Committees - Joint Carnegie Mellon-University of Pittsburgh Ph.D. Program in Computational Biology

Joint Carnegie Mellon-University of Pittsburgh Ph.D. Program in Computational Biology › Current Student Resources › Committees

To provide management of specific areas, we have created six committees, each of which includes equal representation from Pitt and CMU. The members serve two- or three-year terms, rotating off in a staggered fashion to preserve continuity.

Committee	Role	Members
Curriculum	Ensures that the curriculum of the training program remains current in terms of advances in modern computational biology. The role of this committee is particularly important for our program, since computational biology is a rapidly evolving field. Approves courses for inclusion as specialization electives or life science electives.	David Koes, Chair, Pitt Russell Schwartz, Chair, CMU Dannie Durand, CMU Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis, Pitt Students TBD (late Sept)
Admissions	Handles all matters related to the recruitment of new high-quality students, including the evaluation of applicants. Prompt and careful evaluation of the candidates is their priority, along with the identification of candidates to be interviewed, shortly after the application deadline.	Shikhar Uttam, Chair, Pitt William Yu, Chair, CMU Rishal Aggarwal, Pitt John Barton, Pitt Richard Border, CMU Nishat Bristy, CMU Maria Chikina, Pitt Shu-Ting Cho, Pitt Christian Cuba Samaniego, CMU Mengying Hu, Pitt Sophia Hu, Pitt Keisuke Ishihara, Pitt Young Je Lee, CMU Hatice Ülkü Osmanbeyoğlu, Pitt Mostofa Uddin, CMU Zihang Wen, CMU Mert Gur, Pitt
Executive	Functions as a “Board of Directors” for the CPCB to provide oversight and advice on program development and management. This committee has 8 members, including the program directors.	James Faeder, Co-Director, Pitt Carl Kingsford, Co-Director, CMU David Koes, Associate Director, Pitt Andreas Pfenning, Associate Director, CMU Fritz Roth, Chair, Pitt Russell Schwartz, Department Head, CMU
Seminar Series		Oana Carja, CMU Nate Lord, Pitt Ellie Escobar-Robledo, Student Representative
Graduate Student Assembly (GSA)	CPCBGSA provides a link between its members and the faculty and administration of CPCB, represents and promotes the views of its members, and organizes social, academic, professional and other programs of interest to its members, also coordinating with the wider graduate student communities at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University.	President: Annie Kim Vice President: Rishal Aggarwal Student Seminar Coordinator: Ellie Escobar-Robledo Pitt GSA rep: Alisa Omelchenko CMU GSA rep: Nick Ho Treasurer: Akanksha Sachan Social Media Manager: Emma Flynn Ombudsperson: Alex DiBiasi Outreach/Volunteer Coordinator: Caitlin Strassburg Senators: Thomas Jacob, Jane Siwek, Anamarie Martinez, Xue Er Ding
Professional Development	(Journal Club/Presentation/Meta School)	Joseph Ayoob, Pitt Josh Kangas, CMU
Steering	The Steering Committee is comprised of the Directors and Associate Directors at both Universities, both program managers, and two committee appointed senior-level students (students are only eligible if they’ve successfully completed all program course requirements and proposed their thesis). The Steering Committee makes decisions specific to the CPCB Ph.D. program that does not require the attention of all the faculty and students	Jim Faeder, Co-Director, Pitt Carl Kingsford, Co-Director, CMU David Koes, Associate Director, Pitt Andreas Pfenning, Associate Director, CMU Joseph Ayoob, Pitt Thomas Rachman, CMU Kelly Gentille, Pitt Alisa Omelchenko, Pitt Josh Kangas, CMU Nicole Stenger, CMU
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI)	The goal of the Diversity & Inclusion Committee is to provide leadership and resources necessary to ensure that all members of the program are valued and respected within CPCB through collaboration, policies, and procedures.	Maria Chikina, Chair, Pitt Andreas Pfenning, Chair, CMU Jim Faeder, Pitt Russell Schwartz, CMU Students TBD (late Sept)

In addition to these specialized committees, all training faculty belong to, and participate in, the CPCB Program Faculty meetings held twice a year, at the end of the Fall and Spring semesters, and in an annual Program Retreat held off-site shortly after the arrival of each new class. The purpose of the Faculty meetings is the discussion of the programmatic issues brought about by the individual committees or other institutional developments, the evaluation of all students (discussed one by one), and the approval of the student evaluation letters that are to be sent to each student at the end of each semester.