Michael Weisberg Named Bess W. Heyman President’s Distinguished Professor

Michael Weisberg, Professor of Philosophy

Michael Weisberg, Professor of Philosophy, has been named Bess W. Heyman President’s Distinguished Professor of Philosophy. Weisberg is an expert on the role of models in scientific inquiry and social ecology. He is the author of Simulation and Similarity and Galápagos: Life in Motion, as well as two edited volumes and many articles and book chapters. Weisberg's research has been supported by several National Science Foundation awards. In addition to serving as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Biology and Philosophy, he co-directs the Galápagos Education and Research Alliance, and serves as an advisor to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Nairobi Work Programme and the Republic of Maldives. At Penn, he is currently serving as Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Director of Postgraduate Programs at Perry World House.

Stephen J. Heyman, W’59, parent, established the Bess W. Heyman President’s Distinguished Professorship. Heyman is a University of Pennsylvania Trustee Emeritus and a member of the School of Nursing Board of Advisors. He is a 2000 recipient of the Alumni Award of Merit, the University’s highest alumni honor.

 

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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