Two Penn Physicists Awarded 2015 Benjamin Franklin Medal

University of Pennsylvania physicists Charles Kane and Eugene Mele have been chosen as 2015 recipients of the Benjamin Franklin Medal, one of the world's oldest science and technology awards. They will be honored at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia on April 23, 2015. 

Charles Kane, Class of 1965 Endowed Term Chair Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Eugene Mele, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, are among the eight scientists who will be awarded 2015 Franklin Medals. Kane and Mele are recognized for their creation of topological insulators, a new class of materials that have a number of useful applications ranging from low power electronics to creating a topological quantum computer.

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Arts & Sciences News

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Marisa C. Kozlowski Named Next Associate Dean for the Natural Sciences

Kozlowski, who joined the Penn faculty in 1997, succeeds Mark Trodden, who transitions to the Dean of Penn Arts & Sciences on June 1.

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One Fourth Year, One Alum Receive 2025 Hertz Fellowship

Eric Tao, C’25, Gr’25 (left), and Suraj Chandran, C’23, were awarded the honor, part of a group of 19 fellows selected this year. Each one receives five years of funding toward a doctoral program.

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Nathans, Alan Charles Kors Endowed Term Professor of History, won for his book “To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement.”

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Eva Del Soldato Awarded 2025-26 Rome Prize

She joins Sean Burkholder, of the Weitzman School of Design, and just 33 others in receiving the prestigious honor from the American Academy in Rome.

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