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Carnegie Mellon Mourns
Loss of Dick Cyert
Richard M. Cyert, former president of Carnegie Mellon, died on October
7 at his home in Fox Chapel after a long fight with cancer. Dr.
Cyert, who was internationally recognized for his work in economics,
behavioral sciences, statistics and management joined the Carnegie Mellon
faculty as an instructor in economics in 1948. He rose through
the ranks to become dean of the Graduate School of Industrial Engineering,
and then in July of 1972 became Carnegie Mellon's sixth President.
At the time of his appointment to the Presidency the school found itself
in difficult circumstances, running annual deficits of about a million
dollars per year. Through vigorous cost cutting he restored the
institution to financial solvency and then began an eighteen years process
of building the university into the world-class educational and research
institution it is today. A strong believer in the importance of
strategic planning, Cyert instilled an institutional tradition of systematically
searching for and pursuing areas of comparative advantage. Among
these was a focus on interdisciplinary approaches to solving real-world
problems. Together with Engineering Dean Herbert Toor, Cyert was
responsible for creating the environment that made it possible to create
and build the Department of Engineering and Public Policy.
After retiring from the presidency in June
of 1990, Cyert returned to the faculty to head the Carnegie Mellon Bosch
Institute, with a focus on issues in international management.
Cyert is survived by his wife Margaret, their
three daughters, and three grandchildren.
McDaniels Heads New EcoRisk
Research Unit at UBC
Tim McDaniels, who completed a Ph.D. in Carnegie Mellon's Heinz School
of Public Policy and Management in 1989 while working closely with faculty
in EPP, directs the new EcoRisk Research Unit (ERRU) at the University
of British Columbia in Vancouver. The Unit is described as "an
interdisciplinary collaboration of policy analysts, risk management
specialists, and scientists" that focuses on "integrated study of the
human dimensions of risk management." The new unit is affiliated
with the NSF supported Center for the Integrated Study of the Human
Dimensions of Global Change located in EPP at Carnegie Mellon.
The ERRU has four fundamental objectives:
1) To serve as a focus for students and faculty that provides insights
for human choices that influence ecological processes
2) To apply technical knowledge and analytical methods to key environmental
policy questions identified by management agencies and decision makers
3) To advance the state of knowledge of concepts and methods concerned
with the use of policy analysis and modeling for understanding ecological
risk trade-offs
4) To conduct socially valuable research that helps frame thinking and
debate about ecological risk management policy issues.
Robin Gregory serves as the Unit's co-director.
There are ten related faculty and research associates. In addition
to the tie to Carnegie Mellon, the Unit also has an affiliation with
Decision Research in Eugene, Oregon. Additional information is available
on the Unit at http://www.interchange.ubc.ca/erru/
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EPP Doctoral Student
Travels to China
With Mayor of Pittsburgh Jianyu
Zhang (EPP Doctoral Student) travelled with Pittsburgh Mayor Tom
Murphy during his recent trip to China, helping the delegation
to organize some of its activities, and serving as interpreter.
We asked him for a report on his trip.
Among the messages that President Clinton delivered during last
summer's trip to China was an argument that environmental neglect
was seriously threatening China's growth and economic future.
But Clinton was not the first elected US official to make that
observation. In remarks delivered on May 12th, 1998, in
the Grand Hotel on a corner of Tiananmen Square, Pittsburgh Mayor
Tom Murphy argued that environmental protection could be integrated
with economic development, and Pittsburgh offered a living example
of how that could be done.
"When I was young, my mother used to
tell me two things," Murphy said "come home before it gets
dark, and...don't play near the rivers" because they were filled
with hazardous pollutants. Thanks to government-industry
efforts that began in Pittsburgh long before the creation of the
federal EPA, Murphy proudly told the Chinese "if you go to Pittsburgh
today," the air and water are clean and "you will see fishermen
on the rivers." The clean-up continues, with a focus now
on the revitalization of old industrial, or "brownfield" sites.
China's current environmental situation
resembles that of the US at a similar development stage, Murphy
said. While he urged the Chinese to adopt advanced technologies
from developed countries like US, he argued that they should also
pay attention to the lessons from their development process, such
as the omission of environmental protection in the earlier stage
of industriali-zation.
When asked what motivated Pittsburgh
to be the first US city to seek investment and cooperative opportunities
with China, Mayor Murphy said "we think China is at a stage which
resembles where Japan was twenty years ago. China has already
accumulated enough economic power to invest outside. With
the globalization of market economy, investment in the US will
be an inevitable step. When Chinese investment comes to
the US, we want it to come to Pittsburgh!"
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Jianyu Zhang (center) translating for Pittsburgh
Mayor Tom Murphy
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