Purdue trustees approve faculty appointments

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The Purdue University Board of Trustees on Thursday (Oct. 10) approved appointments to three named professorships, changed the title of one faculty member and amended the title of the industrial engineering chair.

The board also extended Gary Bertoline’s term as dean of Purdue Polytechnic Institute and approved a resolution of appreciation for donors to the university.

Trustees ratified the appointments of Beth McNeil as the Esther Ellis Norton Professor of Library Science, William Crossley as the J. William Uhrig and Anastasia Vournas Head of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and Brandon M. Fulk as the inaugural Walsh Group Director of Internships for the Division of Construction and Engineering Management. Melba Crawford is now the Nancy Uridil and Francis Bossu Professor in Civil Engineering, a title change from Chair of Excellence in Earth Observation, and Abhijit Deshmukh’s title has changed to the Tompkins Chair of Systems.

McNeil is dean of Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Studies. She is a nationally known scholar of management practices in libraries and leadership development. She is the author of “Fundamentals of Library Supervision,” which is in its third edition, as well as numerous articles, edited works and book chapters. She rejoined the Purdue faculty in July 2019, having previously been at Purdue from 2007-15 as associate dean in Libraries.

Crossley, named head of the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics in July 2019, joined the Purdue faculty in 1995. His teaching and research interests are in aerospace systems design analysis and optimization, with emphasis on problems that mix continuous and discrete variables, involve uncertainty and have multiple objectives. He is a professor in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics and director of Partnership to Enhance General Aviation Safety, Accessibility and Sustainability (PEGASAS) for the Federal Aviation Administration Center of Excellence for General Aviation.

Fulk has been director of internships in construction and engineering management since 2010. He is an instructor in Construction and Engineering Management (CEM), a guest lecturer in civil engineering and an advisor to EPICS – Engineering Projects in Community Service - teams. He received his bachelor’s degree in CEM from Purdue in 1998 and is working toward  his Master of Science degree in Civil Engineering. The Walsh Group is a Chicago-based fourth-generation construction company with a long history of supporting the CEM program.

Crawford’s new title better reflects her current appointment and research interests. She has been the Chair of Excellence in Earth Observation. Crawford teaches remote sensing in the Lyles School of Civil Engineering geomatics program and also is a professor of agronomy in the College of Agriculture. Her research focuses on the development of algorithms for analysis of multisensor data acquired by ground-based, airborne and space-based platforms, and their application to problems in engineering and agriculture. Crawford is co-director of the Civil Engineering Center for Applications of UAS for a Sustainable Environment (CE-CAUSE) and director of the multidisciplinary cross-college Laboratory for Applications of Remote Sensing, which was initiated in 1966.

Deshmukh, previously the Tompkins Professor of Industrial Engineering, is a 1993 Purdue graduate and joined the College of Engineering faculty in 2011 as the James J. Solberg Head of the School of Industrial Engineering. He is a renowned researcher and student mentor, with expertise in distributed decision making, mechanism design and health care policy, and has several landmark publications in the area of complex systems. He also co-leads the Systems Collaboratory, which integrates multidisciplinary teaching and research to enable the convergence of knowledge in problem solving.

Trustees also approved Bertoline’s extension as dean of the Purdue Polytechnic Institute through June 30, 2022, with an exception to the mandatory retirement age policy. The board approved a similar extension for Bertoline in December 2015. Bertoline is a Distinguished Professor of Computer Graphics Technology and Computer and Information Technology. He co-founded the Indiana Next Generation Manufacturing Competitiveness Center and has been instrumental in leading the Polytechnic Institute transformation initiative at Purdue. 

Trustees also approved a resolution of appreciation for those who recently have contributed $1 million or more to the university. Friends include Donald and Susan Barrick, to support the College of Pharmacy; Michael Byers, to support Intercollegiate Athletics; John Fannon, to support the College of Agriculture; Norma Hilleary, to support the School of Mechanical Engineering; James Kasmark Jr., to support the School of Mechanical Engineering and Purdue Polytechnic Institute; John Martinson, to support the College of Engineering; and The Walsh Foundation, to support the College of Engineering. 

Sources: Jay Akridge, akridge@purdue.edu

Amy Noah, anoah@purdue.edu