Q&A: Michael Leja
Today, the average American is bombarded by countless images and pictures at every turn. But not long ago, says Michael Leja, a professor in Penn’s Department of Art History, pictures were quite rare, and had a kind of magic power attached to them because of that rarity. Read more ...
Staff Q&A: Bill Andresen &
Lawrence Bertuola
As Penn’s main liaisons to legislators and policymakers in Washington, D.C., Bill Andresen and Larry Bertuola advocate for increased funding for
agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation—and, by extension, Penn’s top researchers. Read more ...
Q&A: Paul Meyer
When Meyer first came to the Morris Arboretum in 1976, the stately old buildings were falling into serious disrepair, garden features were overgrown and old fountains had run dry. But since then, Meyer has helped to turn the Arboretum into one of the finest public gardens in America. Read more ...
Staff Q&A: Stephen Fisher &
Angela Norris
Two Penn staffers have opened a space in West Philly dedicated to wellness, art and community. Read more ...
Expert Opinion: Franklin Allen on the U.S. economic downturn
This Wharton Professor of Finance and Economics says a major U.S. economic downturn is not out of the question. Whether or not that happens, will probably depend on how bad the housing market gets. If values continue to dip, he says, real trouble awaits. Read more ...
Q&A: David Sarwer
At Penn, Sarwer is one of the contributing researchers at the unique Center for Human Appearance. There, he is studying, among other issues, why women who receive breast implants seem more likely to commit suicide and how patients undergoing weight-loss surgery can prepare for their new lives and smaller stomachs. Read more ...
Staff Q&A: Randall Couch
Randall Couch hopes his new book will help readers better appreciate the work of poet Gabriela Mistral. Read more ...
Q&A: Adrian Raine
This Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor hears complaints that his research connecting brain dysfunction to crime—work that hints at the possibility of one day being able to identify potential criminals early in life—could infringe upon civil liberties. Raine understands all of the complaints and worry. But he also says he must continue. Read more ...
Staff Q&A: Lorri Schieri
Lorri Schieri is the person behind the scenes at Penn’s intellectual home for
translational medicine. Read more ...
Staff Q&A: Bryan Isola
A former hockey pro, Isola now runs Penn's ice rink--home to college and high school teams, adult and kiddie leagues and--for the novice--a learn-to-skate program. Read more ...
Green is good
Wharton's Eric Orts has helped create innovative proposals for reforming environmental regulations, and accompanied Penn President Amy Gutmann to the Global Colloquium of University Presidents as her faculty expert. Here at Penn, he's founded an initiative designed to sponsor research addressing some of the planet’s most pressing environmental ills. Read more ...
Staff Q&A: Natalie Subeh
At the Penn Children’s Center, Subeh does everything from calming nervous parents to preparing snacks for kids. Read more ...
Philly’s 24/7 nightlife economy
A sociologist takes to the streets to examine how Philadelphia's young people navigate and experience the city's bars and clubs. Read more ...
Room to grow
Director of Athletics Steve Bilsky says the Penn Connects plan that figures to so dramatically change the University in years to come includes high-profile projects that will address long-standing needs in athletics and recreation—new fields, tennis courts, expansive parks and a fitness center. Read more ...
Staff Q&A: Johnny Irizarry
Irizarry is enjoying a fresh start, and has found a new mission, as director of Penn’s La Casa Latina. Read more ...
Untold story
GSE Assistant Professor Marybeth Gasman left a career in college administration to pursue her true academic calling: Studying the history of African-American higher education.
Read more ...
Staff Q&A: Katherina Rosqueta
Rosqueta is working to make Penn's Center for High Impact Philanthropy “the Bloomberg of philanthropy," providing much-needed objective information about which charities and programs actually work—and which ones don’t. Read more ...
An ‘absolutely wide open’ election
Donald Kettl, director of the Fels Institute of Government, shares his thoughts on being smack dab in the middle of one of the wildest presidential election seasons in decades. Read more ...
Q&A: Gary Tomlinson
Never before has Tomlinson taken on a project quite like the one he’s working on now—a project in which he aims to answer one of the most fundamental questions in human history: Where does music come from?Read more ...
Staff Q&A: Oluwatoyin Adegbite-Moore
Penn's Director of Penn Home Ownership Services helps faculty and staff understand the labyrinthine process of buying a home and advises them how to take advantage of all of the ways Penn can help make that dream a reality. Read more ...
Q&A: Patrick McGovern
Analyses of pottery excavated from a site in Honduras has led Penn Museum Research Scientist Patrick McGovern to conclude that ancient people were drinking fermented beverages made from the sweet pulp of the cacao fruit—the source of modern-day chocolate—somewhere between 1400 and 11 B.C.E. Read more ...
Staff Q&A: M. Thérèse Flaherty
This Director of Wharton’s Small Business Development Center helps local entrepreneurs and small business owners get their young companies off the ground. Read more ...
Q&A: Peter Struck
The Great Books that just a few decades ago seemed on the brink of extinction on American college campuses are now enjoying a renewed popularity, and nowhere is that more noticeable, says Struck, than at Penn. Read more ...
Staff Q&A: Sam Phifer-Rixey
As an Electronic Publications Specialist, Phifer-Rixey works with departments around SAS to overhaul their websites, converting design specifications into working code. Read more ...
'XPN expands into central Pa.
WXPN's General Manager talks about about why ‘XPN decided to expand, the state of commercial radio, and the station's future. Read more ...
Q&A: John Zeller
Large fundraising campaigns are nothing new for John Zeller. But even by Zeller’s lofty standards, the $3.5 billion campaign Penn launched late last month is, well, huge. Read more ...
Staff Q&A: Kiera Reilly
Kiera Reilly helps keep Penn alumni around the world connected to their alma mater, organizing lectures, tours and unique travel experiences. Read more ...
Q&A: Thomas Childers
A bundle of old letters changed the course of Thomas Childers’ career—and his life, too. Read more ...
Staff Q&A: June Chu
A second-generation
Chinese-American comes full circle overseeing
a student hub. Read more ...
Street smart
It’s not every day, Anne Papageorge knows, that one is given the opportunity to change of the face of an entire city. But Papageorge has been fortunate to do just that for much of the past two decades. Read more ...
Staff Q&A: Jason Lubar
Jason Lubar used to sell stocks. But he’s much happier now, working as one of the region’s top tree gurus. Read more ...
The Facilitator
Steve Fluharty sees himself as a facilitator—someone who promotes interdisciplinary research and encourages researchers from across all of the schools to collaborate. “The reality is, the faculty themselves and the schools recognize that this is the distinguishing strength of Penn. Read more ...
Staff Q&A: Felice Macera
Felice Macera came to Penn as a photographer. In the past couple decades, he’s taken on more than a few other responsibilities, too. Read more ...
Ethics And War
Jonathan Moreno began his career as a medical ethicist, helping doctors and families answer some of the most unanswerable questions in medicine. Remarkably, he may be tackling even thornier issues today. Read more ...
Staff Q&A: Mukul Pandya
Knowledge@Wharton’s executive director talks about the publication’s remarkable growth—and how it signed up 1 million subscribers. Read more ...
Staff Q&A: Jim McGuinn
WXPN DJ Jim McGuinn got into radio by way of basketball. Once the self-described “Shaquille O’Neal of eighth grade” began riding the bench in high school, he happily turned to radio, acting as the color man during varsity basketball games. When he started working for his high school music station—WDGC in Downers Grove, Illinois—McGuinn quickly discovered that being music director meant one thing: lots of free records. Read more ...
Studying Sugar Ray
In his new book, “Being Sugar Ray: The Life of Sugar Ray Robinson, America’s Greatest Boxer and First Celebrity Athlete,” Wharton's Kenneth Shropshire offers a fresh look at an athlete who helped pave the way for later black athletes such as Muhammad Ali and Jim Brown. Read more ...
Staff Q&A: Chaz Howard
For Associate Chaplain Chaz Howard it’s the regular interaction with students that makes his job so satisfying. It’s also what makes it hard. “It’s tough,” he says, “when you see people every week and then they graduate and disappear.” Read more ...
Penn's provost
In the year and a half since Ron Daniels took the helm as Penn’s provost, the native-born Canadian has made his mark on the University. Not long after his arrival, he organized a series of symposia on the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe and, with Penn Press, published a companion volume, "On Risk and Disaster: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina." Since then, he has kept a busy schedule—with up to 14 meetings a day—focusing on academic and strategic issues that impact the future of Penn. Read more ...
Tough transitions
In a new book, “Electing to Fight: Why Emerging Democracies Go to War,” Penn professor Edward Mansfield and co-author Jack Snyder argue that if nations transitioning to democracy don’t have strong courts, a viable press, organized political parties or other public institutions, they are unlikely to succeed in their transitions. Worse, the authors say, such nations could also become sources of global violence. Read more ...
King of the world
David Dye’s radio program, The World Cafe, is one of the most influential music shows in radio, having hosted such high-profile artists as Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and Tom Waits in its 15-year run on WXPN. This month, the show will be honored with an ASCAP Deems Taylor Award, given each year in recognition of outstanding print, broadcast and new media coverage of music. Read more ...
The global campus, post 9-11
As a former international student himself, Rodolfo Altamirano says he understands the anxieties foreign students face when coming to study in the United States. But Altamirano also knows the world is a very different place today than it was when he left the Philippines, 23 years ago, to pursue a doctorate at Michigan State University. Read more ...
Fighting FOP
A physician and a geneticist share a common goal—finding a successful treatment for patients with the rare skeletal disease FOP. Their recent discovery of the FOP gene puts them well on their way. Read more ...
