Newsmakers

Pitt LRDC CONFERENCE

Courtney Cazden, professor emerita of education in the Harvard Graduate School of Education, addresses more than 120 researchers and scholars from U.S. and international universities who attended a Sept. 23-25 education conference at Pitt. Titled “Socializing Intelligence Through Academic Talk and Dialogue,” the conference was convened and hosted by Pitt’s Lauren B. Resnick, University Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science, senior scientist and project director in Pitt’s Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC), and former LRDC director. Research presented during the conference solidified evidence for the growing theory of dialogic interaction and its effect on disciplinary knowledge, transfer, and academic language development, as well as other skills.

Pitt and Wuhan University

Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg (left) and Wuhan University President Li Xiaohong signed a student-exchange agreement during their Nov. 16 visit in Nordenberg’s Cathedral of Learning office. Under terms of the accord, select Wuhan students can participate in a 3+2 program within the Pitt Swanson School of Engineering’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science. These select students will complete three years at Wuhan University and then finish their senior year and master’s degree at Pitt. Instrumental in achieving this agreement were Gerald D. Holder, Pitt’s U.S. Steel Dean of Engineering and a professor of chemical and petroleum engineering; Lawrence Feick, director of Pitt’s University Center for International Studies; Larry J. Shuman, senior associate dean for academic affairs and a professor of industrial engineering;  and Minking K. Chyu, Leighton and Mary Orr Chair Professor and Chair, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science.