Newsmakers

A TOUCH WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

I. King Jordan, former president of Gallaudet University and the first deaf person to hold that office, delivered Pitt School of Law’s Thornburgh Family Lecture Series in Disability Law and Policy on Oct. 30. Gallaudet is the world’s only university with all programs and services designed specifically for students who are deaf or hard of hearing. Above, Jordan (left) signs in the cupped hand of a man in the audience who is blind and deaf and who asked Jordan a question.

NUCLEAR RENAISSANCE

Dale E. Klein, chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), addressed current and prospective Pitt nuclear engineering students on Oct. 27 during Pitt’s Nuclear Engineering Night. The event was hosted by the Pitt Swanson School of Engineering and featured representatives from Western Pennsylvania nuclear power companies. Klein said the NRC expects to receive as many as 30 new license applications for plant construction and operation because of increased interest and investment in nuclear power—a perceived “nuclear renaissance”—driven by oil costs as well as political and environmental concerns associated with fossil fuels. In 2007, Pitt established Western Pennsylvania’s only nuclear engineering graduate and undergraduate certificate programs.

ITALIAN AMBASSADOR

Ambassador Paolo Pucci di Benisichi (left), Counselor of State for the Italian Republic, met with Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg on Oct. 28. The ambassador also delivered a talk that day, titled “Security and Cooperation in the Mediterranean Region: An Italian Outlook,” in the Starzl Biomedical Science Tower.