Erika H. James, who currently serves as dean of the Goizueta Business School at Emory University, was named the next dean of the Wharton School. Penn President Amy Gutmann described her as “a passionate and visible champion of the power of business and business education to positively transform communities locally, nationally, and globally …” James starts in the role July 1.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of several award-winning novels and a MacArthur Foundation Fellow, will deliver this year’s Commencement speech and receive an honorary doctor of humane letters degree. “We are honored to bestow our highest degree on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and have her address our graduates at Penn’s 264th Commencement,” says Penn President Amy Gutmann.
Seven Penn scholars will receive the Thouron Award, a scholarship that allows them to pursue graduate studies in the United Kingdom for as long as two years.
At the Boston University Valentine Invitational on Feb. 14, senior middle-distance runner Nia Akins of the women’s track & field team won the 800m—with the second-fastest time in NCAA indoor history. She was less than a second away from toppling the all-time record.
Michael Horowitz, a professor of political science in the School of Arts and Sciences, was named the director of Perry World House and the Richard Perry Professor. Penn President Amy Gutmann described Horowitz as “an outstanding scholar and a seasoned visionary.”
Karen Tani was named the University’s 24th Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor, effective July 1. Currently a professor of law at the University of California, she was the inaugural graduate of Penn’s J.D./Ph.D. Program in American Legal History.
In English faculty Lorene Cary’s first play, Harriet Tubman toggles between her 19th-century life and a present-day Philadelphia prison where she recruits soldiers to fight with her in the Civil War. “My General Tubman” is on stage at The Arden Theatre Company.
Medical professionals from the Perelman School of Medicine, the School of Dental Medicine, and the School of Veterinary Medicine discuss treating pain during the opioid crisis. In part, they confront the false perception that opioids are very effective for the treatment of pain.
Liang Feng of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, Erica Korb of the Perelman School of Medicine, and Weijie Su of the Wharton School are among 126 recipients of the 2020 Sloan Research Scholarship, awarding a two-year $70,000 fellowship for research in their fields. One-hundred and twenty faculty members have been awarded the fellowship at Penn since 1955.
The McGraw family joined Penn President Amy Gutmann, Graduate School of Education Dean Pam Grossman, and Catalyst @ Penn GSE’s Michael Golden to announce GSE as the new home of the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education, recognizing innovators in teaching and learning—and promoting GSE as a leader in putting new ideas into practice.
In an NBC News investigative report, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, professor of communication and director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, commented on the aftermath of the voting mismanagement in the early-February Iowa caucuses. “My concern is that it calls into question the integrity of voting, whether you can trust the technology associated with voting in an environment in which people capitalize on those sorts of mishaps,” she said.
Penn Libraries debuted a major exhibition highlighting African-American women’s literature, featured inside the Kamin Gallery. The exhibit celebrates a 2018 gift from collector Joanna Banks; the exhibition, “Writing Across Genres: African American Women Writers in the Joanna Banks Collection,” focuses on women, children’s books, and cookbooks.
In a New York Times article about growing businesses out of the initial start-up stage, Gad Allon, professor at the Wharton School and director of the Jerome Fisher Program in Management & Technology, cited a need for second-stage companies to take a strategic approach to long-term growth. “Where these firms usually struggle is that the opportunistic approach that brought them to where they are doesn’t work as the firm grows,” Allon said.
WXPN recently celebrated 15 years of its partnership with Musicians On Call, which brings live performances to patient bedsides at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and other hospitals throughout the Philadelphia region. “It gives patients a minute to step out of themselves,” says Helen Leicht, a WXPN spokesperson for the Philadelphia program.
Michael Vazquez, a philosophy doctoral student, and Paul Wolff Mitchell, an anthropology doctoral student, were awarded the first-ever Provost’s Graduate Academic Engagement Fellowship awards, a two-year fellowship open to all Ph.D. students at Penn. Provost Wendell Pritchett remarked that their work “embodies the highest goals of the University: innovating new educational opportunities, bringing together graduate and undergraduate students, and making a tangible difference in our community.”