BY JANE MCLAUGHLIN ANDERSON PHOTOS PROVIDED BY PURDUE RESEARCH FOUNDATION
he timing couldn’t be better. Just as Purdue University and Greater Lafayette were envisioning a new generation of hightech companies for the Discovery Park District, Purdue alumnus Edmund Schweitzer III came back to campus. His original intent was to honor his alma mater with a $1.5 million endowed professorship in electrical and computer engineering, and to donate an additional $1.5 million to support Purdue’s power and energy research area, now named Schweitzer Power and Energy Systems. “Last fall Purdue Research Foundation and others honored Ed and his wife, Beatriz, for their contributions,” says factory manager Jake Church. “As that story unfolded, it inspired Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL) to build a facility near campus, and the project took off.” The 100,000-square-foot plant across from Rolls Royce is indeed taking off and will be up and running in early 2020.
32 GREATER LAFAYETTE MAGAZINE
GREATER LAFAYETTE MAGAZINE 33
