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Dear Friends of Purdue Biochemistry,
"It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.11 So begins A Tale of Two Cities by Oharles
Dickens, and with apologies to Dickens and to you, so begins what is probably an excessively political
annual letter to you.
"It was the best of times." By all measures that matter, this department is enjoying good times
indeed. Our grant funding passed $3 million per year some time in the past two years and has shown a
steady increase every year for more than 15 years. The department is number one in the University in
research support per professor, based on actual expenditures. Jack Dixon and Henry Weiner received
MERIT awards on their grants, which means they do not have to submit competing applications to NIH
on those projects for at least seven years, maybe up to ten years. Our two newest professors, Steven
Broyles and James Forney, both scored in the top 10% of applications on their first submissions to NIH
and will have grants for the next five years. Lee Weith's participation in the AIDS Center has brought
both research money plus a large amount of computer equipment to the department. In addition to
those new items, the rest of the faculty continues to be both aggressive and successful at obtaining
support for their research programs. That kind of success draws attention, of course, and with it
responsibilities. Virtually all of the senior faculty serve in the peer review system in one capacity or
another reviewing grant applications and manuscripts for journals. We are also active and visible in
various scientific societies.
For the few of you who may not have heard, I am most pleased that Purdue awarded the "Father
of our Department," Barney Axelrod, the honorary degree Doctor of Science at commencement last spring.
It was through Barney's wise recruiting and effective nurturing of twelve of our faculty that I am able to
write about the successes in the previous paragraph. He remains an inspiration to us all. He got his
NSF grant funded again and is busy studying the mechanism of lipoxygenase by site—directed
mutagenesis.
Fred Regnier was recognized for his pioneering work in chromatographic science by being awarded
the American Chemical Society Award in Chromatography. Claudia Kent received the Cancer Research
Award from the local Lion's Club.
Our physical facilities continue to improve with the major renovation project in our building. The
dingy old place you fondly remember is being modernized a lab or two at a time with the work for the
next several years focusing on third floor. While a building of 1930 and 1950 vintage will never be
totally modern, the renovated labs are a lot more efficient than the old ones.
Finally, chief among our successes are our students, past and present. The Purdue University
Biochemistry Program continues to attract around 25 new students each year with about half joining labs
in our department. This program is widely viewed as a very successful model for interdisciplinary
graduate education and has been imitated both at Purdue and elsewhere. PUB remains stronger than
most other interdepartmental efforts, due, in my judgement, to the commitment, dedication, and hard
work of the faculty. Top—quality graduate education doesn't just happen; Purdue Biochemistry has a
faculty which cares. We also have students who care — they are integral participants in the processes of
recruiting and training their peers. I keep hearing from our graduates what a valuable experience
graduate school at Purdue was; their successful careers and leadership in many areas of biochemistry
makes us believe we are doing something right. We also teach undergrads, of course, and that is
becoming a larger task in recent years, thanks to the leadership of Karl Brandt, Associate Dean for
Resident Instruction, and a number of faculty who are involved in undergrad recruitment. Our freshman
classes are growing in size; this year there are 25 freshmen, and the really good news is that 9 of them
are Ag School scholarship winners. These scholarships are only awarded to students graduating in the
top 10% of their high school classes who score at least 1100 on the SAT exam. So we have numbers
and quality in our students.
"It was the worst of times." After that litany of successes, what sort of grouch could claim that
these are bad times? The bad news comes from two sources: funding and the U.S. education system.
When I began serving in the peer review system about ten years ago, NIH was funding about 40% of the