Newsmakers

Issue Date: 
May 28, 2013

The University of Pittsburgh fared extremely well at this year’s Carnegie Science Awards, with faculty members, alumni, and a graduate student winning awards. The honors were presented May 3 at Carnegie Music Hall. Among Pitt’s winners were, from left, Emily Elliott, an assistant professor of environmental isotope geochemistry in the Department of Geology and Planetary Science within Pitt’s Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, Environmental Honorable Mention; Julianne Klara (ENGR ’83), manager, National Energy Technology Laboratory’s Regional University Alliance, Corporate Innovation Award; Tracy Cui, a professor of bioengineering and Bicentennial Alumni Faculty Fellow in Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering, Emerging Female Scientist Award; Elaine Houston, a graduate student in Pitt’s School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and a graduate assistant in Pitt’s Human Engineering Research Laboratories, University/Post-Secondary Student Award; Steven R. Little, professor, CNG Faculty Fellow, and chair in the Swanson School’s Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering and the Pitt-UPMC McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, University/Post-Secondary Educator Award; Robert Enick (ENGR ’83, ’85G), Bayer Professor and vice chair for research in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering of the Swanson School and faculty fellow at the National Energy Technology Laboratory Regional University Alliance, Environmental Award; and David Vorp (ENGR ’86, ’92G), associate dean for research in the Swanson School, William Kepler Whiteford Professor of Bioengineering, and director of both Pitt’s Center for Vascular Remodeling and Regeneration and its Vascular Bioengineering Research Lab, Life Sciences Award.

 

Pitt’s African American Alumni Council recognized the four inaugural winners of its Rising African American Leaders Award during the council’s ninth annual Interfaith Baccalaureate Service, held April 27 in Alumni Hall. The honorees were Adam Iddriss (ENGR ‘07, A&S ‘07), a medical student at Johns Hopkins University; Sossena Wood (ENGR ‘11), a doctoral candidate in Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering; Marisa Bartley (A&S ‘05), a business development officer and assistant vice president with Citizens Financial Group, Inc.; and Derrick Tillman (SIS ‘04), president of Bridging the Gap Development and chief executive officer of DNT Property Investments. The award recognizes alumni who have graduated within the past decade, who are younger than 40, and who have demonstrated excellence in professional achievement and/or community service. From left are Iddriss, Wood, Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg, Bartley, and Tillman

 

Toi Derricotte (left), Pitt professor of English, poet, and Academy of American Poets Chancellor, was honored in the City of Pittsburgh Council Chambers with a resolution declaring April 16, 2013, “Toi Derricotte Day” in Pittsburgh. The resolution praised Derricotte’s contributions to the arts and to Pitt, including her cofounding of the New York-based Cave Canem Foundation, which has become a home for the many voices of African American poets through an annual retreat at Pitt-Greensburg and workshops in New York and Pittsburgh; her writing more than a thousand poems, which have been published in her books of poetry and in anthologies, journals, and magazines; her receipt of many awards and honors for her work, among them the first Dudley Randall Award for National Contributions to Literature; and her role as a “beloved teacher of poets and poetry.” Derricotte retired from Pitt on April 30. Standing behind Derricotte at the lectern is City Council President Darlene M. Harris (District 21); Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak (District 4) stands on the far right.

 

Deborah Walker (CGS ’01, GSPIA ’03 ), student conduct officer in Pitt’s Division of Student Affairs, received the Sojourner Truth Award from the Pittsburgh Club of the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Clubs. The award is the national association’s highest honor, and it is named after Sojourner Truth, an African American abolitionist and women’s rights activist, who was born a slave named Isabella Baumfree c. 1797. Also honored during the association’s 54th Annual Founder’s Day celebration, held April 20 at The LeMont Restaurant on Mt. Washington, was Marisa Bartley (A&S ’05), who received the association’s Professional Woman of the Year Award. Bartley is a business development officer and assistant vice president with Citizens Financial Group, Inc.

The lone peregrine falcon chick nesting at the top of the Cathedral of Learning was banded May 17 in the Babcock Room in front of a crowd of 35 bird enthusiasts. Son of the long-nesting duo “Dorothy” and “E2,” the chick was weighed, measured, and given a health check before receiving his “birdy bling.” The “bling”—bracelets placed around the chick’s legs—have a unique code so the Pennsylvania Game Commission and other bird watchers can track the peregrine’s whereabouts. Though Dorothy laid five eggs this year, only two hatched, and only this one chick survived—a sign of Dorothy’s advancing age. Watchers of Dorothy have to wonder, is this her last year at the nest?