News of Note from Pitt

• Law Students Place 2nd in International Moot Competition

• Sports Historian Named a Runner-Up for Literary Sports Writing

• Engineering Professor Appointed to Swedish Science and Technology Advisory Board 

PITTSBURGH—Behind the larger stories about the University of Pittsburgh are other stories of faculty, staff, and student achievement as well as information on Pitt programs reaching new levels of success. The following is a compilation of some of those stories.

Law Students Place 2nd in International Moot Competition

A team of students in Pitt’s School of Law has placed second in the overall team ranking at the 2012 Foreign Direct Investment International Arbitration Moot competition. Among individual rankings of the top 50 competitors, Pitt third-year law students Greg Graham ranked third, Joe Parsons ranked eighth, and Matt Smith ranked 23rd. A fourth student, Yurly Vilner, rounded out the successful team.

Moot competitions involve a mock court where law students argue hypothetical cases to gain practice in advance of becoming practitioners. The foreign direct investment moot competition, held Nov. 2-4 in Boston, engaged students from around the globe in a relatively new field of international law—one that addresses a host country's obligation to foreign investors—and promotes an understanding of international investment laws and arbitration as an effective means for resolving disputes. 

Sports Historian Named a Runner-Up for Literary Sports Writing

Rob Ruck, sports historian and senior lecturer in the Department of History in Pitt’s Kenneth P. Dietrich School ofArts and Sciences, has been named a runner-up for the 2012 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing, given to an author of a published nonfiction book about sports. Ruck’s book, Raceball: How the Major Leagues Colonized the Black and Latino Game (Beacon Press, 2012), was described this way by judges: “With superb research, waste-no-words writing, and a clear historical perspective, Ruck presents a compelling reassessment of the influences, struggles, and conflicts of baseball's Negro, Mexican, and Caribbean leagues and players in the era leading up to and beyond Jackie Robinson’s ascension to the Major Leagues.”

Engineering Professor Appointed to Swedish Science and Technology Advisory Board

William E. Stanchina, professor and chair in the Pitt Swanson School of Engineering’s Department of Electricaland Computer Engineering, has been appointed a member of the International Science and Technology Advisory Board for Myfab in Stockholm, Sweden. Myfab is an open Swedish research infrastructure that focuses on the research and development of materials science, nanotechnology, and information and communications technology. In his role, Stanchina will provide guidance toward improving Myfab’s strategic plan. 

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