F E A T U R E I N T H I S I S S U E The Univer- Pitt honors five faculty with Distin- sity Times guished Professorships.....................2 talks with Falk School faculty and students are Deborah turning a steep hillside into an out- door classroom..........................6 & 7 Walker, the new president U N I V E R S I T Y of the Staff Association Council. See page 3. TIMES VOLUME 43 • NUMBER 21 JUNE 23, 2011 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH State budget discussions continue s state budget discussions The Senate bill’s proposed $25 of Higher Education schools by continue in Harrisburg, million cut is significantly less 15 percent. Corbett’s proposal Alegislation awaiting final severe than Corbett’s initial plan had slated the schools for cuts of approval in the state Senate would to halve the appropriation for Pitt more than 50 percent. cut Pitt’s general appropriation by and its fellow state-related univer- Senate Bill 1123 would restore 15 percent. sities, but significant nevertheless. to Pitt some $62.5 million of Cor- Although the $142.8 million John Fedele, Pitt associate bett’s proposed cuts. If approved, proposal represents the Senate’s director of News, said, “Pitt is still it would provide nearly $142.8 goal for restoring some of the 50 working with legislators in hopes million ($140.6 million for general percent cut Gov. Tom Corbett that the percent reduction in the support and nearly $2.2 million proposed for Pitt, Paul Supowitz, appropriation for the state-related for rural education outreach) for vice chancellor for Governmental universities will be no greater Pitt in fiscal year 2012, which Relations, cautioned that the than that assigned to the Com- begins July 1. budget debate is still in progress. monwealth System universities.” Excluding funding for the “It’s not all that clear that will The House budget bill would cut medical school, Pitt’s current be the final number,” he said funding for the 14 State System fiscal year appropriation includes $160.49 million in state money plus $7.5 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Virtual desktops (ARRA) funds for a total of nearly $168 million. Mike Drazdzinski/CIDDE Corbett’s FY12 budget pro- Honored Technology yields savings Alaine M. Allen, director of the Pitt engineering career access posal would have reduced Pitt’s program housed in the Swanson School of Engineering, is this everal virtual computing VMware, which Lefcakis said has general appropriation to $80.25 year’s winner of the Chancellor’s Affirmative Action Award. initiatives are underway at been in the virtualization ware million. In addition, the end of The award, which carries a $2,500 prize, is presented annually Pitt, with an aim to simplify business the longest. to a program that, or an individual who, has made a signifi- S the federal stimulus program cuts cant contribution to affirmative action at Pitt. access to computing resources An employee who has to leave $7.5 million in the coming fiscal Chancellor Mark Nordenberg, left, presented the award to while cutting costs — both for the office in the middle of a project Allen at the June 15 Senate Council meeting. users and for the University. can click on the VM client to dis- CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 Virtual computing is gaining connect the work from the desktop popularity across higher educa- and reconnect it to pick up where tion, with many schools piloting he or she left off, using an iPad or Oakland Farmers’ Market to open various projects, said Computing other device at home or elsewhere, he Oakland Farmers’ in the adjacent UPMC lot. vegetables, meat and dairy prod- Services and Systems Develop- he explained. For example, Lefca- Market returns July 8, Pitt is among many community ucts from local farms. ment director Jinx Walton. kis said, a coder from an UCSUR with a dozen or so vendors partners sponsoring the farmers’ The program, launched in Pitt already offers virtual appli- lab who performs data analysis is T featuring homegrown and home- market with the Oakland Business 2007, offers fresh products deliv- cations through the faculty com- spending time in Japan. “We gave made local products such as fresh Improvement District. Informa- ered directly from area farms to puting program, which enables him VM and he’s able to work as produce, cut flowers, herbs, honey, tion on the farmers’ market is designated locations on the Pitts- faculty to use a number of software if he’s here.” eggs, fresh-baked bread, vegan available at http://oaklandfarmer- burgh campus. Subscribers pay a packages on or off campus with- Users who may need multiple baked goods, all-natural beef and smarket.org/this-years-vendors/ fee in advance then receive farm- out downloading the programs software setups can have several ethnic delectables. or by calling 412/683-6243 ext. 19. fresh products weekly through to their own machines, Walton virtual desktops, allowing them to The market will be held noon- The University also sponsors October. For more information said, adding that faculty, staff simply log into the configuration 4 p.m. on Fridays through Nov. a Farms to Pitt program, run by on the Farms to Pitt program, and students will be seeing more that’s needed, rather than need- 18 on Sennott Street between Isidore Foods, that enables Uni- visit www.isidorefoods.com or call virtual computing options in the ing different desktop machines, Atwood Street and Meyran versity employees to subscribe to 412/400-4721. coming academic year, including he said. Avenue. Free parking is available a weekly delivery of fresh fruits, —Peter Hart n virtual servers, virtual computer There’s even an option for labs and virtual desktops. users who want to continue their work offline — perhaps on an UCSUR an early adopter airplane or in a remote area. They While many University depart- can “check out” a desktop before ments are showing interest, Jim losing their connection then check Lefcakis, information technology it back in when they have Internet director for the University Center access again, he said. for Social and Urban Research, The virtual technology will be said his center is the first to be put to the test during UCSUR’s virtualizing desktops — replacing move this summer. Its current desktop computers with monitors home, the University Place and small machines called thin (or building, is slated for demolition zero) clients. to make way for a new freshman A virtual desktop enables dorm. a computer user to access the Faculty and staff who use resources available at the office the virtual environment should from anyplace with Internet experience no downtime during access, while the data remains UCSUR’s move. Instead of having secure on Pitt’s network. to take users offline, “We’ll have Any device with connectivity 100 percent accessibility,” Lefca- will work — a laptop, iPad or kis said. By setting up thin servers even a smart phone — although in UCSUR’s new offices on Forbes it’s more practical if the device is Avenue, employees will be able to equipped with a keyboard, Lef- “leave work here one day, then cakis said. go to another place the next day” Several companies offer without interruption. CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 the software but UCSUR uses Photo courtesy of OBID 1 U N I V E R S I T Y TIMES dynamics/simulated annealing algorithms and multidimensional, 5 faculty awarded Distinguished Professorships heteronuclear magnetic resonance Pitt has honored five faculty of new diagnostics, population- synthase gene. logical molecules, such as proteins, spectroscopy methods that she members with Distinguished Pro- based field studies, clinical vaccine Billiar’s work and how their function is affected developed, Gronenborn studies fessorships, one as a Distinguished trials, computational modeling of also extends into by changes in their structure and the structure, folding and dynam- University Professor and four as epidemic control strategies and the areas of liver by their interactions. ics of macromolecules. Distinguished Professors. policy analysis. disease and innate Gronenborn has solved solu- • One of the nation’s leading The honorees and their new • Billiar is the George Vance immunity. There tion structures of a large number experts in the early detection titles are: Donald Burke, Dis- Foster Professor and Chair in the are seven U.S. of medically of Alzheimer’s disease, Klunk tinguished University Professor School of Medicine’s Department patents associ- and biologically is a professor of psychiatry and of Health Science and Policy; of Surgery. ated with his research. important pro- neurology in the School of Medi- Timothy R. Billiar, Distinguished The main research focus of • Gronenborn is the UPMC teins, including cine. He also is co-director of Professor of Surgery; Angela Billiar’s laboratory is studying the Rosalind Franklin Professor and cytokines and the Alzheimer Disease Research Gronenborn, Distinguished Pro- immune response to injury and Chair in the School of Medicine’s chemokines, Center at UPMC. He is a pioneer fessor of Structural Biology; shock. His laboratory, which cur- Department of Structural Biology. transcription in the field of in vivo amyloid imag- William E. Klunk, Distinguished rently is funded by three National She has made key contribu- factors and their ing in humans, and his group’s Professor of Psychiatry, and Peter Institutes of Health (NIH) grants, tions in the field of structural complexes and various HIV- and paper on imaging the pathology Strick, Distinguished Professor of is credited with initially cloning biology, which is the study of the AIDS-related proteins. of Alzheimer’s disease, published Neurobiology. the human inducible nitric oxide three-dimensional shapes of bio- Using restrained molecular CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 A Distinguished University Professorship recognizes emi- nence in several fields of study, transcending accomplishments What makes a Distinguished Professor? in and contributions to a single discipline; the rank of Distin- hat’s in a name? Among approved adding the Distin- then has to assemble a dossier on study, transcending contributions guished Professor recognizes Pitt’s three distin- guished Professor in a discipline behalf of the individual.