Recent Award Winners

Distinguished Public Service Award

Leonora Anyango
Teaching Professor, Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences

Thuy D. Bui
Professor, School of Medicine

Christine R. Dahlin
Professor, University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown

Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili
Professor and Founding Director, Center for Governance and Markets, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs

Distinguished Teaching Award

Taryn Bayles
Professor and Vice Chair for Undergraduate Education, Swanson School of Engineering

Ljiljana Duraskovic
Teaching Professor and Assistant Dean, Dietrich School

Andrew Lotz​​​​​​
Teaching Professor, Academic Advisor, Director of Undergraduate Studies and Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Studies, Dietrich School

Marie Norman
Director, Innovative Design for Education and Assessment Lab, and Professor, School of Medicine

John Whitefoot​​​​​
​​Associate Professor, Swanson School

Distinguished Research Award

Senior Scholars

Alexander Deiters
Professor, Dietrich School

Anne B. Newman
UPMC Chair in Geroscience, Director, Center for Aging and Population Health, Distinguished Professor, School of Public Health, and Clinical Director, Aging Institute

Jennifer Whiting
Distinguished Professor, Dietrich School

Junior Scholars

Peggy Liu
Ben. L Fryrear Chair in Marketing and Associate Professor, Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business and College of Business Administration

Mehret Birru Talabi
Assistant Professor, School of Medicine, Assistant Dean and Co-Director, Pitt/CMU Medical Science Training Program (MD-PhD), Co-Director, Optimizing Reproductive Outcomes Among People with Chronic Diseases (ORCHID), and Director, UPMC Women's and Reproductive Health Rheumatology Clinic

Christopher Wilmer
Wellington C. Carl Faculty Fellow, Swanson School

Award for Staff Excellence 

Community Engagement: Kelly Gilliam
Division of Philanthropic and Alumni Engagement

Commitment to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: Anastasia White
School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences

Excellent Mentor: Laura Kingsley
Office of Sponsored Programs 

Exceptional Early Career Achievement: Miranda Acosta​​​​​​​
School of Computing and Information

Innovation in Advancing Administrative and Operational Efficiency: Christine Jackson​​​​​​​
School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences 

Outstanding Career Achievement: Pat Cercone
Communications and Marketing, Pitt-Bradford

Research Support: Jean Barone​​​​​​​
Office of Research Protections​​​​​​​ 

Student Impact: Brandon Barber​​​​​​​
Swanson School of Engineering

University Engagement: Doreen Hernandez​​​​​​​
University Center for International Studies

UPSIDE Award

Sexual Assault Facilitation and Education (SAFE) Peer Educators

Chancellor’s Gap Funds

Aneurisk: AI-Based Clinical Management of Aneurysm Patients
Timothy Chung, faculty | Department of Bioengineering

Full Thickness Human Skin Perfusion Model for Disease Modeling
Asim Ejaz, faculty | Department of Plastic Surgery

VINE AI: Bringing Accurate Generative AIO to Intellectual Property Law
Andrew Bunger, faculty | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Building a Screening Tool for Age-Related Macular Degeneration
Jay Chhablani, faculty | Department of Ophthalmology

Cell Type-Specific for Congenital Hearing Loss
Christopher Cunningham, faculty | Department of Otolaryngology

Dicarboxylic Acid Therapy for Congenital Lactic Acidosis
Eric Goetzman, faculty | Department of Pediatrics

Real-time Evaluation for Adverse Events Using Intraoperative Neurophysiological Monitoring
Parthasarathy Thirumala, faculty | Department of Neurology

Polysaccharide-Based Plastic to Help Alleviate Ocean Microplastic Pollution
Susan Fullerton, faculty | Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering
Eric Beckman, faculty | Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering

A Novel Vascular Scaffold for Focal Delivery of Antiplatelet Therapy
John Pacella, faculty | Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology   

Pitt Seed Projects

Big PITTch

Sexual Misconduct and Prevention and Survivor Support
Carrie Benson | Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

CUPID: Fostering an Inclusive Community in the Schools of the Health Sciences
Susan Graff | Department of Physician Assistant Studies

2023-24 Cohort

STEM Through Games
Dmitriy Babichenko | School of Computing and Information

CommUniversity Initiative
Keith Caldwell | Office of Engagement and Community Affairs

TC²: True Co-equal x Transformative Collaborations
Melissa Lenos | Dietrich School

Planting SEEDs-Growing Teachers: Creating a Pipeline
Melissa Jo Marks | Behavioral Sciences Division, Pitt-Greensburg

Project SOAR: Fostering Leadership, Resiliency, and Network for Students at Pitt-Johnstown
Manisha Nigam | Natural Sciences Division, Pitt-Johnstown