Personal Mention
The Faculty of Humanities at Lund University, Sweden has awarded Baruch Fischhoff with an honorary Ph.D. Established in 1666, Lund University is ranked among the top 100 universities worldwide. Fischhoff is the Howard Heinz University Professor in the Institute for Politics and Strategy and Department of Engineering and Public Policy. He was recently elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
The Association for Computing Machinery has named the developers of Carnegie Mellon's Andrew File System (AFS), including Professor Mahadev Satyanarayanan, the recipients of its 2016 Software System Award. Other recipients include former faculty member Alfred Z. Spector, alumnus Michael L. Kazar, Robert N. Sidebotham, David A. Nichols, Michael J. West, John H. Howard and Sherri M. Nichols. Built in the 1980s, AFS was the first distributed file system designed for tens of thousands of machines and pioneered the use of scalable, secure and ubiquitous access to shared file data. To achieve the goal of providing a common shared file system used by large networks of people, AFS introduced novel approaches to caching, security, management and administration. The ACM Software System Award is presented to an institution or individuals recognized for developing a software system that has had a lasting influence, reflected in contributions to concepts, in commercial acceptance, or both. Read more.
Jeanne VanBriesen, the Duquesne Light Company Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy, has been selected by Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald to be part of a task force that will study and make recommendations for reducing lead exposure in the Pittsburgh region. VanBriesen, along with the group of policy, medical and advocacy professionals, will review county data on lead exposure, examine possible policies to protect the public from potential exposure, and recommend interventions and preventions for use in the near future.