Latest news with #MungChiang
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Purdue signs research agreement with Los Alamos nuclear lab, seeks lab station near Purdue
WEST LAFAYETTE, IN — Purdue University has partnered with the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the birthplace of the atomic bomb, to perform joint research on cutting-edge defense and security technologies, Purdue announced in press release Wednesday President Mung Chiang signed a memorandum of understanding at the New Mexico lab Monday that extends through two organizations will conduct research in areas including advanced materials for hypersonics, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence modeling and energetics, and press release Los Alamos Lab, which hosted Purdue faculty and graduate students during World War II's Manhattan Project, has remained one of the nation's foremost nuclear defense centers since. The lab produces and designs nuclear weapons, addresses nuclear security threats and performs other national security research, according to the press agreement outlines the potential for a Los Alamos duty station near Purdue in the future to facilitate research coordination between the organizations. The latest agreement marks Purdue's most public involvement with the lab since 2018, when it lost a bid to run Los Alamos to a team including the University of California and Texas A&M amid a National Nuclear Security Administration push for a change in leadership."Purdue researchers have collaborated with Los Alamos National Lab researchers for decades since the Manhattan Project," Chiang said. "This (memorandum) creates a new framework for partnering in the research capabilities and infrastructures of both Purdue and Los Alamos to make critical advances that strengthen our national security."Los Alamos Director Thom Mason called Purdue a "natural partner in tackling the complex challenges vital to our nation's future." This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Purdue signs research agreement with Los Alamos nuclear lab Solve the daily Crossword
Fox News
03-07-2025
- Science
- Fox News
Researchers zero in on Amelia Earhart's disappearance after 88 years
Researchers are looking for answers and embarking on a special expedition following the 88th anniversary of the disappearance of American aviator Amelia Earhart. The Perdue Research Foundation (PRF, based in Indiana) and Archaeological Legacy Institute (ALI, based in Oregon) announced on Wednesday the "Taraia Object Expedition" project. Researchers will head to the remote island of Nikumaroro, which is halfway between Australia and Hawaii, according to a joint press release from the two agencies. While on the island, researchers will determine whether the "Taraia Object," a visual anomaly captured by a satellite, is actually the remains of Earhart's plane. Earhart is widely known as an aviation trailblazer, becoming the first woman to fly solo across the U.S. nonstop on Aug. 24, 1932. She once worked at Perdue University in Indiana, serving as a career counselor for women and advising the aeronautical engineering department while living in the women's residence hall. In an announcement of the new expedition, Purdue President Mung Chiang shared that "the Boilermaker spirit of exploration lives on." "About nine decades ago, Amelia Earhart was recruited to Purdue, and the university president later worked with her to prepare an aircraft for her historic flight around the world," said Chiang. Richard Pettigrew, ALI executive director, said in the release, "What we have here is maybe the greatest opportunity ever to finally close the case." "With such a great amount of very strong evidence, we feel we have no choice but to move forward and hopefully return with proof," he added. Earhart flew "The Electra," which disappeared on July 2, 1937. "Both Earhart and her husband and manager, George Putnam, expressed their intention to return the Electra to Purdue after her historic flight," said Steven Schultz, senior vice president and general counsel at Purdue. Researchers hypothesize that Earhart did not crash at sea, but instead landed and was stranded on Nikumaroro Island, later perishing there.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Other higher education institutions in IN weigh in on flat fees
HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT) – The University of Southern Indiana (USI) is proposing that tuition and mandatory fees be held flat for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 academic years in response to a recommendation by Governor Braun and the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, but is USI the only university considering this? Purdue University Officials with Purdue University agreed on flat rates for the fourteenth year in a row. The Purdue University Board of Trustees say on April 4 it endorsed President Mung Chiang's request for a 14th consecutive tuition freeze and approved his faculty and staff salary policy request for fiscal year 2026 for the main campus with a 2% recurring increase, plus a 0.5% nonrecurring recognition of 'exceptional' employee contributions. 'Purdue is in a unique position in American higher education: We can continue freezing tuition and maximize student access as a land-grant institution while simultaneously maintaining our commitment to the dedicated faculty and staff vital to achieving excellence at scale,' Chiang said. 'At a time when many universities have chosen salary freezes or reduction in workforce, Purdue is in a strong position financially to make salary investments to recognize the capabilities of its workforce and further improve its competitiveness in recruiting top talent.' Officials say the freeze of core tuition and mandatory fees — to be formally approved by trustees in late spring 2025 per state statute, after the legislative budget setting — means Purdue students will see no increase in tuition through at least the 2026-27 academic year. Base undergraduate tuition will remain at $9,992 per year for Indiana residents and $28,794 for out-of-state students through 2026-27. According to Purdue University, except for the pandemic year of 2020-21, Purdue has offered a merit increase every year since 2010. In November 2020 more than 15,000 employees received a one-time appreciation award of $750. U.S. Supreme Court to hear Representative Bost's case on mail-in voting Ivy Tech Ivy Tech says it is planning to hold tuition and fees flat for the next two years. Ivy Tech says it will recommend its State Board of Trustees hold these fees flat for the next two years in compliance with the recommendation by Governor Braun and the Indiana Commission for Higher Education. Leaders from Ivy Tech will present this adjusted structure to the State Board of Trustees for adoption during its June 5 meeting in Indianapolis. Ivy Tech says it last raised tuition in 2023 after changing the structure of its distance education and tech fees and integrating those into the tuition rate for students. Tuition increased in Academic Year 2023-24 from $2,243.25 to $2,455.76 per semester for full-time students. In Academic Year 24-2025, it increased from $2,455.76 to $2,577.11 per semester for full-time students. However, this fee restructuring and reduction effort ultimately resulted in 70% of students paying less during the 2023-2025 biennium than in the previous two years. On Friday, Ivy Tech announced a statewide reduction in force impacting 202 employees in Indiana, including 11 in the Evansville service area. Crews work to repair sink hole near Oak Hill Cemetery Indiana University Indiana University says it will recommend that tuition and mandatory fees for in-state undergraduate students be held flat for the next two years. Officials say the IU Board of Trustees will hold a public forum on the proposed tuition and fees for the 2025-27 academic years at 12:15 p.m. on June 12, at IU Bloomington's Henke Hall of Champions. While IU is proposing no increase in tuition or mandatory fees for in-state undergraduate students, the board will consider a proposed tuition increase of up to 2% for graduate programs, with an exception for some programs in the health and medical fields. IU says beginning in fiscal year 2024, the university reduced the number of academic fees by half. IU Bloomington also announced earlier this year that it will increase its minimum stipend pay for graduate students who hold part-time teaching or research appointments, effective July 1. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Forbes
28-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Blazing New Trails To The Endless Frontier: Transforming America's University Research
By Mung Chiang, President of Purdue University (This was an opening keynote at the SEMI EXPO Heartland on April 1 in Indianapolis, with additional examples of events since.) For fourscore years or so, the research enterprise that fueled the American innovation engine was built on the Bell Labs and National Science Foundation models. In the latter, a social contract was implicitly agreed upon between the American people and their elected officials and the country's top universities after the adoption of 'Science: The Endless Frontier,' written by Vannevar Bush for President Harry Truman in the concluding months of World War II. In this contract, much research would be carried out at universities, including private ones, and, through both federal/local tax benefits and government budgetary allocations, public resources would be used as the primary funding source for research at these universities. They would then carry out both the 'knowledge dissemination' and the 'knowledge creation' mission. The NSF was subsequently created in 1950, and the Sputnik moment accelerated the U.S. government's investment across many funding agencies. The peace dividend of the 1990s was shared with these agencies, especially the National Institutes of Health. Both models were based on essentially a monopoly enjoyed by the funding source. Both were choices made, indeed well made, but these were not and are not the only choices. Now at the midpoint between the end of World War II and the end of the 21st century, we are at an inflexion point. The American public wants to explore a new social contract where federal tax dollars assume a smaller portion of the financing equation for research carried out in universities. Purdue University Daily twists and turns aside, is this mostly a transient process, or will it be long lasting? Academia might not be going back to the same good ride of the past 75 years. A new equilibrium for university research could emerge. This premise bounds the scope of the rest of this discussion, knowing that the arguments for resuming the last three-quarters of a century into the future centuries have also been articulated in passionate public advocacy. If fundamental changes are coming ashore anyway, what can we do to maximize the vitality of university research in the new situation? In particular, how should universities work with private capital, both profit-seeking and philanthropic ones, in future decades? Now, private capital for university research is not new, but boosting its scale and scope requires a new culture and innovative mechanisms. There were legitimate reasons why the primary source of funding has comfortably been the government rather than companies and gifts. But today's necessity might incentivize a revisit and reimagination. New arrangements and processes are required for all parties, because industry and academia are naturally misaligned and misfit in many dimensions: All industries would be incentivized if Congress would create a tax benefit for corporations' funding of university research. With skin in the game, some might become a partner with, or even a distributor for, federal research funding. We also recognize that the university-industry relationship is a hexagon: research, recruiting, online learning, IP licensing, philanthropy and economic development. If we do well in one with a company, we should try to elevate the other five too and synergize across all six. Purdue has started experimenting with '360 partnership task forces' with Eli Lilly and Company and SK hynix, with growth toward some of the other 400 companies we partner with. Purdue has always been one of the most industry-coupled universities in the country, and it's getting even better each day as we build out America's Hard Tech Corridor in the heartland. Our semiconductor degrees program has an industry leadership advisory board. Our enterprise publicity campaign is carried out jointly with corporate partners. Our Daniels School of Business now requires AI literacy as a graduation requirement. Training workshops for faculty and staff new to the world of industry partnership started in the spring 2025 semester. Collaborations among previous silos are building new muscles across the offices of Industry Partnerships, Sponsored Program Services, Entrepreneurship and Commercialization, Technology Commercialization, and fund-raising development. Just in the past few months, we have had numerous successes across various sectors. The following examples pilot key elements of an emerging playbook, one that favors scale, speed and agility. A watershed moment was the announcement on May 9, 2025, in Indianapolis of the largest university-industry research program: $250 million over the next seven years of funding from Eli Lilly and Company to Purdue University in medicine discovery, foundry and manufacturing. Other recent examples abound too: But a tough concern remains: how to support fundamental research (and those disciplines removed from industry)? That is the spring source of a waterfall that cascades into new economic equations and, eventually, quarterly profits. Several ideas are worth exploring, though none are satisfactory yet: Now let's briefly turn to philanthropy. A capital campaign covers all dimensions of the university, and research and innovation are often not the natural top priority. While this tendency can be improved through staff training and donor cultivation, especially in areas like the Purdue Institute for Cancer Research or the life sciences, additional models warrant exploration. One emerging model is for the benefactors to provide a gift that creates an affiliated research institute, where the affiliation is strong and clear (e.g., faculty joint appointment, patent agreement, etc.). Donors might feel more in control via the resulting governance structure and mission specification. Universities can still benefit from research support and a translational pathway. Clearly, a whole set of parameters needs to be worked out: gift tax, intellectual property, conflicts of interest, and financial terms. With a $20 million gift from Professor Phil Low, a long-time leader in drug discovery and cancer treatment, Purdue announced April 29 the launch of the Low Institute for Therapeutics, creating new models in this direction. Let's not forget: The total wealth in America is not shrinking. Appreciation for research results still lingers in society. But universities need to get creative in architecting new pathways. Devils live in the details, but so did they when NSF was launched in the 1950s. Details can be created for a new mindset, as first movers enjoy timely advantages. Paraphrasing Vannevar Bush in 1945: The frontiers are still endless; we might just have to blaze some new trails to continue the worthy pursuit.
Axios
09-05-2025
- Business
- Axios
Lilly investing $250 million in research at Purdue
Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly will invest $250 million in an eight-year research partnership with Purdue University. Why it matters: There's a lot of uncertainty around federal research funding at the moment, so landing what could be the largest-ever agreement of its kind between private industry and a university is a big deal. The big picture: The initiative will bring Lilly researchers to Purdue's West Lafayette campus and Purdue researchers to Lilly facilities and will focus on accelerating drug discovery, development, and manufacturing using AI and other technology-driven approaches. What they're saying: "This may not be the only part of the future of research, but it certainly is an increasingly important part," said Purdue president Mung Chiang during the Friday announcement. Context: The Trump administration has instituted spending cuts and freezes to federal grants that have roiled major academic research programs. "In the face of uncertainty about exactly what funding will be available, institutions are grappling with, 'What choices do we have?'" Elena Fuentes-Afflick, chief scientific officer at the Association of American Medical Colleges, told Axios' Erica Pandey. "For decades, American prominence on the world stage in scientific research has been possible because of NIH funding," she said. "The disruption interrupts the ability to make discoveries, to make impactful findings." Plus, the disruption has implications for companies, which rely on the pipeline of scientists and technologists coming out of universities. State of play: The collaboration between Lilly and Purdue will allow the pharmaceutical company to strengthen its own talent pipeline by training its next generation of workers. "The alliance between Purdue and Lilly can make sure Lilly gets the very best Purdue students to stay in the state and work here at the state's largest company," said Lilly CEO David Ricks. Kurt Ristroph, an assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering at Purdue, has already worked with the existing Lilly and Purdue Research Alliance Center. There's always been a benefit to working on research with companies, Ristroph said, in that you get to help them solve real-world problems. Now, he said, there's the added benefit of having this investment as a buffer to the uncertainty at the federal level. "It's good to know that this is here," he said. "But more than that, it's good to know that we'll be able to work on problems that matter."
