Sudan Conflict Fuels Debate Over U.S. Foreign Policy

The international community has, collectively, yet to recognize the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region as an act of genocide. Therefore, international law prohibits other countries from intervening.

Nonetheless, the issue of committing U.S. troops to Darfur came up during the Sept. 30 presidential debate between President George W. Bush and U.S. Senator John Kerry.

To help members of the University community and the Pittsburgh region better understand the conflict in East Africa, Pitt’s Ford Institute on Human Security is partnering with Pitt’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, the American Jewish Committee, the Black-Jewish Dialogue, the Hillel Jewish Community Center, the Islamic Council of Pittsburgh, the Religious Leadership Forum, and the United Jewish Federation to host a forum titled “Genocide in Sudan? Understanding the Conflict in the Darfur Region.” The event will take place at 7:30 tonight in Room G23 of Pitt’s Public Health Building, Parran Hall.

The free public forum will feature presentations on the historical background and current dimensions of the problem by John Hunwick, emeritus professor of history and religion at Northwestern University, and Buba Misawa, an associate professor of political science at Washington and Jefferson College and a specialist in conflict and African security. Simon Reich, director of the Ford Institute and a Pitt professor of public and international affairs, will moderate.

For more information on the forum, call Sandra Monteverde, assistant to the director of the Ford Institute, at 412-648-7434.

—Leigh Ann Wojciechowski

Pitt, PSC Join National LambdaRail Network

Pitt and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) have joined a consortium of leading U.S. universities and companies deploying an advanced, nationwide fiber-optic infrastructure. The PSC and Pitt share membership and a seat on the board of National LambdaRail (NLR)—a national network infrastructure supporting experimental and production networks for the U.S. research community.

The NLR’s mission is to deploy national networking infrastructure to foster advanced networking research and to encourage next-generation applications in science, engineering, and medicine. Through advanced technologies, it will make available multiple experimental and production networks for the U.S. research community. Through NLR, many different networks will exist side by side in the same fiber-optic cable, but will be independent of each other, each supported by its own lightwave, or lambda.

“The NLR initiative presents an exciting opportunity for university faculty engaged in advanced networking research as well as those faculty whose work involves next-generation network application research,” said Jinx Walton, Pitt’s director of computing services and systems development. “The availability of a national-scale network committed to fostering research activities will create opportunities that are impossible on production networks.”

The connection to NLR is implemented at the PSC’s Three Rivers Exchange (formerly the Pittsburgh GigaPoP), a high-speed network crossroads connecting regional academic institutions, businesses, and government agencies to next-generation, national network backbones such as NLR.

Using dense wave-division multiplexing, the pair of fiber-optic cables connecting Pittsburgh to NLR can be split into up to 40 lambdas, each capable of moving data at 10 Gigabits per second (Gbps). The NLR will initially use four channels to implement four separate nationwide networks dedicated to experimentation with new network technologies and applications.

Three NLR lambdas are currently used for a 30 Gbps link between PSC and the TeraGrid, a multiyear National Science Foundation effort to build and deploy the world’s largest, most comprehensive distributed infrastructure for open scientific research.

The PSC is a joint effort of Pitt and Carnegie Mellon University, together with Westinghouse Electric Company. It was established in 1986 and is supported by several federal agencies, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and private industry.

Psychology to Mark 100th Anniversary With Open House

Pitt’s Department of Psychology will celebrate its 100th anniversary 1-5 p.m. Oct. 22 with an open house on the third and fourth floors of Sennott Square.

The event will feature a poster session of current research projects. In addition, department faculty will be on hand to discuss their work, and the building’s laboratories will be open. From 2 to 3:30 p.m., a panel of Pitt alumni with degrees in psychology will address the audience. The alumni represent a wide range of fields, from medicine and law to business.

For more information, call 412-624-4500.

—Sharon S. Blake

Poet, Novelist Dionne Brand to Speak at Pitt

Poet and novelist Dionne Brand will give a free public reading as part of the Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series at 8:30 p.m. Oct. 20 in Frick Fine Arts Auditorium.

Author of four books, Brand has contributed to myriad journals and papers and is a founding member and editor of Our Lives, Canada’s first Black women’s newspaper. Her books include In Another Place, Not Here (Knopf Canada, 1996), Land to Light On (McClelland & Stewart, distributed by Canbook, 1997), No Language is Neutral (Coach House, 1990), and Thirsty (McClelland & Stewart, 2002). She received the 1997 Governor General’s Award for Poetry and the 1997 Trillium Award for Poetry for Land to Light On.

Born in 1953 in Guayguayare, Trinidad, Brand moved to San Fernando at the age of four and spent her youth in California. She earned the Bachelor of Arts degree in English and philosophy at the University of Toronto in 1975 and the Master of Arts degree in the philosophy of education in 1989 at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.

The Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series, which runs from Sept. 15 to April 7, 2005, is cosponsored by the Wyndham Garden Hotel-University Place and Pitt’s Center for Latin American Studies, University Center for International Studies, The Book Center, and University of Pittsburgh Press.

—Audra Sorman

UPMC Cancer Centers Offer ‘Reason to Hope’

Brain tumors are benign or malignant tumors that can damage vital neurological pathways and invade and compress brain tissue. Ninety percent of all primary brain tumors occur in adults 40 to 70 years of age.

To address new developments in neuro-oncology that may help reduce death and disability from brain tumors, the UPMC Cancer Center, John P. Murtha Pavilion, will sponsor “A Reason to Hope: New Advances in Neuro-Oncology” from 6 to 7:30 p.m., Oct. 20 at the Holiday Inn, 250 Market St., Johnstown.

Frank Lieberman, associate professor of neurology and medical oncology in Pitt’s School of Medicine and chief of the adult neuro-oncology program, UPMC Cancer Centers, will be the featured speaker.

The talk is one in a series sponsored by the UPMC Cancer Centers for patients, families, and the public. The presentation is free and open to the public. Registration is required and space is limited. To register, call 800-533-UPMC (8762).

—Clare Collins

U.S.-Europe Relations Topic of UPJ Lecture

Understanding U.S.-European relations and the dynamics of power in the post-Cold War world will be the subject of a free public lecture by best-selling author Robert Kagen, 7 p.m. Oct. 20 in the Pitt-Johnstown campus’ Living/Learning Center.

Kagen, based in Washington, D.C., is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and directs the endowment’s U.S. Leadership Project. Kagen writes extensively on domestic politics and U.S. strategy and diplomacy, including foreign policy, military strategy, and the defense budget.

His latest book, Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World, is a New York Times and Washington Post best seller. Kagen argues that Europe has adopted a combination of diplomacy, long-term thinking, and problem-solving—this is the “paradise” in the title of Kagen’s book. However, Europe lacks the military power and the accompanying psychological mindset, hence America represents the “power” in Kagen’s equation.

The lecture is part of Pitt-Johnstown’s Frank J. and Sylvia T. Pasquerilla Lecture Series. Preceding the lecture will be a 6 p.m. reception. A book signing will follow the lecture.

—Kimberly M. Miller

Five-Campus Pitt College Fair Set for Nov. 10 in Alumni Hall

Representatives from each Pitt campus will be on hand to meet with staff and faculty who are parents of college-bound students, during the Five Campus College Fair for University Faculty and Staff, Nov. 10 in Alumni Hall’s Connolly Ballroom, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and 5-7 p.m.

The fair is especially aimed at parents of high school seniors who have been admitted to Pitt’s Bradford, Greensburg, Johnstown, and Titusville campuses through the University’s Options Program.

Representatives of those campuses and the Oakland campus will be available to answer questions about the college selection process, scholarships, financial aid, and Pitt employee tuition benefits.

The fair also will feature seminars titled “How to Write a College Essay,” “What Questions to Ask When Selecting a College,” and “Scholarships and Financial Aid.” These seminars will run concurrently every hour from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and again at 5:15 p.m. and 6:15 p.m.

For more information, contact Colleen O’Neil at oneil@oafa.pitt.edu.

—Bruce Steele