Appointments, honors and activities

• Faculty and staff honors:

- Purdue University Libraries recently presented Open Access awards to key faculty members for their commitment and contributions to the advancement of open access. Professor Linda S. Bergmann, director of the Online Writing Lab, received the Open Access Education Award. The Online Writing Lab celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2013. Now featuring more than 300 reference and instructional materials, all made freely available online, OWL has established itself as one of the premier open educational resources on the Web. Mark S. Lundstrom, the Don and Carol Scifres Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and founding director of the Network for Computational Nanotechnology, was presented the Open Access Research Award. The award was presented in recognition of Lundstrom's leadership in creating NanoHUB, a radical departure from traditional forms of scholarly communication in nanotechnology with a strongly open access character. Annually, nearly 250,000 users in 172 countries access more than 3,000 resources from more than 1,000 authors for research and education, including over 250 simulation tools.

- Barrett Caldwell, a professor of industrial engineering at Purdue University, has been selected a member of NASA's new Field Investigations to Enable Solar System Science and Exploration team. It is one of nine research teams in a new institute that will bring researchers together in a collaborative virtual setting to focus on questions concerning space science and human space exploration. The teams participating in the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) will address scientific questions about the moon, near-Earth asteroids and the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos, in cooperation with international partners. Caldwell is director of the Indiana Space Grant Consortium, part of a national network that promotes STEM education through cooperative and interdisciplinary programs. More information about SSERVI is available at http://sservi.nasa.gov/articles/nasa-selects-research-teams-for-new-virtual-institute/

- Mike Savage, station manager of WBAA, has been elected to the board of Public Radio in Mid-America. Savage was elected during PRIMA's annual meeting earlier this week in Washington DC. The regional group has more than 100 member stations in 20 states from Louisiana to North Dakota. Savage is a 20-year veteran of public radio and began has been general manager at WBAA, public radio from Purdue, since Nov.1.

- Kyle Hultgren, managing director for the Center for Medication Safety Advancement, received the Indiana Pharmacists Alliance 2013 President's Award. The alliance is a professional association serving Indiana's pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. It accomplishes its mission of advancing the profession of pharmacy in Indiana through advocacy, education and leadership.

- Gloria Sachdev, a clinical assistant professor of pharmacy practice, received the Indiana Pharmacists Alliance 2013 Excellence in Innovation Award. The alliance is a professional association serving Indiana's pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. It accomplishes its mission of advancing the profession of pharmacy in Indiana through advocacy, education and leadership.

- Rodrigo Bañuelos, a professor of mathematics, and Alexandre Eremenko, a distinguished professor of mathematics, are among the 2013 class of fellows of the American Mathematical Society. The program recognized members who have made outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement, communication and utilization of mathematics. Bañuelos was recognized for his contributions at the interface between probability and analysis, and Eremenko was recognized for contributions to value distributions theory, geometric function theory, and other areas of analysis and complex dynamics. The American Mathematical Society was founded in 1888 to further the interests of mathematical research and scholarship. More information is available at http://www.ams.org/profession/ams-fellows/ams-fellows

• Notables:

- David Sanders, an associate professor of biological sciences at Purdue University, is editor the book "Acetate: Versatile Building Block of Biology and Chemistry" published by Nova Publishers. The book spans from the origin of life to the latest developments in biology and chemistry, and elucidates how acetate and its derivatives are critical to the metabolism, the global carbon cycle, greenhouse gas generation and climate change, according to the publisher's book description. More information is available at https://www.novapublishers.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=44299