University Times

Phalguni Gupta, professor at the Graduate School of Public Health, will succeed Meryl Karol as associate dean for academic affairs at GSPH, effective July 1. Karol ends her tenure after almost four years in the position.

Gupta has served as the chair of the faculty advancement, promotion and tenure committee for the past six years and vice chair of the Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology for nine years.

He has been active in professional societies and has established collaborations with external partners.

Gupta’s research interests include the genetic variation of HIV, cellular and molecular basis of HIV pathogenesis, development of novel vaccine vectors against HIV, biochemical and molecular epidemiology of AIDS, molecular mechanisms of sexual transmission of HIV and molecular epidemiology and pathogenesis of HIV.

*********

Paul A. Moore has been named chair of the Department of Anesthesiology at the School of Dental Medicine. Moore, a graduate of Pitt’s dental school, is director of the Oral Health Science Institute there.

He succeeds C. Richard Bennett, who had been the department’s chair since 1971 and is retiring this month.

Moore’s appointment is effective July 1.

In the United States, more patients receive anesthesia, be it local or general, at the dentist’s office than anywhere else in the health care system. “Only a handful of dental schools have an autonomous department of anesthesiology separate from their oral surgery departments,” Moore said. “Pitt has consistently demonstrated leadership in the discipline, and I look forward to carrying on that tradition.”

Moore’s research focuses on anesthesia in general populations as well as in specialized groups such as pediatric patients and pregnant women. Additionally, Moore, who holds a master of public health degree in epidemiology from Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health, has explored the oral health implications of chronic systemic diseases, with particular focus on diabetes-related outcomes.

Moore has had faculty appointments at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine and the University of Massachusetts Medical Center.

After earning his dental degree and his doctorate at Pitt, he completed a residency in anesthesiology at UPMC Presbyterian, and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of North Carolina.

*********

Dennis N. Ranalli, senior associate dean at the School of Dental Medicine, received this year’s Recognition Award from the Pennsylvania Dental Association for career achievements in dental medicine.

Ranalli was honored for his work to improve pediatric dentistry, particularly his involvement with the Prevent Abuse and Neglect Through Dental Awareness coalition and his dedication to increasing access to care for special-needs patients, as well as his contributions to dental education.

Law professor Lawrence Frolik was named editor-in-chief of the NAELA Journal, a law review published twice a year and sponsored by and distributed to the 4,700 members of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys.

Frolik also has been elected treasurer of the board of directors of the Kendal Corp., a non-profit, Quaker-affiliated corporation that oversees 10 continuing care communities housing more than 2,000 residents.

In addition, Frolik recently was appointed by the chair of the American Bar Association tort trial and insurance practice section, which has over 36,000 members, to the emerging issues special standing committee.

*********

At its convocation ceremony last month, the University of Helsinki awarded an honorary degree Doctor Rerum Politicarum, honoris causa, to Nicholas Rescher, University Professor of Philosophy. This is the seventh honorary degree awarded to Rescher by universities on three continents.

This month, Rescher was elected as a foreign fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, that country’s equivalent of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The society is dedicated to the promotion of exceptional learning, research and accomplishments in the arts, humanities and sciences.

Rescher, who came to Pitt in 1961, has served as chairman of the philosophy department and vice chairman of the Center for Philosophy of Science.

He is the author of more than 90 books on a wide variety of philosophical subjects, and has contributed to the revival and refurbishing of the idealistic tradition in epistemology and metaphysics in the light of ideas drawn from American pragmatism.

Rescher has served as president of the eastern division of the American Philosophical Association, the Leibniz Society of North America, the American Catholic Philosophical Association and the Metaphysical Society of America.

From 1969 to 1993 he edited the American Philosophical Quarterly. In 1983 he received an Alexander von Humboldt Prize awarded under the auspices of the German Federal Republic for distinguished scholarship in the humanities.

*********

Chemistry professor Dennis Curran recently was named recipient of the Edward W. Morley Award by the Cleveland section of the American Chemical Society. The society annually sponsors the regional award, which is open to nominees in parts of the United States and Canada within about 250 miles of Cleveland.

The purpose of the Morley award is to recognize significant contributions to chemistry through achievements in research, teaching, engineering, research administration, public service, outstanding service to humanity or industrial progress.

*********

Frederick Pettit, professor emeritus in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, will receive the Application to Practice Award from the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society.

The society presents the award to individuals who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in transferring research results in some aspect of the fields of metallurgy and materials science into commercial production and practical use.

Pettit is being honored for his contributions to the development of protection systems for high temperature alloys.

*********

Judith Erlen and Ellen Olshansky of the School of Nursing have been elected as officers of the Eastern Nursing Research Society.

Erlen, a professor in the Department of Health Promotion and Development and associate director of the Center for Research in Chronic Disorders, was chosen as president-elect. Olshansky, professor and chair of the Department of Health and Community Systems, was elected as treasurer.

The society is the research arm of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Nursing Association and the New England Organization for Nursing.

*********

W. Vincent Liu, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, is among 25 junior faculty members nationally to receive the Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award from Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) of Oak Ridge, Tenn.

ORAU is a university consortium leveraging the scientific strength of 96 major research institutions to advance science and education by partnering with national laboratories, government agencies and private industry. ORAU manages the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education for the U.S. Department of Energy.

The Powe awards recognize work in five science and technology disciplines: engineering or applied science; life sciences; mathematics and computer science; physical sciences, and policy, management or education.

Junior faculty winners each will receive a $5,000 grant to enhance their research and professional growth and result in new funding opportunities during the early stages of their careers. Each recipient’s institution matches the ORAU award.

Liu, whose primary area of research is theoretical condensed matter, is studying the theory of novel emerging phenomena of quantum condensed matter. His current research focuses on the rapidly developing field of ultra-cold atomic gases, driven largely by ongoing experiments worldwide.

*********

Edward Krenzelok, professor of pharmacy and therapeutics and director of the Pittsburgh Poison Center, was named a Paul Harris Fellow by Rotary International to acknowledge his contributions that led to the development and support of poison centers here and in Eastern Europe, Belarus and Ukraine.

The fellowship is named for Paul Harris, who founded Rotary with three business associates in 1905. The Paul Harris Fellowship was established to recognize those whose lives demonstrate a shared purpose with the objectives and mission of The Rotary Foundation to build world understanding and peace.

Krenzelok was selected because his “life exemplifies the humanitarian and educational objectives of The Rotary Foundation.”

*********

Peter Brusilovsky, associate professor in the Department of Information Science and Telecommunications, is the recipient of the E.T.S. Walton Visitor Award sponsored by Science Foundation Ireland. This program supports “highly qualified academic researchers [from outside Ireland] to carry out research projects of their own choice in Ireland.”

Brusilovsky was awarded the three-month fellowship in May and will be hosted by the National College of Ireland and Trinity College, both in Dublin. This award will allow him to work over the summer on his research project, “Adaptive Systems for Web-Based Education: Architectures and Evaluation.” In addition, Brusilovsky will serve as the director of a summer program on personalized e-learning.

The Walton Visitors Award was created to honor the legacy of E.T.S. Walton, Ireland’s 1951 Nobel Laureate in Physics. The program, which annually supports five or six researchers, brings international investigators from academia and industry to Ireland to strengthen that country’s connections to the research community.

Brusilovsky will return to the SIS faculty in September.

*********

Lindsay Hilton Retchless, a 1998 alumna of Pitt-Bradford, has been named UPB’s director of alumni relations.

Retchless will be responsible for developing and managing a comprehensive program of alumni events along with coordinating the alumni telemarketing fundraising program. She will manage and implement the alumni strategic plan and associated alumni activities, provide leadership for the alumni association and its board of directors and manage events such as alumni weekend and career networking programs.

She also will serve as liaison to the admissions office for alumni student recruitment, provide assistance with alumni stewardship and assist with alumni publications.

Most recently Retchless was development manager for HomeCare and Hospice, a nonprofit agency in Olean, N.Y. Prior to that, she served as the director of development for Archbishop Walsh High School, also in Olean.

During her academic career at Pitt-Bradford she served as an alumni relations intern. She was a member of the Pitt-Bradford Alumni Association board of directors 1999-2005, serving as secretary and chair of the nominating and projects and events committees.

*********

Okwui Enwezor, a visiting professor in the Department of the History of Art and Architecture, is the winner of a Frank Jewett Mather Award for Art Criticism from the College Art Association.

The award, first presented in 1963 for art journalism, is named in honor of the art critic, teacher and scholar who was affiliated with Princeton University until his death in 1953.

The Mather Award goes to an author of art criticism that has appeared in whole or in part in North American publications.

“In a series of exhibitions and essays developed during the last decade,” the College Art Association’s announcement explains, “Enwezor has done much to transform the field of contemporary art and its reception beyond a Euro-American focus. It is no overstatement to say that Enwezor’s curatorial activity has changed the landscape of contemporary art.”

The citation continues, “In such essays as ‘Between Two Worlds: Postmodernism and African Artists in the Western Metropolis’ and ‘The Enigma of the Rainbow Nation: Contemporary South African Art at the Crossroads of History,’ he has developed a clear analysis of contemporary African art and its reception in a predominantly Western art world.”

Enwezor is a founding editor of Nka, the first journal dedicated to contemporary African art, and a co-editor of Reading the Contemporary: African Art from Theory to the Marketplace.