Robert Weyant of dental school appointed to Lancet Commission on Global Oral Health
Robert Weyant, professor and chair of the Department of Dental Public Health in Pitt’s School of Dental Medicine, has been appointed as a member of the Lancet Commission on Global Oral Health.
The Lancet, the world’s highest impact academic journal, established the commission in early 2020 in recognition of the global neglect of oral diseases and the need for a broader understanding and commitment to global oral health within public health and global health agendas.
This major undertaking has brought together 27 experts from 16 countries to conduct a scientific review, inquiry and response to urgent, often neglected or understudied oral health predicaments.
Weyant, who is also Pitt’s associate dean of dental public health and community outreach, brings his unique expertise and experience in basic and social epidemiological research related to oral health disparities to the team to address the global policy neglect of oral diseases.
Learn more about the commission’s work to achieve transformational policy and political change.
Graham Hatfull earns lifetime achievement award from European Society of Mycobacteriology
Phage researcher and clinical pioneer Graham Hatfull is this year’s recipient of the prestigious Gardner Middlebrook Lifetime Achievement Award from the European Society of Mycobacteriology (ESM) for his contributions to the study of tuberculosis and related diseases.
The Eberly Family Professor of Biotechnology in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences has pioneered the use of bacteriophages, or just “phages,” to combat antibiotic resistant infections.
Last year he reported on two such efforts in the journals Cell and Nature Communications. One study focused on using genetically engineered phages to rid a cystic fibrosis patient of a yearslong bacterial infection that had prevented him from receiving a lung transplant. Another was on the first use of phage therapy to treat a skin infection caused by Mycobacterium chelonae in an immunocompromised patient.
Hatfull’s lab uses its library of phages, as well as a large stock of bacteria samples, to find the best option to attack infections caused by different strains of bacteria.
The lab’s clinical operation reaches around the globe. The team receives requests from patients who have run out of options to treat infections; in return, Hatfull’s team does the legwork of finding a matching phage, or cocktail of phages, for the job and sends them to people for treatment.
The lifetime achievement award is named for Gardner Middlebrook, who helped develop a blood test and a treatment for tuberculosis, which is caused by infection with a specific strain of Mycobacterium.
PhD candidate Lorraine Blatt wins National Academy of Education fellowship
Lorraine Blatt, who is studying developmental psychology in Pitt's Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC), was named a 2023 NAEd/Spencer Dissertation fellow. The graduate student is among 35 fellows — selected from a pool of 355 applicants — who will receive $27,500 for a period of up to two years to complete their dissertations and attend professional development retreats.
At LRDC, Blatt’s research examines how structural influences on social policy and education shape children’s developmental trajectories and ultimately uphold structural inequities. She is particularly interested in how de facto school segregation relates to academic and social development in early and middle childhood. Since 2020, Blatt (A&S '19G) has published peer-reviewed articles in AERA Open, American Educational Research Journal, International Journal of STEM Education and Perspectives on Psychological Science.
Her winning dissertation, “Contexts of School Segregation and Children’s Academic Skills and Social Development in Elementary School,” uses multilevel growth curve and mixed effects modeling to examine links between school segregation and children’s academic skills and social development. This study will examine whether these links differ across children’s racial, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. It will explore social outcomes rarely considered in segregation research, including children’s prosocial behavior, school belonging and stress about school.
Prior to graduate school, Blatt was a researcher at the Urban Institute, where her work focused on child care, education and anti-poverty policies. In graduate school, she has continued her commitment to research-informed policy through work with the Research-to-Policy Collaboration and teaching an undergraduate course on child development and social policy.
Charles Kotuby in School of Law named visiting professor at Kyiv School of Economics
Charles Kotuby, professor of practice in Pitt’s School of Law, was appointed as a visiting professor at the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) in Ukraine.
The executive director of Pitt’s Center for International Legal Education will foster education efforts to help Ukraine recover from its current war, and will move Pitt and KSE toward greater cooperation. Kotuby joins Pitt Associate Professor of Economics Tymofiy Mylovanov at the school.
Through CILE programs like the Rule of Law Fellowship, Kotuby has already contributed to Pitt’s efforts to help Ukraine. The fellowship — sponsored by local and international firms, foundations and companies — funds tuition and living expenses to deserving Afghan and Ukrainian lawyers pursuing an LLM, or specialized master’s degree in law, from Pitt’s School of Law.
Kotuby is also actively representing Ukrainian clients with claims related to Russia’s invasion as well as various pro bono legal reform efforts in the country.
Read more about how Pitt’s School of Law is helping in Ukraine.
Abimbola Adewumi is Pitt’s new chair of pediatric dentistry
Pitt’s School of Dental Medicine named Abimbola Adewumi its new chair of pediatric dentistry. She will lead the department, which educates Doctor of Dental Medicine and dental hygiene students as well as graduate residents in the specialized field.
Adewumi comes to Pitt by way of the University of Florida College of Dentistry, where she served as a clinical professor. She was also a faculty member on the school’s craniofacial team and researched cleft lip and palate and other craniofacial anomalies.
The board-certified pediatric dentist hails from London, where she completed her master’s degree at the University of London and her specialist training at the King’s College Dental Institute and St. George’s Hospital.
Pitt’s Department of Pediatric Dentistry offers care to patients in the tristate region, including routine exams and cleanings, restorative dentistry and sedation dentistry, among other treatments. Patient self-referrals are welcome — call 412-648-8930 to schedule an appointment for anyone under the age of 18.
Pitt Medicine researchers published in Molecular Cell study
In a new Molecular Cell study, a Pitt team has uncovered a novel mechanism by which cells monitor iron availability, with low iron levels stimulating stress signaling pathways to preserve cell fitness. The findings appear to be particularly important in red blood cells, which use large amounts of iron for the oxygen-transporting protein hemoglobin.
“Because iron plays crucial roles in the body, levels must be precisely monitored within cells,” said senior author Shiori Sekine, assistant professor in the School of Medicine and member of the Aging Institute. “Insufficient iron can cause iron deficiency anemia, which is the most common form of anemia worldwide. But on the other hand, excess iron is also toxic to the body. Our study brings attention to an unappreciated iron monitoring system.”
Sekine conducted this study with Yusuke Sekine, assistant professor in the School of Medicine and member of the Aging Institute, and Ryan Houston, their shared laboratory research technician, as well as researchers from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
The researchers showed that mitochondria, the cell’s energy factories, have a special system to monitor cellular iron levels that involves a protein called DELE1. When iron levels are normal, DELE1 is imported into the mitochondria and quickly degraded. But under low iron conditions, DELE1 remains on the mitochondria surface, where it activates cellular stress responses to help blood cells survive under iron-limited conditions.
Their findings shed light on a new role of mitochondria as iron-sensing organelles, which could eventually inform new strategies to treat anemia and other red blood cell disorders.
Ken Ho from School of Medicine wins 2023 Kerry Stoner Award
Ken Ho, associate professor in the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine, won the 2023 Kerry Stoner Award.
The honor is presented annually by the Allies for Health + Wellbeing, formerly the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force, to an individual for progressing the legacy of its namesake, who died of complications from AIDS in 1993.
Ho is the medical director for the Pitt Men’s Study, the Pittsburgh branch of the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study, and for Project Silk, a community resource that provides free STI and HIV testing for youth and young adults. His research includes HIV prevention, currently with a focus on the use of intermittent pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men.
Considered a national expert on HIV prevention, Ho also was also recognized by Pittsburgh Magazine in 2022 as one of the region’s top doctors.
Margaret Rosenzweig is Pitt-Bradford Oncology Nursing Society scholar-in-residence
Margaret Rosenzweig, a distinguished service professor in Pitt’s School of Nursing, was appointed as a scholar-in-residence for the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS).
Rosenzweig will work in the position with ONS’ chief clinical officer to strategize the organization’s research priorities. Her work in breast cancer — including forming a support and advocacy program in collaboration with Magee Womens Hospital and leading the Allegheny County Breast Consortium — aligns with ONS’ mission to care for and understand cancer patients.
As scholar-in-residence, the professor of medicine will collaborate with organizations and nurse scientists to address emerging oncology research priorities at the national level. Rosenzweig’s lab at Pitt also developed the Advanced Practice Provider Web Education Resource to address the unmet educational needs of advanced practice providers.
Stephanie Eckstrom of Pitt-Bradford Social Work program gets award from AAUW Bradford branch
Stephanie Eckstrom, director of Pitt-Bradford’s Master of Social Work program, earned the Gateway to Equity award from the Bradford branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW).
The Gateway to Equity Award is given annually to an individual, group or organization that advances the AAUW’s mission of advancing gender equity for women and girls through research, education and advocacy.
Eckstrom (A&S ’14G) has led the regional campus’ MSW program since its 2002 inception. As an adjunct professor in Pitt-Bradford’s sociology program, she created the course Sociology of Sexuality. She also helped to form the school’s Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies program and minor.
Along with several other School of Social Work committees, Eckstrom serves as co-chair for the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. She is also a member of the President’s Committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and plans events for heritage and history months at Pitt-Bradford.
Aman Mahajan awarded funding to develop cardiovascular monitoring technology
Aman Mahajan, Peter and Eva Safar Professor and Chair of Pitt’s Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, earned two grants from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to develop innovative cardiovascular monitoring technologies.
Mahajan is the contact principal investigator on an NIH Small Business Technology Transfer grant to develop a wearable, AI-enabled cardiac sensor. The funding is shared with LA-based Sensydia, which will partner with the Pitt researchers to develop a low-cost, noninvasive cardiac performance system that can measure hemodynamics without requiring a clinical procedure. The device would allow earlier, safer and more affordable diagnoses, improved surveillance capabilities, more frequent monitoring of at-risk patients and better clinical decision support for clinicians in guiding therapies.
Mahajan and Ramakrishna Mukkamala, a professor in Pitt’s Department of Bioengineering, are also principal investigators on a project to develop an arm cuff that monitors blood pressure, cardiac output, and left ventricular ejection fraction better than existing technologies. The researchers’ “Smart Cuff” will allow clinicians to rapidly diagnose problems and select appropriate therapies conveniently using a single device.
Haider Ala Hamoudi named to City & State PA's Law Power 100 List
Haider Ala Hamoudi, interim dean of Pitt’s School of Law, has been included on the Law Power 100 List published by City & State PA.
The magazine publishes a list of the most influential legal professionals in Pennsylvania annually. Hamoudi was recognized for his leadership at Pitt as well as his expertise in Middle Eastern and Islamic law. The professor is also editor-in-chief of Arab Law Quarterly and advised Iraqi legislature’s Constitutional Review Committee throughout 2009.
Hamoudi’s research focuses on the complexity of the actual operation of law, rather than studying only authoritative legal texts at face value.
Pitt representatives facilitated, presented at a UN side event
More than 130 experts and advocates for reparatory justice attended a side event co-hosted by several University of Pittsburgh units during the second session of the United Nations’ Permanent Forum on People of African Descent.
The May 31 event — “Building a Case for U.S. Reparations" — is part of a larger initiative by Pitt's David C. Frederick Honors College, the Center for Civil Rights and Racial Justice, and the Center on Race and Social Problems (CRSP) to foster conversation and build a global database on racial equity.
The database project, which aligns with the U.N.'s goal to develop policy solutions that address the status of people of African descent around the globe, began with U.N. Permanent Forum member Justin Hansford's visit in fall 2022.
The Howard University professor of law came to Pittsburgh to present on narratives and data of racism. After hearing Hansford's community-engaged work, Pitt's Ron Idoko — who holds a dual role as associate director of CRSP and the Frederick Honors College's associate director for honors education in social innovation — initiated the global database collaboration.
"The database is actually designed to capture what we think are the best practices, initiatives and policies toward racial equity, and so that the United Nations' Permanent Forum can utilize that data as part of their global declaration in 2024 at the United Nations General Assembly," Idoko said.
Frederick Honors College Dean Nicola Foote opened the event, which corresponded with the Permanent Forum's second annual assembly, with a keynote on the school’s and Pitt’s commitment to supporting transformative social change and the Declaration on the Rights of People of African Descent. Other presenting partner organizations included Howard University School of Law, Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, FirstRepair and the African American Redress Network.
Editor's note: This story has been updated.
Photo by Ron Idoko. From left: Gabby Yearwood, managing faculty director of Pitt's Center for Civil Rights and Racial Justice; Nicola Foote, dean of the Frederick Honors College; and Justin Hansford, Howard University law professor and member of the United Nations' Permanent Forum on People of African Descent.
UPMC veteran Charles Guthrie named executive director of Student Health Services
Charles Guthrie, who has spent 23 years in direct patient care and nursing leadership at UPMC, will lead the University of Pittsburgh’s Student Health Services (SHS) effective June 12.
As executive director, Guthrie will build upon the strengths and success of SHS in providing health care to Pitt’s diverse student population; inspiring and supporting a multidisciplinary team of health care professionals, administrative staff and trainees; and working closely with other partners across campus and in the larger Pittsburgh community.
Guthrie currently serves as a clinical director at UPMC Mercy hospital and as a clinical instructor at Duquesne University, supervising nursing students during their leadership clinical rotation. Prior to these roles, he worked for 18 years at UPMC Children’s Hospital. Guthrie is also an active member of the UPMC PRIDE health employee resource group and the UPMC Conversations That impact LGBTQ+ ERG.
SHS is part of the Wellness Unit within the Division of Student Affairs, which also includes Campus Recreation, the University Counseling Center and Care and Resource Support departments. Elizabeth Wettick has served as the division’s interim director since April 2022, and will return to her previous role as medical director.
School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Professor Rory Cooper receives Distinguished Eagle Scout Award
Rory Cooper, distinguished professor in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, was presented with a Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America.
The award is the highest honor presented to people who have earned the rank of Eagle Scout. With fewer than five awarded nationally each year, Cooper is the only person from Western Pennsylvania to receive the award in the past 15 years.
Cooper is the founding director of Pitt’s Human Engineering Research Laboratories, and the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award is the newest in a long line of achievements for the researcher. Pitt’s assistant vice chancellor for research for STEM-health sciences collaborations has also earned the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal and was a member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame Class of 2023.
Center for Governance and Markets research shortlisted for Elinor Ostrom Prize
A paper by four researchers in Pitt’s Center for Governance and Markets has been shortlisted for the Elinor Ostrom Prize, which recognizes the top research articles published in the Journal of Institutional Economics over the past year.
The article — “Community policing on American Indian reservations: a preliminary investigation” by Adam Crepelle, Tate Fegley, Ilia Murtazashvili, and Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili — is part of the Pitt center’s initiative on understanding barriers to prosperity in Indian Country. Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, pictured above, is founding director of the Center for Governance and Markets, where the four authors conducted their research as fellows, faculty and postdocs.
Crepelle, a research fellow in the center and director of the tribal law and economics program at George Mason University, and Ilia Murtazashvili, associate professor in Pitt’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and Center for Governance and Markets co-director, were fellows with the Hoover Project on Renewing Indigenous Economies at Stanford University.
The winner will be announced at the World Interdisciplinary Network for Institutional Research conference in Catania, Italy, September 20-23.
Physics, astronomy Professor Michael Hatridge earns $5.7 million in U.S. Army research funding
The U.S. Army has awarded more than $5.7 million for two projects led by Michael Hatridge, associate professor of physics and astronomy in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. Both projects bring together a diverse group of researchers to overcome roadblocks in the field of quantum computing.
A four-year, $2.67 million grant is aimed at the next generation of modular quantum computing systems. Hatridge and co-principal investigators Robert Schoelkopf of Yale University have each developed unique methods to link qubits over long ranges.
With the help of Alex Jones, professor in the Swanson School of Engineering and co-principal investigator on the grant, they hope to bring these methods together, operating in tandem, to develop a new kind of quantum computing system. Jones will explore the best ways to leverage the unique properties of each method using the modular quantum computing system developed in Hatridge’s and Schoelkopf’s labs.
Once complete, the team will have developed new hardware approaches to designing superconducting quantum computers with powerful processors that bring the field a step closer to error-detected operations, or the ability to solve problems consistently and accurately.
The Army has also awarded Hatridge’s amplifier a four-year, $3.03 million grant for projects related to both the physics and the fabrication of parametric amplifiers, or “paramps,” which are necessary components of the processors that lie at the heart of quantum computing. The project’s principal investigators include David Pekker, assistant professor of physics in Pitt’s Dietrich School; José Aumentado, a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology; and Hakan Türeci, an engineering professor at Princeton University.
Dietrich School's Patrick McKelvey wins summer stipend from National Endowment for the Humanities
Patrick McKelvey, assistant professor of theatre arts in Pitt’s Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, received a summer stipend from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
McKelvey earned $6,000 in NEH funding, which will support his research for two consecutive months. The summer project will lead to a book about the history of social services for disabled actors in the United States since the late nineteenth century, with particular focus on The Actors’ Fund of America and allied organizations.
The author’s first book, “Disability Works: U.S. Performance After Rehabilitation,” is under contract with NYU press and was the topic of a plenary McKelvey delivered at the American Society for Theatre Research annual meeting. He is also a member of the Equitable Arts Infrastructures Research Group at the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University.
Marci Lee Nilsen earns Betty Irene Moore Fellowship
Marci Lee Nilsen, assistant professor in the School of Nursing, was accepted to the fourth cohort of the Betty Irene Moore Fellowship for Nurse Leaders and Innovators.
Sixteen innovative nurse-scientists will receive $450,000 over three years to conduct a project or study with the potential to address a gap in knowledge, meet a vital need, alter care delivery, or design a new solution to advance health. Nilsen’s project focuses on improving symptom management during cancer treatment in underresourced and diverse settings.
“Head and neck cancer survivors, especially those in rural areas, face barriers to high-quality cancer care, including disparities in access to care and insufficient resources,” said Nilsen, who developed and coordinates UPMC’s Head and Neck Cancer Survivorship Clinic. “We must make these programs equitable and accessible regardless of clinic locations. This fellowship will provide me with training, networking and other activities essential to further my research and advocate for policy changes to achieve equitable, person-centered cancer care.”
Nilsen (NURS ’05, ’08G, ’13G) is not only a faculty member but is a three-time graduate of Pitt Nursing — she earned her bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and PhD from the school. She is also a member of the Oncology Nursing Society, the Gerontological Society of America and Sigma Theta Tau International.
“As the recipient of this highly competitive, prestigious national fellowship, Dr. Nilsen has distinguished herself as one of our most successful and promising alumna and junior researchers to date within the School of Nursing and within the larger University community,” said Pitt Nursing Dean Christine E. Kasper. “With this fellowship, I am confident that she will make major life-long contributions to the fields of nursing and cancer survivorship, particularly for vulnerable, underserved individuals, families and communities.”
In addition to the project, the fellowship program features a curriculum designed and taught in partnership with the University of California, Davis Graduate School of Management and national experts to enhance leadership and innovation capacity, strengthen strategic thinking and collaborative skills, expand professional networks, develop entrepreneurial skills and propel innovative ideas to fruition. A mentor selected by the fellow and an additional mentor provided by the national program office round out the educational experience.
Applications for the 2024 cohort of Betty Irene Moore Fellows are open Sept. 22 through Dec. 1. To learn more, visit the School of Nursing website.
Michael Giazzoni elected to National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships board
Michael Giazzoni, director of Pitt’s College in High School program, was elected to the Board of Directors of the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships (NACEP), as the organization’s four-year public institution representative, to serve a term of three years. He has been a member for 10 years.
Giazzoni will help lead the organization to advance quality college courses for high school students through supporting programs, practitioners, and local and federal policy. He has served the organization as an accreditation peer reviewer and a leadership academy mentor.
NACEP is the professional and accrediting body of the field of dual and concurrent enrollment. NACEP has member institutions in 48 states, including over 475 colleges and universities.
School of Medicine awards highest honor to Princeton bioengineer
Clifford P. Brangwynne, a Princeton University researcher who launched the “biomolecular condensates” cell biology field, received the 2023 Dickson Prize in Medicine, Pitt School of Medicine’s highest honor.
The prize is awarded annually to an American biomedical researcher who has made significant, progressive contributions to medicine. The award consists of a specially commissioned medal, a $50,000 honorarium and an invitation to present a keynote lecture at the University.
“Cliff’s incredibly influential work has opened a new window into biology that could help us better understand diseases affected by changes in protein states, like Alzheimer’s,” said Anantha Shekhar, Pitt’s senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and John and Gertrude Petersen Dean of Medicine.
Brangwynne, who directs the Princeton Bioengineering Initiative, created a new field in cell biology when he and colleagues found that biomolecules within cells undergo phase transitions and can organize themselves in liquid-like forms. Alongside this discovery, the researchers helped demonstrate that malfunctions in fusion and separation during phase transitions of these liquid-like condensates lead to the formation of solid structures. These solid structures resemble the tangles and fibers observed in neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Brangwynne accepted the award during a research symposium on May 12 sponsored by the Pitt and Carnegie Mellon University joint molecular biophysics and structural biology graduate program.
“I am absolutely thrilled to be honored with the Dickson Prize in Medicine, with so many luminaries among the previous awardees. It is particularly gratifying to receive this recognition from the medical community, which I think is a testament to the translational impacts that fundamental research can ultimately have on society,” said Brangwynne, the June K. Wu ’92 Professor in Engineering at Princeton.
Brangwynne earned his undergraduate degree in material science and engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2001 and his PhD in applied physics from Harvard University in 2007. He then completed his postdoctoral training at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics and the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems. Brangwynne joined the faculty at Princeton University in 2011, where he has an integrative research team with backgrounds in engineering, physics, molecular biology and chemistry.