alumni spotlights
alumni spotlights
Barry Delks (BS ’82, agricultural economics; MS ’84, education administration), coordinator of career services in the Department of Animal Sciences, received a 2023 Special Boilermaker Award from the Purdue for Life Foundation. When students and external stakeholders think of Purdue animal sciences, many recall positive interactions with Delks, who has created new classes, designed professional activities, and worked behind the scenes to connect students and alumni.
Srinivas Makam (PhD ’07, horticulture and landscape architecture), director of sciences, Biomimetics and Integrated Life Sciences Research Center in Arizona and New Mexico, was the first author on a 2023 Plant Disease paper describing a new nutrition-based treatment for citrus greening disease, the most serious worldwide threat to the citrus industry. Research, however, is just one approach Makam takes to plant diseases. As a member of the band Heavy Metal Settles, he also incorporates them into the music they perform. Their first foray into the ag rock genre was “Oblivion: The Fusarium Saga,” describing their scientific battle with this critical disease in lettuce.
Turf management and science graduates Ben Baumer (BS ’14, agronomy) and Dan Kiermaier (BS ’12, agronomy), have realized their dream careers working for Chicago sports teams. Baumer is an assistant groundskeeper at Halas Hall, home of the Bears training facility and headquarters. “I use what I learned in the classroom and on the fields at Purdue every day in the NFL,” he says. Kiermaier is head groundskeeper at Wrigley Field, the second oldest ballpark in the major leagues. “It was always Purdue and the Cubs,” the avid sports fan says. The safety of athletes playing on the surfaces they maintain is paramount for both, and they credit their turf science training as the foundation of that knowledge and the beginning of their path to the fields of their dreams.
Barry Delks (BS ’82, agricultural economics; MS ’84, education administration), coordinator of career services in the Department of Animal Sciences, received a 2023 Special Boilermaker Award from the Purdue for Life Foundation. When students and external stakeholders think of Purdue animal sciences, many recall positive interactions with Delks, who has created new classes, designed professional activities, and worked behind the scenes to connect students and alumni.
Srinivas Makam (PhD ’07, horticulture and landscape architecture), director of sciences, Biomimetics and Integrated Life Sciences Research Center in Arizona and New Mexico, was the first author on a 2023 Plant Disease paper describing a new nutrition-based treatment for citrus greening disease, the most serious worldwide threat to the citrus industry. Research, however, is just one approach Makam takes to plant diseases. As a member of the band Heavy Metal Settles, he also incorporates them into the music they perform. Their first foray into the ag rock genre was “Oblivion: The Fusarium Saga,” describing their scientific battle with this critical disease in lettuce.
Turf management and science graduates Ben Baumer (BS ’14, agronomy) and Dan Kiermaier (BS ’12, agronomy), have realized their dream careers working for Chicago sports teams. Baumer is an assistant groundskeeper at Halas Hall, home of the Bears training facility and headquarters. “I use what I learned in the classroom and on the fields at Purdue every day in the NFL,” he says. Kiermaier is head groundskeeper at Wrigley Field, the second oldest ballpark in the major leagues. “It was always Purdue and the Cubs,” the avid sports fan says. The safety of athletes playing on the surfaces they maintain is paramount for both, and they credit their turf science training as the foundation of that knowledge and the beginning of their path to the fields of their dreams.