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October 12, 2000

PEOPLE OF THE TIMES

Robert B. Brandom, Distinguished Service Professor of philosophy, has been elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is among 154 fellows selected.

Brandom was inducted as a member of the Academy Oct. 14 in Cambridge, Mass.

A fellow in Pitt's Center for Philosophy of Science, Brandom has served as chairperson of the University's philosophy department; chair of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Humanities Council; a member of the College of Arts and Sciences curriculum review committee/humanities; and the Academic Integrity Review Board.

He received his B.A. from Yale and his Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton, where he was both a Whiting and a Porter Ogden Jacobus Fellow.

The Academy, founded in 1780 by John Adams and other leaders of the young republic, was created as a learned society to "cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent and virtuous people." For more than two centuries, the Academy has brought together leading U.S. figures from universities, government, business and the creative arts to exchange ideas and promote knowledge in the public interest.

This year's inductees join a distinguished membership of approximately 4,000 fellows nationwide, including 160 Nobel laureates and 65 Pulitzer Prize winners, who have been recognized for their contributions to sciences, scholarship, public affairs and the arts.

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Karl Kandler, assistant professor of neurobiology at the School of Medicine, was honored at a White House ceremony this week as a recipient of the highest award bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers beginning their independent careers.

Kandler will be one of several recipients of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). He was recommended for the award by the National Institutes of Health for his work in furthering the understanding of the mechanisms by which neuronal connections in the developing brain become organized and specialized. Understanding the rules by which neuronal networks form is central to understanding how the brain works and will help researchers understand the cause of mental disorders that are rooted in development. Results of Kandler's research may reveal how neuronal activity is transformed into the "wiring diagram" of the brain.

The PECASE awards recognize some of the country's finest scientists and engineers who, while early in their research careers, show exceptional potential for leadership at the frontiers of scientific knowledge.

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Linda J. Marts, administrator for undergraduate medical education in the Department of Medicine, received a special recognition award at the Clerkship Directors of Internal Medicine annual meeting Oct. 13.

Marts was recognized for her contribution to the organization in pioneering the development of workshops for clerkship administrators from all medicine departments in medical schools throughout the United States.

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Gordon MacLeod, faculty member in the Graduate School of Public Health, has been named vice president of the C. F. Reynolds Medical History Society for 2001-2003. He will assume the presidency of the society in 2003, serving in that capacity until 2005.

MacLeod will be the first person from GSPH to serve as president of the society.

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Anthony J. DeArdo, professor of materials science and engineering, has been elected a fellow of ASM International, formerly the American Society of Metals.

DeArdo was lauded for his outstanding contributions in the area of microalloyed steels, in particular relating to fundamental structure-property relationships and thermomechanical processing.

DeArdo was one of the co-inventors of "green steel," which is replacing leaded steel in many machine shops.

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Dennis P. Curran, Bayer Professor of Chemistry, has received the Award of Excellence in Science from the Boston College Alumni Association.

Curran, a 1975 graduate of Boston College who is responsible for some of the most pioneering research in chemistry, especially the interface of radical chemistry and organic synthesis, was chosen for the award from among 129,000 Boston College alumni.

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Philip Watts, faculty member in French and Italian languages and literatures, has won this year's Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for French and Francophone Studies for his "Allegories of the Purge: How Literature Responded to the Postwar Trials of Writers and Intellectuals in France."

The book was published last year by Stanford University Press.

The Scaglione Prize is awarded annually by the Modern Language Association for the best book in the field published in the preceding year.

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Mary Margaret Kimmel, professor in the School of Information Sciences, has been named a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania. She has written and lectured on children's literacy programs locally as well as internationally.

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Sylvanus H. Nwosu has been appointed assistant dean for diversity and associate professor of mechanical engineering in the School of Engineering.

Nwosu formerly was chairperson of the physics/engineering department at Dillard University. He also served as director of the Materials and Engineering Research Program and the Leadership Enhancement in the Sciences Program and was responsible for the Louisiana Alliance for Minority Participation Program and the Summer Bridge Program at Dillard.

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Four Nationality rooms volunteers have been presented with 20th Century Service Awards for demonstrating outstanding dedication to the program.

The awardees are:

— James Knox, chair of the Irish Room committee, who is past chair of the Nationality Council and chair of the Intercultural Educational Endowment fund. He first became involved with the program in 1942, when he was a Pitt student.

— Charles Klanian, chair of the Armenian Room committee, who oversaw the concept development, funding, design, construction and dedication of the room.

— Marcella Finegold, past chair of the Israel Heritage Room committee and president of the Women's International Club, began her 38-year involvement with the program as executive secretary of the Cultural and Educational Exchange Program. She as a founding member of the Israel Heritage Classroom committee and, in 1988, first chair of the post-dedication committee.

— Michael Komichak, chair of the Ukrainian Room committee, was vice chairman of the Ukrainian Room committee at its inception and participated in all aspects of the room's creating. As host of WPIT's Ukrainian Radio Hour, he rallied his listeners to contribute a significant portion of the room's building fund.

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Jessica Reynolds has been promoted to assistant director of Admissions at Titusville. She had been an admissions counselor at the campus since 1998.

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The Pennsylvania Occupational Therapy Association has given Terence W. Starz, clinical professor of medicine, the POTA Award of Appreciation in recognition of his support for occupational therapy education and research.

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Margo B. Holm, professor and director of post-professional education in occupational therapy, was awarded the Eleanor Clark Slagle Lectureship in recognition of her exemplary contributions to occupational therapy research and education. This is the highest honor awarded by the American Occupational Therapy Association.

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Louis D. Falo Jr. has been appointed chairperson of the Department of Dermatology in the School of Medicine.

Falo, who for the past year has served as the department's interim chairperson, is an associate professor of dermatology.

From 1992 to 1993, Falo was an instructor in both the Harvard Medical School department of dermatology and the division of lymphocyte biology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston. In 1993, he joined Pitt's School of Medicine as an assistant professor and director of research and academic affairs within dermatology and the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. In 1996, he became vice chair of dermatology and two years later was named associate professor.

After graduating summa cum laude with a bachelor of science degree from Pitt in 1981, Falo earned his medical degree and his doctorate in immunology from Harvard, both in 1988.

 


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