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November, 1987
Greetings from Greater Metropolitan West Lafayette!
successful.
May your holidays be joyful and restful and your New Year happy and
The Purdue Biochemistry Department looks remarkably the same, having had no faculty changes over the past year, but there
have been very significant changes, too.    The most important change is that we have a new Dean of Agriculure, Dr. Robert L.
Thompson, a former Ag Economics Professor here specializing in international trade, who came to us after four years in Washington,
D.C., most recently serving as Assistant Secretary of Agriculture.   And the School of Science also has a new Dean, Dr. Kenneth
Kliewer, a physicist, who came to us from Argonne National Laboratories.    While neither of them pretends to be an expert in the life
sciences, they are both excited about the scientific and teaching programs in our Department and our sister Departments in the two
Schools.    So they have been very supportive of the Purdue University Biochemistry Program (PUB), the Plant Physiology Program,
and other activities that span School and Department lines.
The PUB program admitted its tenth class this fall.    It is a well-established and strong operation which is widely viewed as a
model graduate program on this campus and elsewhere.    The cooperative spirit in the program at the levels of students, faculty and
administrators is so good and the benefits from the program so substantial that I am continually amaeed at how difficult it is both on
this campus and at other Universities to form effective multi—Departmental graduate programs,    I must applaud the vision of the
faculty and Heads of ten years ago who managed to overcome "turf* concerns to initiate PUB.    They left a legacy of which they can
be proud.
The other three "founding" Departments of PUB have changed or are changing Heads.    Dr. Harry Morrison succeeded
Dr. Harry Pardue in Chemistry this past summer.   Dr. L. D. Smith is leaving Biological Sciences to become Dean of Biological
Sciences at Irvine in December, and Dr. John Cassady is leaving Medicinal Chemistry to become Dean of Pharmacy at Ohio State.
Searches for their replacements are under way at this time.
In the Department, our Business Administrator of the past four years, Mike Hodgson, has been promoted to a position in
International Agriculture.    His replacement is Sue Sperry, who has been with us about a month at this writing.
The water or air or something in our building continues to cause a high rate of reproduction*    In the past year Camille
Alexander in our typing pool had a baby boy in October.    Mary Ann Woerner, Administrative Assistant for PUB, had a baby boy in
June and several grad students have new babies as reported later.
In the face of very tough, competitive times, our faculty continues to do very well in acquiring research support.    Our grant
funding has shown a very steady increase over the past 20 years (as far back as I have records), roughly doubling every seven or
eight years.    That strong record also makes our faculty highly "visible" on the national science scene, with four to six of them serving
on grant review panels at any given time, and a similar or larger number serving on editorital boards of major research journals.
This is a faculty that takes its responsibilities seriously, and it shows in their teaching, their research, and their service to Purdue and
to national scientific organisations.    I am proud of them.
As I think I mentioned last year, we are one of four building on the "major renovations" list at Purdue.    Last year two large
labs (1500 sq. ft. each) were renovated on second floor, and the other second floor suite (Dr. Krogmann's area) is currently being
renovated.    The process goes slower than the original schedule projected, and much slower than the current Department Head would
prefer, but the renovated labs are beautiful.    Please stop and see them.
We were very pleased to have a visit from Dr. and Mrs. Vernon Singleton on October 20, 1987.    Dr. Singleton got his Ph.D.
here in 19S1 under the direction of Prof. Ed Merts.    He has been an Enology professor at UC Davis since 1958.    It is great fun to
have former graduates stop and reminisce about the people and activities of past years.
When you are considering contributions to various worthy causes, please remember us.    Your support to the Department of
Biochemistry or to the PUB program pays very high dividends; we invest those contributions mainly in activities which attract future
students, the life—blood of our programs.    Some corporations will match your contributions so please inquire if your company has a
matching program.    Indiana residents may contribute up to $400 per couple and receive a 50% tax credit on their Indiana taxes.
Thank you for your generosity in the past and for considering us now.
Happy New Year,
Mark Hermodson, Head
s^e**