Personalized guidance, experiences in world-class facilities cited as factors in securing university appointments

When the summer draws to a close, many Purdue Engineering fellows and graduate students will have fulfilled their research duties and graduated with their PhDs. While some will move on to new positions in industry, government, or a national lab, many will join prestigious universities to assume faculty positions. Below, the College of Engineering highlights five up-and-coming educators whose next stops are at top U.S. universities.

Ria Corder

Lillian Gilbreth Postdoctoral Fellow, 2021-2023

Degrees: PhD, chemical engineering, North Carolina State University, 2020; BS and MS, chemical engineering, University of Alabama, 2014

Position: Tenure-track assistant professor, University of Tennessee (UT), Knoxville, beginning in January 2024

What excites you about your new appointment?

“I am thrilled to be joining UT, as it is one of the best universities worldwide for polymer science research. UT has many brilliant faculty members whom I look forward to collaborating with as well as extensive polymer characterization facilities that my research group will utilize. I am also excited about the potential to collaborate with staff scientists at Oak Ridge National Lab, which is located only 30 minutes away from the UT campus.”

What was the focus of your research at Purdue? What about future research?

“While at Purdue, I examined how adding polymers affects the rheology, or flow behavior, of 3D printable ceramic particle suspensions. We discovered that polymer addition increases the onset stress of shear thickening by acting as an inter-particle lubricant, demonstrating that higher throughputs can be achieved during additive manufacturing by extending the processing window for extrusion. My future research group at UT will examine and design multi-component soft materials systems for a variety of applications, such as in batteries, high-performance composites, or personal care products.”

How do you feel Purdue has prepared you to take on this new faculty role?

“Purdue has provided numerous professional development opportunities that have prepared me to transition into a faculty role. The Engineering Academic Career Club Mentoring Circle program introduced me to additional faculty mentors in CoE (Professor Nikhilesh Chawla in MSE and Professor Mirian Velay-Lizancos in CE) who provided valuable advice about navigating the tenure track. My postdoctoral experience has allowed me to have countless conversations with my two advisors, Professors Arezoo Ardekani and Kendra Erk, about what a career in academia entails, specifically with respect to balancing career with family responsibilities.”

What are your long-term goals as a professor?

“My long-term goals as a professor are to contribute fundamental, multi-scale findings in the field of soft matter, encourage collaborations between researchers across scientific disciplines to develop rheology-guided approaches to materials development and optimization, and to prepare students to become leaders in the engineering workforce.”

Mengxue Hou

Lillian Gilbreth Postdoctoral Fellow, 2022-2023

Degrees: PhD, electrical and computer engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2022; BS, electrical engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, 2016

Position: Tenure-track assistant professor in electrical engineering, University of Notre Dame, beginning in August 2023

What is your teaching philosophy?

“I view teaching as the most significant way of broadening the impact of scientific research. My teaching philosophy is to connect classroom lectures to real-world engineering applications to attract students' attention. From my past experience as a graduate teaching assistant, I feel this is an effective way to broaden participation in class.”

What was the focus of your research at Purdue? What about future research?

“I was focused on designing decision-making algorithms that enable a team of robots to collaborate efficiently with humans, to explore unstructured and partially known environments such as the ocean or space. On one hand, I will dig deeper into this problem, by taking into consideration what the robots should do to actively improve their awareness of the unknown environment. On the other hand, I will also explore new directions, such as incorporating learning-based techniques in robotic decision-making.”

How do you feel Purdue has prepared you to take on this new faculty role?

“My experience at Purdue gives me tremendous help in making the transition from a postdoc fellow to the faculty role. The help I received is not only in research and publishing papers, but also on how to shape my research vision in the long term and how to interact with other researchers as a junior faculty. My postdoc advisors, Professors Shaoshuai Mou and Shreyas Sundaram, gave me so much valuable advice. They are amazing mentors, and I cannot thank them enough for their support. I would also like to thank Prof. Amy Reibman. She gave me a lot of nice advice and invited me to the faculty workshop sessions. I benefited a lot from our interactions. Lastly, I would like to thank the Lillian Gilbreth Postdoctoral Fellowship that funded my postdoc research. It gives me so much freedom to explore the research topics that I am interested in.”

What are your long-term goals as a professor? 

“The long-term goal in my research is to enable robotic systems to be cognizant, taskable and adaptive, and able to co-exist with humans to explore complex and the ever-changing environment. As an educator, I envision myself to be a supportive mentor and preparing students to pursue their career in engineering. Overall, through research, teaching and service, I would like to make some meaningful contributions to the research community.”

Neelakshi Majumdar

Degrees: PhD, aeronautics and astronautics, Purdue, May 2023; MS, aeronautics and astronautics, Purdue, 2018; BE, electronics and communication engineering, Chitkara University, India, 2014

Position: Tenure-track assistant professor in mechanical engineering at the University of Arkansas, beginning in August 2023

What is your teaching philosophy?

“In the last six years of classroom teaching experience at Purdue University, I have realized that instilling an enthusiasm for the subject in students is the most intrinsic value of teaching to me. The three strongest themes in my teaching philosophy that I attempt to integrate are using active learning methods, implementing personalized learning, and building a positive community in the class.”

What was the focus of your research at Purdue? What about future research?

“My PhD focus was on general aviation safety and accident analysis. In the future, I plan to extend my safety research to fields such as autonomous vehicles, next-generation air transportation, and other industries.”

How do you feel Purdue has prepared you to take on this new faculty role?

“My six years of teaching experience helped me immensely grow as an educator. I also had the opportunity to mentor undergraduate students in my research lab and through other organizations such as Women in Engineering. Apart from that, I was also actively involved in volunteering for Purdue organizations such as Aero Assist, Asha For Education, Women in Engineering, and Purdue Space Day. All these experiences prepared me well not only to excel in my research but also to develop other important skills necessary in academia.”

As you leave Purdue, what is your opinion about the quality of the graduate engineering program?

“Purdue has undoubtedly state-of-the-art graduate engineering programs. The quality of research and courses at Purdue are unique and prepare students to excel in industries as well as in academia. Students can take advantage of the different opportunities offered through the graduate program such as research writing, resume building workshops, and the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) and Engineering Academic Career Club (EACC) mentorship programs.”

What are your long-term goals as a professor? 

“I hope that the government and industries benefit from my lab’s research efforts to make aerospace, transportation, and systems safer. Given my passion for teaching and gender equality, I also aim to increase students’ interest in STEM, especially among girls and underrepresented communities.”

Chrisopher ‘Kurt’ Russell

Degrees: PhD (expected), chemical engineering, Purdue, August 2023; MS, environmental engineering with a concentration in atmosphere/energy, Stanford University, 2018; BS, chemical and biomolecular engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2015

Position: Lecturer, Department of Energy, Environmental, and Chemical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis (WashU), beginning July 2023

What excites you about your new appointment?

“WashU was my top choice for many reasons. It is one of few schools that combines chemical and environmental engineering (and is the only school to have an Energy, Environmental, and Chemical Engineering Department), which is the ideal combination for my background. Additionally, WashU is a smaller department that has demonstrated a strong commitment to undergraduate education and has a history of successful teaching exclusive faculty, which fits my career goals perfectly.”

What was the focus of your research at Purdue?

“My research was focused on the effects of catalyst composition and hydrogen on the performance of olefin aromatization. Basically, it is one step of converting shale gas (the most abundant form of fossil fuel currently extracted in the USA) into liquid fuels (e.g. gasoline/diesel) and chemical precursors. This is one part of many that makes up the NSF Center CISTAR at Purdue.

How do you feel Purdue has prepared you to take on this new faculty role?

“Purdue provided me with many teaching and mentoring opportunities. I TA’d four classes and mentored a variety of students through research. I would like to thank my advisor, Prof. Jeff Miller , for all of his help in developing my mentoring strategy and for being accommodating to my desire to TA significantly more than most ChE PhD students. I would also like to thank all of the faculty that I taught with and under as a TA (Profs Raj Gounder, Bryan Boudouris, Johannes Nitsche, Sangtae Kim, and AraOluwa Adaramola). In particular, I would like to thank Steve Beaudoin⁷, as he went above and beyond in providing me with opportunities to teach classes and gain additional experience with developing course content.”

As you leave Purdue, what is your opinion about the quality of the graduate engineering program?

“I can’t speak highly enough of the graduate engineering program at Purdue. All the people that I have interacted with in the program have been extremely dedicated and helpful, which makes the department a very inviting and motivating place to be. Many of my fellow graduate students have demonstrated a level of excellence I never imagined, and I look forward to seeing the amazing things that they do.”

What are your long-term goals as a professor?

“My long-term goals as a professor are to train the next generation of problem solvers and engineers. I look forward to continuing to hone my skills as an instructor, and to develop more effective methods for teaching students, as well as to help other faculty implement the teaching methods that are most effective for them and the students.”

Abhishek Kumar Umrawal

Degrees: PhD, industrial engineering, Purdue, August 2023; MS, economics, Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business, Purdue, 2021; MS, statistics, Indian Institute of Technology, India, 2011

Position: Teaching assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), beginning in August 2023

What excites you about your new appointment?

“UIUC has always been my dream choice to pursue a faculty career. It has a great environment for research, teaching, ad service with world-renowned academic leaders, excellent students, and a thriving community. I believe that while being at UIUC, I will be able to create a societal impact through my research, teaching, and service.”

What is your teaching philosophy?

“As a teacher, I aim to create an environment that is conducive to active, engaged, and evidence-based learning. I strive to make the educational experience enjoyable and create a safe space for learning by promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion through the classroom and beyond.”

What was the focus of your research at Purdue? What about future research?

“The focus of my research has been reinforcement learning, optimization, causal interference, and network science with applications to social networks and intelligent transportation. At UIUC, I plan to dig deeper into my current research as well as explore new directions like causal reinforcement learning, artificial general intelligence, and algorithmic game theory.”

How do you feel Purdue has prepared you to take on this new faculty role?

“I am truly grateful for the research, teaching, mentoring, and leadership experience that Purdue has provided me that has helped me prepare to take on this new faculty role. I would like to thank my PhD advisors Dr. Vaneet Aggarwal and Dr. Christopher J. Quinn for their continuous guidance and support.”

What are your long-term goals as a professor?

“As a professor, I would like to create a societal impact through my research, teaching, mentoring, and leadership. I will involve myself in solving challenging real-world research problems, educating and mentoring students to become successful in their careers, and leading research and educational initiatives.”