Denver Faulk's career path was to become an academic research scientist, but he changed directions when he decided to stay in Pittsburgh, “My wife and I love Pittsburgh and it’s a great place for our three kids to grow up.  We didn’t want to leave after I completed my Ph.D. but fewer great academic research institutions like Pitt and CMU hire new scientist-researchers.”  

Given the dramatically reduced government funding in science, technology, medicine, and engineering, more and more scholars will benefit from increased partnership between universities-industries-donors.  Denver continues to have an affiliation with Pitt’s bioengineering department, gives occasional lectures there and at CMU, while conducting FDA clinical trials on devices that will save lives at ALung Technologies.  ALung is a spin-off of research at Pitt and a good example of how highly ranked academic research centers promote entrepreneurial activities for researchers like Denver.  

ARCS Pittsburgh is reaching out to new industries in Pittsburgh both for future funding of our scholars as well as to nourish University-Industry-Donor partnerships.  We have partnered with Pittsburgh Tech Council (see their article on ARCS Pittsburgh by clicking here and scrolling down to the last article) hoping to make relevant programs available to our scholars or members and to cultivate corporate relationships. Additionally, we are pursuing exciting opportunities with Pittsburgh CREATES, an industry focused research, training, and innovation center for advanced surgical technologies at Pitt. We ask everyone in our ARCS Pittsburgh community to contact our Fund Development Co-Chairs, Pamela Meadowcroft, pmeadowcroft1@gmail.com or Kathy Testoni, ktestoni@gmail.com,  if you have personal/professional connections to help us expand our industry-innovators partnerships.

First Chapter Member to Receive Honorary Member Status: Cecile Springer, an ARCS Pittsburgh Founder and active member since that founding in 2003, recently became our first Chapter member to receive Honorary Member status. Cecile was trained as a chemist and went on to become a leader in philanthropy. Her love of science, especially  expanding the knowledge of science among all women, made ARCS a natural fit for her. As she said, “I am so very pleased to have received the accolade of Honorary Member of ARCS Pittsburgh. Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) means a lot to me. As a young chemist and then leader in various areas in our community, science, especially chemistry, has always been a leadership effort AND I’ve been such a proponent of women in science that ARCS was a natural for me.” Cecile served in many lecapacities over her years as an ARCS leader including Chair of Nominating, University Relations, Planning, Vice President of the Board, and the 2006 Light Awardee, an honor bestowed on a member who has given the highest quality of long-term service to the Chapter.

Welcome to New Members! This was a successful new-member recruitment year with several recruitment events in members’ homes throughout the late summer and early fall.  We welcome warmly Joan Adibi, Amy Arner, Gerry Boccella, Laura Cacioppo, Patricia Conte, Nancy Gruner, Jean Anne Hattler, Kathleen Kuznicki, Darice McNelis, Susan Morgans, Kit Needham, Rita Ombres, Lynn Silverman, and Barbara Thai.  Also, our continuing-member retention may well have set a record!  Since membership resignations in nonprofits can often exceed 30%, our less than 10% shows we’re doing something right!  Congratulations to all who helped recruit and retain an enthusiastic group of 109 members including Membership Chair, Lynne Porter and Assistant Chair, Carol Heppner and the many members who hosted events in their homes (Cynthia Cooley, Fredica Cryan, Susan Golomb, Carol Heppner, Ginnie Merchant, and Merilee Salmon).

Transitions: Art Levine, MD, will be leaving his position as the University of Pittsburgh’s Vice Chancellor of Health Sciences and Dean of the Medical School to establish a laboratory in the Brain Institute (a component of which is a collaboration between Pitt and CMU) to research Alzheimer’s disease.  Dr. Levine’s impact on Pitt’s stature as a nationally ranked top school for biomedical research is unsurpassed.  Given that ARCS Pittsburgh has had many of our scholars directly involved in biomedicine or indirectly in related areas (e.g., bioengineering), we at ARCS are grateful for his leadership at Pitt over the past 20 years.  Since ARCS Pittsburgh has already benefited from the Alzheimer’s research currently being conducted at Pitt (we have had ARCS program lectures by Pitt Alzheimer’s researchers), we look forward to even more success in this field with his transition.   For more information on Dr. Levine, click here. 

With Sadness: Carol Berkman, ARCS Pittsburgh Founding Member, ARCS Pittsburgh past Board Member, and active community volunteer died on December 29, 2018.  Many in our community knew Carol Berkman, a dynamo of a community leader. Carol Heppner, another ARCS Founding Member recalls of Carol, “I went to her for advice on a number of topics, but I remember most her love of children and being a mother.”  We extend our condolences to her family and many friends. For more information, click here for her obituary.   

February 5 Deadline: IT IS NOT TOO LATE TO BECOME A HOST COMMITTEE MEMBER for the Scholar Celebration event in April!  If you can’t locate your mailing on this and would like to be a Host Committee member with your name listed in the Scholar Celebration program, please contact Beth Wainwright (bethwainwright@gmail.com) before the deadline. 

February 19 Program: Carnegie Science Center, 1:15pm- 3:00pm, (option for lunch at noon in the café) STEM Program Overview with Liz Whitewolf, Director of Science and Education, Fab Lab visit, tour of the new Science Pavilion, and DaVinci - The Exhibition.   For registering click here.           

March 14 Board Meeting: 8:30am – 10:30am, CMU Mellon Institute     

March Date TBD Program: Tour of the Pittsburgh Zoo Animal Health Center with head veterinarian, Dr. Ginger Sturgeon.

April 3 Scholar Celebration: 6:00pm-8:30pm Reed Smith Centre 225 Fifth Avenue Place, Suite 1200, Pittsburgh PA. Special guest speaker and great research posters by our 3rd year scholars. Paper invitations for the event will be forthcoming for members and electronic invitations for our partners and scholars as well as members – please keep your eyes open for the invitation. All attendees must furnish photo ID to attendant in lobby.

May 7 Program: Lecture and Tour with Dr. Jerry Vockley, Children’s Hospital research lab Evening event, time TBD.

May 9 CANCELLED Board Meeting.

May 15 All Member Meeting:  6:00pm-8:30pm Beechwood Farms Nature Reserve, 614 Dorseyville Road, Fox Chapel.

May event TBD: with Pittsburgh CREATES to further Academic-Industry-Donor Partnerships and expand the visibility of ARCS Pittsburgh.

June 4  Program: Tour at Pittsburgh Botanical Garden, 10:00am-12:00pm with Keith Kaiser, Executive Director.

June 13 Board Meeting:  8:30am – 10:30am, Forbes Tower, 8th floor, Pitt.

Anytime! Our Tickets for Scholars is managed by our Scholar Relations Chair, Leslie Dunn.  If you have tickets to cultural or sports events that you cannot use, our scholars would love to have them.  Contact Leslie at (dunnlo@gmail.com ).