Welcome Alumni
You are the heart of the department. Our mission is to foster lifelong relationships between the Department and its alumni and friends.
The site is meant to give you information about becoming involved in the department. If you are interested in getting involved or would like to suggest ways we can better connect the Department and its alumni, please contact us. We look forward to hearing from you!
Biological Sciences Alumni Advisory Committee Spring Meeting
The Biological Sciences Alumni Advisory Committee met for the spring meeting April 19-20 to discuss “Enhancing the Value of a Biology Degree” which centered around both undergraduate and graduate student issues. Thank you to our members for your loyalty and dedication!
2013 Biological Sciences Distinguished Alumni – Dr. Hao Wu
Dr. Hao Wu PhD ’92 is being honored as the 2013 Distinguished Science Alumni award for Biological Sciences on Friday, April 12th. Dr. Wu is at the Harvard Medical School and became the Springer Family Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology. Her research has made important contributions to elucidating the molecular mechanism of immune receptor signal transduction. Her pursuit of the macromolecular interactions in these pathways revealed the formation of high-order signaling assemblies, or “signalosomes”, which are critical for caspase activation, kinase auto-phosphorylation and other oligomerization-driven processes. While at Purdue, she was a student of Professor Michael Rossman who will also be attending the award ceremony with Dr. Wu. She has also been elected a Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science. We are thrilled to be honoring Dr. Wu for her wonderful achievements in the world of Science—congratulations!
William A. Hinton Research Training Award
LaJoyce Debro, Ph.D., Professor of Biology, Jacksonville State University, Alabama, is the 2012 William A. Hinton Research Training Award laureate. "For more than 40 years, Debro has been an outstanding educator," says her nominator, Ellen Neidle from the University of Georgia. This award, given in memory of William A. Hinton—a physician-research scientist and one of the first African-Americans to join the ASM—honors outstanding contributions toward fostering the research training of underrepresented minorities in microbiology. "She has had an impact on hundreds of students," says Benjie Blair, Jacksonville State University. "She is highly respected for her depth of knowledge and dedication in teaching and research."
Debro grew up in Clarksdale, Miss., and received her B.A. in Biology from Spelman College. She went on to receive her M.S. from Atlanta University (now Clark-Atlanta), and her Ph.D. in Biology with a concentration in Microbiology from Purdue University. Read of this story from the ASM news letter here
Professor Jim Nardi (BS '70 from Purdue) now at the University of Illinois wrote a captivating story for children that stems from his Entomology research. Emeritus Purdue Professor Peter Waser writes this about Jim's book.......
Alumnus James Nardi, Research Scientist at the University of Illinois, has just published "In Mouse's Backyard" (Schiffer Publishing Co), an exploration of all those small critters, plants, and other strange, mysterious, fascinating, and sometimes creepy or squishy living things that the curious child (or parent) will likely find in any midwestern backyard. Lovely drawings are filled with surprises -- inconspicuous beasties that make you realize how much it pays to look again, with your eyes a little wider open, both at the book and at the ordinary world around you. Supplemented with some lovely photos and even electron micrographs of things like stink bugs' beaks, mushroom spores and velvet mite toes, all with the scale marked clearly, but not in the metric system -- the thickness of a nickel and the width of a hair are the units here.
The text is in verse and filled with the sort of details that drew me into natural history as a kid -- introducing you to everything from how mosses reproduce to what the greek words for "toe" and "feathery" tell you about beetles whose scientific names are more imposing than they are. btw, this book just may draw some readers into looking at an earlier book of Jim's, "Life in the Soil", a more traditional guide to all those little organisms, from tardigrades to cup fungi, that live all around us but usually escape our notice. If you're the sort of person who's always wondered where you could find a field guide to the slime molds, Nardi is the author for you.
2012 Outstanding Alumni
(left to right: Dr. Bloom, Department Head Dr. Richard Kuhn, Dr. Parker)
"Dr. Kerry Bloom PhD (PhD '80) and Dr. Stephen Parker M.D. (B.S. '01) received the Outstanding Alumni award in September 2012. Dr. Bloom is the Thad L. Beyle Distinguished Professor of Biology at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Dr. Parker is a Neurosurgeon at St. Vincent's Medical Center in Jacksonville, Florida. The Biological Sciences Department is honored to award these amazing alumni and celebrate their accomplishments. Congratulations to both Dr. Bloom and Dr. Parker!
******************************************************************
Director of Development
Being a part of the Department of Biological Sciences has been fulfilling! I enjoy the Department's alumni and helping elevate Biological Sciences to the next level. Seeing how Boilermakers excel and support the great University that has allowed them to grow into the extraordinary people that they are today is exhilarating. If you are back on campus, please feel free to stop by, I would love to hear about how Purdue has influenced your life and welcome you back to our alma mater!
Hail Purdue!Julie Paolillo
College of Health and Human Sciences BS `94
Director of Development
Lilly Hall of Life Sciences
Room 1-109
765.496.7502
Eureka Moments Leads Purdue Alum to Great Success
While working on a summer fellowship at The National Institutes of Health in 1986, Jay P. Desai decided that he liked working with people more than with molecules. With this in mind, after graduating with his MS in Biological Sciences in 1987, Jay went on to Willamette University where he earned his MBA. Jay felt that earning his MBA would broaden his perspective and provide him with more career options. In 1989, after returning to his home country of India, Jay joined Arthur Andersen & Company. In June of 1993 while staffed on an atypical Andersen Consulting project for a small garments company, Jay had his “eureka” moment. It was then that he realized there was a big market to provide management consulting services to mid-sized businesses. In 1994 at the age of 30, Jay left Andersen Consulting with a little over 4 years of work experience to set up Universal Consulting India with a total capital of $1,000 (USD).
Since 1994, Jay has been the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Universal Consulting India Pvt Ltd. He currently has over 21 years of management consulting experience and since the inception, of Universal Consulting has built it into one of the largest boutique strategy consulting firms in India, with a team of 60+ people in their Mumbai and New Delhi offices. Mr. Desai has directed more than 685 consulting projects for over 270 clients across the manufacturing and service sectors, in industry verticals as diverse as Life Sciences & Health Care, Industrial Products, Power & Energy, Financial Services, Rural Markets & Agri-Business and Retail & Consumer Goods.
Jay’s role involves the following:
- Internal strategy formulation and implementation
- Marketing of consulting services and building the UC brand
- Steering committee-level involvement for major client projects
- Managing finances at an overall level
- Developing and motivating people
- Conducting research as part of the UC Centre for Strategic Synthesis.
Currently, Jay is in the final stages of writing a book on "The Accountability Deficit" in India's public administration, based on a 2 year research project he undertook internally within the Firm. This book will be published by Pearson in late 2011. Mr. Desai also has active research interests in evolutionary biology (sparked by Peter Waser’s courses at Purdue Bio) and its application to the world of business strategy.
When asked how his biological sciences degree and/or Purdue experience has proven valuable in his profession or pursuits? Mr. Desai’s response was, “The background in biology and the Purdue experience has been invaluable. The broad exposure to all aspects of living systems, from the micro to the macro, provided me a more holistic perspective with which to examine the genotype and phenotype of businesses whose performance we seek to improve.”
Mr. Desai has attended a number of executive programs at The Wharton School, INSEAD and the Harvard Business School which have proved helpful in crafting his firm's strategy. He will also complete the AMP degree at the Harvard Business School in May 2011. Due to his experiences, Jay would recommend internships with Management Consulting Firms that have a focus on Life Sciences if you are interested in a career path such as his. His advice/encouragement to current Biological Sciences students is this, “It is clear now, that as the 19th century was for chemistry and the 20th century was for physics, the 21st century will be for biology. I see a Purdue Biology degree as an insurance against the rapid changes in the world over the next 20-30 years.”
Alumni in the Spotlight
Diana Grant Dyer, MS, RD entered Purdue University as a cancer survivor, having been treated for the childhood cancer neuroblastoma. In 1972 she obtained her B.S. in biological sciences then went on to receive a degree in Nutritional Sciences and complete a Dietetic Internship at The University of Wisconsin and University of Wisconsin Hospitals. Diana has enjoyed a career of over twenty years as a registered dietitian (RD) working at several medical centers and hospitals in the Midwest. Throughout her career she has specialized in nutritional care of critically ill patients. Diana has also survived breast cancer two times, raised two sons, wrote a book "A Dietitian's Cancer Story: Information & Inspiration for Recovery & Healing from a 3-time Cancer Survivor" ©2002, writes a blog http://www.dianadyer.com , speaks at conferences, and started an organic farm with her husband Dr. Dick Dyer (BS `71 Biological Sciences, MS `73 Bionucleonics). Regarding her new/current farming career Diana states, "My love of all things biology combined with my love of all things food has brought me full circle to now enjoying an "encore career" as an RD-Farmer. Being an organic farmer, I am a steward of our soil (one of our nation's most precious resources!), "food as flavor educator", and a true front-line health care provider for my community." To learn more about Diana Dyer, her book, or to obtain recipes; please visit her web site at www.CancerRD.com or one of her blogs at www.DianaDyer.com, www.365DaysofKale.com, or www.cancervictorygardens.com
Alumni in the spotlight
Upon completion of her Biological Sciences degree from Purdue in 1978, Jan Ramer went onto the University of Wisconsin to earn her doctorate in Veterinary Medicine. These degrees have opened many doors; animal keeper and later on associate veterinarian that the Indianapolis Zoo, Primate Department at the Brookfield Zoo, instructor at University of Wisconsin as well as others. Currently, Dr. Ramer is half way through a position in Central Africa with the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project. As Regional Manager for this project, Jan manages seven veterinarians in Rwanda, Congo and Uganda and fifteen lay people, also known as guards and orphan gorilla caretakers and facilitates the growing human health program in the area. We wish Dr. Ramer the best as she continues in the position and upon her return to the Indianapolis Zoo in July of 2011. For more information on Dr. Jan Ramer and the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project please visit http://www.gorilladoctorsblog.org/
Follow us on twitter!
Now you can follow the latest happenings and news from the departments own twitter feed. Giving you an immediate pulse on news and events, and what people are talking about here in the department of Biological Sciences.