ERIC BARKER is a noted neuropharmacologist, award-winning teacher, skilled academic leader, and pharmacist. His research interests are in the area of molecular actions of drugs of abuse and other drugs that affect the brain.
Barker’s research has received grant support from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institute of Mental Health, National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, Lilly Research Laboratories, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
In addition to his scholarly pursuits, Barker has been recognized for his efforts in teaching medicinal chemistry and pharmacology. He is a member of the Purdue Teaching Academy and a recipient of both the College of Pharmacy Dr. Aziz Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award and the Purdue University Charles B. Murphy Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award.
Barker is a member of several professional associations, including the American Pharmacists Association, Society for Neuroscience, and American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, where he has served in leadership positions for the neuropharmacology division. He also served as editor-in-chief for Pharmacological Reviews, a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal, from 2016–2021.
JEROME ADAMS was at the forefront of the nation’s most pressing health challenges during his tenure as the 20th U.S. surgeon general. A licensed anesthesiologist, Adams was the operational head of the 6,000-person U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and oversaw responses to the coronavirus pandemic, during which he was a member of the president’s COVID-19 task force, as well as three Category 5 hurricanes.
Prior to his position with the federal government, Adams served as Indiana state health commissioner. In this role, he was responsible for more than 1,000 employees and a $350 million budget and led Indiana’s response to Ebola, Zika, and HIV crises. Adams advocated for legislation that legalized syringe service programs in Indiana and prioritized $13 million in funding to combat infant mortality.
Adams has worked with organizations to navigate the opioid epidemic, maternal health, rising rates of chronic disease, and the impacts of rising suicide rates in the U.S. and has helped businesses learn how to become better stewards in promoting community health.
Adams currently works with colleagues across Purdue, around the state of Indiana, and beyond to elevate the awareness and impact of Purdue’s science-based public health programs, research, and engagement.
MARIO CRUCINI has made several important contributions to the field of international macroeconomics—his work has helped broaden our understanding of determinants of international business cycles, the dynamic interactions of nominal currency exchange rates and retail prices, the extent to which globalization has narrowed wage and price differences across nations, and the macroeconomic effects of tariff protection.
Crucini’s research interests include real exchange rates, the terms of trade, international business cycles, and the economic history of the interwar period. Combining theory and empirics, his work often involves the assembly of brand-new data to better address research questions and showcases a mix of statistical and applied econometric skills, ranging from reduced-form modeling to Bayesian simulation of dynamic structural models.
Due to his long-standing interest in the evolution of market prices and technological opportunities, his publications have frequently contributed to topics ranging from the international diffusion of the automobile at the turn of the 20th century to the relationship between county-level U.S. business cycles and fiscal stimulus during the Great Recession.
Crucini is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and the managing director of the Center for International Price Research. He serves as a senior fellow at the Globalization and Monetary Policy Institute at the Federal Research Bank of Dallas and previously served as both editor and associate editor for several top general interest and field journals in economics. He currently serves as associate editor of the Journal of Monetary Economics.
In 2021, Crucini came to Purdue from Vanderbilt University, where he mentored and advised PhD and undergraduate students, served as director of the undergraduate honors program, and chaired 17 PhD dissertations.
Patsy earned a bachelor’s degree in food and nutrition in business from Purdue in 1969, in addition to an MBA in food marketing from Michigan State University in 1970. She retired from Kraft Foods in 2006 after 36 years in corporate food marketing and marketing communications management.
A community volunteer, Patsy serves on the Women’s Fund of Central Indiana Advisory Board and the Purdue College of Health and Human Sciences Dean’s Leadership Council, in addition to the President’s Council Advisory Board. She is a former member of the Health and Human Sciences Alumni Board. Patsy held several offices from 2006 through 2013, including president and treasurer. She serves her community’s Discover Indianapolis Club in Fishers, holding several leadership roles for over 10 years.
Patsy has received several honors, including the Purdue University Nutrition Science Department Hall of Fame recipient in 2009 and the Purdue University College of Health and Human Sciences Distinguished Alumni Award in 2016. She also received the college’s Gold and Black Award in 2016, an honor reserved for donors who have moved the college forward by committing exceptional financial resources.
In addition to endowing two scholarships, the Patsy J. Mellott Scholarship and Patsy J. Mellott HHS Scholarship, she established the Patsy J. Mellott Teaching Innovation Award in the College of Health and Human Sciences in 2013. In 2015, she endowed the Patsy J. Mellott Women’s Tennis Coach Performance Award. She is a lead donor in the Christine M. Ladisch Faculty Leadership Award and the Purdue Women’s Network Virginia C. Meredith Scholarship for the College of Health and Human Sciences.