University News

	Greyshock

Best Medicine

Tammy Greyshock kneels in a sea of pink. Pink gift bags crowd the floor of her hotel room. Pink notecards dangle from the bags by curls of pink ribbon. Greyshock (CAS ’93) stuffs each bag with pink mementos. She draws a deep breath and stands to stretch her legs. She takes a sip from a strawberry yogurt smoothie before bending down again to fill the remaining bags. Tonight, she’ll be giving them away to a few people she considers heroes. Greyshock knows something about their battles.

Twenty years ago, when Greyshock was 15 years old, her mother Stephanie was diagnosed with breast cancer. The days since then amount to a long, sustained effort to stop the disease, including Greyshock’s enduring support of the Susan G. Komen Foundation’s mission to eradicate breast cancer as a life-threatening disease. She has run in the foundation’s Race for the Cure every year since 1992; and she has persuaded many of her coworkers at Wachovia bank to join her, giving the bank the distinction as the race’s largest corporate entry every year since 1997.

But that didn’t satisfy Greyshock. For her most serious endeavor, she turned to comedy. Her best friend, Brian Heffron, owns the Comedy Zone network of comedy clubs. They combined their resources, and Laugh for the Cure®—a yearly comedy show with all proceeds benefiting the local affiliate of the Komen Foundation—was born four years ago in Greyshock’s adopted hometown of Charlotte, N.C. By next year, Laugh for the Cure® (www.laughforthecure.com) will have expanded to four locations nationwide. Greyshock believes the event is successful because it is a unique fundraiser with universal appeal. “All you have to know how to do is laugh,” she says, “and everyone knows how to do that.”

In fact, it’s Greyshock’s “laughable” fundraising event that led her to the pink-laden hotel room in New York City. She was in the city this spring to be honored as one of 25 individuals from around the nation to be named a 2006 Yoplait Champion by Yoplait yogurt company, the Komen Foundation, and Self magazine.

Greyshock gave the pink gift bags to her fellow winners—her heroes—as a token of her own appreciation for their work. After all, without the help of people like them, she might not have been able to pin a pink survivor’s corsage on her mother’s lapel at the sold-out performance of Laugh for the Cure® in 2005. Her mother has been cancer-free for years.
—Katy Rank

	O’Toole

In Command

Queen Elizabeth II named Timothy T. O’Toole (LAW ’80) an honorary Commander of the British Empire, one of England’s highest honors, for his leadership of London’s subway system in the aftermath of the July 2005 terrorist bombings. O’Toole, the London Underground’s managing director, is credited with restoring full service in rapid order. He was the keynote speaker at Pitt’s School of Law spring commencement.
—Cara J. Hayden

Jolly Good

Winston Churchill—Great Britain’s distinguished orator, author, and former prime minister—approved the idea, late in his life, of creating a foundation in the United States that would bear his name. Established in 1959, The Winston Churchill Foundation offers a scholarship program that gives top American students the opportunity to pursue graduate studies in engineering, mathematics, or the sciences at Churchill College, the University of Cambridge. Each year, the foundation invites participation from a select group of U.S. colleges and universities based on the institutions’ strengths in these disciplines. To be considered, students must be “of exceptional ability and outstanding academic achievement.” This year, for the first time, Pitt was asked to nominate a student for the prestigious scholarship—and Clayton Magill (A&S ’06) will be going to Cambridge. Magill, one of only 11 winners nationwide, will use the award to study quaternary science, which covers a period of geology dating from human origins to the present. He graduated in April with a double major in chemistry and geology, a minor in German, and a Bachelor of Philosophy degree from the University Honors College.
—CJH

Tough Love

An eager, nervous Pitt freshman arrives at the Pittsburgh airport, fresh from her first-ever airplane flight. There to meet her at the gate is engineering faculty member Karl Lewis, who soon takes on the role of academic coach and on-campus advocate for the freshman, Barbara Shelton. But she’s not the only one to benefit from his support. Over the years, hundreds of Pitt engineering students have been pushed by Lewis to do their best. That’s simply what he expects.

Lewis—a successful engineer, leader of several professional societies, and dedicated teacher—founded the Pitt Engineering Impact Program in 1971, which has helped to educate hundreds of successful Black engineers. He’s a member of the School of Engineering Hall of Fame and associate professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering.

Earlier this year, Lewis received the Golden Torch Award for Lifetime Achievement in Academia from the National Society of Black Engineers.
Shelton, who graduated from Pitt in 1979 with an engineering degree, later received an MBA at Columbia University. Several years ago, she was appointed by President George W. Bush as a regional administrator for the U.S. General Services Administration, overseeing government construction and technology projects. She once wrote: “My years at Pitt were not easy, but Dr. Lewis was always there encouraging me and letting me know that the investment in studying and my personal perseverance would be well worth it. He was so right!”
—CJH

Highly Evolved

In a small classroom, a group of Pitt medical students and curators from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History crowd around a table, their voices hushed and heads bowed, as if in prayer. However, they are not looking toward the heavens for enlightenment but deep into the past. Ancient relics are set on the table before them: an assortment of skulls, bones, and fossils from the museum’s vast collection.

Museum curator Christopher Beard removes a large fossil from a cardboard box, and the others crane their necks for a better view.  This unremarkable-looking gray rock is a 150-million-year- old cross section of a leg bone from a Jurassic-era dinosaur. Beard points to a tennis ball-size lump, which, he explains, is actually a malignant tumor. The dinosaur suffered from a type of bone cancer called osteosarcoma, which is still found in humans today.

First-year medical student Katherin Peperzak stares at the fossil, shocked to realize that the common, often fatal illness has existed since pterodactyls soared through the sky. If cancer has survived for this long already, she wonders, what will it take for today’s doctors to find a cure?

Dinosaur fossils are not a traditional teaching tool in most medical school classrooms, but then again, this is not a traditional class. “The Natural History of Medicine” is the result of an innovative partnership between the University of Pittsburgh and the Carnegie Museum, devised by Pitt’s John Lazo, Allegheny Foundation Professor of Pharmacology, and Beard, head of vertebrate paleon-tology at the museum. The two men realized each institution had a wealth of information and resources that could prove valuable to the other. “Pitt has the scientific equipment, such as computer tomography scanners and scanning electron microscopes, that we simply do not have at the museum,” says Beard. This sophisticated technology has allowed the museum to conduct valuable research on fossils from its collection. In return, the Carnegie’s curators are helping to facilitate the course, using the museum’s collection to illustrate how diseases have evolved throughout history.

As Peperzak and her fellow classmates examine the fossilized evidence to learn about the evolution of cancer and other common diseases, they quickly conclude that knowledge of the ancient past can help their future careers as doctors. Seeing a disease’s impact on a dinosaur or early primate, she says, “could help us better predict what to expect in the future” and lead to more effective treatments for patients. Student Amy Soni says she has always been interested in evolution, but after taking the class, she sees that “just about everything can be explained by an evolutionary context.” With a university-size share of advanced technology and a museum full of specimens, some good things are bound to evolve.
—Kathy Hawkins  

	Lauren Feintuck (A&S ’06) and Stephanie Masceri (CBA ’06)

A Good Fit

Pitt students weren’t just clowning around when 17 of them squeezed into a car on Bigelow Boulevard in April. The “How Many Can You Fit?” contest was part of an award-winning advertising campaign developed by students in a College of Business Administration marketing course. Their assignment was to raise campus awareness about Honda’s 2007 Fit Car, which is geared toward Generation Y customers like themselves. The Pitt team presented the results of their semester-long project at Honda’s California headquarters and bested teams from 17 schools nationwide when company executives awarded them the top prize in the Honda Fit Marketing Challenge.
—CJH

	Adam and Carol Iddriss

Lead On...

Pitt junior Adam Iddriss felt the pull of public service early in life—on family trips to impoverished areas of Ghana and volunteering at soup kitchens with his mother. This spring, he became only the 10th student in Pitt’s history to receive a Harry S. Truman Scholarship, a national award that supports graduate studies for students working toward public service careers. Majoring in bioengineering and chemistry, Iddriss aims to become an engineer and physician, with plans to help underserved people in Ghana. The scholarship also recognizes his outstanding leadership as president of Pitt’s Golden Key International Honour Society, Pre-Medical Organization for Minority Students, and Engineers for a Sustainable World. His mother is Carol Iddriss, a 13-year University staff member who manages the information desk in the William Pitt Union.
—CJH

Research Periscope

Bacon may one day contain some of the same beneficial nutrients as salmon and other heart-healthy foods. A team of researchers—assembled from several institutions by Pitt’s Yifan Dai, associate professor of surgery in the School of Medicine—has used genetic engineering to create pigs that are capable of producing omega-3 fatty acids. Normally found in fish and flaxseed oils, these fatty acids can improve heart function and help reduce the risks for heart disease. But those benefits are typically only available to people who take dietary supplements or eat fish, which may also contain high levels of mercury.

Ultimately, the study—published in the April issue of Nature Biotechnology—and follow-up research might lead to alternative, safer sources of omega-3 fatty acids and a better understanding of how these fatty acids can be used to improve human health. Dai’s team includes Rhobert Evans, associate professor of epidemiology in Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health and assistant professor of molecular genetics and biochemistry in the medical school.
—CJH

Cited

Mary E. Clutter (FAS ’60, ’57), an authority on advancing biology research worldwide, received the 2006 President’s Citation Award from the American Institute of Biological Sciences. She retired last fall as assistant director of the Biological Sciences Directorate of the National Science Foundation, which supports fundamental biology research. During her distinguished career, she served as the U.S. chair of the U.S.-European Commission Task Force on Biotechnology and was a trustee of the international Human Frontier Science Program.
—CJH

Dapper Dame

Through locker room pep talks, smart game strategies, and efficient practice sessions, Head Coach Agnus Berenato guided the Pitt women’s basketball team to 22 wins this past season, tying its previous record and boosting the team into playoff competition in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament. Her efforts also won a slew of fans. Berenato was selected as the 2006 Dapper Dan Sportswoman of the Year in a public vote conducted by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. This spring, she was honored at the newspaper’s Dapper Dan Charities dinner alongside the Sportsman of the Year, Pittsburgh Steeler and Super Bowl champion Jerome Bettis.
—CJH

National Treasures

The University Center for International Studies (UCIS) at the University of Pittsburgh again received major national recognition from the U.S. Department of Education, which has redesignated four of Pitt’s area studies programs as National Resource Centers. The programs, which together will receive $4 million for the designations over the next four years, include the Asian Studies Center, the Center for Latin American Studies, the Center for Russian and East European Studies, and the Center for West European Studies.