The gift is being matched by a $400,000 award from the Lilly Endowment Program to create the Thomas McDermott Sr. Professorship of Economic Development. The Lilly Endowment Program has pledged to match each $100,000 endowed professorship gift that Purdue Calumet receives, ultimately, to create five, $500,000 endowed professorships to provide leadership in advancing Northwest Indiana’s economy. This gift supports the university’s fourth endowed professorship.

Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. (seated right) and former Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Sr. (seated left) finalize terms of an endowed Purdue University Calumet professorship, named after the latter and established by the City of Hammond to advance economic development. Also pictured (standing from left) are Purdue Calumet Vice Chancellor for Advancement Judith Kaufman and University Chancellor Howard Cohen. PHOTO PROVIDED BY PURDUE CALUMET’S OFFICE OF UNIVERSITY RELATION

The Thomas McDermott Sr. Professor of Economic Development, whose namesake has been a regional economic development leader and former Hammond mayor, will be a tenured faculty member of Purdue Calumet’s School of Management. This professor will focus on attracting new businesses to Hammond, while helping nurture them with services provided through the Hammond Business Incubator.

“Economic development is important to our success as a university and the future of Hammond,” Purdue Calumet Chancellor Howard Cohen said. “As an economic development visionary and former mayor, Tom McDermott Sr. has been a loyal supporter of Purdue Calumet. This generous gift, for which we are most appreciative, enables both Purdue Calumet and the City of Hammond to be proactive with an initiative that has important, long term implications to our university and city.”

The endowed professorship will serve as a link between the Hammond Business Incubator Program and Purdue Calumet faculty and students within the School of Management. Through applied faculty research activities and student internships, Purdue Calumet attempts to help increase opportunities for economic growth by being a resource for new businesses.

“I am honored and humbled to be the namesake of this endowed professorship,” McDermott Sr. said. “This gesture is the culmination of both a dream, in terms of what the incubator will mean to the City of Hammond, and the reality of how the ever-strengthening Purdue Calumet-Hammond partnership positively affects the lives of so many.”

Added current Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr., “Purdue University Calumet is a respected, trusted partner in the City of Hammond’s economic development vision. The Hammond Business Incubator figures prominently in that vision. Endowing this professorship is an investment in the wide-reaching expertise Purdue Calumet brings to a program that stands to benefit the city and university alike.”

The gift is being matched by a $400,000 award from the Lilly Endowment Program, which has pledged to match each $100,000 endowed professorship gift that Purdue Calumet receives, ultimately, to create five, $500,000 endowed professorships.

Purdue University Calumet Chancellor Howard Cohen (standing, from left), Purdue Calumet Vice Chancellor for Advancement Judith Kaufman and Gary Neale, NiSource chairman, CEO and chairman of the NiSource Charitable Foundation Board of Trustees, observe as Purdue Calumet student Latasha Wright of Matteson, Ill. works on a class project in a university computing lab. PHOTO PROVIDE BY PURDUE UNIVERSITY CALUMET OFFICE OF UNIVERSITY RELATIO

The NiSource Charitable Foundation Endowed Professor of Energy and the Environment will direct Purdue Calumet’s emerging Center for Energy Efficiency and Reliability. The Center is a research hub that seeks to develop new technologies to advance energy efficiency, utilization and processes, while reducing energy costs and emissions.

“NiSource is pleased to partner with Purdue University Calumet and the Lilly Endowment to advance teaching and research opportunities in Northwest Indiana by establishing this professorship,” said Gary L. Neale, NiSource chairman and chief executive officer and chairman of the board of trustees of the NiSource Charitable Foundation. “This professorship will play an important role in bringing to market new energy technologies that will improve the efficiency of energy use and the environment-and that will, in turn, enhance the quality of life for people throughout this region, the state and the nation.”

Purdue Calumet in consultation with NiSource will select the holder of the professorship, who, with the dean of Purdue Calumet’s School of Engineering, Mathematics and Science, will develop annual plans regarding teaching, research and service activities.

“We are extremely appreciative of the generosity NiSource has demonstrated and look forward to collaborating in developing this vision to benefit Northwest Indiana,” Purdue Calumet Chancellor Howard Cohen said. “As our region diversifies and transitions more and more to technology-based businesses, our Center for Energy Efficiency and Reliability stands to play a huge economic development role. It is gratifying and exciting to be able to move forward with NiSource; we are grateful for its support.”

The NiSource Charitable Foundation Endowed Professorship is the second endowed professorship introduced at Purdue Calumet. Previously, Lilly Endowment matched a $100,000 gift from local businessman, entrepreneur, author and alumnus Thomas Crowel to establish the Thomas Ray Crowel Endowed Professorship, designed to promote and improve science and mathematics learning among at-risk students in pre-school through high school via Purdue Calumet’s emerging Center for Science and Technology Education.

Based in Merrillville, NiSource Inc. is a Fortune 500 holding company whose operating companies engage in natural gas transmission, storage and distribution, as well as electric generation, transmission and distribution. The NiSource Charitable Foundation partners with NiSource’s operating companies to seek community investment initiatives that have a direct impact in the communities served by NiSource companies and that focus on education, the environment, economic development, human services and/or public safety.

Named an IBM Scholar, Ruijian Zhang, Purdue Calumet assistant professor of computer science, has received access to secure IBM content available only to Scholars Program members.

The IBM Scholars Program is an innovative initiative to partner with colleges and universities to better educate millions of students for a more competitive information technology (IT) workforce. The program provides a broad range of offerings and benefits to professors and students, including the latest technologies in IBM software, hardware, course materials, training and other resources.

“While I am extremely pleased to be accepted into the IBM Scholars Program, I also am excited about what it means to Purdue Calumet students,” Zhang said. “Those who look forward to becoming skilled, software engineering leaders will develop valuable skills for succeeding in the competitive world of information technology. Being able to partner with a computing giant like IBM in a program of this nature will help position our graduates to have a leg up on other graduates entering the IT work force.”

Zhang will have access to complete IBM course material covering IBM products and technologies including Grid, e-business, WebSphere, Rational, DB2, Lotus, iSeries and zSeries. He uaed the IBM Rational Suit computer software in a Korean students training program held recently at Purdue Calumet and several software developing projects.

Zhang instructed 18 Korean students from the Seoul National University of Technology as part of an international educational cohort program to receive instruction in the new computer science specialty field of component based software engineering. The students were at Purdue Calumet from September through March.

Additionally, Zhang will use DB2 database computer software in a database system course to be offered this fall.

“For computer science students to reach their greatest level of achievement they must have cutting-edge software,” said Michael Gealt, “This gift to Dr. Zhang from IBM enables Purdue University Calumet students to work with the very latest tools available. Dr. Zhang, our newest faculty member in computer sciences, works with other computer science faculty to prepare and deliver the most advanced programs available to their students.”

By visiting the IBM Scholars Program portal, Zhang will have access to: free software and educational materials; access to discounted hardware and course materials; resources such as certification, discounts, books and other materials; and the latest news, upcoming events and other related information.

Zhang, who came to Purdue Calumet in 2002, holds bachelor’s degree from Shanghai Second Polytechnic University (China) and master’s and doctoral degrees in computer science from the University of Houston. He teaches such computer science subjects as software engineering, database system and Java programming. His research areas include computer architecture, compiler and AI programming.

The gift is being matched by a $400,000 award from the Lilly Endowment Program to introduce the Thomas Ray Crowel Endowed Professorship, which is intended to lead an initiative designed to promote and improve science and mathematics learning among at-risk students in pre-school through high school.

The Crowel Professorship will lead the emerging Purdue Calumet Center for Science and Technology Education. The center will focus on programs that provide a learning environment that is exciting, intellectually stimulating and technologically sophisticated.

“Education is the foundation of civilized societies,” said Crowel, founder of the Highland-based Crowel Companies. “To build those societies, it takes knowledge and the development of students by exceptional teachers. It’s my belief that Purdue University Calumet is an institution which can be counted amongst the finest places for learning.”

Crowel, a 1981 Purdue Calumet graduate, has developed successful insurance and finance companies, an accredited insurance training center for sales professionals and a chain of car washes. Among the books he has written is “Simple Selling, Common Sense That Guarantees Your Success.”

“Tom Crowel is a nationally recognized figure whose success story is a testament to what one can achieve through planning and hard work,” Purdue Calumet Vice Chancellor for Advancement Judith Kaufman said. “His latest gesture of generosity to his alma mater-for which we are most appreciative-is a telling example of how much he values and appreciates Purdue Calumet and the education it provides.”

Lilly Endowment has pledged to match each $100,000 endowed professorship donation that Purdue Calumet receives with $400,000, ultimately, to create five, $500,000 endowed professorships.

The four other areas in which Purdue Calumet is seeking endowed professorships are: the Center for Energy Efficiency and Reliability, the Center for Women and Minorities in Construction, the Water Institute, and the university’s academic program in hospitality and tourism management.

Crowel previously donated $100,000 to Purdue Calumet to establish four, $25,000 endowed scholarships for students pursuing degrees in management, professional writing, education and construction management. In addition, Crowel has donated $25,000 to the university’s student housing facility, The University Village at Purdue Calumet, where a room will be named in his honor. The facility is scheduled to open in August.