Last month the University shut down all on-campus vendors, pending a review of its vending regulations. For more than two decades, Pitt has allowed an eclectic mix of on-campus vendors who paid a daily fee to set up tables near the William Pitt Union. At a Nov. 2 press conference, Robert Hill, executive director of […]
Bees do it: Proving the Honeycomb Conjecture >
November 8th, 2001After completing his proof of the Kepler Conjecture, Thomas Hales turned his attention to a related problem of even greater antiquity: What is the most efficient partition of a plane into equal areas? The Honeycomb Conjecture asserts that the answer is the six-sided honeycomb. Honeybees had always taken the conjecture as a given. But for […]
Renovation, construction projects totaling over $10 million approved >
November 8th, 2001The property and fa- cilities committee of the Board of Trustees has approved five renovation and construction projects totaling $10,269,000. The committee is authorized to approve Pitt construction projects in excess of $1 million. The committee reports its actions to the trustees budget committee for the purpose of including the actions in the operating and […]
Starzl donates papers to ULS >
November 8th, 2001Organ transplant pioneer Thomas E. Starzl, professor of surgery in Pitt's School of Medicine, has donated his personal papers to Pitt's University Library System (ULS). The papers, which span some 200 linear feet, reflect Starzl's medical career before, during and after his significant contributions to the field of transplantation. According to Rush Miller, director of […]
It’s the way things stack up: Pitt’s Thomas Hales solves long-standing math mystery >
November 8th, 2001In 1998, Thomas C. Hales, who was recruited to Pitt this fall as Mellon Professor in the mathematics department, astonished his colleagues by proving Kepler's Conjecture, one of the world's great math problems. Named after the German mathematician Johannes Kepler, who postulated it in 1611, Kepler's Conjecture held that the best possible stacking of balls […]
Rural health center established >
November 8th, 2001Pitt has created a Center for Rural Health Practice at the Bradford campus. The cooperative effort of Pitt-Bradford, the Schools of the Health Sciences, UPMC Health System and Bradford-area hospitals and health care providers was established to help identify and research health care needs in Appalachia. "The purpose behind this initiative," said Richard E. McDowell, […]
Assembly urges changes in Pitt indemnification policy >
November 8th, 2001By unanimous votes, Faculty Assembly on Nov. 6 recommended two changes in the draft of a revised Pitt Research Integrity Policy: * Research misconduct hearings held by the University should be open if the accused employee wants them to be. Under the current draft policy, hearings would be open only if the accused employee — […]