5 Pitt people on City & State PA’s 40 in Their Forties list
Pitt is well represented on this year’s City & State Pennsylvania “40 in Their Forties” list, which recognizes influential Pennsylvanians shaping public policy, healthcare, advocacy and civic life.
Five Pitt faculty and alumni are among the 2025 honorees:
- Leeanna McKibben, Pitt’s inaugural chief of staff and vice chancellor for the health sciences and vice dean for administration at the School of Medicine, has more than 25 years of health care leadership experience. She previously was named the No. 1 Woman Leader in Pittsburgh in 2024 by Women We Admire.
- Stephanie Lutz (SOC WK ’01), senior manager at Deloitte Government and Public Services, draws on her Pitt Social Work background to help government agencies modernize services and improve outcomes for communities across the state.
- Jennifer Riley (A&S ’01), a senior vice president at Triad Strategies, specializes in issue advocacy in health care, education and energy. She has led long-term campaigns like Marsy’s Law for PA, which pushed for expanded rights for crime victims.
- Elizabeth Rosentel (A&S ’01), senior advisor at Buchanan Ingersoll and Rooney, spent more than 20 years developing key energy and utility policies in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.
- Leigh Ann Urban (A&S ’05), the mid-Atlantic communications director for Veolia North America, has championed community engagement and civic renewal. A former Harrisburg marketing leader, she helped launch the city’s Restaurant Week and has served in local government roles.
— Donovan Harrell
7 Pitt faculty earn Dr. Larry E. Davis Awards
Pitt has honored seven faculty members whose achievements in scholarship, leadership, mentorship and community engagement embody the legacy of Dean Emeritus Larry E. Davis.
The 2025 Dr. Larry E. Davis Awards Dinner was held Nov. 6 at the Heinz History Center. The annual celebration recognizes Pitt faculty whose achievements reflect the late Davis’ vision for mentorship, academic excellence and public service.
This year’s awardees are:
- Sylvanus Wosu, associate dean for diversity affairs and associate professor in the Swanson School of Engineering, received the Academic Icon Award.
- Eboni Zamani-Gallaher, Renée and Richard Goldman Dean and professor of the School of Education, earned the Academic Excellence Award.
- Seth Okyere, teaching assistant professor of urban studies in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, won the Emerging Scholar Award.
- Jules Lobel, Bessie McKee Walthour Endowed Chair and professor in the School of Law, received the Excellence in Community-Engaged Scholarship Award.
- Lori Delale-O’Connor — chair of the Department of Educational Foundations, Organizations and Policy, interim co-director of Center for Urban Education, and associate professor in the School of Education — won the Excellence in Faculty Mentoring Award.
- Jerry Dickinson, dean and professor in the School of Law, earned the Excellence in Leadership Award.
- Rickquel Tripp, vice chair of engagement and social impact and associate professor of emergency medicine in the School of Medicine, won the Excellence in Leadership Award.
— Donovan Harrell
Dietrich School's Caitlin Bruce wins National Communication Association book award
Caitlin Bruce, an associate professor in the Deitrich School of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Communication, has earned national recognition for her scholarship exploring youth culture and graffiti as public expression.
Bruce was awarded the James A. Winans and Herbert A. Wichelns Memorial Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Rhetoric and Public Address by the National Communication Association (NCA) for her 2024 book “Voices in Aerosol: Youth Culture, Institutional Attunement, and Graffiti in Urban Mexico.”
The NCA committee praised “Voices in Aerosol,” saying its “innovative combination of rhetorical theory, urban studies and visual culture challenges traditional notions of public address, expanding the field’s boundaries by incorporating nonverbal forms of communication.”
Founded in 1914, the NCA is a membership-based scholarly society dedicated to advancing communication as a discipline and supporting scholars, teachers and communication professionals through research, teaching, public engagement and advocacy. The Winans-Wichelns Award is one of the association’s highest honors, recognizing a book published in the previous year that makes a distinguished contribution to the study of rhetoric and public address.
Bruce joined Pitt after earning her PhD in Communication Studies at Northwestern University, where she also served as a fellow in the Paris Program in Critical Theory. Her research investigates how public art interacts with institutions and how those institutional frameworks shape and constrain creative expression.
— Donovan Harrell
Photography by Aimee Obidzinski
KDKA names Pitt staff member, alumna among Larry’s Hometown Heroes
A Pitt staff member and an alumna have been named among KDKA’s 2025 Larry’s Hometown Heroes. The award, named for anchor Larry Richert, honors individuals making a positive impact in Pittsburgh communities.
Vernard Alexander (pictured) is the director of the University’s Community Engagement Center (CEC) in Homewood, where he supports neighborhood activities, oversees daily operations of the center and its staff and facilitates collaborations between community organizations and Pitt researchers, staff and students. Alexander was honored for his work supporting aspiring entrepreneurs from all walks of life and his commitment to community empowerment, helping launch countless small businesses in the area.
Lynn Banaszak (EDUC ’89) founded the Caileigh Lynn McDowell Foundation, which is dedicated to spreading kindness through community engagement in honor of Banaszak’s late niece. Her decades of leadership in health care and technology have also helped to raise millions and inspire civic engagement across the region.
Alexander and Banaszak will be recognized alongside three other winners on Oct. 15.
Frederick Honors College's undergraduate journal wins national recognition
The Frederick Honors College’s sponsored journal, the Pittsburgh Undergraduate Review (PUR), won second place in the National Collegiate Honors Council’s Honors Publication Contest.
PUR serves as an interdisciplinary online publication for students at the University of Pittsburgh and beyond to submit and publish research and creative work done with faculty mentorship. The journal, which publishes each fall and spring semester, is open to all undergraduate students to submit into four categories: research, creative writing, visual arts and review. Read the award-winning issue.
The editorial team that won the award includes Editor-in-Chief Abhay Sheeri (A&S ’25); associate editors Sarah Lindley (A&S ’25), Mark Rhoge (A&S ’25) and Katelyn Chen; copy editors Dominique Thomas (A&S ’25), Alexis Byrom and Meghana Dodda (A&S ’25); and graphic designer Hunter Foster.
The National Collegiate Honors Council is the oldest and largest organization that supports honors programs across the country with scholarship, fellowship, network, career and grant opportunities for honors students. They also award students and faculty at honors institutions for their exceptional work each year.
“We’re absolutely thrilled to receive this honor from the National Collegiate Honors Council,” said Frederick Honors College Dean Nicola Foote. “One of our pillars as an honors college is our research opportunities for our students. I’m incredibly proud of our Office of Research and the students who serve on PUR’s editorial team. It’s because of them that we achieved such success.”
— Allison Radziwon
Michael Davila named executive associate dean and chief wellness officer
Michael Davila has been appointed as Pitt's executive associate dean and chief wellness officer, effective Oct. 13.
Bringing extensive experience in crisis response, behavioral intervention, mental health services expansion and holistic programming, Davila will provide strategic leadership in advancing the University’s comprehensive approach to student wellness, which has profound impact on student success and engagement. In the newly created role, he will oversee Campus Recreation, Student Health Services, the University Counseling Center, Care and Resource Support and the Office of Financial Wellness in partnership with the Office of Financial Aid and Admissions.
“Now is the time to reimagine the philosophical foundations of the student experience and to embed well-being across all aspects of campus life,” said Davila in a Sept. 11 announcement. He said he sees tremendous potential at Pitt to “pioneer an integrated program that prepares students not only for academic and professional success, but also for lifelong well-being.”
Davila joins the Pittsburgh campus from Pitt-Bradford, where he has served as vice president and dean of student affairs since May 2022 and is a member of the President's Cabinet. At Pitt-Bradford, he led a comprehensive portfolio including residence life and housing, health and counseling services, career services and more. Serving as a visible and engaged advocate for students, he also represents Student Affairs in institutional strategic planning, policy development, and community partnerships. His recent initiatives include enhancing the first-year experience and developing a new mission and strategic plan for Student Affairs at the regional campus.
Prior to that, Davila served as associate vice chancellor and dean of students at the University of Arkansas at Monticello and served as dean of students at Navarro College in Texas. A lifelong learner, he earned his Doctor of Education in higher education leadership from Texas Christian University, where his dissertation examined the emotional labor of student affairs work. He also holds a Master of Education in higher education administration from Dallas Baptist University and a Bachelor of Arts in religion from East Texas Baptist University. In July 2025, he completed the Institute for Educational Management at Harvard University, a premier executive program for higher education leaders, and has also pursued advanced coursework in leadership and Ignatian traditions at Creighton University and Brite Divinity School.
“I’ve had the pleasure of working with Michael since he started at Pitt-Bradford, and I’ve always been impressed with how seamless our work has been — he is an excellent colleague,” said Vice Provost for Student Affairs Carla Panzella. “I look forward to the innovative perspectives and collaborative leadership he will bring to our division as we work together to support student success and well-being across the University of Pittsburgh.”
Beach retires from Center for Social and Urban Research after 32 years
Scott Beach retired on Sept. 30 after 32 years working at the University of Pittsburgh, where he got his PhD in social psychology in 1993.
Prior to receiving his PhD, Beach served as a graduate student researcher at the University Center for Social and Urban Research (UCSUR) and was hired in September 1993 by Steven Manners to work in the UCSUR Survey Research Program.
In 1999, Beach was named Director of the Survey Research Program at UCSUR. In addition to this role, he served as UCSUR associate director between 2010 and 2016, and was named interim UCSUR director in 2016, serving in this capacity until this year.
Beach has directed dozens of large-scale surveys covering a broad range of topics. In addition to his work in survey methodology and research design, Beach has published in areas such as aging and caregiver stress, elder abuse, and technology and aging. His work on elder abuse, funded primarily by the National Institute on Aging, has focused on financial exploitation of older adults, use of survey technology to improve self-reporting of elder abuse, racial/ethnic disparities in abuse, and screening and detection methods. His recent work in family caregiving has focused on the impact of caregiver burden and stress on the ability to provide quality care and potential neglect.
Beach is on the executive committee of the Center for Caregiving Research, Education and Policy at Pitt's Health Policy Institute. He served as co-director of the National Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Family Support, funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. He was elected a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America in 2017 in recognition of outstanding achievement and exemplary contributions to the field of gerontology.
Douglas White appointed director of new Institute for Bioethics
Douglas B. White, vice chair and professor of critical care medicine in the School of Medicine, has been appointed the inaugural director of the newly formed Institute for Bioethics. The institute, which has been under development since 2024, will serve all six Pitt Health Sciences schools and replace the former Center for Bioethics & Health Law, which is sunsetting.
It will focus on advancing scholarship and education related to the myriad ethical dilemmas that arise in the health sciences and equipping health professionals with the advanced communication skills needed to deliver humanistic patient care, according to an announcement from Anantha Shekhar, senior vice chancellor for health sciences.
White also has been appointed associate dean of bioethics and humanism in medicine in the School of Medicine. In this role, he will likewise help ensure that Pitt’s medical education and graduate research training programs prepare students to emerge as physicians and scientists equipped with the highest order of ethical knowledge and humanistic communication skills.
Lisa S. Parker, professor of bioethics and of human genetics in the School of Public Health, has served as director of the Center for Bioethics & Health Law since 2016. She will now fill a new role as director of the institute’s Center for Research Ethics.
White holds the chair for ethics in critical care medicine and serves as founding director of the School of Medicine’s Program on Ethics and Decision Making in Critical Illness — the first program nationwide dedicated to the study of ethical issues that arise in the care of critically ill patients. He received his medical degree and completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine at University of California, San Francisco. While there, he also completed a master’s degree in epidemiology and biostatistics, a fellowship in bioethics, and served as an assistant professor of medicine before joining the University of Pittsburgh in 2009.
Brodish promoted to assistant provost for institutional research and analytics
Amanda Brodish has been promoted to assistant provost for institutional research and analytics. In this capacity, she will serve on the Office of the Provost cabinet and as a member of the Academic Leadership Team.
Provost Joe McCarthy, in making the announcement, said Brodish has been “instrumental in advancing data-informed decision-making across the University, overseeing both the Office of Institutional Research and the Data Analytics Team. Through her leadership, Pitt has made tremendous strides in the use of predictive and descriptive analytics to improve operational efficiency and student outcomes.”
Brodish also played a key role in the implementation of Pathways, the student success and advising platform, which provides advisors with real-time, data-driven insights to better support students.
Brodish came to Pitt in 2011 as a data analyst in the provost’s office. She later co-founded the Data Analytics Team. In 2021, she was named associate vice provost for data analytics, assuming additional responsibility for the Office of Institutional Research.
With a PhD in social psychology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, her research has examined the cognitive and health impacts of stereotypes and discrimination. Before joining Pitt, she completed postdoctoral work at the University of Michigan, focusing on the effects of racial discrimination on health and well-being.
Audubon International recognizes Pitt-Johnstown for environmental management, outreach, education approach
Pitt-Johnstown has retained its designation as a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary, an Audubon International program.
Participation is designed to help property managers plan, organize, implement and document a comprehensive environmental management program and receive recognition for their efforts. To reach certification, Pitt-Johnstown has demonstrated a high degree of environmental quality in environmental planning, wildlife and habitat management, outreach and education, water and resource management. The campus was first designated in 2019, and properties go through a recertification process every three years.
“The University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown has shown a strong commitment to its environmental program,” said Christine Kane, CEO at Audubon International. “James Bassett, supervisor of the campus grounds, has led the effort to obtain sanctuary designation. Bassett and his crew maintain the 729-acre campus, to which they are to be commended for their efforts to provide a sanctuary for wildlife.”
By participating in the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program, Pitt-Johnstown has been involved in projects that enhance habitat for wildlife and preserve natural resources for the benefit of the local community, including conserving energy and reducing waste, utilizing integrated pest management techniques, naturalizing areas and managing resources in an environmentally responsible manner.
Brad Dicianno named a community hero for work involving those with spina bifida
Brad Dicianno (A&S ’97, MED ’01), vice chair for research in the School of Medicine’s Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, won a Community Heroes Award from Community Living and Support Services (CLASS).
The Pittsburgh organization recognized Dicianno for his work with people in the Pittsburgh community diagnosed with spina bifida, a birth defect that prevents the spine and spinal cord from forming properly. His research focuses on developing and studying interventions targeted to improving health and wellness in individuals with this and other complex disabilities, including wheelchairs, mobile health and preventative care programs.
In addition to his roles in the School of Medicine, Dicianno is medical director of the UPMC Center for Assistive Technology, director of the UPMC Adult Spina Bifida Clinic, and medical director and COO of the Human Engineering Research Laboratories (HERL). He will be recognized with the award at the annual CLASS Community Heroes Awards Dinner on Oct. 28.
— Nick France
Conference on Latin American History honors George Reid Andrews, history professor emeritus
George Reid Andrews, distinguished professor emeritus in the Dietrich School's Department of History, has been honored with the Conference on Latin American History (CLAH) Distinguished Service Award.
The award recognizes honorees whose career in scholarship, teaching, publishing, librarianship, institutional development or other fields demonstrates significant contributions to the advancement of the study of Latin American history in the United States. Andrews was unanimously selected for the award by the CLAH Distinguished Service Award 2025 Committee.
Andrews was recognized for a number of accomplishments, including his original scholarship on Afrodescendants in the Southern Cone and Latin America and his promotion of Afro-Latin American history as an interdisciplinary field. Andrews joined the Pitt faculty in 1981 and served three separate times as department chair. He was honored with the Provost’s Excellence in Mentoring Award in 2016 and the Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award in 1996.
Andrews, as part of this recognition, will serve as the keynote speaker at the 2026 CLAH annual meeting.
— Nick France
Nominations open for Chancellor’s Distinguished Awards in teaching, research, public service
Nominations are open through Oct. 10 for awards recognizing excellence among Pitt faculty members.
Any faculty member who has served at Pitt for at least three years is eligible for Chancellor’s Distinguished Awards in teaching, research and public service. Each awardee receives a cash prize of $2,000 and a grant of $3,000 to support their teaching, research or service activities.
Nomination forms for the Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Award and the Chancellor’s Distinguished Public Service Award can be submitted online. To nominate a faculty member for the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award, read the Distinguished Teaching Award guidelines.
Learn more and find past winners.
Alumnus Timothy Nerozzi earns Robert Novak Journalism Fellowship
Timothy Nerozzi (A&S ’17) was honored with a 2025-26 Robert Novak Journalism Fellowship award.
The annual The Fund for American Studies award empowers promising young journalists to partake in research and long-form content creation. Its name honors the late Robert D. Novak, who worked as a columnist, broadcaster and reporter for The Wall Street Journal, CNN and the Associated Press.
Nerozzi is from Centermoreland, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences with a degree in media and professional communications. He now serves as the foreign affairs reporter for the Washington Examiner. Nerozzi is among seven journalists who will spend a year researching and providing in-depth reporting on their chosen topics surrounding the principles of a free society. His topic will focus on the prevalence and revival of religion in the U.S.
The fellows will be formally honored in November during the fund’s annual Journalism Forum and Awards Dinner in New York City.
— Nick France
8 Pitt faculty develop new courses as Seminar in Composition fellows
This summer, eight faculty members in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences worked to develop new courses as part of the first Seminar in Composition Fellowship cohort.
The impetus of the fellowship is to expand Pitt’s Seminar in Composition (SC) course offerings. Focused on developing reading, writing and discussion skills, SC classes are required for most undergraduates at the University. All SC courses are guided by the same learning goals, regardless of the instructor or whether a specific discipline informs the course.
“We thought it was time to invite faculty from other [non-English] departments who were committed to helping students find their voice and their critical reading and analytical skills — and to do so in the prism of their discipline,” said Jennifer Keating, fellowship facilitator and writing in the disciplines specialist in the Dietrich School’s Writing Institute.
The fellowship is an initiative of the Department of English’s Composition Program. Since last spring, fellows have received guidance in devising an SC class informed by their field of study. Seven new courses will launch this fall, with an additional class beginning in the 2026-27 academic year.
The 2025 Seminar in Composition fellows are:
- Brock Bahler, Department of Religious Studies
- Ellen Kelsey, Department of Biological Sciences
- Bridget Keown, Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies
- Vipin Anantha Krishna, Department of History
- Michelle Morgan, Department of Chemistry
- Stephanie Nygard, Department of Neuroscience
- Lucas Riddle, Department of German
- Ana Sekulić, Department of History
Pitt-Bradford honored for ease of student transfer pathways
Pitt-Bradford is among 251 colleges and universities nationwide named to Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society’s Transfer Honor Roll in honor of the pathways it has created to support transfer students.
The Transfer Honor Roll is decided by 40 key metrics related to the support and success of transfer students, including college cost and financial aid, campus life for transfer students, admission practices and bachelor’s degree completion.
The Transfer Honor Roll was based on analysis from the National Student Clearinghouse and on data sent through the four-year institution’s profile on PTK Connect, Phi Theta Kappa’s online tool designed to help students find their best-fit colleges and career pathways.
Colleges completing the PTK Connect profile are given a Transfer Friendliness Rating. The Honor Roll is chosen from among the top 25% highest-rated colleges.
This is the fifth time Pitt-Bradford has been recognized. It was the only public university in Pennsylvania included on this year’s list.
Pitt-Bradford provides an extensive database of courses at other universities for students to find potential transfer credits. It also has specific transfer agreements with nine community and two-year colleges and offers merit scholarships for transfer students.
“We do our very best to be transfer-friendly, knowing that students are looking to us to help them earn a Pitt degree without losing out on credits they have already earned at other colleges,” said Bob Dilks, director of transfer and nontraditional student recruitment. “Our goal is to make the transfer process as seamless as possible.”
For more information on transferring to Pitt-Bradford, contact Dilks.
— Kimberly Marcott Weinberg
Dave Newman, assistant professor of creative and professional writing, wins Pushcart Prize for short story
A member of the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg faculty was recognized with two of the most prestigious prizes in American literature.
Dave Newman (UPG ’93, A&S ’96G, SOC WK ’13G), assistant professor of creative and professional writing, was awarded a Pushcart Prize for his story, “The Last Thing That Happened Before I Became A Med Tech.”
The Pushcart Prize, an American literary prize published by Pushcart Press, honors the best poetry, short fiction, essays or “literary whatnot” published by small presses during the previous year. Approximately 8,000 editors from around the world can submit up to six pieces for consideration.
“The chance of winning this prestigious literary award is well below 1%,” said John Prellwitz, chair of the Humanities Division at Pitt-Greensburg.
Newman also won the Rattle Readers’ Choice Award for his poem, “I’m Trying to Lead This Old-Timey Veteran.” He also was one of 10 finalists out of 5,169 submissions for the Rattle Poetry Prize. In the author’s note published with the poem, Newman wrote:
“In my late 30s, I went back to school and got a master’s degree in social work. I worked at the veterans hospital in Pittsburgh for years. It was a great environment, filled with really thoughtful employees and patients who appreciated the care. But, like most good things, it often fell apart. Working at the VA really amplified what I’ve always been interested in writing about — the joys and frustrations of daily living and the tax that takes on working folks.”
The author of 10 books, Newman most recently has published three full-length book collections: “Better Than the Best American Poetry” (Roadside Press, 2025), “How To Live Like Li Po In Pittsburgh” (J.New Books, 2024) and “She Throws Herself Forward to Stop the Fall” (Roadside Books, 2024).
“At Pitt-Greensburg, we are very proud of Professor Newman’s many literary contributions,” said President Robert Gregerson. “Receiving the Pushcart Prize and Rattle Readers’ Choice Award in the same year is an amazing recognition of the quality and impact of his work. Our students are very fortunate to learn from such an accomplished writer.”
Other highlights of Newman’s work include “The Slaughterhouse Poems” (White Gorilla Press, 2013), which was named one of the best books of the year by L Magazine. His poems, essays and stories have appeared in magazines and journals around the world, including Ambit, Tears In The Fence, Gulf Stream, Belt and Nerve Cowboy. He appeared in a PBS documentary about Pittsburgh writers narrated by Rick Sebak.
Newman, whose story, “He Never Loved You,” was optioned for a film, is the recipient of the 2024 Pitt-Greensburg Alumnus of Distinction Award, which acknowledges excellence among the campus’ alumni. His greatest passion, in addition to his own exploration of working-class topics and characters in his work, is to help working-class writers through workshops and mentoring. He has guided many Pittsburgh writers to book-length publications, including Sarah Shotland, Richard Gegick, Vessa Yankevitch and more.
He also serves as advisor to the Pendulum Literary Magazine and the Creative Writing Club. Among his on-campus projects is the Literary Publishing Class, which publishes chapbook-length books by award-winning national poets and writers, as well as the Voices reading series and the Pitt-Greensburg Writers Festival, which brings nationally acclaimed writers to campus for a weeklong celebration of writers and writing. The Writers Festival also provides an opportunity for student-writers to read their polished work in a public venue and in the company of these nationally acclaimed writers.
Newman is a resident of Trafford, Pennsylvania, with his wife, the writer and fellow Pitt-Greensburg faculty member Lori Jakiela.
— Susan Isola
Chemistry Professor Alexander Deiters earns American Chemical Society award
Alexander Deiters, Distinguished professor of Chemistry in the Deitrich School of Arts and Sciences, was awarded a 2026 Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society (ACS).
He’s among 10 chemists from around the country recognized for excellence in organic chemistry. It’s his second recent ACS honor, as Deiters received the Pittsburgh Award from the society’s local branch in 2023.
Deiters joined the University of Pittsburgh in 2013 as a professor of chemistry. An expert in medicinal chemistry and protein and nucleic acid engineering, he has presented more than 180 research seminars and has published six book chapters, 14 review articles and more than 190 peer-review papers. Deiters is also the co-founder of Monarch Therapeutics, a Pitt startup that is working to translate a new modular technology to deliver immunotherapies to cancer cells from the lab to the market.
Pitt named a 2025 Forbes Best Employer in Pennsylvania
Pitt is among the top employers in Pennsylvania according to Forbes, which named the University as a Best-In-State Employer for 2025.
Now in its seventh year, the Forbes list highlights organizations that foster an environment where their employees can thrive. Forbes partners with the market research firm Statista to compile the rankings, surveying more than 160,000 employees to identify organizations with positive work environments and sustainable growth. Respondents identify how likely they are to recommend their own workplace and other organizations in their industry. Pitt was last included on the list in 2023.
Forbes also recently named Pitt a “New Ivy,” a designation marking Pitt graduates as among the most desirable for employers.
Jonathan Rubin will lead new Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics journal
Jonathan Rubin, a professor in the Department of Mathematics, is the founding editor-in-chief for the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics’ (SIAM) newest applied mathematics journal.
The SIAM Journal on Life Sciences (SIALS) will provide a platform for research that features the substantive use of quantitative methods — including modeling, computing and mathematical analysis — in the study of biological systems and their applications. The journal will also showcase the development of new mathematical models of biological systems as well as the development and application of methodology for the analysis of such models.
Rubin, who joined the Dietrich School’s faculty in 2000, is also a graduate training faculty member at the Center for Neuroscience, a member of the Center for the Basis of Neural Cognition, an affiliate of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine and an SIAM fellow. He most often works on theoretical and applied problems coming from neuroscience.
SIALS began accepting submissions in July and aims to publish its first issue in early 2026.
— Nick France