University Times

The National Council of Kappa Kappa Psi Fraternity has awarded Jack R. Anderson, Pitt director of bands, the Distinguished Service to Music Medal in the instrumental music education category. Anderson received the honor at the Pitt Symphonic Band’s spring concert on April 15.

The Alpha Omega chapter of the fraternity nominated Anderson, an alumnus of the fraternity, for the award, which recognizes extraordinary accomplishments by those supporting college and university bands.

Anderson directs the varsity marching band, leads the pep bands at athletics events and conducts the Pitt symphonic band. He has been involved with Pitt bands since age 2 when he went to his first band camp, accompanying his father, who was then assistant director of bands.

Anderson played in the Pitt bands in the late 1960s and early ‘70s and became Pitt’s director of bands in 1995, after serving for nine years as assistant director.

A music educator for more than 35 years, Anderson has led band programs in the Corry, Greenville and Keystone Oaks school districts. He has been a guest conductor and adjudicator for the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association throughout western Pennsylvania.

Pitt’s Student Government Board recently chose him as an “Outstanding Leader” on campus, and in 2001 he received the Paula Crider Outstanding Band Director Award, presented annually to a college or university band director with distinguished service in the field of university bands.

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The Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) board of directors welcomed Gerald D. Holder as a director at the 62nd annual meeting of the ORAU Council of Sponsoring Institutions. The board provides policy and fiduciary oversight of ORAU operations for its membership.

Holder serves as U.S. Steel dean of engineering and professor of chemical and petroleum engineering at Pitt and also represents the University on the ORAU Council of Sponsoring Institutions.

Holder earned his PhD in chemical engineering at the University of Michigan in 1976 and joined the chemical engineering faculty at Columbia University the same year. In 1979, he came to Pitt and served as the chair of the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering from 1987 to 1995. Holder became dean of the engineering school in 1996.

At Pitt, he has received several awards for his research and teaching, including the School of Engineering Award for Outstanding Research and the Board of Visitors Faculty Award.

In 2004, Holder was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest federation of scientists. That honor was bestowed in recognition of his leadership and fundamental contributions to the development of thermodynamic properties and phase behavior in fluid-solid systems, especially in the area of gas hydrates.

Oak Ridge Associated Universities is a consortium leveraging the scientific strength of 98 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.

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‘BioDun Ogundayo, assistant professor of French and comparative literature at the Bradford campus, has been selected by New Jersey-based Educational Testing Services (ETS) to be a part of a nationwide team of professors and teachers who assess college-bound candidates.

Ogundayo will review the work of students in advanced placement French courses. The College Board’s advanced placement program, which is administered by ETS, allows high school students to take college-level courses and exams and earn college credit or advanced placement. Sixty percent of U.S. high schools currently participate in the AP program.

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The American Filtration and Separations Society presented its Lifetime Achievement Award to Shiao-Hung Chiang at the AFS 20th anniversary annual conference and exposition.

Chiang, professor emeritus of chemical and petroleum engineering, is one of the nation’s leading experts in fluid/particle processing and separation technologies and their applications to energy and environmental systems.

Chiang has been active with AFS since 1988. He has published more than 150 papers, chaired technical conferences and sessions and served as a member of the board of directors, educational committee and publications committee.

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Sanford Asher, Distinguished Professor of Analytical Chemistry, Biophysical Chemistry, Materials Science and Physical Chemistry, has been designated as a fellow of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy. Asher formally will be recognized for his “exceptional contributions to spectroscopy” at the annual SAS reception during the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Society’s meeting in October.

Asher’s research program is interdisciplinary and brings together scientists in analytical chemistry, biophysical chemistry, materials science and physical chemistry to solve scientific and technological problems.

Asher has received the Sigi Ziering Award for Outstanding Contribution of a Publication in the journal Clinical Chemistry (2005); the 2004 University of Missouri-St. Louis Distinguished Alumnus Award; the 2002 ACS Pittsburgh Award; the 2002 Ellis R. Lippincott Award, and the 2000 Pittsburgh Technology Council EnterPrize Award.

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Richard Thompson, chair of the telecommunications program at the School of Information Sciences (SIS), recently was awarded a career research award by the International Telecommunications Education and Research Association (ITERA). Thompson was honored for his many achievements in telecommunications research at the ITERA annual conference.

ITERA is a nonprofit organization committed to the advancement of telecommunications science through excellence in research and education.

At SIS Thompson is the lead faculty member for the ITERA organization. Thompson’s research interests include communications switching systems, intelligent networks, user services and the human interface, fault tolerance and cellular automata and probabilistic formal languages.

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Sharon Connor, assistant professor of pharmacy and therapeutics, received the 2007 Alumni Merit Award from Creighton University. The award will be presented at the School of Pharmacy and Health Professions reunion dinner at Creighton University in October.

Connor was honored at Pitt in 2005 by Chancellor Mark Nordenberg for her volunteer efforts to help the underserved populations in Pittsburgh and other parts of the world needing access to pharmaceutical services.

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Scott Mark, assistant professor of pharmacy and therapeutics, has been selected to serve as the 2007 alumnus-in-residence at the Pharmacy Leadership Institute. The PLI sponsors a comprehensive business management and leadership development course for pharmacy executives in upper-level health care positions. The overall mission of the program is to provide those practical management skills necessary to make the business case to stakeholders on the value of pharmacy.

The program is taught through the Executive Leadership Center in Boston University’s School of Management. Each year, an alumnus is selected to participate in the instruction.