September 26, 2008

Purdue trustees approve named professorships, endowed chair

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue University board of trustees on Friday (Sept. 26) ratified the appointments of faculty to one distinguished and four named professorships and a sixth appointment for an endowed chair in management.

The board also ratified several administrative appointments: vice chancellors for academic affairs at Purdue University North Central and Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne; new deans of the Helmke Library, College of Visual and Performing Arts, and Doermer School of Business and Management Sciences at IPFW; and director of IPFW's Wireless Technology Center in the College of Engineering, Technology and Computer Science.

The board also approved a bachelor's degree in human resources at Purdue North Central, the restructuring of two academic departments at IPFW and the faculty constitution at Purdue University Calumet.

Trustees approved the appointments of the following professors: Charles A. Bouman as the Michael J. and Katherine R. Birck Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Edward J. Delp as the Silicon Valley Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Karen L. Fingerman to the Berner-Hanley Professorship in Gerontology in the Department of Child Development and Family Studies in the College of Consumer and Family Sciences; Jeffrey J. Reuer as the Blake Family Endowed Chair in Strategic Management and Governance in the Krannert School of Management; Wojciech Szpankowski as the Saul Rosen Professor of Computer Science; and Michael D. Zoltowski as the Thomas J. and Wendy Engibous Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

The newest appointments bring the university's total of named and distinguished professors to 158.

"Purdue excels as a leader because of faculty like these who distinguish themselves through their research, teaching and leadership," said Provost Randy Woodson. "Our professors have been able to make a difference in the lives of their students and the world through their research endeavors."

Bouman
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Bouman, a professor in electrical and computer engineering, is co-director of university's magnetic resonance imaging facility at Purdue Research Park. His research focuses on the use of statistical image models, multiscale techniques and fast algorithms in applications including tomographic reconstruction, medical imaging, and document rendering and acquisition.

He is a fellow of the Society for Imaging Science and Technology, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and the Society of Photographic and Instrumentation Engineers.

Bouman received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 1981, his master's degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1982 and his doctorate from Princeton University in 1989. He was staff member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory from 1982-85 and joined the Purdue faculty in 1989.

Delp
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Delp, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, has been at Purdue since 1984. His research interests include image and video compression, multimedia security, medical imaging, multimedia systems, communication, and information theory. Delp has consulted for various companies and government agencies in the areas of signal, image, video processing, pattern recognition and secure communications.

In 2004 he received the Technical Achievement Award from the IEEE Signal Processing Society for his work in image and video compression and multimedia security. In 2001 Delp received the Raymond C. Bowman Award for fostering education in imaging science from the Society for Imaging Science and Technology. In 2000 he was selected a distinguished lecturer of the IEEE Signal Processing Society and in 2002 and 2006 he was awarded Nokia fellowships. In 2008 he was appointed to the scientific advisory board of the Nokia Research Center.

Delp earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Cincinnati. He earned his doctorate from Purdue. He was named to a distinguished professor appointment by the Academy of Finland at Tampere International Center for Signal Processing at the Tampere University of Technology in Finland. He has an honorary doctorate from Tampere, and he has taught at the University of Michigan.

Fingerman
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Fingerman, a professor of developmental and family studies, came to Purdue in 2003. Her research focuses on social relationships, emotions and aging. The National Institute on Aging and the MacArthur Network on Transitions to Adulthood are funding a study she is conducting on middle-aged adults, their adult children and their aging parents.

She is chair of the distinguished career awards committee of the Gerontological Society of America and a member-at-large of the American Psychological Association. She has been elected as a fellow of both organizations.

Fingerman earned her master's degree and doctorate from the University of Michigan and was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford School of Medicine. She worked as a faculty member at Penn State University before arriving at Purdue.

Reuer
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Reuer came to Purdue in August as a professor of management in the Krannert School. He is the author of more than 30 articles for referred publications, many in top journals in the management field. He has edited several books and written chapters for other books on management.

He is a member of the Strategic Management Society and was the recipient of the organization's 2007 Emerging Scholar Award. Reuer's research is in the area of corporate strategy, and his current work uses information economics and real options theory to examine corporate investments such as alliances and acquisitions.

Reuer earned his doctorate from the Krannert School in 1997 and has been a faculty member at the international business school INSEAD in France, Ohio State University and the University of North Carolina, where he was the Boyd W. Harris Jr. Distinguished Scholar.

Szpankowski
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Szpankowski, a professor of computer science and, by courtesy, electrical and computer engineering, teaches and conducts research in the analysis of algorithms, information theory, bioinformatics, analytic combinatorics, random structures and stability problems of distributed systems. He is a fellow of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, the Erskine Fellow and the Humboldt Fellow.

He held several visiting professor/scholar positions, including at McGill University, the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science, Stanford University, Hewlett-Packard Labs, Universite de Versailles, University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and Poznan University of Technology in Poland. In 2008, together with his Purdue colleagues, Szpankowski launched the Institute for Science of Information to advance a novel framework for information.

Szpankowski earned his master's degree in electrical engineering and computer science in 1976, and his doctorate in same discipline in 1980, both from the Technical University of Gdansk in Poland.

Zoltowski
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Zoltowski, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, came to Purdue in 1986. He conducts research on signal processing for multi-antenna wireless communications, radar and sonar. He was the recipient of both the Ruth and Joel Spira Outstanding Teacher Award and the Wilfred Hesselberth Award for Teaching Excellence. He was named a University Faculty Scholar in 2001.

He received the 2001 Leonard G. Abraham Prize Paper in the field of communication systems and the Technical Achievement Award from the Signal Processing Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2002. In 2003 he was named a distinguished lecturer for the IEEE Signal Processing Society. He is a fellow of IEEE.

Zoltowski earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from Drexel University and his doctorate in systems engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 1986.

Trustees also approved appointments at Purdue North Central and Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne.

McKinney
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William J. McKinney was ratified as the new vice chancellor for academic affairs at IPFW and Karen Schmid's appointment to the same position at Purdue North Central also was ratified.

McKinney was dean of the College of Humanities, Fine and Performing Arts at Slippery Rock University before coming to IPFW. He also taught at Bucknell University, Southeast Missouri State University and the University of Kentucky. He earned bachelor's degrees in history and chemical engineering from Bucknell in 1986, a master's degree in history and philosophy of science from Indiana University in 1989, and a doctorate in philosophy of science from IU in 1993.

Schmid
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Schmid comes to Purdue North Central after serving as associate vice president for academic affairs at Indiana State University. There, her responsibilities included curriculum, assessment, program review and accreditation. She also taught and served as an administrator at West Chester University in Pennsylvania, St. Cloud State University and the College of St. Benedict/St. John's University. She earned her master's degree in human development from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and her doctorate in family social science from the University of Minnesota.

At IPFW, trustees ratified the appointments of Otto B. Chang as dean of the Richard T. Doermer School of Business and Management Sciences and Paul E. Shaffer Professor of Accounting with tenure; Todor Cooklev as director of the wireless technology center in the College of Engineering, Technology and Computer Science; Charles O'Connor as dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts and professor of theatre with tenure; and Cheryl B. Truesdell as dean of the Walter E. Helmke Library and librarian with tenure.

Chang
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Chang had served as associate dean of the College of Business and Public Administration at California State University-San Bernardino. He is an accounting and business educator who specializes in taxation, management, international accounting, business ethics and philosophy, corporate governance and social responsibility.

Cooklev
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Cooklev is the founding director of IPFW's Wireless Technology Center. He teaches and does research in digital signal processing, wireless systems and software-defined radio. He is the author of more than 70 publications in these areas and was named the 2006 wireless educator of the year by the Global Wireless Education Consortium. He received his doctorate in electrical engineering from the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1995.

O'Connor
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O'Connor had served as chair and executive director of the Department of Theatre and the Nevada Conservatory Theatre at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. He is a scene designer with a focus on computer simulation for theater and broadcast media.

Truesdell had served as associate director at the library before her promotion. In 2007 she was elected vice president and president-elect of the Indiana Library Federation.

Truesdell
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The trustees also approved a degree program in human resources at Purdue North Central. Woodson said there is a growing demand for human resource professionals, and the field is expected to grow faster than the average of all occupations through 2014. The four-year degree will require 126 credits. Enrollment is projected to be 33 students in the first year with an increase to 39 students by the fifth year.  

The trustees also approved the restructuring of two departments at IPFW to create four departments. The university's visual arts department was divided to create the Department of Fine Arts and Department of Visual Communication and Design. Also, the Department of Sociology and Anthropology was split to become the Department of Anthropology and the Department of Sociology.

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

Sources: Randy Woodson, woodson@purdue.edu

Charles A. Bouman, (765) 494-0340, bouman@purdue.edu

Edward Delp, (765) 494-1740, ace@ecn.purdue.edu

Karen L. Fingerman, (765) 496-6378, karenf@purdue.edu

Jeffrey Reuer, jreuer@purdue.edu

Wojciech Szpankowski, (765) 494-6703, szpan@purdue.edu

Michael Zoltowski, (765) 494-3512, Michael.d.zoltowski.1@purdue.edu

William J. McKinney, (260) 481-6117, mckinney@ipfw.edu

Karen Schmid, (219) 785-5750, kschmid@pnc.edu

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

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