University Times

The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) has elected Thomas L. Saaty, University Professor at the Katz Graduate School of Business, as a member. Saaty was honored for the development and generalization of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) in multi-criteria decision-making.
Widely published, Saaty is considered the architect of the AHP decision theory and its generalization to decisions, with dependence and feedback, known as the analytic network process (ANP).
AHP is used in both individual and group decision-making by business, industry and governments and is particularly applicable to complex large-scale multi-party, multi-criteria decision problems. ANP has been applied to a variety of decisions involving benefits, costs, opportunities and risks and is particularly useful in predicting outcomes.
Among his many awards, Saaty received the gold medal for work on decision-making by the International Society of Multi-criteria Decision Making in 2000 and he was elected a member of the International Academy of Management in 1998.
Saaty also is listed in “Who’s Who in America” and “American Men of Science.”

Election to NAE is among the highest professional distinctions accorded an engineer. Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to engineering, research, practice or education, including developing or implementing innovative approaches to engineering education.

——————————————-
The fellowship, which formed in 1987 to honor and promote Southern literature, honors outstanding literary achievement by Southern authors. The fellowship’s award winners are chosen by the member writers.
Author of seven books of fiction, Nordan’s novel “Wolf Whistle” was awarded the Southern Book Award, and the Notable Book Award from the American Library Association (ALA). His “Music of the Swamp” also received the ALA Notable Fiction Award, as well as a best of fiction award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters. His stories have appeared in many publications, including Harper’s and Redbook.
Nordan is retiring at the end of the spring term.

——————————————-
Robert Hill, vice chancellor for Public Affairs, is being honored by the Pennsylvania Black Conference on Higher Education (PBCOHE) this week. Hill will receive a PBCOHE Presidential Award for his contributions to the organization and the community.
PBCOHE was founded in 1979 to bring together African-American college administrators and instructors, political leaders and other professionals to create a master plan for higher education in Pennsylvania with the goal of equal education for minorities.

——————————————-
Michael B. Gorin, associate professor of ophthalmology and human genetics, is the recipient of a Senior Scientific Investigator Award from the Research to Prevent Blindness organization.
The $65,000 grant is presented to nationally recognized scientists who are conducting research on eye disease. Established in 1987, it has been given to only 133 scientists at 53 institutions.
Gorin is founder and interim director of Pitt’s Center for Human Genetics and Integrative Biology. His research is directed toward medical and genetic retinal diseases and ophthalmic genetics with an emphasis on inherited retinal disorders and age-related maculopathy. Research to Prevent Blindness is the leading voluntary organization on eye research. Its grants pave the way for researchers to study the causes, treatments and prevention of blinding eye diseases.

——————————————-
Robert Arnold, the Leo H. Criep Chair in Patient Care and professor of medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine at Pitt’s medical school, last month was named president of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) for a one-year term.
Arnold also is chief of the section of palliative care and medical ethics, director of the Institute for Doctor-Patient Communication and co-director of the Institute to Enhance Palliative Care, all at Pitt.
He currently is a faculty scholar on the Project on Death in America and is working to teach physician leaders how to educate peers to better communicate about ethical, psychosocial and existential issues at the end of life. His clinical activities focus on providing palliative care consults in a tertiary care hospital and providing primary care to HIV-positive inpatients.
Arnold’s research activities focus on teaching ethics to residents, doctor/patient communication regarding end-of-life issues and organ donation. He is a past president of the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities.
Arnold has published numerous papers and presented many lectures on patient/physician communication, patient treatment preferences, teaching medical ethics, end-of-life issues, organ donor issues and AIDS.
AAHPM is an organization of physicians and other medical professionals dedicated to excellence in palliative medicine. The organization works for the prevention and relief of suffering among patients and families by providing education and clinical practice standards, fostering research, facilitating members’ personal and professional development and advocating public policy.

——————————————-
Several faculty at the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (SHRS) were honored recently.
Rory Cooper, professor and chair, Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology, received the 2004 Excellence Award from the American Paraplegia Society, recognizing his authority in the field of spinal cord health care, research and education.
Cooper also received a certificate of appreciation from the U.S. Army for his contribution to Walter Reed’s physical medicine and rehabilitation service and amputee program following his grand rounds lecture at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Thomas Platt, assistant professor and associate program director of SHRS’s emergency medicine program, received the Ray Fowler 2004 Basic Trauma Life Support International Instructor of the Year Award for outstanding leadership in prehospital trauma training. He also received the Prehospital Care Research Forum best poster presentation at the EMS Today conference and exhibition.
Malcolm R. McNeil, professor and chair, Department of Communication Science and Disorders, received the Honors of the Association Award from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, the highest honors bestowed by the organization. McNeil also was named a 2005 winner of the Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Award.
Kate Seelman, associate dean for disability programs and professor, Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology, was appointed to the Pennsylvania Rehabilitation Advisory Council by Gov. Ed Rendell. The council is a statewide citizens group created to advise the Pennsylvania Office of Vocational Rehabilitation.

——————————————-
Harvey White, associate professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, has been elected vice president of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) for 2004-2005.
Established in 1939, ASPA advocates for greater effectiveness and practice in government and for global citizenship.
——————————————-
Several Pitt law professors were honored recently.
Vivian Curran was elected to the American Law Institute, which works to promote the clarification and simplification of the law and its better adaptation to social needs; to secure the better administration of justice, and to carry on scholarly and scientific legal work.
Michael Madison was elected 2005 chair of the Association of American Law Schools law and computers section.
Rhonda Wasserman has been appointed a member of the executive committee of the AALS section on conflict of laws. Wasserman also was elected to the American Law Institute.