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Honors & Other Things |
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October 2, 2012,
Volume 59, No. 06 |
MOMA Young Architects: Mr. Hollwich
The firm of Matthias Hollwich, lecturer in architecture at Penn’s School of Design, was the winner of the MoMA PS1’s Young Architects’ Program. MoMA PS1 devotes its energy and resources to displaying the most experimental art in the world.Mr. Hollwich—with a team of current and former PennDesign architecture students and talent at HollwichKushner (HWKN), the New York City based architecture and concept design firm which he co-founded—dreamed up a starburst design that treats air pollutants through high-tech fabric.
The winning design, Wendy, is composed of nylon fabric treated with a groundbreaking titanium nanoparticle spray to neutralize airborne pollutants. During the summer of 2012, Wendy’s job was to clean the air to an equivalent of taking 260 cars off the road. Spiky arms made of the nylon fabric reach out with micro-programs like blasts of cool air, music, water, and mists to create social zones throughout the courtyard. All the materials can be disassembled and reused. Mr. Hollwich and partner Marc Kushner, BA’99, were supported by Project Architect Robert May, MArch’08 along with Dwight Engel, MArch’10; Michael Golden, MArch’11; Adam Hostetler, MArch’10; David Lee, MArch’03; Bradley Schnell, MArch’11 and Brett Wiemann, MArch’11 as well as current master of architecture candidates Gregory Knobloch, MArch/GIS’12; Andreas Kostopoulos, MArch’13; Evan Litvin, IPD/MArch’12 and Andreas Tjeldflatt, MArch’12.
For images of Wendy, see its Flickr page: www.flickr.com/photos/penndesign/sets/72157630342913636/
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Kershaw Award: Dr. MacDonald
Dr. John MacDonald, associate professor of criminology in SAS, has won the Association of Public Policy and Management’s David N. Kershaw Award. The Kershaw Award was established to honor individuals younger than 40 who have made significant contributions to the field of public-policy analysis and management. It is considered one of the highest honors in recognition of work related to public policy and social science. In November, Dr. MacDonald will give a speech about his work at the APPAM Fall Research Conference.
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Nurse Scientist Award: Dr. Medoff-Cooper
Dr. Barbara Medoff-Cooper, the Ruth M. Colket Professor in Pediatric Nursing in the School of Nursing, received the 2012 Outstanding Nurse Scientist Award from the Council for the Advancement of Nursing Science.
The award is given to members of the Council who are extraordinary in advancing knowledge and who have had a significant impact on nursing and healthcare through a program of research. Dr. Medoff-Cooper received the award last month at the Council’s annual State of the Science Congress.
Dr. Medoff-Cooper’s research focuses on infant development, feeding behaviors in high-risk infants and infant temperament. She is the co-inventor of the Neonur device; developed in collaboration with Dr. Jay N. Zemel, the H. Nedwill Ramsey Professor Emeritus of Sensor Technologies in the department of electrical and systems engineering in SEAS at Penn. The device allows healthcare professionals to analyze infants at risk for dysfunctional feeding and poor weight gain.
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Alternative Energy Project Grants
Alternative energy research projects involving four faculty members from the University of Pennsylvania have been awarded grants from the Energy Commercialization Institute, a translational-research partnership that draws upon several regional universities.
Penn, along with Drexel University and Penn State University, founded the Energy Commercialization Institute in 2009 with support from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania.
Five projects received a total of $500,000 in the latest round of funding, with Penn faculty participating in three of them.
Dr. Andrew Rappe, professor of chemistry in Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences and co-director of its alternative-energy research group, Pennergy, is leading a project on solar cells that was awarded $115,000. Along with Dr. Peter Davies, chair of the materials science & engineering department at Penn’s School of Engineering & Applied Science, and Dr. Jonathan Spanier of Drexel University, they are exploring thin-film ferroelectric semiconductors as a way to make solar cells more efficient, as well as easier and cheaper to produce.
Another Penn-led project is also looking at improving solar cells but from a much different angle. Dr. Shu Yang, professor in the department of materials science and engineering in SEAS, was awarded $60,000 to research a new way to keep solar panels clean.
Dr. Haim Bau, professor in the department of mechanical engineering and applied mechanics, is a partner in a Drexel-led project, which was awarded $150,000. With Drs. Emin Caglan Kumbar, Yuri Gogotsi and Volker Pressor, he will build a prototype “electrochemical flow capacitor,” a new kind of energy-storage technology that would outclass current supercapacitors.
“These projects were selected because of their high degree of potential success in commercialization,” ECI’s director, Anthony P. Green, said. “They will help keep Southeastern Pennsylvania at the forefront of the alternative-energy arena.”
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Pilot Awards: Nursing Professors
Three Penn Nursing professors have received funding from the McCabe Fund, the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics at the Leonard Davis Institute, and the National Cancer Institute.
Dr. Bart De Jonghe, assistant professor of nursing, received a Pilot Award from the McCabe Fund and is the first Penn Nursing faculty member to receive this. He will be studying the neuronal mechanisms by which chemotherapy generates nausea and disturbances in energy balance.
Dr. Joseph Libonati, associate professor of nursing, received a Pilot Award from the National Cancer Institute and will be focusing his study on the side of effects of Doxorubicin, an anti-tumor agent, and will test whether exogenously-infused bone marrow cell (BMCs) infusions and exercise training can improve cardiac function in doxorubicin cardiotoxicity by augmenting stem cell retention and cardiomyocyte proliferation in the heart.
Dr. Tanja Kral, assistant professor of nursing, received funding from the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics at the Leonard Davis Institute and will compare 40- to 70-year-old frequent grocery coupon users (FCU) and non-coupon users (NCU) on dietary intake, body mass index/waist circumference, home food availability and the effects of incentives to purchase healthy foods.
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RWJF Clinical Scholars
Dr. Marcus Bachhuber, M’09, and Dr. Sachin Garg, an internal medicine resident at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, have been selected as the 2013 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars supported through the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Through the program, Drs. Bachhuber and Garg will learn to conduct innovative research and work with communities, organizations, practitioners and policy-makers in order to take a leadership role in improving health and health care in the US. Both will begin their fellowships at Penn next fall.
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Almanac -
October 2, 2012, Volume 59, No. 06
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