News of Note From Pitt

• Bioengineering Graduate Student Saik Goh Studies with National Institutes of Health Clinical Center

• Epidemiology Professor Caterina Rosano Serves as Member of National Institute of Health’s Aging Systems and Geriatrics Study

• Physics Professor Jeremy Levy Leads National Graphene and Complex Oxide Material Study 

PITTSBURGH—Recognizing the awards and accomplishments of faculty, staff, and students at the University of Pittsburgh, each week’s News of Note compiles stories of Pitt people and programs reaching new levels of success.

Bioengineering Graduate Student Saik Goh Studies with National Institutes of Health Clinical Center

Saik Goh, a bioengineering doctoral candidate within the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering, is participating in Clinical and Translational Research for PhD Students, a new National Institutes of Health Clinical Center program.

Goh is among 27 national participants working with National Institutes of Health scientists to explore clinical and translational research, which helps scientists transfer basic research findings into medical practice. Students see firsthand the practical advances that can be made when scientists and clinicians work side by side in a clinical research setting. The Clinical Center is known for discoveries such as the first use of chemotherapy for cancer and the first use of the drug AZT to treat AIDS.

This free, two-week program runs from July 8-22 at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

Epidemiology Professor Caterina Rosano Serves as Member of National Institutes of Health’s Aging Systems and Geriatrics Study

Caterina Rosano, associate professor of epidemiology within the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health, has been selected to serve as a member of the National Institutes of Health’s Aging Systems and Geriatrics Study Section Center for Scientific Review beginning July 22, 2013 and ending June 30, 2017.

Rosano will review and recommend grant applications submitted to the National Institutes of Health and survey the status of epidemiology research. Rosano’s research at Pitt examines aging and the neuroregenerative potential of the gray and white matter of the central nervous system.

Physics Professor Jeremy Levy Leads National Graphene and Complex Oxide Material Study

Jeremy Levy, director of the Center for Oxide-Semiconductor Materials for Quantum Computation and physics professor within the University of Pittsburgh’s Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, will lead a new $1.8 million research effort to study composite materials formed from graphene and complex oxide materials. Levy will explore the connection between the two materials, allowing each material to modify the other’s behavior in ways that can lead to new understanding of the materials.

The grant submitted by Levy and his team, titled "Nanoscale Terahertz, Infrared and Plasmonics Platform Using Graphene Complex Oxide Heterostructures," aims to understand electronic coupling between these two materials for the creation of new classes of high-speed computing materials. These newly discovered materials share the ability to confine electrons to a thin sheet. There, the electrons can respond to electric fields at high frequencies, extending into the terahertz. One terahertz is a frequency equivalent to one thousand gigahertz, significantly faster than current processor speeds in today's computers, making graphene and complex oxide materials useful for terahertz electronics applications.

Levy’s research is supported by the Office of Naval Research and includes researchers from Columbia University, Harvard University, University of California at Santa Barbara, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

All notes written by Melissa Carlson

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