Carnegie Mellon University

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May 31, 2012

Personal Mention

Lenore Blum, professor of computer science, is an invited speaker at the Turing Centenary Conference, Computability in Europe 2012 (CiE 2012) conference at the University of Cambridge, June 18-23, one of a series of Alan Turing Year events. Blum will present her talk, "Alan Turing and the Other Theory of Computation," June 22, the eve of what would have been Turing’s 100th birthday.

The Eberly Center for Teaching recently announced its 2012-2013 Wimmer Faculty Fellows. Made possible by a grant from the Wimmer Family Foundation, the awards are designed for junior faculty members interested in enhancing their teaching through concentrated work designing or re-designing a course, innovating new materials or exploring a new pedagogical approach. Fellows work in close collaboration with Eberly Center colleagues and receive a stipend to acknowledge the work it takes to improve one's effectiveness as an educator. The winners include: Aditya Khair, Chemical Engineering; Emma Brunskill, Computer Science; Fatma Kilinc-Karzan, Tepper School of Business; Karen Thickman, Computational Biology; and Christopher Warren, English.

Hilary Schuldt will join the Eberly Center full time as an associate director and coordinator of graduate programs on July 1. Schuldt, who recently received her Ph.D. in Rhetoric and has been working with the center for five years supporting graduate programs, will now be involved in faculty programs as well. She will consult and conduct workshops on a variety of learning and teaching topics, and has expertise in the teaching and assessment of writing.

Susan Ambrose, associate provost for education, director of the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and a teaching professor in the History Department, has announced she will be leaving Carnegie Mellon July 30 to become vice provost for teaching and learning and professor of education at Northeastern University. In an email to the university community, Provost and Executive Vice President Mark Kamlet and Vice Provost for Education Amy Burkert said Ambrose played a crucial role in CMU's educational mission and helped to create a culture of teaching excellence at the university. They credited her for her leadership in making the Eberly Center into a model for teaching and learning centers around the world. Kamlet and Burkert also praised Ambrose for being an engaged university citizen who served on numerous campus-wide committees, and for designing and conducting seminars and workshops for faculty and administrators around the globe. "Susan has made a lasting impact on our campus and has advanced educational practice both locally and globally," they said. "On behalf of the university, please join us in thanking Susan for her many contributions to CMU and in wishing her all the best as she transitions to her new role at Northeastern University.

The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the largest university in Greece, awarded an honorary doctorate degree to Christos Faloutsos, professor of computer science. The title of Doctor Honoris Causa was conferred to Faloutsos during a May 30 convocation, one of a number of events this month that mark the 20th anniversary of Aristotle University's Department of Informatics. Read the full story.

Carnegie Mellon women’s tennis program received three NCAA Division III national awards from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) on Wednesday, May 23. Senior Cze-Ja Tam (Palos Verdes, Calif./Palos Verdes Peninsula) was awarded the Arthur Ashe Jr. for Leadership and Sportsmanship Award, sophomore Katie Cecil (Huntington Beach, Calif./Ocean View) was named National Player To Watch and assistant coach Mike Belmonte was named Assistant Coach of the Year. Read the full story.