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October 9, 2008

PEOPLE OF THE TIMES

Five Pitt faculty researchers have been selected for the inaugural American Educational Research Association (AERA) fellows program. They are being recognized for their exceptional scientific or scholarly contributions to education research or significant contributions to the field through development of research opportunities and settings that are nationally and internationally recognized. The fellows will be inducted at AERA’s annual meeting in the spring.

AERA is an international professional organization with the primary goal of advancing educational research and its practical application. Its more than 26,000 members are educators, administrators, directors of research, counselors, evaluators, graduate students, behavioral scientists and individuals working with testing or evaluation in federal, state and local agencies.

Pitt inductees are:

• William W. Cooley, professor emeritus in the Department of Administrative and Policy Studies, School of Education.

At Pitt, Cooley was co-director of the Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC) from 1969 to 1977. He served as director of LRDC’s Pennsylvania Educational Policy Studies, director of the School of Education’s Administrative and Policy Studies Computer Laboratory and co-coordinator of the policy, planning and evaluation studies degree program.

He earned his BS in chemistry at Lawrence College in 1952, an MA in science education and statistics at the University of Minnesota in 1955 and a doctorate in science education, statistics and measurement at Harvard in 1958. Cooley’s accolades include selection as a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Palo Alto (1972-73) and serving as president of the American Educational Research Association in 1981-82.

• James Greeno, visiting professor of education at Pitt and the Margaret Jacks Professor of Education emeritus at Stanford University.

Greeno received his BA, MA and PhD from the University of Minnesota. Among his honors are the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Edward Lee Thorndike Award, a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation fellowship and a Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences fellowship.

• Alan Lesgold, professor and dean of the School of Education and professor of psychology and intelligent systems.

Lesgold received his PhD in psychology from Stanford University in 1971.

He is an American Psychological Association fellow in experimental, applied and educational psychology and an American Psychological Society fellow.

In 2001, Lesgold received the APA award for distinguished contributions of applications of psychology to education and training. In 1995, he was awarded the Educom Medal. He was president of the applied cognitive psychology division of the International Association for Applied Psychology from 2002 to 2006.

Lesgold is a lifetime national associate of the National Research Council (National Academies). He also was appointed by Gov. Edward Rendell as a member of the Governor’s Commission on Preparing America’s Teachers in 2005.

• Lauren Resnick, University Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science, senior scientist and project director in LRDC and former director of LRDC.

Resnick, past president of AERA, founded and directs LRDC’s Institute for Learning and is founding editor of Cognition and Instruction and AERA’s Research Points.

Among her many awards and honors are the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction Oeuvre Award, the APA’s Edward L. Thorndike Award and APA’s 2007 Distinguished Contributions to Education and Training Award. She is a lifetime national associate of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, a member of both the U.S. National Academy of Education and the International Academy of Education, and a fellow of both the APA and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

She earned an AD degree in history at Radcliffe College in 1957, graduating magna cum laude with the Radcliffe History Prize; the AM degree in teaching and an EdD in research in instruction, both at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education in 1958.

• Janet Schofield, senior scientist at LRDC and professor and social program chair in the Department of Psychology.

Schofield’s research focuses on the effect of computers on classroom social processes, school desegregation, intergroup relations and social-psychological approaches to increasing college retention rates.

She is a fellow of the American Psychological Society and APA. She received the Gordon Allport Intergroup Relations Prize for her book “Black and White in School: Trust, Tension or Tolerance?”

She has served on boards and committees at the National Academy of Sciences as well as on APA’s Council of Representatives.

Schofield earned a PhD in social psychology at Harvard in 1972.

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Barry London, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Cardiology, School of Medicine, was named one of 16 National Institutes of Health Pioneer Award recipients. London is the first academic medical researcher from the University to receive the distinction.

The award gives London, who also is director of the UPMC Cardiovascular Institute, $2.5 million in direct costs from the NIH to conduct novel experiments to better identify patients at high risk for sudden cardiac arrest, for which no reliable drugs currently exist.

London and colleagues will attempt to develop two revolutionary techniques to image electrical activity in the heart. In the first project, he will try to adapt the most common clinical imaging technique — two-dimensional echocardiography (ultrasound imaging of the heart) — to detect electrical activity of the heart in real time.

In the second project, London and colleagues hope to develop a modified adult stem cell implant to detect nervous system activity affecting the heart.

He will be collaborating with Flordeliza Villanueva, associate professor of medicine and director of non-invasive cardiac imaging and the Center for Ultrasound Molecular Imaging and Therapeutics at UPMC Cardiovascular Institute.

Villanueva and her colleagues at the center aim to develop a novel electrically sensitive micro-bubble contrast agent, which is a tiny, inert gaseous bubble injected into the bloodstream, that when applied to ultrasound imaging will visualize electrical activity within the heart muscle.

If successful, both techniques will increase understanding of arrhythmias, improve better identification of patients at risk for sudden death and guide therapeutic interventions. Identifying novel tools to study arrhythmias in vivo and to stratify arrhythmic risk would represent major advances in cardiovascular care.

Arrhythmias are a major cause of morbidity and mortality, with more than 250,000 people dying from sudden death each year in the United States. 

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Thomas Kleyman, professor of medicine, cell biology and physiology, and pharmacology and chemical biology, has been named director of Pitt’s new Kidney Research Center.

The center will be funded by a nearly $4 million, five-year Kidney Research Center grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), one of only eight such centers in the United States.

Ora Weisz, professor of medicine, cell biology and physiology, will serve as the associate director of the center, which will be part of the Renal-Electrolyte Division in the School of Medicine.

The core directors of the center are: John Johnson, professor of medicine and of cell biology and physiology; Ed Jackson, professor of medicine and of pharmacology and chemical biology; Lisa Satlin, professor of pediatrics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York; Gerard Apodaca, professor of medicine and of cell biology and physiology; Jeffrey Brodsky, professor and acting chair of biological sciences, and Neil Hukriede, assistant professor of microbiology and molecular genetics.

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Blaine Connor has joined the College of General Studies as director of academic programs. He will develop programs, primarily baccalaureate, certificate and post-baccalaureate opportunities for nontraditional students as CGS increases its efforts to respond to emerging educational needs across disciplines and industries.

Connor has held various positions at Pitt, most recently working in educational outreach for the Asian Studies Center in the University Center for International Studies. He also has been an instructor and adviser in the Department of Anthropology.

Connor holds a BA in philosophy from Dartmouth and an MA in English literature from SUNY-Buffalo. He is completing a PhD in anthropology at Pitt.

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Peter Wipf, University Professor of Chemistry, is the 2009 recipient of the American Chemical Society’s Ernest Guenther Award in the chemistry of natural products. The award recognizes outstanding achievements in the analysis, structure elucidation and chemical synthesis of natural products as well as independence of thought and originality. The award consists of a prize, a medallion, a certificate and recognition at an awards ceremony at the ACS national meeting next March.

Wipf, who also is professor of pharmaceutical sciences in the School of Pharmacy, co-director of the Drug Discovery Institute and director of the Center for Chemical Methodologies and Library Development, won a 2008 Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Award.

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Three Graduate School of Public Health faculty members have been designated as national associates of the National Research Council of the National Academies. The faculty members are:

• Donald S. Burke, GSPH dean and UPMC-Jonas Salk Professor of Global Health.

• Bernard Goldstein, professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and former GSPH dean, and

• Judith Lave, chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management.

This honor recognizes extraordinary service to the National Research Council in its role as adviser to the nation in matters of science, engineering and health.

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The Pitt-Bradford Alumni Association has honored Donald Lewicki, associate professor of business management, with the PBAA Teaching Excellence Award.

The award recognizes a UPB faculty member who has exemplified established educational principles, shown dedication in teaching his or her students and excelled in his or her area of specialty.

After a 17-year career at IBM, Lewicki joined UPB 12 years ago as director of Computing, Telecommunications and Media Services. He also teaches technology-related courses in the Division of Management and Education.

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The Department of Pathology’s Division of Experimental Pathlogy has appointed Satdarshan (Paul) Singh Monga, associate professor of pathology and gastroenterology, as division chief.

Monga joined Pitt’s faculty in 1999 after completing his postdoctoral fellowships in gastroenterology, molecular biology and biochemistry at Temple and Georgetown.

His research has focused on various aspects of liver patho-biology, including development, regeneration and cancer, and on diseases such as alcoholic and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. He has received funding by grants from the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Monga also is serving in various capacities nationally. He recently accepted a position on the NIH study section. In this capacity, he will review grant applications and make recommendations to NIH advisory councils or boards.

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Mary Kay Stein, professor of learning policy in the School of Education and senior scientist at the Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC), has been named associate director for educational research and practice at LRDC.

 Stein’s research interests are in classroom-based teaching and learning in mathematics, teacher development, social and organizational influences on teaching and learning, and the relationship between policy and practice. She is the founding director of the School of Education’s Learning Policy Center and spearheaded the learning science and policy PhD program, which advances ideas at the intersection of policy and learning.

Prior to joining the University in 1980, Stein served as assistant to the dean of student affairs at two Penn State regional campuses.

She earned a BS in rehabilitation education and an ME in counselor education at Penn State and a PhD in educational psychology at Pitt.

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The People of the Times column features recent news on faculty and staff, including awards and other honors, accomplishments and administrative appointments.

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