NOTES ON PEOPLE (01/28/01)

NOTES ON PEOPLE

Massachusetts prof receives three grants

AMHERST, Mass. - University of Massachusetts Prof. Anna Nagurney has received three grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) worth nearly $470,000 to conduct research on how travelers and consumers make decisions involving telecommuting and teleshopping.

Dr. Nagurney will also look at decision-making in the information age and will explore transportation and communications networks in the United States and develop a model for transportation and land use based on data from Sweden.

Dr. Nagurney, who is the John F. Smith Memorial Professor at UMass, says the three NSF grants are related and represent a unique set of interlocking collaborations. In one, she will be working with a faculty member at the State University of New York at Oswego and a professor at the University of California at Davis. The second grant will involve Dr. Nagurney with researchers from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm (KTH). Thanks to the third grant she will be collaborating with a faculty member from the UMass campus and co-researcher from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Dr. Nagurney is the principal investigator on the first two grants and co-principal investigator on the third grant.

Dr. Nagurney says, "I am thrilled to be able to collaborate with such outstanding researchers and individuals across the ocean, across the country and across campus. This represents an outstanding and very exciting opportunity for establishing collaborative networks across space and time through the use of information technology. The collaborations are already generating novel results and new ways for formalizing decision-making on complex networks which underlie our societies and economies today."

Dr. Nagurney has been at the University of Massachusetts since 1983 and is an internationally known scholar whose work includes constructing computer network models of large-scale financial, transportation and regional economic systems.

Last April Dr. Nagurney delivered a Distinguished Faculty Lecture at UMass and was awarded the Chancellor's Medal. In 1999 she was recipient of an Eisenhower Faculty Fellowship from the National Highway Institute.

In 1996, Dr. Nagurney received a seven-month appointment for a Distinguished Guest Professorship at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, where she taught and did research in transportation network theory. She also worked with the institute's president, Janne Carlsson, to enhance female education and research in Sweden. In 1986 Dr. Nagurney was recognized as an outstanding young researcher by the University of UMass, also in Sweden, which presented her with the Erik Kempe prize, one of Sweden's highest honors.

Dr. Nagurney received a $250,000 Faculty Award for Women from the National Science Foundation in 1991. In 1989 she was a recipient of a UMass Faculty Fellowship (since renamed a Conti Fellowship) and was one of 25 women in the United States to receive a Visiting Professorship for Women grant from the National Science Foundation in 1988. That $138,828 grant supported a year of research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Nagurney received a Distinguished Young Achiever Prize from the National Association of Women in 1987.

She is a member of Ukrainian National Association Branch 409.

Named vice-president of utility company

NORTHBOROUGH, Mass. - National Grid USA President and Chief Executive Officer Rick Sergel announced that five employees have been named vice-presidents of the company's Distribution Group.

Lydia M. Pastuszek is the new senior vice-president of product development. The Sudbury, Mass., resident earned a bachelor of arts degree cum laude in government from Clark University, and holds a master's in city and regional planning degree in environmental planning from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Formerly the senior vice-president for customer service, Ms. Pastuszek has been with the company since 1981.

The Distribution Group includes Massachusetts Electric Company, Narragansett Electric Company, Granite State Electric Company, and Nantucket Electric Company, which together serve a total of more than 1.7 million customers in 228 Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire communities.

She is a member of UNA Branch 231. Her father, William Pastuszek, is chairman of the Auditing Committee of the Ukrainian National Association.

The National Grid USA distribution companies are headquartered in Northborough, Mass. Other National Grid USA subsidiaries are engaged in the transmission of electricity and the construction and leasing of dark telecommunications infrastructure. National Grid USA is a wholly owned subsidiary of The National Grid Group plc (LSE, NYSF:NGG), which is based in London, England.

Parma educator honored for excellence

PARMA, Ohio - Myroslawa Holubec, a third grade teacher at St. Josaphat Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral School here, has been recognized for her teaching excellence. Her name will be published in the sixth edition of Who's Who Among America's Teachers 2000. This honor is reserved for teachers selected by one or more of their former students who themselves have been distinguished by being listed in either Who's Who Among American High School Students or the National Dean's List.

Mrs. Holubec has been a member of the St. Josaphat School faculty for 14 years. She received a bachelor of arts degree in teaching languages from the University of Akron and an M.A. in library science from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

In addition to her position as third grade teacher, she is Chairman of the Public Relations and Development Committee and associate moderator of the Student Council. She is also a member of the Handbook Committee, the Spring Concert Committee, and the Curriculum Committee.

Mrs. Holubec is a member of Pokrova Ukrainian Catholic Church and one of the founders of the Kashtan Ukrainian School of Dance. She devotes many hours tutoring students from Ukraine who come to live and study in the United States.

Mrs. Holubec is a member of Ukrainian National Association Branch 358.

Notes on people is a feature geared toward reporting on the achievements of members of the Ukrainian National Association. All submissions should be concise due to space limitations and must include the person's UNA branch number. Items will be published as soon as possible after their receipt, when space permits.

| Home Page |