September 21, 2007

Purdue notebook

— Greg Kapp has accepted a new appointment in the Office of the President as executive assistant to President France A. Córdova. Kapp previously worked as an associate vice president for advancement.  Kapp, who has been at Purdue since 1993, also has worked in Purdue's Department of Computer Science, the computing center and the Krannert School of Management.

— Amy Noah will serve as director of advancement for the College of Engineering. She has previously worked as director of corporate relations and most recently as director of major gifts for the College of Engineering.

Campus activities

— Zdenek Knotek, the director of the Avian and Exotic Animal Clinic in Brno, Czech Republic, will meet with students and faculty at the School of Veterinary Medicine Sept. 23-30 to talk about the field of reptile medicine and surgery. Knotek, professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences, also will be one of the featured speakers at the annual Fall Conference for Veterinarians and Veterinary Technicians Sept. 26-28. A student-focused reptile symposium will be held from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sept. 29 in Lynn Hall, Room G167, and is open to veterinary students, non-veterinary students and veterinary technicians. The School of Veterinary Medicine Exotic Club, and two university-wide undergraduate student organizations, the Wildlife Rehabilitation Club and the Zoological Club organized the event.

—  John L. Crompton, distinguished professor of recreation, parks and tourism sciences at Texas A&M University, is the keynote speaker for the Greening the Region: Economic Prospects of the Wabash River symposium at 1:30 p.m. Monday (Sept. 24) in the Ross-Ade Pavilion's fifth-floor Buchanan Club. The symposium will address the strategic value the Wabash River Corridor has in regard to achieving local and state economic development goals. Joe Seaman, the president and CEO of the Lafayette/West Lafayette Development Corp., and David Boncosky, the director of the Indiana Economic Development Corp. Life Sciences Initiative, will speak. A panel discussion also will take place. The symposium is free and open to the public, and RSVPs should be sent to Stanton Lambert at slambert@lafayette.in.gov. Additional information is available at https://www.purdue.edu/dp/environment/events/
Greening%20the%20Region%20Symposium.pdf  

— An update on the Purdue campus master planning process will be presented at 7 p.m. Wednesday (Sept. 26) in the Class of 1950 Lecture Hall, Room 224. The meeting is open to all faculty, staff and students. The university's master planning consultants will report on phase two of the master planning process, which includes campus alternatives. The updated master plan will encourage sustainable and accessible design, strengthening pedestrian orientation, enhancing the landscape, accommodating parking needs, and planning for and guiding campus growth and development. The planning process is expected to be finished in spring 2008.

— Nina Berman, an associate professor of German and comparative literature at Ohio State University, will present "Europeanizing German Literature: The Circulation of Texts Between Germany, France and the Ottoman Empire in the 16th and 17th Centuries" at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday (Sept. 26) in Rawls Hall, Room 1086. She is an authority on the interaction between European and non-Western cultures and is the author of the book "Impossible Missions? German Economic, Military, and Humanitarian Efforts in Africa." The talk is part of the new European Studies speaker series, which is co-sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts' European Studies program and the Comparative Literature program.

Faculty and staff honors

— Thomas Hodges, Purdue professor emeritus, has been named an inaugural fellow of the American Society of Plant Biologists. The award is granted in recognition of distinguished and long-term contributions to plant biology. The awards were presented at the society's annual meeting that was held jointly with the Botanical Society of America, the American Fern Society and the American Society of Plant Taxonomists.

— Barrett Caldwell, an associate professor of industrial engineering, will participate in the National Academy of Engineering's 13th annual U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium Sept. 24-26 in Redmond, Wash. He will serve on symposium's 2008 organizing committee for the cognitive engineering track and will participate in a committee meeting during this year's conference.

— The Association for Science Teacher Education board has chosen John Staver, professor of science education and co-director of Center for Research and Engagement in Science and Mathematics Education, and Lynn Bryan, associate professor in the departments of curriculum and instruction and physics, as co-editors of the Journal of Science Teacher Education. Staver and Bryan will begin their editor duties in January. Initially, they will work with newly submitted manuscripts. After the transition period on Jan. 1, 2009, they will be responsible for all duties as editors and the journal will be housed at Purdue.

Alumni honors

— Katie Behr was honored as one of 12 recipients of the Governor's Award for Tomorrow's Leaders, presented by the Indiana Humanities Council and the Office of the Governor. The award recognizes Indiana's outstanding young leaders between the ages of 19 and 29 for their achievements in entrepreneurial, community, education and cultural arenas. As part of the award, recipients are given $1,000. Behr is donating the award to the Purdue Cancer Research Center and the Purduette/Purdue Cancer Center Scholarship. Behr eared a doctor of pharmacy degree from Purdue and currently works for Memorial Hospital of South Bend.

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

To the News Service home page