Penn President Liz Magill announced John L. Jackson, Jr. will serve as the Provost at Penn, effective June 1, 2023, following ratification by the Board of Trustees. He is currently the Walter H. Annenberg Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication and was previously dean of the School of Social Policy & Practice, in addition to being the first Penn Integrates Knowledge (PIK) Professor. “I could not be more honored and genuinely humbled to be asked to serve in this important post,” Jackson said. “I look forward to working closely with President Magill and the entire Penn community as we navigate the challenges and opportunities of today and prepare, together, for the ones that will emerge tomorrow.” (Image: Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania)
Penn President Liz Magill’s first stop on the Penn Forward Tour included a conversation with Trustee Chair Scott L. Bok at the Lincoln Center in Manhattan. She spoke about adjusting to life in Philadelphia, learning about Penn’s faculty, students, and alumni, and her strategic thinking as she plans ahead for the University. The tour will span the U.S. and London and last through April. (Image: Eddy Marenco)
A new report from the Penn Sustainability Office compiled data and metrics for fiscal year 2022, ranging from utilities and operations to outreach and engagement. “As we close out the fourth year of this five-year plan, we mark significant progress with all campus partners,” said Anne Papageorge, senior vice president of Penn’s Division of Facilities & Real Estate Services (FRES). “With this FY22 sustainability report, Penn continues to provide public, transparent reporting of our sustainability initiatives.” (Image: Eric Sucar)
Penn Today shared highlights from President Liz Magill’s first six months. In photos, she’s seen linking arms with Gritty and the Quaker after her confirmation as Penn’s ninth president, scooping ice cream in front of College Hall, meeting with the Red and Blue Advisory Committee, and receiving ceremonial brass keys at her Inauguration in October. (Image: Eric Sucar)
At the 107th Pennsylvania Farm Show, the School of Veterinary Medicine, held in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, students, faculty, staff, and leadership met with public officials, farmers, 4H students, and hundreds of other attendees. “Agriculture is all about interconnection: between human and animal health, between animal health and environmental health, and between the producers, the consumers, and veterinarians who each have a role to play in a successful food system,” says Andrew Hoffman, the Gilbert S. Kahn Dean of Veterinary Medicine. (Image: Eric Sucar)
The Penn Carey Law School sat down with President Liz Magill, a legal scholar, for a Q&A about how her legal training prepared her for leading a university, her most cherished memories of clerking for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and the value of a cross-disciplinary ethos for Penn Law students. “I think being in such close working proximity to brilliant thinkers whose expertise is outside the law gives both our students and our faculty a uniquely beneficial understanding of the other ways in which the world works, the non-legal ideas and frameworks that are so influential and important in society. It is, in my mind, a tremendous advantage for anyone who goes to school here.” (Image: Lisa Godfrey)
Ryan Jeong and Arnav Lal, both fourth-year students in the School of Arts & Sciences, were selected to receive full funding for a one-year master’s degree at Churchill College at Cambridge. Penn has had 14 scholars since the program’s inception in 1963 and this is the second year that two affiliates have received the award in the same year. The other was in 2021.
Among others, Penn President Liz Magill, University Chaplain and Vice President for Social Equity and Community Chaz Howard, and National Black Justice Coalition Executive Director David J. Johns gathered in Houston Hall to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Volunteers stuffed hundreds of bags and socks with toiletries and personal items to be donated to people at local shelters. “Service was one of the key messages of Dr. King,” Magill said. “His challenge for all of us was to constantly seek justice, to improve the world, and to give ourselves and our resources to lift up others. Expanding equality, promoting peace, pursuing acceptance and forgiveness—these are manifestations of Dr. King’s core idea of service.” (Image: Eric Sucar)
Danielle Cavalcanto, associate director, interiors, at the Perelman School of Medicine, is one winner of Penn’s 2022 Green Purchasing Awards, presented by Penn Procurement Services and Penn Sustainability. She was honored for her expertise in planning for sustainable practices—like reconfiguring a lab—to advance initiatives that support Penn Medicine’s research and academic community. “Danielle’s dedication to sustainable design, recycling, and creative reuse of existing resources is her passion,” says Maureen Ward, senior director of facilities and capital planning. (Image: Eric Sucar)
René Vidal, a global pioneer of data science and previously a professor of biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins, has been named a Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor at Penn. He will have joint appointments in the Department of Radiology in the Perelman School of Medicine and the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. “René Vidal is an undisputed world leader in deploying data science, engineering, and medical innovation to advance the frontiers of machine learning and health care,” Magill said. “Penn is an epicenter for such ingenuity, exemplified by our Penn Integrates Knowledge program, and Professor Vidal’s pathbreaking scholarship makes him a perfect fit. We’re excited to have him here.”
Nader Engheta, the H. Nedwill Ramsey Professor in Electrical and Systems Engineering, has been selected as a 2023 recipient of the Benjamin Franklin Medal, one of the world’s oldest science and technology awards. He was recognized for innovations in engineering novel materials that interact with electromagnetic waves. “Penn inaugurated the age of computers by creating the world’s first programmable digital computer in 1945. Professor Engheta’s work continues this tradition of groundbreaking research and discovery that will transform tomorrow,” says Penn President Liz Magill. “We are thrilled to see him receive the recognition of the Benjamin Franklin Medal.”
A collaboration between Penn and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia demonstrated a link between restricting abortion access and increased suicide risk for women of reproductive age. “Stress is a key contributor to mental health burden and a major driver of increased suicide risk,” says Ran Barzilay, a child-adolescent psychiatrist and neuroscientist in the Perelman School of Medicine. “We found that this particular stressor—restriction to abortion—affects women of a specific age in a specific cause of death, which is suicide.” (Images: Courtesy of Barzilay (top row); courtesy of Zandberg; Eric Sucar)
Holly Pittman and colleagues from Penn and the University of Pisa unearthed a variety of features of a non-elite urban neighborhood from one of southwest Asia’s earliest cities. In their excavation at Lagash, a large mound in Mesopotamia, they found a large “tavern,” a clay refrigerator, storage vessels, and more. “The site was of major political, economic, and religious importance,” explains Pittman. “However, we also think that Lagash was a significant population center that had ready access to fertile land and people dedicated to intensive craft production. In that way the city might have been something like Trenton, as in ‘Trenton makes, the world takes,’ a capital city but also an important industrial one.” (Image: Courtesy of Lagash Archaeological Project)
Claudia Quinton of the Division of Human Resources, along with several coworkers and partners at financial wellness benefits institution PeopleJoy, have worked since September to assist Penn employees with determining eligibility for student loan forgiveness. In a Q&A, Quinton discusses that process and available resources for Penn faculty and staff. (Image: Eric Sucar)
Fourth-year forward on the women’s soccer team Sizzy Lawton, a health and societies major in the School of Arts & Sciences, talked with Penn Today about developing a “soccer IQ,” the importance of knowing teammates, and what she’s planning for the future. (Image: Eric Sucar)
