Innovation

Dietrich Student Liam Weixel Talks About His Experience Studying the Amazon

Eulodia Dagua teaching two Pitt students, Pranav Rajupalepu (left) and Liam Weixel (right) how to wrap fish for cooking

When I heard about the project—since named HeritageRoots—and its goal of collecting and compiling indigenous narratives into a virtual experience, I was intrigued by its ambition. As a writing major, I saw the opportunity to study and adapt indigenous traditional knowledge as not only important work for cultural preservation, but a fascinating source of new knowledge to inform my own cultural understanding and writing.

Dietrich School Research Team Develops Fentanyl Sensor

A research team at Pitt led by Alexander Star, a chemistry professor in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, has developed a fentanyl sensor that is six orders of magnitude more sensitive than any electrochemical sensor for the drug reported in the past five years. The portable sensor can also tell the difference between fentanyl and other opioids.

Dietrich School Professor Wants to Make Physics More Diverse

Woman in red blouse smiling.

Physics has long suffered from the perception that the most cutting-edge work is done by lone geniuses, usually white men. It’s a bias that’s seeped into how instructors interact with their students, and even into how students think about themselves. Prior research has shown that female students who get A’s in introductory physics think they’re as good at physics as male students who get C’s.

Dietrich School Students Among NSF Honorees

Compass pointing to excellence.

The GRFP is a prestigious program that supports outstanding graduate students pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees in more than 100 NSF-supported STEM fields. NSF selects a pool of about 2,000 fellowships from 14,000 applicants. These fellowships serve as three years of financial support that can be used over a five-year period at accredited U.S. institutions, including an annual stipend of $34,000 and a cost-of-education allowance of $12,000 that graduate institutions agree to accept in lieu of charging tuition and fees.