Pittsburgh (General)

Background

Edward K. Muller was trained in urban historical geography at the University of Wisconsin, but refocused his scholarly work to concentrate on Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania. A Pitt history professor, he helped establish the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area, serving for nine years as chair of its board of trustees.

One of the foremost historians of the city, Muller has worked with the Senator John Heinz History Center, serving on its board of directors; was a fellow with the University’s Institute of Politics; and directed Pitt’s Urban Studies Program. He is the author of Before Renaissance: Planning in Pittsburgh, 1889-1943 (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006), with coauthor John Bauman. Muller’s current projects include cowriting Pittsburgh: A Popular History with Pitt faculty member Rob Ruck, and editing The Great Allegheny Passage Trail, both for the University of Pittsburgh Press.

Background

Rob Ruck is a sports historian who has written several books and documentaries. He received the MacMillan-Society for American Baseball Research Award in 1991 for The Tropic of Baseball. He also is the author of Sandlot Seasons: Sport in Black Pittsburgh (University of Illinois Press, 1993). He was project director, producer, and writer of Kings on the Hill: Baseball’s Forgotten Men, a documentary about the Negro Leagues and the role of sports in the Black community, for which he received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Cultural Programming in 1994. His latest documentary, The Republic of Baseball: The Dominican Giants of the American Game, was cowritten and coproduced with Daniel Manatt, son of Charles Manatt, former U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic.

Ruck recent projects include a biography of the late Art Rooney, Pittsburgh Steelers owner, cowritten with Maggie Patterson and the late Michael P. Weber, and a history of Pittsburgh with Pitt history Professor Edward K. Muller. Ruck also serves as guest historian for the Sports History Exhibitions at the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center.

Background

A well-known author on the architectural styles within Pittsburgh's neighborhoods, Toker is a professor of history of art and architecture at Pitt. His latest book, Pittsburgh: A New Portrait (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009), captures the flavor of the city's neighborhoods and their inhabitants. He also authored Buildings of Pittsburgh (University of Virginia Press, 2007), a definitive look at several hundred local structures, as well as Fallingwater Rising (Knopf, 2003), a book that "brings the house to life on every page," according to The New York Times.

Toker is a past president of the Society of Architectural Historians and and has held appointments as a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, N.J., and as a Guggenheim and a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow.

Background
Michael J. Madison, Pitt professor of law and associate dean for research, has gained fame for Pittsblog, his blog on all things Pittsburgh.

Considered an expert Pittsburgh commentator, Madison frequently is interviewed about Pittsburgh’s history and present trajectory, including a recent story that aired on the Dutch national TV broadcast channel. He also was part of a CNN piece and an article in The New York Times. This media attention prompted an invitation for Madison to be a keynote speaker next fall at a congress in Amsterdam on the future of world cities. Madison writes and teaches about information law and theory, including intellectual property law, and speaks and writes about information technology and economic development, both at Pittsblog and in his “day” job.

Background
Louise Comfort is a professor in Pitt's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and director of the Center for Disaster Management, which utilizes computational software that helps community leaders manage risk during disasters and better link communities when public safety is at risk. Comfort is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and a Fulbright Senior Scholar.

Background
A structural engineer, Kent Harries is familiar with the history, condition, and upkeep of Pittsburgh’s infrastructure, particularly its famous bridges. Often spectacular, the bridges of Pittsburgh, as a whole, require considerable care reflective of their variety, age, constant use, and exposure to Pennsylvania’s renowned erratic weather. The city’s aged collective infrastructure—an engineering marvel and challenge given Pittsburgh’s topography—faces these issues.

In general, Harries focuses on several structural engineering areas, including bridge design, maintenance, and degradation; seismic design and building retrofitting; the design and behavior of high-rise structures; the use of such nontraditional materials as bamboo in civil infrastructure; and the history and philosophy of science and technology.

Among Harries’ many projects is one in which he works with an engineering group in India to promote, design, and build bamboo structures in the Indian Himalayas. Unlike concrete and masonry, bamboo is native to the region, resistant to the area’s frequent earthquakes, and gentle on the steep, loose-soil hillsides. Harries’ lab is developing comprehensive material standards for bamboo construction. Harries is a well-known expert on civil infrastructure and the issues surrounding the construction, condition, and upkeep of roads and bridges. In the wake of the August 2007 collapse of the Interstate 35 bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Harries’ analysis drew national and international attention to the condition of U.S. bridges and infrastructure.