Penn Association of Senior and Emeritus Faculty
The aim of the Association is to initiate and coordinate activities that encourage retired faculty members to maintain connections among themselves and with the intellectual and social life of the University. Such activities include organizing lectures, discussion groups, and social functions that provide fellowship and interaction among members and with the scholarly community on campus; familiarizing members, especially those planning retirement, with issues relating to retirement benefits and retired life; and promoting opportunities for members to render service to the University and its surrounding community.
PASEF Fall Lecture, October 1, 2009
PASEF's Fall Lecture will be held on Thursday, October 1, 2009, at 3 PM in the Class of 1949 Room of Houston Hall. The lecture will precede the annual dinner of the 25 year Club of the University of Pennsylvania. More information later. We look forward to seeing you at this event.
For information about the dinner of the Twenty Five Year Club, contact Duncan VanDusen, Secretary of the Club,
Room 122, Duhring Wing, University of Pennysylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104-6303, or by email to
vandusen@pobox.upenn.edu
PASEF Reception for Newly Retired Faculty, November 18, 2009
Join us at the University Museum to honor our colleagues who have recently retired. More information later.
Volunteer Opportunity: Be a Docent at the University Museum
The University Museum is currently accepting applications for a new group of weekday Volunteer Docents, with training to begin in late August.
"For those with a love of travel, adventure, learning, and sharing, Penn Museum's Volunteer Docent Program is a great opportunity to work, and engage, with like-minded people," notes Dori Panzer, Penn Museum's Docent Coordinator since 2003. "Our docents are an enthusiastic, diverse group of people that help us share the amazing riches of this world-class museum with children, families and adults in the region, and visitors that come from half way around the globe, to see some of the cultural treasures we have on exhibition."
Volunteer Opportunity: Health Professions Advisory Board
The Health Professions Advisory Board (HPAB) is a group of University of Pennsylvania faculty and administrators who assist Penn students and alumni who are applying for admission to graduate schools in the health professions: predominantly in medicine, but also in dentistry and veterinary medicine. Members of the HPAB assist students in their preparation for the application process by conducting mock interviews and providing feedback both to them and to us. The HPAB is an essential part of the health professions school application process. Members are usually not from a health professions school, and you need not have any prior knowledge of medical school admission requirements, nor must you be an expert on health care. HPAB members simply need to possess interest, motivation, sound judgment, and the willingness to spend some additional time working with students.
The HPAB is looking for volunteers to help with the process in Spring 2010. With approximately 300 Penn students and alumni applying to health professions graduate schools each year, even if you are able to meet with only one student, it would be a tremendous help.
Every new HPAB member will be furnished with appropriate guidelines to help conduct their interviews and provide relevant feedback for the Pre-Professional Advising Unit in Career Services. Their assessments of the students represent an important component of the overall committee evaluation that is ultimately written. Primarily, the mock interview calls for students to actively consider the questions and topics that are likely to emerge in admissions interviews. Further, these experiences may also provide students with an opportunity to think through and thoughtfully discuss their reasons for aspiring to a career in the health professions. Personal experience of one volunteer.
The HPAB welcomes interviewers from both the active and the emeritus faculty. If you are interested in serving on the HPAB next spring, please contact Peter Stokes at
stokespm@upenn.edu
Adrian Morrison on Animal Research
If you missed the PASEF Luncheon on May 28th, you can learn about Professor Morrison's views in his new book An Odyssey with Animals, A Veterinarian's Reflections on the Animals Rights & Welfare Debate, Oxford University Press, 2009.
"Odyssey candidly describes how Morrison, a scientist, veterinarian, and community leader became the target of animal rights extremists, giving us a balanced corrective in which reason supplants rage, knowledge replaces superstition, and love trumps hate", from the review
of Professor Ralph Lydic of the University of Michigan.
Susan Wachter on "Reviving the Economy"
People who missed the PASEF Luncheon on April 23, 2009 can view the PowerPoint slides of Professor Wachter's brilliant presentation about what went wrong and how to revive the economy.
Susan Wachter
is the Richard B. Worley Professor of Financial Management and
Professor of Real Estate and Finance at The Wharton School. She has recently spoken on the state of the economy and its potential recovery, real estate foreclosures, and other aspects of the current economic meltdown on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Lou Dobbs Tonight, Bloomberg Radio and CSPAN as well as being quoted in US News & World Report, The Wall Street Journal and other newspapers.
2009 Benjamin Franklin Medal to Ruzena Bajcsy
Ruzena Bajcsy, Emeritus Professor of Computer and Information Science and founder of the GRASP Lab, was awarded the 2009 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science from the Franklin Institute.
The Award cites Dr. Bajcsy's contributions to robotics and computer vision, specifically the development of active perception and the creation of methods to improve our understanding of medical images.
Gino Segre receives the 2008 AIP Science Writing Award
Gino Segre, Emeritus Professor of Physics and Astronomy, was awarded the 2008 American Institute of Physics Science Writing Award in the science category for his book "Faust in Copehagen."
This prize is "awarded for excellence in Science Writing in Physics and Astronomy for the non-specialist in four categories: journalist, scientist, science writing for children, and broadcast media." It comes with $3000 and and inscribed Windsor Chair. Past winners of this prize include John Wheeler, Leonard Suskind, Abraham Pais, Heinz Pagels, and Stephen Weinberg.
