Insights MagazineFall2014

Purdue College of Science | Fall 2014

:: NEW FACULTY Q&A :: FIELD NOTES FROM ALASKA

ALSO INSIDE

DEDICATED TO RESEARCH

Purdue University offi-cials formally dedicated the Center for Drug Discovery and the Bindley Bioscience Center expan-sion with a ceremonial ribbon cutting and pag-eantry in September, but the research facilities have been active since spring as their shared high-tech labs became fully functional. Researchers in both buildings strive to find cures and new treat-ments for cancer and many of the planet’s most dangerous infec-tious diseases, all prime examples of the world-changing research emphasized under the Purdue Moves campaign.

P H O T O B Y S T E V E N Y A N G

PRODUCTION & MEDIA

Eric Nelson, managing editor

Julie Sadler, senior graphic designer

Tim Brouk, senior writer and contributing photographer

Andrew Hancock, Charles Jischke, Mark Simons and Steven Yang, contributing

photographers

Dan Howell, copy editor

William Meiners and Elizabeth Gardner, contributing writers

ADMINISTRATIONJeffrey Roberts

Frederick L. Hovde Dean of Science

George P. McCabe Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

Dennis Minchella Associate Dean for

Undergraduate Education

Elizabeth Taparowsky Associate Dean for Research

and Graduate Education

Tim Brouk Communications and

Media Specialist

DEPARTMENT HEADSRichard J. Kuhn

Biological Sciences

Timothy Zwier (interim) Chemistry

Sunil Prabhakar Computer Science

Indrajeet Chaubey Earth, Atmospheric, and

Planetary Sciences

Gregery Buzzard Mathematics

Andrew Hirsch (interim) Physics

Rebecca W. Doerge Statistics

© 2014 by the Purdue University College of Science. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be

reproduced or duplicated without the prior written permission of the publisher. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information included in this publication at the time of printing, the publisher shall not be liable for

damages arising from errors or omissions.

An equal access/equal opportunity university COS.14.4779

Think back to when you started college. More than likely, you had your eye on a specific career — and chose your major and coursework accordingly. We take tremendous pride in the College of Science at our success in preparing students for that first post-graduation job. But the impact of a science degree is much deeper. Our rigorous training in science and mathematics helps build lifelong habits and skills — hard work, critical thinking and analysis, intellec-tual flexibility and resiliency. Our graduates leave Purdue knowing how to solve thorny problems and ready to succeed in whatever field they choose. I’m always excited when I hear from alumni about the impact and importance of Purdue in their lives.

In this issue of Insights, we explore how some of our alumni used their College of Science experience as a catalyst for change and a springboard for taking advantage of opportunities that could not have been imagined when they first stepped on the West Lafayette campus. You’ll learn how Purdue prepares our students to be adaptable and to thrive on change.

While many graduates enjoy successful careers at one company or institution, there are some who make the brave choice to switch gears. Sometimes this change comes early. Biological sciences alumnus Billy Crosby started at Eli Lilly and Company before finding an interesting fit as a configuration manager at Cummins Inc.

Other alumni made their changes further into their careers. Jon Ferency established a strong career as a software consultant with help from his com-puter science and mathematics degrees. After more than a decade, he wanted to transition from communicating with systems to interacting with teams and clients while still using his strong STEM skills as a global research and development finance manager for Roche Diagnostics.

College of Science graduates help implement change as well. Cary Supalo, another bio alum, has made national progress in the implementation of lab equipment for the visually impaired.

Of course, there is the world-changing research, too. You’ll meet bio sopho-more Nicole Biddinger, who came to Purdue with years of research experience from high school and summer programs at Oklahoma State University. Her suc-cess continues to build, and a minor planet was recently named in her honor.

Whether as a safety net or an enabler, I am proud to know that a Purdue College of Science degree can be an important instrument for change.

Thank you and please have a happy, warm and safe holiday season.

J E F F R E Y T . R O B E R T SFrederick L. Hovde Dean of the College of Science

C O V E R S T O R Y | 0 8From students transferring to growing degree programs

and alumni making career switches to research and

teaching that promises to impact lives and the future, this

issue of Insights examines how change is a constant in

the College of Science.

C o S L O G ORepresented in each of the radiating arms of this logo are the seven departments of the College of Science. The stability of the inner sphere symbolizes the knowledge and objectivity of science, while the implied movement of the outer configuration suggests the exploratory and interdisciplinary nature of the field.

D E P A R T M E N T S :2 8 F I E L D N O T E S3 0 B R E A K T H R O U G H S3 7 C L A S S N O T E S4 1 L A S T W O R D

04 F O R C E O F N A T U R ESenior Alex Marmo makes her debut as “Roller Vortex”

22 N E W F A C E SCollege expansion includes 30 new faculty members

32 S T A T I S T I C A L S U C C E S S$1.5 million grant helps sophomores tackle big data

34 T H R O U G H T H E W O R M H O L EProf. Rafael Lang sheds light on dark matter

F E A T U R E S :G R E E T I N G S ,

INSIGHTS | FALL 2014

After a year of practices, skills tests, scrimmages and rigorous physical training, Roller Vortex — also known as earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences senior Alex Marmo — made her official flat track roller derby debut Sept. 6 in Roselle, Illinois, against the DuPage Derby Dames’ Onslaught squad.

After earning her Women’s Flat Track Derby Association patch, Marmo, whose concentration is atmospheric science, rose through the ranks of the Lafayette Brawlin’ Dolls team and skated with the veterans. She participated in sev-eral jams — plays that see lead jammers earn points for their teams by passing the opposition’s jammer and blockers. Marmo, a Chicago-area native, also earned three points for her team as lead jammer.

The Dolls fell to the home team 267-85, but Marmo savored a personal accomplishment beyond the score. Starting as a source of stress relief in 2013, the sport has become yet another of her passions.

“I HIT THEIR JAMMER OUT MY SECOND OR THIRD TIME IN,” MARMO SAYS. “THAT FELT GOOD.”

In the past 15 years, flat track roller derby has enjoyed a resur-gence, starting in Austin, Texas, and moving up to the Midwest. The sport is the hottest it’s been since the vintage years of television in the 1950s, when women on skates battled it out in black-and-white broadcasts of over-the-top action to delighted fans. The sport peaked again briefly two decades later. A 1972 bout in Chicago’s Comiskey Park drew more

than 50,000, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The Lafayette Brawlin’ Dolls team has seen numerous Purdue students, staffers and even faculty in uniform over its six-year history. Others wait their turn, including chemistry graduate student Nikki “Nicole’d Blooded” Scarborough, who is currently in training with the Dolls to prepare for the high-contact sport.

Though Marmo is now an official skater, she admits to being “nervous” before her debut. Her parents and high school friends were in atten-dance. The DuPage team had veteran skaters that were not going to take it easy on an opposing rookie.

After some stretching, drills and game plans, Marmo hit the court decked in the Brawlin’ Dolls’ pink and black uniform and protec-tive gear — a helmet, elbow and knee pads, wrist guards and a bright-green mouth guard.

After falling behind early, the Dolls leaned on the veteran skat-ers, but Marmo was a defender on several jams. During her first turn, she missed a block and hit the court but got up quickly. She soon exacted her revenge by connecting on multiple blocks and hits later in the bout.

As time was winding down, Marmo got the call to don the jam-mer star helmet-cover and take the position behind the pack before the opening jam whistle. She was like a pinball at first, bouncing and getting hit from all sides. She then found some space, made a few quick cuts and broke away to earn her team a few points before the jam ended.

“It felt good once I passed a couple of the girls,” says Marmo, who also sports a “Star Wars” Death Star tattoo under her left forearm.

Marmo officially joined the Dolls midseason. She was activated in the summer and had months of

SIGNALSFORCE F NATURESENIOR ALEX MARMO TAKES THE DERBY TRACK AS ‘ROLLER VORTEX’B Y T I M B R O U K

4 | insights

LEA

D JA

MMER

signals the first jammer to legally make it through the

pack

O

UT

OF PLAY

illegal action 20ft. on either

side of the pack

NO PACK

players must reform when no pack is signalled or face penalities

PA

CK IS HERE

defines the in-play status of the largest group of blockers from

both teams

ELBOWSblocking

made by use of elbows, signaling a major or minor

penalty

(Photos by Charles Jischke)

preparation skating with the veter-ans. Dolls co-founder Beth “Biscuits N’ Crazy” McAuliffe says Marmo has shown deft skating early on.

“She’s doing great. She’s caught on to derby really quickly,” McAuliffe says. “She’s a good skater and has a wicked one-legged plow. She’s fun to have around.”

Marmo is also fun to have around the Purdue University Meteorological Association. She is the vice president and four-year member of PUMA, which strives for atmospheric science students to network, maintain academic excellence and get an early start on job searches. Weekly meetings are informal and concentrate on fellowship and talking about the weather.

PUMA president Joseph Bauer has studied atmospheric science alongside Marmo for four years. He has gotten to know her most from their interaction in PUMA.

“She brings roller derby up a lot. She always says we should come to see her skate,” says Bauer, who has been familiar with the sport for years through a cousin.

“It’s definitely something she is passionate about.”

Bauer says Marmo, like all PUMA members, is equally passion-ate about weather, but he under-stands how a hobby can turn into something more while working on projects and cramming for exams.

“From the perspective of a student, any program at Purdue will give you a good degree, but also comes with some stress,” Bauer says. “We all need to do something completely separate from our stud-ies to bring relief.”

Marmo says that it’s sometimes a struggle to balance school and roller derby, but her determination in both moves her forward.

“I am working on research with Professor Ernest Agee to assess the extreme nature of the 2011 tornado season. I’ve gathered and compiled data to make graphs showing how 2011 was a record-setting season. It had much greater tornado track lengths, which led to more fatali-ties,” she says. “Even though the total number of tornadoes was average, it was still a record-setting season due to the higher-intensity tornadoes and long-track storms.

“I am hoping to conclude this project, present at the American Meteorological Association confer-ence, and maybe even publish our findings in a scientific journal.”

With the first bout out of the way, Marmo’s taste for the hard-hitting sport of roller derby has grown and will be a part of her life as she also continues to be a force in her chosen field of atmospheric science.

“I HAVE A LOT MORE HOMEWORK AND

PROJECTS THIS YEAR,” MARMO SAYS. “BUT

DERBY IS STILL A GOOD STRESS RELIEF.”

Flat track roller derby is played on an oval track with two competing teams. The pivots and blockers from both teams skate together on the track to form a single pack. Once the last pack member skates 30 feet from the starting line, a whistle is blown and the jam-mers begin to skate.

The jammers must skate and muscle their way through the pack and completely exit it to gain the ability to score points. Once the jammer fights her way out of the pack, she then races around the track in order to lap the pack. At this point, each time the jammer passes a member of the other team, she scores one point for her team. The first jammer that legally passes through the pack first wins the status of lead jammer.

A jam ends when the two-minute time period is over or the lead jammer calls off the jam.

Source: Rollerderbyresource.com

JAMMERSPIVOTSBLOCKERS

RULESRESEARCH

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6 | insights

MAJORSTUDENTS MAKE A SCIENCE OF TRANS-FERRING SKILLS FROM OTHER DISCIPLINES

B Y T I M B R O U K

t SAHAANA MUKUNDAN

Fall 2014 | 9(Photos by Charles Jischke)

The College of Science is welcoming an increasing number of Change of Degree Objective (CODO)/Change of Curricula students who choose to transfer from other Purdue colleges and schools.

The Department of Computer Science in particular has seen an influx of engineering transfer students in recent semesters. Purdue’s first “BoilerMake,” a large-scale, high-energy hacking event in February, prompted the switch for some. More are likely to emerge from October’s second installment of the 36-hour programming and innovation competition.

Among the newest transfers to computer science (CS) are students like Spencer Brown, who began as a computer engineering major before deciding to focus on the programming and software end of computing.

“Computer engineering is more hardware-focused,” says Brown, now a sophomore. “After going to hack-athons and doing side projects, I realized I liked software more.”

Brown has already made a big impact outside of classrooms and labs by helping lead the most recent BoilerMake event. He also is a member of the Computer Science Undergraduate Student Board and vice president of Purdue Hackers, a popular student organization that unites coders from all majors.

Academically, the transition has been smooth for Brown. “The classes I’ve had so far have been interest-ing,” he says.

Brown and other students involved in organizations like BoilerMake view CS as being the key to potential startups, innovation and lucrative careers in such grow-ing fields as cybersecurity and social media.

The potential for greater career success also brought Evan Walsh to CS from engineering. A sophomore, Walsh joined Purdue Hackers and quickly got hooked on computing.

“I talked with older friends who are programmers and chose com-puter engineering as a major and now wish they had chosen CS instead,” Walsh says. “I was quickly convinced that changing majors would be a better use of my skills and make easier to learn what I actually wanted to do, so I dropped all of my engineering classes and switched to CS four weeks into the semester.”

With a couple years of rigorous coursework yet to go, Walsh’s career aspirations will become more focused. For now, both large technol-ogy companies and grassroots startups hold equal appeal, but he already is looking forward to the next challenge.

“The CS curriculum is perfect for learning lots of different pro-gramming skills,” he says. “The courses I’ve taken so far have defi-nitely helped prepare me for the types of jobs that hold the most interest for me.”

Although enrollment in the expanding computer science department continues to surge, it’s not the only destination for students from other colleges or schools at Purdue. From fall 2012 to fall 2013, 159 students transferred to the College of Science, including 50 who changed their majors to biological sciences. Among them were Sahaana Mukundan and Erich Weidenbener, who were especially drawn to the diverse nature of courses and versatile career train-ing within the department.

Now a senior, Mukundan transferred from the College of Pharmacy after her sophomore year because she felt a biology major would give her more oppor-tunities after graduation.

“I have the option of doing research, going to medical school, graduate school or even returning to pharmacy if I am still interest-ed,” Mukundan says. “My goal is to help my community by reaching out to them both personally and professionally.”

Coming to Purdue with plans to become a physician, Weidenbener opted into engineering to fulfill his pre-med requirements. After a semester of honors engineering, the now-junior changed his major to biological sciences.

“I have always loved the sci-ences, and biology was specifically appealing to me,” Weidenbener says. “I learned that changing majors would not delay my pre-med course of study, so I decided to make the transition.”

With a passion for health care, Weidenbener took the time to earn his Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) certification through the Indiana Department of Homeland Security. He also volunteers at a free clinic near his home in Monroe County, Indiana.

“I plan on taking the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) at the end of this year and proceeding to medical school in the fall of 2016,” Weidenbener says. “I am still unsure of what kind of physician I would like to become, but I am excited to fur-ther my medical knowledge as my career unfolds.”

t SPENCER BROWN

Fall 2014 | 1110 | insights

Loca

ted in the main-belt between M

ars and Jupiter • Located 297,458,583 mile

s fro

m o

ur s

un •

PLANET NICOLEMARIE

NICOLE BIDDINGERSOPHOMORE, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCESBARTLESVILLE, OKLAHOMA

EVOLVING KNOWLEDGEBiddinger’s ISEF project studied the effects of climate change on the genetic evolution of daphnids — aquatic invertebrates commonly known as water fleas.

“Using resurrection ecology, I worked with sediment cores from a natural glacier lake containing dormant egg banks from as far back as the 1500s,” she says. “The results revealed a strong correlation between heat toler-ance and age of the daphnids, showing that an adaptation in their heat-shock proteins may have occurred over time.

“I hope to apply the results of the heat tolerance experiments to human heat-shock protein disease research, as the heat-shock genes of the daphnids may be similar to those of humans.”

Biddinger’s research also has personal ramifica-tions. While in high school, she was diagnosed with Raynaud’s disease, a condition that forms antibodies against heat-shock proteins and can lead to the block-age of circulation in the hands and feet. “That became the catalyst for my pursuit of research to help others battling disease,” she says.

SOPHOMORE’S BREAKTHROUGH RESEARCH EARNS PLANETARY HONORS

DIFFERENT ORBITSJudges at ISEF and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory deemed Biddinger’s pre-Purdue work astronomical and recently named a minor planet after her. Her namesake planet, originally called 28848, is now known as Nicolemarie.

“It’s an incredible honor to be recognized for work I am so pas-sionate about,” she says. “Very few people have a minor planet named in their honor, so I feel blessed to be among such a prestigious group of amazing individuals like Albert Einstein and Marie Curie who have contributed so much to science and society.”

Now a sophomore, Biddinger already has achieved as much as many graduate students, and she believes those experiences have been key factors in her experience at Purdue. Working on university-level research and holding an internship at a zoology lab at Oklahoma State University were opportunities that set the stage for her continued success.

“I was able to collaborate with graduate and undergraduate stu-dents on research and receive train-ing for equipment that is far more advanced than what is typically found in a high school lab. That’s why I strongly recommend other young science students to look for internships,” she says.

NEW CHALLENGESWhile lab work is a passion, Biddinger is more than a researcher. She has a well-rounded perspective and appreciation for the humanities that helps her achieve her scientific goals. Through ballet and gymnas-tics she has learned endurance and responsibility.

She also served as the editor of her high school newspaper, which helped her recognize the intersection of humanities and STEM. “The leadership, organiza-tion and communication skills required of students within that environment can serve as incred-ible preparation in learning to work with other individuals from a vari-ety of backgrounds.”

Biddinger came to Purdue for the chance to learn in a strong research environment where she can cultivate her passion for science with world-renowned professors.

“I have always believed that a degree from Purdue holds more value than most other universities in the Midwest — not just because of its rankings and job placement statis-tics, but also because of its under-graduate research opportunities,” she says. “I wanted to be part of an environment that would challenge me in ways I never felt in high school.”

She is now furthering that mis-sion in the lab of Purdue biology professor Esteban Fernandez-Juricic, which uses an evolutionary framework to develop predictive models that can help solve conserva-tion biology problems.

“It’s been a wonderful oppor-tunity to be exposed to other areas of research within biology,” Biddinger says. “Purdue has so much to offer, so I’m striving to explore as much as I can.”

Few undergrads come to Purdue with a resume full of collegiate-level research honors. Nicole Biddinger, a native of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, is an exception — and clearly exceptional.

In addition to top finishes in national science fairs and being published in the Oklahoma Academy of Science Journal as a high school student, Biddinger took first place among more than 1,600 entries at the 2013 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF).

B Y T I M B R O U K

WORLDSC H A N G I N GG

12 | insights Fall 2014 | 13(Photo by Charles Jischke)

Career transitions aren’t always from one company to another. A scientist may be lured from industry back to higher education.

Michael Manfra, a professor of physics and astron-omy, has been a strong presence in Purdue’s College of Science since his arrival in 2009. From 1999 to 2008, he enjoyed a storied career at Bell Laboratories, one of the most historically preeminent industrial research facilities in the world.

Manfra, who earned an undergraduate degree from Harvard University and a PhD from Boston University, rubbed elbows every day with other top researchers in their respective fields. While known for innovation in telecommunications, Bell Labs has generated an array of scientific and technological innovations. For a young physicist, he was in the right place at the right time.

Bell Labs won three Nobel Prizes in 12 years (1997 to 2009) for Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith’s development of the charge-coupled device; Steven Chu’s creation of methods for cooling and trapping atoms with laser light; and Horst Störmer, Robert Laughlin and Daniel Tsui’s shared discovery of the fractional quantum Hall effect.

“It really was kind of an ivory tower for research,” Manfra recalls. “It was the best place on Earth to be a scientist.”

As a principal investigator, Manfra worked with semiconductors for much of his career at Bell. He stayed with the company after Bell Labs became part of Alcatel-Lucent in 2006, but a growing family and a personal offer to join the Purdue faculty from former physics department head and professor Nicholas Giordano intrigued him.

The economic recession of 2008 also played a role. As the nation’s economy suffered, enrollment at Purdue and the College of Science enrollment grew.

“There was uncertainty and decline in the telecommunications market,” Manfra remembers. “Declining profits and revenues impacted the stability of research at the lab. As budgets were reduced, there was less job security and more layoffs. We were scientists, but we were also subject to the vagaries of business and economics like every-one else. It impacted research.”

Outside of the lab, Manfra had family entered into the equation. While working at Bell, Manfra was based in Murray Hill, New Jersey, while his wife, Oana Malis, taught as a physics professor at the State University of New York in Binghamton. Long commutes had the couple sepa-rated often, and factoring in their daughter, Katie, made the math even more difficult.

Manfra praises Purdue’s poli-cies on taking in spouses as a unit, allowing Malis also to join the faculty in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

“We have two jobs in the same location,” Manfra says. “I’m eternally grateful to Purdue for providing us that opportunity.”

Manfra had more than enough knowledge and research experience to thrive as a member of Purdue’s faculty. But it took some time to adjust to working with undergraduates, leading teams of graduate students and collaborating with other faculty members. At Bell, he worked on his own research with assistance only from a postdoc or lab technician.

“It was somewhat of a challenge for me,” says Manfra on his switch from industry to academia. “A pro-fessor needs to wear many more hats. I hadn’t worked with under-graduates before, and learned that it’s not physics that is difficult; it’s how to teach it. Most students are tackling it for the first time. Committee work, teaching and grant writing all take time. With a team of graduate students and postdocs, I’m sort of the manager. I do things myself, of course, but mainly I’m instructing. It’s a shift from when I was turning the knobs every day;

now I have to step back and let oth-ers find their own way. It was more of a transition than I expected.“

Manfra says he had to “learn about being a professor.” Student interaction and being involved with many different projects took some adjustment. He also had to work on funding his own lab through fed-eral, industrial and foundational sources.

“Things work a little slower,” Manfra says of academia. “It takes time for grad students to learn, but you’re working on more things. It’s about time management and mental bandwidth. I had to learn a great deal and I’m still trying to learn more. It is different but rewarding.”

Five years later, Manfra leads a lab that “studies the physics and technology of ultra-high purity III-V semiconductors.” At the heart of the research is a high-purity growth technique called molecular beam epitaxy, which allows Manfra and his team to build semiconductor struc-tures one atomic layer at a time. The process enables better control of electronic energy levels for projects like his study of correlated electrons in reduced dimensions for future applications in quantum computing and the development of novel light sources in nitride materials.

“We got things running at Purdue rather quickly because I wasn’t starting from scratch,” Manfra says. “My training at Bell

B Y T I M B R O U K

Labs really helped and I got lucky with my first group of grad students. It’s worked out well.”

Trading a job at Bell Laboratories just outside the Big Apple for a faculty position in central Indiana was a big move. But Bell’s loss has been a gain for Purdue physics and astronomy.

“My nostalgia for Bell Labs is quite high, but Purdue has been a fantastic opportunity,” he says. “I’m publishing more than before because I have my hands in more projects. I’m working with colleagues in different areas and learning from their exper-tise, including collaborating with faculty from biomedical engineering and electrical and computer engi-neering to discover how cells respond on semiconductors.

“That is something that could take place only because I’m at Purdue. At Bell, I was more narrowly focused. Here, you can branch out. There are so many unique opportuni-ties in a university setting.”

MICHAEL MANFRA CONTINUES CHANGING THE WORLD AS A TEACHER

T O C L A S S

“IT WAS SOMEWHAT OF A CHALLENGE FOR ME. A PROFESSOR NEEDS TO WEAR MANY MORE HATS.I HADN’T WORKED WITH UNDERGRADUATES BEFORE, AND LEARNED THAT IT’S NOT PHYSICS THAT IS DIFFICULT; IT’S HOW TO TEACH IT.”

From left: Purdue graduate student John Watson and Michael Manfra, the William F. and Patty J. Miller Associate Professor of Physics, work with the high-mobility gallium-arsenide molecular beam epitaxy system at the Birck Nanotechnology Center. (Photo by Andrew Hancock)

14 | insights Fall 2014 | 15

Jon Ferency’s latest trip back to the West Lafayette cam-pus saw him forgo Old Gold and Black for a crisp, blue Roche Diagnostics polo shirt to interview Purdue’s best and brightest during September’s Industrial Roundtable on Memorial Mall.

Ferency, a mathematics and computer science alumnus, joined the Indianapolis-based company over the summer, and before the early morning start of this fall’s event, a line already was forming in front of his Roche booth.

“Roche is one of the few companies I know of that hires biomedical engineers, so we had every biomedical engineering student from Purdue at our table,” he says.

Using his tech expertise and interpersonal com-munication skills, Ferency has enjoyed a comfortable mid-career transition. He was a software consultant for more than a decade, selling and installing software systems and often working solo on client projects.

At times, Ferency yearned to step away from the computer. He still crunches data as a global research and development finance manager for Roche, but he now drives decisions instead of being a “behind the scenes” player. He manages cost centers on the domestic level and global projects for the company’s Diabetes Care Unit.

VERSATILITY REMAINS A CONSTANT FOR PURDUE SCIENCE ALUMNI

B Y T I M B R O U K

PURDUE’S LARGEST JOB FAIR AN

D O

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F THE LARGEST OF ITS KIND IN

TH

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.WHAT IS THE INDUSTRIAL ROUNDTABLE?

The Industrial Roundtable is a job fair for engineering, sci-ence, technology and management students at Purdue University, organized by the Purdue Engineering Student Council. It is Purdue’s largest job fair and one of the largest of its kind in the nation.

“YOU’RE DEALING WITH THE SAME KIND OF PROCESSES, ONLY WITH PEOPLE INSTEAD OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS.”t JON FERENCY

A major aspect of Ferency’s duties is analyzing spending pat-terns and communicating them to project leaders. He alerts his team of financial trends and leanings, often shifting or reallocating resources with the goal of meeting the project budget.

“It’s great. I love it,” Ferency says. “You’re dealing with the same kind of processes, only with people instead of computer systems. I still get to look at the data, understand the situation, and make decisions to solve the problem and move the company forward.

“I have an interpersonal skill set that’s unique and dynamic, and I want to leverage that for greater worth. I know I can always rely on my quantitative and technical back-ground to make decisions, but using my personality helps further my career development.”

Changing companies and fields is a brave move at any point in a career. Ferency credits his education by the College of Science as a safety net when he initiated his move to Roche. The fact that he could help lead people as well as decipher code and not be intimidated by a spread-sheet full of numbers bolstered his confidence.

“The challenging curriculum, particularly in mathematics and statistics, taught me how to tackle obstacles,” Ferency recalls. “I learned how to learn in college, and that’s translated into the confidence to successfully address complex and difficult problems in a professional environment.”

Ferency believes that the ben-efits of changing fields outweigh the risks. “Don’t be afraid to take on a challenge,” he says. “Have faith in yourself and your abilities. If you graduated from Purdue, you’ve got the background to succeed. No one can take that away from you. I’ve seen it every place I’ve worked — Purdue alumni are the ones who succeed in business.”

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CARY SUPALO COMMITTED TO MAKING STEM CAREERS A

POSSIBILITY FOR THE BLIND

When Purdue chemistry alumna Nancy Snyder changed jobs, she stayed with the same employer but traded a lab for a cubicle.

After 22 years in Eli Lilly and Company’s organic chemistry laboratory, where she prepared novel com-pounds that were tested for therapeutic targets, Snyder decided it was time to pursue a different job at the pharmaceutical manufacturer. She was interested in the opening because it allowed her to use her chemistry background in a new way.

“I wanted to continue my career at Lilly and did not consider leaving, so I obtained a position in legal as a patent research consultant working with intel-lectual property and assisting in writing patents,” she says.

Snyder still gets to work with scientists and takes pride in protecting the research of her colleagues –– something she knows quite well after more than 20 years in Lilly laboratories.

“I was blessed to have received a great education at Purdue,” she says. “I continue to use what I learned in the College of Science while interacting with my many co-workers at Lilly.”

LAB TO LEGAL

HEALTH CARE TO MANUFACTURING

The original career goal of Billy Crosby, 2009 biological sciences graduate, was to attend veterinary school. Instead, he quickly found a job at Eli Lilly and Company as a pathology technician, cutting and mounting tissues and carefully filling jars with chemicals like formalde-hyde. Using that experience and the flexible skill set he had developed at Purdue, Crosby switched gears again to accept a research position at Cummins Inc., a Fortune 500 corporation that designs, manufactures and distrib-utes engines, filtration and power-generation products.

“I came to Cummins to work in one of the labs doing research on after-treatment exhaust systems for truck engines,” Crosby says. “It went well. Obviously, it was a different field. Instead of researching tissues, I was doing research on engines.”

Crosby’s science background has served him well at Cummins, leading him to a promotion as a configuration manager. “If the customer wants a fuel filter on the right side of the engine instead of the left side, my job is to make components work with that fuel filter,” he says.

After almost two years, Crosby is comfortable in his new job — one that wasn’t on the map while he was at Purdue. But he is happy to have had it come into view.

“I definitely enjoy the work,” Crosby says. “When I interviewed for the position, I explained that I had a biology background. They said they were not looking for an engineer but for someone who had a scientific way of thinking. Science majors are taught to think a lot like engineers are taught to think. I use many of the thought processes I learned at Purdue and in the College of Science every day on my job at Cummins.”


Like a lot of other blind people, Cary Supalo (BS ’99, Chemistry; BA ’99, Communication) has done extensive problem solving just to learn how to do things that many regard as commonplace activities. Just consider the challenges of walking to school, learning to read or even receiving an education.

A renowned scientist recognized this year with an Access Award from the American Foundation for the Blind, Supalo is committed to using those same intuitive problem-solving abilities to bring more blind and visually impaired students to STEM fields. And he’s got a Purdue Research Park company in place to help ease their paths.

Supalo says a rare genetic condition left him blind literally overnight as a 7-year-old child. “I went to bed and woke up the next day and I couldn’t see any more,” he says. “It kind of kicks you back on your heels a bit. The advantage for me, however, was that it happened at a young age. So I learned how to adapt.”

He not merely adapted, but excelled. Supalo turned down a full-ride engineering scholarship to the University of Illinois to attend Purdue. He felt like the West Lafayette campus provided a good environment for him to discover his independence. But he says he really didn’t love science until after he arrived.

PURDUE IMPROVISATION

Supalo was encouraged as an undergraduate by both chemistry faculty and graduate students to work hard at learning the difficult material. “Of course I didn’t want to disappoint them,” he says, “and I put a lot of time and effort into it. Eventually, it all started clicking.”

Beyond the demanding coursework, Supalo also faced obstacles accessing the information he needed to complete his studies. Those challenges were less-ened when Purdue established TAEVIS (Tactile Access to Education for Visually Impaired Students), a braille production facility that later merged with Adaptive Programs to form the Disability Resource Center (DRC). In addition to resources provided by TAEVIS, Supalo created several workaround strategies of his own, including a two-dimensional felt board for his organic chemistry work.

In 2002, Supalo described his felt board and some of his other creative approaches to chemistry in an article for Future Reflections, a magazine published by the National Federation for the Blind. With one foot in liberal arts as a double major in chemistry and communications, Supalo had also learned how to write and work with the media. Over the years, he felt increasingly compelled to share his story.

“I definitely had to figure out for myself how to work with other people and get the lab work done,” Supalo says. “I would use things in nonstandard ways or in ways that their developers didn’t intend their technology to be used.”

Supalo’s strategies and knowl-edge base led to another article in 2005 in the Journal of Chemical Education describing his experi-ences as a blind student at Purdue. As he became a potential spokesper-son for an industry, Supalo learned that most blind people don’t study math and science.

“There are many reasons why,” Supalo says. “Some is the access to technology or materials that make it accessible. Others are intimidated by the content and its very nature. Still others are discouraged by faculty who tell them it’s not safe to do this type of work.”

He wanted to change those perceptions, perhaps by removing some of the obstacles.

INDEPENDENCE THROUGH SCIENCE

Supalo continued his education at Penn State, where he earned a mas-ter’s degree in inorganic chemistry and a doctorate in chemistry educa-tion. His graduate research was supported through a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, which helped lead to the creation of the Independent Laboratory Access for the Blind (ILAB). “The purpose of that NSF-funded effort was to create a suite of talking and audible tools that would allow blind students to have a more hands-on science learning experience,” he says.

Supalo and his Penn State research colleagues used those developing tools to determine if sci-ence engagement would motivate more blind children to study science. “We proved that was indeed the case,” Supalo says. “After that, I didn’t want this thing to die. It was too valuable of a resource to let it go

into oblivion. The idea was to form a commercialized entity that could then maintain and improve upon it.”

The commercialized entity resulted in his return to Purdue, where he formed Independence Science in 2009. Now with a dozen employees throughout the United States, the company has created several access-granting products in partnership with Vernier Software & Technology. Talking LabQuest is a device that announc-es scientific data in real-time audio while recording and reporting on an experiment. The Logger Pro app uses Window-Eyes to access the data analysis software and offers audible or tactile representations of graphs and data tables. And Adaptation Support Program is a subscription service that allows educators to provide a more acces-sible laboratory environment.

The partnership with Vernier is proof that at least one company shares Supalo’s vision for making science accessible. “They should be commended for their efforts,” Supalo says. “It’s now about getting the rest of the science education technology industry to factor in the matters of accessibility at the conception of the idea of product development. It’s really hard to retrofit a product for accessibility once it’s been built.”

WHITE HOUSE REGULAR

Since his boyhood days in Bolingbrook, Illinois, where he had always been known as his sister’s little brother, Supalo has sought self-identity. When he started engaging Purdue grad students about their research and began to comprehend their more advanced projects and experimental designs, he was on the road to his own sci-entific discoveries.

As an entrepreneur dedicated to opening doors for others, Supalo has been recognized many times. In 2011, he was one of four winners of

the National Federation of the Blind’s Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award, recognizing his contributions to the full integra-tion of the blind into society. Bolotin was the first person born completely blind (in 1888) to become a fully licensed medical doctor.

Supalo has been invited to the White House several times. “Getting to see the center of power for the free world is kind of cool,” he says.

Beyond the honor of an Oval Office visit, however, is the repeated opportunity to meet with the admin-istration and discuss science-access concerns for the blind and visually impaired. The Obama administration has been a big proponent of STEM education. Supalo simply wants this call to STEM to be all-inclusive. “We explored opportunities to promote the message that hands-on science learning is good for students with disabilities,” he says.

Supalo’s 2014 Access Award, which came his way without his having to apply for it, prompted him to leave an academic post at Illinois State University to focus on Independence Science full time. “We’re barely just scratching the surface as to what’s possible,” he says.

As for those possibilities, Supalo would like to see stories similar to his scientific break-throughs become more of the norm, rather than examples of a few hard-charging trailblazers. “You have this whole population with disabilities that had to overcome cognitive and physical impairments to achieve academic and social success,” he says. “It just makes sense that you would want to let people who have done problem-solving work their whole lives tackle science and engi-neering problems.”

DO YOU KNOW:

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“I DEFINITELY HAD TO FIGURE OUT FOR MYSELF HOW TO WORK WITH OTHER PEOPLE AND GET THE LAB WORK DONE. I WOULD USE THINGS IN NONSTAN-DARD WAYS OR IN WAYS THAT THEIR DEVELOPERS DIDN’T INTEND THEIR TECHNOLOGY TO BE USED.”


Cary Supalo, founder of Independence Science, demonstrates the newest version of Talking LabQuest, an adapted data-collection device his company developed in partnership with Vernier Software & Technology to improve access to science courses for students who are visually impaired. (Photo by Charles Jischke)

ANGELINE LYONASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY

Previous: postdoctoral scholar, University of Michigan

An interest in structural biology evolved into a biochemistry passion for Angeline Lyon. During her post-doctoral studies, she became involved in a project that looked at calcium signaling in the human heart. The expansion of this project to look at other players in calcium signaling is the thrust of the research Lyon brings to the College of Science.

Q: WHY DID YOU CHOOSE PURDUE?A: I know a lot of people who have trained here, so I knew that the qual-ity of students and faculty was out-standing. They have accomplished so much! When I visited, the people were just phenomenal.

MARTY FRISBEEASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF EARTH, ATMOSPHERIC, AND PLANETARY SCIENCES

Previous: visiting professor of geology, Georgia Southern University; adjunct professor, New Mexico Tech

It won’t be just the banks of the Wabash River that Marty Frisbee will explore when he continues his research in hydrogeology and applied geology. Frisbee has studied water-sheds and interactions between groundwater and surface water in the Southwest and Southeast. This academic year, he will give the Midwest a look.

Q: WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO PURDUE?A: I had heard good things about the department here from my colleagues at New Mexico Tech. They thought it was a good place for a young faculty member to grow, pursue research and recruit good students. And those were the things I was looking for.

It’s a good time to be in geosci-ence and this department has a good depth and focus.

Q: HOW WILL YOUR RESEARCH APPLY HERE?A: I will primarily study groundwater and surface water interactions. I do a lot of work in springs as well. I’m interested in studying large water-sheds like the Mississippi. And there are several big river systems you can study here which attracted me to this area. A lot of the work I’ve done has either been in really humid areas like Georgia or really dry areas like the Southwest. It’s a new geology and climate for me. It’s challenging but interesting.

Q: WHAT ARE YOUR IMPRES-SIONS OF THE WABASH?A: Before I visited Purdue, it really wasn’t on my map. Some of the research I do deals with how really deep, old groundwater interacts with surface water like rivers, for example. Groundwater can be a moderator of change.

For example, if you have a drought, will the Wabash go dry over the course of weeks? Probably not. But in some systems, if you had a similar drought, the streams would dry up. It’s a function of how well they are connected to the groundwater system of pumping and diversion systems and a function of vegetation and biologic uptake.

Q: WHAT KIND OF TOOLS DO YOU USE FOR YOUR RESEARCH?A: I use geochemistry to study the geochemical composition of waters to see how they have evolved. I use natural tracers to age-date the waters to understand how long the water has been in the system. In the field I take measurements of stream discharge, stream geochemistry. I measure and map water tables using shallow geophysics and measurements down wells. In some cases, we try to map the water table near streams. I am developing new ways to estimate residence times in surface water to understand the interactions with groundwater. It’s difficult in streams so we have to be creative in how we tackle questions about groundwater and surface water interactions.

Q: WHAT DO YOU FORESEE IN THE SHORTAGE OF WATER SUPPLIES IN SOME AREAS OF THE COUNTRY?A: California is a good example since it is really struggling to get on top of the water resource issue. I spent a lot of time in New Mexico working with water resources and with some of the Native American tribal nations in Arizona and New Mexico, and they’re all concerned. Here, we have 40 to 50 inches of precipitation a year and are accustomed to driving across streams or seeing lakes on the way

to work. Out West you’re talking about four inches to seven inches a year and you’re driving over dry riverbeds. It changes your perception about water, especially surface water. In the East, we usually only worry about water when there is a drought. In the West, it’s an everyday concern.

Q: YOU HAVE AN INTEREST-ING LAST NAME. ARE YOU RELATED TO THE FLYING DISC MAGNATE?A: I don’t think so. My wife has actu-ally done some research on where the name came from and it’s interest-ing. It’s helped in the past. Some students have said they took my class just to see if it was my real name.

MEE

T TH

E N

EW F

ACES

Thirty new College of Science faculty members

made their mark this semester, bringing new

research, teaching methods and enthusiasm for

their respective fields with them.

In this, the college’s largest cluster hiring in years,

each department received multiple new educators

and researchers. And three more new instructors

will start in January.

Hailing from all over the world, these educators have

diverse resumes. Some are fresh out of postdoc

roles, and others have had teaching and research

experience at other high-caliber institutions. But

all are looking to shape tomorrow’s scientists,

mathematicians, scholars and professionals.

Meet some of them on the following pages.

B Y T I M B R O U K

NEW FACES COLLEGE EXPANSION INCLUDES FACULTY ADDITIONS

Q: WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR YOUR HEART RESEARCH?A: I want to try to develop a more comprehensive and mechanistic understanding of the way calcium levels are regulated in the heart.

Q: THIS RESEARCH DEALS WITH PHOSPHOLIPASE C ENZYMES. WHY ARE THESE ENZYMES SO IMPORTANT?A: Phospholipase C enzymes are regulated by many cell surface receptors that are major drug targets. The problem is a lot of those drugs have side effects because they turn off multiple pathways. But if one targets just the phospholipase Cs, and those that have more limited expression in different tissues, for example, then one can start to elimi-nate off-target effects and have more localized treatment options. I’m a crystallographer, so by having struc-tures of these proteins, we can see what they look like and find new ways to inhibit them.

Q: HOW DOES YOUR STRUC-TURAL BIOLOGY BACKGROUND FIT IN THE DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY?A: Biochemistry here has awesome diversity — from people who work on fluorescence to drug delivery to crystallography. I really liked the idea of being part of a department that has so many interests and different ways to collaborate. Also there aren’t barriers between divi-sions, so it’s easy to talk to someone in a totally different area of chem-istry and come up with new ideas.

Q: WHAT ARE YOUR INTER-ESTS OUTSIDE OF STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY, BIOCHEMISTRY, CRYS TA L L OGR A PH Y A ND PHOSPHOLIPASE C ENZYMES?A: I like hiking and being outdoors. I’m learning to be a more adventur-ous cook.


Q: WHY DID YOU CHOOSE BIOPHYSICS AS A FIELD?A: When I entered grad school, I just followed my nose and got really excited by biophysics. There was this new frontier in biophysics and a lot of data coming from biologists. For the first time, we could see quantitatively how genes interacted. We had the whole Human Genome Project and many other types of large-scale data, and there was a question of how to make sense of that data. A lot of people were com-ing from a lot of disciplines — phys-ics, chemistry, mathematics, computer science — to integrate that knowledge and define a new interdisciplinary field of quantita-tive biology. I wanted to bring my training in physics and contribute to the field that is in its infancy.

Q: IN YOUR RESEARCH, YOU SPEAK OF CELL COMMUNICA-TION. WHY IS THAT ASPECT SO IMPORTANT TO YOU?A: When you think of cell communi-cation, the most obvious context might be the cells in our own bodies because they clearly act as collective units. But even organisms we think of as single cells, like bacteria, act collectively, too. They have very intricate systems of communicating; they release molecules in their envi-ronment and import those molecules again so they can tell how many neighbors they have, for example.

Cell communication is not only important in organism development, but it also gets exploited in disease processes when tissue development goes wrong such as in cancer. Cell communication is prevalent and critical in many organisms. What can communication do for cells to help them evolve and survive?

Q: WHAT CLASS ARE YOU TEACHING?A: In the spring I’ll be teaching Biophysics II, for graduate students. Biophysics means a lot of different things to a lot of people so it will be a multifaceted course.

RAGHU PASUPATHYASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS

Previous: assistant professor, Virginia Tech

Coming from an industrial engi-neering background complete with a graduate degree from Purdue’s industrial engineering program, Raghu Pasupathy found statistics to be an exciting field that relates not only to engineering but most STEM fields. He brings an enthusi-asm and experience to the growing department.

Q: WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO THE DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS? WHY DID YOU CHANGE?A: My move from engineering to statistics is less dramatic than it seems. The traditional definitions of engineering and statistics have changed, and rightly so. The bound-aries are a lot less rigid; electrical engineers, computer scientists, and civil engineers now routinely do what has traditionally been consid-ered the domain of statistics; and, a lot of statisticians have always (silently) dealt with what has tradi-tionally been considered the domain of engineers. On a technical note, much of my work is in an area called Monte Carlo methods and computational probability, and this falls squarely in what is considered modern statistics.

Q : H O W H AV E T HIN G S CHANGED AT PURDUE SINCE YOU WERE HERE AS A GRADUATE STUDENT?A: Purdue looks even bigger than it was during my graduate days. There

appears to be better utilization of space and the development across the river has been breathtaking. I think of Purdue, with its good and bad, as the face of the modern American university; Purdue statis-tics, in particular, seems to be embracing change.

Q: IS THERE MORE OF A DEMAND FOR STATISTICIANS TODAY, IN YOUR OPINION?A: The need for data-driven analyt-ics and computing is undoubtedly growing. The evidence is over-whelming — just look at the sectors where jobs are available, and where the research and knowledge thrusts of the industry and government are today. I believe that it is more impor-tant than ever that the modern student (in hard sciences) be well-trained in basic mathematics, sta-tistics, and computation; these are crucial skills for the future.

Q: THEN YOUR MAIN RESEARCH IS IN THE COMBINATION OF COMPUTER SCIENCE, STATIS-TICS AND OPTIMIZATION?A: Yes, I live in the interface of these areas. This is not a decision that I’ve made deliberately. It is just where I’ve naturally been led because of the nature of questions that interest me.

Q: WHAT IS A GOAL YOU HAVE FOR THIS ACADEMIC YEAR?A: I am guided by questions rather than a timeline. I am close to resolv-ing a few pressing questions (about sampling within optimization) that I have pursued for about eight years; a comprehensive story seems to be emerging finally, and I would be thrilled if this happens within a year. Such resolution, of course, leads only to further questions, like all of scientific research.

Q: WHAT CLASSES ARE YOU TEACHING?A: I’m teaching a class called Time Series Analysis. The course deals with modeling data appearing

across time, towards estimation and forecasting. Some example applica-tions are modeling climate data, financial data, data on epidemic spreading, and data on vehicular traffic networks.

Q: WHAT KIND OF HOBBIES DO YOU HAVE?A: I like to run because it’s a great way to explore, especially a new area. I’ve even run a couple mara-thons. I also enjoy Ultimate Frisbee, swimming and hiking.

ANDREW MUGLERASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY

Previous: postdoctoral fellow, Emory University

Biophysics is a burgeoning field and program within physics and astron-omy. Mugler’s work in the physics of cells will be a tremendous asset to the department and the College of Science.

Q: WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO PURDUE?A: There is a well-established bio-physics program here. I felt like I could really contribute something here because there are many people working on the single molecule level and people using physical tech-niques like laser holography to study cancer cells. I look at biological mechanisms at a systems level: interactions among molecules from the molecular all the way up to the cellular level to understand how those interactions lead to biological function. And I’m a theorist, which means I use tools from theoretical physics like statistical mechanics and stochastic processes.

Also, when I interviewed here, West Lafayette and the department struck me as the right fit. It seemed like this was a strong department with a lot of interactions.

MATHIAS PAYERASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

Previous: postdoctoral scholar, University of California, Berkeley

Mathias Payer’s expertise and pas-sion is keeping your software safe. A native of Schaan, Liechtenstein, he joins an already strong cyberse-curity program thanks to the Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security. Payer’s research should fit in well.

Q: WHAT KIND OF RESEARCH ARE YOU BRINGING TO PURDUE?A: I’m interested in systems secu-rity and current applications. The complexity of software is growing way faster than we can assess or enforce security properties. It’s nearly impossible to find and fix all of these security vulnerabilities. So my research focuses on protecting applications even in the presence of vulnerabilities. It’s more of a reactive form of security that detects an ongoing attack and pro-tects the user’s data and the appli-cation from harm.

Q: YOU CREATED THE PROGRAM FASTBT. WHAT DOES IT DO?A: Most, if not all, software has vulnerabilities. To secure our sys-tems, we protect the applications in several layers that need source code access. Unfortunately but under-standably, most companies only ship their programs in compiled binary form. FastBT, a small, lightweight virtual machine that encapsulates individual applications, can restrict access permission and add or enforce additional security proper-ties on an application on a very fine-grained level. You don’t have to set up a full-blown virtual machine with operating system, disk and network access; you just push the application into this small virtual machine for programs.

Building on fastBT, we’ve imple-mented Libdetox like “library detox” that enforces strong security poli-cies on the running applications with reasonably low overhead.


My research focuses on improving security on three differ-ent levels in the development cycle of applications, even in the pres-ence of vulnerabilities. The first level protects existing binary-only applications and assumes that we cannot use source code. The second level is an extension for C/C++ compilers that protects applications from any control flow hijack attack. On this level, we use detailed infor-mation at the compiler level to enforce stronger security guaran-tees and lower the performance overhead. On the third level, we add new language features or change the programming language.

Q: BESIDES CHANGING PASS-WORDS, WHAT IS YOUR BEST CYBERSECURITY TIP?A: Update as frequently as possible. If you keep your systems updated you are limiting the window of opportu-nity for attackers.

Q: I NOTICED ON YOUR WEBSITE THAT YOU ARE A “STAR WARS” FAN. DID THE DEATH STAR NEED BETTER CYBERSECURITY UPDATES?A: Oh, yeah. It’s a nice analogy for current security practices. In the last five or six years, more defense mechanisms were added to cur-rent systems, and attacks have become harder. Also, security has become a hot research area. Unfortunately, it is still possible for attackers to circumvent every defense mechanism. So instead of having no defense, we have some partial layers of protection. Now you need more sophisticated attackers, just like the Death Star scenario. You need an attacker that finds a hole and evades all the attacking space ships while exploding the core.

JINGWEI HUASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS

Previous: postdoctoral fellow, University of Texas

Hailing from Daqing, China, near the northeast border to Russia, Jingwei Hu always had Purdue on her math-ematical map as she collected degrees from Peking University and University of Wisconsin.

Q: WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO PURDUE?A: Purdue is a very nice university. The research environment is very good and has a very strong applied and computational math group. During my interview, I talked to faculty members and I have a lot of common research interests with them.

CATHERINE SEARLEASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Previous: postdoctoral scholar, University of Michigan

Catherine Searle’s research is as crucial as it is diverse. She studies how changes to natural communities — from frogs to microscopic organ-isms — can change diseases and be a potential threat to the human population.

Q: WHAT KIND OF RESEARCH ARE YOU PURSUING?A: My general research area is numerical analysis and scientific computing. Specifically, I’m work-ing on kinetic theory. That describes the transport and collisions of a large number of particles that applies to aerospace engineering, conductor device modeling and condensed matter physics.

Q: WHAT CLASSES ARE YOU TEACHING?A: Linear Algebra and Ordinary D i f ferent ia l Equat ion s for undergraduates.

Q: WHAT ARE SOME HOBBIES YOU HAVE?A: I like playing golf with my hus-band. The Purdue area has a lot of nice golf courses and hopefully we will have time to play around and practice.

Q: WHAT IS A GOAL FOR YOU THIS ACADEMIC YEAR?A: I want to start a Capture The Flag (CTF) team for both undergraduate and graduate students at Purdue. CTF is a game hackers play where teams split into attackers and defenders. Teams are given a virtual machine, which contains a bunch of services. In order to earn points, the defenders analyze the services and defend them against other teams while the attackers learn the vulner-abilities and attack the services of other. In the end, whoever has the most points wins. It’s very fun and challenging and provides security expertise that can lead to job oppor-tunities. I’m looking forward to hacking with students.

Q: WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO PURDUE?A: One of the biggest reasons I wanted to come to Purdue was the faculty. During interviewing, the faculty seemed like great colleagues and also seemed happy, which made me excited.

Q: HOW DID YOU DECIDE ON YOUR RESEARCH PATH?A: I was generally interested in ecol-ogy, particularly community ecology, as an undergraduate. When I started graduate school, I took a fascinating course on disease ecology. In the past, a lot of people worked on infec-tious diseases from the medical perspective with little crosstalk with ecologists. It’s a growing field and pretty well understood now that changes to the natural environment can also affect human diseases. Also, a lot of pathogens can infect both humans and other organisms, so understanding how changes to species composition affect infectious diseases can be really important for the health of natural systems as well as humans.

Q: WHAT’S AN EXAMPLE OF THIS?A: From a conservation perspective, one of the pathogens I work with is Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, a fungus in amphibians, which in some areas is really decimating the amphibian populations. It’s likely that it was introduced to these areas by invasive species. The American bullfrog, for example, has been intro-duced internationally and brought this fungus with it, so it is responsible for many (animal) die-offs.

Q: HOW DO THE NATURAL AREAS AROUND PURDUE FIT INTO YOUR RESEARCH?A: I’m going to be working in the lakes and ponds to try to under-stand infectious disease in those systems. Part of my research looks at zooplankton diseases. We don‘t normally think of zooplankton as

being charismatic, but they’re a really useful system to understand diseases in other systems. They are also ecologically important for lake and pond communities since a lot of organisms rely on zooplankton for food.

Q: WHAT ARE SOME HOBBIES YOU HAVE?A: I like hiking, biking, dancing and gardening.

BY THE NUMBERS

TOTAL 30

NEW FACULTY BY DEPARTMENT

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES 5

CHEMISTRY 4

COMPUTER SCIENCE 4

EARTH, ATMOSPHERIC,AND PLANETARY SCIENCES 2

MATHEMATICS 6

PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY 3

STATISTICS 6


6.23.14In the Denali wilderness, we slip into a new universe: a northern world built in a different scale. This is where the wild things are: a moose crosses our path, caribou roam the vast expanse of hills, and Dall sheep watch us from the steep cliffs. We come upon a true wonder: a young grizzly is wandering by the side of the road, and we hush as we pass by.

6.17.14We step into Alaska in Anchorage, and the road into that world stretch-es so deep and wide before us. Be-cause this is their home: the Atha-bascans, the Yup’ik, the Tlingit, the Unangan, the Haida and so many others. We are here to hear their stories of the land they’ve known since the beginning.

6.18.14The hike to the base of Exit glacier is less than a mile, but along the way, we walk through time. Signs mark the path with dates from years long past, from when ice still covered the land here. Far below us, the glacial ice is melting, dripping, retreating little by little.

6.19.14At Seward, we take a boat through Kenai fjords. The captain shuts off our engine and we are adrift in the ice water. It splinters, cracks, shakes, and shudders in the deep rumbling voice of a timeless gi-ant. On the way back, a humpback whale finds us and plays with us. I’m smiling.

6.20.14We arrived in the Chugach moun-tains toward noon. These moun-tainsides are deep green with foli-age amidst the black rock peaks and the brown loamy soil. These are the colors of Alaska, and from this palette is painted one of its masterpieces.

6.21.14We ferry nearly 70 native high school students to the Castle Mountain fault we visited yesterday, to set their fingers on this wide jutting teeth of rocks where the earth has cracked. Other members stay at the buses and talk to the students about everything they can be and everything they can do if they only imagine it. We are here to share dreams, and we can only try to convey ours in the spoken tales we tell of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

6.22.14 At Denali, we set up camp in a clear-ing between the evergreens. The wilderness is vast here, and there is no trail where we’re going. The midnight sun and the twilight leave little sense of time, and no night will come to extinguish the sky.

Since 2010, the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS) has partnered with Purdue’s Native American Educational and Cultural Center (NAECC) on field courses to geological sites located in or near Native American lands, including the Colorado Plateau region, Mississippi Delta and Rocky Mountains.

EAPS professor Kenneth Ridgway, a sedimentary geologist with Lenape (Delaware) lineage, and NAECC director Felica Ahasteen-Bryant, who was born and raised on a Navajo reservation, lead the trips, which are open to students of all ages and grade levels who share a Native American heritage, even those from different disciplines and educational institutions.

Participants engage with tribal leaders, elders, families and organizations to show how science can be beneficial to solving problems that affect Native American communities.

The 2014 field course explored the geology of the southern Alaska convergent margin and was detailed by Kyle Bemis, a Purdue student of Zuni Pueblo descent. Here, we share photos and excerpts from his blog, which is hosted on the NAECC website at www.purdue.edu/naecc.

BY KYLE BEMIS, PHD STUDENT, DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS


College of Science faculty member Jay Melosh, internationally known for his work on impact cratering, planetary tectonics and the physics of earth-quakes and landslides, is the 2014 recipient of the Herbert Newby McCoy Award, the most prestigious research honor in the natural sciences given by Purdue University.

Melosh, a distinguished professor in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, was formally recognized this fall during the McCoy Distinguished Lecture on Nov. 19.

His research focuses on numerical modeling of the physics and chemistry of impacts at scales ranging from the Deep Impact event on comet Tempel 1 to the Mars-size object that impacted the Earth 4.5 billion years ago and cre-ated our moon. His recent work includes studies of the K/T impact that

extinguished the dinosaurs and the ejection of rocks from their parent bodies.

“I’m honored and humbled to join the past McCoy Award winners at Purdue who share a love of research and cele-brate those days in the labo-ratory with our students when we realize we might be onto something that will pro-vide a deeper understanding of our universe,” Melosh said.

Melosh, who joined the Purdue faculty in 2009 after 27 years at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, also has profes-sorship appointments in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

MELOSH selected as Purdue’s 2014 McCoy Award winner

BREAKTHROUGHS

BREAKTHROUGHSFrancis Robicheaux, a Purdue professor of physics, is part of an international team of scientists uncovering a deeper under-standing of fundamental physics through a search for the charge of antihydrogen.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, announced in June that collaborators on the ALPHA experi-ment had obtained a measurement of the electric charge of antihydrogen atoms that was zero to eight decimal places. This is the first time the charge of an antiatom has been measured to high precision, according to CERN. A paper detailing the results was published in the journal Nature Communications.

“Just like the particles within regular atoms cancel each other out for a net charge of zero, antihydrogen should have no charge, but we have to measure it to be certain,” says Robicheaux, who has been a part of the experiment since it began in 2006. “If we find instead that antihydro-gen has a charge, we will have discovered an important asymmetry between matter and antimatter. This discovery would pro-vide tremendous insight into the funda-mental physics of our universe.”

The ongoing research takes place at CERN’s antiproton decelerator in Geneva, Switzerland, where the researchers study the trajectories of antihydrogen atoms released in the presence of an electric field. New instrumentation was created for the next step in the experiment, ALPHA-2, which began in November.

PURDUE PHYSICISTpart of international antimatter experiment

Trajectories of antihydrogen atoms from the ALPHA experiment. (Photo courtesy of Chukman So/University of California, Berkeley)

A mysterious space within a protein critical to photosynthesis is filled with fat molecules that influence both the protein’s architecture and electrical properties, according to two recent studies.

Researchers studied the atomic structure of, and electrical interactions within, the cytochrome bf complex, a protein complex central to the transport of electrons within membranes of a plant cell, a critical step in photosynthesis.

Photosynthesis is the process by which plants, algae and bacteria convert sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into chemical energy.

William Cramer, the Purdue profes-sor who led the studies, says the step in which electrons are transported in the cytochrome complex is one of the slowest steps in photosynthesis and is of particular interest to those involved in the effort to speed up the process.

“The ability to manipulate photosyn-thesis — to make it faster or more effi-cient — could improve some of the glob-al issues we face,” says Cramer, the Henry Koffler Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences. “It could lead to crops that grow faster to help feed an increasing population, and it could lead to a source of clean energy. However, before we can meaningfully manipulate the proteins involved in photosynthesis, we need to understand their structure in detail.”

Cramer and S. Saif Hasan, a graduate student whose doctoral thesis work laid the foundation for this project, used high-resolution X-ray crystallography to reveal that a cavity within the protein was filled with lipids, greasy molecules commonly called fats. The team found a total of 46 lipid-binding sites within the

FAT MOLECULES influence key photosynthesis protein

protein, and the discovery could change the way the biophysics-biochemistry community thinks about membrane proteins, Cramer says.

“It had been known that lipids created a boundary around the outside of mem-brane proteins, but finding them inside the protein could shift our thoughts on how these complexes work,” he says. “These lipids must be there for a reason, and we are trying to determine exactly what that is.”

The researchers suggest the lipids help stabilize the structure of the pro-tein, assist in the formation of super-complexes that combine multiple pro-tein complexes, and influence the ability to move an electric charge between dif-ferent portions of the protein. A manu-script detailing these findings was pub-lished in the journal Structure.

Cramer, Hasan and Stanislav D. Zakharov, a senior research associate in Cramer’s laboratory, next collaborated with Sergei Savikhin, an associate pro-fessor of physics, and graduate stu-dents Adrien Chauvet and Valentyn Stadnystskyi to examine the electrical interactions of the protein complex.

Through a new spectrophotometric technique that simultaneously measures both electron transfer within the cyto-chrome complex and strength of inter-actions that result from the transfer, the team discovered that the electrical interaction varied between the different parts of the protein complex involved in transporting electrons, called hemes.

The collaboration between biophysi-cists and physicists was essential to this project, Cramer says. A paper detailing the technique and findings was published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry B.

A representation of the cytochrome b6f complex and the interactions between its four hemes is shown. William Cramer, Purdue’s Henry Koffler Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences, led studies that found a space within the cytochrome complex is filled with lipid molecules that influence the protein’s archi-tecture and electrical properties. (Image by William Cramer)


(Stories courtesy of Purdue News Service)

“It is uncommon for a sopho-more to participate in research, especially for a full year, but we want to change that,” Ward says “We want students to know they don’t have to be an expert before joining a research team. They can jump right in and learn as they go. Purdue students are enthusiastic and capable, and we want to create a culture and climate that is supportive of undergraduate research.”

The grant will fuel the program for five years (20 sophomores per year through 2018-19); each student receives a $9,400 stipend for the work. That makes billions of pieces of data a little easier to tackle.

“I don’t have to have a part-time job,” DeSantiago says. “The stipend is nice so I can just focus on my studies and my research.”

T I M B R O U K

One of the first assignments in Mark Daniel Ward’s Introduction to Big Data Analysis class was to analyze billions of data points from a recent data exposition: 12 gigabytes of airline data, including 29 variables (takeoffs, delays, arrivals, locations, etc.) for every airline flight in the United States from 1987 to 2008. Ward, associate professor of statis-tics, asked the students to commu-nicate their results in succinct, insightful and understandable ways. The task of distilling the data to a handful of plots and descriptions was simultaneously challenging and rewarding.

The 20 undergraduate sopho-mores in Ward’s course are the first class of students to benefit from a $1.5 million National Science Foundation grant announced in 2013 and imple-mented this fall. The grant fuels the creation of a learning community where students live together on a common floor of a residence hall, participate in the same coursework, dine with faculty, attend professional development seminars, work together in teams during a new DataFest competition and conduct research in several different fields. The funding allows students like Felix Francisco-Sanchez to concentrate on classes and research without relying on part-time jobs to pay bills.

Like his 19 classmates, Francisco-Sanchez chose a lab where his statistics expertise would be valued and applicable. His

$1.5 MILLION GRANT HELPS SOPHOMORES MAKE SENSE OF BIG DATA

5 YEARS

$9,400 STIPEND

20 SOPHOMORES2018-19

STAT1ST1CAL SUCC3SS

project began during summer 2014, under the direction of R. Claudio Aguilar, associate professor of biological sciences. Francisco-Sanchez will gain experience in Aguilar’s lab working with big data and applying his statistical analysis talents in a life sciences field.

“I’m analyzing biology research with (programming platform) R,” Francisco-Sanchez says. “I’m speed-ing up the process” for Aguilar’s research team.

In addition to Introduction to Big Data Analysis, the 20 sophomores take Probability together. While only a few weeks in, students grouped together and compared notes during a Wednesday morning class in Stanley Coulter Hall. Large computer monitors were crammed with charts, graphs, code and extensive notes about the data.

Ward’s excitement for the opportunities his students have is palpable. During class, he enthusi-astically helped them finish a project while introducing the hefty airlines assignment. He did so in a way not to overwhelm them. He spun the billions of pieces of data in the air-line data set as a unique opportunity and a grand challenge.

“We’re having a great deal of fun; at least I am,” Ward laughs.

It’s been over a year since Ward took on the initiative to establish the learning community for statistics sophomores and obtaining the NSF grant. Now that it is being imple-mented, he sees bright opportunities for his students. The grant is espe-cially geared toward students mak-ing the transition through the many rigors of their sophomore year.

“No matter what they’re study-ing, they’re going to benefit from working with data,” Ward says.

Christina DeSantiago is an applied statistics major paired with Lisa Goffman, a professor of speech, language, and hearing sciences. DeSantiago is looking forward to becoming more experienced with research.

“We are working with students who have language impairments and comparing them to normally developing children to see how they grasp learning words,” she says. “It was a little overwhelming when I first thought about it, but I’m really excited to get into the project and see how I can help.”

Emily Martin concurs.“I’ve learned a lot,” says

Martin, a mathematics sophomore whose research mentor is Cleveland Shields, associate professor of human development and family studies. “We’re doing health care research about the communication between doctors and patients, particularly diabetes patients and their spouses.”

Ward’s students are entering an era where big data will be a part of every field. The earlier undergradu-ates have the opportunity to take on such projects, the better.

Ward believes an undergradu-ate’s second year in the College of Science is a crucial one. He sees numerous programs designed to help first-year students get settled and acquainted in their studies. Upper-class students enjoy a wide range of research opportunities. So, what about sophomores? Ward wants to help them to overcome the “sophomore slump,” a phrase used to characterize the attrition of many students in the sciences during their sophomore year.

32 | insights

Lang, an assistant professor of physics, uses a fishing metaphor to explain how he is attempting to discover dark matter, which lured the attention of producers from the Science Channel program Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman. Narrated by the celebrated actor, this hourlong, weekly science show is usually the network’s highest-rated program. Lang was featured in a segment of the July 16 episode, “Is There a Shadow Universe?”

To catch a fish in a stream and to catch dark matter in outer space, the young professor showed you need the right tools. Catching a fish with your hands, as Lang attempted on television, doesn’t get the job done.

“When I try to explain what I do, the first thing that comes to mind is a very silly, spontaneous idea like catching fish with your hand. Once you’ve said it, you think ‘Oh my God, that’s stupid,’ but of course the

producer loved it,” says Lang, reflecting on the episode’s taping. “Then you’re stuck trying to catch fish with your hands for an hour.”

At his lab in Purdue’s Physics Building and at the enormous Laboratory Nazionali del Gran Sasso of Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, located a mile underground in Italy, Lang’s main tool for seeking dark matter is his XENON1T detector experiment: The chemical element xenon is cooled and thus liquefied in order to make it a dense target for dark matter to hit.

The tanks housing the liquid xenon operate as time projection chambers to search for interactions of dark matter particles. The liquid xenon is instrumented as a so-called time-projection chamber. Dark matter or any other particle scattering or interacting in the xenon prompts the xenon to give off a faint flash of light. This light is picked up by an array of ultra-sensitive photosensors. In addition, scattering creates some ionization and free electrons, which are col-lected and amplified by the detector as well.

Together, the two signals allow Lang to measure the energy and type of particle and the position where it scattered, among other properties.

His process can be likened to a fishing net. The net is cast out to sea — or in Lang’s case, outer space — and it is drawn back. Sometimes you catch something; sometimes you don’t. Lang’s “net” at the Italian lab uses 6,000 pounds of liquid xenon to try to catch dark matter. A smaller version of the detector resides in his Purdue lab, which is where the calibration systems of the detector are developed.

The documentary also showed Lang kayaking down the Wildcat, a sizable waterway in Tippecanoe County near the West Lafayette campus. While sitting on the shore,

Lang explained that dark matter and the Higgs boson are inter-twined. Several faculty members, graduate students and postdocs in Purdue’s physics department were part of the Higgs boson discovery at CERN in 2012.

“If you can interact with the Higgs boson, then you have mass,” Lang explained in the episode. “So, isn’t it natural to think that maybe dark matter gets its mass from the Higgs boson? If that’s the case, that would be great. Maybe we can talk to the dark matter through the Higgs boson channel.”

Born in Ulm, Germany, Lang was tapped by the Science Channel after getting a good reference from former colleague and fellow theo-retical physicist Will Dawson, who also appears in the episode. After email and phone calls during the summer of 2013, a producer flew from California and met with a production crew assembled from Chicago and Indianapolis. The producer picked up on Lang’s love of kayaking on the Wildcat during one of their phone conversations.

After a full day of shooting and then months of editing and waiting, Lang was pleased with the results of his segment. Much to his surprise, he was quickly recognized by view-ers of the show who lived in the area.

“At first I was worried if anyone watched, but a lot of people saw it,” Lang recalls. “I was at the barber-shop one day when a guy came up to me and said, ‘I know you!’ But it was great. We started talking about dark matter. How cool is that?”

Several of Lang’s students watched the episode, too.

“I was familiar with the pro-gram but had never actually watched it,” says Evan Bray, a senior in physics and one of Lang’s many undergraduate research assistants. “When I heard that Rafael was going to be making an appearance, I was really intrigued and put aside some time to watch. He’s a great speaker and his enthusiasm for what he does can get anyone interested.”

Graduate student Cassie Reuter works on designing and constructing annual modulation experiments in Lang’s lab.

“I loved watching Rafael’s seg-ment,” says Reuter. “It’s not every day you get to see your adviser attempting to catch fish with his hands on a television program nar-rated by Morgan Freeman! The episode really embraced Rafael’s fishing metaphor and his love of kayaking.”

Unfortunately, Lang did not meet Freeman. Most of the scien-tists interviewed never do, but the program does help explain deep scientific concepts like dark matter in a relatable and entertaining way.

Lang’s fishing metaphor worked well on camera and the young physi-cist received much exposure for his two minutes on television. However, there is something from the experi-ence he is still seeking.

“I’m still trying to figure out how to get Morgan Freeman saying ‘Rafael Lang of Purdue University’ on my voicemail,” he says with a smile.

TO ILLUSTRATE HIS THEORY ON HOW TO FIND

DARK MATTER, PURDUE’S RAFAEL LANG ROLLED

UP HIS PANTS AND JUMPED INTO THE WILDCAT

CREEK WHILE TELEVISION CAMERAS ROLLED.

SHE D

D I N G L I G H T

O N D A R K M A T T E RB Y T I M B R O U K

PHYSICS PROF RAFAEL LANG MAKES A SPLASH ON THE SCIENCE CH

ANN

EL

(Photos provided)


CLASS NOTES

1930s(Catherine) Ann C. (Cromer) Parks (BS ’38, Actuarial Science), Sister Bay, WI, is in retirement, living independently in an apartment for seniors. Her granddaughter is a recent law graduate employed in a mid-size law firm near Milwaukee. Her grandson visited from Denver this summer and her two daughters, though retired, are more than busy.

1940sBill Hosier (BS ’42, Science), Green Valley, AZ, has lived in Arizona after finishing 31 years of corpo-rate assignments for the Aerojet Corp. and its sub-sidiary Aerojet Nuclear. He loves the weather as he loves his wife, two children, seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

1950sAnthony A. Silvasi (BS ’54, Chemistry), Portage, IN, retired from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as an environmental scientist. He also wrote a tech report on surface coatings as requested by NASA.

1960sWendell L. Dilling (PhD ’62, Organic Chemistry), Midland, MI, competed in track and field and road races at the 2014 Summer Michigan Senior Olympics. He won gold medals in jav-elin and pole vault, silver medals in triple jump and the 5- and 10-kilometer road races, and bronze medals in the shot put, discus, high jump and the 50-, 100-, 200- and 400-meter dashes and the 800- and 1,500 meter runs. He was fourth in the long jump in the men’s 75 to 79 age group.

Wendell L. Dilling (far right) poses with fellow competi-tors and the javelin that earned him a gold medal in the 2014 Summer Michigan Senior Olympics. Dilling, who earned a PhD in organic chemistry from Purdue in 1962, also took home gold in the pole vault and a dozen silver and bronze medals in various track and field events. (Photo provided)

Dr. Michael L. Junker (MS ’67, Physical Chemistry), Baton Rouge, LA, and his wife, Linda Blakely Junker, celebrated their 50th wed-ding anniversary on May 31. They took a cruise on the Queen Victoria, leaving from Southhampton through the Baltic.

Dr. Roger Trandell (MS ’68, PhD ’70, Chemistry), Houston, TX, retired after 60 years of work. He trav-eled to Italy’s Lake District with fellow Purdue alumni in June.

Dr. Henry M. Hess (PhD ’69, Chemistry), Spencerport, NY, studied medicine after Purdue, earning his MD in 1977. He is currently pro-fessor of obstetrics-gynecology at University of Rochester School of Medicine. He has two recent books, The Perfect Menopause: 7 Steps to the Best Time of Your Life and A 5-Oz Glass: The Health Benefits of Red Wine for Women.

1970sDaniel Replogle (BS ’70, Chemistry), Kendallville, IN, wrote a book titled Cromwell’s History, 2013 Edition, which tells the story of Cromwell, Indiana, with photos. The book can be purchased at www.blurb.com.

Raymond W. Watters (BS ’70, Biological Sciences), Fayetteville, NC, retired from the U.S. Army Medical Corps at the rank of a colonel.

Tipton L. Randall (PhD ’72, Chemistry), Chippewa Falls, WI, retired from private practice after 17 years. He and his wife will travel to Scandinavia with their two sons.

Kathryn E. Stecke (MS ’74, PhD ’77), Richardson, TX, was named Purdue University 2014 Woman Scholar of the Year.

David C. Cassidy (PhD ’76, HDR ’97, Physics), Bay Shore, NY, was the recipi-ent of the 2014 Abraham Pais Prize for the History of Physics, awarded by the American Physical Society.

Roger Quillen (MS ’77, Mathematics), Atlanta, GA, has been re-elected as the chairman and managing partner of Fisher & Phillips LLP, one of the nation’s leading labor and employ-ment firms representing employers. He has served on the management com-mittee continuously since 1997 and has been the firm’s chairman and man-aging partner since 1999. Human Resources Executive Magazine has also named him one of “The Nation’s 100 Most Powerful Employment Attorneys” every year since 2009.

1980sMartha Twaddle (BS ’81, Biological Sciences), Libertyville, IN, has con-tracted with JourneyCare as senior vice president of medical excellence and innovation. She will work jointly with JourneyCare’s CEO to provide strategic leadership, advance quali-ty and clinical innovation,

forge new strategic rela-tionships and build a high-performing medical team.

Gay Pearson (BS ’83, Atmospheric Science), Falmouth, ME, performed her third annual chamber jazz concert of original compositions and arrange-ments of jazz standards in her hometown of Newbury Port, MA, on Oct. 26. She continues to study via Skype with jazz pianist/composer Vardan Ovsepian. Her concert featured his piece “Dreaming Paris Suite.”

1990sJames Tour (PhD ’86, Chemistry), Ballaire, TX, was recognized as one of the 50 most influential sci-entists in the world today by TheBestSchools.org. In 2009, he was ranked by Thomas Reuter as one of the top 10 chemists in the world over the past decade. He is most known for his work in molecular electron-ics and molecular switching molecules.

Matthew Roberts (BS ’91, Biological Sciences), Columbus, OH, was pro-moted to divisional vice president of Product Research & Development for Abbott Nutrition, serv-ing as the company’s top food science professional. Roberts married Deborah Roberts, who operates a food flavor consulting busi-ness and is a Purdue food science alumna (’91). The couple has three children.

Dave Martelon (BS ’93, Computer Science), Denver, CO, has joined Zen Planner, an all-in-one software

CLASS NOTES

RETURN ENGAGEMENT

The strength of Purdue’s Department of Physics and Astronomy can be seen in its research, faculty and many recent accolades. From publishing in international jour-nals to appearing on popular science television programs, the department is on the rise.

Students remain the core of Physics and Astronomy, however, and one organization is proving its strength by playing host to a Midwest regional conference for the second time in four years. The American Physical Society’s 2015 Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics is set for Jan. 16-18 at Purdue’s West Lafayette campus.

The Purdue chapter of Undergraduate Women in Physics is a tightly knit group that thrives in a department that is only 13.6 percent female. The conference is expected to bring in 160 undergraduates from dozens of colleges. The institutions to be represented include Washington University in St. Louis, DePaul University, Coe College and Butler University, among many others.

The event will take place in the Physics Building as well as Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering and will feature an undergraduate research poster session, career panel discussions, guest speakers, lab tours and presen-tations from College of Science faculty.

“It’s a really good opportunity to network and to have young women connect with mentors — other undergradu-ates or graduate students,” says senior Jennifer Larson. “It helps build a support group. A lot of universities don’t have many women in their physics department. This helps show them that they’re not alone.”

Physics and mathematics senior Jenna Burnett and many of the conference committee members attended the 2013 event at University of Illinois and the 2014 edition at University of Chicago.

“It’s really nice to hear about all the different fields you can go into because there are a lot different things I never heard of before I went to the conferences,” Burnett says. “It was interesting to see what people did with their degrees. There are so many different options.”

Goals for the conference include networking, learn-ing the latest in research ideas and showing the pro-gram’s strengths. The Purdue chapter’s faculty advisor, Professor Oana Malis, also plans to use the conference as a means of exposure to the various career paths available to graduates with physics degrees and to show that the field is a place for women.

“There is a lot of interest in physics among undergraduate students but the main issue is

retention,” Malis says. “We must encourage women to continue with advanced degrees

along a path that involves or is related to physics.”

T I M B R O U K

PURDUE SET TO HOST

CONFERENCE FOR

UNDERGRADUATE

WOMEN IN PHYSICS

Fall 2014 | 3736 | insights

CLASS NOTES

CLASS NOTES

B. Jane (Baker) Goris (BS ’50, Physics), Nokomis, FL, Mar. 13. She is survived by her husband, Dale.

Frank Carden Meine (BS ’51, Science), Carmel, IN, May 31.

Eugene B. Himelick (MS ’52, Biological Sciences), Urbana, IL, Nov. 11.

Darrel David Meyer (MS ’52, PhD ’64, Chemistry), Mill Valley, CA, Oct. 9, 2010.

L. Paul Sinotte (MS ’52, Chemistry), North Wales, PA, Dec. 28. He is survived by his wife, Elaine.

Allen Smith (BS ’52, Science), Champaign, IL, May 18.

Carl Faith (MS ’53, PhD ’56, Mathematics), Princeton, NJ, Jan. 12.

Margaret L. Shaw (BS ’53, Biological Sciences), Louisville, KY, Feb. 26.

Thomas R. Mertens (MS ’54, Biological Sciences, PhD ’56, Science), Muncie, IN, Jan. 3.

C. Thomas Apple (BS ’56, Science), San Jose, CA, Jan. 23.

Mary E. Freel (BS ’57, Science), Los Angeles, CA, Jan. 3.

Robert J. Shroyer (MS ’57, Statistics), Dayton, OH, Mar. 30.

William A. Michalowicz (MS ’58, Chemistry), Johnstown, PA, Feb. 16.

Aaron R. Monroe (BS ’60, Science), Cincinnati, OH, Jan. 8.

Joseph J. Melnyk (BS ’61, Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences), Brentwood, TN, Apr. 20.

Jim Snapp (BS’61, Mathematics), Wabash, IN, Feb. 18.

Paul F. Hardwick (MS ’62, Biological Sciences), Fort Walton Beach, FL, Nov. 16.

Richard G. Mehler (MS ’62, Biological Sciences), Wyoming, MI, Mar. 10.

Presley K. Armold (BS ’63, Science), Rensselaer, IN, Mar. 19. He is survived by his wife, Sharon.

Jeanne A. (Wasmundt) Cousino (BS ’64, Biological Sciences), Petaluma, CA, Dec. 28.

Carolyn (Fruit) Neptune (BS ’64, MS ’66, Mathematics), Prairie Village, KS, Mar. 18. She is survived by her husband, Harold.

George L. Fuhrman (BS ’65, Physics, MS ’69, Science) Portage, IN, April 11, 2013.

Ellen E. (Wagner) Mork (MS ’67, Biological Sciences), Saint Cloud, MN, Mar. 16.

Mary Jane Cosentino (MS ’68, Biological Sciences), Toledo, OH, Dec. 31.

Joel R. Mitchen (MS ’69, PhD ’71, Biological Sciences), Pompano Beach, FL, Mar. 30.

Charles E. Pearce (BS ’69, Biological Sciences), Charlotte, NC, Oct. 6.

Stephen J. Spindler (BS ’69, Science), Chicago, IL, Jul. 15.

James G. Troksa (BS ’69, Mathematics), Schaumburg, IL, Jan. 29.

Christopher J. Herron (BS ’70, Science), Fernandina Beach, FL, May 21. He is survived by his wife, Michele.

Gregory S. Grimes (BS ’71, Chemistry), Greenfield, IN, Feb. 26.

Jack A. Hudson (MS ’73, Computer Science), Albuquerque, NM, Jan. 9. He is survived by his wife, Susan.

Donald L. Avery (BS ’76, Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences), Annapolis, MD, Jan. 24.

Craig W. Davis (BS ’77, Biological Sciences), West Lafayette, IN, Feb. 1. He is survived by his wife, Nancy.

Judith A. (Casale) Scholz (BS ’80, Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences), Littleton, CO, Mar. 2. She is survived by her husband, Edwin.

Steven E. Frank (BS ’81, Biological Sciences), Youngstown, OH, Dec. 18. He is survived by his wife, Jamie.

Joyce A. (Trapp) Gottlieb (BS ’82, Biological Sciences), Green Cove Springs, FL, Dec. 13. She is survived by her husband, John.

Michael B. Webb (MS ’86, Chemistry), Douglassville, PA, Nov. 12.

James B. Elliott (MS ’90, PhD ’95, Physics), Oakland, CA, Dec. 5.

James N. Pollard (MS ’99, Computer Science), Dublin, OH, Dec. 1.

Emil Plamenov Stefanov (BS ’09, Mathematics and Computer Science), West Lafayette, IN, Mar. 27.

solution for fitness busi-ness owners, as the compa-ny’s chief technology offi-cer. In this role, Martelon will lead Zen Planner’s engi-neering team, including technology strategy and development, as the com-pany continues its aggres-sive growth trajectory. He was previously the vice president of engineering for Dice Holdings and the chief information officer at ESM Software.

Kimberly Little Terry (BS ‘94, Biological Sciences) Clinton, IN, completed her 13th year of teaching life science at South Vermilion High School. The National Biology Teacher Association recently named her the Outstanding Biology Teacher of the Year for the state of Indiana.

David Hobaugh (BS ’95, Chemistry), Pittsboro, IN, has been selected for the inaugural class of Woodrow Wilson MBA Fellows in Education Leadership. The MBA Fellows are seasoned educators, nominated by their schools and districts. Hobaugh is the science department chair and a chemistry teacher at Tri-West High School in Lizton, IN.

2000sAdam Christopher Myers (BS ’00, Honors Chemistry/Biochemistry, PhD Organic Chemistry), Lafayette, IN, joined SSCI, a division of Aptuit, in July as a research investigator for the Preformulation department.

Keith Kompoltowicz (BS ’01, Atmospheric Science) Plymouth, MI, has served nearly 14 years with the Corps of Engineers in Detroit and three years as the chief of watershed hydrology. His office works on water manage-ment projects in the Great Lakes to include water level forecasting, water balance analysis and out-flow regulation of Lake Superior. Given the inter-national aspect of the Great Lakes, there is a huge and unique collabor-ative effort between the U.S. and Canada. The sys-tem experienced record low water levels in 2012 and 2013, leading to large interest across many media outlets. He also serves as the Corps’ pri-mary media spokesperson when questions relating to Great Lakes water lev-els are posed. He has been married to his wife, Renee, since 2008, and the cou-ple has two young sons, Jack and Keigan.

Barry Koskiniemi (BS ’01, Chemistry), Auburn Hills, MI, is a laboratory supervisor at Henniges Automotive.

Lindsay (Steirer) Taylor (BS ’03, Biological Sciences), Princeton, NJ, is among the first 50 recipients of the Woodrow Wilson New Jersey Teaching Fellowship, which seeks to attract tal-ented, committed individu-als with backgrounds in the STEM fields into teaching in high-need New Jersey sec-ondary schools.

Jessica Carlson (BS ’05, Biological Sciences), Indianapolis, IN, has been selected for a 2014 Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellowship, which seeks to attract talented, committed individuals with backgrounds in the STEM fields into teaching in high-need Indiana sec-ondary schools.

Ossama Younis (PhD ’05, Computer Science), Rockville, MD, is a computer scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Elizabeth Anne Proctor (BS ’08, Physics), Cambridge, MA, earned a PhD in bioin-formatics and computa-tional biology with a certifi-cate in molecular and cellu-lar biophysics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in December 2013. She received the 2014 Dean’s Distinguished Dissertation Award for her thesis, “Inhibiting the Formation of ALS-relevant SOD1 Oligomers.” She is currently a postdoctoral research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

2010sGreg Gentry (BS ’12, Chemistry), Valparaiso, IN, has been selected as the recipient of the inaugural Faegre Baker Daniels Intellectual Property Internship with the Indiana University Research and Technology Corp. The sum-mer internship provides an opportunity to gain valu-able in-house experience and exposes the intern to practice in a large law firm environment. Gentry is a second-year student at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law.

Hilarie Hahus (BS ’14, Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences), Branchville, IN, has been selected for a 2014 Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellowship, which seeks to attract talented, committed individuals with backgrounds in the STEM fields into teaching in high-need Indiana sec-ondary schools.

MARRIAGESRicarda Martin (BS’66, MS ’70, Mathematics) and H. Bailey Terry Jr., Homewood, IL, were married on May 3. Dedicated Boilermakers, their rings are gold with black onyx stones and their wedding cake was gold and black and decorated with Purdue emblems.

Katherine J. (Kinsinger) Hansen (BS ’01, Biology Education), Bettendorf, IA, married Travis A. Hansen in June 2013.

Lauren (Davis-Robinson) Martin (BS ’13, Biological Sciences) Indianapolis, IN, married Justin M. Martin on May 24.

NOTE: Starting in 2015, Class Notes will be taken by email only. Please send all of your accomplish-ments, honors, awards, milestones and new job announcements to [email protected]. The College of Science loves hearing from you!

CORRECTION: An article in the Spring 2014 issue of Insights misnamed the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine.

ARRIVALSDr. Michael Salvino (BS ’96, Biological Sciences), Burr Ridge, IL, welcomed his sixth child, Greta Charlotte Salvino, born July 14.

IN MEMORIAMLillian (Williams) Ford (BS ’34, Science), Redding, CT, Apr. 11.

M. Elizabeth (Callison) Antrim (BS ’39, Science), Pompano Beach, FL, Mar. 11.

Waldo B. Ligett (MS S’41, Chemistry, PhD S’44, HDR S’65, Science), Chapel Hill, NC, Dec. 16. He is survived by his wife, Ann.

Betty (Neisler) King (BS ’42, Science), West Lafayette, IN, Jan. 11.

Eris May (Holland) Robers (BS ’44, Science), Orlando, FL, Aug. 31.

Jean K. (Kelly) Wigglesworth (BS ’44, Science, Northfield, IL, Feb. 25.

Elizabeth T. (Parsons) Florkey (BS ’46, Science), Fountain Hills, AZ, Feb. 25.

Doris (Woehrlin) Johannessen (MS ’48, Mathematics), Rochester Hills, MI, Jan. 6. She is survived by her husband, George.

Peter B. Lewis (BS ’48, Science), Exeter, NH, Jan. 23.

Richard C. Anderson (BS ’49, Mathematics), Rio Rancho, NM, Dec. 11.

Paul R. Brown (BS ’49, Science), Montrose, CO, Mar. 5.


It was December 1970. My last final was completed and my wife and I were off to start a post-education life. Purdue prepared me in ways I could not have imagined back then. I had been taught well. My summer jobs had proven that I was technically competent, and I left Purdue with as much knowledge as the employees in the com-puter departments of large companies.

In the real world, however, there were still many practical lessons to be learned. It was important to temper my technical expertise with an understanding of busi-ness. When I started my own company in 1976, I made that concept the cornerstone, and my first published article highlighted this understanding. It was called “The OOPS Factor.” (OOPS stands for Ordinary Oversights Postpone Systems.)

At the time, system analysts asked ordinary humans to approve “program specs.” That was an impossible task, so everything was automatically approved without any review to validate the assump-tions. That is why there were so many OOPSes in early system development.

My company, The User Group Inc., changed everything by writing and giving the end user a “guide” describing how to use the system rather than how we pro-grammed it. Once the user signed off that the guide represented what they wanted, we would use our expertise to write usable programs. This was radical in 1976.

Purdue trained me to be fearless when asking questions, tracking symptoms to problems and applying scientific methods when searching for solutions. It worked wonders for my career. Experimenting is part of life, where failure is not a negative to fear, but a positive step toward an improved future.

When I founded my company, there were no associations for computer consul-tants, so I started one. I went on to become part of the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) Coalition of Associations, which helped remove the complexity of new technology and make it available to more small companies. When I recognized that too many companies wasted their employ-ees’ time with busy work, I wrote my eighth book to help them understand how to make their operations run more efficiently.

Purdue gave me the background and confidence to be a computer scientist who was also capable of writing articles and books. That diverse skill set next led me to Saint Louis University, where I taught a graduate school course in innovation and corporate entrepreneurship. And a few years ago, I started a roundtable of corpo-rate executives focused on moving their companies forward through innovation.

I became the chairman of the Gateway Venture Mentoring Service, providing free, team-based support to early-stage startups as well as managing the St. Louis Regional

Chamber of Entrepreneurship Educators. Now, after 38 years in consulting, I am starting a new career as a senior manager for Boeing Co., specifically in Ventures, a unit of Boeing Defense, Space & Security. We want to dispel the myth that large organizations like Boeing cannot create new businesses.

My role is to create a culture of entre-preneurship that encourages individuals to make better use of Boeing’s innovative capabilities and inventory of advanced technology. We have to enable employees to try new ideas, to rapidly prototype new products and to accept failures as step-pingstones to success.

Part of the transformation will be easy because there are so many brilliant people in the organization. The difficulty will be implementing concepts like “accelerated failure” into the company’s legacy of quality and dependability.

Broadening market opportunities to nonmilitary products and services will require a change in mindset — and time. But I’ve been given the support of top management and I can still hold my own when meeting with researchers as a busi-ness executive. Thanks, Purdue. I could not have done it without you.

CHANGE AS A CONSTANT

B Y S T E V E E P N E R

LAST WORD

Steve Epner

This spring, the College of Science and 40 other University entities banded together for the first Purdue Day of Giving.

Primarily an online and social media event, the Day of Giving was a full day indeed, running midnight to midnight April 30 and involving people from every part of the West Lafayette campus. In total, Purdue raised $7.5 million from 6,500 donations. The College of Science received the second-highest total of gifts, raising more than $1.06 million.

PURDUE’S INAUGURAL DAY OF GIV$NG RAISES $7.5 MILLION

2NDHIGHEST TOTAL

OF GIFTSCOS + 40 UNIVERSITY ENTITITES

6,500 DONATIONS

The gifts will help fund professorships, programs and departmental costs within the College of Science.

The day’s theme was “Opportunity Granted” and focused on student affordability and acces-sibility, among other areas. During the energetic 24 hours, Purdue hosted cookouts, tech talks, stress-relieving outdoor activities and more.

The Computer Science Student Union Board kept Lawson Commons buzzing all day with coffee and doughnuts. Computer science department head Sunil Prabhakar and associate professor Jennifer Neville were featured in the afternoon. The duo discussed big data, the CS expansion, Purdue Moves and other hot topics.

The second annual Purdue Day of Giving will be held in spring 2015.

Fall 2014 | 41(Photo by Charles Jischke)

NonprofitOrganizationU.S. Postage

PAIDPurdue University

150 N. University St. West Lafayette, IN 47907-2067765-494-1729 www.science.purdue.edu

Common Ground

Leighty Commons opened just in time for the fall semester at the south entrance of the historic Wetherill Laboratory. Named after donor and chemistry alumnus John A. Leighty, the area offers open study areas for students along with private spaces complete with laptop computer recharging capabilities. Catalyst Café is already a popular feature serving coffee, fresh doughnuts, bagels, muffins and more. A huge caffeine molecule sculpture by Denver’s Lumos Custom Lighting & Fabrication hangs from the ceiling.

(Photo by Charles Jischke)

Insights MagazineFall2014

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Transcript of Insights MagazineFall2014