December 1997
Dear Graduates, Colleagues, and Friends,
They are predicting 6" or so for tonight (Dec. 9), and I suppose those of you who know that I grew up in
northwest Minnesota may think that I may be happy about that. You would be wrong, however, since up there one
looks at snow five months or so each year, and after a couple of decades the thrill wears thin.
This has been another year of major changes for the Department. Larry Butler and David Krogmann both
announced that they planned to retire in 1997. Then we were shocked and saddened in February when Prof. Butler
died unexpectedly after surgery. This was doubly sad in that Larry had looked forward with such eager anticipation
to his retirement and the chance to spend time with his grandchildren and travel with his wife, Mary. He is sorely
missed by his many friends and colleagues around the world.
Dr. Krogmann retired at the end of September, and after a bit of resistance, consented to having a recognition
dinner in his honor in October. A number of his former students joined us for a very enjoyable event with the dinner
on Friday evening and a symposium/discussion on Saturday morning highlighting the breadth of careers pursued by
Dave's former students.
In the meantime we are recruiting for replacements for Drs. Butler, Krogmann, and Olwin. Two have been
hired at this writing, Dr. Jill Hutchcroft, currently at Harvard, and Dr. Joseph Ogas, currently at the Carnegie at
Stanford. Both will join us next spring. We are interviewing several candidates at this time for the other position.
Excellent candidates are looking for faculty positions, but of course, the best are in high demand, and we have to
compete with other Universities, some of which can muster more resources than we can. This faculty is committed to
very high standards, so we work hard when recruiting our successors.
Thanks to all of you who may have written your congressional delegations on behalf of funding for science
and education. The budgets this year and last are much better than they had been for some years and funding lines
are approaching a point where the funding decisions aren't as arbitrary as they have been in recent years (a 12th
percentile payline leaves twice as many meritorious grants unfunded as those funded). We continue to need your help
in persuading Congress that investment in our future is necessary if this country is to prosper and that means science
and education must have high priority in the decisions of what to fund.
Thanks, too, to all who made contact with us in the past year and brought us up to date on your lives. Some
of the news items we received are reported below. And special thanks to all who sent gifts to the Department. Your
financial support has a real impact on enriching our programs; most of the discretionary monies are used to host
events where top scientists from around the world can interact with our grad students and faculty. These are
extremely important contacts for all of us, especially for the professional development of the students. I remind those
of you who work for private corporations that companies often match your donation, and those who live in Indiana
receive a tax credit on their State income taxes for donations to Purdue. Thanks to all who help us in this way.
We all wish you the happiest of holidays and a most successful and satisfactory New Year. (P.S. The snow
missed us!)
Warmest regards,
Mark Hermodson
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