University Times

Brenda J. Pardini has been named assistant vice president for student life, Division of Student Affairs, at the Johnstown campus, effective June 1.

Since 1988, she had served as coordinator/director for New Student Programs at the Pittsburgh campus, where she directed all aspects of advising and orientation for entering students including instituting freshman convocation and developing a one-credit course designed to help new students adjust to university life.

Pardini holds a B.A. in elementary education from Stetson University, DeLand, Florida, an M.S. in education in college student personnel administration from Indiana University, Bloomington, and a Ph.D. in higher education from Pitt.

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John M. McGrath, visiting assistant professor, business management, at the Johnstown campus, received the Community Service Recognition award from UPJ's advisory board. A prize of $250 accompanies the award. He was cited for ongoing volunteerism, community involvement, local leadership and representing the college in an exemplary manner to a variety of audiences. McGrath serves as a member of the Johnstown Business District Coalition's Economic Restructuring Committee. He helped design the curriculum and serves as a lecturer for the Johnstown Leadership Skills Seminar, which encourages executives to become involved in community volunteerism.

McGrath holds a bachelor's degree from Notre Dame and a master's degree from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.

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Chemistry faculty members Jumi Shin and Eric Borguet have been awarded faculty career development grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The grants help promising scientists and engineers develop their contributions to research and education early in their careers. Shin's research addresses how proteins achieve specificity in binding interactions and cellular processes, focusing on how proteins recognize certain DNA sequences. She holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology. She joined the Pitt faculty in 1995.

Borguet's research focuses on the behavior of water at electrochemical interfaces by using a suite of optical techniques to probe the orientation, structure and dynamics of molecules at the interfacial layer level. He earned his chemistry Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1993 and came to Pitt in 1996.

NSF career development grants are for four or five years and range from $200,000 to $500,000. Approximately 350 awards are given nationally each year.