Pitt in Brief

Anthony DeArdo recognized for contributions to advancing steel and iron technology

Anthony DeArdo, the William Kepler Whiteford Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science in Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering and director of Pitt’s Basic Metals Processing Research Institute (BAMPRI), was named recipient of the 2010 Benjamin F. Fairless Award from the Association for Iron and Steel Technology, an organization with a membership of more than 15,000 academics, students, and iron and steel producers and suppliers worldwide.

DeArdo has spent 35 years as a professor and researcher in the area of structural materials composition, focusing particularly on microalloyed and stainless steels. His many accomplishments include the development of lead-free steel. DeArdo is founder and director of BAMPRI, a world-renowned research facility that serves the basic metals industry through development and implementation of the latest products and processing technology. The institute helps compensate for the reduction of in-house research and development that has occurred throughout the metal production industry in recent decades. He is an elected Fellow of ASM International and the London-based Institute of Materials, Minerals, and Mining.

—By Morgan Kelly

Pitt grad student one of 23 nationwide to receive award in environmental chemistry

Heng Li, a civil and environmental engineering graduate student in Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering, was one of 23 graduate students nationwide selected for the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Graduate Student Award in Environmental Chemistry. The award is given to students who display potential to make future contributions in environmental chemistry. Recipients receive a one-year membership in the ACS Division of Environmental Chemistry and a cash award. Students from such institutions as Johns Hopkins, Purdue, and Yale universities also were selected for the honor.

—By Morgan Kelly