Melissa Lee Named Klein Family Presidential Assistant Professor

Melissa M. Lee, Klein Family Presidential Assistant Professor of Political Science

Melissa M. Lee has joined Penn Arts & Sciences as Klein Family Presidential Assistant Professor of Political Science. A specialist in conflict studies as well as the international and domestic politics of statebuilding and state development, Lee comes to Penn from Princeton, where she was Assistant Professor of Politics and International Affairs. Her book, Crippling Leviathan: How Foreign Subversion Weakens the State, examines how foreign subversion by enemy countries creates geographic spaces beyond the state's control and limits the government’s ability to provide public services. Lee has received several honors and recognitions of her work, including a Perry World House Lightning Scholar Fellowship. She earned her Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University in 2015.

Scott M. Klein established the Klein Family Presidential Professorship in 2021. He is a member of Penn’s Southern California Regional Advisory Board. Klein is one of the founders of Beach Point Capital Management LP and serves as Co-Chairman and Co-CEO. In addition to the professorship, he established the Klein Family Social Justice grant program at Penn Arts & Sciences, and supports undergraduate financial aid at Penn. Klein graduated from Penn in 1988 with degrees from Wharton and the College of Arts & Sciences.

 

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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