Special Awards and Recognition - The Graduate School

Information for:

Grad School Main > Rankings and Recognition > Special Awards and Recognition

Special Awards and Recognition

Purdue University President Córdova
Faculty
Facilities
Research

Purdue President France A. Córdova's Special Awards and Recognition

2008

Córdova, a former NASA chief scientist, was appointed to the National Science Board, the 24-member governing body of the National Science Foundation. Members of the board serve six-year terms and act as independent policy advisors to the president and Congress.
Córdova was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, which celebrates cutting-edge research and scholarship, artistic accomplishment, and exemplary service to society.

Purdue University Faculty Special Awards and Recognition

2009

Bert A. Rockman, professor and head of the department of political science, was elected a fellow to the National Academy of Public Administration. The academy's fellows address emerging issues and contribute to the intellectual and popular discourse on government.
Monica Cox, an assistant professor of engineering education, has been named a recipient of a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor awarded by the U.S. government to young researchers. Her research focuses on better understanding how to prepare graduate engineering students for careers in academia and industry. Cox will receive the award from President Obama in a fall ceremony at the White House.
Gebisa Ejeta, Distinguished Professor of Agronomy at Purdue, received the 2009 World Food Prize for his research leading to the increased production and availability of sorghum in his native Africa. Ejeta, a plant breeder and geneticist, developed sorghum varieties resistant to drought and Striga, a parasitic weed. Sorghum is a major food crop for more than 500 million people on the African continent. The World Food Prize is considered the Nobel Prize of Hunger and is awarded each year by the World Food Prize Foundation to individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity, or availability of food worldwide.
Mark S. Lundstrom, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Doraiswami Ramkrishna, a professor of chemical engineering, were elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Purdue's College of Engineering has more than 20 professors elected to the academy in the following engineering fields: bioengineering, chemical, civil, computer science and engineering, electrical and computer engineering, electronics, industrial, and interdisciplinary engineering.
Mary Nakhleh, professor in the colleges of science and education, has been named a fellow in the American Educational Research Association's Fellows Program, which honors education researchers with substantial research accomplishments.
Matthew Holt and John Connor, agricultural economics professors, were named Fellows of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association. This is the highest honor that can be given in the agricultural economics industry by peers.

2008

Jue Chen, an associate professor of biological sciences, is the first Purdue scientist to be appointed as an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Chen is the only current investigator in Indiana and the third person ever to be appointed from an Indiana institution.
Kumares Sinha, the Edgar B. and Hedwig M. Olson Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering, and Andrew M. Weiner, the Scifres Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering were elected to the National Academy of Engineering.
Nine Purdue University faculty members won the National Science Foundation's most prestigious honor for outstanding young researchers in 2008. The Faculty Early Career Development awards range from $300,000-$500,000 in research funding over four or five years. About 400 researchers win the awards annually. Purdue's recipients for 2008 are Robin Adams, Monica Cox, Inseok Hwang, Dan Jiao, Guy Lebanon, Melvin Leok, Chang Lu, Dimitrios Peroulis, and Luo Si.
E. Dan Hirleman, head of Purdue University 's School of Mechanical Engineering, received the 2008 George Brown Award for International Scientific Cooperation from the U.S. Civilian Research & Development Foundation. The foundation is a nonprofit organization authorized by Congress and established in 1995 by the National Science Foundation. It promotes international scientific and technical collaboration. The award is the foundation's highest honor.
English professor Robert Lamb was honored as Indiana's Top Educator for excellence in undergraduate teaching and mentoring.

2007

Kevin Gurney, associate director of the Purdue Climate Change Research Center and assistant professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and Agronomy, shares the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore and the other scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC.
Nancy Ho, research professor in the School of Chemical Engineering and head of the Molecular Genetics Group at Purdue's Laboratory of Renewable Resources Engineering (LORRE), was recognized by former President George W. Bush during his 2007 State of the Union Address. She is recognized globally for her work with a strain of yeast that will convert biomass, such as corn stalks and wood chips, into ethanol, a process that could fuel American vehicles long after some natural resources are exhausted.
Biomedical Engineering professor Leslie Geddes received the nation's highest honor for technological innovation, the National Medal of Technology, from former President George W. Bush. He is Purdue's Showalter Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Biomedical Engineering.
Philip Nelson, the Scholle Chair Professor in Food Processing, received the 2007 World Food Prize for his work in aseptic processing, developing the "bag in a box" technique to process large quantities of seasonal crops for long-term storage and bulk transportation without losing nutritional value or taste. The World Food Prize has been called the "Nobel Prize for Hunger."

Purdue University Facilities Special Awards and Recognition

2008

The Richard and Patricia Lawson Computer Science Building won the Outstanding Design Excellence Award by the American School and University magazine. The 107,000 square foot building opened in 2006. It provides meeting rooms and space for 45 faculty, 55 teaching assistants, and 70 research assistants and houses four classrooms, five instructional labs, and four main research labs.

The Richard and Patricia Lawson Computer Science Building won the 2008 Outstanding Design Excellence Award by the American School and University magazine.

2006

Yue-Kong Pao Hall for Visual and Performing Arts was named winner of the 2006 Project of Distinction Education Design Showcase. Pao Hall is a $48 million, state-of-the-art facility with two theaters and is home to the Department of Visual and Performing Arts' four divisions: Art and Design, Dance, Music, and Theatre.

Purdue University Research Special Awards and Recognition

2008

Purdue University forensic technology was featured on the November 24, 2008 episode of the hit CBS television series "CSI: Miami," bringing basic research from the laboratory into the living room of millions of viewers. The episode featured a fingerprint analysis tool developed by Purdue Chemistry professor R. Graham Cooks. A paper detailing the analysis process was published in the Aug. 8 issue of Science. The device reads a fingerprint's chemical signature and can unearth fingerprints buried beneath others or reveal what a person recently handled, as well as create an image of the fingerprint for identity searches.
The Purdue Research Foundation has received three 2008 International Economic Development Council Excellence (IEDC) in Economic Development Awards. The IEDC is the largest professional association of economic development practitioners in the world. The Purdue Research Foundation was recognized in three categories: entrepreneurship, Partnerships with Educational Institutions, and Technology-Based Economic Development. The Purdue Research Foundation is a private, nonprofit foundation created to advance the mission of Purdue University. The Purdue Research Foundation oversees the Purdue Research Park, which is the largest university-affiliated business incubator in the country.
Purdue University is leading a $1.65 million effort to begin research and development at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center in Indiana as part of a Homeland Security training initiative. The site replicates a small town, comprising five square city blocks, complete with 70 furnished buildings including a hospital, apartments, housing, a school, administration buildings, a power plant, and a water treatment facility. Purdue will develop a program for military and first responders, providing the nexus for decision making, the use of computational models, advanced technology, risk communications, situational awareness, and command.