Carnegie Mellon University

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April 16, 2015

Personal Mention

Lorna McGheeLorna McGhee, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) principal flute, will join the School of Music faculty this fall as an artist lecturer. Scottish-born, McGhee was formerly co-principal flute with the BBC Symphony in London. She has performed as guest principal with some of the world’s most renowned orchestras, such as the Chicago Symphony, the London Symphony and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. McGhee has worked for accomplished conductors including Haitink, Gergiev, Rattle, Solti, Harnoncourt, Muti and Honeck. As a soloist, she has performed concertos with the London Symphony, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. A career highlight was a performance of Penderecki's flute concerto with the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra under the baton of the composer in 2004. Learn more.

Marlene BehrmannLori HoltRoberta KlatzkyThree leading cognitive scientists from Carnegie Mellon are questioning the gender representation of invited contributors in the special February 2015 issue, “The Changing Face of Cognition,” published by the international journal Cognition. In an opinion piece to appear in Cognition, Roberta Klatzky, Lori Holt and Marlene Behrmann (l-r) write that they were “struck by the fact that among the 19 authors listed for the 12 articles, only one female author was present.” According to 2013 statistics from the National Science Foundation, more than 50 percent of Ph.D. degrees in cognitive psychology, psycholinguistics, neuropsychology and experimental psychology were awarded to women. Yet, invitations to contribute do not necessarily reflect this gender parity. In their piece, the authors examine the gender distribution of the editors and authors for the four most recent special issues of Cognition and find a prevailing male dominance. The authors argue that although authorship should not be based on the number of men and women in the discipline, the contributions and vision of female scientists should not be ignored. Learn more.

Sheng Shen was awarded a DARPA Young Faculty Award Director’s Fellowship for his project “Compliant and Thermally Conductive Ordered Nanostructures for Next Generation Thermal Interface Materials.” An assistant professor of mechanical engineering, he runs the Shen Laboratory where he pursues nanoscale energy transport and conversion, nano photonics and renewable energies. Watch the video.

Kiron Skinner participated in a Q&A with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Eric Heyl about the Dietrich College’s new Institute for Politics and Strategy, which she will direct. Skinner, who currently directs the Center for International Relations and Politics (CIRP), talked about the basis for the institute, the challenges she sees getting it off the ground and potential collaborations the institute could have with other academic institutions and research organizations. Read more