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The Thinkers

01.30.06 / CMU researcher says toddlers are most physically aggressive

Everyone knows that violence in America rises on a surge of testosterone when boys become teenagers, peaks in their early 20s and then declines. But everyone is wrong, says Daniel Nagin, a criminologist and professor at Carnegie Mellon University.

Photo by Pam Panchak • Story by Mark Roth

When Latanya Sweeney clicked on a computer link recently that she thought would take her to a student newspaper Web site, she quickly realized with a groan that she had been scammed.

Photo by Pam Panchak • Story by Mark Roth

In her 50s, Devra Lee Davis was diagnosed with asthma. It may seem a cruel irony that one of the nation's leading experts on air pollution and health would come down with a respiratory condition, but it didn't surprise Dr. Davis, given where she grew up. She is a native of Donora in Washington County, site of one of the worst air pollution disasters in modern history. The Donora incident became the jumping off point for Dr. Davis' 2002 book, "When Smoke Ran Like Water -- Tales of Environmental Deception and the Battle Against Pollution," which was a National Book Award finalist that year.

Photo by Alyssa Cwanger• Story by Mark Roth

Several years ago, M.J. Tocci was prosecuting two ministers in California who had bilked hundreds of elderly people out of their life savings in a condominium investment scam.

Photo by Robin Rombach• Story by Mark Roth

Dr. Larry E. Davis, 59, came to Pitt largely because of the school's commitment to his idea to set up a Center on Race and Social Problems, a broad-based research institution that was established in late 2002.

Photo by Alyssa Cwanger• Story by Mark Roth

The University of Pittsburgh's Dr. Walter H. Kaye, 61, is in the forefront of a group of researchers who are convinced that genes contribute strongly to anorexia and bulimia, so that these disorders can't be prevented simply by enlightened education.

Photo by Martha Rial• Story by Mark Roth

Greg Jordan, 45, is managing partner Reed Smith, the biggest law firm in Pittsburgh and one of the 25 largest in the world. In the 4¹/₂ years Jordan has been the top partner at Reed Smith, the firm has grown from about 600 attorneys to nearly 1,000, and its U.S. ranking by the National Law Journal has climbed from 38th to 17th.

Photo by Annie O'Neill • Story by Mark Roth

Sister Joan Chittister 69, is entering her sixth decade as a Benedictine nun, based in Erie. Known worldwide as a speaker and writer, she has just authored her 32nd book, "The Way We Were: A Story of Conversion and Renewal," about the changes the Benedictine sisters have gone through since Vatican II.

Story by Mark Roth

The University of Pittsburgh's Lauren Resnick, director of Pitt's Learning Research and Development Center since 1977, has been a key figure in the nation's educational standards movement since it started to blossom in the 1980s. But standardized tests, she notes, are only one element in any efforts to raise educational attainment.

Photo by Pam Panchak • Story by Mark Roth

Carnegie Mellon University historian Scott Sandage was always fascinated by the row upon row of self-help books at Barnes & Noble and Borders -- so many evangelistic prescriptions for how to become richer, happier, smarter and better-looking. But as a historian and a student of human nature, he wondered: Why aren't there any books on failure? The smug answer might be that nobody would pay money to learn how to fail. Still, failure is a hard reality of daily life.

Photo by Robin Rombach • Story by Mark Roth

Carnegie Mellon University professor Jennifer Lerner is one of a growing cadre of academics in the field of "decision science," an intriguing mix of psychology, economics and neuroscience. They try to unravel how emotions and cognition interact, and how this stew of feeling and thinking governs people's real-world choices. Lerner's research has made anger her signature work -- in particular, understanding how it shapes people's views of life and influences the decisions they make.

Photo by Tony Tye• Story by Mark Roth

Auto industry analyst J.D. Power has predicted the new hybrid gasoline-electric cars on the road will never gain more than 3 percent of the total U.S. market, or about 535,000 vehicles, largely because they cost several thousand dollars more apiece than standard cars and trucks. Isaac Porche III, a 36-year-old policy expert at the Rand Corp. think tank in Oakland, believes the consultant is wrong -- but not for the reasons one might think.

Photo by Tony Tye• Story by Mark Roth

A blanket of blue smothers millions of Americans. Chronic emotional depression afflicts nearly 10 percent of all adults in the United States -- nearly 20 million people nationally and 170,000 in the Pittsburgh region alone. Yet it doesn't have to be that way, says Dr. Michael E. Thase, a University of Pittsburgh psychiatrist and a leading expert on depression and other mood disorders.

Photo by Tony Tye • Story by Mark Roth

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