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Innovation

This Dietrich School professor added fresh context to artwork at the heart of the new Pittsburgh International Airport

This fearless senior is the definition of ‘cool under pressure’

As a Pitt athlete, Ellie Breech had been required to take CPR classes after Pitt alum Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest in 2023 while playing an NFL game. So, when her father’s heart suddenly stopped later that year on Christmas Day, Breech was ready to save his life.

Since then, she’s made it her mission to ensure others are ready, too.

Research and Innovation Live with Nature at Pitt's Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology

Pitt’s Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology is only one hundred miles north of the University’s bustling Oakland campus, but for some it seems like a different world. Surrounded by quiet forest on the shore of a fishing lake that straddles the Pennsylvania-Ohio state line, Pitt students and researchers have enjoyed field and laboratory experiences here for generations. Known informally as PLE, the facility has space for large-scale research and ecosystems studies where students and researchers can get their hands on plants and animals in their natural environments.

Dietrich School professor awarded honors at 2026 Yeast Genetics Meeting

Karen Ardnt, a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, has been awarded the Lee Hartwell Lecture for the 2026 Yeast Genetics Meeting. This honor is awarded to researchers whose work has had a significant impact in other fields of research. Ardnt’s research has focused on chromatin remodeling and transcription regulation. She has been published over 40 times for her outstanding work in the field.
 

It was never a Phage ! Alumni of the SEA-Phage program are continuing their research as a part of their careers

Alumni of Graham Hatfull’s SEA-Phages Lab are still playing in the dirt even years after graduating. The SEA-Phages program, which stands for Science Education Alliance-Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science program, is taught over the course of two semesters and was created by Hatfull under the Howard Hughes Medical Institute program.

Horror is alive and well at the Dietrich School's new Horror Studies Center

The macabre is all around us, monsters lurking in every corner, and not all of them are fictional. Just ask English and Film and Media Studies professor Adam Lowenstein.

Horror is the intersection of many areas of study, and Lowenstein aims to connect them all, which is why he has been working like the living dead for years, alongside numerous collaborators across Pitt and beyond, to establish a first-of-its-kind interdisciplinary Horror Studies Center.