Personal Mention
Lenore Blum, the Distinguished Career Professor of Computer Science, received the inaugural Dean’s Professorship in Technology Entrepreneurship at a May 3 ceremony and celebration. Blum is the founding director of Project Olympus, an incubator that helps Carnegie Mellon students and faculty assess the commercial prospects of their ideas and research findings, and begin the process of establishing a startup. She also is faculty director of the campus-wide Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship. Blum is internationally recognized for her work in increasing the participation of girls and women in STEM fields. She was a founder of the Association for Women in Mathematics and the Expanding Your Horizons Network. At Carnegie Mellon, she founded the Women@SCS program. In 2004, she received the U.S. Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring. And in 2009, she received the Carnegie Science Catalyst Award in recognition of her work with Project Olympus and her efforts to increase the participation of women in computer science. Find out more.
Joe W. Trotter Jr. traces black workers’ complicated journey in his new book, “Workers on Arrival: Black Labor in the Making of America.” The book draws upon several generations of African American history that started during the early 20th century. Trotter puts true experiences of working African American men and women at the center of the story to expand understanding of America’s economic and industrial growth, including its cities, ideas and institutions, and the real challenges confronting black urban communities today. “I wrote this book, in part, because there are still many misconceptions about black people as workers, especially poor and working-class blacks. There is a sense often that they are takers rather than givers, and that they don’t contribute a great deal or that they are more a liability than they are assets,” said Trotter, the Giant Eagle Professor of History and Social Justice in the Dietrich College. Find out more.
The Acoustical Society of America has named Barbara Shinn-Cunningham the 2019 recipient of the Helmholtz Rayleigh Interdisciplinary Silver Medal in Psychological and Physiological Acoustics and Speech Communication. She received the award "for understanding the cognitive and neural bases of speech perception in complex acoustic environments." Shinn-Cunningham, a renowned auditory neuroscientist, is director of Carnegie Mellon's Neuroscience Institute, co-director of the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, and a professor of psychology, biomedical engineering, and electrical and computer engineering. She is known for her spatial hearing work on the "cocktail party problem," which looks at how the brain blocks out certain sounds to pay attention to others. Her research uses behavioral, neuroimaging and computational methods to understand auditory processing from how sound is encoded in the inner ear to how cognitive networks understand auditory information in the brain. Learn more.
Computer science senior Tanvi Bajpai will receive the 2019 K&L Gates Prize. The $5,000 prize, supported by the K&L Gates Endowment for Ethics and Computational Technologies, recognizes a graduating senior who has best inspired fellow students at the university to love learning through a combination of intellect, high scholarly achievement, engagement with others and character. She also won the Mark Stehlik Introductory and Service Teaching Award, a 2018 Mark Stehlik Alumni Undergraduate Impact Scholarship, and a Carnegie Mellon Women's Association scholarship in recognition of her commitment to the advancement of women in SCS. Bajpai is pursuing a Ph.D. in theoretical computer science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Learn more.
Biological sciences senior Nan Zhang is the recipient of this year’s Dr. J. Paul Fugassi and Linda E. Monteverde Award, which recognizes the graduating female senior in the Mellon College of Science with the greatest academic achievement and professional promise. Zhang has conducted graduate-level research in the lab of professor Jon Minden since her sophomore year. She worked with Academic Development as an EXCEL leader for two years, leading weekly learning groups and practice sessions for students in the genetics and biochemistry courses. Zhang is vice president of chapter development for Delta Delta Delta, and was awarded the Tri Delta Foundation Scholarship in recognition of her achievements. For two years, she served as president of Spark the Movement, an organization founded to allow students to speak up about social issues through various art forms. Zhang will pursue a Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University. Find out more.
Graduating students Eleanor Mueller and Daniel See are the Alumni Association’s Student Engagement Award Winners this year. Both students represent CMU’s culture of collaboration and achievement, and are being recognized for their significant contributions to the quality of life at the university and for their engagement with alumni and fellow students.
Mueller is receiving her MBA from the Tepper School of Business. She served as an alumni relations officer and guided the launch of the 2018 Intersect@CMU Conference. Prior to coming to CMU, she earned her bachelor’s degree in film studies from Vassar College in 2008, and ran her own clothing business for six years. Mueller is joining PwC as a senior associate in the Consumer Markets Operations practice.
See is receiving a bachelor’s degree in humanities and arts, with concentrations in decision science and art. While at CMU, See was an active part of the student community, holding leadership positions in various campus organizations, including Lunar Gala, CMU Street Styles and Soulstylz. He also initiated Art2Connect, a weekly art therapy program at a local homeless shelter. After commencement, he plans to return home to Singapore and pursue a career in arts education.