Academic Accolades

Huey Copeland

Copeland will serve as a juror for the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition

Huey Copeland, Andrew W. Mellon Chair and Professor in the Department of History of Art and Architecture, will serve as a juror for the Smithsonian’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition.

Susan Lucas and Dawna Cerney accepting an award

Lucas named a Mon Valley Initiative Community Partner of the Year

Susan Lucas, assistant teaching professor in Pitt’s Urban Studies Program, and colleague Dawna Cerney, a professor at Youngstown State University, were awarded for their work on the SEED for Swissvale project. 

Raed El Rafei

Rafei’s film will premiere at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam

Raed El Rafei, assistant professor of film and media studies in Pitt’s Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, will premiere his new film at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in November.

Tao Han

Han honored by the American Physical Society

Tao Han, distinguished professor of high energy physics in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, won the American Physical Society’s 2025 Meenakshi Narain Mentoring Award.

Periodic table

Ward honored for encouraging women in the chemical sciences

Michelle Ward, teaching associate professor and director of undergraduate analytical chemistry laboratories, received the Encouraging Women into the Chemical Sciences award.

The Oakland campus

2 Pitt historians were featured in an Emmy-winning documentary

Pitt faculty Alonna Carter-Donaldson and Laurence Glasco explain the movement’s impact in WQED’s digital short-form documentary, “Pittsburgh and the Great Migration,” which recently won a Mid-Atlantic Regional Emmy Award.

Chengcheng Huang

Huang won an NSF CAREER Award

Chengcheng Huang, assistant professor of neuroscience and mathematics at the University of Pittsburgh, has won a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award.

Kathryn Schmitz

Schmitz honored by the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition

Kathryn Schmitz, an exercise oncology researcher in the Medical Center’s Hillman Cancer Center, has won the Lifetime Impact Award from the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition.

Cathedral of Learning

Pitt undergrad earned a Congressional Award

Dylan Fearing, an undergraduate student in Pitt’s Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, has earned the Congressional Award Silver Medal.

Patrick Dunn and Alireza Mohammadzadeh in a research lab

2 Pitt graduate students are finalists in the Collegiate Inventors Competition

Patrick Dunn and Alireza Mohammadzadeh, both graduate researchers in the Swanson School of Engineering, have been named finalists in the Collegiate Inventors Competition for their invention, AgriNUE. 

Daniel Pan

A Pitt medical student won the West Virginia Governor’s Service Award

Daniel Pan, a fourth-year medical student, received the 2024 West Virginia’s Governor’s Service Award. Pan was one of six recipients of this prestigious award and the only recipient in the adult category.

Jay Tan

Tan received a Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award

School of Medicine Assistant Professor Jay Tan received an R35 Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences for a project to research how our cells repair components called lysosomes.   

Cathedral of Learning

7 Pitt faculty won Black Excellence in the Academy awards

Seven faculty members will be recognized at the Heinz History Center on Nov. 7.

Cuilan Liu

Liu published a new book on religion and law in China

Cuilan Liu, assistant professor of religious studies in Pitt’s Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, has published “Buddhism in Court: Religion, Law, and Jurisdiction in China” (Oxford University Press).

Cathedral of Learning

Pitt student won a poster award from the Mathematical Association of America

Pitt mathematics student Lark Song was recognized for his research poster at the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) MathFest in Indianapolis.