Briefly Noted

Ridgway Center Sets Lecture on U.S. Military Preparedness

The Graduate School of Public and International Affairs’ (GSPIA) Matthew B. Ridgway Center at Pitt and the National Security Network will present a free public lecture by Lawrence Korb, “The Overextended American Military—Prospects for Our Future,” at 7:15 p.m. March 19 in the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium.
Korb is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a senior advisor to the Center for Defense Information, and a former GSPIA dean. He will address the U.S. military’s preparedness and overextension and discuss the future of U.S. national security. He also will offer suggestions for how President Obama should deal with challenges the country is facing.

Korb was assistant secretary of defense under President Reagan from 1981 to 1985, overseeing 70 percent of the U.S. defense budget. He has authored more than 20 books and 100 articles on national security issues, appeared frequently on major television shows, and written numerous op-ed pieces in various leading publications.
—Patricia Lomando White

Pitt’s Lynn Emanuel to Give Reading at UPJ

Poet and author Lynn Emanuel, who is a professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh, will be the featured poet of the annual Esther Goldhaber Jacovitz Poetry Series reading at 7:30 p.m. March 19 in the J. Irving Whalley Memorial Chapel on the Pitt-Johnstown campus.

Emanuel, who is director of Pitt’s Writing Program, is the author of four collections of poetry: Hotel Fiesta (University of Georgia Press, 1984); The Dig (University of Illinois Press, 1992), a National Poetry Series Award winner; Then, Suddenly— (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1999), a selection of the Academy of American Poets’ Poetry Book Club and Eric Matthieu King Award; and, forthcoming, Mob and Torch.

Emanuel’s work has been featured in the Pushcart Prize Anthology and in Best American Poetry eight times and is included in The Oxford Book of American Poetry. She has been a Pushcart Prize Anthology poetry editor, a member of the National Endowment for the Arts’ literature panel, and a judge for the National Book Awards. She is a recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships.
—Patricia Lomando White

Pitt Lecture Explores Latest in Computational Mechanics

From designing airplanes to simulating intercellular relations, computational mechanics provides the basis for creating—and improving—products and procedures before they’re brought to fruition. Major industries such as automotive, aerospace, pharmaceutical, and petroleum—as well as the emerging biotechnology and information technology industries—rely on computational mechanics to help with engineering, design, and manufacturing.

To examine the latest developments in this important engineering field, the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering will host J.N. Reddy for its 2009 Landis-Epic Lecture. A Distinguished Professor at Texas A&M University, Reddy is renowned in the broad fields of mechanics, applied mathematics, and computational engineering. The free public lecture, “Modeling and Simulation of Complex Structures: From Physical to Biological Systems,” will be held at 4 p.m. March 20 in the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium. RSVP to mebitz@pitt.edu.
—Morgan Kelly

March 20 Conference to Examine AFRICOM

The University of Pittsburgh will present a conference to examine the United States’ new African Command (AFRICOM), which is intended to provide a unified focus for U.S. security concerns and defensive activities in Africa. The conference, which takes place from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. March 20 in the William Pitt Union Assembly Room, is free and open to the public, though registration is requested.

The AFRICOM leadership is working to develop an interagency pattern of security cooperation on the continent by emphasizing diplomatic and development efforts that will foster human security. The AFRICOM initiative is intended to be mutually beneficial to the United States and African countries, and its success is dependent on a strengthened partnership among African leaders.
Registration can be done online at www.ridgway.pitt.edu/africa_registration.asp or by phone, 412-624-7884.
—Amanda Leff