Carnegie Mellon University

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July 12, 2012

Personal Mention

Marcel Just, a leading neuroscientist who focuses on how language comprehension and problem-solving emerges from brain processes, has been selected to receive the Society for Text and Discourse Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award. The society's most prestigious award is given to honor scholars who make outstanding scientific contributions to the study of discourse processing and text analysis, and to recognize excellence in research, mentoring and advancements to the field. Just, the D.O. Hebb Professor of Psychology and director of the university's Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging, will receive the award at the society's annual meeting this week in Montreal. Read the full story.

Ilker Baybars, dean of Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, recently announced that Patrick Sileo, associate teaching professor of economics and finance, has been promoted to associate dean, effective Aug. 1. Sileo will oversee CMU-Q's Research Office and the Office of Executive Education. Fadhel Annan has been named assistant dean for Government and Corporate Relations. This is in recognition of his years of contributions to the school since its inception as well as the growing activity in this area. Sileo and Annan join Mark Stehlik, who became associate dean for education on July 1.

The Academy of Management’s Organization and Management Theory (OMT) Division has honored Professor Linda Argote as the OMT Distinguished Scholar for 2012.  The Distinguished Scholar Award  annually recognizes insightful work and contributions in advancing the field of organizational studies. Argote is the David M. Kirr and Barbara A. Kirr Professor of Organizational Behavior and Theory and director of the Center of Organizational Learning, Innovation and Performance at the Tepper School of Business. Her teaching and research focuses on group and organizational learning and her work on topics including innovation, productivity, knowledge transfer, organizational memory, social identity, group processes and performance has been widely published in refereed journals. Argote joins a distinguished group of academic honorees who have been chosen for this award, including the late Richard M. Cyert, who received the award in 1989. Cyert served as dean of the Graduate School of Industrial Administration, now the Tepper School, and president of Carnegie Mellon.

Kathy M. Newman, associate professor of English, wrote an opinion piece for the Post-Gazette following legendary actor Andy Griffith’s death. Read “If Andy ran in Mayberry today: Big money could crush his hopes of being sheriff.”

CMU alumnus Stratos Pistikopoulos, a chemical engineering professor at Imperial College in London, has been awarded the Computing in Chemical Engineering Award of the CAST Division of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). The award recognizes outstanding contributions in the application of computing and systems technology to chemical engineering. Stratos, who earned his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from CMU in 1988 under Professor Ignacio Grossmann, will be presented with the award at the Annual AIChE Meeting in Pittsburgh on Oct. 30.

Alumnus Yoshi Kawajiris, an assistant professor at Georgia Tech who earned his Ph.D. in chemical engineering at CMU in 2007, has been awarded the W. David Smith, Jr. Graduate Student Paper Award from the CAST Division of AIChE. The award was given for the paper "Optimization strategies for simulated moving bed and Power Feed processes" (AIChE J, 52, pp. 1343-1350, 2006). Yoshi will receive the award at the Annual AIChE Meeting in Pittsburgh on Oct. 30.

CMU alumnus John Walz has been appointed Dean of Engineering at the University of Kentucky, effective Sept. 1. Walz, who earned his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from CMU in 1992 under Professor Dennis Prieve, was professor and head of the Chemical Engineering Department at Virginia Tech.

Jimmy Koppel, a senior from St. Louis majoring in computer science and mathematical sciences, is one of 20 young entrepreneurs selected by the Thiel Foundation for its second class of "20 Under 20" Thiel Fellows. During the two-year fellowship, Koppel will receive $100,000 and mentorship from the foundation's network of tech entrepreneurs, investors and scientists. Read the full story.

The team of Robert Xiao and Chris Harrison, Ph.D. students in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute, was one of eight U.S. groups selected to receive 2012 Qualcomm Innovation Fellowships. Each winning team receives $100,000, which is adminstered by the students' academic department. In their proposal, "Synthetic Sensors and Interfaces," they describe what they call the Interfaces Everywhere System, which will pair a depth camera with a projector to make ordinary surfaces instantly interactive. The students are advised by HCII Professor Scott Hudson. Read more.