People of the Times
The Keystone Initiative for Network Based Education and Research (KINBER) has elected Pitt’s chief information officer, Jinx Walton, as chair. Walton had served as KINBER’s vice chair for the past two years.
KINBER is a nonprofit membership organization that provides broadband connectivity, fosters collaboration, and promotes the innovative use of digital technologies among education, health care, economic development, libraries, public media and other anchor institutions that improve the quality of life for communities in Pennsylvania through research, education and public service. Established in 2010 through a grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, KINBER is committed to delivering equitable, reliable and affordable access, space for collaboration and digital tools for research and education to inspire tomorrow’s scientific discoveries, enable the exchange of ideas and culture among diverse populations, educate the next generation of citizens and revitalize Pennsylvania’s economy.
KINBER’s first project, Penn-REN, delivers a statewide platform for connecting its members through facilities-based fiber-optic networking, which enables value-added services like realistic high definition video, real-time videoconferencing and data sharing, and provides opportunities for member institutions to share best practices, content and programs.
*
Pharmacy and therapeutics faculty member Joshua Thorpe has been named the associate director of analytics and research for the Veteran’s Administration’s Performance Reporting and Outcomes Measurement to Improve the Standard of Care at End-of-life (PROMISE) Center.
Thorpe will lead psychometric and predictive analytical projects to improve prescribing and medical care quality/safety in veterans at the end of life, and increase family satisfaction with the end-of-life care delivered to veterans.
Supported by the VA’s Comprehensive End-of-Life Care Initiative, the goals of the PROMISE Center are to identify and reduce unwanted variation in the quality of end-of-life care throughout the VA, and define and disseminate best practices that contribute to improved outcomes throughout the system for veterans near the end of life and their families.
*
Freddie Fu was awarded the George D. Rovere Award for education at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) meeting in Seattle.
Fu is a Distinguished Service Professor and the David Silver Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the School of Medicine and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
The Rovere award, annually recognizing an AOSSM member’s contribution to sports-medicine education, has been bestowed upon some of the leading names in the field, including Fu’s colleague, Christopher Harner.
*
After a brief hiatus, the New Pittsburgh Courier once again is celebrating the city’s most outstanding African-American men who through their time and talents are making a difference in their communities. Those who are being honored today, July 24, at the 50 Men of Excellence Awards reception, include three people from Pitt:
• Paul Terrance Harper, faculty member in the Katz Graduate School of Business;
• Brandin Knight, assistant coach of the men’s basketball team, and
• Chenits Pettigrew Jr., faculty member in the School of Medicine.
*
Melissa Somma McGivney has been appointed assistant dean for community partnerships in the School of Pharmacy.
McGivney initiated Pitt’s community residency and has served as director for 16 community pharmacy residents in partnership with community pharmacy organizations.
She led the development of and coordinates the NACDS (National Association of Chain Drug Stores) Foundation faculty scholars program for community pharmacy faculty nationwide. She also led the development of the community leadership innovation and practice workshop series.
She earned her PharmD degree from Pitt and completed an ambulatory care residency at UPMC Presbyterian.
McGivney joined the Pitt faculty in 2003.
*
Francis Guyette, faculty member in the Department of Emergency Medicine, received the Walter J. Thomas Citizen Award from the Pennsylvania Emergency Health Services Council (PEHSC) for his work on the air medical task force and his leadership on the critical care paramedic project.
Guyette also is a physician at UPMC Presbyterian and medical director of STAT MedEvac, UPMC’s critical care transport network.
The award recognizes an individual who has performed outstanding community service in emergency health care, and possesses the qualities of a leader and humanitarian.
*
A scientist who has explored how the tens of trillions of microbes that live in the gastrointestinal tract and their genes influence human physiology, metabolism and nutritional status, will receive Pitt’s 2014 Dickson Prize in Medicine.
Jeffrey I. Gordon will accept the School of Medicine honor during Science 2014 — Sustain It!, a showcase of the region’s latest research in science, engineering, medicine and computation that will be held Oct. 1-3.
At 11 a.m. Oct. 2, Gordon will deliver the Dickson Prize in Medicine Lecture. His talk is titled “A Microbial View of Human Development: The Gut Microbiota and Childhood Undernutrition.”
Gordon is the Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor and director of the Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
In the body, microbes, primarily bacteria, but also fungi and archaeons, and the viruses that infect them, outnumber an individual’s human cells by a factor of 10. The number of genes in the body’s indigenous microbial communities far exceeds the number of genes in the human genome. Most of these microorganisms reside in the gut. Through innovative experimental and computational methods, including studies of twins of different ages, geographic locales and cultural traditions, and the use of germ-free animal models colonized with gut microbial communities (microbiota) harvested from healthy and unhealthy humans, Gordon and his students have provided new insights about how the gut microbiota contribute to obesity and metabolic abnormalities, as well as to childhood undernutrition.
Their interdisciplinary studies have helped create a new field of research, altering ways to define the health benefits of foods being produced or that could be produced in response to the global challenges of population growth and sustainable agriculture.
Also, Gordon’s lab is providing a microbial view of human development, including how functional maturation of the gut microbiota is related to healthy growth of infants and children, and helping to usher in a new era of microbiota-directed therapeutics.
Gordon earned his bachelor’s degree in biology at Oberlin College in 1969 and his medical degree at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine in 1973.
He completed a residency in medicine at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, a postdoctoral fellowship in biochemistry and molecular biology at the National Institutes of Health, and a fellowship in gastroenterology at Washington University in St. Louis.
He is the recipient of the Danone International Prize for Nutrition, the Selman A. Waksman Award in Microbiology from the National Academy of Sciences, the Robert Koch Award and many other honors.
He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.
In addition to Gordon, other renowned researchers will deliver plenary lectures at Science 2014. The Mellon Lecture will be given by Stuart Orkin of Harvard Medical School; the Hofmann Lecture will be given by Jeannie T. Lee, also of Harvard Medical School, and the Provost Lecture will be given by Jonathan Rothberg, founder of Ion Torrent Systems and a pioneer in the field of next-generation DNA sequencing.
###
The People of the Times column features recent news on faculty and staff, including awards and other honors, accomplishments and administrative appointments.
We welcome submissions from all areas of the University. Send information via email to: utimes@pitt.edu, by fax at 412/624-4579 or by campus mail to 308 Bellefield Hall.
For detailed submission guidelines, visit “Deadlines” page.