August 7, 2014

Leah Jamieson, the John A. Edwardson Dean of Engineering, announced the first College of Engineering recipients of the University's Bravo Awards recognizing extraordinary achievement by faculty and staff. The School of Chemical Engineering is proud to have eight of our faculty and staff recognized for outstanding contributions in one of four categories: moving the University forward, operational excellence, innovation/creativity, and fiscal stewardship.

Each recipient receives a non-recurring cash payment ranging from $250 to $1,000 based on the scope and impact of achievement. The inaugural Chemical Engineering recipients, by award category, are:

Moving the University Forward

• Elias Franses, Professor of Chemical Engineering – for authoring a sophomore-level thermodynamics book, the first such textbook written for undergraduates by a Purdue ChE professor in over 25 years.

Operational Excellence

• David Corti, Professor of Chemical Engineering – for superbly serving as ChE's ABET coordinator during this past year. He has streamlined the procedures for course assessments and feedbacks, enabling the accreditation process to move along smoothly.
• Virginia Ewing, Secretary – for going the extra mile in assisting with all aspects of the planning of faculty candidate visits. The number of these visits doubled in the past year and she accepted this extra work without hesitation.
• Cristina Farmus, Managing Director – for playing an integral role in modernizing a key ChE laboratory. She also found new ways for ChE to save a significant amount of money in the School’s budget.
• Ricky McGlothlin, Laboratory Associate – for investing a great deal of time and effort in preparing the School’s Unit Operations Laboratory for renovation under a very tight timeframe.
• Gabriela Nagy, Director of Industrial Education – for making several improvements to the safety of the School of ChE, as she initiated a seminar series for students to raise awareness of safe laboratory practices.

Innovation/Creativity

• Bryan Boudouris, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering – for becoming among the most highly rated instructors in ChE, securing multiple grants from competitive federal sources, and directing the research of eight PhD and two master’s students.
• Yury Zvinevich, Director of Instrumentation – for being instrumental in getting a key ChE laboratory up and running while working on a very tight deadline and providing incredible, innovative modifications to equipment to ensure that it became quickly operational.