Graduate Student Accolades
Sabrina Helbig receives Charles LeGeyt Fortescue Graduate Scholarship
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Educational Activities Board has selected Sabrina Helbig, a first-year graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering, to receive the Charles LeGeyt Fortescue Graduate Scholarship.
Yunxing Lu receives Geothermal Rising Marcelo Lippmann Graduate Award
Yunxing Lu, a PhD student in civil engineering at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, has been named a winner of the Geothermal Rising Marcelo Lippmann Graduate Award. The $2,500 scholarship is given to five graduate students based on academic record, student activities, geothermal industry experience and career goals.
Postdoc Newman-Griffis Wins Dissertation Award
Denis Newman-Griffis, a postdoctoral scholar in the School of Medicine's Department of Biomedical Informatics, has received the American Medical Informatics Association's 2021 Doctoral Dissertation Award for his dissertation “Capturing Domain Semantics with Representation Learning: Applications to Health and Function.”
PhD Student Wins ‘Top Chef Amateurs’
If psychology graduate student Brett Bankson were to create a dish inspired by the University of Pittsburgh and the city at large, it would be a dish with undeniable character.
Top student to ‘Top Chef’: Pitt Ph.D. candidate to appear on cooking show
Brett Bankson came to Pittsburgh in 2017 to pursue an advanced degree and a future in academia. Four years later, he’s leaving with designs on being a “Top Chef,” and he’ll have a nationally televised exam Thursday night.
Student SciComm YouTube Channel Expands
A YouTube channel run by Pitt students, bioZone, has expanded, adding new members and content to the educational effort. Joining the crew are PhD students Marissa Di, Dante Poe, Roshni Bhatt and Mark Ebeid.
Education Grad Student Is Finalist for Minnesota Teacher of the Year
Lauren Wheeler, a student in the School of Education’s Doctor of Education program, is a finalist for the 2021 Minnesota Teacher of the Year Award. Selected from a field of more than 80,000 teachers statewide, she is vying for the state’s top honor against nine other finalists and is the only physical education teacher up for the award.
Social Work Student Tre Tipton Wins Student-Athlete Achievement Award
Master of Social Work student and Pitt wide receiver Tre Tipton (A&S ’19) has been named a recipient of the Wilma Rudolph Student-Athlete Achievement Award, presented annually by the National Association of Academic and Student-Athlete Development Professionals.
PhD Student Alberto Guzman-Alvarez Receives National Dissertation Fellowship
Alberto Guzman-Alvarez, a PhD student in Learning Sciences and Policy at the University of Pittsburgh School of Education, has received a 2021 Dissertation Fellowship from the National Academy of Education and the Spencer Foundation (NAEd Spencer).
Pitt Project Addresses Teen Mental Health through Lens of High School Students
Sara Baumann, a postdoctoral associate in Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health whose specialty is visual research methods, led a project in which cameras were given to young people they were doing research with to have them film aspects of their lives.
From Togo to Pittsburgh and Beyond: He Focuses on Human Rights
Driven by his experiences in a country known for human rights abuses and government infringement on individual freedoms, Koffi Kengbo (GSPIA ’21) hopes his Pitt education will help him fight for the oppressed.
Soundscape.social merges video games and concerts for an interactive virtual music experience
Pitt PhD students Pat Healy and Hannah Standiford have created a new way to listen with music virtually that reinserts the interactivity and spaciality of in-person concerts into the experience.