BIO

Professor Leimkuhler joined the Purdue faculty in 1961 after graduating from Johns Hopkins University. At Purdue, he taught courses in operations research and engineering economics. He was head of the School of Industrial Engineering from 1969 to 1974 and from 1981 to 1993. In 1980 he was the organizing director of Purdue’s Computer Integrated Design, Manufacturing, and Automation Center, and from 1993 to 2000, he directed Purdue’s Technical Assistance Program. He led studies of the operations of research libraries for the National Science Foundation from 1962 to 1985, and was a distinguished lecturer for the American Library Association. His book, An Enduring Quest: The Story of Purdue Industrial Engineers, was published by Purdue University Press in 2009. He became professor emeritus in 2000 and now lives in Berkeley, California with his wife Natalie and three of his six children. His son Ben is professor of mathematics at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland and his daughter Meg teaches at the University of Colorado.

VIDEO

ABSTRACT

Dr. Moshe Barash was a giant in Purdue history. In 1976 he helped start a technical earthquake that is still dramatically changing the world we live in. It is a global revolution that is rooted in the Industrial Revolution of 1776 and also in the Engineering Revolution of 1876, in the era when Purdue was founded. Born a hundred years ago in Poland, Moshe grew up in Israel, and earned his PhD at the University of Manchester. He came to America and Purdue in 1963 where he developed his theory of computer-aided design, manufacturing, and automation. It emerged in 1976 to change Purdue, America, and the world. Technical revolutions are wrenching to society, often painful, but they leave us a parade of their famous creators, among whom Moshe Barash takes his rightful place.