Carnegie Mellon University

The Piper

CMU Community News

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February 02, 2012

Personal Mention

David Lewis, a professor emeritus at the School of Architecture, recently celebrated his 90th birthday and was featured in the Post-Gazette and The Atlantic Cities, a publication of the Atlantic monthly, for his continuing work in urban design, in art and as friend to the city of Pittsburgh. Lewis is the founder of Urban Design Associates, one of the first design firms to emphasize the importance of community participation in the design process. Some of his major contributions to Pittsburgh include Crawford Square, Station Square, East Liberty's new mixed-income housing, the preserved smokestacks at The Waterfront, Village of Shadyside and the Bellefield Tower in Oakland.

Richard McCullough, vice president for research at Carnegie Mellon, has announced that Associate Vice President for Research Susan Burkett will be retiring, effective June 30, 2012, after 37 years at CMU and 22 as vice president for research. In an email to the university community, McCullough said Burkett "has played a crucial role in the success of the university's research enterprise, bringing energy, enthusiasm, her knowledge and expertise and her love for Carnegie Mellon to work with her every day. As associate vice president for research, she’s managed our Office of Sponsored Programs, assuring compliance with university, federal and funding agency policies." Read more about her time at the university.

Ziv Bar-Joseph has received the International Society of Computational Biology's Overton Prize for outstanding accomplishments. The associate professor in CMU's Lane Center for Computational Biology and Machine Learning Department applies machine learning, statistical algorithms and signal processing techniques to the analysis of high-throughput biological data. He has led international research efforts that have identified genes important to human cell division, including a subset associated with cancer cells, which have uncovered new insights into gene regulatory networks. Read the full story.

Larry Biegler, the Bayer Professor of Chemical Engineering, was awarded the Nordic Process Control Award, which is given to outstanding process control professionals who have made a lasting and significant contribution to the field of process control. Biegler was presented with the award at the 17th Nordic Process Control Workshop that took place Jan. 25-27 at the Technical University of Denmark in Lyngby, Denmark.

Peter Cooke, head of the School of Drama, will announce the exciting productions planned for next year at noon, Friday, Feb. 10 in the Purnell Center for the Arts lobby.

Ping Li, Franz Mendonsa and Michael Honeck, who recently earned their master’s degrees at the Entertainment Technology Center, are pitching their concept of what life on the moon in 3011 would be like to judges of Walt Disney Imagineering's 21st ImagiNations Design competition in Glendale, Calif. Their team is one of six finalists who were given the challenge of "imagineering" what a Disney entertainment complex on the moon would look like 999 years from now. Some 130 teams from through the United States competed. Read more about their project. 

Roxanne Benjamin, a 2009 graduate of CMU’s Master of Entertainment Industry Management (MEIM) program recently debuted her movie “V/H/S” at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, the premier showcase for independent films. Benjamin is the head of acquisitions at Bloody Disgusting Selects, a production and distribution house for horror films. “V/H/S” is its first original production and Benjamin’s first attempt as a producer. "V/H/S" brings together some of the top filmmakers currently working in the horror genre to create a fresh take on the POV — or found-footage-style of horror film made popular by movies like "The Blair Witch Project." Read more about Benjamin.