PURDUE NEWS SUMMARY FOR WEEK OF MAY 22-26 This digest contains summaries of the following stories from Purdue News Service and Agricultural Communication Service. All these stories, and more, are available on the World Wide Web at http://news.uns.purdue.edu/html3month/3month.html (Instructions for retrieving stories and photographs via the Internet are at the end of this document.) 1. Iowa State University president to lead Purdue 2. Beering leaves behind 17-year legacy at Purdue 3. About Purdue 4. Laser-assisted machining will make ceramic parts less costly 5. Spectraline Inc. shines its radiant light on quality control 6. Purdue compiles top-10 list of Indiana pests 7. 'ABC's of Health' put a new spin on dietary guidelines 8. Civil engineers pave way to the future 9. Indiana hog industry poised to prosper after enduring the '90s 10. Hay fever - catch it at Purdue's annual Forage Day 11. Purdue Theatre announces 2000-01 playbill 12. Board of Trustees agenda 13. National Lifestyles and Education Package 14. Inside Purdue and Perspective ------------------------------------- MEET PURDUE'S NEW PRESIDENT ------------------------------------- Information about the new president, the legacy of Steven C. Beering and past presidents, and historical background about the university can be found at http://www.purdue.edu/oop/president/ 1. IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT TO LEAD PURDUE Purdue announced this week that Martin C. Jischke, president of Iowa State University, will become Purdue's 10th president. J. Timothy McGinley, chairman of the Purdue Board of Trustees, announced the selection of Jischke following an eight-month national search for a successor to Steven C. Beering, who will step down this summer after 17 years as president. The board is expected to confirm the appointment at its June 1 meeting, and Jischke will assume the responsibilities of the office on Aug. 14. Jischke (pronounced JIS-key) was one of five final candidates forwarded to the trustees by a 14-member search committee, led by McGinley and composed of trustees, faculty, students, administrators and alumni. 2. BEERING LEAVES BEHIND 17-YEAR LEGACY AT PURDUE Steven C. Beering will leave a 17-year legacy of growth in academics, facilities and reputation when he relinquishes the Purdue presidency this summer. His name appears on the diplomas of more than half of the university's living alumni. Purdue announced Tuesday (5/23) that Martin C. Jischke, president of Iowa State University, will succeed Beering on Aug. 14. Many of the Beering accomplishments were made possible through private funding. Private donations grew from $20 million annually in 1983 to $90 million. Purdue's endowment in 1983 was $121 million. Today it exceeds $1.3 billion. 3. ABOUT PURDUE >From its stately red-brick campus on the West Lafayette bluffs above the Wabash River and at regional campuses and educational sites across Indiana, Purdue University touches the Greater Lafayette community, the state, the nation and the world with a vast spectrum of instruction, outreach and service. As Indiana's only land-grant university, Purdue is an important partner with the state in myriad programs and services. As an acclaimed state-assisted public research institution, Purdue has a national and global reputation for excellent and affordable education. ------------------------------------- RESEARCH NEWS AND SPECIAL REPORTS ------------------------------------- 4. LASER-ASSISTED MACHINING WILL MAKE CERAMIC PARTS LESS COSTLY An innovative technique for machining brittle ceramic materials by first softening them with heat from a laser may cut in half the cost of making components for a growing U.S. market now approaching $10 billion. The technique could be especially critical for certain kinds of ceramic components that are not produced in large enough quantities to justify the expense of designing costly molds called dies. Components made in small lot sizes might be produced far more economically by machining instead of being formed with dies. But there has been no practical way to machine the brittle ceramic materials economically with the high precision needed for many components. The new technique, which could be in commercial use within a year, was developed by Yung C. Shin, a professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue. (Photos available) ------------------------ GENERAL INTEREST NEWS ------------------------ 5. SPECTRALINE INC. SHINES ITS RADIANT LIGHT ON QUALITY CONTROL A high-tech company in the Purdue University Research Park is taking industry into the far end of the spectrum for the purpose of on-line quality monitoring. Spectraline Inc. has developed the ES 100 Mid-Infrared Imaging Spectrometer, an instrument that uses infrared light to monitor quickly and easily the quality of products in a wide variety of industries, including the petrochemical, dairy and beverage industries. The ES 100 scans materials by using light from the infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum, light the human eye cannot see. That region is divided into near-, mid- and far-infrared. The consistency of a liquid product, such as gasoline or milk, usually is tested for quality when technicians take random samples from the production line to the laboratory and analyze them using bench top instruments. The ES 100 is the first spectrometer operating in the mid-infrared region that is designed specifically to constantly monitor the product as it flows through the manufacturing process. (Photo available) 6. PURDUE COMPILES TOP-10 LIST OF INDIANA PESTS Japanese beetles are the number one Hoosier pest, heading a list of the top 10 pests in Indiana compiled by the Purdue Pesticide Programs, in cooperation with the departments of botany and plant pathology, entomology and horticulture. Fred Whitford, coordinator of Purdue Pesticide Programs, said the list was developed to help Purdue specialists and entomologists create new and update existing publications with the latest and best information on household and garden pests. ''We want to provide people with practical information they can use to control the many pests that are associated with their homes, lawns and gardens,'' Whitford said. 7. 'ABC'S OF HEALTH' PUT A NEW SPIN ON DIETARY GUIDELINES The alphabet is one of the first things a child learns when he starts school. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture hope to convince adults that practicing their ABC's is just as important for them as it is for their children. New dietary guidelines for Americans are scheduled for release Wednesday (5/31), and they have taken on a new, more user-friendly format. The ''ABC's of Health'' consist of three main concepts. Bill Evers, Purdue Extension specialist in foods and nutrition, said that knowing the guidelines fit into three groups will help people remember them. ''They used to list seven guidelines, but never had a catchy way of saying them,'' he said. 8. CIVIL ENGINEERS PAVE WAY TO THE FUTURE Next time you cruise around town in your '57 Chevy, take a moment to thank a civil engineer for the roads you travel. But highways aren't the only contribution civil engineers have made to life in the 21st century: They are also credited with synchronizing traffic lights, designing homes, building bridges, erecting industrial facilities and constructing recycling plants. ''Most people think of civil engineering as people who build highways and waste treatment plants, but it's much more than that,'' says James E. Alleman, professor of civil engineering at Purdue. ''If you think about it, you could say that civil engineers helped invent the building blocks of American enterprise.'' -------------------- AGRICULTURAL NEWS -------------------- 9. INDIANA HOG INDUSTRY POISED TO PROSPER AFTER ENDURING THE '90S Having said good riddance to the transitional and at times traumatic 1990s, Indiana's hog industry now can acknowledge that it managed the decade's low-price crisis better than some may have thought. Purdue agricultural economist Chris Hurt said Indiana and its neighbors in the Eastern Corn Belt didn't lose as much hog-industry ground as it once appeared they would, and now they can look forward to more prosperous times within a changed industry. ''The amount of pork produced and processed in the region dropped by only 4 percent,'' Hurt said. ''This could be defined as almost holding your own.'' 10. HAY FEVER - CATCH IT AT PURDUE'S ANNUAL FORAGE DAY The way to a farm animal's heart - and the other parts that go to market, too - is through its stomach. Livestock producers interested in growing top-quality hay and pasture can pick up pointers at Purdue's annual Forage Day. Formerly called Hay Day, the event is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. June 22 at Purdue's Animal Sciences Research and Education Center, located a half mile east of County Road 500 North and U.S. 231, in Tippecanoe County. Forage Day is free, with registration beginning at 8:30 a.m. the same day. Lunch is available on site for a modest charge. ------------------------------- ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT ITEMS ------------------------------- 11. PURDUE THEATRE ANNOUNCES 2000-01 PLAYBILL Tickets go on sale Thursday (6/1) for Purdue Theatre's 2000-01 mainstage and studio production seasons, which promise traditional favorites, some song and dance, and a recent Tony Award-winning play. Season subscribers receive tickets to all four mainstage shows at a substantial discount as compared to single show ticket purchases. Mainstage season subscriptions are $36 for adults, $24 for students and senior citizens. Studio tickets are sold individually for each production, with all tickets $5. Mainstage and studio tickets may be purchased at the Loeb Box Office, Stewart Center, or by calling (765) 494-3933 or (800) 914-SHOW. ---------------------- MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS ---------------------- 12. BOARD OF TRUSTEES AGENDA The board will meet at 10:30 a.m. Thursday (6/1), in Room 304 (Anniversary Drawing Room), Purdue Memorial Union. The agenda will be available on the News Service Web site on Tuesday (5/30). 13. NATIONAL LIFESTYLES AND EDUCATION PACKAGE These stories were distributed nationally and internationally this week to about 850 lifestyles and education writers, reporters, editors and other interested parties. A Web site with links to all the stories and photos in this package is at this URL: http://news.uns.purdue.edu/paks/lifestyles.digest.0005.html 1. Web-medicine: The new 'apple a day'? 2. Go fishing for fun, but eat more from the store 3. Students invent healthful soybean snack cracker (Photo available) 4. Nine states adopt special-ed assessment program from Purdue 5. Purdue brings students from around the globe into live classroom (Photo available) 6. Functional food experts 14. INSIDE PURDUE AND PERSPECTIVE Check the online versions of Inside Purdue, the faculty/staff newspaper, and Perspective, a quarterly publication for alumni, parents of students, faculty and staff, for other news about Purdue, at http://www.purdue.edu/PER/Periodicals.html. HOW TO RETRIEVE STORIES AND PHOTOGRAPHS ELECTRONICALLY Releases, publication-quality photographs, and a searchable database of Purdue and Big 10 experts are available at the PurdueNews Web site at http://news.uns.purdue.edu. Faculty and staff may register as experts at the Web site. Publication-quality photos also are available at the PurdueNews ftp site at ftp://ftp.purdue.edu/pub/uns/. Purdue News Service also produces e-mail digests of stories on five topics: agriculture; business, finance and technology; lifestyles, education and careers; science, engineering and health; and weekly Purdue News (that's this digest). 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