July 25, 2008

Appointments, honors and activities

• Appointments and promotions:— Susan Bunning is the new director of development for the School of Chemical Engineering. Bunning is a graduate of Indiana University Northwest and Valparaiso University. She most recently served as director of development at Missouri State University.

— Matthias Steup is the new head for the Department of Philosophy. Steup recently served as department chair at St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, Minn. He earned his master's degree in philosophy from Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, and completed his doctorate degree at Brown University. His research focuses on epistemology, and he also is interested in metaphysics, the philosophy of mind, ethics and logic. The Department of Philosophy is housed in the College of Liberal Arts and is home to 21 faculty, 65 graduate students and 87 majors.

— Ellen Gruenbaum is the inaugural head of the new Department of Anthropology. She received her bachelor's degree from Stanford University, and her master and doctorate degrees are from the University of Connecticut. She has held academic appointments at California State University in San Bernardino and California State University in Fresno. Her expertise is on women's health and the role of traditional practices in Africa, especially Sudan, and the Middle East. Her research interests include the health of women and children with emphasis on female circumcision, spirit possession, healing and HIV prevention. Anthropology, which was formerly part of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, is housed in the College of Liberal Arts and is home to 13 faculty, 30 graduate students and 66 majors.

— Kevin Maurer has been appointed to the newly created position of director of strategic initiatives for University Residences, effective Aug. 1. Maurer currently serves as director of residential life and previously served as general manager of Harrison Hall. Maurer will work to ensure that University Residences' initiatives are aligned with the Purdue's strategic initiatives involving student success, diversity efforts and infrastructure improvement. He also will be responsible for measuring, assessing and reporting on University Residences' progress toward its strategic goals.

— Julie Talz has been named director of residential life for University Residences. She currently is general manager at Harrison Hall. Before coming to Purdue last year, Talz was director of residential life and associate dean of students at Manchester College.

— Orlando Garcia is the new residential life manager at Hillenbrand Hall. Since graduating from Purdue Calumet in 2003 with a degree in organizational leadership supervision, Garcia has served as a waterfront supervisor for Lake County Parks. Garcia also serves as president of the Purdue Calumet Alumni Association.

– Traves Freeland is the new residential life manager at Hilltop Apartments. Freeland previously was a staff resident at Owen Hall and residential life manager at Shreve Hall. He worked most recently as a RE/MAX Realtor in Lafayette, Ind.

 

• Faculty and staff honors:

— Jesse L. Moore, director of Purdue's Office of Supplier Diversity Development, was honored at the Black Business Conference of the Indiana Black Expo on July 18. Organizers recognized Moore for his work in supplier diversity during the Elected/Appointed Officials' luncheon reception at the Indianapolis Convention Center. The conference was a part of events connected with the Indiana Black Expo, which ran from July 10-20.

 

• Student honors:

— Skyler Jennings, who earned his doctor of audiology in 2008 and continues to study psychoacoustics at Purdue, was selected by the Audiology Foundation of America as the 2008 recipient for its Leo Doerfle Ph.D. Memorial Scholarship. Jennings will receive a $5,000 scholarship.

— Jayagenesh Swaminathan, a student working on a doctoral degree in hearing science, received the second-place prize for the Best Student Paper Award in Psychological and Physiological Acoustics by the Acoustical Society of America. The paper, "Neural coding of envelope and fine structure in noise degraded speech," was presented in July at the society's annual meeting in Paris.

— Purdue University doctoral student Idris Amusan has been named a fellow in a program named for Norman Borlaug, the "Father of the Green Revolution." The $20,000 award was made on the basis of Amusan's research to identify mechanisms in corn that make it immune to damage by the parasitic weed Striga hermonthica, which attacks cereal and legume plants. In the sub-Saharan region of Africa, the annual corn loss from Striga infestation impacts the quality of life for approximately100 million people. The Borlaug International Agricultural Science and Technology Fellows Program was founded in 2004 to honor Borlaug, who is credited with saving millions of lives through his development of high-yield wheat varieties for use in India and Pakistan. In 1970, the Nobel Committee awarded him the Peace Prize for reversing starvation in the region.

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

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