University Times

A promising young fiction writer.

A surgeon who has performed more adult-to-adult, living donor liver transplants than anyone else in the United States.

A husband-and-wife team of law professors who are among the country’s leading scholars and commentators on race and human rights.

A senior neuroscientist whose research has led to new approaches to treating schizophrenia.

Those men and women are among the more than 300 new, full-time professors who have joined the Pittsburgh campus faculty since last year. More than two-thirds of them work in the medical school.

The following is a sampling of new faculty members here, as noted by deans, directors and department chairs. PROVOST AREA Arts and Sciences

“It’s another really terrific group,” arts and sciences Dean N. John Cooper said of his unit’s 24 new faculty members. “We’ve got a good spread of expertise, from starting assistant professors to full professors and Mellon Professors.”

It’s also a diverse group, including nine women, two African Americans and two Hispanics, he pointed out.

Among the arts and sciences’ new junior faculty members is assistant professor of English Michael Byers, who comes to Pitt from Oberlin College.

A fiction writer, Byers won the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for his collection, “The Coast of Good Intentions.” Byers also won a Whiting Foundation Writer’s Award and was a finalist for a PEN/Hemingway Prize. His stories have been selected for both “The Best American Short Stories” and “Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards.” His first novel, “Long for This World,” received a glowing review in The New York Times Book Review in June.

Byers earned a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Michigan. James Feigenbaum joins the Department of Economics as an assistant professor.

Feigenbaum, a macroeconomist, already has made important theoretical contributions to understanding savings within the economy, using mathematical tools from physics. He has, for example, demonstrated that savings grow both in response to uncertainty about future income and in anticipation of potential future constraints on the ability to borrow money.

Feigenbaum is completing a Ph.D. in economics at the University of Iowa to add to his 1998 Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago. Pitt’s new Mellon Professor of History, Donna Gabaccia, comes to Pitt from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where she was the Charles H. Stone Professor of American History. Gabaccia is a social historian who specializes in immigration history, the Italian diaspora and gender issues in migration.

She is the author of a dozen monographs and books, and her first monograph “From Sicily to Elizabeth Street: Housing and Social Change Among Italian Immigrants, 1880-1930” contributed to U.S. immigrant social history. She also examined this migration within the broader context of migration from Italy, and in 2000 she published a monograph, “Italy’s Many Diasporas,” which placed immigration to Chicago within the context of Italian social history and the extraordinary diasporas from Italy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Gabaccia is especially interested in the role of women in these migrations, and has published extensively on this topic and on related women’s issues.

Albert Heberle joins the Department of Physics and Astronomy as an associate professor. Before coming to Pitt he was a senior development associate at Corning Inc. and worked previously at the Hitachi Cambridge Laboratory, associated with the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University in the U.K.

Heberle is a condensed matter experimentalist whose seminal work on the optical coherent control and destruction of excitons in quantum wells identified him as a leading researcher in the field. His recruitment is part of an effort to build a major group in condensed matter physics within the Department of Physics and Astronomy, and complements broader efforts to strengthen Pitt’s presence in nanoscience and nanotechnology, which are key areas for technology transfer from the University to industry.

Heberle received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Stuttgart in 1993 and won the Otto Hahn Medal of the Max Planck Society for his thesis.

Jana Iverson joins the Department of Psychology as an assistant professor. She comes to Pitt from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Iverson studies the role of the gesture in the development of communication skills and language in infants and young children. Her research explores what we can learn about the development of communication skills and language in normal children from the remarkable fact that blind, developmentally delayed (Down Syndrome) and autistic children use gestures as they develop communication skills. She will be moving a research program to Pitt that has strong funding support from the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development.

Iverson earned her Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Chicago.

A new assistant professor in the economics department, Alexander Matros came from the University College London, where he was a research fellow.

Matros earned Ph.D. degrees in mathematics from Moscow State University and in economics from the Stockholm School of Economics. He is a leading contributor to the growing field of evolutionary game theory, which moves beyond the assumption of traditional game theory that economic agents behave rationally, and demonstrates how “irrational” cooperative behavior may prevail over rational behavior in large social groups.

Bita Moghaddam is a new professor of neuroscience here. She has received numerous awards for her innovative research on the fundamental biochemistry of cognitive and emotional processes and on how these processes are disrupted in disease states such as schizophrenia, including the Daniel H. Efron Award for excellence in basic research relevant to brain disorders and the Paul Janssen Schizophrenia Research Award from the Collegium Internationale Neuro-Psychopharmacology.

Moghaddam’s most important contribution has been establishing a new biochemical model for the mechanism by which the drug PCP produces psychotic symptoms that mimic schizophrenia. Her insights have led to new approaches to pharmaceutical treatment of schizophrenia and to developing a therapeutic drug for treatment of this disease. The drug currently is in clinical trial.

Dean Cooper noted: “Our Department of Neuroscience was founded in 1986, but this marks the first time that they have gone outside for a major senior person. It’s a sign of the department’s quality and maturity that they were able to attract somebody of Dr. Moghaddam’s stature.”

Paolo Palmieri, a new assistant professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, has an unusually diverse intellectual background: He holds a B.S. in aeronautical engineering from Polytechnic of Milan, an M.A. in philosophy from the University of Bologna and a Ph.D. in the history and philosophy of science from the University of London.

These degrees provide a coherent background for his work on Galileo’s use of mental models in his early mathematization of nature. Palmieri’s thesis is that Galileo’s early applications of Euclid’s theory of proportions to natural philosophy depended on conceptual models that functioned at a non-symbolic level.

Within a broader context, applying the concepts of cognitive analysis to the history of early science opens new possibilities that bridge the interests of intellectual historians, philosophers, and cognitive scientists.

A new assistant professor of biological sciences, Anthony Schwacha, came to Pitt from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research focuses on the mechanism and regulation of DNA replication in eukaryotic cells (cells in which the DNA is in the cell nucleus), with special emphasis on proteins called minichromosome maintenance (MCM) proteins and the role they play throughout the process. Business Ray Jones has been appointed assistant professor of business administration in the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business and coordinator of the certificate program in leadership and ethics, a new program in the College of Business Administration (CBA).

“We expect Ray to make a major contribution to the development of the CBA through outstanding teaching and the successful launch of the new certificate program,” said CBA Associate Dean Edward Palascak. “Ray has taught for us as a doctoral student and in a postdoctoral capacity before his appointment as assistant professor and has received numerous awards for excellent teaching.”

Jones holds a Master of Public Administration degree from Pitt’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and a Ph.D. from the Katz school.

Education Education Dean Alan Lesgold touted this fall’s recruitment class as one that strengthens three areas.

“First, with Mike Ford and Sam Donovan joining Jen Cartier in our science education cluster, we now have a strong presence in this important area of teaching and learning,” Lesgold said. “Combined with our existing strengths in math education and our good fortune in having Jim Greeno join us, we are now a significant force in math and science education.”

Donovan and Ford are new assistant professors in science education. Following his retirement from Stanford’s School of Education, Greeno returns to Pitt as a professor in instruction and learning, with secondary affiliations with psychology and philosophy.

Donovan is about to complete his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and holds degrees from the University of Oregon and Virginia Tech. He also directs a NSF-funded national dissemination project in bioinformatics education.

Donovan’s primary research is on students’ reasoning about historical phenomena in evolutionary biology. He also is interested in the role of evolutionary reasoning in the analysis of molecular sequence and structure data. He chairs the education committee of the Society for the Study of Evolution.

Ford’s approach to science education research is influenced by a broad and varied background, Lesgold said, including undergraduate work in aeronautical engineering and international relations, service in the U.S. Navy, extensive time living abroad and teaching high school. Ford is a past recipient of a Wisconsin-Spencer Doctoral Research Fellowship and an Arvil S. Barr Dissertation Fellowship.

He recently completed a doctorate in educational psychology at Wisconsin-Madison. “Michael’s primary concern for science education is that classroom experiences instill not only a respect for science through the demonstrated power of its products, but also an ability to engage appropriately in science practice,” the dean said.

Greeno is one of the world’s foremost cognitive scientists, Lesgold said. “At a time when our mathematics and science education programs are evolving and growing more prominent, having the benefit of Jim’s wisdom is certainly a special benefit to the school.”

Lesgold said that new hire Deborah Land will add to the school’s concentration of talent looking at factors outside of school that shape whether kids learn effectively.

Land is joining the Department of Psychology in Education as an assistant professor in applied developmental psychology. She received her doctorate from the University of Virginia, where she studied developmental and community psychology. She comes to Pitt after completing a postdoctoral fellowship, funded by a grant from the Spencer Foundation, at Johns Hopkins University.

Land’s primary research is on peer relationships, particularly peer victimization, in adolescence. Her dissertation study of teasing, bullying and sexual harassment among high school students was funded by a dissertation fellowship from The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation and an individual national research service award from the National Institutes of Health.

“Finally, Kevin Kim’s arrival provides further strength in the basic foundations for rigorous evaluation of what works in education,” Lesgold said.

Kim is joining the psychology in education department as an assistant professor in research methodology. He completed a doctorate at UCLA in measurement and psychometrics.

“Kevin’s primary research is on structural equation modeling and multilevel modeling,” Lesgold said. “He has worked with Peter M. Bentler, a major figure in the field of measurement and research methodology. They are working on a new book chapter on structural equation modeling for the American Educational Research Association.”

Kim is interested in developing new test statistics and methodologies for use by the educational research community. He also is interested in Asian-American mental health and academic achievements and hopes to pursue these interests at Pitt, Lesgold said. Engineering Sung Kwon Cho joins the Department of Mechanical Engineering following postdoctoral work with MEMS (MicroElectroMechanical Systems) research groups at UCLA. He has been working on designing and fabricating micro-sensors/actuators using MEMS technologies for biomedical applications. Currently, he is trying to develop micro/nano devices that enable scientists to manipulate efficiently biomolecules (DNA and proteins), cells, functional particles and micro/nano fluids.

He received his doctoral degree from Seoul National University. “Cho has unique background in design and fabrication of microfluidic devices, particularly for biomedical applications,” said Minking Chyu, chair of the mechanical engineering department. “He will not only strengthen our existing expertise in micro- and nanotechnology but will also bring in new opportunities for collaborative research with medical school and hospitals in the region.”

New industrial engineering faculty member Brady Hunsaker earned an M.S. in operations research and a doctorate in algorithms, combinatorics and optimization from Georgia Institute of Technology. He also holds a B.A. in mathematics from Harvard. As a graduate student, he received a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship and an Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Foundation Scholarship.

His primary research interest is in optimization, with a special focus on algorithms for integer programming and combinatorial optimization problems. Bopaya Bidanda, chair of the Department of Industrial Engineering, said, “I am especially excited about Brady joining our faculty. His expertise is a unique combination of industrial engineering, operations research (OR), mathematics and computer science. He was widely regarded as the best OR candidate from the best school.”

The Department of Electrical Engineering welcomes Alex K. Jones, who was a research associate in the Center for Parallel and Distributed Computing and instructor of electrical and computer engineering at Northwestern University.

He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees, in electrical and computer engineering respectively, from Northwestern, where he was a Walter P. Murphy fellow.

Jones’s research interests focus on electronic design automation and compilers. Specifically, he is interested in techniques to automatically generate custom hardware for embedded systems from high-level languages such as MATLAB and C/C++ with an emphasis on optimizations for high-performance and power-aware/low power systems.

Joel Falk, chair of electrical engineering, said, “Jones’s areas of research in automated design of re-programmable and application-specific hardware are expected to be major growth areas for the Department of Electrical Engineering.”

Assistant professor Partha Roy, a new faculty member in bioengineering, came to Pitt from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a research assistant professor.

He earned his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. He completed his post-doctoral training in cell biology at Harvard Medical School and UNC-Chapel Hill. Roy’s main research interest is studying the molecular mechanisms of cell migration. More specifically, he is investigating the role of actin-binding proteins in cell migration using angiogenesis and breast cancer as model systems. These projects involve a combination of molecular genetics, cell biology, biochemical, microscopy and biophysical techniques.

Harvey Borovetz, chair of bioengineering, said, “Roy’s recruitment allows bioengineering to expand its current very successful research and teaching programs in organ and tissue mechanics to fundamental principles at the cellular and molecular level. In addition, Roy has already begun exciting collaborations with School of Medicine faculty.”

Law Elena A. Baylis, a 1998 graduate of Yale Law School, joins the law faculty to teach torts, comparative law and a seminar titled “Crimes Against Humanity.”

Baylis served as a judicial clerk to the Hon. Mariana R. Pfaelzer, U.S. District Court, in Los Angeles. Following her clerkship, she worked for Shea & Gardner in Washington, D.C., handling international law and civil litigation matters.

Baylis also taught in a new law school in Mekelle, Ethiopia. “Once I was there I discovered that I really loved teaching and wanted to keep doing it,” Baylis said.

Her main scholarly interests include comparative law of developing states and states in transition.

“We are thrilled to have Elena Baylis join our faculty,” said law Dean David Herring. “Her scholarly projects are incredibly creative and exciting. I look forward to supporting her work as she joins and strengthens our outstanding international and comparative law faculty.” This spring, the law school also named Richard Delgado, a leader of the critical race theory movement, the inaugural Derrick A. Bell Fellow and Professor of Law and Jean Stefancic, a noted legal writer, the Derrick A. Bell Scholar and Research Professor of Law.

Delgado, most recently the Jean Lindsley Professor of Law at the University of Colorado School of Law at Boulder, and Stefancic, a senior research associate at Colorado, co-edit the New York University Press series “Critical America.”

The husband-and-wife team wrote “Critical White Studies: Looking Behind the Mirror,” which won a Gustavus Myers award as the outstanding book on human rights in North America in 1998. In addition, they shared a 1993 Rockefeller Bellagio grant to complete “Failed Revolutions.”

James Lindgren’s “The Most Prolific Law Professors in the Most-Cited Law Reviews” has ranked Delgado, one of the leading commentators on race in the United States, first among the nation’s approximately 5,500 law professors. Stefancic writes about civil rights, law reform, social change and legal scholarship. Her 1996 book, “No Mercy: How Conservative Think Tanks and Foundations Changed America’s Social Agenda,” was recommended by the New York Law Journal as a “clarion call to those of us who have too long remained complacent that things will return to the more humane thinking of the bygone Great Society.”

“I cannot begin to explain the positive impact that Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic will have here,” Herring said. “Of course, they will dramatically raise the scholarly profile of the school throughout the nation and the world. But more importantly, they will be active mentors for many members of our faculty. Both Richard and Jean have an unparalleled record in nurturing and enhancing the work of other scholars.”

Information Sciences The School of Information Sciences (SIS) cited three new faculty members, James B.D. Joshi, Joseph Kabara and Amanda H. Spink.

Recognizing the increasingly interdisciplinary character of SIS’s programs, the school sought new faculty who had both deep subject expertise and a broad understanding of the dynamic role of information in society, according to SIS Dean Ron Larsen.

Joshi and Kabara join the Department of Information Science and Telecommunications as assistant professors.

Joshi comes to SIS from Purdue University, where he was a doctoral student in the Center of Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security. His M.S. and Ph.D. degrees are in computer science, earned at Purdue, and he holds a B.S. in computer science and engineering from Motilal Nehru Regional Engineering College in India.

He also was a lecturer of computer science and engineering at Kathmandu University (KU) in Nepal. While at KU, Joshi helped develop Nepal’s first undergraduate curriculum in computer science and engineering.
His research interests include all aspects of information systems security, distributed systems and multimedia information systems.

Kabara is joining the regular full-time faculty at SIS after serving as a visiting assistant professor. He earned his Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from Vanderbilt University, his M.S. in electrical engineering from Johns Hopkins University and his B.S. in electrical engineering from Marquette University.
His research interests include communication networks and information systems, with specialization in system-level models and wireless network design.

New associate professor Spink joins the Department of Library and Information Science from Penn State University.

She earned a Ph.D. in information and library studies from Rutgers University, an M.B.A. in information systems marketing and management from Fordham University, a graduate degree in librarianship at the University of New South Wales (Australia) and a B.A. in history and political science from the Australian National University.

Her research interests include human information behavior, interactive information retrieval, web retrieval, information science theory and information seeking.

Dean Larsen noted said, “Drs. Joshi, Spink and Kabara bring world-class expertise and leadership in critical areas of the information sciences, including information organization, retrieval, communication and security.”

Public and International Affairs Nuno Themudo joins Pitt’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) as an assistant professor in international development. He soon will receive his Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

He received his master’s degree in energy management and environmental conservation from Middlesex University; a diploma in development studies from Birkbeck College, University of London, and a bachelor’s degree in Management from LSE.

Themudo has received numerous awards and prizes, including the Lord Dahrdendorf Ph.D. Fellowship, Centre for Civil Society, LSE, and has served as a management consultant to several non-governmental organizations (NGOs).He also has published widely.

GSPIA Dean Carolyn Ban said: “Themudo strengthens our major in NGOs and civil society, within the Division of International Development, and he will help build linkages between that major and our outstanding program in nonprofit management, within the M.P.A. (Master of Public Administration) degree. He also brings a European perspective, which we value.”

HEALTH SCIENCES Dental Medicine William L. Chung has been hired as an assistant professor in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, having recently completed his surgical training at Temple University. Prior to that, he received his dental degree from Case Western Reserve and subsequently, his medical degree from Temple. “Chung was recruited to the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC because of his broad scope of training and expertise in the areas of facial trauma, orthognathic [jaw] and TMJ surgery,” said Mark W. Ochs, chair of oral and maxillofacial surgery.

Chung favors an interdisciplinary approach to managing patients requiring reconstructive surgery, bone grafts and dental implants, often working in conjunction with otolaryngologists and maxillofacial prosthodontists.

Linda Kelly, a 1982 graduate of Pitt’s dental school, joins the Department of Dental Hygiene as assistant professor. Following graduation, she was commissioned in the U.S. Army Dental Corps. After completing her military commitment, she returned to the Pittsburgh area, where she had a private practice. She also continued her military career by serving in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Kelly will direct two courses: Radiology II and Dental Materials. She also will have clinical responsibilities in the Dental Hygiene clinic and will participate in the UDHS private practice.

Health and Rehabilitation Sciences SHRS has hired Kristina English as an assistant professor of communication science and disorders. She earned her Ph.D. from the joint doctoral programs at San Diego State University and Claremont Graduate University, and was a faculty member at Central Michigan University and Duquesne University before her move to Pitt.

As an audiologist, English is primarily interested in the rehabilitation aspects of the field, with consideration for the adjustment processes for patients and families of the hearing-impaired.

To help provide teaching material in this area, she recently co-authored a textbook, “Counseling in Audiologic Practices: Helping Patients and Families Adjust to Hearing Loss.” She also is developing self-assessments designed to help patients address their hearing problems.

English has received the 2002 Presidential Scholarship Award from Duquesne University, and the 2002 Frederick S. Berg Award from the Educational Audiology Association.

“Dr. English brings a unique expertise in, and enthusiasm for, educational and rehabilitative audiology that complements and enhances the strong audiology program in the Department of Communication Science and Disorders,” said department chair Malcolm McNeil.

Elizabeth Skidmore has been appointed assistant professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy. She holds an M.S. in occupational therapy from Pitt and is a Ph.D. candidate at SHRS. She holds a B.S. in occupational therapy from Western Michigan University.

Skidmore’s research focuses on interactions between lesion location and functional outcomes of individuals who have sustained stroke or traumatic brain injury, and the effectiveness of various neuro-rehabilitation methods for restoring function.

Her background in neuroscience and neuro-rehabilitation are positive additions to the Occupational Therapy Program and the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, according to Margo B. Holm, professor and director of post-professional education in occupational therapy.

Medicine The School of Medicine is by far Pitt’s largest school, with approximately 1,700 full-time faculty members and 50 part-timers — representing 40 percent of the University’s total faculty. Many are clinical faculty who teach in hospital settings but not in the classroom.

Unlike most other Pitt schools, medicine recruits faculty continually, although hirings and departures tend to be bunched around the start of the University’s fiscal year on July 1.

Between July 1, 2002, and Aug. 31, 2003, the medical school will have hired 204 new full-time, clinical and basic science faculty members, including the following professors.

Kenneth A. Foon is a new professor in the hematology/oncology division. He also is co-director of the biological therapeutics program and the hematologic malignancies program at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI).

His research focuses on the development of new and promising anti-cancer agents and the rapid translation of these agents into effective therapies for cancer, with a particular emphasis on lymphomas and chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a cancer of the white blood cells and bone marrow.

Prior to joining Pitt and UPCI, Foon was a director of clinical development at Abgenix, Inc., a biotechnology company in Fremont, Calif., focused on the development and commercialization of antibody therapeutics for the treatment of cancer. Foon also was a clinical professor of internal medicine at Stanford University. He received his medical degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.

Amadeo Marcos is an internationally recognized transplant surgeon who joined the faculty of Pitt’s Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute and the clinical staff of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) in 2002. He serves as clinical director of transplantation at the Starzl Institute and as professor of surgery at the medical school.

As clinical director of transplantation, Marcos is responsible for overseeing UPMC’s adult and pediatric cadaveric liver, kidney, pancreas and intestinal transplant programs as well as its living-donor liver transplant program.

Marcos came here from the University of Rochester, after serving for two years as associate professor of surgery and director of its solid organ transplant program. While there, he headed the most active living-donor liver transplant program in the United States. During 2001, Marcos performed 56 adult-to-adult living-donor liver transplants in Rochester, more than were done at any other U.S. center. At the Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, where Marcos worked prior to joining the staff in Rochester, he performed the first series of living-donor liver transplants in the United States. He has performed more adult-to-adult living-donor liver transplants than any other surgeon in the United States; since 1998, he has performed more than 160 such transplants.

Marcos received his medical degree in 1987 at the Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas and completed his internship and surgical residency at Jose Maria Vargas Hospital in Caracas.

Jörg Gerlach joined the surgery department in November as a professor and is working at Pitt’s McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine on developing systems for temporary liver support from outside the body and on growing human liver cells for transplantation.

Gerlach’s research focuses on building bioreactor systems that combine synthetic components with human cells to create support therapies that can help to boost the patient’s own healing process by allowing the affected organ to rest and recuperate. The liver is the only internal organ that can regenerate itself with new, healthy tissue.

Gerlach came to Pitt from Humboldt University in Berlin. He received his medical degree from Berlin’s Freie Universität and his Ph.D. from Scotland’s Strathclyde University. His post-doctoral work was completed at Humboldt University.

Another new international recruit to the McGowan Institute is Bruno Peault, a professor in Pitt’s pediatrics and cell biology departments. His research focuses on stem cells related to cancer — specifically hematopoietic stem cells (those coming from bone marrow and blood). Peault also does research on diabetes and cystic fibrosis.

Prior to coming to Pittsburgh, Peault was a research director at the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris. He also was a department director at the National Institute for Medical and Health Research at Paul Brousse Hospital.

He received a Ph.D. from the University of Nantes and a national doctorate in Paris.

Stephanie A. Studenski, one of the nation’s foremost authorities on mobility and function in the elderly, joined the medical school’s geriatrics division as a professor of medicine.

A researcher as well as a clinician at Pitt and the Pittsburgh VA, Studenski is developing practical ways for physicians to evaluate and treat elderly patients who may have difficulties with mobility or function. She has devised methods such as a speed-of-walking test for physicians to use in identifying these problems in patients, which could predict a patient’s risk of hospitalization and even death.

In addition to obvious conditions that involve difficulties with mobility, such as stroke, arthritis and hip fracture, Studenski is interested in articulating reasons for mobility problems that surface with other, less obvious, conditions like unrecognized Parkinson’s disease, sensory disorders, congestive heart failure, angina, cancer and lung disease. Studenski received her nursing and medical degrees from the University of Kansas, and a master’s in public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her post-doctoral training included fellowships in the division of rheumatic and genetic diseases and geriatrics at Duke University Medical Center. Before coming to Pitt, Studenski was professor of medicine and director of the Center on Aging at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Nursing The recruiting class at the School of Nursing has a distinctly blue-and-gold look this year. Four of the school’s nine new full-time faculty members hold Pitt degrees.

Helen Burns, new associate dean for clinical education, will oversee the school’s undergraduate and master’s programs and will focus on developing new initiatives for nursing education. She also will serve as an associate professor in the Department of Health and Community Systems. Burns is the former deputy secretary of health for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Her research subject is the nursing workforce, and her master’s and doctoral degrees were earned at Pitt.

As assistant professor in acute and tertiary care, Annette Dabbs will contribute to the developing program of research in the management of post-transplantation care. A newly minted Pitt Ph.D., Dabbs will do research on post-transplantation care/symptom recognition.

Donna Levitt, an assistant professor in the Department of Acute and Tertiary Care, will teach undergraduate nursing students and contribute expertise related to nursing education and musculoskeletal disorders. Both her B.S.N. and M.S.N. were earned at Pitt.
Louise Waszak earned her master’s and Ph.D. in nursing at Pitt. As an assistant professor in the Department of Health Promotion and Development, she will teach in the pediatric nurse practitioner program. Pharmacy Laura L. Jung has completed a residency and fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute.

School officials said her fellowship in drug development of anti-cancer agents with the molecular therapeutics and drug development program positions her well for her new role as assistant professor of pharmacy and therapeutics.

Jung also has a clinical practice focusing on oncology at Magee-Womens Hospital. She is a member of the Magee-Womens pharmacy and therapeutics, pain and palliative care committees.

In addition, Jung is a member of several professional organizations including the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, the American College of Clinical Pharmacy and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Jung’s research interests include the effects of obesity on hormonal therapy in breast cancer and systemic therapy for ovarian cancer, as well as the treatment of anemia in cancer patients. She will teach fourth-year pharmacy students and oncology pharmacy residents at her clinical site in addition to teaching in the classroom.

A former senior scientist at the California Institute of Technology has joined the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Center for Pharmacogenetics as an assistant professor.

Yong Tae Kwon’s research goal is to understand how selective protein degradation through one ubiquitin pathway (called the N-end rule pathway) regulates biological processes.

His laboratory uses bio-chemical, cellular and genetic methods to assess the clinical significance of these proteins, and their underlying molecular mechanisms, using a mouse model system. Through these approaches, he and his colleagues recently found that the components of this pathway are key regulators of heart development, blood vessel formation, male reproduction, chromosome stability and oxygen-dependent protein degradation.

Kwon received his B.S. in biology, M.S. in molecular biology and Ph.D. in molecular biology from Seoul National University in South Korea.He completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the California Institute of Technology. Kwon recently was awarded an NIH RO1 grant. Public Health Aaron Barchowsky has joined GSPH as an associate professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health. An international authority in molecular toxicology and environmental health, Barchowsky is well known for his work on the molecular mechanisms of metal toxicity and has provided insights into the signaling mechanisms stimulated by inhaled metal pollutants in vascular and respiratory tissue.

Formerly an associate professor of pharmacology at Dartmouth Medical College, he heads a Superfund grant on mechanisms of arsenic-induced vascular disease.

Barchowsky’s research will complement current areas of investigation in the department and school on cardiopulmonary toxicology, free radical biochemistry and metal toxicology. He is a member of the NIH alcohol-toxicology study section, and associate editor of the Journal of Cellular Physiology.

“Barchowsky’s research on signaling cascades, gene induction and pathways of cell death from chromium, arsenic and nickel have provided unique mechanistic insight into metal induced pulmonary fibrosis and arsenic related vascular disease,” said Bruce Pitt, chair of environmental and occupational health.

“The addition of Barchowsky to our faculty will immediately expand interactions within the growing community of cardiovascular and respiratory biologists at the University of Pittsburgh.”

Newly hired professor Robert M. Goodman “is considered among the top three or four public health behavioral scientists in the country. Bob’s presence here will greatly enhance our teaching, research and services, and he will bring important visibility to the new Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences,” said department chair Edmund Ricci.

An internationally recognized social and behavioral scientist, Goodman is known for advancing the theoretical and conceptual understanding of community structures and processes as these become vehicles for public health interventions.

Goodman has directed public health departments, is a past president of the National Society for Public Health Education and was a member of the National Institute of Medicine committee on educating public health professions for the 21st century.

Goodman comes to GSPH from Tulane University, where he was the Usdin Family Professor in Community Health Sciences.

He has served as editor-in–chief of the American Journal of Health Promotion and was recently named to Who’s Who in the Health Sciences.

—Bruce Steele & Peter Hart