Dennis DeTurck Named Robert A. Fox Leadership Professor

Dr. Dennis DeTurck, G ’80, dean of the College, and professor of mathematics, has been named the Robert A. Fox Leadership Professor, SAS Dean Rebecca W. Bushnell has announced.

He has been dean of the College since 2005, with responsibility for undergraduate curricula, programs and students in all departments and non-departmental programs in the School of Arts and Sciences. He directs the College office, together with its staff of advisers, and works with the dean of SAS on planning and priorities for undergraduate education in the arts and sciences.

A member of the mathematics faculty since 1982, he has authored more than 50 papers on pure and applied mathematics. His work centers on partial differential equations and differential geometry, where has produced results concerning Ricci curvature and flow, isospectral deformations and geometric knot theory, and he has written on applications of geometry to medicine and computer science. He also is managing editor of the American Mathematical Society’s Contemporary Mathematics book series.

He has long been a distinguished and dynamic presence in undergraduate education at Penn. His teaching has been recognized by a host of honors including the SAS Ira Abrams Award, the University’s Lindback Award and the Mathematical Association of America’s Haimo Award for Distinguished Teaching. He currently serves as faculty master of Riepe College House.

The Robert A. Fox Leadership Professorship was one of three chairs established by Robert A. Fox, C ’52, and his wife Penny Grossman Fox, Ed ’53, in association with the Robert A. Fox Leadership Program. Mr. Fox is the chairman and CEO of R.A.F. Industries Inc. He is an emeritus trustee at Penn and served on the Penn Medicine Board of Trustees and the Athletics Board of Overseers. In 1999, he received the Alumni Award of Merit. Mrs. Fox serves on the boards of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Moore College of Art and Design and the Pennsylvania Ballet. In addition to founding and endowing the Fox Program, the Foxes support a variety of areas of Penn, including medicine, athletics, undergraduate financial aid, and student life.

Arts & Sciences News

1 / 2
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.

View Article >
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.

View Article >
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.”

View Article >
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.”

View Article >
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.”

View Article >
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.

View Article >