Penn President Amy Gutmann announced the recipients of the 2021 President’s Engagement Prize and President’s Innovation Prize. Seven students were awarded the Engagement Prize, while three were named recipients of the Innovation Prize. “This year’s Prize-winning projects are inspiring and are important examples of putting a Penn education to work to meet urgent and important human needs in local, national, and global communities: from addressing eating disorder risk among our city’s youth, to improving the experiences of patients and frontline health care workers, to aiding in the global refugee crisis through clean water and agricultural training,” said Gutmann.
Penn Nursing senior Anthony Scarpone-Lambert earned a 2021 President’s Innovation Prize for his company and its first trio of products: uNight Light, the Sleep-First Education Initiative, and the uNightShift Community. “The first nurse-led startup to receive the President’s Innovation Prize, Lumify Care shines a light on the critical need to support both frontline workers and patients in clinical settings,” said Penn President Amy Gutmann.
Several new facilities on campus have finished construction and are eyeing opening dates, including Tangen Hall, the Wharton Academic Research Building, the Pennovation Lab, and office spaces for Penn First Plus and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Paideia Program at Penn. The Stuart Weitzman Plaza also finished and is currently in use, designed by Laurie Olin of the Weitzman School and featuring yellow woods that are a nod to the space’s past.
The Office of Investments set a goal of reducing the net greenhouse gas emissions from Penn’s endowment investments to zero by 2050. Chief Investment Officer Peter Ammon spoke with Penn Today about the University’s multipronged efforts to combat climate change.
The Campus Iconography Group was formed last summer to establish procedures and advice for displaying art on campus and renaming or removing historic iconography. In April, the group, co-led by Senior Vice President for Institutional Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer Joann Mitchell and Weitzman School Dean Frederick Steiner, released its first report. Penn Today spoke with both about the report’s action-guiding frameworks and other findings.
Faculty from the School of Arts & Sciences, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the Perelman School of Medicine have been elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. They are among 250 new members honored in 2021 and are recognized for their help to “solve the world’s most urgent challenges, create meaning through art, and contribute to the common good.”
Pam Grossman, dean of the Graduate School of Education, and Ted Ruger, dean of the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, received contract renewals that extend their terms to June 30, 2023. “As we continue to chart our recovery from the global COVID-19 pandemic, we are especially pleased to recognize Pam’s and Ted’s many impressive achievements as deans of Penn’s education and law schools,” Penn President Amy Gutmann and Provost Wendell Pritchett said.
The University of Pennsylvania Glee Club and the Penn Sirens have merged their choral groups. Members of the club voted to approve an amendment to its constitution and by-laws to allow singers of all genders and all voice parts. “It’s a milestone day for sure; we are all really excited,” said senior Jake Milner, Glee Club president. “It’s quite the accomplishment for all of us. It’s incredible that it’s done. It’s one for the history books.”
In mid-April, the University launched the Penn Cares COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic, the result of collaborative partnerships across the University, including Wellness, the Department of Recreation and Intercollegiate Athletics, Information Systems & Computing, Human Resources, and Penn Medicine. The site vaccinated more than 2,100 people in its first two weeks.
In a Penn Today photo essay in honor of Earth Day, the trees of Penn’s campus are highlighted. Penn is an accredited arboretum and was named a Tree Campus USA for the 12th year in a row by the Arbor Day Foundation.
In the new feature film “Eat Wheaties!,” Tony Hale—best-known for his roles in “Arrested Development,” “Veep,” and “Toy Story 4”—stars as a Penn alum trying to organize a class reunion and reconnect with a special classmate. Hale and Producer/Director Scott Abramovitch chatted with Penn Today about the film and its Penn connections.
Penn senior Tathat Bhatia received a Gates Cambridge Scholarship to pursue a master’s degree in history and philosophy of science at the University of Cambridge in England. He is Penn’s 33rd Gates Scholar and one of only 74 Scholars worldwide. He is currently a major in science, technology and society with a concentration in energy and the environment with a minor in Russian Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Julie Nelson Davis, a history of art professor in the School of Arts & Sciences, was named a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow in the fine arts research humanities category. Davis is considered a foremost authority on Japanese prints and illustrated books. She is one of only 184 writers, scholars, artists, and scientists chosen to be a Fellow in the U.S. and Canada.
The Miami Herald reported on a new study from the School of Veterinary Medicine’s Working Dog Center that documented how nine dogs were able to identify positive coronavirus samples with an accuracy of 96% on average. The dogs were trained for three weeks. “This is not a simple thing we’re asking the dogs to do,” said Cynthia Otto of Penn Vet, director of the Working Dog Center. “Dogs have to be specific about detecting the odor of the infection, but they also have to generalize across the background odors of different people: men and women, adults and children, people of different ethnicities and geographies.”
Concerns are rising over tobacco companies’ increasing interest and involvement in the legal cannabis industry. Andy Tan of the Annenberg School for Communication, alongside Shaleen Title of Ohio State University, were quoted in The Boston Globe about preventing a new Big Tobacco. “The tragic public health consequences of cigarettes were exacerbated through sustained profit-driven predatory marketing practices and deregulatory efforts,” they wrote. “Instead of repeating that history, federal policy makers should work with tobacco control and state-level marijuana experts to prevent Big Tobacco 2.0.”
