University Times

Michael F. Pogue-Geile, a faculty member in the Department of Psychology, was elected president for 2011-12 of the Behavior Genetics Association, an international scientific society dedicated to the study of the interrelationship of genetic mechanisms and behavior.

Pogue-Geile serves as the director of the clinical psychology program. His areas of research include schizophrenia, genetics, neuropsychology and development.

He also is immediate past president of the Society for Research in Psychopathology.

Elaine Vitone, associate editor of Pitt Med, the School of Medicine magazine, has won the Robert G. Fenley Award for Basic Science Writing from the Association of American Medical Colleges Group on Institutional Advancement.

The award honors the most creative and effective approaches used to promote academic medicine in the United States through alumni, development, public affairs, public relations and marketing programs.

The award will be presented on March 22 in Palm Springs, Calif.

She earned her MFA in nonfiction writing at Pitt.

Peyman Givi, James T. MacLeod Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and a faculty member in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, was among seven alumni honored by Youngstown State University with its STEM College Award for their accomplishments in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Givi’s areas of research interest are: turbulence, combustion, thermal-fluids, computational methods and stochastic processes.

He is fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Givi is deputy editor of AIAA Journal and a member of the editorial boards of Computers & Fluids, the Journal of Applied Fluid Mechanics and Open Aerospace Engineering Journal. He also is the book review editor of AIAA Journal, an associate editor of Journal of Combustion and a past advisory board member of Progress in Energy and Combustion Science.

New head football coach Paul Chryst filled the two vacancies on his coaching staff by naming Desmond Robinson running backs coach and Brooks Bollinger quarterbacks coach. Chryst also announced the addition of Dann Kabala to the Pitt football program as player personnel director.

Robinson played linebacker and defensive end for the Panthers and was a member of the 1976 national championship team. He returns to Pitt with nearly 30 years of coaching experience on the collegiate, prep and professional levels, including stints at Notre Dame, West Virginia, Syracuse, Tulane, Dartmouth and Connecticut. He also coached on the professional level with NFL Europe. Robinson and Chryst previously coached together during the 1989 and ’90 seasons as assistants at West Virginia.

Bollinger, a former quarterback at Wisconsin, comes to Pitt following an eight-year career in professional football, including six in the NFL. As the first-year head coach at Minnesota’s Hill-Murray School last fall, he led the team to a 9-3 record and its first state playoff berth in 24 years.

Kabala, a Pittsburgh native, spent the past four years at the University of Arkansas, serving the football program in the areas of on-campus recruiting, eligibility coordination and academic support.

Kabala worked with the Pitt football program as a graduate assistant 2005-07.

He also was operations assistant at Indiana University-Bloomington and for the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars.

The Panthers open spring practice on March 15.

John Schlimm, an award-winning author of 11 books, will speak to Pitt-Bradford’s 2012 graduating class.

Schlimm, whose most recent books are “The Tipsy Vegan,” which was featured in The New York Times, and the upcoming “Grilling Vegan Style,” will deliver the keynote address during graduation exercises at 2 p.m. April 29, in the KOA Arena of the Sport and Fitness Center at Pitt-Bradford.

Schlimm is a Pitt-Bradford alumnus, having earned dual teaching certifications in English and speech communications in 2001.

His venture into cookbook writing began with two books related to his family’s business, Straub Brewery. He wrote “The Straub Beer Cookbook” and “The Straub Beer Party Drinks Handbook” before writing “The Ultimate Beer Lover’s Cookbook.”

Schlimm’s activist efforts focus on issues such as domestic violence and sexual abuse, animal safety and welfare, literacy and education, healthy lifestyle choices, cancer prevention and treatment and volunteerism.

During his early career, Schlimm served in the vice presidential communications office at the White House.

In 2003, he joined the faculty at Pitt-Bradford as an adjunct professor in the Division of Communication and the Arts, where he also was the host of the radio program “Campus Crossfire” for five seasons.

During the 2006-07 academic year, he served as a visiting assistant professor for broadcast communications.

In addition to a bachelor’s degree from Marymount University and certifications from UPB, Schlimm holds a master’s in education from Harvard.

Thomas Nolin, a faculty member in pharmacy and therapeutics, School of Pharmacy, who holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, has been named a fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacology (ACCP).

Fellowship is awarded to those with exemplary credentials and dedication to clinical pharmacology and is the highest category of membership in ACCP.

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The People of the Times column features recent news on faculty and staff, including awards and other honors, accomplishments and administrative appointments.

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