Five Purdue Engineering alumni were elected to the National Academy of Engineering in the latest class.

Election to NAE is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. The NAE elected 106 new members and 18 international members in the latest class, bringing the total U.S. membership to 2,420 and the number of international members to 319. Individuals in the newly elected class will be formally inducted during the NAE's annual meeting on Oct. 1, 2023.

Ramalingam Chellappa (MSEE ’78, PhD ’81) was elected for contributions to digital image analysis, automatic face recognition and applications. Chellappa is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

A distinguished professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of California-Davis, Jennifer Sinclair Curtis (BSChE ’83) was recognized for work on particle-laden flows and industrially used algorithms for dilute and dense-phase gas-solid flow.

For contributions and leadership to improve engineering safety practices in the chemical process industries, Deborah Grubbe (BSChE ’77) was elected to the NAE. Grubbe is president and owner of Operations and Safety Solutions LLC.

CE alumnus Douglas Owen, senior principal at Stantec, was selected for contributions to drinking water quality, expansion of potable reuse and integration of sustainability in water treatment plant design.

General Motors Principal Technical Fellow and Lab Group Manager Anil Sachdev (MSMSE ’72) was honored for the research, development and commercialization of lightweight materials to improve vehicle fuel economy.