American Chemical Society Establishes New Award Honoring Marsha Lester

Marsha Lester

The Physical Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society has established a new award entitled, The Marsha I. Lester Award for Exemplary Impact in Physical Chemistry.
 
Marsha Lester, Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, began her career at Penn in 1982. Her research focuses on open-shell complexes and reaction intermediates of environmental significance. Lester's research accomplishments have been recognized by numerous awards, including the Garvan-Olin Medal of the American Chemical Society, the Bourke Lectureship of the Faraday Division of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship. She was elected to Fellowship in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008 and elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2016.

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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Benjamin Nathans Wins 2025 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction

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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Mark Devlin Elected to National Academy of Sciences

He joins three others from Penn to receive the honor this year, all recognized for “distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.”

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Michael Jones-Correa and Sophia Rosenfeld Elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences

They join three others from the University of Pennsylvania, selected as part of the Academy’s mission to convene leaders from “every field of human endeavor to examine new ideas, address issues of importance to the nation and the world, and work together.”

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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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