Florence (MS’92) and Paul (EE’84, MS’87) Stahura agree that Purdue has changed their lives for the better. It’s where they earned their degrees, where they met, and where their three children attended college.
Yet, the impact of their Purdue experience isn’t just about celebrating the past—it’s about paying forward the opportunities they received. “Florence’s and my parents were very passionate about ensuring their children were educated, so it was important that we follow in their footsteps and help provide education for others,” says Paul.
There’s also another factor to their support—Purdue always seems to have its fingers on the pulse of what’s to come.
With new cutting-edge buildings, academic programs, and groundbreaking initiatives on the rise, the Stahuras are proud to see Purdue’s investment in the future.
“You can see the impact and that they’re trying to keep up with the areas where there’s momentum,” Florence says.
The Stahuras have given back where they can, including Purdue Computes, which empowers the university to advance to the forefront of a rapidly changing technological world. Purdue Computes focuses on four sectors within the College of Science and the College of Engineering: computing, physical artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and quantum science and engineering.
“Purdue fits this phase of advancing humanity very well,” Paul says. “My degree deals in robots, and for a long time they weren’t really a thing. Yet, there were professors at Purdue doing research on them, even if it wasn’t impacting humanity at the time. In the ’60s and ’70s, Purdue was heavily invested in space, and now space exploration is even bigger than before.”
Amid this new age of space exploration, Florence will be adding her name among the university’s storied space legacy as a crew member of Purdue 1—a Virgin Galactic suborbital flight featuring a Purdue professor of aerospace engineering, a graduate student, and two additional alumni.
The flight is scheduled for 2027 with a mission to conduct and oversee experiments pertaining to gravity. “I’m very excited,” Florence says. “For most of my career, I have done research, so it’s really cool to be able to go into space and continue researching—now in zero gravity.”
—Keagan Slocum
