2013
Wendy Steiner's "Biennale: A Comic Opera" Playing at the Barnes Foundation
Richard L. Fisher Professor Emerita of English Wendy Steiner’s new comic opera, Biennale: A Comic Opera, written with composer Paul Richards, is now at the Barnes Foundation.
Krishna P. Singh Center for Nanotechnology Opens
The University of Pennsylvania officially opened the Krishna P. Singh Center for Nanotechnology on October 4. It is the region’s premier facility for advanced research, education, and innovative public/private partnerships in this emerging field. Nanotechnology research has implications for everything from regenerative medicine and targeted drug delivery systems to innovations in electricity storage and creation, and much more.
Psychology's Coren Apicella Finds 'Endowment Effect’ Not Present in All Societies
The fields of psychology and behavioral economics have experimentally identified common biases that cause people to act against their own apparent interests. One of these biases—the mere fact of possessing something raises its value to its owner—is known as the “endowment effect.” A new interdisciplinary study from the University of Pennsylvania has delved into whether this bias is truly universal, and whether it might have been present in humanity’s evolutionary past.
Penn International Relations Lecturer Receives International Prize
Thomas Cavanna, a lecturer in Penn’s International Relations Program, has received the Jean-Baptiste Duroselle Prize for his dissertation “American Foreign Policy Towards India and Pakistan in the 1970s.” Named after a French diplomatic historian, the Duroselle Prize is granted in France each year by a jury of academics to a dissertation on the history of international relations.
Japan-RAMS Scholars Make Early Manuscript Reading Hallmark of Penn Program
Scholars at the University of Pennsylvania are on their way to making the skill of reading manuscript text a hallmark of the Japanese studies program at Penn.
Chemist Marisa Kozlowski Named Fellow of American Chemical Society
Penn Arts and Sciences Professor of Chemistry Marisa Kozlowski was inducted as a fellow of the American Chemical Society (ACS) at its 246th National Meeting in Indianapolis September 9. Her citation noted the important advances she has made in chemical reaction methods and her development of new computational methods for the design and evaluation of ligands for reactions.
History Professor Receives Fellowship in Berlin
Associate Professor of History Cheikh Anta Babou is a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg (Institute of Advanced Study) in Berlin for the 2013-2014 academic year. The Kolleg was founded in 1981 to offer scholars and scientists the opportunity to spend a year concentrating on projects of their own choice.
The Syrian Crisis: A Political Science Roundtable
On Wednesday, September 18, Penn Arts and Sciences is offering a special Knowledge by the Slice, cosponsored by the Pi Sigma Alpha Political Science Honor Society.
Penn Chemist Wins Nichols Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Research
In recognition of his outstanding achievement in chemical research, Amos B. Smith III of Penn Arts and Sciences has been named the recipient of the 2014 William H. Nichols Medal by the New York Section of the American Chemical Society (ACS). To date, 16 recipients of the Nichols Medal have also received the Nobel Prize.
Physics and Astronomy Team Begins Digital Sky-Mapping to Survey Dark Energy
Penn astronomers are playing an integral role in the Dark Energy Survey, a global project that will map one-eighth of the sky in unprecedented detail using the world’s most powerful digital camera. The Dark Energy Camera is able to see light from more than 100,000 galaxies up to eight billion light years away in each snapshot.
Penn Biologists Reveal That Generosity Is Linked to Evolutionary Success
Associate professor Joshua Plotkin and postdoctoral researcher Alexander Stewart, both of the Department of Biology, examined the outcome of the classic game theory match-up known as the “Prisoner’s Dilemma,” as played repeatedly by a large, evolving population of players.
Penn Arts and Sciences Welcomes New Faculty
Penn Arts and Sciences has appointed 20 new members to its standing faculty for the 2013-2014 academic year. The School is pleased to welcome:Erol Akçay, Assistant Professor of Biology (as of January 1, 2014): Emergence of cooperation in ecological and social systems; game theory and stochastic modeling applied problems in evolutionary ecology, psychology, linguistics, and economics. Ph.D. from Stanford.
Camille Charles Named a Fellow by Straus Institute
Camille Z. Charles, Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor in the Social Sciences, has been selected as a 2013-14 fellow by The Straus Institute for the Advanced Study of Law & Justice at New York University. Each year, the Straus Institute brings fellows from around the world to facilitate high level research and scholarship on topics falling within a broad definition of law and justice.
Jane Willenbring Discovers Earlier Peak for Spain's Glaciers
It has been thought that the last ice age peaked about 20,000 years ago, but geologist Jane Willenbring and her team have discovered that glaciers actually reached their maximum extension around 6,000 years earlier, at least in southern Europe.
Penn Researchers ID Grid Cells that Help Guide Us
If you don’t know how you got anywhere before GPS, the problem might be your grid cells. In an article in Nature Neuroscience, Penn Psychology Professor Michael Kahana and his team have identified a new type of cell in the brain that helps people to keep track of their relative location while navigating an unfamiliar environment.
SAS Team Discovers Protein Needed for Cell Movement
A new multi-disciplinary study at Penn illuminates a crucial step in the process of cell movement. The protein they examined, Exo70, induces a reshaping of the cell’s plasma membrane, a necessary step in how a cell migrates from one location to another. The findings deepen the understanding of how cells initiate movement, and have implications for conditions dependent on cell migration, including cancer.
Gene That Resists Sleeping Sickness Might Have a Dark Side
Could the high incidence of kidney disease among African-Americans be the flip side of a gene that resists sleeping sickness?
Physicist Randall Kamien Awarded Five-Year Simons Foundation Grant
Randall Kamien, Vicki and William Abrams Professor in the Natural Sciences in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Penn Arts and Sciences, has been awarded a five-year, $500,000 grant from the Simons Foundation, as part of its 2013 class of Simons Investigators.
Psychology Professors Show That When it Comes to Learning Words, Quality is More Important Than Quantity
A study coauthored by Psychology's Professor Emerita Lila Gleitman Professor John Trueswell shows that early vocabulary improvement is likely to have more to do with the “quality” of the interactions in which the words are used rather than the sheer quantity of speech directed at young children.
Penn Biologists Simulate Protein Translation in a Cell
Associate Professor of Biology Joshua B. Plotkin and Postdoctoral Fellow Premal Shah have used a computational model to shed new light on what sets the pace of protein translation in cells. Their discoveries were released in a recent paper in Cell.
Penn Gazette: Dean Fluharty Q&A
“As a country, we are incredibly focused on short-term returns,” says Steven Fluharty C’79 G’79 Gr’81, Penn’s senior vice provost for research, who in January was selected to become the next dean of the School of Arts and Sciences. “What did that investment create in the following year? In the following two years?” he adds, by way of example. “That’s just not the right timeline for academic pursuits.
Coming Back to Where You Started: Incoming Arts and Sciences Dean Steven Fluharty Reflects on His Path at Penn
SAS’s next dean has a long history with Penn and a unique perspective on the School: as an undergraduate, a graduate student, a dedicated teacher, and the parent of an undergraduate. Currently the University’s Senior Vice Provost for Research, Fluharty is also a professor of pharmacology, psychology, and neuroscience, and for 10 years he served as director of the School’s highly popular undergraduate Biological Basis of Behavior program.
Penn Selected for Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative
The University of Pennsylvania has been named a project site for the Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative. Penn Arts and Sciences will play a major role in the multiyear, multimillion dollar project, which aims to improve the quality of education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
SAS Students Awarded State Department Critical Language Scholarships
Nine students affiliated with the School of Arts and Sciences have won U.S. State Department 2013 Critical Language Scholarships to study languages during the summer:
Vanessa Ogle Awarded Kluge Fellowship
Assistant Professor of History Vanessa Ogle has been awarded a Kluge Fellowship for 2013-2014. Funded by the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, up to ten fellowships are awarded yearly to scholars conducting research in the humanities and social sciences, especially those whose studies are interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, or multilingual.
Mark Allen Named Scientific Director of Penn’s Singh Center for Nanotechnology
Mark G. Allen has been named the inaugural scientific director of the Krishna P. Singh Center for Nanotechnology. The Singh Center, located on Walnut Street on the eastern edge of Penn's campus, will house state-of-the-art nanotechnology facilities that will enable researchers in the Penn community and the surrounding area to make critical advances in this growing field.
Daniel J. Mindiola Appointed Presidential Term Professor of Chemistry
Penn President Amy Gutmann and Provost Vincent Price announced today that Daniel J. Mindiola will be the fourth Presidential Term Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, effective August 1. Mindiola will be Presidential Term Professor of Chemistry in the School of Arts and Sciences.
Biology’s Dustin Brisson Receives Award for Investigators in Infectious Disease
Assistant Professor of Biology Dustin Brisson has been named a recipient of the 2013 Burroughs Wellcome Fund’s Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease award. These five-year awards provide $500,000 to support accomplished investigators at the assistant professor level in their studies of pathogenesis (the development of disease).
New Gift from Alumni Robert A. and Penny Grossman Fox Expands Fox Leadership Program at Penn
Thanks to a generous boost from its founders, the Fox Leadership Program at the University of Pennsylvania will be able to prepare even more students for lives of leadership and service.
Team Led by Randall Kamien Integrates Origami and Engineering
The quintessential piece of origami might be a decorative paper crane, but in the hands of an interdisciplinary University of Pennsylvania research team, it could lead to a drug-delivery device, an emergency shelter, or even a space station.
Dinner and a Mission
“I wanted to reconnect,” says Gillian Meltzer Miniter, C’90, about how she first turned back to her alma mater. She had taught English and traveled in Europe for two years after graduation, then returned to the U.S. and was working as an analyst on Wall Street.
Perelman Gift Creates Center for Political Science and Economics
A gift of $25 million from Ronald O. Perelman, W’64, WG’66, will create the Ronald O. Perelman Center for Political Science and Economics, providing a new home for the Departments of Political Science and Economics in the School of Arts and Sciences.
Giving Across Generations
From a member of the Class of ‘49 to students right here on campus, a proud Penn family shows that when it comes to scholarships, generosity spans generations.
Dean Bushnell Honored With Professorship
Though her literary specialty is tragedy, Rebecca Bushnell’s tenure as Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences has been anything but, as she oversaw a transformative time for the School and the most successful campaign in its history. In recognition of her success, the SAS Overseers have created an academic chair in her honor, which she will hold after she steps down as Dean.
Marks Chair Will Cover Economic History
Edmund Burke’s axiom “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it” is as true for economists as anyone else—something Howard S. Marks, W’67, knows well. To assure that Penn undergraduates do not fall victim to this phenomenon, Marks, a University trustee, and his wife Nancy have established the Howard Marks Professorship in Economic History with a $3 million gift to the School of Arts and Sciences.
Expanding Energy Exploration
A $2 million gift from David Elliman, C’73, WG’77, and Dr. Andrea Branch through the BAWD Foundation will enable SAS to jumpstart its effort to attract three new faculty members to Penn. The funds will provide startup support for faculty specializing in ways to bring renewable energy sources to market.
Levin College Deanship Honors Family's History
A family’s history with Penn—and of support for the liberal arts—will be honored with the naming of the Stephen A. Levin Dean of the College. Three generations of the Levin family have attended Penn: Stephen Levin, C’67; his father Leonard C. Levin, W’41; and his sons Eric, C’92, and Andrew, C’14.
Rakesh Vohra, Latest Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor, Will Hold Dual Appointments in Economics and Engineering
Rakesh Vohra has been named the University of Pennsylvania’s 15th Penn Integrates Knowledge professor, effective August 1.
Two from SAS Win Pulitzer Center International Student Reporting Fellowships
In a pilot partnership with Penn's African Studies Center, two students have been named 2013 Pulitzer Center International Student Reporting Fellows.
Stephanie McCurry Elected to Society of American Historians
Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of History Stephanie McCurry has been elected to the Society of American Historians, one of the highest honors in the field. The Society is open to both academic historians and professional writers of American history. Membership, by invitation only, is limited to 250 authors and 14 publishers.
Penn Arts & Sciences Magazine: Eight Years in the Life of a School
Join us as we take a look back at Dean Rebecca Bushnell's many contributions to SAS.Under Bushnell's leadership, the School stabilized faculty size, built on interdisciplinary strengths, redefined the liberal arts curriculum and supported educational innovation.With Bushnell at the helm, the School weathered one of the worst financal recessions since the Great Depression, and recently announced its record-breaking $529 million Making History campaign result.
Penn Researchers Conclude Adults in Malawi are Living Longer, but with Disabilities
The number of adults living beyond age 45 in the sub-Saharan African country of Malawi is growing rapidly, but according to a study by Penn and Malawian researchers, many of these older men and women experience physical illnesses or disabilities that limit their capacity to function normally.
The Wail of the Voice!
In 1971 Penn faculty composer George Crumb wrote Vox Balaenae (Voice of the Whale) for three masked players: electric flute, electric cello, and amplified piano. The piece has become a classic of 20th century music. “The work was inspired by the singing of the humpback whale, a tape recording of which I had heard two or three years previously," says Crumb, a Pulitzer Prize winner and one of the most recognized composers of our time.
Video Archive of 2013 College Graduation Speakers
School of Arts and Sciences Class of 2013Sunday, May 12, 2013Student Speaker: Stephanie Lamb, C’13Guest Speaker: P. Roy Vagelos, C'50, HON'99; physician, businessman, and philanthropistRead more about the speakers here.
Marija Drndić Makes Advance in Nanotech Gene Sequencing Technique
Finding more efficient ways to accurately sequence genes is a top research priority right now. Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy Marija Drndić is developing a new method that promises to be efficient in both the actual sequencing and in the manufacturing and stability of the tools to do so.