Two Women Appointed to Named Chairs at Purdue University

Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, announced the appointment of five scholars to named chairs. Two of the appointees are women.

Kathleen Howell was named the Hsu Lo Distinguished Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics. She has taught at Purdue since 1982. In 2002, she was named one of the 50 most important women in science by Discover magazine. Since 1992, she has served as editor-in-chief for the Journal of Astronautical Sciences.

Dr. Howell is a graduate of Iowa State University. She holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. from Stanford University.

Alyssa Panitch was appointed the Leslie A. Geddes Professor in Biomedical Engineering. She joined the Purdue faculty in 2006 after serving on the faculty at Arizona State University. Since 2009, she has been the associate director of research for the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue.

Dr. Panitch holds bachelor’s degrees from the University of Massachusetts and Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.