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ARCS Pittsburgh April 2019
Spring Highlights
Scholar Celebration 2019!

The 2019 Scholar Celebration took place on April 3rd at the downtown offices of Reed Smith, LLP. More than one hundred ARCS members and guests gathered for hors d'oeuvres and socializing, and were able to talk directly to the third-year scholars and ask questions about the research highlighted in the poster in front of them.

The eight third-year scholars who presented their research this year were: Christopher Lee Hughes (Pitt, Department of Bioengineering), Alyssa Lawler (CMU, Department of Biological Sciences), Tyler Meder (Pitt, Department of Bioengineering, Ziv Scully (CMU, Computer Science Department), Michelle Scribner (Pitt, School of Medicine Interdisciplinary Biomedical Graduate Program), Alex White (Pitt, Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology); Katherine Ye (CMU, School of Computer Science); Diana Zhang (CMU, Electrical and Computer Engineering).

Lynn Banaszak, Executive Director of the Disruptive Health Technology Institute at Carnegie Mellon was the guest speaker. Her work focuses on delivering affordable, accessible, and efficient solutions through innovations in Science, Engineering and Industry. She addressed important, ground breaking innovations happening, not just in academia, but in industry, and how today’s career in academia could very well become tomorrow’s big opportunity in industry. This trend was further reinforced by the acknowledgement and thanks to ARCS Pittsburgh Scholar Alum, Denver Faulk, for attending the event. 

A HUGE THANK YOU to Susan Creighton (Event Chair) and Scholar Celebration committee members: Amy Arner, Patti Conte, Fredrica Cryan, Lynne Porter, and Paula Zawadski. We also wish to thank Reed Smith, LLP for contributing the event space and Parkhurst Catering for the delicious food.  With the generous donations from everyone listed above, we were able to meet our goal for raising a full scholar award of $15,000! Thank you all - we could not have done it without you!

THANK YOU also to Scholar Celebration Host Committee Members: Benefactors: Linda and Timothy Burke ~ Laura Cacioppo ~ Cynthia Carrow  ~ Anne and Jack Crawford ~ Leslie Dunn ~ Gez Ebbert ~ Bev and Steve Elliott ~ Natalie and Bill Hoffman ~ Jennifer and Jim Martin ~ Becky and Tom McGough ~ Kathy and Lou Testoni ~ Anoo and Viju Verghis ~ Beth Wainwright and Russ Kemerer ~ Paula Ann Zawadski. Patrons: Francine Abraham ~ Amy and Keith Arner ~ Jeanne and Dick Berdik ~ Charlotte and Henry Beukema  ~ Susan B. Clancy ~ Cynthia Cooley ~ Susan Creighton ~ Fredrica Cryan ~  Barbara and Mike Granito ~ Jean Anne Hattler ~ Angie and Jim Maher ~ Janice and Ernie Meade ~ Pam Meadowcroft, PhD ~ Elizabeth R. Mertz ~ Peggy and Bill Mooney ~ Honorable and Mrs. Lawrence J. O’Toole ~ Lynne E. Porter, MD ~ Karen Sartin Slevin ~ Arlene Sokolow ~ Thea and Dick Stover ~ Linda and Jay Thier ~ Janet A. Wagner ~ Janet and Ed Wood ~ Audrey Zelkovic, MD.

The Scholar Celebration Gourmet Dinner Auction (for dinner at the Mansions on Fifth in Shadyside) was a great success again this year! Dinner Auction Winners: Carol Caroselli ~ Anne and Jack Crawford ~ Leslie Dunn ~ Bev and Steve Elliott ~ Lee and Grant Friday ~ Caddy and John Harper - Carol and Dick Heppner ~ Jennifer and Jim Martin ~ Becky and Tom McGough ~ Pam Meadowcroft ~ Peggy and Bill Mooney ~ Annie and Dick Rivers ~ Kathy and Lou Testoni ~ Linda and Jay Thier.

Our 2019 ARCS Light Awardee, Pam Meadowcroft, was acknowledged and congratulated. The ARCS Light Award is a distinctive honor awarded to a Chapter member who has given the highest quality of long-term service to the Chapter.
New Endowed Scholar Award Program with CMU

March 13, 2019, was a very exciting day for ARCS Pittsburgh - the kick-off of our new Endowed Scholar Award Program with Carnegie Mellon University. The Endowed Scholar Award Program is the pinnacle of our relationship with Carnegie Mellon. Each award is a perpetual legacy made possible ONLY through the combined investment of the ARCS Foundation Pittsburgh membership, CMU leadership and the four donors (all ARCS Pittsburgh members) whose significant gifts have established the initial ARCS Scholar Award Endowments: Jeanne Berdik and her husband, Dick Berdik; Alicia Avery and her husband CMU Professor Virgil Gligor; Cristy Gookin and the Gookin Family Foundation; and Catharine M. Ryan and her husband, John T. Ryan III. Please check out the brief celebratory release on the CMU website (click here). 

Coming Up: Life Sciences Week in Pittsburgh!

A very exciting event is coming to Pittsburgh May 13-17: Life Sciences Week 2019. Life Sciences Week (LSW19) is “a five day exploration of cutting edge technologies, sciences and partnerships that define the future of life science innovation.” This exciting week of science is open to anyone who would like to attend. Pam, Kathy, Jennifer, Bev and others are planning to attend the Keynote Speaker session on Monday, May 13th from 6.30-8 pm at Carnegie Music Hall. The Keynote Speaker is Dr. Frances Arnold, Nobel Chemistry Awardee and Taylor Alderdice grad. (Click here if interested in attending.)  Pam and Kathy would also like to encourage any members to attend the Breakfast and Panel discussion (The Importance of University-Industry Collaboration) on Wednesday May 15th.  Call Pam with any questions (412.818.3121). Please don’t let attending the Breakfast and Panel keep you from attending our very important All Member Meeting on Wednesday, May 15th at 6:00pm at Beechwood Nature Reserve!  
Help Us Win the $2,500 ARCS Chapter Challenge!

Our Pittsburgh Chapter is currently in 2nd place in the “ARCS Foundation Every Chapter Challenge Drive” and we are asking for your help to make a push to finish in 1st place!  The winning chapter (determined by the number of members who donate as a proportion of the number of members in the chapter) will receive $2,500 to be used toward a Scholar Award!  The amount of the donation is not a factor when determining the winner - just the number of members who donate. The Challenge runs from July 1, 2018 – May 31st, 2019. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO ARCS NATIONAL and let’s finish in 1st place! And please note, If making your donation online, under "Gift Designation," select either "ARCS National Endowment" or "ARCS National Operations" (and not "ARCS Regional Chapter Scholar Fund") to ensure your donation is counted towards this chapter challenge.

Here is where the chapters rank as of April 20th, 2019:

1. Phoenix, 2. Pittsburgh, 3. Utah, 4. Atlanta, 5. Illinois and Los Angeles, 7. Metro Washington, 8. Minnesota and Oregon, 10. Honolulu, 11. Colorado, 12. San Diego and Seattle, 14. Northern California, and 15. Orange County
Academic Achievements

Our current scholars are up to, and on to, exciting things:

Third-year scholar Amber Horvath (CMU) will be at Google this summer investigating non-promotable tasks in software engineering. She will be presenting a poster at in Glasgow at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, regarded as the biggest conference in human-computer interaction.

Third-year scholar Christopher Hughes (Pitt) (see left photo) presented at the Neural Control of Movement conference in Japan earlier this month, for which he also received a Trainee Award.

First-year scholar Adam Smoulder (CMU) (see left photo) presented at two conferences, one of which has an associated conference paper that will be published in the coming months!

Third-year scholar Katherine Ye (CMU) has an internship at Microsoft this summer. She also received a Microsoft research PhD  fellowship. 
Update from Co-Presidents,
Bev Elliott and Jennifer Martin

EXCITING NEWS At our January meeting, the board approved funding 13 new scholars for fall 2019 which will bring our total scholars at Pitt and CMU 2019-2020 to 32, a total we have achieved only 3 times in our 15 year history. 

Upcoming Events Programs chairs, Vicky Guscoff and Anoo Verghis, have planned the events during the day, evening, and even weekends to accomodate the many varied schedules of our members. See ARCS Pittsburgh Calendar below.
ARCS Pittsburgh 2020 Vision:
The Future of Scientific Research

NEXT YEAR! SAVE THE DATE! On the evening of May 5th, 2020 ARCS Pittsburgh will celebrate at the historic Mellon Institute 15 years at CMU and 10 years at Pitt of scholar awards to 146 scholars by raising over $2M from our volunteer member-donors. Keynote panelists will include national leaders in science, medical research, and technology. One of our keynote speakers, Deborah Wince-Smith, President of the U.S. Council on Competitiveness in Washington D.C., is an international leader in bringing academic research and industry together to keep America competitive. This will be an evening of looking back to recognize those who got us here and looking forward to science in the future. More exciting details to follow; put May 5, 2020 on your calendar now.
ARCS Pittsburgh Calendar

April 30 Membership Cultivation Event at Susan Morgan’s home, 5:30pm – 7:00pm. Thank you for your RSVPs. This event is now full.

May 7 Program: Lecture and Tour with Dr. Jerry Vockley, Children’s Hospital Rangos Research Center, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, 4401 Penn Avenue, 6:00pm – 8:00pm.  National ARCS President, Andi Purple, will be attending. Please click here to register for the event. Please email pittsburgh.events@arcsfoundation.org if you have any questions.

May 9 CANCELLED Board Meeting.

May 15 All Member Meeting: 6:00pm-8:30pm Beechwood Farms Nature Reserve, 614 Dorseyville Road, Fox Chapel. To RSVP, members should email Jennifer Martin at jlmartin76@me.com.

May 13-17: Life Sciences Week 2019: ARCS members are encouraged to attend events for Life Sciences Week including: Keynote Speaker (Dr. Francis Arnold), Monday, May 13 from 6.30 to 8 pm and Pittsburgh Creates Breakfast and Panel discussion (The Importance of University-Industry Collaboration) on Wednesday, May 15 from 8.00pm – 9.15am. All events except keynote are free to ARCS Members. Events listed here.

June 4 Program: Tour at Pittsburgh Botanic Garden, 10:00am-12:00pm with Keith Kaiser, Executive Director. Space Limited to 30. Please click here to register for the event. Please email pittsburgh.events@arcsfoundation.org if you have any questions.

June 13 Board Meeting:  8:30am – 10:30am, Forbes Tower, 8th floor, Pitt. This is the final board meeting for the fiscal year. All members can attend if interested. Please contact Jennifer Martin (jlmartin76@me.com) or Bev Elliott (bevelliott11@me.com‬) if you are interested in attending or if you have any questions. 

September 18-21, 2019: National Board Meeting and All Member Conference at The Nines Hotel, Portland (525 SW Morrison St. 97204, Portland, Oregon). There is no additional cost to register for the National Board Meeting. For more information, including registering, click here. For hotel registration click here.

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.