Academic Accolades

Caitlin Bruce

Bruce won a National Communication Association book award

Caitlin Bruce, an associate professor in the Department of Communication, has earned national recognition for her scholarship exploring youth culture and graffiti as public expression.

Pitt’s ACS Student Affiliates group

Pitt student group earned American Chemical Society honors

The American Chemical Society (ACS) recognized Pitt’s ACS Student Affiliates group with two awards for 2024-25: the Outstanding ACS Student Communities Award and the Green Chemistry Award. 

George Reid Andrews

Andrews honored by the Conference on Latin American History

George Reid Andrews, Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of History, has been honored with the Conference on Latin American History (CLAH) Distinguished Service Award.

Alexander Deiters

Deiters earned an American Chemical Society award

Alexander Deiters, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, was awarded a 2026 Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Dave Newman

Newman won the Pushcart Prize for his short story

Dave Newman, assistant professor of creative and professional writing, was awarded a Pushcart Prize for his story, “The Last Thing That Happened Before I Became A Med Tech.”

Marianne Novy

Novy won an International Impact Award for Biography

Marianne Novy, Professor Emerita of English and Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies, received an International Impact Award for Biography--Unsung Heroes and Everyday Lives and Family--Adoption and Foster Care for her recent book, Adoption Memoirs: Inside Stories.

Jonathan Rubin

Rubin will lead a new Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics journal

Jonathan Rubin, a professor in the Department of Mathematics, is the founding editor-in-chief for the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics’ newest applied mathematics journal.

The Education & Training Center at Pitt-Titusville.

Pitt-Titusville student received a Nightingale Scholarship

Spencer Riley, a second-year nursing student at the University of Pittsburgh at Titusville, was selected to receive the associate degree in nursing scholarship from the Nightingale Awards of Pennsylvania.

Cathedral of Learning.

Libertus selected for a Center for Advancing Research Impact in Society fellowship

Melissa Libertus, associate professor in the Department of Psychology, was named to an inaugural cohort with the Center for Advancing Research Impact in Society.

Summer plants in front of the Cathedral of Learning.

Ashman earned the Botanical Society of America’s highest honor

Distinguished Professor of Evolution and Ecology Tia-Lynn Ashman has been named a distinguished fellow of the Botanical Society of America.

Olivera Finn and others

Finn awarded the PNC Elsie Hillman Distinguished Scholar Award

Olivera J. Finn, Distinguished Professor of Immunology and Surgery at the School of Medicine, was presented with the 2025 PNC Elsie Hillman Distinguished Scholar Award for her decades of research in immunology and groundbreaking work on developing a vaccine to prevent several human cancers, including breast cancer. 

Headshots of the 12 scholarship winners

Meet Pitt’s incoming class of Chancellor’s scholars

Pitt has awarded the Chancellor’s Scholarship, one of the University’s most prestigious undergraduate awards, to 12 incoming first-year students. The awardees, who hail from Wisconsin, Georgia, Maryland and beyond, will begin their studies in fall 2025.

Panther statue

3 Pitt faculty named Fulbright scholars

Three University of Pittsburgh faculty members have received Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program Awards from the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

Fountain in front of the Cathedral of Learning

Engel was honored by the Southwestern Pennsylvania Partnership for Aging

Ray Engel, an associate professor in the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Southwestern Pennsylvania Partnership for Aging.

Paula Orozco-Espinel

PhD candidate received a Newcombe Fellowship

Paula Orozco-Espinel, a doctoral candidate in Department of History at the University of Pittsburgh Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, has been named a Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship recipient.

Cathedral of Learning

16 Pitt undergraduates were named Gilman scholars

This competitive national honor enables undergraduates with limited financial means to study or intern abroad, providing them with skills critical to the United States’ national security and economic prosperity. 

Christian Knox

PhD student received a Department of Energy research award

Christian Knox, a third-year chemistry PhD student in the University of Pittsburgh Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, has been selected to the Department of Energy’s Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program.

Graham Hatfull

Hatfull elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society

Graham Hatfull, Eberly Family Professor of Biotechnology and HHMI Professor in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, has been named a Fellow of the Royal Society, the United Kingdom’s national academy of sciences and an organization of international scholars.

Nicola Foote

Dean Foote named an honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa

Nicola Foote, dean of the University of Pittsburgh David C. Frederick Honors College, was named an honorary member of the prestigious academic honors society Phi Beta Kappa for her contributions since being named dean in 2021.

Hossein Nakhaei

PhD student won a Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship

Hossein Nakhaei, a PhD student in Pitt’s Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, has received a Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship.

Stain glass window

3 Pitt students earned Boren Awards

Three University of Pittsburgh students have earned 2025 Boren Awards for International Study, which will fund their study of critical languages abroad in support of their academic and career goals.

Panther statue

7 Pitt students won a nationally competitive research fellowship

Graduate Research Fellowships from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to perform graduate research in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. 

Mark Nordenberg

Chancellor Emeritus Nordenberg named to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Nordenberg joins nearly 250 members elected in this year’s class, who have distinguished themselves in academia, the arts, industry, policy, research and science.

James Coleman

Coleman won a Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation award

James Coleman, assistant professor of Italian in Pitt’s Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts, has won the Giles Constable Award from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. Only one U.S. applicant to the foundation’s Venetian Research Program is selected for the year each year.

Dara D. Méndez

Méndez was honored by Pittsburgh’s Professional Women’s Network

Dara D. Méndez, associate professor in the School of Public Health, won the Ladies Who Lead Award from Pittsburgh’s Professional Women’s Network.

Sam Podnar

Pitt junior awarded a Truman Scholarship

Sam Podnar, a junior at Pitt, was awarded a 2025 Harry S. Truman Scholarship to pursue graduate studies in public service.

Connor Diaz

Pitt senior won a Newman Civic Fellowship Mini-Grant

Pitt senior Connor Diaz has been selected by Campus Compact for the Newman Civic Fellowship Mini-Grant, funded by The Allstate Foundation.

Satyaj Bhargava

Pitt junior won a Goldwater Scholarship

University of Pittsburgh bioengineering junior Satyaj Bhargava won a 2025 Goldwater Scholarship, one of the nation’s most prestigious awards for undergraduate researchers in the natural sciences, engineering and mathematics.

Fernando Tormos-Aponte

Tormos-Aponte won an early career award from the American Sociological Association

Fernando Tormos-Aponte, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Pittsburgh, has won an Distinguished Early Career Award from the American Sociological Association (ASA).

Claire Hopkins

Pitt’s newest Critical Language Scholar

University of Pittsburgh graduate student Claire Hopkins has been awarded a 2025 Critical Language Scholarship (CLS).