The University announced a $750 million investment that advances Penn’s pathbreaking contributions to innovative and impactful areas of medicine, public health, science, and technology. Among other efforts, the Perelman School of Medicine will make new investments in research space, programs, and in faculty recruitment, while the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences will take the lead on innovative data science initiatives. “An absolutely critical driver and enabler of this initiative has been the enormous success across all of Penn’s schools in faculty recruitment and retention,” said Penn President Amy Gutmann. “These and other major successes provide the perfect opportunity to elevate Penn’s eminence in science, engineering, and medicine in a manner that will resonate through decades.”
Two Penn seniors, Raveen Kariyawasam of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Nicholas Thomas-Lewis, of the Wharton School, were awarded Rhodes Scholarships for graduate study at the University of Oxford. They are among 100 Rhodes Scholars selected worldwide this year. “We are so proud of our newest Penn Rhodes Scholars who have been chosen for this tremendous honor and opportunity,” said Penn President Amy Gutmann.
Penn senior Max Wragan, a neuroscience major and chemistry minor in the School of Arts & Sciences, was selected to be a George J. Mitchell Scholar for graduate studies in Ireland. She was one of 12 in the nation selected. She plans to pursue a master’s degree in neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin to study the impact of inflammation on chronic pain.
The University announced it will hold an in-person, University-wide Commencement ceremony for the Class of 2020 and for master’s and doctoral graduates of the Class of 2021 on May 22 on Franklin Field. The Class of 2020 was previously commemorated with a first-of-its-kind online salute in May 2020. “We are absolutely delighted to honor the distinguished academic achievements of the members of the Class of 2020 and 2021 who did not yet get to have an in-person ceremony,” says President Amy Gutmann. “We look forward to the opportunity to recognize their tenacity, resilience, and patience with a very special one-of-a-kind celebration.”
Three-hundred and ten patients moved to the Pavilion from the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania on Saturday, Oct. 30. The new facility is a 17-story, 1.5-million-square-foot addition to the HUP campus and is home to the new emergency department and inpatient services. The facility features floor plans that invite natural light, among other features included inside. “We have found that windows can be a huge benefit for our patients,” says clinical nurse specialist Stephanie Maillie. “Letting them know when it’s daytime and when it’s nighttime can go a long way toward providing a nonpharmacologic way to treat delirium.”
Penn honored seven distinguished alumni at the 2021 Alumni Award of Merit Gala. Among them were Stephen Goff, an alumni arts administrator, who received the 2021 Creative Spirit Award for lifelong commitment to and excellence in the arts, and Al Filreis, the Kelly Family Professor of English in the School of Arts & Sciences and faculty director of the Kelly Writers House, who received the Faculty Award of Merit.
During Homecoming Weekend, Penn President Amy Gutmann, along with members of the Penn community, gathered to dedicate the 16-foot-high, 5,900-pound bronze sculpture by Simone Leigh, Brick House. The dedication was preceded by an hour-long virtual panel discussion between various faculty and staff, including Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, an associate professor in the Department of the History of Art, and Zoë Ryan, director of the Institute of Contemporary Art.
Pennovation Works celebrated five years of the Pennovation Center. The Center and its 23-acre campus are designed to align researchers, innovators, and businesses for the commercialization of discoveries. Penn Today highlights the evolution of the site, its research and commercialization achievements, and what’s next.
Six alumni share their favorite campus spots at Penn. Alanna Shanahan, director of Athletics and Recreation, chose Franklin Field and the Penn Museum, while University Chaplain and Vice President for Social Equity & Community Chaz Howard pointed to the W.E.B. Du Bois College House and the BioPond, where he often meditates. “Before any big decision,” he says, “I came here to pray.”
Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia have uncovered a novel cancer therapy that targets proteins inside cancer cells that have historically been impossible to reach in solid tumors. “This research is extremely exciting because it raises the possibility of targeting very specific tumor molecules, expanding both the cancers that can be treated with immunotherapy and the patient population who can benefit,” says Mark Yarmarkovich, first author on the paper and a senior scientist at CHOP.
Penn experts from across the University share their thoughts on the future of the cryptocurrency landscape. They address the topic through the lens of law and regulation, business, banking, and energy.
Gracyn Banks, the center back for the field hockey team, was Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week—a maestro of defense. At a game in early November at Columbia, she had two defensive saves and scored Penn’s only goal in the 1-0 shutout win. “Gracyn’s primary strengths are her vision, her open-field defense, and ability to tackle in the open field, and her ability to fend the longball offensively,” says Head Coach Colleen Fink.
PIK Professor Dolores Alberracín, Jess Fishman, and Andy Tan, all of the Leonard Davis Institute, co-authored an op-ed for The Hill about the efficacy of vaccine mandates. “Taken together, the experimental research evidence and success of vaccine mandates in rapidly increasing uptake of COVID-19 vaccinations among workers across the United States suggest that the mandates do work; the scientific experiments may be conservative, if anything,” they write. “Fears of a backlash against vaccine mandates appear to be largely unfounded.”
The fall semester welcomed the opening of the Student Service Center, a one-stop shop for the bursar’s office, the registrar, and Student Financial Aid. The space is intended to evoke a sense of calm and confidence. “Finances,” says Paul Richards of the Division of Finance, “shouldn’t start from a place of anxiety.”
A decade of research by Emily Steiner, a professor of English, resulted in a new book about the work of John Trevisa, a 14th-century author who translated encyclopedias and other informational texts from Latin to English. “You could say that modern English literature originates with the poetry of Geoffrey Chaucer, or you could locate its origins in the creation of the English reference book. If you privilege the encyclopedia over the lyric, your hero is the very understudied but hugely innovative John Trevisa,” says Steiner.
In TheNew York Times, Elizabeth Lennon, an assistant professor of internal medicine at the School of Veterinary Medicine, spoke about COVID vaccines for pets. She noted that it’s unlikely a vaccine for dogs and cats will be needed, due to the mounting evidence that they play little role in the virus’ spread and seldom get sick. “To date, there hasn’t been any documented cases of dogs or cats spreading the virus to people,” Lennon said.
