University Times

The Alzheimer’s Association has named Steven T. DeKosky the 2005 recipient of the Ronald and Nancy Reagan Research Institute Award for his outstanding contributions to research, care and advocacy on behalf of persons with Alzheimer’s and their caregivers.

The Alzheimer’s Association is the first and largest voluntary health organization dedicated to finding prevention methods, treatments and an eventual cure for Alzheimer’s.

The award was presented April 21 to DeKosky at the second annual America’s Great Generations Gala in Washington, D.C.

DeKosky is professor and chair of the Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, and director of Pitt’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. He has extensive clinical research experience in neurochemistry, molecular biology, genetics, epidemiology and clinical neuropsychiatry of dementia. His academic and research career has focused on brain neurological behavior relationships in neurodegenerative diseases, and the brain’s response to injury.

DeKosky has been a national advocate for patients and caregivers with dementia and a public spokesperson, nationally and internationally, in support of patient care and funding for research.

DeKosky is a member of the national board of directors for the Alzheimer’s Association, serving four years as vice chair. He was the chair of the Alzheimer’s Association Medical and Scientific Advisory Council from 1997 to 2002, where he oversaw the expansion of the council’s grants research program.

In 2002 DeKosky was elected chair of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Panel of Alzheimer’s Disease International, the international organization of national Alzheimer’s Associations.

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Pitt-Johnstown President Albert L. Etheridge has been named a distinguished alumnus by the University of Arkansas at Monticello (UAM).

Etheridge is a 1964 graduate of UAM (then known as Arkansas A&M College). He spent 11 years on the UAM faculty (1971-81), including two years as head of the Department of Natural Sciences, and nine years as vice chancellor for academic affairs, the university’s chief academic officer.

He became vice president and provost at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, La., in 1989 before assuming the presidency of Pitt-Johnstown in 1994.

In addition to his bachelor of science degree in biology from UAM, Etheridge holds a master of science degree in zoology from the University of Mississippi and a Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Texas at Austin.

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Bernard Goldstein, dean at the Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH), has been selected to receive the 2005 Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg Annual Award from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ)-School of Public Health. Goldstein will accept the award and present the annual Lautenberg lecture in public health during the UMDNJ-School of Public Health’s convocation ceremony May 23.

The Lautenberg award is presented to an individual with a significant record of advocacy for public health and a record of lifetime achievements in the area of public health.

This month, Goldstein delivered the 2005 Samuel Kuna Distinguished Lectureship in Toxicology at the UMDNJ/Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Goldstein lectured on “The Interface Between Toxicology and Epidemiology: Benzene, Formaldehyde and John Snow.”

The Kuna lectureship is named for Samuel Kuna, one of the founders of the UMDNJ/Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Rutgers University joint graduate program in toxicology.

The Kuna lectureship audience included faculty, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and staff from the Environmental and Occupational Health Services Institute, the largest academic environmental and occupational health program in the United States, which Goldstein helped establish and directed prior to coming to GSPH in 2001.

At UMDNJ, Goldstein also was chair of the Department of Environmental and Community Medicine at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

Also this month, Goldstein chaired a panel of experts at a GSPH peer consultation workshop on the Integrated Risk Information System draft toxicological review of naphthalene by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

EPA and the Oak Ridge Institute of Science and Education conducted the workshop to seek expert opinion on the research needs related to the mode of action of the inhalation carcinogenicity of naphthalene. EPA is expected to consider the comments and recommendations from the expert panel in determining a course of action for assessing potential health risks associated with naphthalene exposure.

In addition, Goldstein hosted a forum on the state of senior health in Allegheny County titled “Empowering Americans to Live Stronger, Longer.” The April 6 event at GSPH was held in recognition of National Public Health Week (April 4-10).

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Also at GSPH, Daniel Weeks, professor in the departments of human genetics and biostatistics and acting co-chair of the Department of Human Genetics, has been named a member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Center for Scientific Review’s genomics, computational biology and technology study section.

The study section reviews research applications on fundamental and applied aspects of genes, genomes and genetics of humans and other organisms.

Weeks’s research focuses on statistical human genetics in the area of mapping susceptibility loci in complex human diseases. His primary interest is developing new methods in the area of linkage analysis for mapping susceptibility genes involved in genetically complex diseases, including otitis media, autism, obesity, age-related macular degeneration, inflammatory bowel disease, endometriosis and Type II diabetes.

Weeks is the program director of GSPH’s post-doctoral training program in statistical genetics and the school’s India-U.S. research training program in genetics.

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Adam Lowenstein, assistant professor of English and film studies, was awarded a $20,000 fellowship from the George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation, one of 12 awardees nationally for the 2005-2006 academic year.

Winners were selected from 160 scholars, representing the fields of literary criticism, film criticism and translation into English, who were nominated by academic officials at their respective institutions.

Lowenstein’s winning project is titled “Scanning Cinematic Spectatorship: Films and Viewers Meeting Halfway.”

Lowenstein focuses on issues relating to the cinema as a mode of historical, cultural and aesthetic confrontation. His teaching and research link these issues to the relays between genre films and art films, the construction of national cinemas and the politics of spectatorship, with particular attention to American, British, Canadian, French and Japanese examples.

He is the author of “Shocking Representation: Historical Trauma, National Cinema and the Modern Horror Film” (Columbia University Press, forthcoming). He also is widely published in cinematic journals.

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Marc Malandro has been appointed director of the Pitt’s Office of Technology Management (OTM), effective May 1.

Malandro has been the office’s interim director since March 1. Before that, he was OTM’s technology licensing manager. “In both roles,” said Provost James V. Maher, “Dr. Malandro has demonstrated the talent and judgment needed to enable the Office of Technology Management to meet its mission to serve the University, as well as the public, by seeking fair market value for intellectual property, using best business practices for the benefit of the University and general community.”

Malandro earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Florida College of Medicine and completed his postdoctoral fellowship at Case Western Reserve University. He is the co-inventor on 10 patents and patent applications.

Prior to joining Pitt last year, Malandro co-founded Sagres Discovery, a functional biology company focused on the understanding of the molecular basis of cancer. His responsibilities as vice president of technology and strategic alliances for that company included managing company intellectual property and technology licensing and overseeing scientific collaborations.

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Joseph W. Fink, assistant vice chancellor for administration at Facilities Management, has been named interim associate vice chancellor for Facilities Management, effective May 1. He succeeds Ana Guzman, who is retiring.

Fink began his career at Pitt in 1969. He has served on the Pitt staff since then, except for 1978-1982, when he worked as private developer, but served as a consultant to the University. He was named assistant vice chancellor in 1994.

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Nancy McCabe, assistant professor of writing at Pitt’s Bradford campus, has received this year’s Chairs’ Faculty Teaching Award for excellence in teaching. McCabe received the award during the UPB’s annual honors convocation April 14.

McCabe began teaching at Pitt-Bradford in 2000. She teaches courses in fiction, poetry, and feature and memoir writing.

The UPB teaching award is open to any full-time faculty member who has taught at Pitt-Bradford for at least the last three consecutive academic years.

The award selection committee reviewed letters of recommendation, student evaluations of teaching, syllabi and grade distribution. The committee also considered the teachers’ knowledge of subject matter and their advising and dedication in working with students beyond the classroom in such activities as internships and research projects.

In addition to teaching, McCabe has published two books, “Meeting Sophie: A Memoir of Adoption” and “After the Flashlight Man: A Memoir of Awakening.” McCabe also has published a teacher’s handbook.

She has published creative nonfiction, short stories, poetry, reviews and academic articles. McCabe also was a winner of a 2000 Pushcart prize for a creative nonfiction essay that appeared in Prairie Schooner, as well as the Jane Geske national award for her piece, “In Another Tongue,” which was published in the 2003 edition of Prairie Schooner. In addition, the 1999 and 2000 editions of Best American Essays listed her work as “notable essays.”

McCabe holds a doctoral degree from the University of Nebraska, a master of fine arts degree from the University of Arkansas and a bachelor of arts degree from Wichita State University.

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Several Pitt faculty and staff were honored by the College of General Studies (CGS) Student Government with Student Choice Awards, given annually to a selection of CGS students’ favorite teachers and staff members.

Faculty from other Pitt schools teach CGS courses. Faculty winners, honored at a dinner April 21, were: Emily Bauman, English; Frank Beatrous, mathematics; Michael Byers, English; Rebecca Denova, religious studies; Joanne Meldon, mathematics; Anna Quiggle, education; Colleen Reilly, education; David W. Rigo, art history, and David Korman, an adjunct professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, which hosts the administration of justice and legal studies programs for CGS.

Staff honored by the CGS Student Government for outstanding service to students were: Vanessa Sterling, Center for Instructional Development and Distance Education; Paula Templer, CGS customer service representative; Elizabeth (Bea) Cox, CGS adviser, and Sherry Miller Brown, director of CGS’s McCarl Center for Nontraditional Student Success.

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The work of Martie Geiger-Ho, instructor of art at Pitt-Bradford, was on display last month in a national juried exhibition titled “National Women’s Exhibition,” at the Impact Artist’s Gallery in Buffalo, N.Y.

The show was juried by Nancy Weekly, head of collections and the Charles Carey Rumsey Curator for the Burchfield Penny Art Center at Buffalo State College. The exhibition included all types of media.

Weekly was looking for work that was able to communicate conceptual ideas in addition to exhibiting artistic integrity.

Geiger-Ho has been teaching World Art Survey I and II at Pitt-Bradford since summer 2003. In the fall, she will teach two sections of Ceramics I, the first time ceramics courses have been offered at Pitt-Bradford.

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Stephanie Thomas, director of Student Activities at Pitt-Titusville, received the Outstanding Service Award at the 2005 National Association for Campus Activities (NACA) National Convention. The award is presented each year to outstanding volunteers in the regions of the organization.

Thomas began her volunteer work with the NACA mid-Atlantic region by serving on the 2002 regional conference as the graphic arts competition coordinator. She has served two years on the regional leadership team as the communications coordinator.