Dear Colleagues,

 

President Cordova will visit our School this Friday, April 15, during 1:00-2:30 pm.  This visit came about during a conversation I had with her at a social event a few months ago.  She remarked that she wanted to get a ground level view of a School with direct faculty/staff input – I immediately volunteered ChE and she accepted!  She may visit other campus units in the future.  To minimize fanfare, she had requested a short lead notice to the School, hence I am writing only now. 

 

The agenda for the visit is 1 hour with all ChE faculty and staff in Room 3059 from 1:00-2:00 pm. We will begin this with ~10-minute remarks by her, followed by a Q&A session.  Then, we have scheduled visits to the solar labs (Agrawal and Wu) and the catalysis labs (Delgass and Ribeiro) in the Addition from 2:00-2:30 pm.  These faculty have been aware of a VIP visit for some time and have received guidelines on organization of the lab visits.

 

I will send her some materials about the School prior to her visit.  For the 1-2 pm session, pl be prepared to ask questions – in such cases, it is good to keep the conversation at a broader level rather than something  which may affect just yourself.  This does not mean that we should shy from asking tough questions but they should be posed in an appropriate manner which demonstrates our vision for a better future Purdue.

 

We are truly honored that the President selected ChE as the first School/Department to visit on campus in this way.  Let us demonstrate that it was a great choice!

 

Best,

 

Arvind

Arvind Varma
R. Games Slayter Distinguished Professor
Head, School of Chemical Engineering
Purdue University