“Total research and development (R&D) expenditures at American colleges and universities topped $97 billion in Fiscal Year 2022, according to the latest Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey released by the National Science Foundation (NSF) on November 30.”

Read More >>

Undergraduates Learn, Then Publish

Undergraduate students in the GEO 1312 environmental law and policy course don’t learn only by studying research published in scientific journals – they learn by researching, writing, and submitting their own papers to the journals. Recently one team’s paper was published in the Journal of Science Policy & Governance that proposed methods to improve the implementation of policies about overfishing in the Gulf of Alaska. Other students are writing and submitting papers on fracking policy, organic food labeling, urban agriculture policy, green building ordinances, and reef-safe sunscreen laws.

“It is not a traditional environmental law course,” says Patrick Shirey, assistant professor in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. “The goal is to become better writers and thinkers while making an impact.”

Read More >>

The fall cycle for the Arts and Humanities Microgrants awardees have been announced, with 11 faculty members receiving funds to further research discoveries and scholarly endeavors in the arts and humanities. As part of the Pitt Momentum Funds program, microgrants offer faculty in these historically underfunded fields the opportunity to channel resources into a specific need, such as tracking artwork from India to photographing private collections in Europe, and curating bilingual commentaries on colonial treaties with Indigenous peoples of Chile.

"I am excited to see the range of projects that we have been able to fund in this third cycle," says Shelome Gooden, assistant vice chancellor for research, "And I look forward to continuing to support our faculty to advance impactful research and creative activities."

Read More >>

Global Research and Education Network on EU Foreign Policy

The Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies and the European Studies Center announced a global partnership to better understand EU foreign policy, forge new collaborations, and make new policy recommendations. The multi-institution partnership with the Europa University Viadrina and 18 universities in 17 countries across 5 continents will be funded for two years by a Jean Monnet Network grant from the highly competitive Erasmus+ Program of the European Commission. By bridging non-European and European perspectives across multiple sectors such as academia, public affairs and civil society, scholars and undergraduate students hope to have a significant impact on policy issues of democracy, migration, and global inequality.

Read More >> via Pittwire

Pitt Hosts Roundtable with the Office of the National Cyber Director

On December 11, 2023, Jake Braun, acting principal deputy national cyber director in the White House Office of the National Cyber Director, joined a roundtable discussion on cybersecurity and workforce development. After initial remarks from Rob A. Rutenbar, senior vice chancellor for research, David Hickton, founding director of Pitt Cyber, led the group in discussing local cybersecurity workforce initiatives, diversifying the industry, and raising overall cyber literacy levels. The Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor for Research and Government Relations hosted the event jointly.

Read More >> via Pittwire

Big Proposal Bootcamp Spring 2024 Cohort List

The Big Proposal Bootcamp program enables Pitt faculty to think about research differently, collaborate across disciplines, and pursue multiyear funding in large, complex multi-disciplinary challenges. Each Spring, the Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor for Research solicits nominations for promising early to mid-career faculty interested in pursuing collaborative research projects with external or global impacts to the Associate Deans for Research (ADRs) and the Deans of the schools at Pitt. From January to April, bootcamp participants receive focused, expert guidance on research proposals and are eligible to receive seed funding for completing the program.

Learn More >>

GSPIA Faculty Member Named Inaugural Executive Director

Sera Linardi, associate professor of economics in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA), has accepted a position as the inaugural Executive Director of Equity and Access in Algorithms, Mechanisms, and Optimization (EAAMO). Linardi, who is also affiliated with Pitt’s School of Computing and Information and the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, will build out funding streams for EAAMO's interdisciplinary, grassroots-led, and practice-focused approach to computing research. The work will be funded by Cornell University as the Siegel PiTech (Public Interest Technology) Faculty Impact Fellow at the Cornell Tech campus in New York City for one year beginning this month. The organization - formerly known as Mechanism Design for Social Good (MD4SG) has more than 2,000 volunteers across 130 universities and 50 countries and its associated international ACM Conference.

Learn More >>

Swanson School Engineer to Give 2024 Dryden Lecture in Research

For his contributions to the aerospace community, Peyman Givi, Distinguished Professor and James T. MacLeod Chair in Engineering, was selected to present the 2024 Dryden Lecture in Research by the Honors and Awards Committee and the Board of Trustees of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Givi’s lecture, “The Promise of Quantum Computing for Aerospace Science and Engineering,” was attended by over 700 aerospace scientists and engineers and given during the 2024 AIAA Science and Technology Forum and Exposition January 8-12, 2024 in Orlando.

Read More >>

Distinguished Faculty Elected to National Academy of Inventors

Since its inaugural class of fellows in 2015, the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) fellows program has awarded 12 Pitt faculty for facilitating innovative discoveries and stimulating economic activity. This year, José-Alain Sahel, Distinguished Professor of the Department of Ophthalmology in Pitt’s School of Medicine, has been recognized for breakthroughs in vision restoration. Prashant N. Kumta, Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering, is Pitt’s 14th NAI fellow, with 42 patents in areas of efficient energy storage and biomaterials for use in regenerative medicine.

Read More >>

Shandong Wu Highlights Issues with AI in Medicine

Director of Pitt’s Center for Artificial Intelligence (AI) Innovation in Medical Imaging and associate professor in the Department of Radiology, Shandong Wu incorporates AI for interpreting data in imaging produced for X-rays, mammography, ultrasounds, CT scans and magnetic resonance imaging. Across specialties and diagnoses, Wu’s research is particularly focused on building trustworthy AI systems for analysis and decision support, as well as safeguarding these techniques for patient safety and cybersecurity.

Read More >> via The Joplin Globe

Neuroscientist Discovers How Pilates Helps Lower Stress

A few years back, Peter Strick, Dr. Thomas Detre Professor of Neuroscience and chair, Department of Neurobiology, noticed his stress levels were becoming unmanageable. His children recommended he take Pilates or yoga, but he was skeptical. Since then, Strick and his research team have conducted a study that supports the benefits of Pilates on stress.

Read More >> via NPR (starting at 8:13 on the radio recording)

Graham Hatfull Discusses Phages, Superbugs

Graham Hatfull, the Eberly Family Professor of Biotechnology, gave CNN's Sanjay Gupta an inside look at the Hatfull lab which stores 23,000 bacteria phages that could potentially be used to treat antibiotic resistant infections. Through his HHMI SEA-PHAGES program, Hatfull encourages students to explore the environment for new phages to isolate and characterize in the laboratory.

Watch the Video >> via CNN (starting at 12:22 on the video recording)

Water Collaboratory Report Links Industrial Development and Pollution

Daniel Bain, associate professor of geology and environmental engineering, and a team at the Pittsburgh Water Collaboratory, released findings from a study investigating the rivers and tributaries in and around the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio Rivers. The study to-date shows industrial development and zones with a history of mining, and ultimately past infrastructural decisions, caused high levels of pollutants and metals to leak into drinking water and wastewater processes.

Read More >> via WPXI-TV

Pitt Research Navigator

The Pitt Research Navigator, a service of the Research Concierge Program, is available to faculty and staff on all Pitt campuses to connect to resources and offices needed to move research projects forward. To use this service, simply ask a research-related question by email or webform, and the Navigator will help you make the right connection within one business day.

Read More >>

On-Ramp Materials

The Center for Research Computing offers a video library of tutorials for accessing and utilizing Pitt’s advanced computing ecosystem. To get started, and in addition to workshops hosted each semester, these five videos give Pitt faculty an overview of the available tools and resources, steps on how to gain access and run jobs on the components, and helpful scripts for troubleshooting to learn and work at your own pace.

Read More >>