Music Professor Reviewed in The New York Times for Her Music Composition
Awards and Accolades
Dietrich School Faculty Member Recognized for Mentoring Excellence
Sunil Saxena, a professor in the Dietrich School's Department of Chemistry, has been recognized with the 2024 Provost’s Award for Excellence in Doctoral Mentoring.
The Provost's Award honors outstanding mentors who substantially impact students seeking research doctorate degrees.
Each year, the Pitt office presents up to four awards, including a $2,500 prize to the graduate faculty member responsible for training the next generation of researchers. The prize is in its 19th year.
Pitt Alumni Receives Prestigious Sloan Research Fellowship for Early-Career Researchers
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 interviewed on WTAE
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.
Sociology Professor published in "Nature"
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.
Lionel Pearson Fellowship Recipient
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.
Award Winning Costumes
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.
Internships That Have Made An Impact
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.
Seed Grantees
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.
Internship Showcase
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.