Newsmakers

Katz’s new financial lab

The Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Oct. 3 to unveil the school’s state-of-the-art financial analysis lab. The $2.3 million lab in Mervis Hall will give students access to real-time global markets data. John Delaney (middle), dean of the Katz School, stands in the lab with members of the Katz School Alumni Board of Directors (from left) Jeff Marzina (MBA ’87, first vice president), Jay Yard (MBA ’69, president), Jan Bamford (MBA ’94, second vice president), and Bill Friday (MBA ’97).

Innovation awards

The University of Pittsburgh’s Office of the Provost and the Office of Technology Management honored Pitt innovators at the 4th Annual Celebration of Innovation reception on Oct. 6. Sixty-six Pitt faculty, staff, and students received Innovator Awards for inventions that have been licensed or optioned with start-up companies. Pictured (standing from right to left) are Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg, Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor James V. Maher, and Senior Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences Arthur Levine with Joseph Olson (sitting), a student in Pitt’s School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. Olson worked with a small team of researchers who developed a wheelchair convoy system that allows multiple people in chairs to be safely moved at one time. The technology, which won an Innovator Award, was licensed to a company in October 2007.

Pitt’s Black Action Society

Pitt’s Black Action Society (BAS) celebrated its annual Indaba ceremony, which welcomes freshmen to BAS and marks the organization’s kick-off for the year. Jacque Reid (right), a news correspondent on radio’s Tom Joyner Morning Show and a former national television anchor, was the keynote speaker at the Sept. 12 event in the William Pitt Union’s Assembly Room. She spoke to students about the presidential election and how to use the media to their advantage. Reid is pictured with newly inducted BAS vice president, Endia Vereen, a student in the School of Arts and Sciences.

Indian Independence

Members of the region’s Indian community and other celebrants marked India’s 60th Independence Day with a parade around the Cathedral of Learning in Oakland on Aug. 17. The event was sponsored by the Indian Room Committee of Pitt’s Nationality Room Program.