Carnegie Mellon University

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October 27, 2016

Personal Mention

Krzyztof MatyjaszewskiKrzysztof Matyjaszewski, the J.C. Warner Professor of Natural Sciences, is a co-winner of the 2017 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Chemistry. Matyjaszewski, and Mitsuo Sawamoto of the University of Kyoto were cited “for their seminal contributions to the development of a new polymerization process involving metal catalysts." Matyjaszewski is best known for developing copper-mediated atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), a precise method for making macromolecules that has revolutionized the field of polymer synthesis.  He will receive the award on May 4, 2017, during a ceremony at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Find out more.

Kathryn WhiteheadKatie Whitehead, assistant professor of chemical engineering, recently received the Young Faculty Award (YFA) from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). As a YFA awardee, Whitehead will receive a two-year, $500,000 grant to support her lab’s work to create drug delivery systems for next-generation gene therapy. The goal of the project is to develop nanoparticle materials that can precisely deliver messenger RNA (mRNA) to target cells in the body for a specific length of time. Her lab focuses on making sure that these delivery systems are effective and safe. Learn more

Edda Fields BlackAs an adviser at the new Smithsonian National Museum of African-American History and Culture, Edda L. Fields-Black helped develop “The Rice Fields of the Lowcountry” for the museum’s Power of Place exhibit — one of 12 permanent galleries in the only national institution dedicated to documenting African-American life and history. Fields-Black is an associate professor of history. Learn more about Power of Place and Fields-Black’s other projects.

Rich LacknerWith Carnegie Mellon’s 49-33 victory over Thiel College Saturday (Oct. 22), Head Coach Rich Lackner became the 79th football coach in NCAA history to amass 200 wins (200-109-2). Lackner is one of 13 active head coaches among all NCAA divisions with 200 career victories, and fourth among active Division III head coaches in career wins. Lackner, a CMU alumnus, is the 34th coach to win all 200 games at the same institution, and just the 11th to do so at the Division III level. This season marks his 31st year at the Carnegie Mellon helm. Find out more.

Travis BreauxTravis Breaux, an associate professor of computer science, has received honorable mention recognition for the Most Influential Paper Award at the IEEE Requirements Engineering Conference in Beijing. The award recognizes the most influential research contributions to the requirements engineering community in the last 10 years. The paper he co-authored is titled “Towards Compliance: Extracting Rights and Obligations to Align Requirements with Regulations.” Breaux’s work describes a method for extracting software requirements from regulations, including steps for composing correct legal interpretations of requirements from laws, heuristics for distinguishing mandatory from discretionary requirements, and techniques for discovering implied rights and obligations. Find out more