Susan Lindee is Appointed the Janice and Julian Bers Professor of History and Sociology of Science

M. Susan Lindee has been appointed the Janice and Julian Bers Professor of History and Sociology of Science in the School of Arts and Sciences.

Lindee is Associate Dean for the Social Sciences in SAS and former chair of the Department of History and Sociology of Science. Her research interests include the history of genetics, gender and science, science and popular culture, and science and war.

She has authored several books, including Moments of Truth in Genetic Medicine, The DNA Mystique: The Gene as a Cultural Icon, and Suffering Made Real: American Science and the Survivors of Hiroshima. Lindee worked as a journalist for 10 years prior to earning her Ph.D. from Cornell and joining Penn’s faculty in 1990.

Lindee received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2004 and was awarded a Burroughs Wellcome Fund 40th Anniversary Award in 1997. She also received the Ida and Henry Schuman Prize (now known as the Nathan Reingold Prize) from the History of Science Society in 1988.

The Bers Professorship was established by alumni Janice and Julian Bers. Janice Smith Bers earned her B.A. in elementary education from Penn in 1939. The late Julian Bers, W’31, headed two major industrial ventures, culminating with Imperial Metal and Chemical Company. He served as a University trustee and board member of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

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 >