University Times

William R. King, University Professor in the Katz Graduate School of Business (KGSB), has been given a Leo Award for Lifetime Exceptional Achievement in Information Systems (IS).

In announcing the award, Richard T. Watson, president of the Association for Information Systems, said, “The three cornerstones of the information systems field are the MIS Quarterly, the International Conference of Information Systems and the Association for Information Systems. Bill King has played a leadership role in every one of these scholarly domains as editor-in-chief, co-founder and conference chair, and founding president, respectively.”

King has been on the faculty of KGSB for 37 years and helped create the academic field of information systems. Since then, he has contributed more than 300 papers to the leading journals in IS and related fields and has authored, co-authored or co-edited 15 books.

One book, co-authored with David Cleland of Pitt’s Department of Industrial Engineering, won the McKinsey Foundation’s Award as a “distinguished contribution to management”; another co-edited book was named Book of the Year by the Institute of Industrial Engineers.

Recently, King was honored (along with John Nash of “A Beautiful Mind” fame and several other Nobel laureates) by being named as one of about 100 people who had the most influence on management science in the last 50 years (INFORMS Inaugural Fellow Award).

King also is a fellow of the AIS, the American Association for Advancement of Science and the Decision Sciences Institute.

Established in 1999, the Leo Award is named for the Lyons Electronic Office, one of the world’s first commercial applications of computing. King accepted the award last month at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. Vernell Lillie, chair of Pitt’s Department of Africana Studies and artistic director of Kuntu Repertory Theatre (KRT), was selected by the Homer S. Brown Law Association as this year’s recipient of the Drum Major for Justice Award.

Lillie was honored during the association’s sixth annual Martin Luther King Jr. prayer breakfast Jan. 17. She founded KRT nearly 30 years ago with the late Rob Penny, Pitt associate professor of Africana studies and KRT’s playwright-in-residence.

Last month, the Senate of the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, awarded Patrick Doreian the title honorary senator for his cooperative efforts with the university’s Faculty of Social Sciences and Faculty of Mathematics and Physics.

Doreian is professor and chair of Pitt’s Department of Sociology.

The Pitt School of Law dean’s office announced the following recent accomplishments and honors of the law faculty.

This spring, Michelle Anderson will deliver the Distinguished Scholar Lecture at St. John’s University School of Law.

Ronald Brand has been named to the Foreign Law Faculty at the Garrigues Chair in Global Law at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain. He will teach courses periodically in the Anglo-American Law Program for the Garrigues Chair.

John Burkoff, professor of law, was the keynote speaker at the National Judicial College’s Appellate Judges Fourth Amendment Conference held in Reno in November. He spoke on “The Fourth Amendment in Perilous Times.”

Harry Gruener has been selected by his peers to be included in the 2005-2006 edition of The Best Lawyers in America in the field of family law. He is one of a distinguished group of attorneys who have been listed in Best Lawyers for 10 years or longer.

Gruener also has been selected to be included in Philadelphia Magazine’s listing of Pennsylvania Super Lawyers in the field of family law for 2005.

Arthur Hellman testified as an invited witness at a legislative hearing of the subcommittee on courts, the Internet and intellectual property of the House Judiciary Committee in Washington, D.C.. The subject of the hearing was the Constitution Restoration Act of 2004.

Hellman also has been appointed as the conference reporter for a National Conference on Appellate Justice to be held in Washington, D.C., in November 2005. Sponsors of the conference are the Federal Judicial Center, the National Center for State Courts and the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers.

Hellman’s article, “Assessing Judgeship Needs in the Federal Courts of Appeals: Policy Choices and Process Concerns,” was recently listed on the “top 10 download lists” of the Social Science Research Network in three categories: “jurisprudence and legal philosophy,” “administrative law” and “legal ethics and professional responsibility.”

Darryll Jones, associate dean, is contributing a monthly column regarding partnership taxation to Tax Notes, the most widely circulated U.S. tax publication. His first column, “Complexity Is Good” appeared in the Nov. 15 issue of Tax Notes.

Samford University has selected Alan Meisel as one of the recipients of the Pellegrino Medal “for contributions to American healthcare ethics and law in the selfless spirit of Edmund D. Pellegrino.”

Joseph B. Myers, assistant professor of sports medicine (School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences) and assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery (School of Medicine), is the 2005 recipient of the Freddie H. Fu New Investigator Award. The award is presented by the National Athletic Trainers Association Research and Education Foundation.

The award recognizes a new researcher who has earned a first doctoral degree within the past five years and who has made, and is likely to continue to make, significant contributions to the body of knowledge in athletic training and health care of the physically active.

Myers coordinates graduate education in sports medicine and is associate director of the Neuromuscular Research Laboratory housed in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. He earned his Ph.D. in sports medicine from Pitt in 2001.

The award is named in honor of Freddie H. Fu, professor of orthopedic surgery and chair, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, at Pitt’s School of Medicine, and director, UPMC Center for Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation.

The award carries a framed medallion and a cash prize of $2,000.