Edwin Daniel (Dan) Hirleman Jr. joined Purdue as its inaugural Chief Corporate and Global Partnerships Officer in 2014 with responsibility for building comprehensive strategic partnerships with the private sector, and for global partnerships with nations, universities, NGOs and companies. He also oversees the Technical Assistance Program, including CyberTAP, and Purdue’s International Programs operation that currently supports over 10,000 students, scholars, and faculty. He serves as Purdue’s Senior International Officer, and in 2015 and 2016 was Senior Intellectual Property Officer. Ongoing strategic partnership successes during his tenure include Rolls-Royce in research and cybersecurity, Eli Lilly and Co., the Purdue-Ford Alliance, Infosys, and Cyberbit. In that time Purdue has repeatedly set all-time annual records for: total private-sector funding ($145.7M); sponsored awards from for-profit entities ($73.4M); study abroad (2,409 students); US patents (123); and licenses (147).
Hirleman studied mechanical engineering at Purdue University and received a BSME, graduating in 3 years with a 4.0 GPA, followed by MSME and Ph.D. He received Howard Hughes Doctoral and NSF Graduate Fellowships, did six industry internships, and was a visiting researcher at the Technical University of Denmark. He joined Arizona State University as faculty where he received teaching and research awards and held multiple administrative positions culminating in associate dean for research.
He then served as William E. and Florence E. Perry Head of Purdue ME, leading that School as it grew to over 500 grad / 1300 undergrad students, developed BS/MS, BS/MBA, and direct-to-Ph.D. programs, tripled sponsored research and completed a $142M Capital Campaign providing for scholarships/fellowships, endowed professorships, and two new ME buildings. He has received: the INEER Int’l Achievement Award in 2006; the Hon. George Brown Award for Int’l Scientific Cooperation in 2008; and the 2009 Charles Russ Richards Memorial Award. He is an ASME Fellow and chaired the Advisory Board of Engineers for a Sustainable World. He also served for four years as the second dean of the School of Engineering at the University of California, Merced.
Hirleman has about 200 publications, 6 U.S. patents, and presented 80 invited lectures in 14 countries. Recent research involves laser-based sensors for the identification of cells in bio-hazards, food safety, high-throughput screening, and stem cell diagnostics. His work in flow diagnostics, semiconductor manufacturing, and global engineering and cyber education is also recognized. Ten technologies developed in his lab have been licensed and/or are in commercial products. Support involved more than 70 grants and contracts from 31 companies and 11 government agencies (total over $22M).
He is married to Laura Kennedy Hirleman, M.C., who counsels in private practice. They have 3 children and 2 grandchildren. Hirleman was founding President of Kairos Ministries, which provides worship services, counseling, and tutoring in Phoenix area jails. Racquetball serves as stress relief, and he has won numerous university open (ASU, Purdue) and state age-division championships (AZ, CA, and IN), as well as medaling twice in his division at the National Championships.