| Purdue adds Academy member
Trustees approve 2 for designated professorships
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The Purdue University Board of Trustees today (Friday, 11/7) approved the appointment of two designated professorships, adding a member of the National Academy of Engineering to its faculty.
The board also ratified three previously announced administrative appointments.
Sangtae Kim, a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers, was named the Donald W. Fedderson Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering. Rusi P. Taleyarkhan, who is conducting groundbreaking research in nuclear fusion and metastable fluids, was named the Arden L. Bement Jr. Professor of Nuclear Engineering. Kim's appointment was effective Nov. 1, and Taleyarkhan's designation is effective immediately.
"These two appointments advance one of the goals outlined in the university's strategic plan: to recruit the world's finest minds and leaders in academia and industry," said Provost Sally Mason. "The addition of Professor Kim, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, is a significant boost to the university's excellent Schools of Engineering. Election into the academy is one of the highest professional distinctions given to an engineer. Dr. Taleyarkhan's work in nuclear fusion will help maintain Purdue's place on the cutting edge of scientific research. Both professors are joining Purdue following decades of scientific achievement in their respective fields, and we are honored to have them."
Eleven of Purdue's 304 engineering faculty members, including Kim, belong to the academy. The National Academy of Engineering has more than 2,000 peer-elected members who are among the world's most accomplished engineers in academia, business and government.
Kim comes to Purdue from his position as vice president and information officer in the research and development division of Eli Lilly and Co. in Indianapolis. Before serving in that capacity, he was vice president for scientific information resources at Pfizer Global Research and Development, a division of Pfizer Inc.
He was previously vice president of scientific information resources for Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical Research, Warner-Lambert Co. Before entering private industry, he held numerous positions in academia, most recently as a professor and chair of the chemical engineering department of the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
He received his doctorate degree from Princeton University after concurrently earning a master's degree in chemical engineering and bachelor's degree at California Institute of Technology. He is widely published in technical journals and is a lecturer and member of numerous professional and civic organizations. He has five active research grants and one patent.
Kim specializes in using powerful computers and mathematical methods to learn how proteins interact with other "microstructures" inside cells and to design electronic devices that may "self-assemble," similar to the growth of structures in living organisms. In self-assembly, devices might eventually be fabricated using techniques based on chemical attractions, rather than the complex and expensive processes now used.
While at the University of Wisconsin, Kim led research programs funded by the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research. His years in the pharmaceutical research environment have helped shape a current research interest: using numerous computers linked together to perform "massively parallel processing" to discover new drugs. He also is developing a new class of radio-frequency identification devices by creating manufacturing processes that operate at the scale of nanometers, or billionths of a meter.
Prior to coming to Purdue, Taleyarkhan held the title of distinguished scientist/engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn. He was previously a group leader/senior engineer and senior engineer/program manager at Oak Ridge. He was a senior engineer at Westinghouse Electric Corp. and a research associate at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
He received his doctorate in nuclear engineering and science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he also earned an MBA and a master's degree in nuclear engineering. He earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology.
He is widely cited in technology journals, has more than 20 international patents and invention awards, and has given more than 30 invited keynote lectures at worldwide institutions. He is an international nuclear energy consultant and a member of numerous professional societies and committees.
Taleyarkhan recently led research aimed at discovering a method that has the potential for developing a new energy source using simple mechanical energy to initiate and control nuclear fusion forces in a tabletop experiment. The discovery was published in Science (3/8/2002) and has been publicized on television, radio and in scientific journals.
Donald W. Fedderson, for whom Kim's professorship is named, is a venture capitalist living in Wellesley, Mass. A partner with Bessemer Venture Partners, Feddersen serves on the boards of directors of several other high-tech companies. He earned his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue in 1956 and received an honorary doctorate in 2001. He was named an Outstanding Mechanical Engineer by the school in 1991 and received the Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award from the Schools of Engineering in 1985. He also is a member of the Mechanical Engineering Industrial Advisory Council and chairs the Mechanical Engineering Campaign Steering Committee at Purdue.
The second professorship is named for Arden L. Bement Jr., who has been on extended leave from his position as head of Purdue's School of Nuclear Engineering since receiving a presidential appointment in 2001 to direct the U.S. Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Bement, Purdue's David A. Ross Distinguished Professor and head of the School of Nuclear Engineering, has held appointments in the schools of Nuclear Engineering, Materials Engineering, and Electrical and Computer Engineering. He was director of the Midwest Superconductivity Consortium and the Consortium for the Intelligent Management of the Electrical Power Grid. He joined the Purdue faculty after a 39-year career in industry, government and academia.
These designations bring the number of named professors to 33 and distinguished professors to 57.
The board today also ratified three previously announced upper administrative appointments: Riall W. Nolan as dean of International Programs; Barry Kanpol as dean of the School of Education at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne; and Gerard Voland as dean of the School of Engineering, Technology and Computer Science and director of the Division of Organizational Leadership and Supervision at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne.
Nolan recently served as the associate provost and director for the Institute of Global Studies and Affairs at the University of Cincinnati. Previously, he was dean of International Affairs and Programs at Golden Gate University in San Francisco and director of the International Management Development Institute at the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. His appointment is effective Jan. 1.
Kanpol was most recently associate professor and chair of the Department of Education at Saint Joseph's University. His areas of expertise are curriculum and instruction, philosophy of education, and sociological theory. Kanpol's appointment was effective July 14.
Since 1999, Voland served as the dean of the undergraduate college, associate vice president for undergraduate education and associate professor of mechanical engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He is the author of several textbooks, and his research interests include engineering design and interdisciplinary learning. His appointment was effective Aug. 23.
Writer: Reni Winter, (765) 496-3133, rwinter@purdue.edu
Sources: Barry Kanpol, (260) 481-6456, kanpolb@ipfw.edu
Sangtae Kim, (765) 494-5345, kim55@purdue.edu
Riall Nolan, (513) 556-4402, nolanrw@email.uc.edu
Rusi P. Taleyarkhan, , (765) 494-0198, rusi@purdue.edu
Gerard Voland, (260) 481-6839, volandg@ipfw.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
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