The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced the Resilient Energy Technology and Infrastructure Consortium, led by West Virginia University with Pitt, Carnegie Mellon University and more than 60 regional partners, as a Regional Innovation Engines award recipient. The $321 million effort combines NSF funding with private and philanthropic support to modernize the region's power grid and revitalize advanced manufacturing across Appalachia. It's projected to generate 21,000 jobs, 150 startups and more than $1 billion in economic growth for the region.

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Pitt Showcases Innovations at Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit

The University of Pittsburgh joined government, military, industry and academic leaders at the 2026 Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit, hosted by U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick July 14–15 at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, to spotlight research tied to national security. Pitt took part in the summit's defense expo, highlighting defense medicine and engineering work from the Center for Military Medicine Research, Human Engineering Research Laboratories, Space Engineering Program, Trivedi Institute for Space and Global Biomedicine and NSF Center for Space, High-performance, and Resilient Computing, along with engineering programs in additive manufacturing, nuclear energy and advanced materials and design. 

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PSC to Expand Supercomputing Power with $10 Million NSF Grant

The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC), a joint initiative of Pitt and Carnegie Mellon University, received a $10 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to build its new generation flagship supercomputer, Bridges-3, which will offer advanced computational nodes to support AI training, accelerated simulation, data analytics and complex research. “We’re not just upgrading hardware, we’re renewing our promise to serve the researchers, educators and students across the country,” said Barr von Oehsen, Pitt’s vice chancellor for research computing and PSC executive director.

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Number of Pitt Fulbright Scholars More Than Doubles for 2026-27

Eight Pitt faculty members, more than double last year’s total, received Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program Awards, one of the most competitive international exchange programs for academic research and teaching. Shannon Garland, Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences; Iliya Lefterov, School of Public Health; Balaji Palanisamy, School of Computing and Information; Jessica Sun, Asian Studies Center; Brittany Taylor, School of Nursing; and Josef Werne, Dietrich School, have confirmed plans to conduct Fulbright-supported research and teaching abroad during the coming academic year.

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Pitt-Lubrizol Manufacturing Model Highlighted in Report to Congress

A continuous manufacturing process co-developed by the Swanson School of Engineering and Lubrizol was cited in the 2025 Manufacturing USA Report to Congress as a model for industry-academic collaboration. Researchers converted a specialty chemical production line from batch to continuous manufacturing, condensing it into a module the size of a shipping container. The switch cut capital costs by 65% and operating costs by 60% while improving product quality. The work built on process-intensification research led by Götz Veser in the Swanson School.

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Murtazashvili Elected to Lead Public Choice Society

Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, founding director of the Center for Governance and Markets in the School of Public and International Affairs, has been elected president-elect of the Public Choice Society, a scholarly association whose past presidents include three Nobel laureates in economics. The society uses economic tools like incentives, trade-offs and individual decision-making to study how politics, voting, bureaucracy and government actually work. Murtazashvili's research focuses on the political economy, security and statecraft, with particular expertise in Central Eurasia, the Middle East and post-Soviet states.

Immunology Researcher Earns National Infectious Disease Award

Melissa Kane, School of Medicine, is one of only eight researchers nationally to receive a 2026 Investigator in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease award from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. The highly competitive award, considered top of the line for established assistant professor-level infectious disease researchers, provides $505,000 to foster high-risk, high-reward research. It will support Kane's work on the genetic and immunological mechanisms that allow some people to naturally control retroviral infections such as HIV—research that could inform future prevention and treatment strategies.

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Cosmic Distances Could Hold the Key to the Universe's Expansion Puzzle

Scientists disagree over two main ways to measure the universe's expansion rate, pointing to a potential flaw in our foundational understanding of the cosmos. To directly measure the universe’s expansion rate, Arthur Kosowsky, Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, says we need to tackle a problem that has dogged astronomers for generations: pinning down accurate distances to distant objects.

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Living Eye Drop Could Help Damaged Corneas Heal

A genetically engineered eye drop that's alive could offer a smarter way to treat corneal injuries and dry eye disease. Anthony St. Leger, School of Medicine, and colleagues modified a benign bacterium that already lives under the eyelid so it continuously secretes interleukin-10 (IL-10), a small protein that regulates inflammation. Scratched corneas treated with the engineered bacteria healed faster than those treated with regular bacteria or saline, and when the IL-10 receptor was blocked, the healing benefit disappeared, confirming the effect depended on IL-10. The findings were published in Cell Reports.

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Old-School Board Games Make a Comeback

Gen Z and millennials are ditching happy hour and gathering for board game night instead. Zachary Horton, Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, studies games and says in-person board game clubs are surging nationwide, offering nostalgia and connection with none of the hangovers. Beyond the fun, he notes the format also sharpens the brain, improving focus, critical thinking and logic.

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Study Solves Mystery of Why Bird Flu Hits Cows' Udders, Not Lungs

In 2024, dairy cows in the Texas Panhandle came down with a mastitis-like illness that bacterial tests failed to explain. The culprit turned out to be H5N1 avian influenza, marking the first known jump of the virus into cattle and targeting the cows' udders instead of the lungs as it typically does in other mammals. Suresh Kuchipudi and his team at the School of Public Health, along with Lauren Pepi, Harvard Medical School, found mammary glands carry the specific receptor the virus needs to bind and replicate while respiratory tissue does not. Published in Science Advances, the findings provide a blueprint for predicting which animals and which organs could be next.

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New Research Concierge Program Learning Lab Videos

The Pitt Research Concierge Program has added two new Learning Lab videos to help researchers develop stronger, more competitive proposals with the use of well-designed evaluation plans and logic models.

“Understanding the Evaluation Components for a Research Proposal” covers the purpose and core components of an evaluation plan and shares tips for creating a competitive evaluation strategy.

“Creating Coherence in a Proposal Using a Logic Model” explains the core components and the role logic models play in evaluation, including common limitations and practical tips.

These videos join a growing collection of Learning Lab resources supporting researchers throughout the sponsored programs lifecycle. Explore the full library on the Research Concierge Learning Lab webpage.