March 27, 2009
Appointments, honors and activities
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— Ken Foster, a professor of agricultural economics and Purdue University alumnus, has been named head of Purdue's Department of Agricultural Economics in the College of Agriculture. He has served as the department's interim head since August 2008 and leads a department that offers seven academic majors, conducts research and serves Indiana residents through Extension-related activities. Foster specializes in production economics and the marketing of livestock products. He has received two separate awards for research and outreach efforts from the Gamma Sigma Delta honor society. He also received the Purdue Agriculture Graduate Educator Award in 2006, the Cooperative Extension Service Association Award and the Dean's Team Award.
A publication-quality photo of Ken Foster is available: https://www.purdue.edu/uns/images/+2009/foster-k09.jpg
• Campus activities:
— Thomas Easterday, Subaru of Indiana Automotive Inc.'s senior vice president, secretary and general counsel, is the 2009 winner of Purdue's Excellence in Manufacturing Innovation award, given annually by the university's Center for Advanced Manufacturing. Easterday has helped lead sustainability efforts at SIA, which has a zero landfill rate and a 99 percent recycling rate at the 3,000-employee Lafayette plant. The Excellence in Manufacturing Innovation award, presented in conjunction with the Discovery Park center's eighth annual Advancing Manufacturing Summit, goes to an individual whose vision and leadership creates a new standard in manufacturing by envisioning, implementing and achieving results that conventional wisdom would otherwise view as improbable or impossible, said John Sullivan, director of Purdue's Center for Advanced Manufacturing. Purdue President-emeritus Martin C. Jischke was the inaugural winner in 2007 for launching Discovery Park to focus the university's large-scale interdisciplinary research efforts. John Schneider, Purdue's assistant vice president for industry research, won in 2008 for advancing the university's industry-sponsored research.
• Alumni honors:
— Omari Dyson, a former College of Education graduate student from New York, received the American Educational Research Association, Division B (curriculum studies), Outstanding Dissertation of the Year Award for 2009. His dissertation, "The Life and Work of the Philadelphia Black Panthers: The Curricular and Pedagogical Implications of their Social Transformation Efforts," highlights the character of various Black Panther chapters around the country. He earned his doctorate from Purdue in 2008.
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