June 13, 2008
Appointments, honors and activities
• Appointments and promotions:
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— J. Eric Dietz, the executive director of the Indiana Homeland Security Department since March 2005, is returning to Purdue as director of the Purdue Homeland Security Institute in Discovery Park. He also will hold a faculty position in the Department of Computer and Information Technology in the College of Technology. As the first director of the state's homeland security agency, Dietz was responsible for developing comprehensive plans, training and exercises needed to optimize Indiana's emergency response. Before that, he was associate director of the e-Enterprise Center in Discovery Park and helped in advancing Purdue's interdisciplinary research efforts in homeland security research. Dietz graduated in 1984 from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, earning a bachelor and master's degree in chemical engineering. He earned his doctorate in chemical engineering from Purdue in 1994.
• Campus activities:
— The Center for Literacy, Education and Research (CLEAR) Summer Institute, "Making Connections: Conversations on Comprehension for all Learners," will take place July 22-24. The CLEAR Institute features educational consultants, speakers and authors who will share theoretical and practical information concerning reading comprehension in K-6 classrooms. Sessions that focus on instructional interventions for struggling learners as well as English language learners also will be available. For information, contact the institute's office at clear-office@purdue.edu. The registration deadline is July 11.
—Susan Scanlon, a teacher at Klondike Elementary, has been chosen as the 2008 recipient of the Hazel Feldhusen Teaching Award by the Gifted Education Resource Institute (GERI). Scanlon was chosen based on her commitment to gifted education, exemplary coursework in gifted licensure classes and dedication to her students. Each year the institute honors an Indiana teacher who has recently completed the High Ability License with the Hazel Feldhusen Award for Teaching Excellence. Feldhusen, who taught second grade in the West Lafayette School Corporation, worked to put gifted education theories into practice while remaining responsive to students and providing appropriate instruction for all ability levels.
• Faculty and staff honors:
— Issam Mudawar, a Purdue professor of mechanical engineering, and doctoral student Myung Sung received the Best Paper Award in Thermal Management at the 11th Intersociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronics Systems, or ITherm 2008, which was held on May 28-31 in Orlando, Fla. ITherm attracted university researchers and industry experts from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Society, and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The Purdue paper proposes a new method for achieving unprecedented temperature control capabilities for future defense electronics and is based on work being sponsored by the Office of Naval Research.
— Ray Kavanaugh, head of Purdue's Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management Department, has received two awards this month. On June 11, he received the Anthony G. Marshall Award from the American Hotel and Lodging Association. The award recognizes lifetime achievement for activities in education and professional development within the lodging industry. The award was presented at the association's annual meeting in Oklahoma City. On June 7, Kavanaugh received the Alumni Award of Merit for lifetime achievement by Coe College, his alma mater. It is the highest award presented by the Alumni Association. The award presentation took place in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Before joining Purdue in 1997, Kavanaugh was professor and director of the School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration at Oklahoma State University. His career includes academic appointments at the University of Central Florida and Florida State University as well as several years of industry experience.
— The National Association of College and University Food Services selected Barbara Maughmer, Ford Dining Court manager, to present sound ergonomic practices she has developed for her staff to help reduce chronic and repetitive-use injuries at an upcoming conference. Maughmer measures all of her employees and matches them to tasks for which their body is best equipped. She installed equipment that matches her employees' builds. Her workers engage in stretching exercises before each shift. Maughmer will present "A Few Good Moves is Not a Monumental Task" on July 12 at the association's 50th anniversary national conference in Washington, D.C.
— The National Association of College and University Food Services selected Carolyn Newlin, Housing and Food Services student employment coordinator, and Kathy Vill, Ford Dining Court supervisor, to present effective student recruitment, training and retention practices on July 11 at its 50th anniversary national conference in Washington, D.C. Newlin and Vill will focus on how student employment is a co-curricular activity that builds students' skill sets, preparing them for successful careers in any field.
• Student honors:
— Purdue's Center for Families (CFF) has announced some fellowship recipients. They include:
* Neelu Chawla, a graduate student in the Department of Child Development and Family Studies, who has been awarded the Van Scoyoc Fellowship for summer 2008 for her project, "Couple and Family Responses to Traumatic Brain Injury and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder."
* Leslie Cradler, an undergraduate in the Department of Foods and Nutrition, who has been awarded a research enhancement award for her project, "Are adolescent attitudes toward calcium rich foods and intake of dietary calcium related to the presence of grandparent(s) living in the household?"
* Carol Boushey, a professor of foods and nutrition, and Melissa Franks, an assistant professor of child development and family studies and theme leader in the Center for Families, have been awarded a Hancook Faculty Fellowship. Their project, "Correspondence in Daily Diet Quality of Patients with Diabetes and Their Spouses," will be supported for the 2008-09 year.
Mia Smith Bynum (CFF faculty partner and advisory council member), Xinran Lehto (CFF faculty partner and advisory council member), and Susan Lambert (CFF advisory council member) served on the fellowship review board.
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
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