Look

July 10, 2006 Issue

1: SUPER POWER The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC), a joint venture among Pitt, Carnegie Mellon University, and Westinghouse Electric Co., recently celebrated its 20th anniversary and its move to a new facility at 300 S. Craig St. PSC gives government, academic, and industrial users access to high-performance computing, communications, and data handling. Speaking at the June 16 event, Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg (far left of photo at right) called the center “our country’s finest when it comes to truly high-end supercomputing” and “an engine of economic development, not only in Pittsburgh, but also in other parts of Pennsylvania.” Nordenberg added, “The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center supports pioneering researchers from all over the country—people whose work has an impact all over the world.”

Speakers at last month’s celebration included (from left): Nordenberg; Aris Candris, senior vice president of Westinghouse’s Nuclear Services division; Ralph Roskies, Pitt professor of physics; Kathie Olsen, deputy director of the National Science Foundation; Michael Levine, professor of physics at Carnegie Mellon; and Carnegie Mellon President Jared Cohon.

2 & 3: BRUHNS HAILED Pittsburgh City Council hailed E. Maxine Bruhns (below, far left), director of Pitt’s Nationality Rooms Program for the last 41 years, with a proclamation commending what the council called her “excellent and dedicated service to one of Pittsburgh’s great cultural treasures.” Council members noted that some 20,000 people annually visit the 26 Nationality Rooms, seven of which were designed and constructed under Bruhns’ direction. The beautifully appointed classrooms in the Cathedral of Learning serve “as a symbol of Pittsburgh’s cultural diversity and a reminder of the city’s long history as a home for people of many different backgrounds,” the proclamation states.

4: SING BLACK HAMMER Pitt’s Kuntu Repertory Theatre will close out its current season with Pittsburgh playwright William Mayfield’s Sing Black Hammer, July 13-23 in the 7th-floor Auditorium of Alumni Hall. From left, during a rehearsal last week: Herb Newsome (the production’s director), Leslie “Ezra” Smith, Kevin Brown, and Kimbely Ginyard. For ticket and group sales information, call 412-624-7298 or visit www.kuntu.org.