September 15, 2008

College of Science honors 9 outstanding alumni with awards

The ceremony recognized alumni in the departments of computer science, earth and atmospheric sciences, mathematics and statistics, and the actuarial science program.

"The Outstanding Alumni Awards were created to recognize alumni who have made exceptional contributions in their field and related fields," said Jonathan Harbor, interim dean of the College of Science. "The honorees have not only shaped the science but are role models and an inspiration to our students who seek to follow in their footsteps."

The 2008 outstanding science alumni honored were:

*Angela Buchman of Fishers, Ind., is a meteorologist for WISH-TV news in Indianapolis. Buchman has received two Emmy Awards for her work on WISH-TV. She began her career with the National Weather Service while attending Purdue and started her broadcasting career as a forecaster at WLFI-TV in Lafayette. She worked four years at KCRA-TV in Sacramento, Calif. While there, Sacramento Magazine voted her the city's best weathercaster. She received her bachelor's degree in atmospheric science from Purdue in 1996 and is a member of the American Meteorological Society.

*"Phillip" Ke-Hsiung Chung of Taipei, Taiwan, is a retired Army Major General for Taiwan and vice president for MiTAC International Corp., an electronics and computer company based in Taiwan. Chung served as provost of National Defense University in Taiwan and was named a major general in 1997. He retired from the Army in 2001 and took his position at MiTAC. Chung earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the National Defense University in Taiwan in 1974 and master's in information and computer science from Georgia Tech in 1986. He earned a doctorate in computer science from Purdue in 1993.

*James Clamons of Palm Bay, Fla., vice president of engineering for the government communication systems division of the Harris Corp. in Melbourne, Fla. Clamons has volunteered his time to the Palm Bay (Fla.) High School's academy advisory board and its FIRST Robotics team, Brevard County Habitat for Humanity, Hacienda Girls Ranch, Royal Palm (Fla.) Charter School, and Florida State University advisory board. He earned his bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1975 and master's in computer science in 1977, both from Purdue.  He volunteers as a corporate partner in Purdue's computer science department.

*Vincent DeGiulio of Chicago, is a senior executive at Accenture, one of the world's largest technology services firms.  He is part of Accenture’s systems integration practice specializing in delivering large-scale, custom technology solutions to clients. He has spent more than 21 years designing and implementing technology solutions to support his clients' core operational processes. DeGiulio joined Accenture (known as Arthur Andersen at the time) in 1987 after receiving his bachelor's degree in computer science from Purdue.

*Jeffery McNeal of Dublin, Ohio, an associate dean in the College of Mathematics and Physical Sciences at Ohio State University in Columbus. McNeal spent eight years at Princeton University, where he was director of graduate studies from 1993-96. He moved to Ohio State in 1996, where he also was a professor of mathematics. He has served 10 years on the department advisory committee, lecture committee, graduate studies committee, Master's Task Force, and the communication's committee. He has earned a National Science Foundation Early CAREER Award, the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship and a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellowship. McNeal earned his doctorate from Purdue in 1988.

*Amalia M. Olivera-Riley of The Woodlands, Texas, the supervisor of the South America regional team at ExxonMobil Exploration Co. in Houston. Olivera-Riley has been involved in a broad variety of geoscience projects in Africa and the Americas, ranging from large-scale regional studies to field scale projects. Her technical contributions have been focused in the field of stratigraphy, regional geology and seismic interpretation, applying an integrative approach to exploration geoscience. She earned her doctorate in geoscience at Purdue in 1995 and studied at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

*Franklin "Pete" Robertson of Huntsville, Ala., a research scientist with the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., where he leads the climate diagnostics and modeling group. Robertson's work has been dedicated to understanding Earth from the perspective of space and the use of data from satellites to quantify tropical climate variability. He was the recipient of the center’s Commendation Award for his investigation of energy and water cycle feedback processes. He earned his bachelor's in physical geography from the University of Georgia in 1971. He earned his master's and doctorate degrees in meteorology from Purdue in 1978 and 1981.

*H. Paul Root of Kennett Square, Pa., is the retired president and chief executive officer of the Marketing Science Institute in Cambridge, Mass. Before retiring in 2004, he served as chief marketing officer at the institute, as well. Prior to joining the institute in 1990, he had been the director of corporate marketing research at the DuPont Co. since 1982.  Root received his bachelor's degree in statistics from Purdue in 1959. He completed his master's degree from Purdue's Krannert School of Management in 1963, where he later became director of admissions. He earned his doctorate at Purdue in 1969 and joined the faculty at the University of Michigan Business School.

*Daniel Rubin of Dublin, Ohio, is a senior actuary for Nationwide Insurance Co., which is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Rubin is in charge of the statutory, generally accepted accounting procedures, and tax reserving for all the individual annuity product lines at Nationwide. He is a fellow of the Society of Actuaries and the member of the American Academy of Actuaries. Rubin earned his bachelor's degree in mathematics from Purdue in 1988. He is a longtime member of the Purdue Actuarial Science Advisory Council. Rubin was president of the Actuary Club at Purdue while he was a student.

The College of Science has 324 faculty members, and it enrolls more than 1,000 graduate students and almost 3,000 undergraduates. It is made up of seven departments: biology, chemistry, computer science, earth and atmospheric sciences, mathematics, physics and statistics.

Writer: Clyde Hughes, (765) 494-2073, jchughes@purdue.edu

Source: Jon Harbor, (765) 494-1938, jharbor@purdue.edu

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

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