior vice president of human resources and manufacturing at Eli Lilly and Co. He received a bachelor's degree in 1970. • Gerald D. Held of San Jose, Calif., CEO of the Held Group. He earned a bachelor's degree in 1970. • Jay V. Ihlenfeld of Mahtomedi, Minn., executive vice president of Sumitomo, 3M Ltd., Japan. He earned his bachelor's degree in 1974. • Kenneth G. Miller of Alexandria, Va., vice president, Air Force Programs, Anteon Corp. He earned his bachelor's degree in 1966. • Paul Parks of Mattapan, Mass., president of Paul Parks and Associates Inc. He earned his bachelor's degree in 1949. • Harmon L. Towne of Goshen, Ind., vice president of engineering and product development for Brock Grain and Feed Systems, a business unit of CTB Inc. • Patrick S. Wang, of Hong Kong, chairman and CEO of Johnson Electric Holdings Ltd., Hong Kong. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in 1972. Following is more information about this year's recipients:
Gregory M. Ayers, bachelor's degree in engineering as a student in the Division of Interdisciplinary Engineering, 1985; doctoral degree in biomedical engineering, 1989. He earned a medical degree from Indiana University in 1992. Ayers is a Venture Partner of MPM Capital LP and the founder, president and CEO of CryoCor, a San Diego-based company that develops cardiac-arrhythmia management systems. During the last 10 years, Ayers has combined technology with medicine to advance research and development in cardiovascular medicine. As a senior scientist with the start-up company InControl, he helped develop the first implantable atrial defibrillator. He was elected a fellow of the American College of Cardiology in 1998, and joined Corvascular Inc. in 1999, before assuming his current positions. Ayers continues collaborative research efforts with Purdue and is a member of the Engineering Visiting Committee. He received the Outstanding Alumnus Award from Purdue’s Hillenbrand Biomedical Engineering Center in 1995. In 1999 he received the Outstanding Interdisciplinary Engineer Award.
Robert H. Buckman, bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, 1959. He also received a master’s of business administration from the University of Chicago in 1961. He is chairman of the board and CEO of Bulab Holdings, the Memphis, Tenn.-based parent company of Buckman Laboratories. In 1979, Buckman was named president and chairman of Buckman Laboratories, a multinational specialty chemical corporation that researches, develops, manufactures and markets chemical products for use in the paper, water and leather industries. Under his leadership, the company expanded its domestic and international market and became recognized worldwide for its application of knowledge-management and quality programs. Buckman is a trustee of Rhodes College in Memphis. He is on the executive committee of the Pulp and Paper Foundation and on the boards of directors of the American Productivity and Quality Center, the Institute of Paper Science and Technology, the Paper Technology Foundation and the White River Institute. Buckman Laboratories’ has been awarded the Knowledge Management Leadership Award, the Arthur Andersen LLP Enterprise Award of Best Practices and the 1997 Computerworld Smithsonian Award for innovative applications of technology in manufacturing.
Donald R. Dunner, bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, 1953. He also received a law degree from Georgetown University in 1958. Dunner is a partner with the Washington, D.C., firm Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett and Dunner, which specializes in intellectual property law. In 1963, he was admitted to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court. He has been involved with more than 100 intellectual property cases litigated before the federal circuit and its predecessor, the United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals. The New York Times reported that Dunner has argued more federal circuit cases than any other litigator in the United States. Dunner has earned the Patent Resources Group Patent Prize, that organization's highest honor. He was elected a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. Dunner was recently named one of the 100 Most Influential Lawyers in the United States by the National Law Journal .
Pedro P. Granadillo, bachelor's degree in industrial engineering, 1970. He is senior vice president of human resources and manufacturing at Eli Lilly and Co. of Indianapolis. Under Granadillo’s leadership, Lilly has implemented initiatives that have brought it international recognition as a progressive employer. In 2000, Fortune magazine named Lilly one of its "100 Best Places to Work." That same year, Working Mother magazine named Lilly one of its "10 Best Companies for Working Mothers" for the fourth consecutive time. Granadillo serves on the board of directors of the International School of Indiana and for Conner Prairie. He is a former member of the dean’s advisory council at Purdue's Krannert School of Management.
Gerald D. Held, bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, 1970. He also earned a master’s degree in systems engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 1972 and a doctorate in computer science from the University of California at Berkeley in 1975. Held is chief executive officer of the Held Group. He wrote the original Quel query language and was the chief programmer and co-architect of the original INGRES relational database management system. He led numerous product development efforts during the early years of Tandem Computers and played a major role in the company’s overall strategic planning. He left Tandem after 18 years to join Oracle Corp., where he was the senior vice president of the server technologies division. In 1999, he formed the Held Group, a venture capital firm in San Jose, Calif. Held is active on the boards of several not-for-profit organizations, including the Tech Museum of Innovation, the Fisher Center for Information Technology and Management, CommerceNet and 4Charity.com, which hosts an online charity mall and is creating a database of information about not-for-profit issues in the United States. Held participated in Purdue’s Vision 21 campaign and is active in events for Purdue's Silicon Valley electrical and computer engineering alumni. He was named a Purdue Outstanding Electrical Engineer in 1997.
Jay V. Ihlenfeld, bachelor's degree in chemical engineering, 1974. He also received a doctoral degree in chemical engineering from the University of Wisconsin in 1978. Ihlenfeld is the executive vice president for Sumitomo 3M in Japan. Since joining 3M in 1978, Ihlenfeld was actively involved in the company’s technical and business innovations, holding three patents. His most recent promotion to Sumitomo 3M places him at the head of 3M’s largest subsidiary operation with more than $1.7 billion in sales and in excess of 3,000 employees. He is the highest-ranking of nearly 200 Purdue graduates employed by 3M. Ihlenfeld serves as Purdue University's 3M campus executive. As campus executive, he has strengthened the partnership between 3M and the Purdue Schools of Engineering, enabling 3M’s participation in the New Directions Industrial Advisory Council of the School of Chemical Engineering. Ihlenfeld has launched research collaborations between 3M and the School of Chemical Engineering and has fostered ongoing cooperation between 3M staff and the Graduate Student Organization Symposium as well as undergraduate professional development seminars.
Kenneth G. Miller, bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering, 1966. He also received a master’s degree in systems management at the University of Southern California in 1970. Miller is vice president, Air Force Programs, Anteon Corp. For 30 years, Miller served in the United States Air Force, retiring in 1995 as a brigadier general. His career included accelerated advancement through many management and leadership positions, highlighted by his appointment as the director of the C-17 aircraft program. In this position, he executed budgets in excess of $2 billion and instituted a team approach that resulted in major production improvements and the first flight of the C-17. Miller’s military decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit and the Meritorious Service Medal. He also has received the Freedom Foundation’s Award of Merit. He currently serves on Purdue’s Engineering Visiting Committee.
Paul Parks, bachelor's degree in civil engineering, 1949. He also received a bachelor's degree and an honorary doctorate in engineering from Northeastern University in 1997. Parks is the president of Paul Parks and Associates, a financial management consulting and civil engineering consulting firm in Boston. He has used the analytical and applied skills of engineering to improve people’s lives, working in housing development, education, health services and international affairs. He has served as the deputy mayor of Boston, a special consultant to the Israeli government, the secretary of education for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and as a member of the attorney general’s Advisory Committee on Civil Rights. He has been a regional board member of Fannie Mae, the Federal National Mortgage Association and a professor of engineering at Tufts University. In 1976, Parks was voted into the National Academy for Public Administration. In 1995, he was chosen to represent President Bill Clinton at the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Belgium. Parks has served on the Schools of Engineering Visiting Committee since 1997 and visited Purdue in 1971 as part of the Old Masters Program.
Harmon L. Towne, bachelor's degree in agricultural engineering, 1963. He is vice president of engineering and product development for Brock Grain and Feed Systems, a business unit of CTB Inc. Towne patented the design of the Ultra-Dry in-bin, grain-drying system and earned a 1991 Agricultural Engineering 50 Award, which recognizes innovative products. He designed one of the first automated inlet systems for livestock ventilation, which is used in thousands of livestock facilities around the world. He also has been involved in the design and installation of several grain storage, drying and handling systems that improved international grain drying and processing. Towne is currently president of ASAE, the Society for Engineering in Agricultural, Food and Biological Systems and is a member of the ASAE Foundation Board of Trustees. He received the 1999 Purdue School of Agricultural and Biological Engineering Outstanding Alumni Award in recognition of his professional accomplishments and support of the university. His ongoing involvement at Purdue has included lecturing, research and extension support, as well as corporate involvement with the Post-Harvest Research and Extension Center.
Patrick S. Wang, bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering, 1972. He is chairman and CEO of Johnson Electric Holdings Ltd., Hong Kong. Wang joined Johnson Electric Group in Hong Kong in 1972 and, through his design and management skills, positioned the company as a world leader in the design, development, and delivery of products used in automobile components, home appliances, power tools and multimedia equipment. Wang became a director of the company in 1976, was promoted to managing director in 1984 and was elected chairman and chief executive of the group in 1996. He serves on the boards of the Provisional Hong Kong Science Park Company, the Hong Kong/European Union Business Cooperation Committee and the Hong Kong United States Economic Cooperation Committee. He also is a council member for the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the University of Hong Kong. In 1995, Wang received the DHL/SCMP Hong Kong Business Awards’ Executive Award. He is a member of the Purdue President’s Council and was featured in the book "Three Tigers and Purdue: Stories of Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and an American University." He was named a Purdue Outstanding Electrical Engineer in 1998. Source: Marilyn K. Morrison, (765) 496-6035; marilynm@ecn.purdue.edu Writer: Grant Flora, (765) 494-2073, gflora@purdue.edu Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
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