Mt. Oliver’s revitalization is brewing, with help from Jörg Gerlach, professor of surgery and of bioengineering at Pitt, and his husband, James Tyler. Tyler opened the ECHT Coffeehouse there last year, serving up artisanal food and coffee in a setting adorned with metalwork made in a shop of associated craftsmen on site. (Echt is a German word for “authentic” or “genuine.”) As ECHT grows with new culinary offerings, Gerlach stays creative at Pitt, developing next-generation “skin gun” technologies to restore damaged tissue, devising new approaches for extracorporeal organ support and better preserving transplantation organs.

Read more from the Fall 2023 issue.