Campus News in Brief
Spring film festival presents ‘Faces of Migration’ series
From March 17 to April 10, the Carnegie Mellon International Film Festival’s “Faces of Migration” will explore the experiences of migration, ranging from leaving the old country to arriving in a new one.
The festival will feature 15 independent, award-winning films that are debuting in Pittsburgh and are not available to the general public. Jolanta Lion, the festival director and assistant director of the Humanities Center, picks the films.
The first event will occur on March 2 at 8 p.m. in McConomy Auditorium, with a preview of the Dutch film Separations.
Directed by Andréa Seligmann Silva and Mieke Bal, the film addresses the story of Silva’s family and its history of migration, from an escape from the Nazis to the present day. After the film, students can attend a discussion on family, Jewish identity, and migration hosted by Bal.
Highlights of the festival include the International Student Short Film Competition, with selected films by undergraduate and graduate students on April 10 at 5 p.m. at Kelly Strayhorn Theater.
The Pittsburgh Latino group “Jóvenes Sin Nombres” (Youths Without Names) will also present a short film that it produced with the help of Carnegie Mellon’s Center for the Arts in Society. The group’s work will be displayed before the two screenings of Immigrant Nation! The Battle for the Dream.
Chemistry professor wins prestigious 2011 Wolf Prize
Professor Krzysztof Matyjaszewski of the chemistry department has won the prestigious 2011 Wolf Prize in chemistry for “deep creative contributions to the chemical sciences.” He is the J.C. Warner Professor of the Natural Sciences.
Every year, the Wolf Foundation selects recipients in four of five categories, including agriculture, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, and physics.
The prize will be presented by the Israeli president and minister of education in May.
Other chemists honored along with Matyjaszewski are Stuart Alan Rice of the University of Chicago and Ching Tang of the University of Rochester. They will all be granted their awards on May 29 at a ceremony at the Israeli Parliament.
Matyjaszewski was born in Poland and received his doctorate from the Polish Academy of Sciences in 1976. He finished his postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Florida in 1977. He was then a research associate at the Polish Academy of Sciences from 1978 to 1984.
In 1985, Matyjaszewski arrived at Carnegie Mellon and was appointed to his current position.
In 2004, he received the honor of University Professor, the highest distinction of a faculty member at Carnegie Mellon.