Passings

Jacob “Jake” Birnberg, Robert W. Murphy Jr. professor of management control systems in the School of Business for 42 years, with an additional 20 years as a dedicated emeritus faculty member, died Aug. 28, 2026, at 92.

"Jake took such joy in helping other people succeed,” said Vicky Hoffman, professor emerita at Pitt Business. “He helped me as a junior faculty member and has helped countless others. He kept up with so many people and was truly thrilled with other people’s successes.”

Birnberg kept actively involved in scholarship during retirement and stayed in touch with many former PhD students.

“Almost every former doctoral student I have been in touch with, many of whom are chaired professors at other universities today, have said that they owe their career to Jake or that he had a tremendous impact on their career,” Hoffman said.

Birnberg joined the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business in 1964 after serving on the faculty at the University of Minnesota and the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business. Additionally, he taught at the London Graduate School of Business Studies and Oxford University (Templeton College).

He published more than 100 papers in journals, books and conference proceedings spanning not just accounting, but human behavior, management science, psychology and public policy. His scholarship focused on the application of behavioral sciences to accounting problems, examining questions from both the organizational and the individual or group level.

As Don Moser, professor emeritus at Pitt Business, recalled: "It was Jake’s boundless intellectual curiosity and openminded view of research that built the accounting area into the prominent research group it became under his leadership,”

Birnberg served as editor of Behavioral Research in Accounting (1995-1997) and as an associate editor of Accounting, Organizations and Society at the same time, and remained active on the editorial boards of numerous accounting journals after his retirement. He was president of the Management Accounting Section of the American Accounting Association (2004-2005) and continued to be an engaged member of that section and of the Accounting, Behavior and Organizations section.

Among his many accolades were the Lifetime Scholarly Contribution Award (1999) from the Accounting, Behavior and Organizations Section of the American Accounting Association; Outstanding Accounting Educator Award (2002) from the American Accounting Association.; and the Lifetime Contribution to Management Accounting Award (2009) from the Management Accounting Section of the American Accounting Association.

Doctoral student development was one of his passions. He served for many years as academic director of the Doctoral Program and chaired more than 30 PhD dissertations. He was known to send messages of congratulations when former students or colleagues were published. 

His legacy goes beyond the field of accounting since he took the time to connect on a personal level.

“He was truly a kind and generous person and has played such an important role in so many of our lives,” said Moser. “Jake was so highly regarded by scholars around the world that, whenever I visited other campuses, faculty members would ask me about Jake and tell me to take back greetings.”

Birnberg was a visionary scholar defined above all by his boundless intellectual curiosity, extraordinary generosity and lifelong commitment to helping others.

Memorial gifts are suggested to the Jacob Birnberg Recognition Fund, created several years ago by former doctoral students who wanted to recognize his many efforts on their behalf.

He was the husband of Stephanie and is survived by his daughters; Marcie (Tim) Austen, Carla Birnberg and Dana Birnberg, as well as four grandchildren.

A memorial service in partnership with Pitt will be held at a date to be announced.

— Carole Reinert, senior marketing and communications analyst, School of Busines

Lipika Mazumdar, a nearly 25-year assistant professor of anthropology at Pitt–Greensburg known for her dedication to bringing a wider, worldly perspective to students, died on July 12, 2026.

A memorial for Mazumdar will be held at 5 p.m. Oct. 8 at Campana Hall on the Pitt–Greensburg campus.

“She came from a different culture, from a different country,” noted her long-time colleague Pilar Herr, associate professor of history at Greensburg. “She wanted to impart her vast knowledge of her home country and so many other things. She just wanted to change students’ minds and students’ hearts. That’s who she really was.

“She really made a difference in a lot of people’s lives, even if she didn’t know it at the time,” Herr said. “I think her legacy is that she really cared about her students” as much as she cared about such issues as environmentalism, human rights and animal rights. “She was passionate about teaching students about these subjects and in encouraging students to go and explore the greater world. I guess in that sense she was a true anthropologist.

“She was literally like a big sister to me,” Herr added, and she was a very dedicated instructor in what was sometimes essentially a one-person department, teaching at least four and sometimes six classes a semester.

Mazumdar’s training as a cultural anthropologist informed her choice of courses. She taught at least 44 different courses while here — some repeatedly, others just once — ranging from perennial offerings (such as Introduction to Anthropology; Anthropology of Law; Reproductive Politics; Climate Change and the Human Challenge; plus Anthropology Capstone courses) to singular courses on Gender, Race and Class; Nationalism and the Postcolonial Experience: South Asia; Identities Beyond National Boundaries: Migration in Global Perspective; Transaction and Exchange in Non-western Cultures; and many more.

She directed students doing local fieldwork in anthropology, brought speakers to campus and took students to India for study abroad experiences across several years. On campus she also ran an informal student group called “News of the World” for student discussions on world news at lunchtime in the campus coffee shop, on her own initiative.

Herr traveled with Mazumdar, and the two were planning a trip to India in the near future. “She sometimes would come off to people as a bit gruff, rough on the edges, but that was an act. The reality was she had a huge heart. She went out of her way to take care of her students.”

Herr recalls Mazumdar meeting with one perpetually late student and asking “How can I help you?” It turned out that this student, an immigrant, lived in Pittsburgh and took a lengthy bus trip to and from Greensburg every day; when she was late, it was because her bus was late. Mazumdar offered to take the student back and forth to Greensburg every day that she herself commuted from her Pittsburgh home. “That was who she really was.”

Lipika Mazumdar was born in the state of Bengal, India. She earned simultaneous bachelor of arts degrees in anthropology and English from the University of Wyoming in 1984, then her master of arts degree in anthropology from the same institution in 1987.

That same year she joined Pitt as an anthropology teaching fellow, adding stints as an instructor in the College of General Studies for many individual semesters through 1994, when she began single or several-year periods as a visiting professor, fellow or visiting instructor in anthropology at Loyola University of Chicago, St. Lawrence University, Appalachian State University and Oberlin College.

She did her PhD in anthropology at Pitt in 1998, with a thesis on “Sacred Confluence: Worship, History, and the Politics of Change in a Himalayan Village” in India, In 2002, she joined Pitt–Greensburg as an assistant and a research associate professor.

Through the years, her research subjects have included the question of identity among Tibetan refugees in India; the Chinese, Indian, Korean, Japanese, Filipino, Vietnamese and Syrian-Lebanese communities in Allegheny County, as part of the Steel Industry Heritage Task Force; doctor-patient communication of healthcare options at UPMC; the impact of Hindu nationalism on the Himalayan village where she researched her dissertation; and local religious and educational environmental engagement and activism (including human-animal dynamics) in Leh, India.

She also lectured locally and throughout North America on many of her course and research topics, and served her campus and University on dozens of academic and faculty senate committees.

Another of her Greensburg colleagues, Gina Munir (assistant professor of biology and biological anthropology), first met Mazumdar through one of Mazumdar’s anthropology students, who was a friend of Munir’s. Munir then joined Pitt in 2021.

“Her heart and soul went into making the anthropology department what it was,” she said of Mazumdar. “She felt that everyone should know about anthropology. After all, anthropology is the study of humans.” How can you know humans without studying anthropology?

Munir saw Mazumdar teach several times: “She was very old school,” avoiding PowerPoint presentations, for instance. “‘Share your opinion, share your thoughts, let’s talk about this.’ She wanted to make sure you understood in depth about the material. The students that she mentored became very close. They would go to dinner at her house. When she found a student who was interested she really took them under her wing. She thought of her close students as her children, as her family.”

As a colleague, when Munir was a new faculty member, “she was always keeping us on our toes. She always wanted me to put cultural aspects into my teaching.” And, Munir added, “she always wanted me to be a well-rounded professor. She would help me work better.” The pair were even devising a new class together recently, to be called ‘Humans and Other Animals.’”

Mazumdar’s larger goal, said Munir, was “to make Pitt—Greensburg more interdisciplinary. “You need all aspects of knowledge – not just humanities, not just technology. To understand what it means to be fully human, you need to know everything. Not just one thing.

 “She loved things so deeply and passionately,” Munir recalled. “I think some people took that as a little intimidating.” But it was a sign of her dedication, Munir said. Mazumdar may have been quite short, “but you remembered her because she had the biggest personality you would ever have met.”

Munir remembered one demonstration of her “sensitive and kind heart” during a visit to Munir’s family farm, when Mazumdar got to see baby peacocks that had hatched just hours earlier. She took one and “picked it up and held it to her chest. She just started cradling it like a little baby. It was very heartwarming, and that’s where I think you caught the most of her.

“She was such a brilliant woman and she cared so much not only about animal rights but about human rights,” Munir said — not only about stopping injustices but celebrating the best parts of humanity as well: “That everyone has the same rights in life, that everyone was well rounded and had a chance to be the best human.”

Greensburg communication faculty member Ann Czerwiński was an officemate and then office neighbor with Mazumdar. “You always knew where you stood with her,” Czerwiński wrote in a remembrance. “There were no pretenses; she was always genuinely Lipika. She cared deeply about the study of anthropology and she held the major together … She was committed to keeping the major of anthropology alive and well at Pitt, which was, as you can imagine, a great challenge for one person.

“She still has deep connections with a number of previous students she has taught over the years, and I have heard a couple of them recently sharing many fond memories of her. She genuinely enjoyed being out in nature, watching birds, and working on her various garden plots throughout her stunning nectar-filled yard. If you go to her house, you see aspects of Lipika everywhere you turn. From the milkweed she planted for monarch butterflies and the red bee balm for the many species of bees that visit her gardens, to the numerous birds fluttering around her many bird feeders, to all the beautiful decorations in her home, it is all uniquely Lipika.”

She is survived by her husband, Philip Bittenbender, sister Malabika “Mala” Mukherjee and brother Abhinav “Romi” Mazumdar.

— Marty Levine

Lawrence J. Korb Sr., Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) dean in the mid-1980s, died on April 20, 2026, at 86.

“There were high expectations for Larry’s deanship because of his extensive experience at the highest levels of government and his vast professional network,” said Kevin Kearns, professor in what is now the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA). “Wesley Posvar, who was then (chancellor), was particularly enthusiastic about Larry’s deanship.”

In 1986, Kearns — who had earned his PhD at GSPIA in 1983 — was at Carnegie Mellon as director of executive programs at what is now the Heinz College. “Mindful of Larry’s former position as assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration, I asked him to give a one-day seminar to a group of senior federal executives. ... Larry and I then engaged in discussion of if and how GSPIA might have a greater presence in the area of executive training programs, particularly for federal, state and local executives.

“I remember him asking me in a humorous way, ‘Why are you working at CMU when you have such deep ties in GSPIA?’ ” Kearns said. “He then recruited me to return to GSPIA,” as assistant dean for strategic planning and external programs (1987-88) charged with expanding GSPIA programming in that area.

“We conducted an executive seminar for city of Pittsburgh managers and laid the foundation for expanded programming for nonprofit leaders. He told me that he loved his work at GSPIA and hoped he would stay at Pitt for a long time. Very shortly after, however, some personal and professional ties drew him back to Washington, D.C., where he continued to play significant advisory and consulting roles on issues of defense policy and international affairs.”

Another SPIA faculty member, Louise K. Comfort, recalls Korb impressing then-Gov. Dick Thornburgh in 1986, when Pitt hosted the Governor’s Academy for Pennsylvania state employees. This annual event rewarded Commonwealth employees for exceptional service with professional development sessions: “A planning effort was in progress, but apparently it was not progressing to Larry’s satisfaction. The schedule was set; a group of select Pennsylvania state employees were coming to campus; and Larry asked me to put together a simulated decision-making exercise in six weeks that would focus on decision making in emergencies across multiple state agencies.”

Oddly, for Pennsylvania, the simulation was supposed to involve an earthquake in Pittsburgh. “There had, in fact, been a small 5.2 earthquake north of Pittsburgh near Erie the year before that had caught state employees totally unaware. Larry asked what I needed to create a scenario; I asked for an excellent grad student with GIS (Geographic Information System) skills. We scrambled to create a scenario that generated small landslides, closed bridges, caused evacuation hazards and tested the policy-making skills of the state employees.

“Some 35 distinguished state employees came. Larry welcomed them to GSPIA’s program in public policy and the state employees engaged fully in the simulation. After a lively discussion and enthusiastic response from the group, Larry received accolades from the governor for showcasing GSPIA’s policy-making strategies. It was indeed decision making in process, but Larry managed it well and GSPIA remained in good favor with the governor.”

The school, in a memorial statement, noted Korb’s service to GSPIA at “a formative period in the school’s history. … His leadership reflected a deep connection between academic study and public service — an approach that continues to define SPIA today.

“His tenure at GSPIA,” it continued, “followed the school’s founding by Donald C. Stone and contributed to a broader legacy of leadership that has shaped generations of public servants and policy professionals.”

Born July 9, 1939, Korb served in the Navy in Vietnam and the Pacific, retiring from the Navy Reserve as a captain. He was assistant secretary of defense for manpower, reserve affairs and logistics under President Ronald Reagan and held national security positions at several think tanks in the nation’s capital.

He is survived by his wife of 36 years, Lane Stone; siblings Margaret Bailey, Michael Korb and Joseph Korb; children Mary Kay (Scott) MacMillan, Karen Schanke, Julie (Adam) List and Lawrence (Julie) Korb, Jr.; and grandchildren Jody (Blake) Ellis, Tommy (Caroline) Schanke, Audrey List, Allie MacMillan, Andrew MacMillan, Jane List, Grant Korb and Charlotte Korb.

Memorial gifts are suggested to Support Our Aging Religious (S.O.A.R.).

— Marty Levine

Michael Zemaitis, whose 50-year career was dedicated to the School of Pharmacy, died March 28, 2026 at 79.

“The goal of education is to produce life-long-learners, and Professor Zemaitis typified that goal at the highest level, both as a learner and as a leader,” said Randy P. Juhl, Pharmacy’s dean emeritus and distinguished service professor emeritus, in a remembrance. “He taught such a broad range of courses over that past nearly 50 years; his research and service activities likewise were in a state of constant reformation. And, importantly, he operated at the high standards he set for himself.”

Juhl noted that Zemaitis “maintained a shatterproof loyalty to the School of Pharmacy and the University, despite seismic challenges” — particularly the planned move, in 1984, to close the school, which was reversed after several years.

“Through it all, Mike’s commitments to students and colleagues never wavered, although he wasn’t shy about denouncing” the effects of this plan, Juhl said. “He went on to develop new courses and teaching methods across the Health Sciences. He also served with distinction in important leadership roles in the School of Pharmacy and also in the commonwealth’s efforts to minimize the tragedies of drug abuse. He was a talented and beloved colleague.”

Kellie Mitchell, Pharmacy’s executive director of strategic initiatives and another long-time colleague of Zemaitis, recalled that Zemaitis “was a deeply respected member of the Pitt Pharmacy community whose impact spanned education, research and service.”

His research, she noted, “focused on the genetic and environmental factors influencing hepatic drug metabolism, with significant contributions to analytical methodologies, including the development of assays for drugs, metabolites and endogenous compounds. He established a mass spectrometry laboratory within the school, advancing drug analysis and the study of medicinal plant constituents.

“On a personal level, Mike was passionate about teaching and deeply committed to his students. His sharp wit and warm sense of humor left a lasting impression on all who had the privilege of working with him.”

Patricia Kroboth (also a dean emeritus and distinguished service professor emeritus), on whose master’s and doctoral degree committees Zemaitis served, remembered him as very influential among fellow faculty in the early adoption of technological advances.

“He wasn't a Pollyanna, so when he went after it, and promoted it, he had great credibility among the faculty,” she said. Kroboth recalls that Zemaitis was one of the earliest adopters of Blackboard, used at Pitt as the learning management system before Canvas — one of only six faculty trying it out across many schools at first. He was also, she recalled, “among the first faculty members to use video technology to broadcast a course to two campuses.”

Zemaitis also developed the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program in Pennsylvania, she said, “as a way to identify over-prescribers and patient opiate ‘shoppers.’ He worked through the appropriate channels in Harrisburg and, in August 2015, the program was implemented. By 2023, Pennsylvania was sharing prescription drug monitoring data with over 30 states and military programs to track interstate ‘shopping.’

“He saw that there was a crisis, not only in Pennsylvania but across the nation, and there were some ways of helping,” she said. “He took that on because he said that it was a tool pharmacists could use.”

She also pointed to his work with Chancellor Emeritus Mark Nordenberg and others for the “Continuum of Care” publication and program that addresses all forms of needs of those experiencing homelessness. Zemaitis also teamed with then-Senior Vice Chancellor Arthur Levine to develop the Pitt-industry medical marijuana research joint venture.

In the School of Pharmacy, Zemaitis served as vice chair for education in the department of pharmaceutical sciences from 1996 to 2002, then as interim chair for two years.

Zemaitis held the former job when the school was adding its pharmacy doctorate program, and “he really showed the way again,” Kroboth said. She and he were part of a team that developed a course that remains in place today “as cognitive scaffolding, a survey course of these different areas in pharmacology. He had brought a willingness to try new things that set an example for other people in leadership.”

Another of Zemaitis’ former students and colleagues, Sam Poloyac, is now dean at the University of Texas–Austin’s College of Pharmacy. He was at Pitt for 21 years, including as associate dean.

As a professor, Zemaitis “was a very interactive, engaging faculty member,” Poloyac said. “He explained things in a clear and sometimes entertaining way. He always had that sharp wit that he would bring to the classroom,” and his classes were highly sought by students.

As a colleague, he added, “when you needed to talk about anything, you'd knock on his door. He was a straight shooter and he had a real clear way of thinking about things and he knew the college really well. I could turn to him for advice on many, many topics.”

He was part of a team-taught course with Zemaitis, “Principles of Drug Interaction,” meeting often to discuss the synergy between their two class portions and sharing students’ progress. “He helped me out a lot when I first was faculty,” said Poloyac, and also when Poloyac moved to the tenure track.

Zemaitis had a memorable way with words, and Poloyac recalls discussing how school programs were outgrowing their facility at a faculty retreat in 2003, only to hear Zemaitis sum up the situation: “‘I equate the school to a turtle on steroids. It is growing in the inside but it has nowhere else to go.’

“His wit wasn't just for making people laugh,” he added. “It had a point to it. He was always focused on how we could get better together and I always appreciated that.”

Amy Lynn Seybert, the school’s current dean, who also was Zemaitis’ student and colleague, recalled: “He spent decades teaching, laughing and making every day at Pitt Pharmacy special.”

Michael Alan Zemaitis was born on Aug. 21, 1946, in York, Pa. He earned his BS in Pharmacy from Pitt in 1968 and his PhD in Pharmacology from Penn State’s College of Medicine in 1975. He spent his entire academic career at the Pitt’s School of Pharmacy.

He is survived by his wife, Virginia “Ginny” Zemaitis; children David (Staci) Zemaitis, Mark (Bethany) Zemaitis, Kristi Bigos and Michael Bigos; grandchildren Katie, Michael, Sam, Rebecca, Tessa, Dylan, Rowan, Caroline, Griffin and Makena; sister Ann (Wes) Bridge and brother Tom (Jackie) Zemaitis; nieces and nephews Amy, Jane, Dan (Kelly), Steve (Liz) and their children Elena, Maya, Nolan, Will, Quinn, and Eve.

Memorial gifts are suggested to the F. Gary Haberle Scholarship Fund at the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy.

— Marty Levine

David H. Waldeck, distinguished professor of chemistry, where he served as department chair (2005-2014) and as academic director of the Gertrude E. and John M. Petersen Institute of NanoScience and Engineering (PINSE) starting in 2015, died in February 2026.

A memorial service is planned from 10 a.m. to noon, Sept. 4, 2026.

Waldeck, said departmental colleague Sunil K. Saxena, “epitomized the best of the Pittsburgh ethos: down to earth, honest to the core, fair and probably the hardest-working person I have ever met. He was department chair for nine years and during his stint the department grew from strength to strength.

“Dave was amazingly broad minded in his appreciation of science,” Saxena said. “He led the dramatic modernization of our aging building, helped recruit more than a dozen faculty members, and expanded the research profile of chemistry at Pitt. More than the sum of these numbers, he contributed to every aspect of department life — he had inexhaustible energy and there was no matter small enough that he would not be willing to engage with. Personally, to me he was an invaluable mentor and colleague.”

Waldeck was “a towering figure in chemistry,” Saxena recalled. “Soon after his arrival at Pitt in 1985 he became a world leader in the investigation of electron transfer reactions using a breathtakingly diverse range of experimental methodologies (ranging from solution time resolved spectroscopy and electrochemistry to single molecule and spin Hall measurements). The apogee of these efforts came with the discovery that chiral molecules and environments act as filters of the spin of the electron in electron transfer and electron transport processes.”

Chirality is a kind of right-handedness or left-handedness that all living things possess. “This effect, dubbed chirality-induced spin selectivity, which he and Ron Namaan co-discovered, has now become one of the most tantalizing areas of study in the field of physical chemistry.”

Overall, he said, “Dave leaves an enormous legacy, and his efforts will continue to impact the department for more than another generation.”

Waldeck was born in Cincinnati. He earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Chicago (1983). Following his IBM Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of California–Berkeley (1983-1985), he joined the Pitt chemistry faculty.

He published more than 270 research papers and three monographs, including the textbook Principles of Physical Chemistry. Among his many honors were the ACS Award in Experimental Physical Chemistry, the ISE Bioelectrochemistry Prize, the Morley Medal, the Pittsburgh Award, the ACS-WCC Award for Encouraging Women in Chemistry (Pittsburgh Section), and the Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Award.

He was elected as a fellow of the American Chemical Society, the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

“David was a spectacular colleague and scientist,” said John Cooper, retired chemistry professor and dean of the Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences.

“He was an exceptionally thoughtful person, and a clear thinker both scientifically and as an academic leader. He was extremely effective in leading PINSE, especially through the lockdown” — particularly considering that the center has a large amount of equipment to maintain and is run jointly by the Dietrich School and the Swanson School of Engineering. “He was certainly good at balancing all of that and made it work in both schools.

“He had a major international impact on the field, and opened up new ways of thinking about chemical interactions,” Cooper added. “His graduate students really appreciated his thoughtful, careful guidance in developing them as scientists.”

— Marty Levine

Janice McMannis, beloved and influential academic advisor for Pitt’s sports teams for 20 years in the 1990s and early 2000s, died December 9, 2025, at 78.

“Jan gave her all to the students she worked with, wanting the very best for them and working very tirelessly to support them,” said Mike Farabaugh, director of Academic Support Services. “Her work with individual students and the teams she worked with, specifically football and gymnastics, had profound impacts on their lives after they graduated. I’ve heard from many former student-athletes that they remember life lessons of integrity and the value of education in their lives from Jan. The writing lab in the Willis Center for Academic Support Services for Student-Athletes was dedicated in her name when she retired, and her plaque in the center reminds us of her integrity and commitment to service.”

“Anytime you talked to one of the players, Jan’s name came up,” remembered Chris LaSala, associate athletic director of football administration, who came to Pitt from Boston College in 1997. “Every person: ‘Jan got after me. Jan made sure I got it right. Jan took care of me.’ It was all different forms of love and support.”

McMannis, he said, became a resource for more than academic tutoring for some of her students: “When you’re young and you’re in a new place, you’re searching for people you can trust,” said LaSala of Pitt athletes. “Once you gain the trust of a young person, then they’re going to go to you for everything. And that’s what she was. She could deal with anybody.

“Some of the kids she worked with weren’t completely ready for college,” he added. And if you are a player who becomes prominent, “a lot of people let you get away with stuff and treat you different.” Not McMannis, he said.

“She had a unique talent to be flexible and rigid at the same time,” he said. “Everybody learns different and she was a teacher at heart: ‘You’re going to be good.’ She was going to get you to learn. Some kids might not even realize they were getting there. That was her talent. There was no excuse she hadn’t heard; she called their bluff and got them in there and got them working. That made these kids better adults, without them even realizing it.”

McMannis hired Robin Clarke as a writing tutor in 1998, and Clarke later joined Pitt’s English department as a faculty member. “She was the hardest working person you could imagine,” Clarke said, recalling the long hours McMannis put in. “She would be the last one there. She was just unbelievably dedicated.

“She was very, very smart and she loved analysis. Film was her first love.” Sometimes her students would choose a film course, thinking it might be easier than a literature course, and find that film theory was even more difficult to master, Clarke recalled: “It was always about them developing literacy — film literacy or writing literacy. It wasn’t about just getting them a passable grade. She was a force pushing against that. It was a real boost to their self-esteem.”

McMannis had a movie poster next to the table where she and all the tutors worked with students. It was a poster for “Aliens,” showing Sigourney Weaver holding a child in one arm and a giant weapon in the other. To Clarke, this represented McMannis’ “toughness: ‘I’m not going to let you fail.’ To be a tutor with her, she just lifted people up. She made sure you were doing your best... and it really shaped me and other tutors. She inspired people to be better than they knew they could be, whether it was the tutors or the students. She turned it into a place of really dynamic activity.”

Clarke showed photos of pages from the retirement book presented to McMannis by students and colleagues. “I really don’t know if you actually realize the significant role that you have played in the lives of so many students,” one Pitt athlete wrote. “To me, you were my home away from home; you provided a tender touch of care and concern that went far beyond your call of duty.” Others wrote: “Without you, where would I be?” and “I wouldn’t be where I am today without your guidance.”

One of those students was Penny Semaia, a football player (1999-2003) and then a senior associate athletic director for student life here, working beside McMannis; today he is vice president of stadium relations for the Buffalo Bills.

“She was one of the best academic mentors I’ve had in my collegiate career,” Semaia said. “Many of us, coming into the University, we may not have had the right academic background. She cared for us in ways some of us may never have experienced in life. She cared for us in a way that challenged us.”

He recalls her not only helping him during his final Pitt course, on African dance, but also her attending the class’s final performance and joining students on stage to dance herself.

“I’ve become a public speaker,” he said. “I’m also published now. If it wasn’t for the love and care of Jan and Jan bringing in great tutors like Robin …”

McMannis’ film work — including supporting the films of her husband, local documentarian Tony Buba — also involved joining history faculty member Marcus Rediker’s team filming “Ghosts of Amistad: In the Footsteps of the Rebels” — a Pitt-sponsored film that searches in Sierra Leone for local memories of the seizure of the slave schooner Amistad there in 1839, and for lost ruins of the country’s slave-trading site.

Rediker first got to know McMannis when he was helping with basketball recruiting here. “I got to know her as a really committed academic advisor to students,” he said. “Jan was a person of extreme honesty — especially if she thought somebody was not living up to expectations. She just gave heart and soul to the University of Pittsburgh.”

For “Ghosts of Amistad,” she played a crucial role “for the conceptualization of it and the actual travel arrangements,” Rediker said. “Jan was such an important part of that trip. She had very sharp observations to make about what we were doing and how we should do it,” particularly about the ethical behavior needed among his team, who were coming in from the outside — from a rich country. She also had a crucial role in the film’s editing. “I just think of her as a very intelligent and compassionate commentator on what we encountered in life.

“Especially women and children, as we entered the villages, these people had never seen an older white woman. She handled the situation with such grace and such warmth that everybody loved her. She was a great ambassador for the University.”

Janice McMannis was born on June 29, 1947, in Los Angeles, and grew up in Arcadia, Calif. She earned a master’s degree in English from Western Washington University and a reading specialist certificate from Pitt. In addition to her University career, she worked as an editorial consultant for Wide Angle Magazine and film programmer at Pittsburgh Filmmakers

She also worked with students in prisons, on tribal lands and in public libraries, and was very active in the Braddock community, where she was president of the board of directors of the successor library to Braddock’s Carnegie Library. She also worked on campaigns to try to save Braddock Hospital and organized with North Braddock Residents for our Future against local fracking.

In addition to her husband Tony Buba, she is survived by her sister Marilyn (Evans) Kohler, brother-in-law Stephen Kohler, nephew Nathan Kohler and his wife Heather Kohler.

— Marty Levine

Sanford Abraham Asher, a distinguished professor emeritus of chemistry widely known and honored for pioneering ultraviolet resonance Raman spectroscopy, died Jan. 16, 2026.

Asher joined Pitt in 1980.

“His research program,” recalled chemistry faculty member Sunil K. Saxena, “rapidly became a pillar of our strengths in analytical and physical chemistry. He started a program in the resonance Raman of small molecules which ultimately led to the pioneering development of UV resonance Raman. His group built the conceptual basis for the methodology, moving from strength to strength, from fundamental methodological developments to the analysis of amino acids to full protein structures. Over the last couple of decades this trajectory led to methodology for the determination of amyloid structure and now into the examination of the soil on Mars.”

UV resonance Raman spectroscopy uses lasers to study the movements and structures of proteins in aqueous solutions, since proteins are the building blocks of life on Earth. He also developed UV laser light sources to detect explosives for the military, and to search for signs of life on Mars for NASA. In addition, he studied optical growth conditions for commercial materials and crystalline colloidal assemblies for optical sensing, switching, and displays, under multiple grants from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research, Department of Defense, NASA and its Jet Propulsion Laboratories and many other governmental and commercial concerns.

“While his work on spectroscopy would be a successful career by itself,” Saxena said, “Sandy was equally successful in the field of hydrogels as sensors which led to 30 patents and technology transfers. Over his career, Sandy published more than 330 papers and trained at least 47 PhD students and 65 postdoctoral fellows and visiting scientists, most of whom have gone on to distinguished careers in industry and academia.”

Asher recruited Saxena to the department and was his mentor at the beginning, he added: “In all honesty, Sandy was not a mentor in the classical sense of the word, but he was the mentor I needed. I recall asking him to read my first proposal. Sandy managed to read two paragraphs,” marking one with “AV” for “active voice” and the second with “PV” for “passive voice.”  “‘People make quick decisions,’ he said, ‘and PV does not help.’ That was the lesson I needed.

“I remember being so proud that I had managed to construct and submit a legit full proposal. Sandy saw me with that proposal and said: ‘It will get rejected in six months and you are allowed to be disappointed for only one nanosecond.’ This was probably the best advice that I, as an assistant professor could have received. This became my mantra and the mantra that was imparted to all my students. Last year, I sent out my son to college with this exact advice.

“For Sandy, these were not empty words. He lived a life of intense curiosity. Amidst his many successes he faced occasional disappointments, and he weathered them with equanimity. In many ways he was the sort of person that a university is made for — a deeply committed scholar who examined all evidence and questioned himself before forming his opinion. He shepherded the department to greater heights through his scholarship but even more so by willingly and incessantly taking on the lonely role as the holder of ‘standards.’ He was an invaluable critic in the evaluation of candidates for appointment and tenure. The department is clearly in his debt for always being willing to stand up and speak about what is right for the institution.”

Asher was also a mentor to departmental faculty colleague Haitao Liu, who arrived at Pitt in 2010. “His impact on people's development has been phenomenal,” Liu said. “He was very critical to a lot of departmental efforts and he had very high expectations of” colleagues’ work, while the department, its students and staff have benefited from the many grants Asher brought in. “His scientific stature has contributed very, very importantly to the status and profile of our department.”

Asher was born Sane Abram Ascher in 1947 in a displaced persons camp to parents who were Holocaust survivors. He earned his bachelor of arts degree in chemistry from the University of Missouri in 1971 and his PhD in chemistry from the University of California–Berkeley in 1977, completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard. He received dozens of honors in his field and spoke at more than 350 seminars around the world.

He is survived by his wife, Nancy Day (who is also a Pitt faculty member); children Rachel and David (Karen); grandchildren Liv and Nova Silver, Gregory Asher (Michaun "Bunny" Asher) and Benjamin Asher, and Zachary and Dylan Lescisin, children of his late daughter, Dianne; brother Rabbi Michael (Robin) Asher; and nephews Ash (Erica) and Phillip (Kristin).

— Marty Levine

Roger Benjamin, Pitt’s provost in the mid-1980s, whose later career was dedicated to education assessment and redesign, has died at 83.

“Roger was distinctive to me as a provost particularly because, as an effective administrator, he took an active and direct interest in the individual research of the faculty,” recalled History of Art and Architecture faculty member Katheryn Linduff, who was chair of the department when Benjamin was provost. She remembered him as an “intellectual partner and friend. He was in that sense devoted to getting to know the intellectual shape of Pitt and of individuals in all areas of expertise.

“I was of course quite aware of the research of all members of my group, including his wife, Alison Stones, but as well of those of us who participated in Asian Studies, in which Roger and I were also trained. His research interests were focused in a discipline distinct from mine and our Art Historical team, but he understood well the process of research and its important contribution to the education of our students and to a broader humanistic understanding of human behavior at the most basic levels.

“It was enormously valuable to have a person in his position who was enormously curious about our work and really understood and wanted to support our endeavors. He was aimed at creating and supporting an inclusive atmosphere for faculty that was both responsible and responsive

Born in Lansing, Mich., on April 18, 1942, Benjamin earned his bachelor of arts degree from Michigan State in political science and Chinese, followed by a PhD. He began his academic career in 1968 in the University of Minnesota’s political science department. He received Fulbright senior fellowships to Japan (1969-70), Taiwan (1971-72) and Korea (1973).

Benjamin was the author or co-author of more than 80 articles and books before becoming provost, first at Minnesota and then at Pitt (1983-86). In 1990, he moved to the education department of the RAND Corporation and was part of the Commission on National Investment in Higher Education, making policy recommendations.

He was president of the Council for Aid to Education (2005-2019), creating the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA), which measures students’ higher-order skills (critical thinking, problem-solving, effective written communication), aiding employers in better pinpointing graduates to hire. He also served as chair of the board of the National Hispanic Scholarship Fund (2002-2007) and led projects to redesign universities from Chile to Qatar.

He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Margaret Alison Benjamin (née Stones), children Victoria, Oliver, Elizabeth and Christopher, and seven grandchildren.

— Marty Levine

John “Jack” Schumann was already a tenure-track professor of biology at Gannon University when his department chair assigned him to teach human anatomy.

At first, he kept just one chapter ahead of his students. As he grew to love the work — his own PhD was in morphology — he began post-graduate studies at the University of Pittsburgh, starting with gross anatomy, taught by Sandra Murray, a Pitt professor of cell biology. He would become the School of Medicine’s director of medical anatomy from 1998–2020. He also taught head and neck anatomy at the School of Dental Medicine.

Schumann died Oct. 9, 2025, at 73.

During his time on Pitt’s faculty, Schumann won 12 Excellence in Education Awards. He also received the Kenneth E. Schuit Master Educator Award, the Sheldon Adler Award for Innovation in Medical Education and the Golden Apple Award. In 2017, he was recognized with the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award.

“He was a teacher’s teacher,” Murray said.

Schumann prized his work with students, said his widow, linguist Maria Pimentel-Schumann. He spoke only English — she speaks French, Italian and Spanish, as well — yet he coached his first-year medical students to mastery of the 6,000 terms that comprise the vocabulary of the human body.

“He loved his students, just loved his work — that was his passion,” she said. “He wanted to make sure that all of his students passed, and he would work with them personally.”

Longtime colleague Mark Mooney, now a professor emeritus of oral and craniofacial sciences in the School of Dental Medicine, said anatomy can be an overwhelming rite of passage and credits Schumann with offering an antidote. “Jack kept them motivated, tried to make it fun learning.”

For years, the pair played a theme song as students arrived for each exam — for instance, the Doors’ “The End” (for the final) and Creedence Clearwater Revival’s version of “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” (to keep things upbeat). For the extremities exam, Schumann included an outsized bone from a gorilla’s hand — not for credit, just for fun. “Most of them got it right,” Mooney said. “Jack liked to challenge them with stuff they hadn’t seen.”

Schumann also made sure his students saw as much as possible, in three dimensions and in real time. He collaborated closely with the teams responsible for renovations to the Scaife Hall anatomy lab and campaigned for state-of-the-art technology to broadcast dissections of a single cadaver for students throughout the lab to see in high fidelity. He also created a video library of his own dissections for use as student study tools.

“We had a love of anatomy, an appreciation of the human body, amazement at how it all works,” Mooney said. “We liked to pass that amazement on to students.”  

Memorial contributions can be made to the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center to benefit cancer research at hillman.upmc.com/difference/supporting/make-a-gift or UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, c/o UPMC Cancer Pavilion, Suite 1B, 5150 Center Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15232.

— Sharon Tregaskis, Pitt Med Magazine