Audeen Fentiman, Professor of Nuclear Engineering and Associate Dean of Graduate Education and Interdisciplinary Programs in the College of Engineering has been named one of 46 fellows selected nationwide this year by the American Council on Education.

Purdue University New Service reports:

The 2010-11 class will bring to 1,698 the number of higher education leaders who have participated in the program since its inception in 1965. The program focuses on identifying and preparing fellows for senior leadership roles. More than 300 of the fellows have gone on to serve as chief executive officers of colleges and universities, and more than 1,100 have served as provosts, vice presidents or deans.

"Professors Fentiman and Groll were selected because of their terrific leadership talents," said Beverly Davenport Sypher, associate provost and the Susan Bulkeley Butler Chair for Leadership Excellence. "This is the first time in 20 years a Purdue faculty member has been named an ACE fellow. We are very proud to be participating in this prestigious program."

The ACE Fellows Program combines retreats, interactive learning opportunities, campus visits and placement at another higher education institution to condense years of on-the-job experience and skills development into a single semester or year.

Fentiman is an expert on nuclear waste management and has co-authored a textbook on the subject. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Before moving to Purdue in the spring of 2006, she was chair of the nuclear engineering program and director of the Nuclear Reactor Laboratory at Ohio State University. She had previously served as director of Ohio State's interdisciplinary Environmental Science Graduate Program.

Groll joined Purdue as an assistant professor in 1994 and was promoted to associate professor in 2000 and to professor in 2005. He received a doctorate in mechanical engineering in 1994 from the University of Hannover, Germany. Groll's research interests focus on the fundamental thermal sciences applied to advanced heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.  His research is based at Purdue's Ray W. Herrick Laboratories.