Jill Hruby (BSME '81) has been nominated by President Biden for Under Secretary for Nuclear Security, and Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration. Previously she served at Sandia National Laboratories for 34 years, the first woman to lead a national security lab.

Standard refrigerators use vapor compression to cool down your food. But in space, there is no gravity to keep vapors and liquids secure. Purdue researchers have worked with NASA, Air Squared, and Whirlpool to create a prototype fridge that works upside-down, meaning it can potentially function in zero gravity.

Check out this feature about Purdue athletes joining forces to increase the presence of adaptive sports on campus. The team includes Purdue ME senior Ryan Lawrence.

Congratulations are in order for many of our ME faculty members! Purdue's Board of Trustees has just approved a slate of faculty promotions, and here are the ones in our ME family.

A surge of migrants. An unstable power grid. A changing climate. Even the hostile takeover of a dam. The US-Mexico border is currently facing a number of daunting challenges. But according to research just published by Purdue University engineers, there is one thing that could solve all these problems: water.

Gas turbine engines often are considered the "heart" of airplanes and ships. Now, a Purdue team including Prof. Nicole Key, looking for new solutions to reduce emissions and enhance operations of these engines, have come up with technology similar to tests used on human hearts.

Congratulations to Francesco Fuentes, Glynn Gallaway, Ryan Regan, and Maureen Winter, who received Graduate Research Fellowships from the National Science Foundation, and will pursue their research at Purdue. The prestigious five-year fellowship includes an annual stipend of $34,000.

After rotator cuff injuries, many patients actually retear the tendon after surgery. Purdue researchers Eric Nauman and Darryl Dickerson began working on the problem in 2004, and developed a small strip with both hard and soft tissue layers, which attaches with standard laparoscopic surgical techniques. Bones and tendons connect more naturally, leading to a more durable and longer-lasting repair, and quicker recovery time for patients.

Purdue Engineering's graduate program ranks #4 in the latest US News & World Report rankings: its first time in the top 5, and the highest ranking ever for a school of Purdue's size. Mechanical Engineering's graduate program is ranked #8 in the country, the 30th straight year that Purdue ME is in the top 10.

Congratulations to all our ME graduate students, postdocs, and instructors who have been recognized by the College of Engineering's Graduate Program Awards.