University Times

Carl Rossman has been named vice president of Administrative Affairs at the Greensburg campus.

Rossman will be responsible for UPG's physical plant, business activities, business and maintenance aspects of auxiliary enterprises, purchasing, security, budget management, land acquisition and administration of non-faculty personnel policies. He repl aces Guy Rossetti, who died in November.

Rossman was a private business consultant and vice president of a firm dealing in federal service contracts. A retired U.S. Air Force colonel, he held key positions in managing large projects and operational missions, both military and civilian. He was a B-52 pilot, instructor and evaluator in the 1970s. Later he served as operations chief, commander, head of the North Atlantic Section of the U.S. Atlantic Command, chief of the safety division of the 8th Air Force headquarters, and associate dean for facu lty development at the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk.

He earned his bachelor's degree at The Citadel and his M.S. in systems management at the University of California.

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Catherine Palmer, assistant professor of communication science and disorders in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and assistant professor in the School of Medicine, has been appointed director of the Center for Audiology in the department o f otolaryngology at UPMC's Eye and Ear Institute.

Palmer's research and educational efforts have focused on hearing aids and sound amplification technology for people with hearing loss. Pitt heart transplant surgeon Robert Kormos has been named president of the International Society for Health and Lung Transplantation for 1999-2000. Kormos, who has been on the Pitt faculty since 1987, also is associate professor of surgery in the division of cardiothoracic surgery and director of the clinical artificial health transplant program at UPMC Health System.

The society is dedicated to the science and treatment of end-stage heart and lung diseases and encourages basic and clinic research in transplantation, medical management of heart and lung disease and new therapeutic strategies. Membership is composed of more than 2,300 transplant surgeons, cardiologists, pulmonologists, researchers, bioengineers and nurses from around the world.

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The Johnstown campus chapter of the Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society held its annual initiation ceremony last month in UPJ's Student Union Cambria Room. Faculty initiates were Carroll Grimes, professor of English literature, and Sandra Patterson-Randles, vice president for Academic Affairs.

Membership is based on superior academic scholarship. The society recognizes and honors persons of good character who have excelled in scholarship because it believes that will stimulate others to strive for excellence.

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Three graduate students in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (SHRS) won national awards for their research in assistive technology and rehabilitation engineering, the results of which health care professionals can use to prescribe and set u p wheelchairs to prevent injuries among long-term manual wheelchair users.

Mark Baldwin, a second-year master's candidate; repeat winner Brian Fay, first-year doctoral student, and Alicia Koontz, second-year doctoral student, each won $1,000 and a certificate from the Rehabilitation, Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) student research competition for their wheelchair biomechanics research.

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Robert Perloff, distinguished service professor emeritus of business administration and psychology in the Katz Graduate School of Business, has been named an associate of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director's Council of Public Representative s (COPR).

COPR associates may provide direct input on COPR agenda items or serve as future members of COPR or other NIH committees.

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Rachel A. Petrucelli, formerly the annual fund director for the Pittsburgh Public Theater, has been named development director for the School of Information Sciences (SIS) and assistant director, corporate and foundation relations in Institutional Advancement.

Petrucelli will work with corporations, foundations and individual major gift prospects to identify, cultivate and solicit funds to support projects at SIS. Additionally, Petrucelli will assist in finding corporate and foundation funding for all info rmation and computer science programs at Pitt.

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David N. Beratan, professor of chemistry, has received a 1999 Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Beratan, whose research interests include theoretical biophysical chemistry, biological electron transfer and the electronic structure of macromolecules, says Guggenheim Fellowships give recipients the freedom to pursue their own visions.

Beratan was a National Science Foundation Young Investigator from 1992 to 1997, and won the University's Chancellor's Distinguished Research Award in 1998.

Guggenheim Fellowships are appointed on the basis of distinguished achievement and exceptional promise for future development. The 1999 Fellowship winners include 179 artists, scholars and scientists selected from nearly 2,800 applicants.

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Tara Meyer, assistant professor of chemistry, has been awarded a 1999 Sloan Research Fellowship by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

The awards are given annually to 100 young scholars "who show the most outstanding promise of making fundamental contributions to new knowledge" in chemistry, computer science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience and physics.

Meyer, who joined the Pitt faculty in 1994, received her Ph.D. from the University of Iowa and her B.S. from Grinnell College. Meyer's research is in inorganic polymer chemistry, with an emphasis on the synthesis of novel polymers (plastics) using metal-c atalyzed reactions.

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Timothy Billiar, Watson Professor of Surgery in the School of Medicine, is president-elect of the Society of University Surgeons.

The society, founded in 1939, is dedicated to the advancement of the art and science of surgery, the pursuit of original clinical and laboratory research and the free and informal exchange of ideas. Admission to the society is based on a physician's clini cal and basic research, teaching and publication in professional scientific journals.

Billiar is a trauma and general surgeon at UPMC Presbyterian and has gained an international reputation for his contributions to the understanding of the role of nitric oxide in gene therapy, trauma, liver disease and in other potential clinical applicati ons. He holds four U.S. patents associated with his research.

He joined the School of Medicine as a research fellow in 1987 and was chief resident from 1990 until 1992. He became the first Samuel P. Harbison endowed assistant professor of surgery from 1992 to 1994. He was named associate professor of surgery in 1994 and became Watson professor of surgery in 1997. He is principal investigator on four National Institutes of Health grants investigating nitric oxide, post-traumatic sepsis and the molecular biology of hemorrhagic shock. In addition, he is principal inves tigator on a study of coronary artery restenosis and co-investigator of a study to use gene therapy to promote wound healing.

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At its commencement ceremony on June 3, 1999, Queens College of the City University of New York will award an honorary Doctor of Science degree to Nicholas Rescher, University professor of philosophy. Bestowed in recognition of his contributions to philosophical scholarship, this is Rescher's fifth honorary doctorate.

Rescher graduated from Queens College in 1949 with honors in mathematics.

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Head basketball Coach Ben Howland has completed his staff with the appointment of Lennie Parham and Pat Sandle as assistant coaches.

Parham spent the last three seasons at Drake and was responsible for recruiting, coaching the post players and scheduling the team travel arrangements. He was a key figure in the Bulldogs' highly regarded 1998 recruiting class, which was considered the be st in the Missouri Valley Conference by Blue Ribbon Magazine. He also served as an assistant at Northern Arizona under Howland from 1994 to 1996 before moving on to Drake.

Sandle spent the last three seasons at Northern Arizona where he was an assistant under Howland. His duties included advance scouting of opponents, recruiting and on-court coaching. During Sandle's tenure, the Lumberjacks experienced the most successful t hree-year span in school history.

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The University of Pennsylvania has named Herbert L. Needleman, Pitt professor of psychiatry and pediatrics and director of the behavioral science division of Children's Hospital, the recipient of this year's distinguished graduate award. The award recognizes alumni for their outstanding service to society and to the profession of medicine, and for notable accomplishments in biomedical research, clinical practice or medical education.

Needleman was cited for his contributions to the study and practice of psychiatry and his leadership as a national expect who has actively educated society on the behavioral effects of pediatric lead toxicity.

Needleman graduated from Penn's School of Medicine in 1952.

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Pitt transplant pioneer Thomas Starzl is the most cited researcher in clinical medicine over the past 17 years, according to the Institute for Scientific Information, which published the listings in the May/June issue of ScienceWatch.

Between January 1981 and June 1998, Starzl's publications were cited 26,456 times, about 4,000 times more than the second-ranked researcher, Steven Rosenberg of the National Cancer Institute. The ISI analysis was based on papers published and cited in the journals of clinical medicine indexed since 1981.

ISI also examined citations in four main subfields: cardiology, oncology, surgery/transplantation and epidemiology. Starzl ranked first in the surgery /transplantation listings, and three other Pitt researchers made the top-10 list as well: Shunzaburo Iwatsuki, professor of surgery at the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute, was ranked 3rd; Satoru Todo, formerly of Pitt and now of Hokkaido University School of Medicine in Japan, ranked 4th, and Richard Simmons, professor of surgery and former chair of the surgery department, ranked 6th. The top-10 list included two others who trained and worked under Starzl at Pitt.

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Michael Lotze, professor of surgery and molecular genetics and biochemistry at Pitt and co-director of UPCI's biological therapeutics program, was ranked 10th in the oncology category.

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Trish Elser has been appointed assistant coach for the women's basketball team.

She will serve as the Panthers' chief recruiting coordinator and will assist with the on-court coaching of the post players.

Elser served the last four seasons as assistant coach at Fairleigh Dickinson University, where she was responsible for the Lady Knights' recruiting efforts as well as scouting opponents, on-court coaching of the guards and post players and oversight of conditioning and academic efforts.