January 16, 2009

Appointments, honors and activities

— Out of 41 productions, Purdue Division of Theatre's production of "The Seagull" was one of nine productions that were selected to be performed at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Region III Conference in Saginaw, Mich., earlier this month. It is being considered along with one other production for inclusion at the national level Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Conference in Washington, D.C., this spring.

At the conference, a number of Purdue students and a professor were recognized for their achievements. They included:

-   Stevie Chaddock (partner, Rufus Burns) and Lauren Sivak (partner, Jake Mahler) were two of 16 finalists from a group of 245 to be passed on to the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship Finals.

-   Emily Waecker received a Certificate of Merit Award for her costume design for "Marat/Sade."

-   Chris Holland received a Certificate of Merit Award for his lighting design for "Hair."

-   Stevie Chaddock won a NAPAT Classical Acting award.

-   Jessica Pribble won second place in the Barbizon Costume competition.

-   Andrea Morales went on to compete in the semifinals of the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship competition.

-         Russ Jones, professor of scenic design within the Division of Theatre, received a Certificate of Merit Award for his work on the production "Hair."

• Alumni honors

— Purdue University graduate Don Cox was named chief executive officer of Evans Transportation Services, a third-party logistics company that assists customers in managing their transportation needs. He joined Evans in February 2007 as chief operating officer. Prior to that he was senior vice president of sales and marketing at Chr. Hansen Inc., an international food industry company. Cox also earned a master's degree in business administration from Marquette University.

• Student honors

— Elizabeth Munz, a third-year doctoral student in the Department of Communication, has been named one of the recipients for the Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award. The award is given by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, and it recognizes 10 graduate students from different disciplines and American universities. The winners will be recognized in January at the association's annual convention in Seattle.

— Rafael Smith, a senior in the College of Liberal Arts' industrial design program, was named a finalist in the 2008 International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) competition. He won for his Über Shelter design, which is a modular, quickly deployable emergency shelter, primarily intended for use within refugee camps. Smith, who is from Indianapolis, is interning at Teams Design in Germany.

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

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