Silverstein Wellness and Concussion Center Opening at Penn
This state-of-the-art Silverstein Wellness and Concussion Center will be housed on the second floor of the Frey Athletic Training Room, in the east end of historic Franklin Field.
The University of Pennsylvania’s Director of Recreation and Intercollegiate Athletics, M. Grace Calhoun, announced the construction of the Howard A. Silverstein, W’69 and Patricia Bleznak Silverstein, C’81 Holistic Wellness and Concussion Center, the latest innovation in Penn Athletics Sports Performance.
The Silverstein Wellness and Concussion Center—which will be the first of its kind among the Ivy League institutions when it opens later this month—further highlights Penn Athletics’ commitment to empower student-athlete excellence (personal and athletic) by providing a diverse set of medical and wellness services in an all-inclusive space with dedicated staff conducting customized programming. This state-of-the-art facility will be housed on the second floor of the Frey Athletic Training Room, in the east end of historic Franklin Field.
In the area of concussion research, the Silverstein Wellness and Concussion Center will provide space for development of concussion research and current projects including the Ivy League/Big Ten Concussion Study and Penn’s involvement with the NCAA/Department of Defense Sport Related Concussion Study.
The Silverstein Wellness and Concussion Center will also house Penn’s Bodpod Testing area. This technology tests for optimal athletic body composition and allows for precision programming by Penn’s full-time sports nutritionist. There will be office space for Penn’s head athletic trainer and its sports nutritionist, as well as appropriate space for private meetings with student-athletes. There will also be a private area specifically designated for consultations with clinically certified sports psychologists.
The physical space will include a conference area to enable integral collaboration among Penn Sports Performance professionals, allowing for professional development and in-service opportunities with Penn Medicine physicians and other medical partners associated with the Sports Performance program. In this way, Penn’s Sports Performance staff will enhance its growing partnership with Penn Medicine—which already has a fully operational Penn Sports Medicine facility within the Penn Athletics footprint—and facilitate communication between these two departments in the areas of research, evaluation and analysis.
“The Howard A. Silverstein, W’69 and Patricia Bleznak Silverstein, C’81 Holistic Wellness and Concussion Center truly embodies universal care for our student-athletes,” said Dr. Calhoun. “The ability to provide a space that is all-inclusive within our athletic facilities allows us to provide the gold standard in comprehensive care and at the same time serve to elevate athletic performance. I firmly believe this space will be an area of differentiation with its distinguishing set of resources. Howard and Patricia Silverstein’s generosity will provide a complete, positive experience to every one of our athletes for years to come.”
Mr. Silverstein is a member of the Athletics Board of Overseers and, while an undergraduate student at Wharton, was head manager of Penn’s sprint football team and associate head manager of the varsity football team. He is also an overseer of PennDesign. His wife, Patricia, is an overseer of Penn’s School of Nursing. “We are extremely excited for the Silverstein Holistic Wellness and Concussion Center, as we foresee the great impact it will provide to our student-athletes,” said Scarlett Schneider, executive director of development for Penn Athletics. “Howie’s leadership and support within Penn Athletics is inspiring.”
“I am thrilled to provide Penn Athletics with an innovative, state-of-the-art facility that not only improves the care and management of concussions, but also takes care of Penn’s student-athletes as a whole,” said Mr. Silverstein. “Today’s athletes deserve integrated care. This facility will make a difference to all of our student-athletes, now and for the future.”
New College House Ribbon Cutting
Cam Grey, the faculty director of New College House (NCH), joined Penn President Amy Gutmann in last week’s NCH ribbon-cutting ceremony, signifying the completion of the seven-story, 198,000-square-foot, $127 million project. The building’s façade consists of brick and limestone, punctuated by vertical glass towers revealing interior circulation and lounge spaces with views of Penn’s surrounding campus community and Center City. Furniture and building materials were selected to contribute to sustainability for the building which is targeting a LEED certification of Silver or greater. The 180 dining chairs in the student suites were fabricated in Pennsylvania from a 20,000 discarded soda bottles. Each coffee table in the student suites was designed and fabricated in South Philadelphia.
In the recently released US News & World Report rankings of colleges and universities, Penn is ranked eighth overall among national universities (tied with Duke University), up from last year’s ranking of ninth. This year, Princeton and Harvard are in the top two slots, with Yale sharing the third slot with the University of Chicago.
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania has retained its #1 post as the best undergraduate business program in the country, which it has held for many years. It is also ranked #1 in three specialties: finance, insurance/risk management and real estate; it is ranked #2 in marketing; #3 in four specialities: entrepreneurship, management, production/operations management and quantitative analysis/methods; and #4 in accounting.
The Faculty Award of Merit Presented by Penn Alumni Call for Nominations—October 31
The Faculty Award of Merit Presented by Penn Alumni was established in 2014 by Penn Alumni and the Office of the Provost. It is presented annually to an individual or group of collaborators that has made an outstanding contribution to alumni education and engagement at Penn by sharing their unique scholarship work with the alumni community. Special emphasis is placed on faculty members who go above and beyond the call of duty by engaging Penn alumni with the University as their intellectual home, and to those who educate the faculty community about the alumni engagement opportunities available to them. The 2016 honoree was Jonathan Moreno, the David and Lyn Silfen University Professor of Ethics and PIK Professor.
The award consists of both a $2,500 cash award and a formal citation, and will be presented during the February Penn Alumni Volunteer Leadership Retreat.
All Penn faculty, staff and alumni are eligible to nominate a faculty member for this award. For more information about award criteria and eligibility, or to nominate a faculty member, visit www.alumni.upenn.edu/education Nominations are due by October 31, 2016.
University Research Foundation: October 28
The University Research Foundation (URF) is now accepting applications for the October 28 deadline.
The URF is an intramural program that provides three funding mechanisms: Research and Conference Support, Impact Seminar Grants and Research Opportunity Development Grants.
URF Research Grants and Conference Support
URF Research Grants and Conference Support provides up to $50,000 in project support and up to $3,000 for conference support. Its objectives are to:
• help junior faculty undertake pilot projects that will enable them to successfully apply for extramural sources of funding and aid in establishing their careers as independent investigators;
• help established faculty perform novel, pioneering research to determine project feasibility and develop preliminary data to support extramural grant applications;
• provide support in disciplines where extramural support is difficult to obtain and where significant research can be facilitated with internal funding; and
• provide limited institutional matching funds that are required as part of a successful external peer-reviewed application.
URF Impact Seminar Grants
URF Impact Seminar Grants will make awards up to $20,000 for support for a cross-school, cross-disciplinary large scale event to be held on Penn’s campus within a year of the award. Funding for this award can be used to augment an already scheduled University event. The event—which can be a symposium, forum or conference—should occur over one to two days and be open to the entire Penn community. It should highlight the scholarship of Penn faculty and bring distinguished scholars to Penn’s campus, with a particular focus on the University’s distinguishing strength in integrating knowledge. Documented school and/or department matching funds are required.
URF Research Opportunity Development Grants (RODG)
The Research Opportunity Grant program (Phase 1 and Phase 2) was designed to facilitate the intersection of the forward trajectory of Penn’s research frontiers with the trajectory of the national and global research priorities. RODG applications should map on to emerging research areas with new opportunities for support. Awards from these programs should be used to develop preliminary information and data for new applications in these emerging research areas. The two programs are as follows.
Research Opportunity Development Grants: Phase 1
With an identified new research area in mind, Phase 1 grants enable a team to articulate the research focus, map Penn’s intellectual assets in the new area, coalesce the appropriate group of scholars, identify Penn’s potential contributions in the area in the context of national and international research initiatives and identify a funding target. Typically a Phase 1 proposal would lead to a Phase 2 application. In addition, special attention will be paid to project proposals that include mentorship of Penn undergraduates. Applications up to $10,000 will be considered.
Research Opportunity Development Grants: Phase 2
Phase 2 grants offer extensive support for up to two years to enable specific outcomes in support of a center or group proposal to an external funding organization. Activities include research workshops, preliminary studies, networking in the relevant research community, etc. Specific outcomes are expected. Documented matching department and/or school funds will be considered positively. In addition, special attention will be paid to project proposals that include mentorship of Penn undergraduates. Applications with requests between $50, 000 to $200,000 will be considered.
Note that Phase 2 grants are not intended to support the development of proposals that respond to regular solicitations such as those for NIH RO1 grants or NSF Division programs.
Disciplines for all award programs: Biomedical Sciences, Humanities, Natural Sciences and Engineering, Social Science and Management.
Undergraduate Participation: As part of the University’s commitment to providing research opportunities to scholars across our campus community, URF applicants are encouraged to include undergraduate student participants within the framework of their proposals.
Budget: Each URF program has separate budget requirements.
Eligibility for all award programs: Eligibility is limited to Penn assistant, associate and full professors, in any track. Instructors and research associates must provide a letter from their department chair establishing that the applicant will receive an appointment as an assistant professor by the time of the award. Assistant professors must submit a letter from their department chair describing their research independence. Adjunct faculty are not eligible to apply. Awards must be expended on University of Pennsylvania facilities, equipment and/or associated University technical staff and undergraduate students.
Detailed information including application materials can be found at http://www.upenn.edu/research/smarts/university_research_foundation/
—Dawn Bonnell, Vice Provost for Research
Spring 2016 University Research Foundation Awards
In the most recent cycle, Spring 2016, of Penn’s internally-funded University Research Foundation, and URF Conference Support (noted with *), the Office of the Vice Provost for Research has announced awards to the following members of the faculty for the projects listed below.
Research and Conference Support Awards Spring 2016:
Ritesh Agarwal, School of Engineering and Applied Science, Materials Science and Engineering; Silicon Nanophotonics: Teaching Silicon New Tricks at the Nanoscale
Erfei Bi, Perelman School of Medicine, Cell and Developmental Biology; Using Innovative Technologies in Live Imaging to Uncover Mechanisms of Cell Behaviors
*David Brownlee, School of Arts and Sciences, History of Art; Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture at 50
*Hsiao-wen Cheng, School of Arts and Sciences, East Asian Languages and Civilizations; Rethinking Yijian zhi: Cross-Disciplinary Approaches to Narrative and Anecdotal Writings
Bart De Jonghe, School of Nursing, Biobehavioral Health Sciences; Neural Mechanisms of Chemotherapy-Induced Energy Dysregulation and Nausea
*Grant Frame, School of Arts and Sciences, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations; Divination in the Ancient World
Erick Guerra, School of Design, City and Regional Planning; The Built Environment, Traffic Enforcement and Pedestrian Safety in the Philadelphia Region
Alexandra Hanlon, School of Nursing, Office of Nursing Research; Quantifying the Effects of Sleep on Cardiovascular Health Risk Factors: A Population Analysis Using Biobank Data
Jerry Jacobs, School of Arts and Sciences, Sociology; Technology and the Future of Work: A Case Study of Home Health Services
*Justin Khoury, School of Arts and Sciences, Physics; New Frontiers in Cosmology and String Theory
Matthew Levine, Perelman School of Medicine, Surgery; Peri-Operative Estrogen in Renal Transplantation (PERT) Trial
Timothy Linksvayer, School of Arts and Sciences, Biology; Manipulation of Ant Social Traits by a Bacterial Endosymbiont
Christopher Marcinkoski, School of Design, Landscape Architecture; Africa 2050: An Atlas of Speculative Urbanization
Mechthild Pohlschröder, School of Arts and Sciences, Biology; Significance of Glycosylation for the Regulation of Biofilm Formation
Prashant Purohit, School of Engineering and Applied Science, Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics; A Model for Stretch Growth of Integrated Axon Tracts
Michael Shashaty, Perelman School of Medicine, Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care; Molecular Markers of Acute Kidney Injury in Lung Transplant Recipients
*Emily Steiner, School of Arts and Sciences, English; The Futures of Medieval Historiography
Howard Stevenson, Graduate School of Education, Applied Psychology and Human Development; Black Family Racial Stress Reduction: Improving Racial Socialization Competence
Dawn Teele, School of Arts and Sciences, Political Science; Did Giving Women the Vote Matter for Electoral Politics?
*Jolyon Thomas, School of Arts and Sciences, East Asian Languages and Civilizations; What Isn’t Shinto?
*John Trueswell, School of Arts and Sciences, Psychology; 38th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society
Andrew Tsourkas, School of Engineering and Applied Science, Bioengineering; Engineering Brain Penetrating Antibodies
Julia Verkholantsev, School of Arts and Sciences, Slavic Languages; Language as Fossilized History: Myth and Etymology in Medieval Historiography
Richard Zettler, School of Arts and Sciences, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations; Sidekan Archaeological Survey
Impact Seminar Grant Recipients
Claire Finkelstein, Law School, Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law; Producing Leaders of Character and Integrity: Instilling Values in Public Life
Karen Glanz, Perelman School of Medicine, Epidemiology and Nursing; Accelerating Policies and Research on Food Access, Diet and Obesity Prevention
Susan Sorenson, School of Social Policy and Practice; Technology and Violence Against Women
Shu Yang, School of Engineering and Applied Science, Materials Science and Engineering; The First Penn-KIST Joint Symposium
Kenneth Zaret, Perelman School of Medicine, Cell and Developmental Biology; Controlling Cell and Human Identity
Research Opportunity Grant, Phase 2 Recipient
Steve Tinney, School of Arts and Sciences, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations; Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf: Cities and Maritime Networks 2500-2000 BCE
Government Affairs Update: Commonwealth Appropriations
In July 2016, Governor Tom Wolf allowed the General Fund Appropriations Bill (Senate Bill 1073) to become law without his signature as he awaited the revenue package to pay for the spending plan. Items of significance to the Penn community in the General Fund Budget include $250,000 for the Penn Vet Working Dog Center; $3,253,000 from the Physician Practice Plan line in the Department of Human Services budget that provides funding for the Perelman School of Medicine and the School of Dental Medicine; and $800,000 in funding for Agricultural Research in the Department of Agriculture budget for the School of Veterinary Medicine’s diagnostic lab at New Bolton Center to address disease outbreak preparedness.
The Governor also signed into law House Bill 2141, which appropriated $30,416,000 for the School of Veterinary Medicine for FY2017. The FY2017 appropriation represented a 2.5% increase over the $29,674,000 appropriated in FY2016 and the first time the appropriation has surpassed $30 million in over half a decade.
—Hugh Allen, Senior Director of Commonwealth Relations
Passion Becomes A Practice for Future Veterinarians as Animal Planet Premieres Life at Vet U
The six Penn Vet student stars of Life at Vet U: (left to right), Max Emanuel, Melanie Lang, Lindsay Gallagher, Clint Kuban, Rebecca Bernstein and Morgan Taylor; with the Weimaraner co-star, Frances.
Animal Planet takes viewers behind the scenes of the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine (Penn Vet) as six students embark on a journey to graduation—the culmination of four intense, but rewarding, years of never-ending studying, round-the-clock rotations and unpredictable cases. With unprecedented access to the school’s two internationally renowned teaching hospitals—Ryan Hospital for companion animals and New Bolton Center hospital for large animals—Life at Vet U gives an exclusive look at the grit and grind it takes to make it in this highly competitive world. The Six-Part Series Premieres Saturday, October 1 (at 10 p.m. Eastern, 9 p.m. Central, 10 p.m. Pacific).
Known as a global leader in veterinary education, research and clinical care, Penn Vet challenges its students with daily high-stress, fast-paced situations and gives them the opportunity to receive rigorous training and feedback from some of the top pioneers in veterinary medicine. From the intricate work of cataract surgery, to a stallion collection for artificial insemination, each student gets the hands-on experience they need to one day tackle these cases out in the real world. Both personal and professional relationships evolve amid life-changing moments for both student and animal, but it is all worth it in the end at graduation when they get to call themselves veterinarians.
Penn Vet is equipped with some of the most advanced technology in the industry and sees nearly 40,000 patients a year. From dogs and cats; to horses, cows and zebras; the students are constantly challenged to be prepared for anything—whether it be spaying and neutering, births, surgeries or routine checkups. As graduation approaches, the students brace themselves for the most important day of their career —Match Day—which determines if they have been placed in a coveted internship. Do they get placed at their dream hospital, or do they have to scramble to even find a placement?
From lifelong dreams to work with animals, to the courageous decision to completely change a career path, Life at Vet U follows each student on the road to becoming a veterinarian. It is a personal journey, but the underlying drive for each of them is the same—a passion to improve the lives of animals.
To see the trailer, visit http://www.vet.upenn.edu/about/news-and-events/life-at-vet-u