Awards & More

Louis M. Gomez, a professor and the Helen S. Faison Chair in Urban Education in Pitt’s School of Education, and John M. Wallace, a professor in Pitt’s School of Social Work, will be honored during the New Pittsburgh Courier’s 50 Men of Excellence awards on Sept. 30 in Heinz Field’s West Club Lounge. The awards are given to men in the greater Pittsburgh area for their professional excellence and dedication to the community. Also to be honored are 11 Pitt alumni: Curtis Aiken (CGS ’87), president, CEO, and founder of Protech Compliance, Inc.; Kevin W. Cameron (KGSB ’00), vice president of enterprise vendor management for the PNC Financial Services Group; Clarence Curry (KGSB ’71), senior diversity coordinator for the Pittsburgh Sports and Exhibition Authority; Harold Hayes (A&S ’75), reporter, KDKA-TV; Terrance A. Hayes (A&S ’97G), professor of creative writing at Carnegie Mellon University; Max Miller (LAW ’93), director of the University of Pittsburgh’s Law School Innovation Practice Institute; Thomas A. Motley (CGS ’72, GSPIA ’75), past polemarch of the Pittsburgh Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc.; Leon Pamphile (A&S ’73G, EDUC ’78G, ’80G), pastor and executive director of Functional Literacy Ministry of Haiti; William T. Simmons (LAW ’78), director of the Shuman Juvenile Detention Center; Frank L. Torbert Jr. (KGSB ’80), president of FLT Trading Inc.; and Rob Wilson (ENGR ’01), vice president and financial advisor for Blazer Capital Management.

Laurence Glasco, a Pitt professor of history and an author, was honored by Carnegie Mellon University’s Center for African American Urban Studies and the Economy. During a Sept. 10 reception at the University Club, local historians, including Glasco, received recognition for their dedication to uncovering the history of Black Pittsburgh. Glasco has authored several books about the history of African Americans in Western Pennsylvania, including Legacy in Bricks and Mortar: Historic Sites of Black Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, 1995), which he cowrote with Frank E. Bolden and Eliza Smith Brown. He is the editor of The W.P.A. History of the Negro in Pittsburgh (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2004.) Two more books are under way: one about the late K. Leroy Irvis, Pitt alumnus and trustee and legendary Pennsylvania legislative leader who in 1977 became the first African American speaker of the House of Representatives in Pennsylvania and the first Black speaker of any state house since Reconstruction, and a second book, titled August Wilson’s Pittsburgh.

A philosophy book published by the University of Pittsburgh Press (UPP) has won this year’s $10,000 Eureka Prize for Research in Ethics. The international prize, sponsored annually by the Australian Catholic University, was awarded to John Forge for the book titled The Responsible Scientist: A Philosophical Inquiry. The manuscript, published in 2008 as part of UPP’s Philosophy of Science list, was acquired for UPP by Press Director Cynthia Miller. Forge is a research associate at the Unit for History and Philosophy of Science at The University of Sydney, Australia.

Edward Chu, an internationally renowned expert in the biology and treatment of colorectal cancer, has been named chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology in Pitt’s School of Medicine and deputy director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI). Prior to coming to UPCI, Chu served as a professor of medicine and pharmacology at Yale University School of Medicine, chief of the Section of Medical Oncology, and deputy director of the Yale Cancer Center.

The following University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing faculty members have been recognized with research grants and awards:

Michael Beach, an assistant professor in the Department of Acute and Tertiary Care, was awarded $60,000 from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s New Careers in Nursing Scholarship Program. This initiative aims to expand the pipeline of students in accelerated baccalaureate nursing programs.

Catherine M. Bender, a professor in the Department of Health and Community Systems, received a $1.1 million T32 Institutional Training Program grant from the National Institute of Nursing Research. The grant will support the training of nurse scientists to lead independent research programs in cancer survivorship.

Lora Burke, a professor of nursing and epidemiology in the Department of Health and Community Systems, was elected chair of the American Heart Association’s Scientific Council on Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Metabolism. She will serve in the role until 2012. Burke also was appointed as a member of the Clinical and Integrative Diabetes and Obesity Study Section at the National Institutes of Health. She will serve in that role until 2013.

Mary Beth Happ, a professor in the Department of Acute and Tertiary Care, received a $50,000 grant from the Greenwall Foundation’s Kornfeld Program on Bioethics and Patient Care. Her research involves nonspeaking patients in the intensive care unit and explores the ethical implications of their participation in treatment decisions.

Michael W. Neft, an assistant professor in the Department of Acute and Tertiary Care, was selected to serve as chair of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists’ Professional Practice Committee. He also was elected secretary of the association.

Elizabeth A. Schlenk, an assistant professor in the Department of Health and Community Systems, received a $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for her research on promoting physical activity in older adults with comorbidities.

Robert E. Schoen, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh, received the Sadie Gerson Distinguished Scholar Award, established by Sandy Gerson Snyder in honor of her mother who passed away from colon cancer at the age of 51. Schoen, a leader in the field of early detection and prevention of colorectal cancer, is also researching a vaccine to prevent development of colorectal cancer.