We are pleased to announce the formation of an ad hoc Consultative Committee to advise on the selection of the next Dean of the Graduate School of Education. The members of the Consultative Committee are listed below. The Committee welcomes—and will keep in the strictest confidence—nominations and input from all members of the University community. For fullest consideration, communications should be received, preferably in electronic form, no later than December 9, 2022, and may be sent to: gsedeansearch@upenn.edu.
—M. Elizabeth Magill, President —Beth A. Winkelstein, Interim Provost
Amber Wiley, an award-winning architectural and urban historian whose teaching and research center on the social aspects of design and how it affects urban communities, will join the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design as Presidential Associate Professor and the inaugural Matt and Erika Nord Director of the Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites (CPCRS). She will teach principally in the graduate program in historic preservation.
“This is as close to a dream job as one can get, and I am looking forward to building on the work that [founding faculty director] Randy Mason has done and moving the vision forward,” said Dr. Wiley, currently an assistant professor of art history at Rutgers University. “As we re-examine the multitude of ways people have fought against oppression in this country, and understand how these stories and battles are embedded within the built environment, CPCRS can be instrumental.”
Dr. Wiley’s scholarship examines how preservation and public history contribute to the creation and maintenance of the identity and sense of place of a city. Her work focuses on the ways local and national bodies have claimed the dominating narrative and collective memory of cities. Dr. Wiley’s publications concern African American and African diasporic cultural heritage, urbanism in New Orleans, school design, urban renewal, and preservation policy.
“We are thrilled Amber Wiley is joining the Weitzman team to lead this important initiative,” said Matt Nord, W’01, a member of the Weitzman Board of Advisors whose gift endowed the directorship. “Erika and I believe it is incredibly important to preserve the civil rights heritage that has helped to shape our communities. We believe this center has the potential to be a powerful platform through which we can deepen our understanding of history and the vibrant cultures that are foundational to our country.”
Dr. Wiley’s current book project, under contract with the University of Pittsburgh Press, is titled Model Schools in the Model City: Race, Planning, and Education in the Nation’s Capital. A second research project, The Revolution Continues: The Legacy of Black Heritage Movement, narrates the influence of the Afro-American Bicentennial Corporation on the national historic preservation scene in the 1970s.
As a practitioner, Dr. Wiley has been active nationally, completing interpretation, research, and visioning projects for the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Monument Lab, the DC History Center, and the National Building Museum. She was co-principal investigator of the Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic Site National Historic Landmark Nomination Update, and she is a founding member of the DC Legacy Project: Barry Farm-Hillsdale steering committee. Dr. Wiley’s leadership in institutional change is exemplified by the exhibition she curated with her students, titled Collective Yearning: Black Women Artists from the Zimmerli Art Museum, at the Mary H. Dana Women Artist Series and Zimmerli Art Museum in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Dr. Wiley received her PhD in American studies from George Washington University. She also holds a master of architectural history and certificate in historic preservation from the University of Virginia School of Architecture, and a BA in architecture from Yale University.
The Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites at Weitzman works in partnership with organizations based in Philadelphia and elsewhere in the U.S., including Tuskegee University and the National Park Service, to raise visibility and build capacity where historic preservation and civil rights histories intersect. CPCRS maintains a program of research, teaching, and fieldwork to re-orient the preservation field toward narratives, ideas, and practices, embodying the preservation of civil rights heritage and access to heritage as a civil right.
Dr. Wiley’s appointment begins in January of 2023 and she will assume leadership of CPCRS in July of 2023. Her teaching appointment will be reviewed by the provost and the Board of Trustees this fall.
On September 22, the Philadelphia 76ers announced a multi-year partnership with Penn Medicine, the area’s leading healthcare provider. This unique partnership designates Penn Medicine as the official healthcare, orthopaedic, and hospital partner of the team.
“Penn Medicine has established itself as a leading healthcare organization not only in the Greater Philadelphia Area, but in the entire country,” said Tad Brown, CEO of the 76ers and Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment. “We’re fortunate to partner with such a respected, accomplished team of healthcare professionals and world-class doctors, and look forward to the collective impact we can have in the Philadelphia community. Together, we share a passion for this city and are eager to tip-off this partnership ahead of the 2022-2023 season.”
Highlights of the 76ers and Penn Medicine partnership include:
As part of this historic partnership, the 76ers and Penn Medicine will also come together on community engagement efforts designed to drive health equity and help reduce disparities. The joint efforts in the community will include:
“Like the 76ers, our number-one commitment is to the people of this city and the communities around it, and this partnership allows us to expand our impact on the people we care so much about, in new ways,” said Kevin B. Mahoney, chief executive officer of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. “Working with the Sixers will greatly strengthen our support for public health and the well-being of our neighborhoods. This is an exciting time for the Sixers as an organization, and we’re thrilled to be on the same team.”
The Models of Excellence Award Program celebrates the outstanding achievements of individual full- and part-time staff members and teams throughout the University’s schools and centers.
This fall, Penn’s long-standing recognition program will continue to highlight the best in staff commitment and achievement with the 2023 call for nominations. Nomination submissions will be accepted through October 28.
You can nominate individual Penn staff members and teams for an award in three categories: Models of Excellence, Pillars of Excellence, and Model Supervisor. Download the digital Call for Nominations brochure for descriptions of each category.
The online nomination form is available at www.hr.upenn.edu/models.
In all categories, award recipients each receive $500 and a symbolic award. Nominees selected for honorable mention receive $250 and a symbolic award. Awards will be announced and the honorees celebrated on stage in Irvine Auditorium on April 26, 2023.
The Models of Excellence Selection Committee makes their recommendations on the content of your nominations. That means your submissions are crucial. Learn how to submit a nomination that conveys the exceptional work of your colleagues by attending a virtual How to Write a Models of Excellence Nomination information session. Two sessions will be held on:
Register at www.hr.upenn.edu/models-infosession.
Visit the Models of Excellence Program webpage or email models@hr.upenn.edu for more information.
—Division of Human Resources
To Members of the University and Surrounding Community:
The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Involvement Recognition Awards will be presented to five individuals in the following areas:
Community Award is presented to two residents (youth and/or adult) of the greater Philadelphia community who are involved in community service and/or working for social justice through non-violent efforts aimed at alleviating systemic inequality as it relates to poverty, racism, and militarism.
Community Award is presented to a faculty or staff member of the Penn community who is involved in community service and/or working for social justice through non-violent efforts aimed at alleviating systemic inequality as it relates to poverty, racism, and militarism.
Community Award is presented to a Penn student who is involved in community service and/or working for social justice through non-violent efforts aimed at alleviating systemic inequality as it relates to poverty, racism, and militarism.
The Rodin Education Award is presented to a Penn faculty or staff member, Penn student, or Philadelphia resident who demonstrates significant contributions in community service and/or working for social justice efforts through the advancement of education and educational opportunities in Philadelphia.
The awards will be presented as part of the University’s commemoration of the MLK holiday during the interfaith program. We seek your help in nominating individuals whose work most merits recognition. Please share this information with others in your families, communities, schools, departments, and organizations so that we may identify those most deserving of this award.
Nomination forms may be submitted through November 3, 2022. Electronic submissions are available at: https://aarc.upenn.edu/mlk/mlk-award-nominations. This method is preferred, but not required.
If you prefer sending by mail, please send to the African American Resource Center, Attn: Colleen Winn, 3643 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6230. Should you have any questions, please contact the African-American Resource Center at (215) 898-0104 or aarc@pobox.upenn.edu.
—2023 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Symposium Executive Planning Committee
Happy National Voter Registration Day!
Every election is an opportunity to be a part of something bigger than yourself and support your community. This election is no different, and student, faculty, and staff voters are poised to have a large impact.
This National Voter Registration Day, let’s continue the trend of increasing Penn’s voter turnout each year and make our voices heard again by registering to vote ahead of the November 8 midterm election.
Right now: register to vote in any state in less than two minutes online or register in person at Penn Leads the Vote’s event.
Previously registered to vote? Confirm your registration or update your address by submitting a new registration.
Already double checked and confirmed you’re registered? Make a plan to vote.
24/7: If you want help registering to vote or have questions about anything else voting related, PLTV can help:
Penn Leads The Vote is also looking for volunteers to help get-out-the-vote! PLTV is completely non-partisan and anyone is welcome to volunteer for as much or as little time as you want. If you’re interested in joining PLTV, click here. Community members who are not eligible to vote are also encouraged to participate.
—Penn Leads the Vote
A. Bruce Mainwaring, C’47, Trustee Emeritus and chair emeritus of the Penn Museum Board of Advisors, died on September 6, 2022. He was 95.
Mr. Mainwaring was born in Roxborough, Pennsylvania. After serving in the U.S. Naval Reserve during World War II and completing his education, Mr. Mainwaring joined his father’s Uniform Tubes Corporation and enjoyed a long career in the manufacturing industry. He became the president of Uniform Tubes and went on to create two new firms, UTI Corporation and Micro-Coax, Inc., which, like their parent company, manufacture metal tubing and related wares. UTI’s products have been used in a variety of industries including medicine, telecommunications, and aerospace, as evidenced when UTI tubing traveled to the moon on an Apollo spacecraft. In 2001 he founded the Mainwaring Archive Foundation, an organization exploring alternatives to scientific dogma.
Mr. Mainwaring was a leader, volunteer, and benefactor of Penn for many decades. He was appointed a University Trustee in 1991 and served on the Academic Policy and University Responsibility committees. His many volunteer roles included serving as a member of the Commonwealth Relations Council, president of the Mask and Wig Club, a director of the General Alumni Society, a member of the Bread Upon the Waters Scholarship Fund Board, and a member of the Agenda for Excellence Council.
Mr. Mainwaring was recognized in 1987 with the Alumni Award of Merit. He served as chair of the Penn Museum Board of Advisors, chair of the planned giving component of the museum’s 21st Century Campaign, and chair of the Expansion Committee responsible for creating the museum’s east wing—a state-of-the-art collections storage facility, which he and his wife, Peggy, made possible by their lead support and his fundraising, and which bears their name. They were also the lead donors to the museum’s 2010 West Wing Renovation Project, making possible the installation of climate control throughout the wing, the renovation of the historic Widener Lecture Room, and the creation of a suite of conservation and teaching labs which now house the museum’s Center for the Analysis of Archaeological Materials (CAAM).
Mr. and Mrs. Mainwaring also endowed the first CAAM teaching specialist: the Mainwaring Teaching Specialist for Archaeozoology. In addition, they endowed the museum’s Chief Operating Officer position, established the Robert H. Dyson Near East Curatorship, and made provision for endowment funds supporting the Director’s Discretionary Fund as well as marketing and outreach activities. Their support extended to several other areas at the University, including undergraduate financial aid, the School of Nursing, the Morris Arboretum, the Pennsylvania Hospital, the Mask and Wig Club, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Penn Libraries, the Annenberg Center, and the School of Arts and Sciences.
During his career, Mr. Mainwaring was a member of the Young Presidents Organization, the Executives Organization, the American Management Association, and the American Society for Metals Board of Governors. He was also chairman of the Philadelphia Presidents Organization. His service reached from the presidency of his local Rotary Club to membership on the Board of Governors of the American Research Center in Egypt, to service on several committees at Beaumont at Bryn Mawr. He served on the boards of Monmouth College, the Area Council for Economic Education, the Valley Forge Council of the Boy Scouts of America, and the Foundation for Studies of Modern Science. He also chaired the Board of Trustees of International House at 37th and Chestnut Streets, where he was a donor. He was devoted to the Episcopal Academy in Newtown Square, PA, where he was an alumnus and class valedictorian. Having attended the school on a singing scholarship–an avocation he exercised as a member of Mask and Wig–Mr. Mainwaring did all he could to serve Episcopal as a volunteer and benefactor. He participated on numerous boards and initiatives there and in 2007 made the largest gift to date in the school’s history. For his numerous contributions, in 2003 Episcopal bestowed upon him its 1785 Bowl Award, the school’s highest honor for service and generosity.
A celebration of Mr. Mainwaring’s life will be held at the Class of 1944 Chapel at Episcopal Academy in Newtown Square on Saturday, October 15, 2022, at 10:30 a.m.
He is survived by his wife, Peggy, ED’47, HON’85, a Trustee Emerita; their children, Elizabeth, CW’76, Susan, CW’72, G’76; and Scott C’75; and his grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, donations in Mr. Mainwaring’s memory to any of the institutions mentioned above would be appreciated.
John J. (Jack) Patrick, Sr., former comptroller in the business office of the Perelman School of Medicine, died September 13, 2022. He was 88.
Born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, he was the youngest of three children. He graduated from West Catholic High School in Philadelphia in 1952 and Villanova University in 1957 with a BS in economics and accounting.
Mr. Patrick began his career in public accounting working for Lally and Co. in Philadelphia, where he met his first wife, Ann Timothy. He served in the Air National Guard for six years. In 1961, he joined the audit department of Peat, Marwick, and Mitchell (KPMG). While there, he earned his CPA.
In 1967, Mr. Patrick began working at the University of Pennsylvania as a business manager in the School of Medicine. Mr. Patrick worked at Penn for more than 30 years in positions of increasing responsibility until eventually running the Finance Business Office as comptroller for the School of Medicine. At Penn, he was on the steering committee for the Association of Business Administrators—a staff organization. Mr. Patrick was inducted into the Twenty-Five Year Club during the 1992-1993 school year.
Mr. Patrick was a knight in the Knights of Columbus, an active parishioner, and a coach and league director for Folsom Boys Club and Ridley Basketball.
Jack is survived by his wife, Helen; his five children, Patty, John (Joan), Michael (Joyce), Paul (Kris), and Mark (Michelle); eleven grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; step children Greta, Kathy, Nancy and Jennifer; step grandchildren, and step great-grandchildren.
A mass was held at Saint Frances Cabrini Church in Ocean City on September 19, 2022. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in his name to Ocean City Knights of Columbus, council #2560, Ocean City, New Jersey.
Vivian Seltzer, professor emerita of human development and behavior in the school of Social Policy and Practice, died on August 20, 2022. She was 91.
Following graduation from the University of Minnesota, Dr. Seltzer traveled to Philadelphia and married William (Bill) Seltzer in 1953. After starting a career in family therapy, Dr. Seltzer enrolled at Bryn Mawr College, where she received her PhD in psychology. For the next three decades, she taught developmental psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.
Throughout her life, Dr. Seltzer held leadership roles in a variety of academic, religious and community organizations, including years of service on University of Pennsylvania’s Faculty Senate, Gratz College, and the Center City Residents Association. She is the former president of the Penn Association of Senior & Emeritus Faculty (PASEF).
Dr. Seltzer is the author of three books on adolescent psychological growth, including original theory on the developmental significance of peers in psychological growth. She developed an original model of glitches in adolescent development, diagnostic instruments, and Peer Arena Lens (PAL) Therapy.
Dr. Seltzer is survived by her husband, William Seltzer; three children, Jonathan (Liza), Francesca (Andrew) and Aeryn (Bruce); and nine grandchildren.
Richard S. Tobey, Jr., D’75, former director of clinical studies and assistant professor of restorative dentistry, at Penn’s School of Dental Medicine, died August 26, 2022. He was 76.
After graduating with honors from the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine in 1975, Dr. Tobey was selected to study in that institution’s highly selective post-doctoral graduate program. This experience gave Dr. Tobey three more years of education than the average dentist and the opportunity to receive advanced training in prosthodontics and periodontics. Because this additional training gave Dr. Tobey the ability to treat a broad range of general and cosmetic dental cases, including challenging cases that other dentists might have to refer out, he liked to think of himself as a “supergeneralist.”
Dr. Tobey taught at the University of Pennsylvania for over 15 years. He was renowned in his field, lecturing in the United States and abroad on all aspects of advanced dentistry, including cosmetic dentistry, occlusion (misalignment), periodontology (treatment of the gums), implantology, and complete oral rehabilitation. Beginning in 1979, Dr. Tobey was also in private practice as an orthodontist and cosmetic dentist in the Philadelphia and Cherry Hill area.
In 1981, Dr. Tobey won the Dental School’s Earl Banks Hoyt Award for excellence in teaching. Dr. Tobey was a member of more than a dozen dental associations and held offices in many of them. He was also an award-winning sculptor. He worked mainly from the human form, producing wonderful pieces of art in clay, metal, and stone.
A celebration of life service was held on September 18, 2022.
Michael L. Wachter, William B. and Mary Barb Johnson Professor of Law and Economics Emeritus in the Carey Law School, a faculty member in the School of Arts and Sciences and the Wharton School, and Penn’s former interim provost, passed away on September 3.
Dr. Wachter received a BS from Cornell University in 1964, then an MA and a PhD, both in economics, from Harvard University in 1967 and 1970, respectively. While earning his PhD, he joined Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences as an assistant professor of economics in 1969. Four years later, he was named the Janice and Julian Bers Assistant Professor in the Social Sciences (Almanac January 23, 1973), a position that lasted until 1976, when he became a full professor of economics. Dr. Wachter was active in Penn’s government during the 1970s and 1980s, penning a paper on faculty salaries that was influential on the policy-making process of the Faculty Senate (Almanac December 11, 1973) and serving on several Faculty Senate committees. He also chaired the University Council Committee on Open Expression and served on numerous committees to select high-ranking Penn officers. In recognition of this service, then-Penn president Martin Meyerson tapped Dr. Wachter to serve as his personal assistant, a position Dr. Wachter held from 1975 to 1979.
In 1980, Dr. Wachter joined the faculty of the Wharton School as a professor of management, and four years later, he was named director of the Institute for Law and Economics (ILE), a center that combined faculty from Penn’s Law School and the School of Arts and Sciences (Almanac March 20, 1984), and the same year he also became a professor of law in Penn’s Carey Law School. Dr. Wachter elevated the ILE, turning it into a preeminent center employing the collective wisdom of academics, lawyers, business leaders, judges, policymakers, and regulators during roundtables and conferences. While there, Dr. Wachter conducted interdisciplinary research in law and economics, becoming known for his research in corporate law, corporate finance, and labor law and economics. During his career, he published over 100 peer-reviewed articles. His expertise made him sought-after outside of academia; he served at one time or another as a consultant for the National Science Foundation, the Council of Economic Advisors, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Federal Reserve Board, as well as a commissioner on the Minimum Wage Study Commission established by Congress. Partly thanks to his rising fame in his field, in 1993, he was named the William B. Johnson Professor of Law and Economics at Penn.
In 1995, Dr. Wachter was appointed deputy provost of Penn by provost Stan Chodorow. “The combination of Michael’s knowledge of the University—he has a great institutional memory—his analytical ability and experience with planning, and his candor make him an ideal match for the job,” said Dr. Chodorow in announcing the appointment (Almanac March 28, 1995). During his tenure as deputy provost, Dr. Wachter helped advance Penn’s Agenda for Excellence campaign, which involved developing six university-wide academic priorities, improving graduation rates among undergraduates through changes in financial assistance, and improving interdisciplinary efforts around the university (Almanac December 16, 1997). Upon Dr. Chodorow’s retirement in December 1997, Penn president Judith Rodin named Dr. Wachter Penn’s interim provost (Almanac December 9, 1997). As interim provost, Dr. Wachter laid out a cohesive plan to develop Penn’s western campus (Almanac November 17, 1998), fleshed out the then-fledgling college house system by appointing several faculty directors, and convened committees to search for numerous Penn leaders.
In his speech to incoming freshmen at Convocation in 1998, Dr. Wachter invoked his accomplishments as interim provost: “As the first class at Penn to experience our comprehensive college house system, you have the unique opportunity to help shape a new culture of residential life at Penn. Your class will be the first generation at Penn to fully experience the dramatic changes that are occurring through distributed learning—learning through the computer and internet. For example, you will enjoy access to increased academic support directly in your college houses 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in math, writing, and research, among other topics” (Almanac September 15, 1998). Upon the appointment of Robert Barchi as provost later that year, Dr. Wachter stepped down, and Dr. Rodin penned a letter of appreciation (Almanac December 8, 1998): “I have known no provost here or anywhere who has had a better grasp of the complex realities of academic planning and budgeting,” she said. “Logic, reason and fairness have been your trademarks in academic administration, and each of Penn’s schools and resource centers has been your beneficiary. Each is in a stronger position thanks to your efforts. You have been a great colleague, and your deep sense of responsibility, extraordinary work ethic and love for our University are examples to us all.”
After retiring from Penn’s governance, Dr. Wachter remained an active teacher and mentor. “Michael consistently gave me very thoughtful advice as a young academic, and later as Dean,” said Michael Fitts, former dean of the Carey Law School and current president of Tulane University, in a Carey Law School tribute to Dr. Wachter. “He was my institutional mentor — and friend.”
“His former students are among the most prominent practitioners and judges in the country,” said Jill E. Fisch, ILE’s current director. “He’s really left a mark on the broader profession.” In 2012, Dr. Wachter was named the William B. and Mary Barb Johnson Professor of Law and Economics in the Carey Law School. He continued his research on corporate law and governance, publishing books and articles into the 2010s. Dr. Wachter retired and took emeritus status in 2020; in his honor, the Carey Law School established the Michael L. Wachter Distinguished Fellowship in Law and Policy, naming the Honorable Leo E. Strine, Jr. L’88, to the position. “Michael Wachter’s contributions to Penn and to the law school cannot be overstated,” said Ted Ruger, Dean and Bernard G. Segal Professor of Law at the Carey Law School. “He reshaped how we think about issues surrounding corporate law with his singular vision and inspired and launched generations of students into fulfilling careers through his dedicated teaching and mentorship. We mourn his loss but celebrate a consequential life.”
Dr. Wachter is survived by his wife, Susan; his children, Jessica and Jonathan; and eight grandchildren. Susan and Jessica are tenured members of the Wharton School faculty. The family suggests that contributions in Dr. Wachter’s memory be made to the Michael Wachter Endowed Business Law Fund at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School or to a charity of the donor’s choice.
Almanac appreciates being informed of the deaths of current and former faculty and staff members, students and other members of the University community. Call (215) 898-5274 or email almanac@upenn.edu.
However, notices of alumni deaths should be directed to the Alumni Records Office at Suite 300, 2929 Walnut St., (215) 898-8136 or email record@ben.dev.upenn.edu.
A Stated Meeting of the Trustees was held on Thursday, September 22, 2022.
During the President’s report, President M. Elizabeth Magill proposed two resolutions—to appoint James J. Husson as Vice President of Development and Alumni Relations, and to appoint Mark Dingfield as Vice President for Finance and Treasurer. Both were approved.
During the academic report, Interim Provost Beth A. Winkelstein discussed the reopening of the ARCH and celebrated the historic structure, which has been reimagined and serves as a hub for cultural resource centers. She presented a resolution on faculty appointments and promotions, which was approved.
Senior Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli presented the financial report. For the consolidated University, total net assets were $28.9 billion as of June 30, 2022, an increase of $1.9 billion, or 7.1% over June 30, 2021 and 2.6% above budget. For the academic component, the change in net assets from operations for the University reflected a $1.5 billion increase versus a $424 million increase in the prior year and a budgeted increase of $93 million. Total revenue of $5.2 billion was $1.2 billion, or 31.1%, above the prior year and $1.4 billion, or 35.9%, above budget.
Capital expenditures totaled $206 million as of June 30, 2022, $83 million, or 28.7%, below the prior year and $74 million—26.3% below budget. For the health system, the change in net assets from operations reflected an increase of $148 million through June 30, 2022. Operating income after transfers to PSOM and the University (academic component) was down $37 million or a loss of 0.4%.
J. Larry Jameson, executive vice president of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System and dean of the Perelman School of Medicine, gave the Penn Medicine report.
During the committee reports, Audit Committee Chair Alan Schnitzer presented a resolution to approve the audited financial statements for Fiscal Year 2022, which was approved. Budget and Finance Commitee Chair Dhananjay Pai presented the following resolutions, all of which were approved:
Trustees Chair Scott Bok presented a resolution to appoint Kendra B. Eager to the Board of Managers of the Wistar Institute, which was approved.
The next Board of Trustees meetings will be held on October 20, 2022.
Therapies that use engineered cells to treat diseases, infections, and chronic illnesses are opening doors to solutions for longstanding medical challenges. Lukasz Bugaj, an assistant professor in bioengineering, has been awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER Award for research that may be key to opening some of those doors.
Such cellular therapies take advantage of the complex molecular mechanisms that cells naturally use to interact with one another, enabling them to be more precise and less toxic than traditional pharmaceutical drugs, which are based on simpler small molecules. Cellular therapies that use engineered immune system cells, for example, have recently been shown to be highly successful in treating certain cancers and protecting against viral infections.
However, there is still a need to further fine-tune the behavior of cells in these targeted therapies. Dr. Bugaj and his colleagues are addressing that need by developing new ways to communicate with engineered cells once they are in the body, such as turning molecular events on and off at specific times.
The research team recently discovered that both temperature and light can act as triggers of a specific fungal protein, dynamically controlling its location within a mammalian cell. By using light or temperature to instruct that protein to migrate toward or away from the cell’s membrane, Dr. Bugaj and his colleagues showed how it could serve as a key component in controlling the behavior of human cells.
The aim of the initial study was to develop probes that would take advantage of the light-responsive properties of the protein and to characterize its unique sensitivity to both light and temperature. Now, funded by the CAREER Award, they plan to research how to control it with only temperature as an input.
“We are looking for ways to talk to the cells in the body,” said Dr. Bugaj. “We can use light to communicate very precisely with cells, but light can only penetrate through a few millimeters of skin. When we discovered that this protein responds to both light and temperature, we thought we could modify it for purely thermal control, which would provide a new method to communicate with cells deeper in the body.”
Anthea Butler, the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought in the School of Arts and Sciences, has received the 2022 Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion from the American Academy of Religion.
The Marty Award is given annually to an individual whose work helps advance the public understanding of religion. The Academy of Religion’s Committee on the Public Understanding of Religion praised Dr. Butler for her “distinguished record of scholarship on race, gender, and religion in American religious history as well as her innovative and multidimensional efforts to engage diverse publics and the media.” Her numerous articles and opinion pieces have been featured in the New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, NBC, and The Guardian. She appears regularly on MSNBC and has also served as a consultant to the PBS documentary series Billy Graham, The Black Church, God in America, and Aimee Semple McPherson.
Dr. Butler serves as chair of the department of religious studies at Penn and is president of the American Society of Church History. Her most recent book is White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America.
The Wharton-Jacobs Levy Prize for Quantitative Financial Innovation has been awarded to Narasimhan Jegadeesh and Sheridan Titman at a conference hosted by the Jacobs Levy Equity Management Center for Quantitative Financial Research at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Drs. Jegadeesh and Titman will receive the Wharton-Jacobs Levy Prize for their research on momentum investing from their 1993 Journal of Finance paper, “Returns to Buying Winners and Selling Losers: Implications for Stock Market Efficiency.” Their article showed that strategies of buying recent stock winners and selling recent losers led to significant positive returns.
“Narasimhan Jegadeesh and Sheridan Titman’s work on momentum investing is as creative as it is rigorous,” said Erika James, dean of the Wharton School. “We honor them for improving our understanding of complex financial phenomena, which exemplifies Wharton’s commitment to elevating the impact of high-quality scholarship to drive innovation in finance and progress in business and in society.”
Dr. Jegadeesh is the Dean’s Distinguished Chair in Finance at the Goizueta Business School at Emory University, and Dr. Titman is the Walter W. McAllister Centennial Chair in Financial Services at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.
In addition to the prize ceremony, the conference program will feature paper presentations and a panel discussion on the past, present, and future of momentum investing. Speakers include Jeremy Siegel of Wharton, Mark Carhart of Kepos Capital, and Tobias Moskowitz of the Yale School of Management and AQR Capital Management.
Many studies, some looking as far back as the 19th century, have confirmed the initial findings by Drs. Jegadeesh and Titman. Their research also led fund managers to adopt new strategies.
“Their work challenged the expanding view of the superiority of passive investment strategies and had an enormous impact on the world of investing,” said Craig MacKinlay, the Joseph P. Wargrove Professor of Finance and co-academic director of the Jacobs Levy Center.
Carl June, the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the department of pathology and laboratory medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine and director of the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies at Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center, has been named a 2022 Keio Medical Science Prize Laureate. He is recognized for his pioneering role in the development of CAR T cell therapy for cancer, which uses modified versions of patients’ own immune cells to attack their cancer.
The Keio Medical Science Prize is an annual award endowed by Keio University, Japan’s oldest private university, which recognizes researchers who have made an outstanding contribution to the fields of medicine or the life sciences. It is the only prize of its kind awarded by a Japanese university, and eight laureates of this prize have later won the Nobel Prize. Now in its 27th year, the prize encourages the expansion of researcher networks throughout the world and contributes to the well-being of humankind.
“Dr. June exemplifies the spirit of curiosity and fortitude that makes Penn home to so many ‘firsts’ in science and medicine,” said Penn President Liz Magill. “His work provides hope to cancer patients and their families across the world, and inspiration to our global community of physicians and scientists who are working to develop the next generation of treatments and cures for diseases of all kinds.”
Dr. June has been widely recognized for his role in pioneering the CAR T cell therapy, which became the first U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved personalized cellular therapy for cancer in August of 2017. Clinical trials of this approach began at Penn in 2010, with long-lasting remissions stretching past 10 years in some of the earliest children and adults treated. There are now six FDA-approved CAR T cell therapies, for six different cancers, including pediatric and young adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia and several other blood cancers. More than 15,000 patients across the world who had run out of options have now received these transformative treatments. Dozens more clinical trials are in progress, including those for breast, ovarian, and pancreatic cancer, plus other diseases including HIV/AIDS, diabetes, and lupus. Additional laboratory work in progress is aimed at harnessing the approach for heart disease and dementia.
“Dr. June’s work and its global impact have given us a road map for unlocking the potential of the immune system to fight disease,” said J. Larry Jameson, executive vice president of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System and dean of the Perelman School of Medicine. “He is one of Penn’s most distinguished faculty members and we are thrilled for him to receive this impressive global recognition.”
Dr. June, who is also the director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at Penn, is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and the Baylor College of Medicine. He is the recipient of many prestigious scientific achievement awards and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences. In addition to his scientific accolades, Dr. June has been featured in hundreds of news outlets across the world, was named to the 2018 TIME 100 list of the most influential people in the world by TIME magazine, and is the subject of a new documentary film, Of Medicine and Miracles, which made its debut at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival.
The Keio Medical Science Prize is an international award for which academics and researchers from around the world are invited to nominate a candidate who has demonstrated innovation and notable developments in medicine and the life sciences. Laureates are then selected through a rigorous review process by around 90 Japanese academics from both within and outside of Keio University. Via this extensive review process, Dr. June and Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the National Center for Global Health and Medicine Research Institute and the University of Tokyo, were selected as this year’s laureates.
An award ceremony and commemorative lecture to recognize the 2022 Keio Medical Science Prize Laureates will take place on November 28 at Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyo. Laureates receive a certificate of merit, a medal, and a monetary award of 10 million yen, the equivalent of roughly $70,000.
Penn Nursing is excited to announce the inaugural cohort of the Leonard A. Lauder Community Care Nurse Practitioner Program, comprised of 10 fellows from across the country who will begin full-time studies towards a nurse practitioner degree. They are the first-ever students in a pioneering, tuition-free program dedicated to building a nurse practitioner workforce committed to working in and with underserved communities, both rural and urban.
“With the first of the Leonard A. Lauder program fellows joining us at Penn Nursing, we begin the work of preparing these excellent nurses to be leaders in providing care in under-resourced communities,” said Penn Nursing Dean Antonia Villarruel. “The impact this program will have in communities that face barriers to care cannot be overstated—and all of us at Penn Nursing are grateful to Leonard A. Lauder for his vision and commitment to improving health and health care in areas where it is most needed.”
The Leonard A. Lauder program at Penn Nursing is a two-year, rigorous primary care nurse practitioner program. It was borne of a $125 million gift—the largest ever to an American nursing school—by Penn alumnus Leonard A. Lauder, chairman emeritus of the Estée Lauder Companies.
“The first class of fellows are models for all those who will follow: talented healthcare professionals who are deeply committed to further developing their skills, and then sharing those skills in the American communities that need them most,” said Mr. Lauder. “I offer my sincere congratulations to this fine group of individuals who will pave the way for the ensuing years of the program, and—most importantly—make a tangible difference in the lives of our fellow Americans.”
Each fellow will complete at least 50 percent of their clinical education at community partner sites and/or comparable sites that provide direct patient care, an invaluable experience that will prepare fellows to meet the complex needs of patients and families throughout their careers. Every fellow will be expected to commit to practice or service in an underserved community for two years after graduation.
The first ten fellows come from a variety of backgrounds and share a commitment to using this unique opportunity to further their education and clinical experience to help solve the challenges they see in their chosen field.
The National Academy of Medicine has announced that Mary D. Naylor, the Marian S. Ware Professor in Gerontology and director of the NewCourtland Center for Transitions and Health, is the recipient of the 2022 Gustav O. Lienhard Award for Advancement of Health Care for improving the lives of millions of older adults living with complex health and social needs through her role as the architect of the Transitional Care Model and pioneer of the field of transitional care. The award will be presented at the National Academy of Medicine’s annual meeting on October 16. Dr. Naylor is one of four University of Pennsylvania faculty, and the third from the School of Nursing, to have received this national honor.
“Penn Nursing has a legacy of innovation, discovery, and advocacy to provide health care for the most vulnerable in our health care system,” said Penn Nursing Dean Antonia M. Villarruel. “Dr. Naylor has been a leader in building that legacy. We are incredibly proud of her accomplishments and the impact she has had and continues to have on health care—this is a well-deserved honor that reflects the excellence of her scholarship and the innovation-centered environment we embrace at Penn Nursing to build the future of nursing. We congratulate Dr. Naylor on this prestigious honor.”
For more than 20 years, Dr. Naylor has led a multidisciplinary team in generating and disseminating research findings to enhance care and outcomes for chronically ill older adults and their caregivers. The hallmarks of the transitional care model (TCM) that Dr. Naylor developed include engaging at-risk older adults and caregivers during episodes of acute illness; establishing trusting relationships between advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) and older adults and their caregivers; identifying and then advocating for older adults’ goals to drive their plans of care; providing continuity of care by the same APRN throughout a patients’ illness experiences; and coordinating care with multiple clinicians and staff across settings.
Findings from three consecutive National Institutes of Health-funded randomized controlled trials led by Dr. Naylor consistently demonstrated the effectiveness of the TCM in enhancing the care experiences of at-risk hospitalized older adults as they transitioned to home, while improving their functional status and quality of life. These outcomes were achieved by different racial groups and accompanied by significant reductions in avoidable re-hospitalizations and substantial health care savings. Currently, Arnold Ventures’ Moving the Needle initiative is supporting a multisite replication of the TCM in healthcare systems across the U.S. According to the Center for Health Care Strategies, the TCM has been implemented in hundreds of health care organizations and communities in 46 states across the U.S.
As director of Penn Nursing’s NewCourtland Center for Transitions and Health, Dr. Naylor leads faculty members and pre-doctoral and postdoctoral fellows on initiatives designed to translate findings generated from a range of evidence-based solutions that will enhance older adults’ health and well-being and advance health equity. For more than a decade, she has led a National Institute of Nursing Research-funded training grant to prepare the next generation of nurse scholars to generate and translate new knowledge focused on improving the care experience, health and quality of life of at-risk older adults and their caregivers. Dr. Naylor also has mentored and collaborated with hundreds of clinicians and clinical scholars representing a range of disciplines throughout the U.S. and abroad who are committed to implementing high-quality transitional services.
“Overcoming barriers to initial implementation of the transitional care model, and more recently the added challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Naylor’s persistence over the past two decades has enabled older adults to receive the quality and continuity of care they deserve,” said National Academy of Medicine President Victor J. Dzau. “Her pioneering research placed a national spotlight on what is possible when health and social care systems are aligned with people’s goals and changing needs, in order to address social determinants at the point of care. Dr. Naylor’s tireless efforts to establish the field of transitional care for older adults and their caregivers, coupled with her championing of nurses and preparing the next generation for care transitions, make her most deserving of this prestigious award.”
Given annually, the Lienhard Award recognizes outstanding national achievement in improving personal health care in the United States. Nominees are eligible for consideration without regard to education or profession, and award recipients are selected by a committee of experts convened by the National Academy of Medicine.
The recipients in the 2022 cohort of Presidential PhD Fellows at the University of Pennsylvania have been announced. Drawn from the incoming class of PhD students, the 2022 fellows come from the nine schools at Penn that offer PhD programs.
The announcement was made by President Liz Magill, Interim Provost Beth Winkelstein, and Vice Provost for Education Karen Detlefsen.
Each Presidential PhD fellow will receive a three-year fellowship, including funds to support their research. The fellowship includes a 12-month stipend, tuition, fees, Penn Student Insurance coverage, and research funds. In 2022-2023, the annual stipend is $39,615 with research funds of $10,000 per year. The fellowship will renew automatically for students in good academic standing.
Twenty-seven fellows were selected this year; combined with the inaugural class of 33 fellows, there are now 60 Presidential Fellows on campus pursuing a diverse array of scholarly research.
“I am proud to see the Presidential PhD Fellows program thriving,” said President Magill. “Every one of these accomplished scholars is doing significant work that demonstrates a true passion for their fields. Supporting them with these fellowships helps ensure that their work continues to grow and flourish in the years ahead.”
The 2022 Presidential PhD Fellows are:
Venkata (Sai) Chaluvadi, a graduate student in neuroscience, has been awarded the Regeneron Prize for Creative Innovation, which comprises a $50,000 award to continue his innovative research. He began exploring the intersections between immunology and other fields such as oncology and neurology at the Perelman School of Medicine. He is also a member of the Frederick (Chris) Bennett Lab, studying the contributions of diseased immune cells to the progression of Krabbe disease — a fatal neurodegenerative condition with limited available therapies.
Holly Fernandez Lynch, an assistant professor of medical ethics and health policy, has been named an Emerging Leader in Health and Medicine (ELHM) by the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) for a three-year term. Each year, the NAM selects 10 exceptional ELHM Scholars to engage around, and learn from, activities under the umbrella of the NAM, addressing topics that are shaping the future of health and medicine.
Sarah Rowley, a third-year medical student at the Perelman School of Medicine, has received a Herbert W. Nickens Medical Student Scholarship. Ms. Rowley is one of five students selected for the prestigious scholarship, which is given to students entering their third year of medical school who have shown leadership in efforts to eliminate inequities in medical education and health care. Each recipient receives a $5,000 scholarship.
Mark Sellmyer, an assistant professor of radiology, is among 21 early career researchers on 10 multidisciplinary teams to receive nearly $1.2 million in combined funding from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the Frederick Gardner Cottrell Foundation, and Walder Foundation in the second year of Scialog: Advancing BioImaging, an initiative that aims to accelerate the development of the next generation of imaging technologies. The 21 individual awards are for $50,000 each in direct costs.
The emergency department at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center has been awarded a Lantern Award by the Emergency Nurses Association. The honor is given to emergency departments demonstrating exceptional and innovative performance in leadership, practice, education, advocacy, and research.
Jolyon Thomas, an associate professor of religious studies in the School of Arts and Sciences, was recently appointed to the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission (JUSFC), with a joint appointment to the U.S.-Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange (CULCON).
Dr. Thomas researches religion in Japan and the U.S. His books include Drawing on Tradition: Manga, Anime, and Religion in Contemporary Japan and Faking Liberties: Religious Freedom in American-Occupied Japan.
Established in 1975, JUSFC is a federal agency that supports cultural and educational aspects of the U.S.-Japan alliance by awarding institutional grants in support of Japan studies in the U.S. The commission also supports American studies in Japan, bilateral artist exchanges, policy dialogues, legislative exchanges, and student mobility.
Created in 1961, CULCON is a U.S.-Japan advisory committee that meets biannually in alternating years between Japan and the U.S. The U.S. CULCON is a high-level, proactive organization that emphasizes the implementation of recommendations, and creates important interventions in U.S.-Japan educational and cultural exchange.
The 2022 October AT PENN calendar is online. To view a web version of the calendar, click here. To download a printable PDF of the calendar, click here.
30 14th Annual CHOP Pediatric Global Health Conference; will bring together global child health advocates and other experts seeking bold, innovative, and strategic approaches to improve child health by tackling current and emerging challenges; 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; Rubenstein Auditorium, Smilow Center; register: https://tinyurl.com/chop-conference-sep-30 (CHOP). Also October 1, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
28 Advance Screening: Bros; pick up Bros merchandise (t-shirts, snapback hats, tank tops, etc.), then head over to the Cinemark 6 with LGBT Center peers to see an advance screening of Billy Eichner’s new bro-meets-bro love story; 6 pm.; register: https://tinyurl.com/bros-screening-sep-28 (LGBT Center).
28 MS in Nonprofit Leadership Online Information Session; learn about the School of Social Policy and Practice’s NPL program, with program staff on hand to answer any questions; 2 p.m.; online webinar; register: https://www.sp2.upenn.edu/admissions-events/ (SP2).
Joint President's Engagement and Innovation Prizes Info Session; will provide a general overview of both prizes, including application requirements and timeline, and answer any questions applicants have; 6:30 p.m.; Zoom webinar; join: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/91994262773 (Center for Undergraduate Research & Fellowships). Also September 29, 4 p.m.; September 30, 11 a.m.
29 Religious Studies Meet-and-Greet: Seeking Meaning During Challenging Times; enjoy food and conversation with other Penn students and faculty who share an interest in the study of religion and talk openly about the search for meaning during an era of COVID, climate change and political conflict; 5 p.m.; second floor lounge, Cohen Hall (Religious Studies).
DSW Online Information Session; learn about the School of Social Policy & Practice’s doctorate in clinical social work (DSW) program, including a Q&A session; 6 p.m.; online webinar; register: https://www.sp2.upenn.edu/admissions-events/ (SP2).
30 Cultural Resource Center Graduate Open House; meet members of Penn’s cultural resource centers, including the LGBT Center, La Casa Latina, Makuu: The Black Cultural Center, and others; 2-5 p.m.; the ARCH (VPUL).
Graduate School of Education (GSE) Unless noted, online webinars. Info: https://www.gse.upenn.edu/news/events-calendar.
29 Executive Doctorate in Higher Education Management Program Information Session; noon.
Online events. Info: https://www.nursing.upenn.edu/calendar/.
29 Art and the Sexual Violence Healing Journey; 3 p.m.
28 Philadelphia Zig Zag: New Jazz Legacies; vibraphonist Veronica Hudson and pianist Farid Barron join moderator Jake Nussbaum for a discussion on Philadelphia’s musical history before sets by Vocals and Vibes featuring Yesseh Ali and the Farid Barron All Stars; 7 p.m.; Harold Prince Theater, Annenberg Center; register: https://tinyurl.com/zig-zag-sep-28 (Music).
27 Rosh Hashanah Apples & Honey; celebrate Rosh Hashanah with apples and honey and with Penn Law colleagues; 11 a.m.-1 p.m.; the clock, Carey Law School (Carey Law School).
28 Care Penalties and the Structure of Inequality; Pilar Gonalons-Pons, sociology; noon; room 150, McNeil Building (Sociology).
Genomic Insights into Viral Cross-Species Transmissions; Erick Gagne, Penn Vet; noon; Austrian Auditorium, CRB, and BlueJeans webinar; join: https://primetime.bluejeans.com/a2m/live-event/xqbzwhrb (Microbiology).
Unconditional Hospitality? Challenges of Reception and Integration of People Fleeing Ukraine to Germany and the Rest of Europe; Magdalena Nowicka, Humboldt-Universität Berlin; 5 p.m.; room 543, Williams Hall (Germanic Languages & Literatures).
29 Moving Forward, Going Faster, Scaling Impact; Andrew M. Ibrahim, University of Michigan; 9 a.m.; BlueJeans webinar; join: https://bluejeans.com/873734674/4747?src=join_info (Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics).
Room-Temperature Electrochemical Healing of Structural Metals; Zakaria H’sain, mechanical engineering & applied mechanics; 10 a.m.; room 114, Skirkanich Hall (MEAM).
Stereo Depth and Optical Flow Estimation via Contrast Maximization of Event Camera Data; Guillermo Gallego, Technical University Berlin; 10 a.m.; room 307, Levine Hall, and Zoom webinar; join: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/96408231913 (GRASP Lab).
Anticorruption and the CBI: A History of Development and (Incomplete) Decolonization; Aditya Balasubramanian, Australian National University; noon; Zoom webinar; register: https://tinyurl.com/balasubramanian-talk-sep-29 (Center for the Advanced Study of India).
The Law and Politics of Equality after Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization; Serena Mayeri, Carey Law School; noon; Zoom webinar; register: https://tinyurl.com/mayeri-talk-sep-29 (Penn Forum for Women Faculty).
Sex as a Biological Variable in Neonatal Lung Injury and Repair; Krithika Lingappan, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; 4 p.m.; room 11-146, Smilow Center (Penn-CHOP Lung Biology Institute).
Micro-Institutional Foundations of Capitalism: Sectoral Pathways to Globalization in China, India, and Russia; Roselyn Hsueh, Temple University; 4:30 p.m.; room 200, PCPSE (Center for the Study of Contemporary China).
Malabar on the Greco-Egyptian Stage: Indian Ocean Connections and the Charition Mime (P.Oxy. 413); Mali Skotheim, Ashoka University; 4:45 p.m.; room 402, Cohen Hall (Classical Studies).
Esthetic Crown Lengthening from Planning to Restoration Using Analog & Digital Concepts; Chrysi Boutari, Penn Dental; 6 p.m.; online webinar; register: https://tinyurl.com/boutari-talk-sep-29 (Penn Dental).
Zero Tolerance: Journeys Through Family Separation and U.S. Immigration Policy; Efrén C. Olivares Southern Poverty Law Center; 6 p.m.; room G65, Huntsman Hall; register: www.alumni.upenn.edu/MyBoy (Center for Latin American & Latinx Studies; Penn Alumni).
Mobility: Open Source, Standards, Data Analysis, and Privacy; Michael Schnuerle, Open Mobility Foundation; 8 p.m.; online webinar; register: https://tinyurl.com/schnuerle-talk-sep-29 (Penn Institute for Urban Research).
30 Multi-Site Mucocutaneous Lichen Planus: Where, What, Why…And How to Treat; Lisa Pappas-Taffer, dermatology; 7 a.m.; online webinar; register: https://tinyurl.com/pappas-taffer-talk-sep-30 (Penn Dental).
Investigate and Mitigate the Attacks Caused by Out-of-Band Signals; Xiali (Sharon) Hei, University of Louisiana at Lafayette; noon; Zoom webinar; join: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/91998000675 (Penn Engineering PRECISE Seminar).
Testing an Elaborate Theory of a Causal Hypothesis; Dylan Small, statistics; 12:30 p.m.; Spady Room, Fox-Fels Hall, and Zoom webinar; info: mbahti@upenn.edu (GSE).
Maoism and Memoir: Political Life Writing across India and Peru; Nico Millman, English; 2 p.m.; Zoom webinar; join: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/98087811012 (English).
In-person events at auditorium, Claire Fagin Hall. Info: https://www.bio.upenn.edu/events.
29 Rotational and Attractor Dynamics Underlying Hypothalamic Regulation of Motivated Behavior; Ann Kennedy, Northwestern University; 4 p.m.
In-person events. Info: https://economics.sas.upenn.edu/events.
28 Exchange Rates, US Monetary Policy and the Global Portfolio Flows; Xiaoling Wang, economics; noon; room 100, PCPSE.
When to Go Negative: Estimating a Dynamic Game of Political Advertising; Andrew Arnold, economics; 3:30 p.m.; room F50, Huntsman Hall.
In-person and online events. Info: https://www.math.upenn.edu/events.
29 Dimensions of Colimits via Categorification; Maxime Ramzi, Københavns Universitet; 3:30 p.m.; Zoom webinar.
Obstructing Satellite Homomorphisms Through Linking Numbers; Allison Miller, Swarthmore College; 5:15 p.m.; room 4C8, DRL.
This is an update to the September AT PENN calendar, which is online now. The October AT PENN calendar also appears in this issue. To submit an event for an upcoming calendar or weekly update, email the salient details to almanac@upenn.edu.
The next meeting of the WXPN Policy Board will take place Thursday, October 6, 2022 at noon at WXPN.
For more information, email tess@xpn.org or call (215) 898-0628 during business hours.
University of Pennsylvania Police Department Crime Report
Below are the Crimes Against Persons, Crimes Against Society and Crimes Against Property from the campus report for September 12-18, 2022. View prior weeks’ reports. —Ed.
This summary is prepared by the Division of Public Safety and includes all criminal incidents reported and made known to the University Police Department for the dates of September 12-18, 2022. The University Police actively patrol from Market St to Baltimore and from the Schuylkill River to 43rd St in conjunction with the Philadelphia Police. In this effort to provide you with a thorough and accurate report on public safety concerns, we hope that your increased awareness will lessen the opportunity for crime. For any concerns or suggestions regarding this report, please call the Division of Public Safety at (215) 898-4482.
Offender attempted to take catalytic converter
U-lock secured scooter taken from bike rack
Personal check taken from desk
Unsecured scooter taken from building
Graffiti/tags found on building signs
Secured cable lock scooter taken
Cable locked secured bike taken
Secured scooter taken from bike rack
Copper pipes stolen from basement
Secured scooter taken from bike rack
Wire, combination lock scooter taken
Unauthorized charges made on account
Unsecured package stolen from lobby
Secured scooter taken from bike rack
Secured scooter taken from bike rack
Complainant venmoed money/merchandise not received
Complainant punched and threatened with knife by an unknown offender
Scooter taken from bike rack
Unknown offender grabbed complainant around his neck
Automobile left running and stolen
Vehicle windows broken and currency taken
Below are the Crimes Against Persons from the 18th District: 9 incidents (4 assaults, 3 robberies, and 2 aggravated assaults) with 2 arrests was reported for September 12-18, 2022 by the 18th District, covering the Schuylkill River to 49th St & Market St to Woodland Avenue.
N 34th & Market Sts
S 39th & Walnut Sts
Another tip in a series provided by the Offices of Information Security, Information Systems & Computing and Audit, Compliance & Privacy
Every October, the Office of Information Security (OIS) celebrates National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM) by holding several events for the University community.
OIS will kick off the NCSAM celebration on October 6 by participating in the Employee Resource Fair, held in person at Pottruck Health & Fitness Center, from noon-1:30 p.m. There, OIS will distribute swag carrying a security message to the attendees at the OIS table.
On October 13, Sam Jenkins, OIS senior security engineer, will present a security logging Q&A to answer any questions about security logging and demonstrate creating dashboards. This Q&A is a virtual session. The SANS institute will be on campus to teach a week-long hybrid course on cloud security, AWS, Azure, and GCP from October 24-28 at the Green Room at Irvine Auditorium.
Continuing with OIS’s annual tradition, a free movie screening of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is offered for students on November 10 at 6:30 pm, preceded by a brief discussion on DMCA and Penn’s copyright policy.
As a reminder of best security practices, it is essential to:
For information about the above activities and to register for the SANS course and the movie screening for students, visit https://www.isc.upenn.edu/security/ncsam22.
For general information on Penn’s security best practices, please see: https://www.isc.upenn.edu/security/bestPractices.
For additional tips, see the One Step Ahead link on the Information Security website: https://www.isc.upenn.edu/security/news-alerts#One-Step-Ahead.
The tile and mirror wall mural at the C.W. Henry Elementary School near my home depicts soaring planets, swirling stars, and embedded ceramic portraits of scientific luminaries. The ceramic Mae Jemison (first African American woman in space) appears lodged in the concrete above the ceramic Albert Einstein (needs no introduction). Wernher von Braun (Nazi rocket scientist recruited to the United States through Project Paperclip) appears near Guion Bluford (first African American astronaut).
I love that mural. I am charmed by its depiction of the beauty and wonder of scientific discovery, and its gentle references to the vexed moral quandaries of the actual history of science. Von Braun was close to both Hitler and Kennedy; African American physicians, scientists and engineers have been undermined by every important scientific institution; and the barriers to women scientists are, even today, strange and sad. Scientific methods, furthermore, have been enlisted to reinforce injustice. The elementary school mural captures, perhaps unintentionally, both the beauty and the tragedy of modern science.
Yes, I know, that is not what most people see when they look at a sparkly wall mural at an elementary school. But I am a historian of science. My scholarship explores science in the Cold War, particularly those sciences engaged with nuclear weapons and radiation risk. I also study and teach about scientific racism, sexism, and colonialism. These are “difficult subjects” that invite careful and sustained attention to injustice and suffering. I have struggled to teach students about these subjects without destroying their faith in science or in humanity: The point of such teaching cannot be to enrage students.
I hope instead that these historical realities can help them see the world with unclouded eyes, or, in the phrase apparently borrowed from the Brits, but widely used in my Texas childhood, to help them learn to “keep their eyes peeled.”
What do I mean? In my teaching, I call attention to the selective use of data in virtually all race sciences: Those intent on proving inferiority chose to count whatever could suggest it. Quantification, I want them to see, is as slippery as any other language. I ask them to notice how some people intervened by creating compensatory new prizes intended for those who never won the “real” prizes. I let them read letters of recommendation gushing about what a “ladies’ man,” an aging-but-single male scientist was, to provoke them to wonder why the status of anyone as a “ladies man” was relevant to a job recommendation (anyone known to be gay would not be hired, especially if security clearance were required). And I ask them to consider the cognitive dissonance of an expert who helped build nuclear weapons and also proclaimed in soulful and poetic public lectures that science was a force for peace.
Peeled eyes, perhaps, are attentive to the whole story rather than the narrow experiences of the elite few, willing to see what was opaque to historical actors themselves, and equipped to recognize possible strategies that could interrupt unjust systems. Seeing things clearly is the first step toward developing critical thinking skills and useful theoretical perspectives, and the first step toward acting clearly in the present. Unclouded, peeled eyes can perhaps find the right questions to tell the truth about difficult to understand events—questions that might even illuminate how to swerve the future.
Remember that the brilliant Manya Sklodowska went to Paris to study physics because she could not attend University in Poland. She was rejected by Polish Universities not because she lacked scientific talent (her two-time Nobel Prize winning work as Marie Curie would indicate otherwise), but because women were not welcome. Such reinforcements of social order are true of many other institutions (not just scientific) but with science, for me, the dissonance burns. Science has a reputation as an elevated human intellectual endeavor, intended to gain trustworthy new knowledge, grounded in pure rationality, fair, open to the best minds, and operating as a full meritocracy. This reputation is only partially earned.
I am proud to work at Penn. But Penn, a scientific powerhouse respected around the world, has held for decades about 1,300 skulls used at one time to rank human groups by race, many collected by Philadelphia’s nineteenth century pro-slavery race scientist Samuel George Morton. Included were stolen remains of Native Americans, African Americans, and others. Penn acquired the Morton collection as a loan from the Academy of Natural Sciences in the 1960s, long after Morton was gone, and long after his ideas and data were recognized as deeply flawed. By the 1990s, when Penn finally accepted the collection as a formal gift from the Academy, the Native American Graves Repatriation Act was already in effect (1990). Faculty here used the skulls to do research and to teach anthropology for decades until 2020, displaying many openly in a general classroom. My point is that the Penn Museum and the University apparently failed for decades to see clearly what that collection really was and what it meant. That failure was a failure of clouded eyes. In 2021, the museum finally announced plans to repatriate or rebury more than 50 skulls that belonged to enslaved people from Cuba and the United States—a first step.
Then there is the question of service to the state and militarized knowledge. Many scientists, engineers, and physicians have turned their considerable intelligence to building weapons systems. People with excellent cognitive skills—arguably some of the greatest minds in history—again and again devoted their brilliance to producing human injury. This is, or should be, puzzling.
In my course on global radiation risk, I invite students to understand the militarization of knowledge from “the ground.” At the Peace Park in Hiroshima, there is a virtual reality tour that permits visitors to experience the bombing through headsets and sound effects. Standing near the Aioi Bridge, the actual target in 1945, visitors can “look up” to watch the bomb detonate. I invite my students to stand on that bridge when we study the Cold War, often defined as a period when the world narrowly avoided the use of nuclear weapons. In fact, 2,056 nuclear weapons were used in the Cold War, in “tests” that damaged people unable to retaliate. The Cold War was a limited nuclear war waged unilaterally against people with whom no one was actually at war. In my course, we stand with those global hibakusha.
What do students need to understand about militarized knowledge systems, racist biologists, and initiatives that blocked, thwarted, and undermined the intellectual ambitions of talented people who were marked by race, sexuality, gender, and class? The one thing I want them to see most of all is that helping science live up to its partially earned reputation is a worthwhile endeavor.
Might it upset the mostly minority students at Charles W. Henry Elementary School that the well-known “great minds” of astronomy in the mural were mostly white guys? Might they imagine that this history reflects their own potential? Mae Jemison, Guion Bluford, and others in the mural contradict that idea, and in their cheerful presence they stand up for the kids in that schoolyard.
So I enjoy the buoyancy of the mural, the bright celebration of ceramic tiles and mirrors, and the honest way that it unintentionally calls our attention—our eyes—to the glories and contradictions of the scientific enterprise.
M. Susan Lindee is the Janice and Julian Bers Professor of History and Sociology of Science and chair of the department of history and sociology of science.
This essay continues the series that began in the fall of 1994 as the joint creation of the College of Arts and Sciences, the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Lindback Society for Distinguished Teaching. See https://almanac.upenn.edu/talk-about-teaching-and-learning-archive for previous essays.
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