It is with great pleasure that I announce that Jeff Valley is the inaugural recipient of the School of Chemical Engineering Staff Excellence Award. Jeff has been with the School of Chemical Engineering since 1995 as the Building Deputy and for the past 15 years has done an excellent job enabling us to work in a good, clean and safe environment. There are many aspects of Jeff's performance that are worth mentioning, but the most important of all is the fact that he now manages a space twice the size of what it was when he was hired 15 years ago. He does his work with his characteristic competence and calm reassurance, and treats everyone with the same respect, regardless of their status at Purdue or the importance of the problem they bring to him. The award comes with a plaque and a $1,000 monetary contribution. Five nominations were received for this round of awards: 3 were the same as submitted to the College of Engineering Staff Awards process and two were prepared specifically for the ChE process. The decision was made by the ChE Staff Awards Committee comprised of Larry Campbell, Linda Davis, Sandy Hendryx, Doraiswami Ramkrishna and Arvind Varma. All members voted on the nominations individually, I compiled the results, and then they met to discuss the top two candidates and make a decision. I want to thank the committee members for their effort and for having to handle the difficult task of choosing just one recipient from the excellent pool of candidates. I also want to thank all the faculty, staff, post doctoral research associates and graduate students who took the time to write nominations and letters of support acknowledging our outstanding staff. This was an atypical year when the award was given in the fall. In the future, the nominations will be due by March 31 and the winner announced at the May appreciation reception. Please join me in congratulating Jeff! Cristina Cristina Farmus Administrative Director Chemical Engineering Purdue University 765 494 0027 cfarmus@purdue.edu<mailto:cfarmus@purdue.edu>