College of Agriculture adds 6 to ranks of Distinguished Ag Alumni

With expertise in immunology, molecular biology, cell biology and translational research, Jianhua Yu seeks to discover innovative approaches to combat cancer. After earning a doctorate in agronomy at Purdue, he did postdoctoral work at Ohio State University, where he earned full professor status and was the cellular research director in the Division of Hepatology. Yu is now a professor at the Division of Hematology & Oncology at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine. He is also the director of the Clemons Family Center for Transformative Cancer Research and the Institute for Precision Cancer Therapeutics and Immuno-Oncology.   

His 30-year career with Sumitomo Chemical has taken Montgomery County native Scott Mitchell from a sales representative job in Iowa to California to Australia and finally to New York, where since 2014 he’s been president and CEO of Sumitomo Chemical America and leads the regional headquarters in the Americas. He earned BS and MS degrees in agricultural economics from Purdue. Sumitomo offers products in the fields of essential chemicals and plastics, energy and functional materials, health and crop sciences, IT-related chemicals and pharmaceuticals. Mitchell’s family has strong Purdue ties, which he has strengthened by serving as a mentor, speaking to classes, hosting students in Australia and contributing to Purdue Extension projects.

When the food industry was transitioning from analog to digital control technologies, Sasha Ilyukhin’s timely research contributed to significant advances. As a master’s degree candidate, he skillfully leveraged Purdue’s resources, co-authored a protocol that the industry still relies on and parlayed that into a multi-decade career at Tetra Pak, an international food processing and packaging solutions company. He’s in his second senior vice president role, overseeing 500 professionals involved in outcome-based solutions. “It is evident,” a Tetra Pak colleague says, “that Purdue has given Sasha a tremendous academic platform for a successful career, instilling the values of continuous learning and self-improvement, which he demonstrates each day.”

Nearly four decades of teaching high school agriculture science more than prepared Duane Huge for his current role. He’s the program coordinator for a national FFA and Lilly Endowment grant initiative — the Mentoring Indiana Beginning Agriculture Teacher Program. More than 30 candidates are being guided and will eventually join Indiana’s 350-plus agriculture educators. Most will know or know of Huge. He worked 20 years at Cloverdale schools and 18 in Danville schools. In 2023 the FFA presented him with the Golden Owl Award (ag educator of the year.) Last year he received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Purdue Department of Agricultural Sciences Education and Communication.

Heather Hill thought she’d like being a large animal veterinarian. But soon after arriving at Purdue, she decided working with people and animals on a more daily basis was a better path, and she has stayed on it. She co-owns and operates Hill Farms LLC in Greenfield (corn, soybeans, wheat, hogs). She gained experience with Farm Credit Services of Mid-America and Pfizer Animal Health, then was president of Indiana Pork — and in 2002 was president of the National Pork Board. In 2010, the Purdue Department of Animal Sciences gave her its Distinguished Alumni Early Career Award.

Robert Michael Corrigan is one of the world’s leading authorities on rodent pest management. He taught rat control and rat biology for 16 years at Purdue. Five years after leaving, he was called one of the industry’s top 25 most influential people. His consulting agency has done work in 46 states and 12 countries. Corrigan, who is in three halls of fame, leads efforts to design and implement environmentally sensitive rodent management programs for large urban entities, including municipalities (New York City), airports, shopping malls and university campuses. In 2018, the Department of Entomology gave Corrigan its highest honor, the John V. Osmun Alumni Professional Achievement Award.