Appointments, honors and activities

• Appointments and promotions:

- The Department of Nutrition Science in the College of Health and Human Sciences has named Michele R. Forman as professor and head. Forman, whose appointment began Jan. 1, was previously the David Bruton Jr. Centennial Professor in Nutrition at The University of Texas at Austin. She holds degrees in nutritional epidemiology (PhD), nutritional anthropology (MA) and epidemiology (MPH), all from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For more than 30 years, her research has focused on women’s health throughout the life course, with an emphasis on the effect of pregnancy, early childhood, puberty, and the reproductive years on the risk of breast and other hormonal cancers. Forman succeeds Connie Weaver, who remains on faculty after serving 25 years as department head.

• Faculty and staff honors:

- George Shanthikumar, the Krannert Richard E. Dauch Chair in Manufacturing and Operations Management, has been chosen president-elect for 2017 of the Production and Operations Management Society. The Production and Operations Management Society is an international organization representing the interests POM professionals around the world.

- Two Purdue professors will share duties as lead editors for the academic journal Politics, Groups, and Identities. Nadia Brown, Associate Professor of Political Science and African American Studies, will work with Valeria Sinclair-Chapman, Associate Professor; Director for the Center for Research on Diversity and Inclusion. The Journal of the Western Political Science Association publishes works across a number of fields including political science, social sciences and humanities. The journal is interdisciplinary in focus and a peer-reviewed journal.

• Alumni honors:

- Talya Bower, a 1994 PhD Krannert graduate, has been elected president of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. SIOP is the professional association dedicated to advancing the field of industrial-organizational psychology. It has more than 8,000 members, an annual conference, and many publications. Bower is currently the Cameron Professor of Management at Portland State Univeristy.

• Student honors:

- Department of Consumer Sciences senior Heather Gerber was one of 229 college students nationwide to win a $5,000 scholarship from the Fashion Scholarship Fund, New York. It was the first year for Purdue’s participation in the organization’s case study/scholarship competition. Nearly 600 applicants from 58 member schools sought the scholarship. Purdue had six applicants in the program. Gerber will visit New York City Jan. 11 for a three-day program including an awards dinner and internship fair.

- Two Purdue Polytechnic students have been selected for awards from the Foundation for Technology and Engineering Educators for their scholarship and leadership potential.  Euisuk Sung, a graduate student studying engineering/technology teacher education, will receive the Maley Outstanding Graduate Student Award.  Nathaniel Cool, an undergraduate engineering/technology teacher education major, will receive the Maley Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award.  The awards are named for Donald Maley, one of the profession’s distinguished fellows and a founder of the Foundation for Technology and Engineering Educators.  Sung and Cool will be honored at the 2017 International Technology and Engineering Educators Association Conference in Dallas, Texas, in March.

- Brian Alberts, a doctoral student in the Department of History, received the 2017 Humanities Without Walls PreDoctoral fellowship. He will participate in a three-week summer workshop to learn from leaders in humanities fields, such as organizers of public humanities projects and experts in various digital humanities. The workshop is facilitated and directed by the Chicago Humanities Festival and will be held in July in Chicago. Alberts is researching brewing and German immigrants in Chicago and Cincinnati and is specifically interested in how beer production and consumption helped immigrants navigate the cultural and economic transformations of the mid-19th century. Through participation in Humanities Without Walls, Alberts will work to better adapt his academic training for public audience as well as develop the skills to form professional relationships which bridge the gaps between scholarship, education and industry. The Humanities Without Walls Consortium is funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

- More information about Alberts and his academic project is available online: https://www.cla.purdue.edu/students/graduate/withoutwalls.html