Awards & More

Robert Hill, Pitt’s vice chancellor for public affairs, has been selected to participate in the final judging session for the MERCURY 2007/08 Awards, an international competition honoring outstanding achievement in corporate communications and public relations. The judging will take place Feb. 7 at the Ritz-Carlton Battery Park Hotel in New York City.

Savio Woo, a University Professor of bioengineering in Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering, received the inaugural Diamond Award for Distinguished Achievement in Academia from the University of Washington’s (UW) College of Engineering for his research in bioengineering. Woo received a master’s degree in mechanical engineering and his doctoral degree in bioengineering from UW in 1966 and 1971, respectively.

Established in 2006, the Diamond Award honors outstanding alumni in industry in five categories. This year, the award was extended to recognize an outstanding alumnus for significant contributions to the field of engineering in academia. Woo and the four other Diamond Award recipients will be recognized at an event at UW
May 30.

Throughout his career, Woo has focused on knee ligament healing and repair, particularly medial collateral and anterior cruciate ligaments (ACL), two of the knee’s four major ligaments. More recently, his work has centered on functional tissue engineering of ligament healing and regeneration by examining the processes from molecular and cellular to tissue and organ levels, as well as the use of robotic technology to examine the function of the ACL replacement grafts.

He founded and directs Pitt’s Musculoskeletal Research Center, a multidisciplinary research and educational center that has hosted more than 450 orthopaedic surgeons, bioengineering students, and staff. In 1990, Woo joined the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery in Pitt’s School of Medicine as the inaugural A. B. Ferguson Professor after 20 years at the University of California at San Diego. In 2004, Woo moved to Pitt’s School of Engineering as a senior faculty member in the bioengineering department. Last year, Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg appointed him University Professor, which is given in recognition of eminence in several fields of study, transcending accomplishment in, and contributions to, a single discipline.

George A. Huber, a professor of public health practice in the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH), has been appointed associate dean for public policy. In his new role, Huber will work to develop collaborations between GSPH and business, government, and nonprofit organizations to increase the school’s impact on public health policy and practice.

At GSPH, Huber is leading a team to address complex public health policy issues to speed improvements and innovations in the management and delivery of public services at the local, state, and national levels. He also will assist in the translation of research findings to help improve public health.

Prior to joining GSPH, Huber retired from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where he was a senior vice president and general counsel for more than 30 years. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from the U.S. Naval Academy, master’s degrees in industrial engineering and systems management from Pitt and the University of Southern California, respectively, and a juris doctorate degree from Duquesne University School of Law.

Dennis Curran, Distinguished Service Professor of Chemistry and Bayer Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, won the 2007 Harry and Carol Mosher Award. The Mosher award is given annually by the Santa Clara Valley (California) section of the American Chemical Society (ACS). The award is given to those who recognize and encourage outstanding work in chemistry, advance chemistry as a profession, and provide service to ACS. Curran’s research focuses on natural products total synthesis, new synthetic methods, and stereochemistry.

The award is named for the late Harry S. Mosher of Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif., and his wife, Carol W. Mosher of SRI International, Menlo Park, Calif., charter members and long-time supporters of the ACS Santa Clara Valley section.

The Modern Language Association of America (MLA) presented an award to the University of Toronto Press, the publisher of Pitt professor Lina N. Insana’s book, Arduous Tasks: Primo Levi, Translation, and the Transmission of Holocaust Testimony.

The MLA’s 10th Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Publication Award for a Manuscript in Italian Literary Series carries an $8,000 cash award. Insana, an assistant professor of Italian, received a check for $2,000 and a certificate.

The citation by the MLA selection committee said Insana’s Arduous Tasks “constitutes a significant contribution both to our understanding of Primo Levi’s work and to the study of the Holocaust.”
Insana received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Pitt and her doctorate degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

Patricia D. Kroboth, dean of the University’s School of Pharmacy, has been elected the 2008 Council of Deans chair for the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP), the national organization representing the interests of pharmacy education and educators comprising all 105 U.S. colleges and schools of pharmacy. AACP was founded in 1900 and is committed to excellence in pharmacy education.

Ellen Frank, professor of psychiatry and psychology in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, has been selected by the American College of Psychiatrists to receive the 2008 Award for Research in Mood Disorders. The award is given to an individual who has advanced the understanding and treatment of mood disorders. Frank has pursued a program of clinically relevant research on the psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy of recurrent mood disorders, resulting in significant changes in the treatment of depression and bipolar disorder.

Janice Pringle, research assistant professor of pharmacy and therapeutics in Pitt’s School of Pharmacy, was an invited clinical expert in a studio-taped roundtable debate for the program The Physician’s Role in Guiding Patients to Improved Medication Adherence, hosted by AstraZeneca and Advogent.

Baily’s Beads, the literary magazine of the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, has been recognized by the prestigious Columbia (University) Scholastic Press Association as one of the 12 best college literary magazines in the United States.

The international student press association will announce whether Baily’s Beads has won a Gold (for the top six magazines) or Silver Crown Award during the association’s awards convocation March 16 in New York City. The 12 finalists were chosen from among 1,882 newspapers, magazines, and yearbooks published in the 2008 Crown Awards Program.

It is the second time Baily’s Beads, edited by Lance Maybury in 2007, has been so honored. The magazine earned a Silver Crown in 2005.