UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Virendra Puri, professor of agricultural and biological engineering in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, has received the 2003 Alex and Jessie C. Black Award.

The honor, which includes a $1,000 cash award and a plaque, recognizes significant accomplishments in agricultural research at Penn State.

Puri joined Penn State's faculty as an assistant professor in fall 1983. Under his leadership, an internationally recognized research program has been established in the areas of powder mechanics and computational modeling. The program was forged through interdisciplinary collaborative activities with faculty members from the colleges of Agricultural Sciences, Engineering, and Earth and Mineral Sciences.

Working with his graduate students and with colleagues in other Penn State programs and colleges, the Particulate Materials Center, industries and federal laboratories, Puri has developed a comprehensive group of test devices and modeling protocols for characterizing agricultural and food powdered materials.

Puri's research achievements have culminated in four patents and several, of his students have gone on to become nationally and internationally recognized leaders in their respective fields of work. The research done by Puri has resulted in contributions to the development of standards and engineering practices that directly benefit the agricultural and food industry.

During his tenure at Penn State, Puri has directly supervised 32 graduate students and several postdoctoral fellows and has served on 86 graduate students' committees. He was elected a fellow of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers in 2002. Puri earned a bachelor's degree in engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology and master's and doctoral degrees in engineering from the University of Delaware. Prior to joining Penn State, he conducted research at Purdue University's department of agricultural engineering, and at the U.S. Department of Energy.

"This award recognizes not only my program but also the contributions of many fine colleagues within the colleges of Agricultural Sciences, Engineering, and Earth and Mineral Sciences, of my current and former graduate students, and of those graduate students on whose research advisory committees on which I have served," Puri says. "I truly feel humbled by this recognition."

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EDITORS: Contact Virendra Puri at 814-865-3559 or by e-mail at vmpuri@psu.edu.

Jeff Mulhollem Office 814-863-2719 FAX 814-863-9877