Professor Nadia Gkritza is the first-ever recipient of the CE Outstanding Mentor of Engineering Graduate Students award. The College of Engineering created the award this year, which recognizes one faculty member in each of the schools for his/her exemplary mentoring. It is a student-run nomination and award process.

Professor Nadia Gkritza was presented with the Jane F. Garvey/UMass ITE Transportation Leadership Award for her demonstrated leadership and outstanding skill in the field of transportation. Congratulations, Dr. Gkritza!

ABE was well represented at the College of Engineering Award Banquet on Thursday, April 14. The Magoon Award (Excellence in Teaching) was presented to Shawn Ehlers and Malithi Wickramathilaka, Sanoar Rahman won the Outstanding Service Award, and Yi Cui received the Outstanding Research Award. Congratulations to our students for the recognition they so richly deserve!

Malithi Wickramathilaka received the Teaching Academy Graduate Teaching Award Tuesday, April 26, at the 18th Annual Celebration of Graduate Teaching Excellence hosted by the Office of the Provost, Teaching Academy, Graduate School, and Center for Instructional Excellence. Congratulations!

Femeena Valappil is one of the two winners of the 2016 ASABE Ethics Video Challenge. Her "Non-Point Source Water Pollution" is available on YouTube. Congratulations to Femeena and Dr. Indrajeet Chaubey!

Maha Awards

We are proud to announce that Dr. Ivantysynova is among the winners of the 2016 Purdue Morrill Award, along with Douglas Powell and Phillip Wankat (Purdue Today 2016). The award is named after the land-grant college supporting Morill Act of 1862 and is given out to professors for exceptional performance in both research and in the classroom. Dr. Ivantysynova’s research focuses on increasing the efficiency of positive displacement machines and the hydraulic circuits within which they operate through advanced modelling of the tribological interfaces of these machines and of system architectures. Among her accomplishments in the field of hydraulics are founding the Maha Fluid Power Research Center, helping to found the global hydraulics organization “Fluid Power Net International”, and hosting the Research Experiences for Undergraduates Bootcamp as part of the NSF Center for Compact Efficient Fluid Power. Congratulations Dr. Ivantysynova!

New Faces at Maha

The Maha Fluid Power Research Center is pleased to welcome Dr. Ing. Tatiana Minav, Philipp Wagner, and Federico Campanini. The three newcomers are joining us from the Aalton University in Finland, Graz University of Technology in Austria, and Universitá Degli Studi di Parma in Italy, respectively. Wagner’s work will focus on improving the robot used to run measurements in Maha’s noise chamber, Campanini will be conducting research on a mobile crane prognostics system under the direction of Dr. Andrea Vacca, and Dr. Minav will look for a project in the pump and systems groups headed by Dr. Ivantysynova.

References

Purdue Today 2016, 2016 Morrill Award Winners Announced. Available from:
http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/purduetoday/releases/2016/Q2/2016-morrill-award-winners-announced.html [9 May 2016].

The ASABE Student Club held officer elections last month and the results are:

President: Andre Larsen
Vice President: Nick Palcheff
Treasurer: Violet Goodwin
Secretary: Sarah Cryer
Ag Council Rep: Paige Weber

Congratulations to these students for taking leadership!

Lisa Lorena Losada Rojas, an undergraduate student from Colombia, was hosted at Purdue last year through the Purdue-Colombia Institute. Her thesis, "Influence of Mass Transit Systems on Land Use" was determined to be the "best thesis in her field" at the National University of Colombia. Her this was developed under the supervision of her host, Professor Nadia Gkritza.

This was a bit of a sad year for the ABE redbud trees. The last tree standing on the East end of the building was cut down, so we are now down to two trees on the West end, near Hanson Labs. I am going to leave the table below for posterity and begin tracking the new trees only.

April 19 (2016) "El Nino" winter

Here is a table showing the years when the tree on the east end of the building bloomed on various dates:

Date (Years in which "the tree" bloomed on this date)

March 23 (2012)
April 12 (2010)
April 14 (2000)
April 15 (1991)
April 18 (2001,, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2007)
April 19 (1998, 2003, 2006)
April 20 (2013, 2014)
April 22 (1999, 2015)
April 23 (1990, 2009, 2011)
April 24 (1995, 2008)
April 25 (1994)
April 30 (1992, 1993)
May 2 (1996)
May 3 (1997)

During Ag Week, the College of Agriculture hosted a Food Finders Food Drive with the departments competing for top honors. The ABE Department, through donations of food and funds, raised 348 meals! Here is how all of the units fared:

The winning Department with a total of 16,113 meals is…………. Agricultural Economics! Outstanding job to departmental champions Michael Gunderson and Tracy Buck!

Horticulture and Landscape Architecture (Jen Deiser) - 3,723
Botany & Plant Pathology (Stacie Kitchen/Lisa Gross) - 3,233
Ag Administration (Melissa Funk) - 3,233
Agronomy (Connie Foster) - 1,916
Food Science (Leslie Christopher) - 1,637
Forestry (Megan Gunn) - 951
Animal Science (Pat Jonas)- 745
Biochemistry (Kim Muldoon) - 604
Entomology (Beth York) - 472
Ag & Biological Engineering (Carol Weaver) – 348

Professor Gary Krutz is wrapping up his storied career in ABE this semester. His departure will leave some very large shoes (and rods) to fill. If you are interested in attending the retirement festivities on October 15, 2016, please contact Becky Peer for details.

Tentative Schedule:

10:00 am Tour of ABE Research and Purdue Buildings

Afternoon Homecoming Football Game vs. Iowa

5:00 pm Reception in the East/West Faculty Lounges, Purdue Memorial Union

6:00 pm Dinner

7:00 pm Retirement program (can you say "roast"?)