Pitt Department of Chemistry Honors Three Distinguished Alumni
October 24, 2002
PITTSBURGH—The University of Pittsburgh's Department of Chemistry will honor three alumni—a pioneer in transplantation surgery, a Manhattan Project research team member, and a chemist who was among the most cited scientists of the 1960s and 1970s. Each will receive the department's Distinguished Alumni Award during a ceremony at 6 p.m. Oct. 25 in the Ashe Foyer of Pitt's Chevron Science Center, 219 Parkman Ave., in Oakland.
Award recipients are:
Mary Catherine Mancini, M.D., professor of surgery, chief of cardiothoracic surgery and director of cardiothoracic transplantation at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center. She was among the first female transplantation surgeons in the United States. Mancini earned the Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Pitt in 1974 and graduated from Pitt's School of Medicine in 1978, where she completed her residency in general surgery and received training in cardiothoracic surgery. She received the Ph.D. degree in cellular biology and anatomy from the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in 2000, and the Master of Medical Management degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in 2002.
Muttaiya Sundaralingam, emeritus professor of chemistry at Ohio State University. He was among the top 300 most-cited scientists for his work in genetics published from 1965-1978. After earning the Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from the University of Ceylon, Sri Lanka, in 1956, Sundaralingam received the Ph.D. degree in chemistry from Pitt in 1961.
Irving Wender, distinguished University research professor of engineering at Pitt. He served as a chemist on the Manhattan Project research team from 1942 to 1946, studying the effects of radioactive iodine. Having earned the Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from the City College of New York in 1936, Wender went on to earn the Master of Science degree in chemistry from Columbia University in 1945 and the Ph.D. degree in chemistry from Pitt in 1950.
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10/24/02/tmw
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