David L. Cohen, former chair of the Board of Trustees at Penn and a longtime Comcast executive, reflected on his time at Penn, his commitment to the University, and why it’s “bittersweet” for him to step away from his leadership post—now in the hands of Scott L. Bok. “I’ve loved the time that I’ve spent as chair of the trustees,” Cohen says. “At this point, I have been personally involved in selecting most of the people who are trustees; they have become my friends inside and outside of Penn. I will miss my frequent interactions with Amy, her senior team, the deans, trustees, and faculty leaders a lot. But, one of the most important aspects of leadership is knowing when it’s time to move on.”
Zoë Ryan took on the role of executive director of the Institute of Contemporary Art in November. In a Penn Today profile, she and others reflected on her experience in the arts, what’s next for the ICA, and her collaborative approach to working with other areas of the University. “Her outreach to many University organizations bodes very well for keeping the ICA integral to the interests and activities of the campus community,” says Michael Leja, a professor of history of art.
The annual Supplier and Diversity Forum and Expo was again held as a unique chance to showcase dozens of diverse businesses. Featured speakers included Wharton Dean Erika H. James and ActOne Founder and CEO Janice Bryant Howroyd, among others. “This initiative seeks to spur economic development in Philadelphia,” said Senior Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli. “Philadelphia is a minority-majority city, yet the percentage of its businesses that are owned by minorities is small. Boosting commercial activity with these businesses is a social imperative that can increase their financial strength in the local economy, and that comes through strategic leadership.”
Kia Lor, associate director of the Greenfield Intercultural Center, spoke about her first year on the job and the first-generation Hmong American immigrant experience that led her here, as well as how that has informed her approach to supporting first-generation, low-income students. “There is a purpose, in terms of why they picked this institution and why they came here and left their families to come on this journey,” Lor says.
To mark the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the insulin hormone, Penn professors remarked on the significance of the discovery and the challenges that remain. “Despite all of these improvements in diabetes care, the cost of modern insulin is often beyond the reach of many Americans who suffer from a completely treatable illness that is not their fault,” says Mark Schutta, medical director at the Penn Rodebaugh Diabetes Center.
Penn researchers weighed in on the development of COVID-19 vaccines—particularly the “new” vaccines using mRNA technology, the brainchild of the Perelman School of Medicine’s Drew Weissman and Katalin Karikó. “What’s clear is that these vaccines are amazing,” says immunologist John Wherry of Penn Medicine. “In terms of the immunological response they induce, they’re among the best vaccines we’ve studied. Adverse events are quite rare, and while side effects are very common, they are likely telling us that the vaccine is working.”
A state-of-the-art instrument called NEID officially started its mission of discovering new planets outside of the solar system. NEID is a high-precision spectrometer used to discover exoplanets. It was built under an aggressive construction timeline by a team of scientists that included Cullen Blake, a Penn associate professor of physics and astronomy. The instrument was installed at the WIYN telescope at Kitt Peak in 2019.
The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation announced 14 projects to be funded as part of its call for proposals in March in support of Asian, Asian-American and Pacific Islander artists at Penn. One project, by Kyuri Jeon, a recent MFA alumna, is making a short film about the significance of tattoos in Korea, particularly among women. “It’s in progress with this belief that we all need to bear witness to very ever-present trauma and have the agency to recover and find a sense of belonging,” Jeon says. “On my end, my perspective as an artist, I wanted to find out where my body is coming from.”
Penn researchers in the Department of Chemistry identified a new liquid phase that forms in thin films, forming a high-density glass. Yi Jin, a Ph.D. graduate who worked in the lab of Associate Professor of Chemistry Zahra Fakhraai, described practical implications. “To package the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines, you need a glass that could go really low in temperature and not shatter, and the fact that that technology exists is a shoutout to how well we can engineer bulk glass mechanics,” says Jin. “Our hope is that this fundamental understanding motivates more applications and a better ability to design thin film glasses with similarly improved properties. If the structure-property relationships are understood in thin films, we can do better by design.”
In U.S. News & World Report, Angela Duckworth of the School of Arts & Sciences discussed a new study published in Educational Research, demonstrating that high school students suffered socially, emotionally, and academically compared to those who attended classes in-person. This was found to be true among all income levels. “This study gives some of the first empirical evidence of how learning remotely has affected adolescent well-being," Duckworth said.
In a Q&A, John Lapinski, faculty director of the Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies and director of elections at NBC News, discussed a collaborative report with the American Association of Public Opinion Researchers. The report found that issues with polling were manifold, relating to—among other factors—how people voted, the number of people who did not respond to polling calls, and the inability to predict who would show up to vote.
Six Quakers, among the 11,000 athletes from 200 countries or territories participating in the Tokyo Olympics, are competing in the games. Five alumni athletes are going for the gold, spanning the categories of women’s rowing, the discus in track & field, fencing in the men’s sabre, rowing in the single sculls competition, and equestrian in the individual jumping division. Keanan Dols, an undergraduate, represents Jamaica on the swimming and diving team.
Jeff Gerber, a pediatrician, epidemiologist, and infectious disease specialist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, is leading CHOP’s Moderna COVID-19 vaccine trial at CHOP in kids aged 6 months to 12 years. In a Q&A, Gerber spoke about the combination phase 2/3 trial and what the trial hopes to accomplish.
For NPR, Amalia Dache of the Graduate School of Education spoke about the history of racial disparities and injustices in Cuba, in response to recent protests in Cuba demanding better living conditions. “What I want people to know about Cuba is that Cuba since 1962, under the revolutionary dictatorship, disbands every Black organization that existed before 1962,” she explained. “So you have these organizations—you have Black activism and Black resistance happening in Cuba that gets completely erased. You don't hear from Black Cubans.”
