Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences alumnus, Zhen Liu has received the 2024 Sloan Research Fellowship. Zhen graduated from Pitt in 2015 with his PhD. There are 126 researchers who are awarded this fellowship each year. It includes a 2-year $75,000 fellowship to advance research. Liu is now an assistant professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota.
Gayle Rogers, Andrew W. Mellon professor and chair of English, and Dietrich School Special Liaison for Outreach and Development, was interviewed about crypto currency for a story on a Bitcoin scam happening in Pittsburgh.
Fernando Tormos-Aponte, an associate professor of Sociology in the Dietrich School had his research on the growth of science advocacy, specifically with climate change, referenced in a recent Nature article.
You can read the article here.
He and his colleagues work was also reported in Scientific American in 2020.
Alex-Jaden Peart, Dietrich School senior, is a recipient of a 2024-25 Lionel Pearson Fellowship. Peart, who is a Bachelor of Philosophy candidate in the Dietrich School's Department of Classics will also graduate in the spring with a bachelor’s in English writing and international studies as well as minors in German and ancient Greek and a certificate in Transatlantic Studies.
Brittany Graham, the assistant manager of the costume shop for the Department of Theatre Arts in the Dietrich School was recently awarded at The Swedish International Film Festival. Graham designed the costumes for the Titanic-Inspired film, Unsinkable which won for Best Costumes at the festival.
Pitt Day of Giving 2024 Impact Stories:
Thanks to support from donors, students studying at Pitt were granted opportunities to pursue internships that helped them in their professional careers.
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has announced the recipients of grants totaling $2.5 million. The University of Pittsburgh is one of 10 schools who will be receiving $250,000 for a two-year seed grant to help make and implement plans that will help advance more diverse and equitable doctoral STEM programs. After the two-year period universities will be eligible to apply for a four-year, $1.4 million implementation grant from Sloan. That grant will also include scholarship funds for students in those STEM departments.
Last fall the Pittsburgh Media Partnership brought on two Pitt students for an internship in Journalism. The students, Betul Tuncer and James Paul worked weekly to find content for PMP as well as work on their own stories that were eventually picked up by PMP members. Tuncer and Paul also work for The Pitt News with Paul being a staff writer and Tuncer the Editor-In-Chief. You can see the stories they worked on and more information and PMP here.
Dietrich School faculty members from the Departments of Communication and Linguistics are among the winners of the first round of funding for the Year of Discourse and Dialogue.
Luciana DeJesus, a junior at the Dietrich School, won third place in the Pitt News Writing Contest. DeJesus is a double major focusing on Classics and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies with a certificate in writing. The Pitt News Writing Contest is open to all students and offers a chance at being published and winning prize money.
