And More News ...
Brusilovsky awarded degree of Doctor honoris causa
Peter Brusilovsky, Associate Professor at the School of Information Sciences (the iSchool), will be honored by the Slovak University of Technology (SUT) with the degree of Doctor honoris causa. The university, founded in 1937 in Bratislava, is one of the most significant institutions of higher education in Slovakia. Dr. Brusilovsky was selected for this recognition for his contributions to the fields of Informatics and Information Technologies. He will receive this significant accolade during a ceremony in Bratislava on April 28, 2009. The ceremony will include members of the SUT’s scientific council, rector, vice rectors and deans. More>
Three MLIS alum recognized as “Movers & Shakers” by Library Journal
Library Journal has announced their annual “Movers & Shakers” nominations, highlighting those who have contributed greatly to the library profession. The iSchool is proud to note that, for 2009, three graduates of the MLIS degree program have been recognized by the magazine.
Rachel Walden, (FastTrack MLIS, 2006) was selected for her efforts to raise awareness about the science and politics of women’s health issues, particularly through her women’s health news blog and her work as a Librarian in the Eskind Biomedical Library at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Tennessee. While here at the iSchool, Rachel was in the Medical Librarianship/Medical Informatics specialization in the online MLIS program.
Also on the list is Ingrid Kalchthaler, MLIS 1999. Ingrid was nominated in the activist category for her work at the Bethel Park Library in Pittsburgh. While there, she worked with a local education fund to create libraries for children in 18 homeless shelters. She co-initiated a Bully Prevention Program for local schools and helped to create bimonthly events at the library for homeschooled kids. She now serves as the Head of Youth Services and Assistant Director at Shaler North Hills Library in suburban Pittsburgh.
A graduate of the MLIS program in 2001, Carlie Webber is on the “Movers & Shakers” list for her passionate advocacy of Young Adult literature and services. Webber is the Young Adult Services Librarian at Bergen County Cooperative Library System in New Jersey, where she has initiated a number of intriguing programs including “Harry Potter for Grownups” and “YA Bootcamp 2.0.” She hosts a blog that has become an industry standard on YA literature and issues as well as pop phenomena.
To read more about the “Movers & Shakers,” please visit http://www.libraryjournal.com. The iSchool congratulates these outstanding representatives of the library profession!
ARO Funded Research Project
SIS faculty are part of a research project funded by the Army Research Office’s
Multi-University Research Initiative. Prashant Krishnamurthy and David
Tipper will collaborate on research on how to construct robust and secure mobile
ad hoc networks. "ARSENAL: A cross layer ARchitecture for SEcure resilieNt tacticAL mobile
ad hoc networks” is a joint effort of 12 professors at 7 institutions:
University of California, Davis; University of California, Santa Cruz; University
of California, Riverside; Brigham Young University; University of Utah; University
of Pittsburgh; and the Pennsylvania State University. The Army Research Office
funded this innovative project for a five-year period at $6.25 million. The goal
of this project is to develop a cross layer architecture that provides comprehensive
security and resilience for mobile ad hoc networks. The resulting architecture
will be able to adaptively provide the appropriate trade-offs between performance,
security and fault-resilience. Krishanmurthy and Tipper are associate professors
in the School of information Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh.
Lewis wins MURI funding
Michael Lewis, Professor at SIS, will receive approximately $1.5 million in funding for two projects from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) program. The MURI program supports research projects of interest to the Department. Lewis, whose research interests involve human-computer interaction, will work with researchers from four other universities on a project to discover methods for observing how cultural differences may impact negotiation efforts. The results may be used to train military negotiators. For the second project, Lewis will also work with faculty at other universities to evaluate the benefits of a decentralized military information network. More>
Pitt Highly-Ranked for Papers in Library and Information Science
Pitt was ranked third as a "Most Prolific Institution, 2002-2006" in
a survey of papers in the field of Library & Information Science. Of
U.S. institutions, SIS faculty contributed the third greatest number of papers
to the field of library & information science over a recent five-year period. The
survey was based on each institution's percentage of the 8,995 papers published
in Thomson Scientific-indexed library-science journals between 2002 and 2006. For
more information, please visit http://in-cites.com/research/2007/november_26_2007-1.html.
Customize Education, Career Options
SIS offers students the chance to focus their studies on specific areas of
interest within the degree programs. Each specialization is designed to give
you a deeper understanding of a particular field or topic, and to make yourself
more marketable to employers who are looking for a specific set of skills. SIS,
in consultation with industry and academic leaders, created the concentrations
and specializations to better meet the needs of students and employers. More >