November 21, 2008
Purdue trustees recognize 5 professors, football coach
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue University board of trustees on Friday (Nov. 21) ratified the appointments of faculty to designated professorships and a center directorship.The trustees also approved a resolution naming Joe Tiller football coach emeritus and honoring him and his wife Arnette for their service. Tiller's final game as the Boilermakers' coach will be Saturday (Nov. 22) against Indiana University in the annual Old Oaken Bucket game.
Trustees approved the appointments of the following professors: Howard Adler to the C.B. Smith Professorship of Hotel Management; Jan P. Allebach as the Hewlett-Packard Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Kenneth F. Ferraro as a Distinguished Professor of Sociology; Carol A. Handwerker as the Reinhardt Schuhmann Jr. Professor of Materials Engineering; and Timothy L. Ratliff as the Robert Wallace Miller Director of the Purdue Cancer Center.
The newest appointments bring the university's total number of named and distinguished professors to 163.
"Purdue maintains its high level of excellence in the classroom and in research due in part to the work of these outstanding professors," Provost Randy Woodson said. "It's an honor to recognize these gifted people who have given so much to Purdue and to their respective fields."
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Adler has taught at Purdue since 1982, primarily in the area of hotel operations, and is the director of the Center for the Study of Lodging Operations. He previously was a faculty member at the University of Southern Mississippi. Adler held several management positions in the hotel industry, including general manager with Sheraton and director of sales, front office manager and resident manager with several private resorts.
He spent the 1999-2000 academic year at the University of Del Este in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and the 2006-2007 academic year teaching in China at the South China University of Technology and the Macau Institute of Tourism. He currently is a consultant for several hotel companies and presents seminars on organizational climate.
Adler earned his bachelor's degree and master's degree in hotel and food service management from Florida International University in Miami. He also has a doctorate in education from the University of Mississippi.
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Allebach came to Purdue in 1983 and was the Michael J. and Katherine R. Birck Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. His current research interests include image rendering, image quality, color imaging and color measurement, document management, and engineering education.
He holds 14 patents, and the results of his research on image rendering algorithms have been licensed to major vendors of imaging products and are incorporated into tens of millions of units that have been sold worldwide. He has been named Electrical Imaging Scientist of the Year by the Society for Imaging Science and Technology and SPIE-International Society for Optical Engineers. He was named an honorary member by the Society for Imaging Science and Technology, its highest award.
Allebach received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Delaware in 1972 and his master's degree and doctorate from Princeton University in 1976.
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Ferraro has taught at Purdue since 1990 and is the founding director of the Center on Aging and the Life Course. His recent research uses a life course framework to examine health inequality, especially ethnic and racial differences, and the cumulative effects of obesity on health. He is the current editor of the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences.
He regularly teaches courses on minority health, longitudinal data analysis and social gerontology. Ferraro became a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America in 1990 and the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education in 1997.
He earned his bachelor's degree in sociology from St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., his master's degree from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and his doctorate from the University of Akron.
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Handwerker came to Purdue's School of Materials Engineering in 2005. She previously was chief of the Metallurgy Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology for the U.S. Department of Commerce for nine years before joining Purdue. Her current research interests include materials and processing of microelectronics, nanomaterials interfaces, and metrics for sustainability in the electronics industry.
She earned her bachelor's degrees in material science and engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and in art history from Wellesley College. She earned her master's degree and doctorate from MIT. She is a fellow of the American Society for Materials and the American Ceramic Society.
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Ratliff came to Purdue from the University of Iowa last year when he was appointed director of the cancer center and a professor of comparative pathobiology in the School of Veterinary Medicine.
Ratliff was the Andersen-Hebbeln Professor of Prostate Cancer Research at the University of Iowa College of Medicine for 10 years before he arrived at Purdue. He also served as research vice chair for the University of Iowa's Department of Urology for six years.
Ratliff earned his bachelor's degree in biology and chemistry from the University of Texas at Arlington. He received his master's degree in biology from Texas A&M-Commerce and his doctorate in microbiology from the University of Arkansas.
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In the board's resolution honoring Tiller, he was cited for winning more football games than any other coach at Purdue during his 12 years. His teams have made 10 bowl appearances, and 64 of his student-athletes have gone on to National Football League careers. He also had a university-record 15 student-athletes earn Academic All-Big Ten honors during the 2006 season.
Writer: Clyde Hughes, (765) 494-2073, jchughes@purdue.edu
Sources: Randy Woodson, woodson@purdue.edu
Howard Adler, (765) 494-5998, adlerh@purdue.edu
Jan Allebach, (765) 494-3535, jan.p.allebach.1@purdue.edu
Kenneth Ferraro, (765) 494-4707, ferraro@purdue.edu
Carol Handwerker, (765) 494-0147, handwerker@purdue.edu
Timothy Ratliff, (765) 494-9129, tlratliff@purdue.edu
Tom Schott, assistant athletic director for communications, (765) 494-3145, tschott@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
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