University Times

Visitors recently got a firsthand view of Pitt’s big investment into very small technology. The Sept. 29 opening of Pitt’s Petersen Institute of NanoScience and Engineering (PINSE) NanoScale Fabrication and Characterization Facility was heralded with an afternoon-long nanoscience symposium, followed by the first public peek at the $6.1 million facility. More than 200 people gathered […]

Human Resources will provide the Staff Association Council (SAC) with more detailed information on staff salaries, but with the stipulation that the information remain confidential, according to SAC President Rich Colwell. Colwell reported on the status of SAC’s request at last week’s Senate budget policies committee (BPC) meeting, as a follow-up to discussions at last […]

What is the proper proportion of faculty representatives to the University Senate from the various Pitt schools? Faculty Assembly heard a report last week from the new chair of the Senate bylaws and procedures committee, which has wrestled with the issue since last academic year. Senate President John Baker said the topic was discussed in […]

A National Institutes of Health (NIH) multi-million grant to a dozen academic medical centers, including Pitt, hopes to transform how clinical and translational research is conducted. Pitt is among 12 institutions nationwide to receive an inaugural NIH funding grant to develop and advance clinical and translational science as a distinct discipline, according to NIH director […]

Over the next two years, Pitt will establish a novel clinical research registry, drawing from the millions of patients who annually seek treatment at UPMC facilities throughout the region. The registry, one of the first of its kind, is one component of Pitt’s $83.5 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to establish the Clinical […]

“Not a day that goes by that someone’s not calling for a piece of information from University history,” said Michael J. Dabrishus, assistant University Librarian for Archives and Special Collections. University Library System (ULS) archivists are accustomed to fielding all kinds of requests — from an Institutional Advancement staff member in search of background on […]

With the University’s advocacy of the “fitness for life” initiative — a program designed to encourage individuals to create and maintain a healthy lifestyle — are there enough on-campus facilities to support faculty and staff exercise efforts? That was part of a broad discussion last week at a meeting of the University Senate benefits and […]

In a world that grows more interconnected by the minute, global competence is recognized as a necessity for today’s students who must be prepared to compete in an international marketplace. But, what is global competence and how can institutions of higher education deliver the international education students require? William Brustein, director of the University Center […]

“Playing around with snails leads to unexpected things,” University of Utah biochemist Baldomero M. Olivera told an audience last week during Pitt’s Science 2006 symposium. Olivera’s decades of work with venomous sea snails not only has led to the discovery of drugs to treat pain and epilepsy but also to some useful insights for drug […]