Faculty, Graduate Students Honored for Outstanding Teaching

Penn Arts & Sciences

These Penn Arts & Sciences faculty and graduate students were recognized for their outstanding teaching and commitment to students in 2023.

Four faculty were honored with University-wide awards. E. James Petersson, Professor of Chemistry, and Evelyn Thomson, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, received the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, the highest teaching award conferred by the University. The Provost’s Award for Distinguished Ph.D. Teaching and Mentoring was given to Marisa Kozłowski, Professor of Chemistry, and Paul K. Saint-Amour, Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professor in the Humanities and Professor of English.

These faculty members and students were recognized with awards from Penn Arts & Sciences:

Ira H. Abrams Memorial Award for Distinguished Teaching

Coren Apicella, Associate Professor of Psychology
Timothy Rommen, Davidson Kennedy Professor in the College and Professor of Music and Africana Studies

Dennis M. DeTurck Award for Innovation in Teaching

Tobias Baumgart, Professor of Chemistry  

Dean's Award for Distinguished Teaching by Affiliated Faculty

Maria Alley, Language Program Coordinator, Russian and East European Studies
Anthony Cirri, Lecturer, Chemistry

Dean's Award for Mentorship of Undergraduate Research

Rebecca Waller, Assistant Professor of Psychology

Dean's Award for Distinguished Teaching by an Assistant Professor

Sarah Gronningsater, Assistant Professor of History

Dean's Award for Distinguished Teaching by Graduate Students

Connor Cassady, Mathematics
Lourdes Contreras, French and Francophone, Italian, and Germanic Studies
Cheryl Hagan, History and Sociology of Science
Jesse Hamilton, Philosophy
Oualid Merzouga, Mathematics
Clancy Murray, Political Science
Keith (KC) O’Hara, History
Peter Satterthwaite, Ancient History
Cassandra Vu, Chemistry
Jacqueline Wallis, Philosophy

Liberal and Professional Studies Award for Distinguished Teaching in Undergraduate and Post-Baccalaureate Programs

M. Ruth Elliott, Lecturer, Biochemistry, Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences and Pre-Health Programs

Liberal and Professional Studies Award for Distinguished Teaching in Professional Graduate Programs

Martin Seligman, Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology

 

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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