Academic Accolades
Provost announces recipients of 2026 Larry E. Davis Awards
The Office of the Provost announced t
Rory Cooper Wins King Salman International Award for Disability Research
Cooper, director of the Human Engineering Research Laboratories, won in the category of technological applications in disability.
Pitt’s Susan Fullerton Named a Moore Foundation 2026 Experimental Physics Investigator
Susan Fullerton, Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering, has been named a 2026 Experimental Physics Investigator by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
Pitt’s Center for Governance and Markets received a $1.8M grant from the John Templeton Foundation
The three-year project, launching Oct. 1, received a $1.8 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation to bring new ideas into the study of public governance, rebuild scholarship, and train the next generation of scholars and practitioners.
A project co-led by Rachel Bezanson ‘expanded our view of the early universe’
The American Astronomical Society (AAS) has recognized a research team co-led by Rachel Bezanson, associate professor in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Physics and Astronomy, for no less than revealing the contents of the distant universe.
Pitt student won a Newman Civic Fellowship
Avni Khandelwal, a sophomore biochemistry major in Pitt’s Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences and David C. Frederick Honors College, received a 2026-27 Newman Civic Fellowship.
2 professors won American Chemical Society honors
Angela M. Gronenborn, Distinguished Professor of Structural Biology in the School of Medicine, won the Nakanishi Prize, and Kay M. Brummond, professor in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Chemistry, won an Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society.
Undergrad was named to the Hillel International Student Cabinet
Ashley Mason, a senior in the School of Education, was selected to serve on the Hillel International Student Cabinet for the 2026-27 academic year. Hillel International is the world’s largest Jewish campus organization supporting Jewish life, learning and community for college students.
10 Pitt people made Pittsburgh Magazine’s 40 Under 40 list
Ten University of Pittsburgh affiliates were named to Pittsburgh Magazine’s 2026 40 Under 40 list
Cooper named to Forbes’ list of most successful living veterans
Rory Cooper was named to the Forbes 250: America’s Most Successful Living Veteran list in recognition of founding the University of Pittsburgh’s Human Engineering Research Laboratories (HERL), where he designs wheelchair technology that helps reduce repetitive use injuries.
Putnam elected vice president of research for the American Historical Association
Lara Putnam, a professor in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences’ Department of History, has been elected vice president of research for the American Historical Association. She will serve a three-year term beginning January 2027.
Graduate student won a Center for Advanced Study of the Visual Arts fellowship
Janina López, a graduate student in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences’ Department of History of Art and Architecture, received a prestigious predoctoral fellowship from the Center for Advanced Study of the Visual Arts.
DeLoge co-authored two chapters on Quechua language instruction
Alana DeLoge, teaching assistant professor in University of Pittsburgh Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Science’s Department of Linguistics, has co-authored two chapters on the instruction of Quechua, the most widely spoken Indigenous language of the Americas today.
Hinterleitner won the Society for Mucosal Immunology Young Investigator Award
Reinhard Hinterleitner, associate professor in the School of Medicine’s Department of Immunology, has been selected to receive the Young Investigator Award from the Society for Mucosal Immunology.