It was my first time in West Lafayette. My first time on Purdue’s beautiful campus. And my first sustained opportunity to immerse myself in an engineering culture that has quietly shaped the modern world.
This opportunity began via the generosity of two former colleagues at Notre Dame, George Keegan and Nathaniel Utz, who introduced me to Matt Folk, then CEO of Purdue for Life. Matt, in turn, opened the door to Purdue’s College of Engineering and an experience I never expected.
As part of the project, I began studying the accomplishments of the students, alumni, faculty, and staff who have walked the halls of Purdue’s College of Engineering. One story led to another. I started writing short narratives—each with a headline meant to capture something essential about the work and the person behind it. These stories were never intended to become a book. They were simply a way to honor the people and the work behind 150 years of impact.
What became clear very quickly was this: at Purdue, engineering is not an abstract pursuit.
Many universities dedicate extraordinary energy to thinking about problems—studying them, debating them, modeling them. Purdue goes a step further. Purdue engineers are trained to solve them.
Those early stories began circulating internally, and the response was immediate. Dean Arvind Raman, who leads Purdue’s College of Engineering along with Korina Wilbert (Managing Director of Strategic Initiatives) and Joseph Pekny (a distinguished professor of Chemical Engineering), recognized something special in them—not because they were polished or promotional, but because they reflected the culture they see every day: engineers who take responsibility for the world’s hardest problems and do the work required to fix them.
That response ultimately led to something none of us initially planned: a book.
150 Years of Purdue Engineering: Celebrating Our Consequential Impact on the World—published by Purdue University Press—is the result. The book tells 150 distinct stories, each one a window into how Purdue engineering reaches across industries, continents, and generations. Today, that reach extends into nearly every corner of the planet—shaping aviation and space exploration, infrastructure and energy, agriculture and healthcare, manufacturing and national defense.
The stories include pioneers like Amelia Earhart, who challenged the limits of flight and possibility. They include astronauts such as Neil Armstrong and Gus Grissom, whose work carried humanity beyond Earth’s atmosphere. And they include engineers whose impact reshaped—and safeguarded—the physical world itself.
Purdue alumni served as lead engineers on projects like the Golden Gate Bridge and the Hoover Dam, structures that demanded not just imagination, but precision, courage, and accountability on an unprecedented scale. And when one of the world’s most recognizable landmarks—the Leaning Tower of Pisa—was in danger of collapse, it was a Purdue engineering professor who was called upon to help stabilize the structure and preserve it for future generations.
Across all 150 stories, the pattern is unmistakable. Purdue engineers don’t wait for perfect conditions. They build, test, fail, refine, and build again. Progress is not theoretical—it is expected.
What impressed me most was the balance. Purdue’s College of Engineering produces people who are deeply analytical and relentlessly practical—big thinkers who respect constraints, innovators who understand execution. Engineers who see their work not simply as invention, but as service.
Spending time on campus reinforced something I came to believe deeply while telling these stories: engineering, at its best, is an act of service to the world as it is. It begins with a hard question—What isn’t working?—and refuses to stop until the answer works in real life.
After 150 years, the legacy is unmistakable. Purdue’s College of Engineering exists to move the world forward.
Many universities study problems. Purdue engineers solve them.
LINK: BUY THE BOOK HERE
