Purdue University's College of Engineering has named three preeminent teams to focus on research ranging from medical imaging and head trauma to advanced composite materials.

The effort is part of the college's strategic growth plan, which will add as many as 107 faculty over five years.

"The preeminent teams represent a faculty hiring strategy focused on research, and complements our discipline-based faculty hiring," said Leah Jamieson, the John A. Edwardson Dean of Engineering. "These teams have the potential to build dramatically on Purdue's current strengths with strategic hires. Their research will have far-reaching impact."

It is the third annual competition. The teams competed in a process similar to a pitch entrepreneurs would give to venture capitalists. This year 17 teams, comprising more than 110 faculty members, participated in the competition.

The strategic growth plan is part of Purdue Moves, a range of initiatives designed to broaden Purdue's global impact and enhance educational opportunities for its students.

The three preeminent teams chosen will focus on:

Team #2 Label-free Spectroscopic Imaging: Emerging Platform for Biology and Medicine

Lead:

• Ji-Xin Cheng, Professor, Biomedical Engineering

Members:

• Dor Ben-Amotz, Professor, Chemistry
• Stanley Chan, Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Assistant Professor, Statistics
• Clint Chapple, Distinguished Professor, Biochemistry
• Nan Kong, Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering
• Tim Ratliff, Robert Wallace Miller Director, Purdue Center for Cancer Research and Professor, Comparative Pathobiology
• Ali Shakouri, Mary Jo and Robert L. Kirk Director, Birck Nanotechnology Center and Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Michael Sturek, Professor and Department Chair, Cellular & Integrative Physiology, Indiana University School of Medicine
• Andrew Weiner, Scifres Family Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Team #5 Advanced Composites Manufacturing

Lead:

• Byron Pipes, John L. Bray Distinguished Professor of Engineering

Members:

• James Caruthers, Gerald and Sarah Skidmore Professor of Chemical Engineering
• Johnathan Goodsell, Research Assistant Professor, Aeronautics and Astronautics
• Nate Hartman, Professor of Computer Graphics Technology, Purdue Polytechnic Institute
• Marisol Koslowski, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering
• Thomas Siegmund, Professor, Mechanical Engineering
• Ale Strachan, Professor, Materials Engineering
• Ronald Sterkenburg, Professor, Aviation Technology
• Wenbin Yu, Associate Professor, Aeronautics and Astronautics

There was also one final team from the fall 2014 competition. The team was recommended last year, but the final selection was postponed until it was certain that the team's resource needs could be met. With the recent resolution of questions of equipment and space, the following team was added:

2014 Team #8 Engineering Healthier Brains: Assessment, Treatment and Prevention of Neurophysiologic Injury and Disease

Lead:

• Thomas Talavage, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Biomedical Engineering

Members:

• Ulrike Dydak, Associate Professor, Health Sciences
• Larry Leverenz, Clinical Professor, Health and Kinesiology
• Zhongming Liu, Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering and Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Riyi Shi, Professor, Basic Medical Sciences and Professor, Biomedical Engineering