Raising the net in Mackey
Two Mackey Arena appearances set to break Big Ten volleyball attendance record
For Purdue volleyball coach Dave Shondell, the mission is always to take his program to the next level. Winning teams and high-achieving student-athletes on and off the court are the goal, but so is helping the sport continue its meteoric rise in popularity.
October 19 and 26 are days that will reside in collegiate volleyball history. On those dates, Purdue volleyball will smash the attendance record for a Big Ten Conference regular-season match that has lasted 19 years with capacity crowds when Indiana and Wisconsin, respectively, come to West Lafayette.
There will be 14,876 in attendance for both matches in Mackey Arena, bettering the previous standard by nearly 4,000 fans. They have been sold out for weeks.
“We want to be part of the volleyball explosion that we are seeing in this country,” Shondell says. “I know the excitement in Mackey on those nights will be off the chart. It’s a great time to be part of the sport’s growth, and we are glad to do our part in raising the bar.”
In 22 seasons at Purdue, much has been accomplished on Shondell’s watch. His standards and expectations have always been high. Eighteen NCAA Tournament appearances, including four regional final berths and 20 All-Americans coached, are just a few of his chops as the Boilermaker boss. He became the winningest coach in school annals earlier this month with a triumph over Michigan State.
But the coach is always striving for more and more for his sport. Some thought it was a risk to bring matches back to Mackey. After all, Holloway Gymnasium is the proverbial bird in the hand, selling out every night at over 2,400 fans. It would take 3,500 fans in Mackey to break even, due, in part, to some additional expenses necessary to play there.
Not only did it take a matter of hours to smash through the break-even level, but the lower bowl was nearly sold-out through John Purdue Club members before tickets went on sale to the general public. Then, just days after the July 29 announcement that the historic basketball venue would be volleyball’s temporary home, 12,000 tickets were sold for each contest. In fact, in less than a week, the Wisconsin match had less than 2,000 tickets remaining.
In terms of a successful venture, it was no contest.
The time is right
With three returning All-Americans in Eva Hudson, Chloe Chicoine and Raven Colvin, a top-10 ranking all season long and sellout matches the norm, not the exception for years now, there was no better time for the program to make its return to Mackey Arena.
And when the pageantry and traditions of Holloway merge with the historic venue that is Mackey Arena for two of the biggest matches this season? Well, fans are in for a treat.
“We see what has been done at other places and the crowds they are drawing,” says Shondell, one of the great ambassadors for volleyball. “And the television exposure has grown so much in recent years. Just about every night, you can watch volleyball on TV. We can’t wait to showcase our crowd, our team and our program to that NBC audience.”
An added benefit is that Mackey Arena will be good preparation for the NCAA Tournament, which is usually played in venues more spacious than Purdue’s cozy Holloway Gymnasium.
“It is a little different feel playing in a bigger building,” Shondell says. “It can’t hurt as we look towards the postseason.”
The players are pumped
For seniors Raven Colvin and Ali Hornung, the bright lights of Mackey Arena will provide some extra juice.
“I am so excited; it’s the perfect event for my senior year and allows us to go out with a bang,” says Hornung, a defensive specialist from New Albany, Indiana. “I definitely will get goosebumps when I run on the court.
When I was a little girl, I would watch these big matches on TV, and I dreamed of playing in front of that many people. But I never really thought I would get to that point where I would be on TV and in this sold-out arena with all these little girls watching.
That’s just so special to me. Those little girls look up to us, and it’s honestly just an honor to be able to represent the sport.”
raven colvin, senior middle blocker for purdue volleyball
For Colvin, who was in Mackey Arena many times last year watching her brother, Myles, play for basketball coach Matt Painter, she had been pushing Shondell to get a match scheduled in the basketball facility. It has been eight seasons since volleyball has been played in Mackey, and Colvin thought it was about time.
“I’ve seen the pictures of the big crowds for volleyball in Mackey and always thought we should do it,” says Colvin, one of the nation’s premier frontcourt players. “People come up to me all the time and say that they can’t get tickets to our home matches because they are always sold out, so it doesn’t surprise me that we were able to sell Mackey out.
“Myles and I have talked about what it would be like for me to have the lights and big introduction that goes on in Mackey for basketball. It will be a neat experience to have our roles reversed for those two nights.”
More down the road?
Long-time fans will remember that Purdue broke the NCAA volleyball attendance record by drawing 10,645 fans for a “Pac-Mac” promotion in 1985. That has been the school standard for 39 years, dating to the halcyon days of coach Carol Dewey’s program. But will the big crowds and the extra revenue generated by playing in a facility with six times the capacity be enticing, especially in the days of revenue sharing and financial pressure on college athletics? The answer is yes, but Purdue will pick and choose its opportunities to play in Mackey in future years as logistical challenges are plentiful, with men’s and women’s basketball being the primary tenants.
“The time was right to return to Mackey this year, and we’ll look for future opportunities,” says Chris Peludat, associate athletics director for marketing and fan experience. “We will look to get in Mackey once or twice a year but also want to keep maximizing our home court at Holloway Gym. It’s a credit to our fans and our program, and we always want to expose the sport to more fans and kids.”
Later this week, the mission of getting the program to another level will be accomplished.
Written by Alan Karpick, who is in his 29th year as publisher of GoldandBlack.com.
From stay-at-home mom to director of preconstruction
Purdue construction management alum hopes to give other unlikely construction professionals a seat at the table
Carlyn McClelland knows that success does not follow a predictable path. After all, her own career journey has had more than its fair share of twists and turns.
From going to trade school as a stay-at-home mom to pivoting her construction career and earning her master’s degree in construction management online after a life-altering injury, McClelland’s unlikely journey has made her a voice for change within the construction industry.
Now she wants to build a more inclusive future for construction professionals — one brick at a time. And she is using what she learned in Purdue University’s online Master of Science in construction management program to help her do it.
“Purdue’s program changed my perspective on what construction can be,” says McClelland, director of preconstruction for Final Phase Electric in Elkhart, Indiana. “The traditional way is not always the best way.”
McClelland knows a thing or two about bucking tradition — her journey to becoming a construction professional was anything but traditional. It started with earning a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. She did well in college and enjoyed her studies, as well as her postgraduation career as a probation officer. But, looking back, she can see how social expectations shaped her college experience.
“I went to college because that’s what was expected of me,” McClelland says. “I didn’t know much about (trade school and other options) at the time.”
A few years after graduation, McClelland decided to leave her career as a probation officer to focus on being a mom. During this time, McClelland experienced a lot of change — she had a stillbirth and then she lost 150 pounds. Her journey with grief inspired her to focus on her health, and through those efforts, she developed new interests.
One was home remodeling.
“Starting off, I got into home remodeling because I wanted to teach my sons some useful skills, and I wanted to help other moms fix their houses,” McClelland says. “But then I fell in love with the entire construction industry. My hobby got out of control.”
So, at 36 years old, McClelland enrolled in a trade school to learn more about construction. This hands-on educational experience taught her the value of pursuing a trade, and her unlikely journey from stay-at-home mom to construction worker attracted national attention.
Purdue found me at the perfect moment in my life. I made the choice to throw my heart and soul into the program so I could make the best out of a not-ideal situation.
Carlyn McClelland
MS construction management ’23
Director of preconstruction for Final Phase Electric
In 2017 she applied for and won a mikeroweWORKS Foundation Work Ethic Scholarship, which helps students fund their trade school educations. Winning the scholarship and meeting Mike Rowe, the “Dirty Jobs” star who has long championed the importance of trades, helped her inspire other women to follow her lead. She even appeared on “Good Morning America,” where she spoke about the importance of female representation in the trades.
“In the media, I became a spokesperson for why trade school is a great option,” McClelland says. “Those media experiences are what prompted me to start thinking about opening my own business.”
The money from the mikeroweWORKS Foundation scholarship paid for McClelland’s last year of trade school. She earned an Associate in Applied Science in construction trades and green technology in 2018 and then began building a residential construction business: Proverbs 31 Construction.
The business was a huge success — she was doing hands-on work every day and taking on projects big and small. But then, suddenly, things changed. While doing routine work, she had a ladder accident that resulted in a catastrophic injury to her right ankle. She realized almost immediately that her future — and the future of her business — was irreparably changed.
“After the accident, I realized that I couldn’t do the hands-on work I set out to do, and I couldn’t continue running my business,” McClelland says.
“It was really hard,” she continues. “But then I picked myself back up and decided to change direction.”
Turning a corner
One of McClelland’s construction mentors encouraged her to consider construction management, where instead of doing hands-on work, she would control a project’s scope, time and cost to produce the best quality outcome. She became interested in pursuing this career path and soon found Purdue’s online Master of Science in construction management program, which seemed like the perfect jumping-off point for a career pivot.
“Purdue found me at the perfect moment in my life,” McClelland says. “I made the choice to throw my heart and soul into the program so I could make the best out of a not-ideal situation.”
At Purdue, McClelland took classes from professors with extensive industry experience and who loved the field. They challenged her to think about construction in new ways and to build additional skills, like commercial construction management, risk management, value engineering and operations science. They also emphasized the importance of collaboration.
During her time in the industry, McClelland experienced how adversarial the construction field can be. But in working with her professors, she came to understand that collaboration, not competition, is the key to sustained success.
“What I learned about incentivizing collaboration through contractual arrangements and the project’s delivery method solidified my belief that bringing everyone on the project together is the key to improving productivity,” McClelland says. “From owners to field staff to project managers and administration, everyone has a role to play.”
McClelland also enjoyed the program’s project-based curriculum. Each course was based around a hands-on project, which she usually completed with a group of other construction professionals. These projects helped McClelland put the principles she was learning into action — like the class she took on value engineering, which helps managers prioritize what owners want out of a project while maximizing value.
Her group projects also helped her form lasting relationships with her classmates — many of whom are still part of her life today.
“I still have a text thread going with a lot of my classmates, and we help each other navigate the construction industry,” McClelland says. “If I have questions, I can reach out to my classmates or professors and have that support network.”
Over the course of her studies, McClelland developed a passion for lean construction, a movement in the industry that focuses on maximizing value and minimizing waste by encouraging collaboration and continuous improvement. Among construction’s old guard, lean construction is still considered a nontraditional method, but, at Purdue, McClelland was always encouraged to think outside of the box.
That lesson stuck with her, and it’s become a central part of her new career as the director of preconstruction and acting project manager for Final Phase Electric.
“I believe strongly in the tenets of the lean construction movement,” McClelland says. “One of the core tenets of that movement is respect for people. In my career, I’ve learned that there’s no real separation among different kinds of construction professionals, whether you’re a manager, out in the field, or working in the office. No matter your identity, no matter your background, no matter if you don’t think you fit in — we all have a place at this table.”
In the future, McClelland would like to continue creating space for a new generation of construction professionals. She hopes her story can encourage other women to pursue construction jobs, and she’d love to influence the future of the field through teaching and consulting.
From her perspective, change is good. It’s something the industry should embrace, just as she has.
“Purdue’s program taught me to never settle for good enough,” McClelland says. “And I believe that. It carries through in my faith and my work.”
Learn more about Purdue’s online Master of Science in construction management on the program’s website.
By RM Barton, barton53@purdue.edu
Mark Herrmann: from Cradle of Quarterbacks to broadcast booth
Purdue football legend Mark Herrmann has quickly settled into a role as the Boilermakers’ radio color analyst
Intelligent, humble and straightforward.
In the broadcast booth, on the playing field and in Purdue’s athletics department, that is Mark Herrmann.
The former Purdue consensus All-American quarterback (1980) is the newest addition to the Boilermaker football radio crew working with play-by-play announcer Tim Newton. He replaced Pete Quinn, who held the color analyst spot for the previous 32 seasons.
“Mark would never admit it, but he’s a legend,” says Bart Burrell, Herrmann’s boyhood friend, teammate and wide receiver who caught 140 passes — nearly all from Herrmann — during their Purdue careers (1977-80) as the famed Carmel Connection. “He’s our Leroy Keyes now — an approachable, likable Hall of Fame-level football alum working in the athletics department.”
And like Keyes, who passed away in 2021 after working in the athletics department for 26 years, people tend to gravitate to Herrmann despite his laid-back persona.
Herrmann graduated from the Boilermaker program as the NCAA’s all-time passing leader. He could be excused for being a bit full of himself in the football world. But nothing could be further from the truth.
“When he is in our internal meetings, he brings a humble calmness, belief and optimism to everybody,” says Tim House, executive senior associate athletics director/associate vice president for development. “And when he is in front of people externally, it is the same thing.”
Shy at first, leader at last
Herrmann is not a natural broadcaster. He has had to develop his leadership and communication skills since arriving on Purdue’s campus in the fall of 1977 as a skinny but highly regarded quarterback.
“He was a little bit reticent as an 18-year-old quarterback, but he took a lot of responsibility starting all but his first game as a freshman,” recalls Hall of Fame head coach Jim Young, whose first objective when he took the Purdue job in December 1976 was to convince Herrmann to pick Purdue over schools like Notre Dame.
“But I have listened to him broadcast games back in his days with the (Indianapolis) Colts and now Purdue, and among the many things I like about him as a broadcaster is he doesn’t over-talk. And that is absent from many former players in the broadcast booth.”
Herrmann concurs on not being ready for the forefront when he arrived in West Lafayette.
“I think back to my freshman year when somebody interviewed me, and I sounded like the most timid thing; quiet, shy, and I could barely get three, four words out,” Herrmann says. “But by my senior year, I was much more polished and confident.”
Herrmann, who as a Boilermaker was MVP of three straight bowl victories, was always self-assured of his knowledge of the game — his 50-plus years in the game allow him to know it like few others. A decade-plus NFL career, another decade in the broadcast booth with the Colts, and six years doing college games for ESPN have honed Herrmann’s analyst skills.
Taking the reins
[Herrmann has] played the game at the highest level, and he is good at translating that experience and point of view to the listener.
Tim Newton, play-by-play commentator and Director of External Relations & Communications for the mitch daniels school of business
But it was his unique experience in 1980, his senior year, that catapulted his leadership and communication acumen forward.
The Boilermakers were off to a disappointing 1-2 start to the season. In the first half against Miami (Ohio), Herrmann threw a couple of interceptions and Young considered replacing him with freshman Scott Campbell.
Instead, Young chose to do something almost unthinkable in the modern era of college football. He relinquished the play-calling reins to Herrmann, and the Boilermakers responded by winning eight of their last nine games. Subsequently, Herrmann became a consensus All-American and finished fourth in Heisman Trophy balloting.
“He was on his way to becoming college football’s all-time leading passer, and he was our team leader, so I realized I couldn’t bench him,” Young says. “He was, in effect, our offensive coordinator for the rest of that season, and when one thinks about how coordinators now earn over $1 million a year, I guess he could have earned some serious NIL money.”
Yes, Herrmann’s experience as a football radio analyst from the quarterback position makes him uniquely qualified. He knows what everyone’s job should be on the field and can articulate that to his listeners, which makes work easier for his broadcast teammate, Newton.
“He’s played the game at the highest level, and he is good at translating that experience and point of view to the listener,” says Newton, who serves as director of external relations and communications for the Mitch Daniels School of Business.
Herrmann and Newton’s chemistry predates their time in the radio booth. They previously teamed up at the business school, where Herrmann was raising funds before moving to the athletics department in 2020 as director of leadership and alumni engagement.
“He knows it is my air when the play happens and his air to explain what happened once the play is over,” Newton says. “He understands how to fit in, complement and add to what I’ve said. He does that seamlessly.”
Rooting for the Old Gold and Black
As a member of the Boilermakers’ broadcast team, Herrmann has a strong sense of the appropriate amount of fandom to project while being honest with the audience.
“I go back to what (Purdue Hall of Fame broadcaster) John DeCamp told me years ago, and that is when you do a game, you should show people that you want Purdue to win; that’s OK,” Newton says. “But you have to be honest and credible. Mark does that well in both areas.”
Herrmann has no problem calling it as he sees it, in good times and challenging ones.
“In radio, you are virtually the fans’ eyes and ears on what is going on,” Herrmann says. “So the most enthusiastic we can be, the most insightful, the most honest, and the best timing make for a quality broadcast. We work to deliver that every week, and that is what makes it fun. That is the beauty of radio.”
For House, Herrmann’s radio contributions are just one of the many ways he has helped to advance his alma mater.
“Mark is a complete gentleman,” House says. “He is a good human being and treats everyone with respect. He is where he belongs at Purdue and was a catalyst for a great era of Purdue football (when he played). All he has done since is work to make Purdue better every day.”
Written by Alan Karpick, publisher of GoldandBlack.com.
Celebrating International Podcast Day with ‘This Is Purdue’
Sept. 30 marks International Podcast Day
“This Is Purdue” highlights stories about Boilermakers from across all disciplines, who, through research, innovation and determination, have persistently pursued their next giant leaps.
Join us every other Thursday as we interview students, faculty and alumni who are taking small steps toward their goals and inspiring others to do the same.
Keep Exploring
NASA astronauts and industry specialists prepare Purdue students
Mentors in the Leading Women Toward Space Careers program provide insightful advice and real-world opportunities
Rocket scientists aren’t known for having a lot of free time.
Astronauts aren’t exactly idle, either.
Space industry specialists are busy leading humankind where it’s never been before — but experts in the field still devote themselves to helping the next generation of innovators at Purdue.
In Leading Women Toward Space Careers, students connect with mentors and visit NASA centers and conferences across the United States. The John Martinson Honors College program makes it possible for prospective scientists, astronauts and specialists to meet with role models who are changing the world (and beyond) with their work.
The program extends beyond campus in a partnership between Purdue and Morgan State University. MSU students are fully involved in travel opportunities as well as monthly video calls and virtual programming.
Mentors represent the diversity of space careers — from engineers to public policy advocates to the director of the International Space Station — and provide a variety of perspectives. They also share insight on work-life integration and offer help with college challenges. It’s a well-rounded, thoughtful approach to leadership that creates opportunities for students like never before.
Experiencing space industry environments
Exploring workplaces in person and networking with role models can be keys to securing a job. Leading Women Toward Space Careers organizes trips to NASA centers and industry conferences where students learn more about their career options and meet the people they could work alongside one day.
Seeing NASA facilities firsthand is a dream for anyone excited about space exploration. Mentees get behind-the-scenes tours of their research laboratories, wind tunnels, aircraft hangars and administrative hubs. Every step of the way, they hear from the agency’s associates who share their expertise and answer any questions.
Experts are also at every conference and workshop the group visits, like the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation’s Innovators Symposium and Gala. It’s a chance for everyone to introduce themselves to professionals and get to know other students from across the country who share the same ambitions.
Learning from a lifelong teacher
Mentorship is a critical component of career progression. “Employers recognize how important mentorship is to learning,” says Barbara Morgan, an educator, retired NASA astronaut, Astronaut Scholarship Foundation trustee and 2023-24 Leading Women Toward Space Careers mentor. “Purdue is a real leader with this program for young women.”
As a mentor, Morgan shares the significance of lifelong learning with students and reminds them to be open to the endless opportunities as they follow their callings. She’s seen how many ways there are to get involved in the space industry, from roles in engineering and cybersecurity to media relations and legal affairs. “Have a path, but keep your eyes wide open,” she says. “I would not trade my three careers — and now I call this my fourth career — for anything.”
Morgan knows the relationships mentees are forming will help them through their entire lives. “One of the things we’ve talked about is how mentors can communicate their experiences, but we don’t have all the answers,” she says. “The people who are going to be their mentors for the rest of their careers are going to be their colleagues. This program has formed these teams of people who will always be there for each other. I think that’s so important.”
Discovering new opportunities
As a Purdue alumna who’s worked for NASA, the National Science Foundation, the Aerospace Corporation and Esri, Sheridan Moore provides an abundance of space career advice to mentees. Her insight integrates experience outside of the industry — she can also draw on her time as a Baltimore Ravens cheerleader, high school teacher, CEO and real estate agent.
“You never know where one introduction will lead, so talk to everyone,” Moore says. “People have helped connect me to so many of my interests. I want to do the same for these students.”
She’s been a mentor since the program’s beginning and meets with students focused on a variety of fields, including life sciences, planetary science, astrodynamics and mission design.
Mentorship circles discuss everything related to managing life and work: guiding teams, championing diversity, communicating needs, building resumes, and applying to graduate schools and jobs.
“I think it’s human nature to be curious about what’s going to happen in the future,” Moore says. “If they can hear our stories and think, ‘Oh, that could be my life,’ or, ‘Maybe that’s a path I should take,’ I think that’s everything.”
Celebrating 150 years of Purdue engineering excellence
Today’s Purdue engineering students will change the world, as their predecessors have done for the last 150 years
Takaharu Igarashi (MSAAE ’21) is pursuing a PhD in aeronautics and astronautics that will allow him to someday work as a space architect.
That’s exactly what it sounds like. Igarashi wants to combine the engineering education he receives at Purdue with the architectural training he completed in his native Japan, allowing him to design structures that are fit for extraterrestrial habitation.
Anika Bhoopalam wants to work in semiconductor manufacturing and use her Purdue chemical engineering background to introduce groundbreaking innovations — particularly related to solar or other forms of renewable energy — that increase environmental stability.
And Ben O’Brien hopes to influence the adoption rate of electric transportation by pairing technical knowledge gained as a Boilermaker civil engineering student and policy analysis conducted while simultaneously majoring in political science.
Those are just three of the more than 16,000 stories that ambitious students in Purdue’s College of Engineering could share about how they plan to change the world, contributing to a tradition that is now 150 years strong. Starting with a kickoff event on Sept. 13, the university will acknowledge its engineering sesquicentennial with a yearlong celebration packed with special events.
“The stories of Purdue engineering for one-and-a-half centuries are the stories of hundreds of thousands of engineering alumni, the stories of world-class discovery of knowledge and transformational problem-solving impact, the stories of intellectual pursuit of the highest caliber by our faculty,” says Purdue President Mung Chiang, who spent five years as the John A. Edwardson Dean of the College of Engineering prior to becoming the university’s 13th president in 2023. “The stories continue into the next 150 years with new scope, accelerated speed and amplified scale as Purdue engineering reaches the pinnacle of excellence in everything its people choose to pursue.”
The incredible accomplishments of those Boilermakers are exactly why Purdue’s name became synonymous with engineering excellence, adds Arvind Raman (MSME ’94), Chiang’s successor as the dean of engineering.
“When you ask the question, ‘Why is the brand so prestigious?’ it must be because of 150 years of excellence in our students who have graduated and gone on to do great things,” says Raman, himself an alumnus and faculty member in mechanical engineering. “The brand builds based on the talents we graduate.”
Tradition of innovation
So many compliments could be heaped upon those talents produced and great things accomplished.
The first and most recent people to set foot on the moon, Neil Armstrong (BSAE ’55) and Eugene Cernan (BSEE ’56), were both Boilermaker engineers.
So was Maurice Zucrow, the first to receive a PhD in mechanical engineering from Purdue, who returned to his alma mater and established what would become the world’s largest academic propulsion lab, now known as the Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories.
The designer of the Golden Gate Bridge? That was Purdue engineering professor Charles Ellis.
And the list of Boilermaker engineering innovations and patents could stretch from West Lafayette to the Sea of Tranquility, where Armstrong landed the Eagle lunar module on the moon’s surface in 1969. These revolutionary creations include anything from the metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (or MOSFET, an essential component in most electronic devices) co-invented by Martin (John) M. Atalla (MSME ’47, PhD ME ’49) to the soft-serve ice cream machine created by Frank Thomas Jr. (BSME ’41).
It would be impossible to document every distinguished alum and noteworthy achievement, but it’s reasonable to assert that Boilermaker engineers have impacted virtually every aspect of modern life.
And they’ll continue to do so, rising to embrace societal challenges that might not even exist yet. Remember, Gus Grissom (BSME ’50), Armstrong and Cernan didn’t come to Purdue to become astronauts, an occupation that did not exist when they enrolled. But their rigorous Purdue training helped them become NASA pioneers and pave the way for 23 more Boilermaker engineers (plus College of Science graduate Drew Feustel) to follow them into space thus far.
Foundations of engineering excellence
Purdue’s history as an engineering-focused university originates with its creation via the Morrill Act of 1862, which emphasized educations in agriculture, the mechanic arts (the precursor to modern-day engineering) and military tactics for working-class people who had been previously ignored within American higher education.
Ever since the university introduced four-year curricula in civil and mechanical engineering in 1874, hundreds of thousands of Purdue graduates have earned engineering diplomas, using that education to improve their families’ economic circumstances and advance their communities, nations and humankind.
“It’s amazing to see how over 150 years, Purdue engineering has contributed significantly in educating the sons and daughters of the working classes and keeps making sure that those doors of opportunity remain wide open,” Raman says.
As time has passed and society has evolved, Boilermakers have taken important steps to ensure that every student has a fair chance to capitalize upon those opportunities. Because of recruitment and retention obstacles that women and minority students encountered, the nation’s first Women in Engineering program debuted at Purdue in 1969, and the university’s Minority Engineering Program (1974) and founding chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers (1975) became models of success that other universities would emulate.
The College of Engineering has also frequently adapted its educational portfolio to accommodate student interest and societal need, introducing the nation’s first freshman engineering program (1953) and first School of Engineering Education (2004) while also adding studies in disciplines like biomedical engineering and motorsports engineering — housed at Purdue’s Indianapolis campus — where potential employers and industry partners have a sizable footprint within the state of Indiana.
When you ask the question, ‘Why is the brand so prestigious?’ it must be because of 150 years of excellence in our students who have graduated and gone on to do great things. The brand builds based on the people you produce.
Arvind Raman
John A. Edwardson Dean of the Purdue College of Engineering
A wealth of opportunities
There is also an ever-growing list of initiatives in which engineering students can tailor their educational paths to accommodate personal interests, whether through a program like multidisciplinary engineering or interdisciplinary engineering studies, through a joint degree offering with another college at the university, or through research opportunities, co-ops, and internships that can shape students’ futures.
The stories of Bhoopalam, O’Brien and Igarashi reveal some of these opportunities for Boilermaker engineers to broaden their horizons.
Igarashi and O’Brien both joined Purdue research collaboratives: O’Brien in the Advancing Sustainability through Powered Infrastructure for Roadway Electrification (ASPIRE) initiative, a National Science Foundation-backed Engineering Research Center focused on advancing sustainable electrified transportation, and Igarashi in the Value through Reliability, Safety, and Sustainability Lab led by Karen Marais, professor of aeronautics and astronautics.
“The topic that everyone has in their mind is, ‘How can we make better buildings?’ And that question, that theme, is also the same thing that I have been thinking of in space architecture,” Igarashi says. “The definition of good architecture includes not failing, not doing things wrong. I feel that safety, preventing failures, is the fundamental part of being good. You have to do it right before you think about doing good.”
Meanwhile, Bhoopalam completed a pair of internships with semiconductor industry partners: one at chipmaker SkyWater Technology’s Florida facility and another in the Netherlands at ASML, an opportunity to work abroad that arose via Purdue’s Global Engineering Alliance for Research and Education program.
“After I went to SkyWater, it was like, ‘Wow, I really like this. I really like this industry and this work,’” Bhoopalam says. “I found it very fast-paced and exciting, and that changed my career path. I still want to work in solar panels, but also in chip manufacturing. And then going to ASML definitely fortified that.”
In addition to serving as a research assistant under Nadia Gkritza, professor of civil engineering and agricultural and biological engineering, and conducting survey work with ASPIRE, O’Brien also completed a summer internship in the transportation industry (introducing electric buses and building the required charging infrastructure with the transit authority in Washington, D.C.) and took advantage of a dual-degree offering that is unique to Purdue.
The Purdue College of Liberal Arts waives its core requirements for students who enroll in its Degree Plus program, making it possible for them to complement a bachelor’s degree in their primary major with a liberal arts degree in no additional time. That enabled O’Brien to gain both technical know-how from civil engineering and meaningful policy analysis experience through political science coursework that should benefit someone on the verge of a career in transportation.
“Degree Plus is a really unique part of Purdue engineering and the university as a whole that you don’t really find at other schools,” O’Brien says. “It opens up so many different career pathways, whether through research or public agencies or industry. It allows me to take my career in so many different places and is why I appreciate Purdue as a large and diverse school so much.”
Eyes on the future
Not long after Purdue commercial astronaut Sirisha Bandla (BSAAE ’11) returned to Earth in 2021 following her Virgin Galactic Unity 22 suborbital flight — which made her the third Indian woman to travel to space — Bandla’s former AAE professor Steven Collicott informed her via text message about a prospective student he had just led on a campus tour.
The student was interested in attending Purdue because it was Bandla’s alma mater.
It was a full-circle moment for Bandla, who became fascinated with space as a child and applied only to Purdue because it was where so many of the astronauts she idolized had attended college.
“It’s great that I’m following in the footsteps of people that have done incredible things and have blazed a trail before me,” Bandla said at the time. “It’s really nice to see that I’m helping blaze a trail for someone else, as well. They’re going to do the same for the generation after them. That’s how we grow as people.”
And it’s an example of how the Purdue engineering incubator will continue to advance society in the years ahead.
The university’s leaders have embarked on an ambitious agenda, placing Purdue engineers at the center of numerous initiatives with significant stakes. Boilermakers will continue to break new ground in areas like manufacturing and operations, construction, space exploration, defense innovation, energy transition, engineering technology, and engineering in medicine. And at the same time, Purdue’s presence will be increasingly evident in fields like hypersonics, artificial intelligence and advanced computing, with special emphasis on quantum computing, physical AI and semiconductors.
The university’s numerous semiconductor initiatives — including the nation’s first comprehensive semiconductors and microelectronics degree program; workforce development plans; and extensive alliances with industry partners, domestic agencies and foreign governments — helped convince South Korean chipmaker SK hynix to invest nearly $4 billion to construct an advanced packaging fabrication and R&D facility for AI products in the Purdue Research Park.
The stories of Purdue engineering for one-and-a-half centuries are the stories of hundreds of thousands of engineering alumni, the stories of world-class discovery of knowledge and transformational problem-solving impact, the stories of intellectual pursuit of the highest caliber by our faculty.
Mung Chiang
President, Purdue University
It’s one step in a larger plan that places Purdue at the center of the budding Silicon Heartland.
Bhoopalam says Purdue’s efforts have helped semiconductor engineering appeal to prospective chip designers and manufacturers — workers who will be essential as the U.S. moves to reshore chip production to protect its national and economic security.
“It’s given me a lot of excitement to work in this industry, which I can see in other students, as well,” Bhoopalam says. “It’s really cool to work in semiconductors in a way that wasn’t there a few years ago, before all this news about how we need more semiconductor workers, fabs and materials.”
There has arguably been no more exciting time to be a Boilermaker engineer than today. And that’s saying something, considering the precedent set by previous generations.
“I have a deep sense of gratitude and appreciation for 150 years,” Raman says. “And with that comes the sense that we owe it to the hundreds of thousands of Boilermaker engineers — I feel the weight on my shoulders because I’m one of them — that we have to keep hitting it out of the ballpark.”
‘We were each other’s driving force’
How Purdue Global graduates and married couple Rebecca and Caleb Ortiz earned their degrees and a strong purpose
When Rebecca (BS human services ’23, Purdue Global) and Caleb Ortiz (BS human services ’23, Purdue Global) concluded that they’d both need degrees to move forward with their careers, they decided on Purdue Global, and they jumped in with both feet.
Both of them. Together. At the same time.
Crazy? Maybe. Their family life isn’t exactly quiet — they both have full-time jobs, and their five kids are all tweens and teens whose activities range from riding bikes to learning to drive cars. But the way they tell their story, it wasn’t so much a choice they made despite the scheduling challenges. It was because of those challenges.
“We knew college wasn’t going to be easy, especially with everything we have going on — I was coaching wrestling and football, she was working after hours; we’ve got to divide and conquer, going every which direction with the kids,” says Caleb. “So we really just wanted to be a support for each other.”
Sometimes that support was just good, old-fashioned competition. And whether it’s cheering on football teams or facing off for better grades, a little competition made the journey fun.
“(We competed) especially when we were in the exact same class. We’d try to one-up each other, who got the better score on a test or who got more replies on the discussion boards,” she says, both of them laughing.
But it was all for a common goal. Caleb says their careers intersected at a critical moment.
He was a self-employed massage therapist with an associate degree in management, so when he was finally forced to address chronic pain he’d been experiencing in his wrist and hands, their livelihood was threatened. Of course, it posed a threat to their immediate income, but the long-term outlook worried him even more. So he looked to his wife. Her work had always inspired him.
Rebecca, whose background is in early childhood education, had an associate degree and was working for Child Protective Services. She loved feeling like she was making a difference in the world. Caleb wanted that, too.
“I applied for a job with Child Protective Services in 2022, but I didn’t get it because I was considered underqualified,” he says.
Combined with Rebecca’s drive to grow in her role, they knew it was time to take the leap, together. They decided to earn their bachelor’s degrees in human services from Purdue Global.
And it was the best choice they could have made.
An online education that honors experience — no matter where it comes from
Among the schools they considered, Purdue Global quickly rose to the top when they realized how much credit they’d be able to start with.
“The big selling point was the credits we were able to transfer over from our previous schools,” Rebecca says.
Transferable credit was one of the things that made the Ortizes feel like this was an online university truly built for people like them. Purdue Global’s average bachelor’s degree graduate saves 50% on tuition with credit for prior learning. Work experience can even be honored as academic credit when students submit a prior learning portfolio through a portfolio development course. Those who submit portfolios save an average of $11,000.
Life’s not easy. There are going to be challenges. But we’ve shown our kids they can make it through no matter what.
Caleb Ortiz
BS human services ’23, Purdue Global
As someone who had already spent years in her field, Rebecca was no exception.
“I was able to petition to waive 10 courses, and I was approved to waive seven,” she says. “It saved us a lot of time and money.”
Caleb didn’t have the relevant work experience Rebecca did, but his academic credit was honored, and it shaved some time off for him, too.
“Every course I took in my associate degree program transferred either into my core courses or into electives. It took away a lot of the burden of trying to retake classes that weren’t going to transfer at other colleges,” he says. “Purdue Global made it really easy.”
The Ortizes say that Purdue Global is tuned in to the needs of its working adult students long after getting started, too — they saw the same awareness and understanding from each professor.
“Hands down, I think these are probably some of the best professors I’ve had. If you ever reached out to a professor, they’d connect with you as quickly as they could,” Caleb says. “They always just wanted you to be able to do better for yourself, so they were willing to do anything they could to help you progress.”
It paid off.
Walking forward, together
Now that their coursework is complete, they’ve crossed the stage together (both wearing summa cum laude cords) to collect their diplomas. But they both say that’s not all they’re walking away with.
Rebecca says she’s excited that her clients are getting a better version of her.
“Attending Purdue Global gave me a stronger foundation to meet the needs of my clients and make sure they have the appropriate services in place to help them be successful,” Rebecca says.
But it makes a difference in her perception of herself, too.
“I’m a first-generation college graduate,” she says. “It was a big accomplishment for me to be able to earn my associate degree back then, but for me to be able to go back and get my bachelor’s now means a lot to my family — my parents and my sister and my kids. To have my kids see firsthand that no matter what life throws at you, you can still follow your dreams. You can still accomplish what you set out to accomplish no matter how old you are.”
Caleb, also a first-generation college grad, agrees.
“Obtaining this degree has given me a sense of self-worth,” he says. “It’s allowed me to see that I can make a difference not only in my own kids’ lives, but all the other youth I work with, too.”
For both of them, knowing they’ve gained something for themselves and their own kids is just priceless.
“Life’s not easy,” he says. “There are going to be challenges. But we’ve shown our kids they can make it through no matter what.”
Attending Purdue Global gave me a stronger foundation to meet the needs of my clients.
Rebecca Ortiz BS human services ’23, Purdue Global
Threads of Old Gold & Black: Purdue’s football uniform then and now
It was a small, tight, committed group of people. It had to be. There could be no leaks during the design process for Purdue’s new football uniforms.
Director of football creative services Ryan Long and associate director of equipment Kyle Gergely. Deputy athletics director Tiffini Grimes and director of creative services Paul Sadler were part of the circle, too.
“We had to keep it quiet,” Gergely says. “I had my wife and kids asking me all the time. But I wasn’t saying anything.”
Lips were zipped.
The new uniforms were a long time coming … seven years, to be exact, since the program’s base design changed back when Jeff Brohm hit town in 2017.
There was going to be a change in 2020. Then, COVID hit. And, well, you know …
Now, the new uniforms are here! It was a long process to get to this point, with Purdue unveiling its new look in July.
“We had to get it out before the debut of the EA Sports college football video game,” Long says. “Our new uniforms are in the game.”
No video game was gonna spoil this surprise.
The new togs have received two thumbs up from fans. It’s a basic, clean look designed around Purdue’s classic gold and black colors.
“We wanted to stay true to Purdue,” Gergely says. “Brand identity was huge.”
The biggest change: “PURDUE” across the top of the chest.
“We went back and looked at jerseys that had ‘Purdue’ on the front,” Long says. “If you look at our jerseys for a long time, the ‘P’ on the helmet is the only thing that screamed ‘Purdue.’ Nothing says the word ‘Purdue,’ right? You had the letter ‘P.’
“Going back to the Mike Alstott era (1992-95) and putting ‘Purdue’ front and center, and making sure that from a branding perspective, at a glance, you knew who we were, was a big thing.”
The design process started almost two years ago.
“When we first met about it, the first thing we did was lay out a bunch of stuff in the equipment room,” Long says.
“Kyle went through and pulled a bunch of old jerseys, old stuff that we had so that we could look at all the elements and figure out what feels the most ‘Purdue’ about this stuff.”
Long and Co. had myriad details to consider. What type of stripes did they want on the pants? The shoulders? What color pattern looks the best on black jerseys versus white jerseys? On and on it went — details, details, details. None were too small.
“And so that whole process was just about identifying those elements,” Long says.
The result: Purdue has black and gold primary jerseys to match with black, gold or white pants. The helmet? There’s a gold and black one.
“And we have a special jersey and pants that are going to come out (for the Oct. 18, 2024 Oregon game),” Long says. “There will be a one-off helmet, too. It will be different from the standard black helmet.
“Coach wanted to have a strong, ‘Here’s our white look, here’s our black look,’” Long says. “We can switch it up with different pant combos. But we want to be consistently brand identifiable.”
There will be no mistaking Purdue for anyone else.
Purdue football uniforms through the years
1880s-1920s
Bulbus leather helmets defined this era. Facemasks? Ha! Yeah, right. These were men with names like “Elmer Sleight” who rubbed dirt on wounds and got back in the game. The early teams sported stocking caps with a bobo on top! It’s good to wear on the sideline today, but these chaps played with it on. The pants were loose-fitting. The socks had some flair with rings. The jerseys had solid rectangular blocks on the front and stripes on the arms. It’s unclear why. Where were the numbers? In the 1890s, there was a “P” on the jersey.
1930s
Say “hello” to the leatherheads. A “P” adorned the forehead of the winged headgear. The pants? Loose-fitting, baggy. The jerseys were solid black with gold numbers. Another variation of the jersey was a black base with blocks and squares filled in around a number.
1940s
Strap on your leather helmet and take a lap around the field with Alex Agase.
Nothing fancy in this decade. Shiny gold pants were a staple. The jerseys? White and black. The white jersey had three stripes around the biceps. The thigh-high black socks were a nice touch.
The helmets were black with gold wings, a popular look then. Purdue looked good in them while going unbeaten in 1943 and ranking No. 4 in the final AP poll for coach Elmer Burnham with an eclectic roster featuring players from across the nation during World War II.
1950s
Understand, the 1950s were a conservative time. The country was coming off a world war, families were started in prefabricated houses, leafy suburbs were spawned, and Detroit churned out four-door sedans to take the kids to grandma’s house over the river and through the woods.
The uniforms worn by 1952 All-America end Bernie Flowers in this era reflected that. The pants? Basic white. Defensive end Lamar Lundy terrorized quarterbacks while sporting a white or black shirt with thin black-gold-black armbands on each sleeve.
The helmet base worn by Len Dawson and Dale Samuels, as they engineered upsets of Notre Dame, was black painted with three stripes running from front to back. By the decade’s end, the three stripes had been replaced by one and numbers were painted on both sides.
No doubt, Dwight Eisenhower would have approved of the staid design. No need to be pretentious. The garish 1970s were still 20 years away.
1960s
The days of rage, with protests from Berkeley to Chapel Hill, saw Purdue dominate the sport while fashioning a classic, conservative look.
Close your eyes and imagine Bob Griese wearing deep gold pants while dropping back to pass to Jim Beirne. Or think about Mike Phipps rolling out wearing a black jersey with a two-inch gold stripe running along the shoulder from neck to arm as he tosses a dart to Ashley Bell.
The Purdue uniforms during this golden era were basic and classy. The gold helmet with the single black stripe down the middle? It featured each player’s number stenciled to the sides so Jack “The Ripper” Mollenkopf knew who he was yelling at.
The 1960s jerseys also saw Purdue have a black/gold/black band on the outer shoulder sleeves. The Boilers also had a basic black jersey with gold and black piping on the sleeves. Simple and understated.
Purdue had a special helmet during the university’s centennial in 1969, featuring a gold block “P” that incorporated a “u” in it with a “100” below all encased in a football. And each player’s number was affixed in giant numbers on the back of the helmets. Even an alum from the 1920s would have no issues seeing those from a high perch in the end zone on a cool Saturday afternoon in November.
1970s
Say “hello” to the block “P” on the helmet, a classic fixture from a groovy decade that remains to this day. The headgear was accented by a single black stripe down the middle and player numbers on the back. Otis Armstrong made them come alive while streaking to pay dirt.
Scott Dierking looked good upsetting No. 1 Michigan in 1976 in a jersey with gold/white/gold stripes on the upper shoulders, which defined the first part of the decade.
By the time Mark Herrmann aerials were piercing the October sky above Ross-Ade Stadium in the late 1970s, mesh jerseys and BIKE helmets were the order of the day. The jerseys came alive with some outlining.
One common theme in the 1970s: The pants remained in a deep old gold hue.
Oh, and names were on the back of the jersey for the first time. Now, you could use your binoculars to spy the Junk Defense members’ names. Who got that sack? “Turner.” A uniform template had been laid as a dominating late-1970s run gave way to the 1980s.
1980s
This period is best remembered for the one-off look in the Old Oaken Bucket game in 1986 … otherwise known as the “Rod Woodson Game.” That day, Purdue warmed up in its traditional black jersey. But when it returned from the locker room for kickoff, the squad was wearing gold jerseys, reportedly purchased by the players. That energized the crowd and inspired Purdue to a win for coach Leon Burtnett, who had Woodson play offense, defense and special teams in one of the most memorable efforts in Ross-Ade annals. The big change during the 1980s: “PURDUE” was added across the top of the jersey front. Opponents would know who they played when Jim Everett was chucking bombs before becoming the No. 3 overall pick in the 1986 NFL draft.
Also of note: For the first time, Purdue often wore all-black at home, eschewing gold pants. It was a sinister and sweet look that would be replicated often in the coming decades.
The decade also closed with a big uniform twist under coach Fred Akers in 1989: black helmets. The team hadn’t sported black headgear since the 1950s, but it didn’t last long during a dreary end to the decade.
1990s
Lots of change. First, the black helmets were mothballed after 1990. Enter Jim Colletto, who smartly handed off to Alstott in new uniforms. The last things opponent saw before being trucked by the A-Train was “PURDUE” across this chest. In 1994, Purdue had a patch on its jersey to commemorate the 125th anniversary of college football.
Take note of 1996, as it’s when we would see a big alteration to the helmet: a motion “P” that remains to this day.
Joe Tiller brought basketball on grass to Purdue — and a lot of uniform incarnations. No more “PURDUE” across the jersey chest plate. Jerseys now featured thick gold and white stripes on the sleeves and a Purdue train logo under the neckline. Numbers popped with outlining, and “Old” gold gave way to the lighter “Vegas” gold.
The new look was part of a new winning tradition that saw Drew Brees help ignite a run of 10 bowls in 12 years under the iconic Tiller.
2000s
There was no fear of Y2K in West Lafayette with Brees back for his senior year in 2000. And he didn’t disappoint, leading the Boilermakers to the Rose Bowl. The helmets of Brees, Tim Stratton and Vinny Sutherland featured a rose woven into the “P.”
Following the World Trade Center attack, Purdue, like all college teams in 2001, wore an American flag on its jersey.
A bigger change came in 2002 when Purdue brought back gold jerseys with white numbers outlined in black. It was a look Tiller apparently wanted with his wife Arnette’s assistance. And who’s gonna argue with him? Tiller’s squads kept on winning, and winning, and winning. Purdue reverted back to black jerseys early in 2003 when Kyle Orton looked good, dropping dimes in a black-gold-black V-neck jersey with a Purdue train logo on the sleeves.
When Danny Hope took over in 2009, Purdue often wore all black or all white. The pants were accented with a Purdue train logo affixed to a hip.
2010s to today
By the middle of this decade, the black helmets were back and included a train track running down the center from front to back — an homage to the Boilermaker Special. One incarnation of jersey numbers had “motion.”
This decade saw one of the most unique touches ever. In 2014, Purdue had a helmet “P” that included photos submitted by season ticket holders and students … around 240 in all. That same year, Purdue had a neon yellow stripe running down the center with a neon yellow ribbon on the back. The Purdue “P” also was neon yellow. To continue the theme, players had neon yellow shoelaces, socks and gloves. It was all to support cancer research conducted at Purdue.
The year before, the team once sported a “P” illustrated like a flag.
Brohm took over in 2017, and a slick gold chrome helmet was introduced. That kicked off what has become an anything-goes era that continues to this day.
Black helmet, gold helmet, gray jerseys and pants, two-tone jerseys. Of note: In 2019, the squad wore an all-white uni designed to replicate the look of an astronaut in honor of the 50th anniversary of NASA’s Apollo 11 lunar mission and Purdue’s status as the Cradle of Astronauts™. The helmet featured a chrome stripe down the middle with footprints emblematic of alum Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon.
Now, the Boilermakers embark on a new era of threads, with some of the best elements of the past and present mixed into a sleek but classic look.
The new jerseys are available in the Purdue Team Store.
Written by Tom Dienhart, associate editor of GoldandBlack.com
Babak Anasori accelerates innovation, hands-on learning for students in nanomaterials
One of the world’s top engineering scholars is driving the creation of nanomaterials known as MXenes in his Indianapolis and West Lafayette research labs.
Babak Anasori is kind of a big deal. He ranks No. 1 in the U.S. and No. 7 in the world among all mechanical engineering scholars based on a ScholarGPS analysis of more than 140 million publications.
Research.com places him at No. 4 in the U.S. and No. 15 in the world in the 2023 Rising Stars of Science.
Yet, to his students at Purdue University, he’s also a mentor and friend — the approachable and engaging principal investigator in the Anasori Layered Materials and Structures Lab (LMSL) and the Reilly Rising Star Associate Professor in the School of Materials Engineering and the School of Mechanical Engineering.
Anasori’s Purdue lab reflects his commitment to students, especially in helping them discern their paths.
“I didn’t know what materials science and engineering were when I was entering university,” he says. “With that insight in mind, I’m always looking for students who might be a great fit for materials engineering, but who also might not know exactly what it is or what they want to do in life.”
A journey that started in Iran
Being open to new possibilities is important to Anasori, as he likes telling his students: “I didn’t choose materials science. It chose me.”
Iran, where he is originally from, has a standardized nationwide university entrance exam. “You have four hours to take an SAT-style exam,” he explains, “It’s competitive, and it not only determines where you can study, but also what you can study.”
Anasori qualified for his top choice: Sharif University of Technology, located in Tehran.
When it came time to name the academic disciplines he would like to pursue, he chose majors that were familiar and reflected his love of building things: mechanical engineering, civil engineering, industrial engineering; to round out his list, he added materials science and engineering even though he didn’t really know what it was.
“The results came out, and I was selected for materials science and engineering,” he says. “The discipline I knew the least about. But little by little I got so interested in the field. I found that I could pursue my passion for building at the smallest scale possible by putting atoms together.”
After earning an undergraduate degree from Sharif and a master’s degree from the University of Tehran, Anasori moved to Philadelphia to earn his PhD at Drexel University, which has one of the top materials science programs in the world.
His research in Michel Barsoum’s and Yury Gogotsi’s labs at Drexel helped lead to the creation of a subfamily of novel nanomaterial known as MXenes (pronounced “maxines”).
The feeling of discovery
Given his background it’s no surprise that Anasori takes a scientific approach when it comes to inviting students to consider STEM majors and careers. He starts by asking a lot of questions.
“Anytime I teach a class or meet a student on campus, I always try to ask them: What is your goal in life? What is your goal for your job? What do you enjoy doing?” he says.
“If a student tells me they like to fix things or do projects around the house, I see cues that they may enjoy materials science and engineering. Because it is all about building things, putting things together.”
Anasori recognizes that students might need help understanding what translating their interests into a career looks like, so he shows them.
“If I find undergraduates who are a good fit for my lab, I invite them to come. I set this culture with my graduate students and postdocs, too, telling them that we always want to help the next generation and mentor them,” he says.
“Some students find that research is their life’s work; others realize that it’s not something they want to do forever,” he says. “But in the lab, we have a culture that says everyone is involved; everyone has the opportunity to discover their passions and maybe even novel materials.”
And MXene discovery is what it’s all about in the Anasori lab. “Basically, students experiment with atoms, with elements,” he says. “Sometimes we discover new materials.”
Anasori tells his students that this experience means that they now know something that no one else on the planet does until they share it with the world.
“And that’s the feeling of a discovery,” he says. “When I discovered a group of MXenes at Drexel, the feeling was incredible. I want as many students as possible to have the opportunity to feel the same exhilaration.”
If a student tells me they like to fix things or do projects around the house, I see cues that they may enjoy materials science and engineering. Because it is all about building things, putting things together.
Babak Anasori
Reilly Rising Star Associate Professor
School of Materials Engineering
School of Mechanical Engineering
A ‘recipe’ for MXenes
MXenes are nanomaterials, a family of two-dimensional (2D) transition metal carbides, carbonitrides and nitrides that are conductive, durable and impermeable to electromagnetic radiation.
As a relatively new material, applications for their use are continually evolving, but currently include materials for energy storage and generation, lighter and stronger composites, electromagnetic interference shielding, biomedicine, and carbon capture and utilization.
Always trying to make science more approachable, Anasori likens the work done in his lab to a familiar process: cooking.
“When we make material, we refer to this as synthesis, which is similar to some degree to cooking,” he explains. “The elements are our main ingredient. Basically, we go and look at the periodic table. We mix varying moles or ‘scoops’ of titanium, aluminum and carbon. We measure mass and then molarity, and based on the molarity we mix them together.”
One blender in the Anasori lab rotates or “mixes” slowly, sometimes overnight. Another is strong and can rotate fast, blending materials in a few hours.
“We let the atoms blend together. And then we take them out and put them in the oven,” he says. “And our oven is, obviously, way hotter than the average oven. We sometimes go to 1,600 degrees Celsius or around 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. I have furnaces that even can go above 2,000 degrees Celsius.”
Anasori leans into the cooking analogy not only because he thinks it’s an accurate one, but also because it makes the detailed, technical work that he does relatable to a wide audience.
“As much as I can relate materials science to normal life, I know that I can attract more students,” he says. “So yes, what we do is ‘cooking,’ but the results can be something so novel, something no one has ever thought about before.
“Whether it is in electronics, computers or space travel, we take the MXene material and we ‘cook’ up new ways in which they can be used,” he says, “and instead of tasting what we cook, we then test them in many different ways, for example, by using different forces, X-ray or electron beams, to understand how the new materials that we made behave (‘taste’).”
Nanoart
An additional, and unexpected, application for MXenes that Anasori discovered is in the world of art. It turns out that MXenes aren’t just useful; they’re also beautiful.
“Nanoart became a hobby for me while I was working on my PhD,” he says. “The best distraction when I was feeling overwhelmed.”
Anasori had never done nanoart before Drexel, but he was intrigued. “I started working with the MAX phases and every time I would do microscopy, I would capture a lot of interesting features because they’re layered structures.”
In Photoshop, he colored the layers, and images began to emerge. “Microscopy images are generated by electrons scanning instead of light, so they are not ‘real’ in a sense. They emerge from the computer in black and white. It’s really up to the person, to the scientists, to the artist, to interpret what they are seeing and add color.”
Nanoart stretched Anasori’s creativity. “I like to visualize things,” he says. “Imagination is a big part of my materials discovery research.”
Eventually he began entering his colorful pieces in competitions, earning awards as he went.
When Anasori became a professor, he realized that he wanted to make an experience that had meant so much to him available to his students.
“I started the NanoArtography competition specifically to have a venue that is open to everyone,” he says. “At the beginning it was an unknown competition. It has grown organically, such that last year we had 300 submissions from 36 countries.”
Freethinking Friday nights
Outside the lab, Anasori invests time fostering a positive group culture. He wants everyone to be involved, to mentor and help each other, and to understand that their voices matter.
To accomplish these goals, he holds a Friday evening meeting that’s more relaxed, less technical. He encourages students to think outside the box and to share their ideas freely. He also invites a wide range of students from a variety of academic disciplines.
“They come to the meeting and start basically thinking out loud,” he says. “If you find a crazy idea that you want to try, let’s discuss it in the Friday evening meeting. There is no judgment, no wrong or right there. And sometimes we come up with some new ideas that can lead to new directions for research or even materials discovery.”
Living the Hard-Tech Corridor
In addition to Anasori’s thoughtful mentorship, Purdue students in Indianapolis benefit from the campus’ position at one end of the university’s Hard-Tech Corridor.
“For undergraduates, an urban campus is exciting; they have access to so many fun things,” he says. “And for students who like to do research, being in a setting where there are so many companies nearby makes internships and interactions that much easier.
“I have two labs: one in Indianapolis and a new lab that we’re building in West Lafayette,” he says. “We’re really going to live the Hard-Tech Corridor, the vision of President (Mung) Chiang.”
He says students are excited that the Indianapolis lab will extend to West Lafayette because the new lab will contain different equipment and new opportunities for interaction and collaboration.
“Being in both places will allow us to have access to the best of both campuses,” he says. “I can’t wait to see the impact.”
For undergraduates, an urban campus is exciting; they have access to so many fun things. And for students who like to do research, being in a setting where there are so many companies nearby makes internships and interactions that much easier.
Babak anasori
Reilly Rising Star Associate Professor
School of Materials Engineering
School of Mechanical Engineering
Purdue collection is overtaking alum’s space – but he’s fine with that
Casey Stultz’s Purdue fan cave features plenty of unique Boilermaker sports memorabilia, and that’s not all
Casey Stultz has a problem. The avid Purdue collector has been running out of room to display his ever-expanding assortment of Boilermaker memorabilia.
To remedy his situation, Stultz (BS organizational leadership ’14) remodeled an existing barn on his property in Parke County, Indiana.
“I just need more space,” Stultz says with a chuckle. “I keep on buying and collecting.”
Stultz’s Purdue collection dates back to childhood, when his Boilermaker parents frequently brought Casey and his two brothers to campus for games when they weren’t camped out in the front room of their Fountain County, Indiana, home watching the likes of Steve Reid, Todd Mitchell, Troy Lewis and Mark Herrmann on TV. Stultz’s first Purdue autographs are on a yellow handkerchief signed by two-time All-Big Ten basketball selection Lewis and teammates Mitchell and Everette Stephens, both of whom went on to play in the NBA and other professional basketball leagues in the U.S. and overseas.
I just need more space. I keep on buying and collecting.
Casey Stultz
BS organizational leadership ’14
Stultz’s extensive set of Boilermaker autographs includes those of well-known Purdue football players, basketball players and wrestlers. He also has approximately 20 signed football jerseys of former Purdue stars — including NFL standouts like Mike Alstott, Matt Light, Akin Ayodele, Rob Ninkovich and Rosevelt Colvin — some of whom Stultz has remained in contact with since befriending them during their college days in the 1990s.
“It’s always good to have them come back and go to Harry’s (Chocolate Shop) and chew the fat with them,” Stultz says.. “It’s just like we haven’t missed a beat, and we’re talking about being 25, 35 years removed now.”
A favorite jersey that did not come from one of Stultz’s contemporaries is that of Leroy Keyes, the two-time football All-American who finished third in Heisman Trophy balloting in 1967 and was runner-up to University of Southern California running back O.J. Simpson the following year. Stultz jokes that the Keyes jersey, which he purchased at an estate auction in Ohio, has made some of his pals in the Boilermaker collecting community jealous.
“Everybody wants that one,” he says, “but I’m like, ‘Nope, I’m not letting that go.’”
Not just sports stuff
The many Purdue sports items are probably the most eye-catching part of Stultz’s collection. However, he has plenty of stuff that has nothing to do with athletics.
There are items of personal significance, like his dad’s green beanie designed by fellow residents of Purdue’s Cary Quadrangle Residence Hall in the 1970s. Attached to the beanie is a button featuring characters from the iconic “Peanuts” comic strip, with Charlie Brown holding a Purdue flag and saying to Snoopy, “Good grief, another Cary man!”
Stultz also has a small book documenting the men of Cary Club’s annual spring dance, held May 21, 1948, at Purdue Memorial Union. Among the guests listed inside are Purdue administrators Frederick Hovde, R.B. Stewart and Frank Hockema; Indiana Gov. Ralph Gates; and none other than President Harry S. Truman and his wife, Bess.
Spread among the autographed balls, photos and other sports memorabilia on the walls and shelves in Stultz’s fan cave are additional items that document Boilermaker life through the years: a framed photo from the earliest days of the Purdue campus; Debris yearbooks from the early 1900s; a poster promoting the Grateful Dead’s 1969 concert at Purdue Memorial Union; a frame featuring lids and labels of cheese and butter products once sold at the Purdue University Creamery; and a Purdue barrel tabletop signed by former university president and Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels.
“It’s all Purdue,” Stultz says. “I look for anything with Purdue on it.”
Knowing where to look
Stultz says he found many of his vintage Purdue pieces on Facebook Marketplace and also knows a couple of memorabilia shop owners that he occasionally checks in with about new Boilermaker items that have crossed their radar. He recently picked up a number of pieces at the estate sale of a former Boilermaker football player, including an extremely rare 1960s-era helmet.
“His daughter called me and said, ‘I heard you’re a big Purdue collector.’ So I sent her photos of my collection, and she said, ‘I want you to have a lot of this stuff,’” Stultz says.
What dictates his strategy when such a prime buying opportunity presents itself? It depends on items of historical or personal value to him.
After living in New York state for 17 years, Stultz returned home to Indiana three years ago to be closer to his family and beloved alma mater. Today he lives in rural Parke County and works as a production team member at Nucor, a producer of steel and steel products.
Now, with his newly remodeled fan-cave barn, he plans to have lots of get-togethers with his Purdue buddies — just as one might expect from a lifelong Boilermaker.
“I definitely bleed black and gold. Anything Purdue, I collect,” Stultz says. “I enjoy the history, and I really like to support my team. Purdue has done a lot for me, so I definitely put that representation in my fan cave.”
Purdue alum’s unexpected path to Paralympics leadership
Julie Dussliere planned to become a diplomat. She just didn’t expect that it would be as chief of Paralympics for Team USA.
Editor’s note: On Aug. 26, 2024, the Purdue for Life Foundation announced that alumna Julie Dussliere will succeed Matt Folk as the alumni organization’s president and chief executive officer, starting Oct. 1.
As a Purdue swimmer in the 1990s, Julie Dussliere never expected to work in sports after college.
Once she finished her bachelor’s degree, Dussliere (BA Russian ’94) intended to complete a master’s program, and then it was on to law school. International diplomacy was in her future.
And that’s what happened — just not the way she envisioned it at the time.
“I had no indication or thought that I was going to work in the sport world when I graduated. That was not the plan,” Dussliere says. “But then I ended up taking a coaching job instead, and I’ve been in the sport world ever since.”
Saying she’s “in the sport world” would be selling Dussliere a bit short, though. She is a groundbreaking administrator with the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC), the organization that oversees the Olympic and Paralympic movements in the United States.
Since joining the organization in 2003, Dussliere has filled multiple leadership roles, including her current position as senior vice president and chief of Paralympics and internally managed sports. In this job, she oversees planning and support for 28 summer and winter Paralympic sports and the operations of the 10 Olympic and Paralympic sports currently managed by the USOPC.
I’m actually doing the job I always wanted to do, just doing it in a different space than I thought I might be.
Julie Dussliere (BA Russian ’94), chief of Paralympics and internally managed sports for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee
At the 2024 Paris Games, she will serve as Team USA’s chef de mission, a chief leadership role she has held at multiple winter and summer Paralympics and Parapan American Games to ensure U.S. athletes and their coaches have the resources necessary to succeed.
And that’s only the most recent highlight in a career that certainly tests the diplomatic skills she began building as a Boilermaker student-athlete.
“International relations in the sport world is not too different from the government level,” Dussliere says with a laugh. “There’s just as much politics. It’s just in its own little space.”
A groundbreaking career
As a Purdue student, Dussliere was certain she didn’t want to teach. She remembers discussing that aversion — which made her an outlier among her classmates in the School of Languages and Cultures — in frequent conversations with her advisor, Marianne Gupta.
But guess what she loved most about her first coaching job?
“Funny enough, it was the teaching aspect, even though I had all those conversations with Marianne where I didn’t want to teach,” Dussliere says of that initial job with the USA Swimming club team in San Jose, California, which she took to fill the time between grad school and law school. “You never know until you do it.”
Indeed, she turned out to be great at it. She worked as a coach and administrator at several USA Swimming clubs over the next eight years and eventually crossed over into Paralympic coaching.
For the most part, she found that coaching athletes with disabilities was just like coaching any other athlete. The biggest difference was that it required more creativity than had been previously necessary.
“About 99% of what you’re doing is exactly the same: training, planning, physiology, biomechanics, sport-specific expertise,” she explains. “It’s taking your coaching expertise to a higher level in that you have an athlete who may not be able to do things the same way based on what the disability is, and you’ve got to get creative. You’ve got to figure out how you get the same training cycle, same training methodology and so forth.
“I would say the coaches we have in Paralympics are some of the best in the world because of that, because they’ve all moved into Paralympics at some point in time, typically based on an athlete-coach relationship where they’ve gotten involved, and they have a tendency to stay in Paralympics once they come over.”
Dussliere coached in Paralympic swimming for a decade — including as an assistant at multiple international competitions — before making history as head coach of the U.S. team at the 2002 International Paralympic Committee Swimming World Championships. In that role, she became the first woman to serve as head coach for any American swimming team (Olympic or Paralympic) at a major international championship.
“It wasn’t until our communications folks looked at it and said, ‘Hey, wait a minute!’ that we realized [I was the first woman head coach],” Dussliere says. “So, it really was not a huge deal at the time, and I didn’t really think about it. I’d been on coaching staffs, knew how to lead coaching staffs. It wasn’t anything out of the norm, so to speak. But it was a big deal when we realized it afterward.”
Dussliere would break more ground as an administrator 16 years later. After serving as vice president of the Americas Paralympic Committee — one of five regional organizations that make up the worldwide Paralympic community — she was appointed in 2018 as the committee’s president. That made her both the first woman and first U.S. representative to oversee the Americas region.
It was yet another opportunity to test her skills as a communicator and diplomat.
“It required a lot of coaching skills and mentoring and leading people because doing it in that environment was very different than any other environment,” Dussliere says. “No one else on the board was from North America. I didn’t have any colleagues from the Caribbean or Canada. So, it was very Latin America-based, which made it a very interesting dynamic based on how they operate, how they do business. It was very different than how we operate here in the U.S. It was truly an exercise in international relations.”
Paying it forward
Dussliere cites her Purdue women’s swimming coach, Cathy Wright-Eger, as a strong leader who still influences her today. That mentorship benefited Dussliere in her career and inspired her to pay it forward to the students who followed her at Purdue.
She gives back whenever possible, whether meeting with Boilermaker student-athletes during campus visits, participating in the Old Masters program or reminding College of Liberal Arts students that they can do anything they want with their degree.
“Julie is a great source of inspiration for liberal arts students,” says Lori Sparger, chief operating officer in the College of Liberal Arts, who helped develop and for many years taught the SCLA 300 (Liberal Arts Influentials) course where Dussliere has appeared multiple times as an alumni guest speaker. “For most of our students, their major does not directly translate into a job title. Julie’s work for the Paralympics melds her degree in Russian and her passion for sports to provide a real example for our students to chart their own high-impact careers.
“I am very grateful that she chooses to return to campus to speak in class and provide support and guidance. When they meet people like Julie, who care about their success, our students are encouraged to pursue their boldest aspirations as they consider their professional lives after Purdue.”
Dussliere is similarly encouraging when meeting with Purdue student-athletes, like the members of the women’s swimming team with whom she has so much in common. As a former Boilermaker competitor herself, her words have special resonance when discussing topics like the importance of time management in establishing necessary work-life balance.
According to Purdue women’s swimming and diving coach John Klinge — Dussliere’s contemporary as a Boilermaker swimmer in the early 1990s — it’s a perfect example of how an active alumni base can benefit today’s student-athletes.
“There’s a couple of really good things,” Klinge says. “It’s a highly successful woman — so she’s a really, really good role model for our team — but it’s also someone who was in their shoes not too long ago and can maybe offer a little advice on succeeding in just about any field.”
Dussliere’s reason behind staying involved is simple: “It’s because of the Purdue family” that influenced her and helped shape the accomplished professional she would become.
“You get to the point where, whether you’re giving back in terms of philanthropy or time or other types of resources, it’s just important,” she says. “Purdue was a big part of my life for obvious reasons, and I just love staying involved on campus.”
‘One of my idols and mentors’
Sometimes opportunities to support other Boilermakers emerge in unexpected ways, as well.
Former Purdue women’s basketball player Léony Boudreau (BS biomedical engineering ’21, MS biomedical engineering ’22) was completely unaware of the Boilermaker connection she shared with Dussliere until she first prepared to reach out to the U.S. Paralympics chief about an adaptive sports student organization Boudreau co-founded at Purdue. But once they made contact, Boudreau quickly began to view Dussliere as someone she now calls “one of my idols and mentors.”
“I did a little bit of research on Julie, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, she’s a Purdue alum and she’s so involved with athletics,’ so I reached out to her,” Boudreau says. “Honestly, the first time I reached out to her, you know those people you connect with right away? She was so fantastic and so generous with her time. It was kind of history from there.”
Dussliere continues to support that student organization — RIISE (Reinventing the Interface of Inclusivity, Sports, and Engineering) — which Boudreau co-founded with Shelby Gruss (PhD plant breeding and genetics ’21), a former captain of the U.S. women’s wheelchair basketball team, and a group of Purdue students inspired by their opportunity to make an impact within the Paralympic Movement. Dussliere even traveled to campus in April to attend the third annual Wheel RIISE event, which aims to raise community awareness of adaptive sports and highlight the connection between engineering and athletics.
“Even with her stature and all of the impact and power that she’s gained over the years, she’s one of the most humble people I know and one of the most authentic people I know,” Boudreau says. “I had so much fun with her when she came on campus. She’s definitely an incredible advisor for RIISE and a fantastic mentor for me personally.”
The impact of successful alums like Dussliere was so important during Boudreau’s student-athlete journey that she now also aspires to be a positive influence for current and future Boilermaker competitors.
“Having somebody like Julie stepping in while I was still an athlete at Purdue was huge,” she says. “It opened my eyes on all the other things that are happening in life and all of the impact that you can bring as an athlete to use your platform to just expand your impact broader than your own performance as an athlete.”
Focus on Paris Games
For the next several weeks, though, Dussliere’s primary focus is athlete performance. Team USA, which will compete in the Summer Paralympic Games between Aug. 28 and Sept. 8, includes two athletes with Purdue ties: team captain Evan Austin, a former volunteer assistant coach with the women’s swimming team who still trains at the Morgan J. Burke Aquatic Center, and men’s track and field senior Joel Gomez.
She has supported thousands of successful American athletes through the years and looks forward to seeing many more bring medals home from Paris this summer. No matter how many international competitions she attends, that excitement never gets old.
“It’s about our Team USA athletes getting out there on the field of play and doing what they’ve been training eight, 12, sometimes 20 years to do,” she says. “And just being there to support them and provide them with the support they need to get out there and do their best.”
In two decades at the USOPC, Dussliere has played a direct role in the tremendous growth of international Paralympic competition in athletic performance, participation and visibility. So, while her current occupation might not be the diplomatic role she pictured as a Purdue student, many athletes across the globe — especially those in her home country — have benefited from the way her plans evolved.
“I’m actually doing the job I always wanted to do, just doing it in a different space than I thought I might be,” Dussliere says. “This is a very, very good use of a lot of the big international relations focus from back in my Purdue days.”
I had no indication or thought that I was going to work in the sport world when I graduated. That was not the plan. But then I ended up taking a coaching job instead, and I’ve been in the sport world ever since.
Julie Dussliere (BA Russian ’94),
chief of Paralympics and internally managed sports for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee
Purdue Olympian Chukwuebuka Enekwechi reflects on Paris experience
Former Purdue All-American thrower Chukwuebuka Enekwechi had a unique perspective on his Olympic experience.
“It was so different from Tokyo,” says Enekwechi, who competed in Paris for Nigeria, the nation in which he holds dual citizenship. “In Tokyo, we called it the ‘Covid Olympics’. You didn’t get that super-fun experience you dreamed about because you competed in empty, massive venues. I contrast that with what I experienced on August 2nd and 3rd, [when] there were 80,000 fans.
“I have competed in stadiums before in front of 50,000 fans, but when I walked out in Paris to a crowd of 80,000 on prelim day, it was amazing. You are already nervous because it could be the end of your Olympic run, but they swallowed me alive when I saw the capacity crowd. There was a constant buzz in the crowd, and I felt it.”
Enekwechi, a self-proclaimed showman, played to the crowd and was pleased that his overall finish from three years prior was cut in half. He finished sixth in the shot put with a throw of 21.42 meters in Paris after a 12th-place finish in Tokyo.
“A crowd like that can help you, or it can hurt you,” says Enekwechi, who visits Nigeria at least once a year. “You have to know how to channel that. You can’t not do your job and then have as much fun as possible because you will look like a fool. So, the first step is to throw far, and then the next thing is to entertain the crowd.”
Ranked ninth in the world entering the Paris Games, he was pleased to finish higher than his ranking and achieve his goal of qualifying for the next day’s final.
However, there was much more to Enekwechi’s Olympic experience than just his two-day competition. While he was disappointed that he could not experience the opening and closing ceremonies, he did have the chance to watch the track & field events, some beach volleyball, and break dancing. He will never forget being in the infield when the 4×100 mixed relay was run, one of the more memorable events of the Games.
“There is a different vibe for track & field in Europe, and when you add the Olympics on top of that, it is taken into the stratosphere,” says Enekwechi, who also ran into a few ‘stars’ including tennis legend Serena Williams. “I take it one competition at a time, but if I am good enough, I would like to compete in Los Angeles in 2028.”
Enekwechi says he is at his physical peak now, at age 31, and looks forward to continuing training and honing his skills as a coach and instructor in the sport. He expects to spend the rest of his professional life doing these roles.
Purdue was not far from his mind during his memorable time in the City of Light. He ran into fellow Boilermaker track & field athlete Devynne Charlton and watched the Bahamian finish sixth in the 110-meter hurdles. He ran into volleyballer Annie Drews, part of the silver medalist USA squad.
Along with five other Boilermaker greats from years past, the trio of Enekwechi, Charlton and Drews will return to campus in October to be inducted into the Leroy Keyes Purdue Athletics Hall of Fame.
“I get goosebumps when I think about my time at Purdue,” says Enekwechi. “I am a pretty sentimental person, so it is an honor to be an ambassador for the school. That is why I stick around campus and want to pay it forward by helping those who experience some of the same angst and struggles I did.
“I wouldn’t be where I am without Purdue.”
Written by Alan Karpick, publisher of GoldandBlack.com