Personal Mention
Chemical Engineering Professor Spyros Pandis has won the Amercian Institute of Chemical Engineer’s Lawrence K. Cecil Award in Environmental Chemical Engineering for his outstanding contribution to preserving and improving the environment. Pandis’ research applies principles of chemical engineering to the control of air pollution and climate change, and his research group has contributed to successful regulation and improvements in air quality in various areas around the world.
English Professor Kristina Straub co-curated the new “Will & Jane: Shakespeare, Austen and the Cult of Celebrity” exhibition at the Folger Shakespeare Library that examines William Shakespeare's and Jane Austen's popularity through milestone events and artifacts. The exhibit, co-curated by University of Texas English Professor Janine Barchas, runs through Nov. 6. "As Janine and I worked on the exhibition, it became clear to us that serious scholarship and fun are not mutually exclusive," Straub said. "We hope that 'Will & Jane' helps people think more critically about how we as a culture create meaning in our lives through everyday trivial objects like cookie cutters or rolling pins. But we also hope that people will embrace the playfulness of plastic action figures and bobbleheads that express and perpetuate celebrity." Learn more about “Will & Jane.”
After a second grade Texas teacher’s new no-homework policy went viral, Steven Schlossman, a professor of history in the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, responded to the policy. He has extensively researched the history of homework as a divisive problem in American schooling between the 1820s and the present. "First, not requiring second grade students to do homework would not be an historical anomaly," Schlossman writes. "It’s only since the Excellence Movement of the 1980s that educators have tried systematically to integrate out-of-school homework in the elementary grades into normal teaching practice (indeed, starting at kindergarten in many school districts). In the late 19th century, after public schooling had solidly taken root in urban and rural school districts across the nation, homework was a rarity before third or fourth grade." Read Schlossman’s full response.
Civil and Environmental Engineering Teaching Professor, emeritus, and CMU alumnus Larry Cartwright died Aug. 28. He was 70.
Cartwright, known for teaching hands-on, civil engineering project courses that contributed to the campus infrastructure and beauty, earned his bachelor's degree (1976) and master's degree (1987) in civil engineering at Carnegie Mellon. He joined the CMU faculty in 1977 as manager of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Laboratories and enjoyed more than 35 years as an instructor for several undergraduate courses, including CEE Design and Design and Construction. In 1994, he earned CMU's Ryan Award for Meritorious Teaching and in 2004 was promoted to teaching professor. He retired in 2013, but remained teaching on a part-time basis through the fall 2015 semester.
Cartwright was a positive influence on his students, several of which attended his retirement party in 2014.
“Concepts that sound extremely complicated coming from someone else make perfect sense coming from him,” said Chris Fornataro, who earned his bachelor's degree in 2009 and his master's degree in 2010. “He teaches you more than theories. He shows you how to use your common sense to be an engineer, not just a number cruncher.”
“I learned about life, I learned about how to put things together, and I learned about how to deal with people in a respectful way with high expectations,” said 1983 graduate Keith Sunderman, who was Cartwright’s work-study employee. “I like to think that the reason I’ve been successful is because I know what it takes to get things done — that comes from Larry Cartwright.”
"Larry left a substantial legacy at Carnegie Mellon, including physical infrastructure in Porter Hall and around campus, philanthropic infrastructure through his great generosity, and generations of civil and environmental engineering students who carry on his creativity and joie de vivre. The last component of his legacy was no doubt the most important to him," said Professor and Head of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department David Dzombak in an email to department faculty.
Cartwright earned the Alumni Association Faculty Service Award in 2007 and an Andrew Carnegie Society Recogntion Award earlier this year.