Awards & More

Wesley Lipschultz, manager of student services in the University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences, was selected to receive the 2009 Service to Commission Award presented by the National Academic Advising Association’s (NACADA) Technology in Advising Commission.  The award recognizes individuals who have provided outstanding service, leadership, and commitment to a particular commission. The NACADA Technology Advising Commission helps academic advisors and advising administrators to understand the impact that technologies, such as online registration and student information systems, have on academic advising; to use technology effectively in their work; and to appreciate the appropriate uses of technology in higher education.

JiYeon Choi, a postdoctoral fellow in the School of Nursing, received the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award from the National Institute of Nursing Research. The two-year, $96,472 grant will support Choi’s research on the psychological, behavioral, and biological aspects of stress responses in family caregivers of persons on prolonged mechanical ventilation.

Paul Daniel Patterson, a research assistant professor in the School of Medicine’s Department of Emergency Medicine, received a grant from the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management Foundation. The grant will help fund Patterson’s research proposal, “The Effect of Communication Patterns in the Emergency Department on Quality and Performance.”

Nicholas Fitz, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, received an award for the best poster presentation from the University of Pittsburgh Postdoctoral Association at the 2009 Postdoctoral Data & Dine Symposium. His project, “Influence of Abca1 on Alzheimer’s Pathology and Cognition,” is supervised by principal investigator and research assistant professor Radosveta Koldamova.

Sandra Quinn, an associate dean for student affairs and education and a professor in Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health, presented at an invitation-only meeting on mega-crises in The Hague, The Netherlands. The conference, which brought together senior government officials and researchers from The Netherlands, France, United States, and China, was sponsored by the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations in The Netherlands.

Qi Yang, doctoral candidate, Department of Human Genetics, was awarded a 2009 Abstract Trainee Award from the American Association of Immunologists for her presentation “The Transcription Factor E47 Controls the Cell Cycle Quiescence and Development of Multipotent Hematopoietic Progenitors.” The award recognizes outstanding research work that has been selected for oral presentation from student and postdoctoral trainees.

Conrad Dan Volz, a professor in the Graduate School of Public Health’s Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment on coal waste storage and its impact on human health and the environment.

Yuting Zhang, an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Public Health’s Department of Health Policy and Management, received the Excellence in Mental Health Policy and Economics Research Award from the International Center of Mental Health Policy and Economics. She received the award for her article “Cost-Saving Effects of Olanzapine as Long-term Treatment for Bipolar Disorder,” published in the Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics.