Newsmakers

DIPPY SIDES WITH THE PANTHERS

Dippy gets into the Pitt spirit, sporting a 20-foot Pitt Panther scarf. The dinosaur stands proudly outside the Carnegie Museum of Natural History on Forbes Avenue, Oakland. It is a replica of Diplodocus carnegii, which was named after Andrew Carnegie and was the first dinosaur ever housed in the museum. Dippy’s donning of the winter apparel occurred as Pitt’s football team prepared to battle Notre Dame’s Fighting Irish on Nov. 14 at Heinz Field. The last time Pitt defeated Notre Dame at home was in 1999. Surely, with a dinosaur on the Panthers’ side ...

TELLING AN UNTOLD STORY

Ervin Dyer, a senior editor at Pitt Magazine, delivered a multimedia presentation, “The Untold Story of Charles Florence,” about Pitt alum Charles Wilbur Florence to the Brownsville Area Schools Alumni Association on Aug. 7. Florence graduated from South Brownsville High School in 1907 and the Brownsville association named him one of its 2009 Distinguished Honorees. By 1919, Florence had earned an undergraduate degree in education at Pitt, where he broke racial barriers by becoming the first African American to be captain of the University’s championship debate team. He earned a master’s in education at Pitt in 1923 and launched a career as a university teacher and administrator. He attended Harvard University, became president of Lincoln University in Missouri, and was dean of education at Virginia Union University when he retired. Dyer’s original research helped to chronicle Florence’s accomplishments. Following his presentation, Dyer was handed the original 1909 diploma that Florence earned at Storer College Normal School.

Credit: Herb Mitchell

THE ART OF MEDICAL COOPERATION

More than 600 first-year health sciences students attended Pitt’s 2009 Interprofessional Forum: Educating Health Care Teams of the Future, on Oct. 2 in Scaife Hall auditorium. Presenters stressed the importance of interprofessional team collaboration in providing  high-quality, affordable, and accessible health care. From left, Steven Kukunas, clinical director of the Multidisciplinary Dental Implant Center and assistant professor in Pitt’s School of Dental Medicine; Christine Ruby-Scelsi, assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacy and Therapeutics and Division of Geriatric Medicine, Schools of Pharmacy and Medicine; Margaret (Peg) Rosenzweig, assistant professor in the School of Nursing; and Catherine Palmer, director of the Center for Audiology and Hearing Aids in the Department of Otolaryngology, Eye and Ear Institute.