The University of Pittsburgh was awarded $2.2 million from the United States Department of Energy to establish the Cyber Energy Center, a collaborative ecosystem for regional energy industries and stakeholders to help improve the cybersecurity for the region’s energy system.

Research at the Center will address how to better integrate information technology and operational technology to meet industry needs by using modern tools to achieve better intrusion detection and tolerance, improve modeling and implementation for real-world applications and identify the barriers for energy providers when determining robust cybersecurity programs.

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Undergraduates Collaborate on Plants and Pollution Study

Biologists in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences — with the help of 836 undergraduates — recently published a paper showing how doubling plants' genomes can help them survive in harsh environments. What started in 2018 as an introductory lab course in the Department of Biological Sciences has now become both the largest collaboration in the field and an innovative way to give research experience to hundreds of undergraduate students.

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New Endometriosis Research Hub

The Hub for Endometriosis Research (HER) endeavors to become a comprehensive research hub that will tackle not only the science, but also the widespread lack of information about endometriosis. HER includes about a dozen interdisciplinary researchers and clinicians across multiple Pitt schools and UPMC entities including the Swanson School of Engineering, School of Medicine, UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital and Magee-Womens Research Institute.

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Pittsburgh Quantum Institute Names New Co-Director

Distinguished Professor David Snoke (left) of the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences Department of Physics and Astronomy has been named the new co-director of the Pittsburgh Quantum Institute. He will lead alongside fellow co-director Benjamin Hunt (right) from Carnegie Mellon University. Snoke’s current research focuses on optical methods to study fundamental questions of quantum mechanics in semiconductor systems. His lab has two main emphases — spontaneous coherence of photons with special properties (known as “polaritons”) and nonlinear optics in semiconductor nanostructures.

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Researchers Recognized at Faculty Honors Convocation and Chancellor Installation

Celebrating a new era of leadership,the Faculty Honors Convocation featured the installation of Joan Gabel as Pitt’s 19th chancellor. In addition to the installation, the University honored more than 50 faculty who have received prestigious awards for their innovation and creativity. Representing a wide breadth and depth of research interests, these awards highlighted those who have created new techniques, devices, medicines and forms of expression.

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Three Humanities Researchers Receive National Funding

The National Endowment for the Humanities announced more than $26M in funding for humanities projects nationwide. Three Pitt faculty — two of which being previous Pitt Research Arts & Humanities Microgrant winners — each received a summer stipend grant to fund the following projects:

• Adam Cilli (Pitt Greensburg) — Racial Policing and Criminal Justice Reform during the Great Migration
• Mrinalini Rajagopalan (Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences) — The Other Shah Jahan: An Indian Queen Builds England’s First Mosque
• Annette Vee (Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences) — Public-Facing Scholarship on Automating Writing

These grants confirm our ability to compete in humanities research at the national level in this highly competitive research ecosystem.

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Pitt Center Joins Peer Institutions to Launch University Network for Afghan Women

Researchers at Pitt’s Center for Governance and Markets (CGM) joined peers at 10 other institutions to launch the University Network for Afghan Women, an alliance focused on addressing this gender-based discrimination and supporting the education of Afghan women for generations to come. Led by Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, the CGM has been a leading voice addressing the loss of scholarly leadership in Afghanistan, establishing itself as a platform for Afghan scholarship and a hub for Afghanistan policy thinking and research.

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Review Report from Pitt’s Ad Hoc Committee on Generative AI

Generative AI describes algorithms that are used to create new content, like ChatGPT. This report presents insights drawn from a semester-long effort at the University of Pittsburgh, which gathered and organized perspectives on generative AI in higher education through a collaborative, iterative, interdisciplinary process.

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New York Times Features Pitt Study about Pandemic Drinking in Middle-Aged Women

Middle-aged women experienced increases in alcohol-related health complications during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new research led by Bryant Shuey in the School of Medicine.

Read more in the New York Times >>

The Largest 3-D Map of the Universe Reveals Hints of Dark Energy’s Secrets

Michael Wood-Vasey, Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences, comments on the latest Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument’s massive survey of the cosmos and the evolution of dark energy.

Read more in ScienceNews >>

Major mpox Outbreak Worries Epidemiologists

Jean Nachega, in the School of Public Health, comments on the spread of mpox in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the potential for global transmission.

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Studying the Aftereffects of Ohio Train Derailment

Pitt received nearly $870,000 from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to study the effects of the East Palestine, Ohio derailment. Maureen Lichtveld, dean of the School of Public Health, discusses how the team will study the impact on the people and the environment.

Read more in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette >>

The Office of Innovation & Entrepreneurship

The Innovation Institute, one of the four operating units of the Office of Innovation & Entrepreneurship, protects and manages intellectual property generated by Pitt innovators. It also provides programs, services and funding they need to assess the commercial potential of their innovation and accelerate on the path to market.

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