University Times

Anthony J. DeArdo, professor of materials science and engineering, and C. Isaac Garcia, associate research professor in materials science and engineering, have been awarded the J. Dean Sensenbaugh Award for the invention of lead-free steel.

The national award recognizes a company's or individual's outstanding achievement in air pollution control or waste management.

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Jo Ann M. Woodson, director of special projects in Student Affairs, received an honorable mention from the Commission XVII, Commuter Students and Adult Learners Program of the American College Personnel Association, for two of her programs.

Woodson's Wednesday morning coffee and conversation program for commuter and transfer students and her T-shirts for commuting students earned her recognition in the association's outstanding public relations program category. Her Feb. 1 Commuter Day was honored in the outstanding commuter program category.

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Shi-Yuan Cheng, assistant professor of pathology, has been named a 2000 Kimmel Scholar by The Sidney Kimmel Foundation for Cancer Research.

The award will provide Cheng with $200,000 over two years for his research in brain tumors, which is looking at molecular mechanisms of tumor angiogenesis. Such research could lead to important anti-angiogenic reagents that could block tumor growth. The Kim-mel Scholar Award program provides funding for each recipient to conduct his/her cancer research. The award targets scientists early in their careers. The foundation's medical advisory board, comprised of 10 of the country's most distinguished cancer specialists, selects promising young investigators whose work emphasizes basic cancer research, rapid translation of basic science into potential therapeutic applications, and clinical research with innovative treatment strategies.

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Anna C. Balazs, William Kepler Whiteford Professor in Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, has been named a visiting fellow at the Corpus Christi College of Oxford University.

The fellowship is for those of high academic distinction who wish to pursue academic study and research as a member of the college. During her fellowship, October 2000-April 2001, Balazs will study the hydrodynamic behavior of polymeric composites.

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William Kory, chairperson of the geography department at the Johnstown campus since 1989, has won the National Council for Geographic Education's Distinguished Teaching Achievement Award for 2000.

The organization will give teaching excellence awards to seven college/university professors and 36 K-12 teachers from the United States and Canada at its annual meeting in August.

Kory has been a faculty member at Johnstown since 1971 and editor of The Pennsylvania Geographer since 1990.

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Jerome S. Schultz, professor and chair of bioengineering, has received the 2000 American Chemical Society's Marvin Johnson Award.

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Lisa Pupo Lenihan has been named corporate secretary to the Board of Directors of UPMC Health System and assistant corporate secretary to the Joint Boards of Directors of UPMC Presbyterian and UPMC Shadyside.

Lenihan was a founding partner of the law firm Burns, White and Hickton, L.L.C., and was managing director of the firm from 1997 to 1999. She is vice chair of the Pennsylvania Board of Examiners, appointed by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. She is a 1983 magna cum laude graduate of Pitt's law school , which gave her the 1999 School of Law Women's Association "Woman of the Year" award.

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Sanjeev G. Shroff has been appointed the first Gerald McGinnis chair in Bioengineering.

A former professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, Shroff earned a doctorate in bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania and holds a master's degree in electrical engineering.

He has conducted extensive cardiovascular research, concentrating on cardiovascular function in a quantitative manner, often with the aid of mathematical models. He has been named a fellow in the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and the Cardiovascular Section of the American Physiological Society.

The McGinnis chair was established in 1997 by Gerald E. McGinnis, chair of the board of Respironics, Inc., a manufacturer of medical products for pulmonary medicine.

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Patty Derrick, associate professor of English at the Johntown campus, has been named the fourth recipient of The President's Award for Teaching Excellence.

Award recipients must have demonstrated a high level of competence in all aspects of teaching, such as construction of courses, classroom presentation, assignments and grading, innovation in the classroom, commitment to undergraduate teaching, evidence of intensive and sustained attention to the teaching/learning process, instilling in students the desire to be lifelong learners, and availability to students.

A faculty committee solicited nominations then submitted recommendations to UPJ President Albert Etheridge, who selected the winner.

Derrick will received a $2,000 award; an additional $1,000 will be added to her division's budget for the coming year for her professional or curriculum development.

Before joining the UPJ faculty in 1989, Derrick earned her B.A. from the University of Alabama, then a master's and doctorate from the University of South Carolina.

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Chemical and petroleum engineering's Alan Russell, professor and chair; John Murphy, visiting research professor, and Robert Enick, professor, received The Carnegie Science Center's Award for Excellence in Science Teaching last month. The award recognizes the sweeping changes the department has made in its teaching philosophy. Teachers in the department have virtually abandoned the traditional lecture method in favor of a more active learning approach. The new approach recently was recommended by the National Research Council as the optimal way to teach science.

"I see this more as an award for the whole department, because it's really a commitment by all 23 faculty members to radically change the way we teach," said Russell.

During three years of research into new methods of teaching, followed by planning and training, the department redesigned the entire engineering curriculum to incorporate media-enhanced lectures, computer-assisted instruction and group collaboration.

The national engineering accreditation body gave the chemical and petroleum engineering department its highest accreditation recommendation for the new program.

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University Relations' Brown Bag News, a newsletter produced for Pitt faculty, took the CASE silver award for internal audience periodicals. The publication is patterned after a brown bag to reflect the informal lunches and seminars that encourage intellectual exchange and occur daily on campus.

Staff involved in the production of the newsletter include Dana Allwein, editor; Rainey Dermond, designer, and Chuck Dinsmore and Len Moser, production coordinators.

CASE is the professional association of college and university advancement officials. The annual CASE awards recognize the best in nationwide higher education marketing, promotion and programming.

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Assad I. Panah, professor of geology and environmental sciences at the Bradford campus, has been elected secretary of the National Association of Academies of Science.

NAAS fosters the goals held in common by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and its 44 member academies in accomplishing their own purposes.

Panah also has been nominated for the position of fellow in AAAS.

The director of Bradford's geology and environmental sciences program, Panah recently concluded two years as president of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science.

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Minking K. Chyu has been named chairperson and Leighton Orr Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Chyu spent the last 10 years as a professor of mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. He earned his B.S. from the National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan, his M.S. from the University of Cincinnati and his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.

He serves on the International Center for Heat and Mass Transfer Scientific Council and on the Advisory Board of the National Tsing Hua University. He has been named a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, a Department of Energy Advanced-Turbine-system Faculty Fellow, an Oakridge Faculty Research Fellow and a NASA/ASEE Research Fellow.

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Michael Bikerman, associate professor emeritus of geology and planetary sciences, has received the Pittsburgh Geologic Society's Walt Skinner Award "for meritorious service to the Pittsburgh Geological Society and the geological community."

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Ed Gunkle has been named director of student activities at the Bradford campus.

Gunkle has served on an interim basis as coordinator of student activities since August. Prior to that, he was an admissions counselor in the Office of Admissions. He also will be head coach for men's and women's golf.

Gunkle is a 1998 graduate of Pitt-Bradford.

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The School of Engineering selected David Lee Brown as the 2000 distinguished alumnus. Brown, a 1963 mechanical engineering graduate, is chairman and CEO of Telescan, Inc., an information technology company based in Houston. A member of NASA's first lunar module engineering team, Brown remains active in the space program through Carl Sagan's Planetary Society. He also was appointed by the U.S. Information Agency as chairman of the U.S. Science and Technology Commission for the Emerging Leaders Summit Conference series with the former Soviet Union.

Engineering departments also honored alumni:

— Chemical and petroleum: Walter Arnheim, CEO, The Washington Opera;

— Civil and environmental: John Lucey, president, Chester Engineers;

— Electrical: Robert Colwell, director, I-32 Architecture for Intel Corp.;

— Industrial: Richard Frank, general manager, strategic development, US Steel Group, USX Corp.;

— Materials science: Robert Rumcik, president, Ellwood Quality Steels, and

— Mechanical: Wilson Farmerie, general partner, MetalTech, NexTech and GalvTech.

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Frederick G. Pohland, professor and Weidlein chair of environmental engineering, has been appointed to a three-year term on the Science and Technology Panel of the 3 Rivers Wet Weather Demonstration Pro-ject, a partnership of the Allegheny County Health Department and the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority. The program assists municipalities in controlling sanitary sewer overload and overflow problems.

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The Bradford campus has added four members to its advisory board: Pamela B. Fredeen, Craig A. Hartburg, Mary Huber and Ann Kessel.

Fredeen has been involved in numerous community activities. She also has reproduced historical embroideries for use at such places as Colonial Williamsburg and The Hermitage.

Hartburg is president of Servco Services, Inc. and has served on several community boards. He earned his B.A. from Pitt.

Huber is manager and owner of Bradford Travel and has been involved in a number of economic development initiatives.

Kessel is secretary/treasurer of Kessel Construction, Inc. and has been involved with numerous community organizations.

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At its eighth annual curriculum colloquium on May 23, the School of Medicine presented the following awards:

* The 2000 Excellence in Education Awards, given by the Class of 2002 second-year medical students to faculty members in recognition of valued contributions and dedication to teaching of the basic sciences and the organ systems (the School of Medicine's first- and second-year curriculum):

— Course directors: Allen Humphrey, Jamie Johnston, Bruce Rabin.

— Lecturers: Georgia Duker, William deGroat, Jamie Johnston, Gregory Naus, Kathleen Ryan, Jack Schumann.

— Problem-based learning facilitators: Lee Beerman, Timothy Carlos, Susan Dunmire, Heidi Feldman, Jonathan Finder, Steven Kanter, Chester Oddis, Kathleen Ryan.

* The Kenneth Schuit Award, recognizing the Dean's Master Educator. The award recognizes basic science and clinical faculty for education-related contributions (e.g., teaching, planning and organization of courses or course sections) to the Physicians In Two Thousand (P.I.T.T.) Curriculum. This year's honorees are Stevan Tofovic, assistant professor of medicine, and Basil Zitelli, professor of pediatrics.