2025 Heinz College Highlights
This year brought meaningful moments of recognition, impact and leadership across Heinz College. From national honors and scholarly contributions to public service and student achievement, our community continued to demonstrate the depth and breadth of its influence. Here are a select few of our community's accomplishments.
Our faculty continue to make Heinz College both a destination for mission-driven students and a source of groundbreaking research. One in particular, Professor Dan Nagin, has been doing so for nearly 50 years since earning his Ph.D. here in 1976. This year, Dan was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors a scientist can receive. Additionally, Professor Nagin won the August Vollmer Award from the American Society of Criminology.
Professor Karen Clay was elected the next president of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, the leading professional society for scholars working at the intersection of economics, energy and the environment. Her election underscores Heinz College’s leadership in environmental policy and public policy analysis, and its commitment to shaping the global conversation on how data and economic research inform sustainable governance.
This year, Kristen Kurland was named a University Professor, the highest designation a faculty member can receive at Carnegie Mellon. Her work focuses on interdisciplinary collaborations in health, geospatial analysis, and 3D data visualization, and she serves as an important connection between Heinz College and both the City of Pittsburgh and its health care ecosystem. Congratulations are also in order for Professor Rema Padman, who received this year's Distinguished Alumni Award from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. The award is the highest given by the institute to its alumni.
In testimony before the U.S. Senate, Professor Michael D. Smith explained how unchecked use of copyrighted content to train generative AI models threatens creators, distorts markets and undermines innovation. Drawing upon decades of research, he urged lawmakers to ensure that technological progress supports, not replaces, a sustainable creative economy.
In honor of Professor Silvia Borzutzky, Heinz College endowed the Silvia Borzutzky Founder's Fellow Award for her through the American Society for Public Administration. Naming a Founders Fellow Award in her honor is a fitting tribute to her lifelong commitment to academic excellence, public administration, interdisciplinary collaboration and student success.
For the past 30 years, the scholarship of Professor Marty Gaynor has helped shape national policy conversations, and his mentorship has transformed the lives of generations of students. This year, he won the Victor R. Fuchs Award, given by the American Society for Health Economists to acknowledge lifetime contributions to the field. He also retired this year, and the Heinz College community extends him a heartfelt congratulations.
Professor and Dean Emeritus Ramayya Krishnan received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Carson Scholars Fund, an education nonprofit, and Professor Larry Heimann won the William H. and Francis S. Ryan Award for Meritorious Teaching from CMU.
Some Heinz faculty put pen to paper to preserve that hard work for posterity. Professor Michael McCarthy published Concise Guide to the Internet of Things, a hands-on introduction to the modern IoT in the context of building systems that promote sustainability. Professor Holly Wiberg coauthored a book called The Analytics Edge in Healthcare, a practical introduction to the use of data and machine learning to make better, evidence-based decisions. Dr. Brett Crawford followed her book on incorporating technology into arts organizations with Entrepreneurial Arts and Cultural Leadership: Traits of Success in Nonprofit Theatre. In Monster Transformation, Professor Ari Lightman lays out the competencies needed to be AI-ready and transform organizations. Finally, Professor Anand Rao highlights the effectiveness in using agent-based AI models for economic analysis in Machine Learning Perspectives of Agent-Based Models.
In November, Heinz College faculty appeared on panels at the “Unlocking AI for Public Good” conference, hosted by Heinz College and the Block Center for Technology and Society along with Pennsylvania leaders and university experts. Afterward, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s administration expanded its AI collaboration with CMU.
The practical experience our students gain here sets them apart upon graduation, and this year, they continued to demonstrate the ability to make an impact even earlier than that. One team of students created an electronic medical records system that can be used without an Internet connection for a clinic in rural Haiti, where internet access and electricity are unreliable. Another team worked with an organ transplant nonprofit and Oracle to analyze patient education material from transplant centers across the U.S.; the project reached the U.S. government’s Health Resources and Services Administration and Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.
A team of students won the Policy Hackathon portion of Harvard University’s India Conference with their proposal to address water inequities in India. Another group won first place in the Public Interest Technology University Network’s Midwest Student Symposium; their project aimed to help low-income residents of Southwestern Pennsylvania take advantage of tax credits. Our undergraduate Information Systems students had a strong year as well: Seniors Yiyao Wang and Annie Zhang were named Andrew Carnegie Society Scholars. This honor recognizes undergraduate seniors who exemplify CMU’s highest standards of academic excellence, leadership and service. Wang was also inducted into Phi Beta Kappa this fall—recognition reserved for students who demonstrate exceptional academic achievement.