News from around Pitt for March 21

Gelsy Torres-Oviedo, assistant professor of bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh, was awarded the Society for the Neural Control of Movement’s 2019 Early Career Award. She will be presented the award at the NCM Annual Meeting on April 23-27, 2019 in Toyama, Japan. More details here.

 

Eight doctors from Pitt’s Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine — Cheryl D. Bernstein, Franklyn P. Cladis, Peter J. Davis, Andrew Herlich, Steven L. Orebaugh, Doreen E. Soliman, Erin Sullivan and Ajay D. Wasan — will all be named in Pittsburgh Magazine’s 2019 “Best Doctors” list, which will be published in May. The list is compiled by Best Doctors and derived from the Best Doctors in America database, which includes the names and profiles of more than 50,000 of the best doctors in the United States. Physicians are included in the database after an exhaustive peer review. Only those who earn the consensus support of their peers and meet additional qualification criteria are included.

 

Alan D. George, department chair and professor of electrical and computer engineering at the Swanson School of Engineering, has been named the interim director of the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC). See more details here.

 

Pitt-Johnstown President Jem Spectar recently had an opinion piece appear in The Washington Post titled “Want to close America’s rural-urban divide? Digital infrastructure is the key.” The article emphasized the need for public and private investment in K-16 education to build a new digital economy future for rural America. “Key to this strategy would be significantly increasing participation in expanded coding and STEM programs from K-16 as well as vocational and workforce development programs,” Spectar wrote. He further expounded on how Pitt-Johnstown is at the forefront of such efforts. Read the full article here.

 

Dr. Utibe R. Essien, an assistant professor in the School of Medicine and the VA Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion was selected as one of the 2019 National Minority Quality Forum’s 40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health. The award recognizes all of your accomplishments in the healthcare field and your potential to continue positively impacting minority communities. 

 

John Wallace, chair and professor of social work, will receive the Alan Lesgold Award for Excellence in Urban Education from Pitt’s Center for Urban Education. The award is presented to an educator, leader, community member or organization who demonstrates outstanding work and commitment to innovation and improvement in urban education. The Lesgold Awards will be presented from 4 to 6 p.m. March 21 at the O'Hara Student Center Ballroom. Wallace also received the Distinguished Individual Leadership Award at Coro Pittsburgh’s 2017 Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Awards. The annual awards recognize those who have honored King’s legacy by demonstrating an inclusive approach to leadership