Howell honored with Morrill Award
Kathleen Howell, the Hsu Lo Distinguished Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, was honored May 7 with the highest honor that Purdue confers onto a member of its faculty.
Howell received the Morrill Award, intended for faculty at the rank of full professor who most strongly exemplify the spirit of the land grant university. She was honored for demonstrating a synergy among all dimensions of her profession: Teaching, research, and engagement.
Each year, the Office of the Provost selects up to three Morrill Award recipients who receive a $30,000 cash prize.
“I am extremely honored by the Morrill Award,” Howell says. “I am also humbled to be joining such an illustrious group of colleagues as the past recipients. It is notable to me that we achieve success only with the support of others; I sincerely appreciate my mentors, collaborators, and students along the way.”
Howell has made pioneering contributions in celestial mechanics and astrodynamics, and her research has had a major impact on numerous past and ongoing NASA and international space flight missions in the Earth-Moon and Earth-Sun systems, including Artemis, Genesis, Triana, and Cassini.
Her accomplishments have been widely recognized through many awards, including the Dirk Brouwer Award from the American Astronautical Society and Purdue’s 2018 C.T. Sun Excellence in Research Award. She is a member of the International Academy of Astronautics, the National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is a fellow of the AIAA and American Astronautical Society.
Past recipients
2018
Stephen R. Byrn, Industrial and Physical Pharmacy
Larry L. Murdock, Entomology
2017
Michael Boehlje, Department of Agricultural Economics
2016
Monika Ivantysynova, Agricultural and Biological Engineering
Douglas Powell, Human Development and Family Studies
Phillip Wankat, Chemical Engineering
2015
Gebisa Ejeta, Agronomy
Michael Ladisch, Agricultural and Biological Engineering
Wallace Tyner, Agricultural Economics
2014
Rakesh Agrawal, Chemical Engineering
Philip Low, Chemistry
Edward Delp, Electrical and Computer Engineering
2013
George Bodner, Chemistry
Randy Roberts, History
2012
Victor Lechtenberg, Inaugural Morrill Award - Office of Engagement
Graham Cooks, Chemistry
Mark Lundstrom, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Eugene Spafford, Computer Science
Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth, Human Development and Family Studies