Dear Colleagues,

I write to echo Jim Litster’s note below, and to provide some additional background.  As follow up of the team that Jim co-chaired, the ELT approved a process to  “...recognizing the achievements of senior faculty...  this process includes providing continual professional development, supported by thoughtful planning and goal setting, as part of academic professional life for all faculty, at all stages in their careers.  The hope is that such a program will support faculty in their plans to build on their successes and expand their horizons, as well as  leverage the valuable experience and capabilities of senior faculty who may want to take on new roles at the university.”

To implement the program, in January this year, all CoE Heads were requested to provide names of at most 2 of their School’s faculty, who fit the following criteria:

1. Full Professors who have been at that rank at least 7 years or more, or joined Purdue as a full professor

2. Faculty of different career paths and vision, i.e., it would be preferable if both nominees did not have the traditional research based careers.

I nominated two ChE faculty, one with a “traditional research based career” and Joe as one in a “different career paths and vision.” 

Among all the nominees, the CoE selected 3 faculty members whose careers are being celebrated this semester – Joe is in this inaugural group.  With this, he brings recognition to himself and to our School!

As noted below, the seminar details are:

Friday, March 29, 2013
3:30 p.m. seminar, Forney Hall of Chemical Engineering, Room G124
4:30 p.m. reception, Forney Hall, Henson Atrium

Pl attend, to celebrate Joe’s outstanding career, which has unlimited future potential!

Best,

Arvind

Arvind Varma
R. Games Slayter Distinguished Professor
Jay and Cynthia Ihlenfeld Head of Chemical Engineering
Purdue University

From: che-faculty-list-bounces@ecn.purdue.edu [mailto:che-faculty-list-bounces@ecn.purdue.edu] On Behalf Of Litster, James Donald
Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2013 2:50 PM
To: chefaculty@ecn.purdue.edu
Subject: [Che-faculty-list] FW: CoE Inaugural Faculty Colloquium - Joseph Pekny

Dear Colleagues

I encourage you to attend Joe’s colloquium this Friday afternoon.  The “celebration of faculty careers” colloquium series is an outcome from the College strategic planning, specifically from the Promotion and Tenure Implementation Team that I co-chaired.  Joe is one of three senior faculty in the College chosen for piloting the program this semester.

Hope to see you there.

Jim

Jim Litster, PhD

Professor of Chemical Engineering

Professor of Industrial and Physical Pharmacy

Purdue University

Forney Hall of Chemical Engineering, Room G027A

480 Stadium Mall Drive

West Lafayette  IN  47907-2100

USA

+1 765 496-2836 (phone)

+1 765 494-0805 (fax)

jlitster@purdue.edu

From: engfaculty-list-bounces@ecn.purdue.edu [mailto:engfaculty-list-bounces@ecn.purdue.edu] On Behalf Of Leah Jamieson
Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2013 10:07 AM
To: engfaculty-list@ecn.purdue.edu
Subject: CoE Inaugural Faculty Colloquium - Joseph Pekny

The College of Engineering invites you to attend

THE CELEBRATION OF FACULTY CAREERS
INAUGURAL COLLOQUIUM SERIES

Celebrate our faculty members' diverse impact
on education, scholarship, engagement and disciplines.

JOSEPH F. PEKNY "Knowledge Acquisition Frameworks and Deliberate Innovation - Perspectives from and Next Steps for a Journey in Engineering Complexity" We live at a time of marvelous advances and great promise. For example, many of us wear and make phone calls with handheld "computers" that dwarf the capability of supercomputers of just a few years ago. The fundamental advances responsible for such a Moore’s law phenomena will drive profound and unpredictable economic improvements for many years. Yet, people are aware that our society is up against what might perhaps be existential challenges. Climate change, economic bubbles, terrorism, affordability of healthcare, cancer, national debt, providing sufficient energy for everyone, etc. are challenges of incredible complexity. How can we reconcile scientifically these observations of great promise and foreboding challenge? At least partially, our society has reached the limits of understanding that are possible through scientific reductionism. Observations of complexity over the last few decades show that new principles are required for useful understanding. I will use the experiences from my career at Purdue to provide a practical definition of complexity and introduce the developing ideas of knowledge acquisition frameworks and deliberate innovation as tools which can mitigate complexity. These tools may prove useful to understanding and engineering the "holistic" nature of complexity. Friday, March 29, 2013 3:30 p.m. seminar, Forney Hall of Chemical Engineering, Room G124 4:30 p.m. reception, Forney Hall, Henson Atrium

Parking available in Northwestern Parking Garage