University Times

Freddie H. Fu, Blue Cross Professor of orthopaedic surgery, associate professor in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, head team physician for the Department of Athletics, and medical director of UPMC Health System's Center for Sports Medicine, has been named chairperson of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery in the School of Medicine. Fu will serve as interim chairperson until Jan. 1, when he succeeds current chairperson James Herndon, who will leave Pitt to become chief of orthopaedic surgery at Harvard University.

Fu's community activities include service as chairperson of the board and executive medical director of the City of Pittsburgh Marathon Inc., company physician and member of the board of directors for the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, team physician for Mt. Lebanon High School, member of the honorary board of the Parental Stress Center and ongoing support of the Children's Festival Chorus as well as Competitive Employment Opportunities, a non-profit employment and support agency for people with disabilities. This month, Fu was named winner of the 1997 Humanitarian Award by United Cerebral Palsy of Pittsburgh.

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Bruce G. Buchanan, professor of computer science, has been elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. New members are elected by the membership on the basis of professional achievement and of demonstrated interest, concern and involvement with problems and critical issues that affect the health of the public. Established in 1970 as a unit of the National Academy of Sciences (but with separate membership), the institute is broadly based in the biomedical sciences and health professions, as well as related aspects of the behavioral and social sciences, administration, law, the physical sciences, and engineering. It is concerned with the protection and advancement of the health professions and sciences, the promotion of research and development pertinent to health, and the improvement of health care.

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Jerome S. Schultz, director of the biotechnology and bioengineering center, and Donald R. Mattison, dean of Graduate School Public Health and professor of environmental and occupational health and of obstetrics and gynecology, have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world's largest society of scientists and engineers.

Founded in 1848, AAAS has more than 140,000 members and publishes the weekly peer reviewed scientific journal Science. Each year, more than 250 individuals are elected to the society for their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance the frontiers of science and technology.

As director of the biotechnology and bioengineering center, Schultz heads a highly interdisciplinary, goal oriented program, doing research in the areas of bioengineering, human gene therapy and biomedical engineering. Schultz also is the director of the bioengineering graduate program and professor of both chemical engineering and medicine. He joined the University in 1987 after serving as the deputy director of cross-disciplinary research at the National Science Foundation.

Mattison is being honored for his pioneering research in reproductive and developmental toxicology. His analysis of pesticide contamination in human breast milk led to the development of a risk assessment method to analyze reproductive and developmental health.

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The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford's Assad Panah has been appointed as chair of the Science and Engineering Subcommittee of Pitt's University Research Council (URC). The URC consists of 20 members: 18 from Oakland, and one each from Johnstown and Bradford. The members are advisers to the vice provost for research, who also chairs the council. In addition to advisory responsibilities regarding the academic research rules and regulations, the URC conducts evaluations of Pitt's internal grants. Panah has served on the council since 1989.

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Jon Darling, Johnstown campus professor of sociology, has been appointed director of the Pitt-Johnstown Office of Community Outreach. The office is a new academic unit encompassing several existing and new college programs and will be responsible for coordinating curriculum-related community programs and initiatives.

Darling has served for several years as the sociology department chair. He also has served as president of the Pennsylvania Sociological Society, the Allegheny Valley Sociological Association, and the national Association for Humanist Sociology.