Personal Mention
The Jorquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid, conducted by Victor Pablo, performed University Professor of Composition Leonardo Balada’s Symphony No. 6 — Symphony of Sorrows at the National Auditorium in Madrid on Feb. 4. This symphony, which was commissioned and premiered by the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, had its American premiere last November by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rafael Fruehbeck de Burgos. The work, performed by the Galician Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Jesus Lopez-Cobos, will be released shortly on Naxos Records.
Christina Fong, senior research scientist in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences, wrote an opinion piece for Business Management Daily on her research that showed that sharing personal information via social networks can lead to hiring discrimination. Read "Rethink using social media to learn about job candidates."
The Smithsonian Freer Gallery in Washington, D.C., presented two concerts of works by Professor of Composition Reza Vali earlier this month. The ensemble Modern Works performed Folk Songs (Set No. 9) and the Carpe Diem String Quartet and the master of Santoor (Persian hammer dulcimer) Dariush Saghafi performed a full evening of Vali's music. The evening included Folk Songs (Set No. 11B), Calligraphy No. 4, Gâtâr (Calligraphy No. 11) and Geryân (Calligraphy No. 12).
In his latest blog post for the Huffington Post, Jay Kadane analyzes Vladimir Putin's decision to invade Crimea and the Russian State's ongoing quest to expand politically and territorially. Kadane is the Leonard J. Savage University Professor of Statistics and Social Sciences, Emeritus. Read "Understanding Putin."
Professor of Composition Nancy Galbraith, one of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's Composers of the Year, will have her work "Euphonic Blues" performed by the PSO at 8 p.m., March 21 and at 2:30 p.m., March 23 at Heinz Hall. Also featured in the performance are Mendelssohn's nuanced Piano Concerto No. 1 and orchestral excerpts from Wagner's famous four-epic opera cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen.
Douglas C. Schmidt, principal researcher at the SEI, has published the inaugural SEI blog video on the importance of automated testing in open systems architecture initiatives. The video blog is an enhancement to the blog series that Schmidt initiated when he was chief technology officer at the SEI several years ago. In this posting, Schmidt describes how the Navy is operationalizing Better Buying Power in the context of its Open Systems Architecture and Business Innovation initiatives. This posting also presents the results from a recent online war game that underscore the importance of automated testing in these initiatives to help avoid common traps and pitfalls of earlier cost containment measures. A new post is published on the SEI blog every morning at blog.sei.cmu.edu.
Matt Sarett, a senior midfielder on the Carnegie Mellon men’s soccer team, has been awarded a $7,500 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. The scholarship is awarded to student-athletes who excel academically and athletically and who are in their final year of intercollegiate athletics competition. Sarett holds a 4.0 GPA as a double major in electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering, and is planning to pursue a master's degree in electrical and computer engineering while minoring in business administration and computer science at Carnegie Mellon. Sarett is a two-time Capital One Academic All-American, a two-time All-University Athletic Association selection, and has been named to the All-Great Lakes Region and ECAC South Region all-star teams. Read more about Sarett.
Obituary: M.J. Tocci
M. J. Tocci, director and co-founder of the Heinz Negotiation Academy for Women, died Feb. 15 of ovarian cancer. She was 60. Tocci, who worked as a prosecutor in Oakland, Calif., before moving to Pittsburgh, also was a principal of Trial Run Inc., a legal consulting firm that worked with law firms and government agencies. She was named “one of California’s most effective prosecutors” by California Lawyer magazine.After moving to Pittsburgh, she founded Fulcrum Advisors, a consulting firm that focused on advancing women in the legal field and in business.
Linda Babcock, the James M. Walton Professor of Economics at Heinz College and co-founder of the Heinz Negotiation Academy, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that Tocci was a “whirlwind Mack truck, a force of nature with a mission and vision.” She said Tocci had “an approach that engaged people, made them laugh and made them just as committed as she was.”
A memorial celebration will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Sunday, April 6 in Rashid Auditorium. Tocci's family is asking those planning to attend to RSVP at wwmjd1.blogspot.com.
Read the obituary in the Post-Gazette.