News
Purdue's Communication Department was ranked second in the U.S in research productivity (close behind the Annenberg School at the University of Pennsylvania) in the latest SUNY-Albany rankings. Details on these rankings and the associated ranking methodology are available in the November 2007 online edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education. Purdue Press release click here.
Thirty-five former graduate students and faculty signed up to return to campus November 11-13 for a reunion of "The Greatest Era"... of course, that's what they all say! Contact Donna Wireman (dwireman@purdue.edu) or Bill Eadie (weadie@mail.sdsu.edu) for details.
Production work on Purdue's College of Liberal Arts, Department of Communication, “Spanish language television newsmagazine” begins this Spring (2008). Pat Rochon who is directing and producing this effort thinks “it is the first such program in Indiana.” Pat and her video production students will be working with Purdue faculty and students of Spanish, the Latino Cultural Center, The Latino Coalition, and others from Ivy Tech.
Purdue Com alumnus and C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb received the nation's highest civil award, the White. Lamb and seven others received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bush at a White House ceremony Nov. 5, 2007
The department will co-sponsor a “New Media and Innovation” conference with Shanghai Jiao Tong's (SJTU) College of Media and Communication June 10-11, 2008. This conference is expected to attract about 300 attendees and will be divided into a two-day format. One day will be industry focused and the second day will be more academic. "It’s a very exciting opportunity to work with a top quality institution (SJTU)." Contact Howard Sypher for details.
Jay Wang was a guest on CCTV 9’s Dialogue show produced in Beijing in early October 2007. This English language show which has about 5 million viewers is broadcast internationally as well as throughout China. Jay discussed key concerns in the areas of “public diplomacy and nation branding.” Stacey Connaughton and Howard Sypher have also been guests on this show in the past year.
The department will partner with the Communication University of China and the Chinese Olympic Committee to provide up to 15 Purdue students to work as “media liaisons” with English language news services (CNN, NBC, BBC, etc.) during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. For more information, download flyer here or contact Jane Natt.
Patrice Buzzanell did a keynote address in October 2007 at the “China Forum” in Beijing. The conference attracted attendees from over 70 Chinese journalism and communication programs and also included a number of attendees from the US and Europe.
The department was a co-sponsor for Purdue's Science Journalism Laureate Prrogram which recognizes journalists and professional science communicators who are making outstanding contributions to the profession. (click here for details).
Tyler Harrison (Principal Investigator) and Susan Morgan (Co-PI) received an $826,000 two year grant from the U.S Department of Health and Human Services for the "Show Us Your Heart: Secretary of State/DMV Point-of-Decision Grassroots and Media Campaign to promote organ donation in Michigan" (Sept. 2007).
William (Bart) Collins is Co-PI on a grant is from the Regenstrief Foundation. Collins project will undertake “research to treat patients with chronic illnesses by integrating remote monitoring technologies with primary-care delivery systems.“ ($298,000). The grant was announced at the RCHE healthcare delivery conference in September 2007 (see: http://news.uns.purdue.edu/x/2007b/070918CordovaGrants.html).
Mohan Dutta lead a group of Com faculty to India and China in October. This group recruited graduate students for Purdue andl visited top universities in these countries to further develop relationships and establish new ties.
The “Motorcycle Safety @ Purdue campaign” was featured at “Purdue Day during the Indiana State Fair”. Marifran Mattson and grad students (Carin Kosmoski, Jennifer Hall, Kindra Hunckler, & Katie Wiesner) talked to hundreds of people about their efforts to raise awareness and change behaviors regarding motorcycle safety. The primary message is “It Involves You”. Visit the website (www.itinvolvesyou.com) for more information.
Fall 2007 marks the third season of the popular Purdue student produced television news show - FastTrack. This weekly newscast appears on local Insight/Comcast cable television and on Boiler Television. Click here to go to the website. Look for FastTrack to appear soon on the Big Ten Network!
William (Bart) Collins, Jeong-Nam Kim, Samuel McCormick, Robin and Jakob (Jake) Jensen joined the department as new faculty members. Bart Collins came on board in January 2007 with a joint appointment in the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering. Collins received his PhD from the University of Kansas. Kim's PhD is from the University of Maryland. McCormick received his PhD from the University of Iowa. Robin and Jake Jensen received their PhDs from the University of Illinois. Robin Jensen, Jake Jensen, Jeong-Nam Kim and Sam McCormick began at Purdue in August 2007.
We are pleased to announce a "Health Communication" track in Purdue's new Masters of Public Health (MPH) degree program. For more information download the Announcement here and contact: Austin Babrow.
The Communication Department will Co-Sponsor the "2nd All-China Conference on Communication and Public Health" to be held at Tsinghua University in Beijing China, November 10, 2007. Participants will include representatives of the Chinese Ministry of Health, industry, the US CDC and NIOSH. For images of the 2006 conference... click here!
On July 6th the Purdue Board of Trustees named Beverly Davenport Sypher the first “Susan Bulkeley Butler Chair of Leadership”. This newly endowed professorship was a gift of Susan Bulkeley Butler, a Purdue Trustee, one of America’s leading experts on women’s leadership development and the founder and CEO of the Susan Bulkeley Butler Institute for the Development of Women Leaders. Butler was the first female “partner” in Anderson Consulting (now Accenture).
In September 2007, Beverly Davenport Sypher received a "Seed for Success Award". This award was created by the Provost and Vice President of Research to recognize faculty members who have attracted sponsored research grants to Purdue University in excess of one million dollars
Elizabeth Ann Williams, received a 2007 College of Liberal Arts Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award while recent alumnus, Kristen Lucas, now a faculty member at the University of Nebraska, received the 2007 CLA Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation Award. Both will be recognized at the CLA Awards Banquet on Wednesday, October 17, 2007.
In June 2007 Hyunyi Cho received a $146,669 grant from the National Institutes of Health to support research on the "Effects of gain vs. loss frame sun protection messages on rural Indiana adolescents."
Spring 2007 Risk Communication Lecture Series is available online via streaming video. Lectures by Max Lum (NIOSH), Sharon Dunwoody (Wisconsin) and Baruch Fischhoff (Carnegie Mellon). Click here to access videos. Contact Hyunyi Cho for details.
Howard E. Sypher received a "Seed for Success Award" in May 2007. This award was created by the Provost and Vice President of Research to recognize faculty members who have attracted sponsored research grants to Purdue University in excess of one million dollars. Sypher is a Co-PI on a 2006 award ($1,000,000) from the Regenstrief Foundation to support "Applying Principles of Engineering and Management for the Improvement of Healthcare."
Erina MacGeorge received a $990 grant from the Purdue Alumni Association to support her research on "What do people with Bipolar Disorder perceive as supportive behavior from members of their social networks."
At the May 2007 meeting of Purdue's trustees, Charles Stewart was named the "Margaret Church Professor of Communication."
In April 2007 Brant Burleson received the "Outstanding Graduate Faculty Member Award" given by graduate students in the department. Burleson also received a "Fellowship in a Second Discipline" for the 2007-2008 academic year. He will undertake research with Chris Agnew in Psychological Sciences.
Brant Burleson was awarded the NCA Distinguished Scholar Award for 2006 during NCA's annual meeting in San Antonio. The National Communication Association Distinguished Scholar Award is presented annually to a select group of individuals who have been recognized by their peers for a career of outstanding scholarship devoted to improving our understanding of human communication.
In March 2007 Howard Sypher was named to the Executive Committee of Purdue's Confusius Institute.
Pat Rochon has been selected as the campus-wide internship coordinator for the Big 10 Network. For more information on this cable effort by the Big 10 conference go to the new Big 10 Network website.
Patrice Buzzanell was formally elected President of the International Communication Association at its annual meeting which was held in Dresden, Germany, June 19 - 23, 2006.
Mohan Dutta received a grant for $92,529.00 from the National Library of Medicine for his project "Extension of the Genetics Home Reference Consumer Evaluation". Mohan was also honored at the 2006 Kentucky Health Communication Conference with the Lewis Donohew Award for outstanding research. Mohan Dutta is also a Co-Investigator with Jan Van den Bulck, and Dave Gelders on a grant examining the “Federal Policy Documents on Drugs.” Belgian Federal Science Policy Office. Grant Amount: 249,993 Euros.In September 2006, Six faculty members and two graduate students were guests at the formal opening ceremonies at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL) in Belgium. The Com delegation was in Leuven as part of an effort between Purdue and KUL to expand partnerships in research, student/faculty exchanges and to discuss the potential of joint degree programs. Purdue Com participants included Howard Sypher, Steve Wilson, Glenn Sparks, Erina MacGeorge, Melanie Morgan, Mohan Dutta, Beth Gill and Rebecca de Souza.
Beverly Davenport Sypher, Professor of Communication and Associate Provost was named interim Director of the Discovery Learning Center (DLC) in Discovery Park. Groundbreaking for the new center facility will take place in October. Research at the center will "make use of highly-sophisticated learning research laboratories to examine the processes by which people learn not only information, but also the problem solving and lifelong learning abilities that are crucial to the workforce of the future." For more information on this appointment and the DLC go to: http://news.uns.purdue.edu/UNS/html3month/2005/050810.Sypher.DLC.htm
Austin Babrow was selected as the Anne and Charles Redding Faculty Fellow in Communication for 2005 - 2007. Austin succeeds John Greene who was the Redding Faculty Fellow for 2003-2005.
Erina MacGeorge received the 2005 Distinguished Publication Award from the Association for Women in Psychology for her co-authored piece (with Graves, B. Feng, Gillihan and Burleson) on "The Myth of Gender Cultures: Similarities Outweight Differences in Men's and Women's Provision of and Responses to Supportive Communication," which was published in the February issue of the journal Sex Roles. Previous winners include Sandra Bern, Alice Eagly, Eleanor Maccoby, and Carolyn Sherif.
Patrice Buzzanell received the 2005 Francine Merritt Award at NCA (2006). This award is given annually for outstanding contributions to the lives of women in the field of communication. At the end of the Spring semester, Patrice also received the Outstanding Graduate Faculty Award which is selected by a departmental committee and presented at the annual Department Banquet.
Purdue's Department of Communication in cooperation with Eli Lilly Inc. and Florida A&M sponsored a special graduate class in "Science Communication" in summer 2005. For details contact: Brant Burleson, Purdue's Instructor of Record or Steve Wilson, Director of Graduate Studies. Course details and assessment are available at:
Mohan Dutta, with Co-PI's Laura Arns and Krishna Madhavan have received a $18,500.00 grant from the Discovery Learning Center.
The Times of London in a new survey ranking universities from all over the world ranked Purdue University ninth among American public universities. The Times Higher survey, used five criteria - peer review (50 percent), research impact (20 percent), faculty-to-student ratio (20 percent), number of international students (5 percent) and international faculty (5 percent) - to rank the top 200 universities in 29 countries.
The latest reputational survey (released November 2004) conducted by the National Communication Association (NCA) ranked three areas of Purdue’s Communication Department in the “Top 10” of U.S. programs. Interpersonal Communication, Organizational Communication and Health Communication received national rankings from #4 to #8 among all doctoral programs in the U.S.
Sorin Matei will conduct research designed to investigate the socio-psychological effects of location aware information devices with a $20,000 grant from the Discovery Learning Center Park-Discovery Park. For more information on the Discovery Learning Center. Read More here.