France Córdova is Purdue's first woman president
West Lafayette, IN - France A. Córdova, an internationally recognized astrophysicist, is the new president of Purdue University. Córdova is the first woman to lead Purdue, and the first Hispanic female president of a Big Ten university.
She started her career with a 1969 BA in English literature from Stanford University (Stanford, CA), and went on to a 1979 PhD in physics from the California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, CA). On graduation she worked at Los Alamos Labs as a member of the space astronomy and astrophysics group until 1989, when she left to head up Pennsylvania State University's department of astronomy and astrophysics.
She moved to NASA in 1993, and was the youngest person to hold the position of chief scientist there. She went on to UC-Santa Barbara, where she was vice chancellor for research and a professor of physics. Then she joined the University of California-Riverside to teach astrobiology. She was named the school's chancellor in 2002.
Córdova has published more than 150 scientific papers and reports on observational and experimental astrophysics, multi-spectral research on X-ray and gamma ray sources, and space-borne instrumentation. She is the award-winning author of a 1969 novel, The Women of Santo Domingo, based on anthropology fieldwork she did in an Indian pueblo in Oaxaca, Mexico.
But anthropology soon gave way to astronomy. "I will never forget the day in 1969 when Purdue alumnus Neil Armstrong walked on the moon," Córdova says. "It eventually drew me to Cal Tech, where I began exploring the mysteries of the universe.
"Now I've come full circle to Purdue, the cradle of astronauts and the place that played a major role in launching my quest."
Alcoa Foundation helps fund MentorNet
San Jose, CA - The Alcoa Foundation recently gave a $25,000 grant to MentorNet to further the organization's outreach efforts. Among other activities, a series of Web conferences will introduce more college- and university-based diversity advocates to MentorNet programs.
MentorNet is an e-mentoring network linking college and graduate students with professionals for e-mail-based mentoring in engineering and related sciences. Since 1998, MentorNet has matched more than 18,000 one-on-one mentoring pairs.
"Thanks in part to grants like this, African American, Hispanic and Native American students and professionals participating in our program this year have increased by more than 60 percent," says Carol Muller, MentorNet founder and CEO. For more on the programs see mentornet.net.
Ursula Burns named president of Xerox
Stamford, CT - Ursula M. Burns, who started at Xerox Corp in 1980 as a summer intern while studying for her ME, is now president of Xerox and a member of the board of directors.
Burns has a BS from Polytechnic Institute of New York (New York, NY). She has held several engineering positions at Xerox, including posts in product development and planning. In 1991 she became executive assistant to Paul A. Allaire, then Xerox chair and CEO.
From 1992 through 2000 Burns led several business teams, including the office color and fax business, the office network copying business and the departmental business unit. In 2000 she was named senior VP, corporate strategic services, and in 2002 she assumed the role of president of business group operations.
She became president this April.
Catalyst recognizes corporate efforts
New York, NY - This March, Catalyst presented its twentieth annual awards recognizing corporate initiatives that advance women in business. Goldman Sachs, PepsiCo, Pricewaterhouse-Coopers and Scotiabank all have programs exemplifying the Catalyst mission: building inclusive environments and expanding opportunities for women at work.
"The 2007 Catalyst award-winners recognize that advancing women and diversity are strategic business imperatives," says Ilene H. Lang, president of Catalyst.
These are the winning programs:
Goldman Sachs' Senior Women's Initiative significantly increased the number of female managing directors and doubled the number of women partners.
PepsiCo's Women of Color Multicultural Alliance increased the representation of women of color at the senior management/director level.
PwC's Unique People Experience increased women's representation at the partner level by 30 percent, and reduced turnover for all staff by one-third.
Scotiabank's Advancement of Women Initiative significantly increased the number of women working at senior levels within the bank.
RIT team wins NASA moonbuggy race
Huntsville, AL - A team from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT, Rochester, NY) won NASA's 2007 Great Moonbuggy Race. The RIT team finished the course in four minutes and thirty-eight seconds, nine seconds ahead of the second-place team from the University of Puerto Rico-Humacao. Last year's winner, Pittsburg State University (Pittsburg, KS), finished in third place and won the award for best design.
A special pit-crew award for ingenuity and persistence in overcoming problems during the race was won by Morningside College (Sioux City, IA). The University of Utah-Salt Lake City earned the rookie award for posting the fastest first-year time in the competition and also won a special safety systems award.
Carleton University (Ontario, Canada) was recognized for surviving the most spectacular, and fortunately non-lethal, crash.
In the high school division race, held on a separate course, the Huntsville Center for Technology (Huntsville, AL) outraced twenty-five teams with a time of three minutes and thirty-four seconds. It was ten seconds ahead of the second-place team, also from the Huntsville Center for Technology. Lafayette County C-1 (Higginsville, MO) finished in third place.
The Great Moonbuggy Race has inspired tomorrow's engineers and designers since 1994, when the first Moonbuggy event was launched to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing.
Northrop Grumman techies get Asian American engineer awards
Los Angeles, CA - Brad Furukawa, VP and CIO for Northrop Grumman's space technology sector, and Dr Kim L. Ong, an IE and statistician with the company's IT sector, were recognized for outstanding contributions to engineering and community service at the 2007 Asian American Engineer of the Year Awards.
The awards were presented by the Chinese Institute of Engineers-USA, which promotes diversity and info exchange among engineers and scientists.
Furukawa has a BSME from Northern Illinois University. Ong, a Northrop Grumman IT technical Fellow, has a BS in math from Tamkang University, Taipei, Taiwan, MS degrees in IE and applied statistics, and a PhD in IE from Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN).
JPL puts on high-tech fun for kids
Pasadena, CA - During April's annual "take our children to work" day, some 500 kids joined their parents at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The lab grounds turned into a science playground where young people from nine to seventeen learned about the planets and stars with hands-on activities.
The boys and girls created constellations of stars and made their own kid-sized rockets. After a morning of science fun they headed to their parents' offices to see what a more usual workday is like at JPL.
Gretchen McClain: ITT VP
White Plains, NY - ITT Corp has elected Gretchen McClain a company VP. McClain became president of the ITT fluid technology group this April. She joined ITT in 2005 as president of the residential and commercial water business.
Before ITT, McClain held general manager positions in several divisions of Honeywell Corp, focusing on engineering, technology, systems and program management. Before that she worked on space shuttle and space station initiatives for NASA. She has a BSME from the University of Utah.
IBM helps Alaska Native school
Sitka, AK - IBM is supporting local efforts to provide Alaskan Native Americans with the knowledge and skills to work in technical jobs. Through the Native American Partners in Education program, Mt. Edgecumbe, a state-operated boarding school in Sitka, AK, received more than $350,000 in technology and services from IBM last year. The school serves 400 students, mostly Alaska Natives, from villages and cities across the state.
"Mt. Edgecumbe students have the opportunity to take more intensive IT career-based courses in an environment that is closely linked to business and industry," explains Todd Bergman, Mt. Edgecumbe administrator and coordinator of the IBM program.
The school also participates in IBM's worldwide academic initiative program that promotes open source, open standards and IBM technologies in the classroom. Mark Nance, a faculty member and IT coordinator at Mt. Edgecumbe, notes that "Open source in the curriculum gives our students the chance to learn multiple operating systems. This versatility should prove valuable to them in the future when they are competing for jobs."
As part of the IBM donation, Mt. Edgecumbe received a new "all-in-one' System i business computing platform that will create greater efficiencies and increase the number of apps available for use by the entire school.
Early this year IBM staffers Carolyn Maher, VP of global technology services; Linda Grigolit, worldwide program manager for System i academic initiative; and Michele Morningstar, Native American program manager for global workforce diversity, visited the school. They answered students' questions and talked about their career tracks at IBM.
NSBE announces Golden Torch winners
Alexandria, VA - The National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) has announced the winners of its tenth annual Golden Torch awards. The awards honor black engineers who excel academically, succeed professionally and positively impact their communities.
The awards are presented at a gala function which is also a fundraiser for scholarships given to high school students studying engineering, technology, science and math. For more information see www.nsbe.org.
This year's awardees:
Distinguished Engineer of the Year: Dr Thomas Mensah, president and CEO, Georgia Aerospace Corp.
Pioneer of the year: Ajamu Wesley, senior tech staff member, IBM.
Lifetime achievement in government: John H. James Jr, executive director, logistics, maintenance and industrial operations, Naval Sea Systems Command.
Lifetime achievement in industry: Sandra Jeffcoat, senior systems architect and associate technical Fellow, Boeing.
Graduate student of the year: Audrey K. Ellerbee, doctoral candidate in biomedical engineering, Duke University.
Minority engineering program director of the year: S. Gordon Moore Jr, managing partner and director, OMED Educational Services, Georgia Institute of Technology.
Female pre-college initiative student: Nakeisha Davis, Martinsville High School (Martinsville, VA).
Male pre-college initiative student: Brian Fontenot, Ross S. Sterling High School (TX).
Pre-college program of the year: Chicago State University pre-freshman program in engineering and science (PREP).
Outstanding woman in technology: Lisa Barker, principal engineer, Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.
Entrepreneur of the year: Birdel F. Jackson III, PE, MASCE, President and CEO, B&E Jackson & Associates
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