In the last few weeks, worldwide media wrote and broadcast numerous ENIAC-related stories, but Penn has appeared in a wide variety of other stories as well.

For a story about teenage pregnancy, The Denver Rocky Mountain News interviewed Frank Furstenberg Jr., professor of sociology.

Law professor Geoffrey C. Hazard has been writing a monthly column for The National Law Journal. He discussed rules that have evolved about ethical problems posed by prospective clients--those who consult attorneys but do not hire them. He addressed the question of whether prospective clients are entitled to the same protections that the rules of legal ethics afford clients who do hire lawyers.

Dan Rather interviewed Maryanne McGuckin, senior research investigator in general internal medicine and senior fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute, about handwashing--or the lack thereof--among hospital personnel. The interview was part of a CBS "Eye On America" story about how patients pick up infections during hospital stays. Dr. McGuckin's area of research is infection control.

When evidence unearthed in Sri Lanka recently shed light on the early manufacture of steel--the superhard steel swords used by Islamic armies that reached Christian Europe and fought the Crusaders 1,000 years ago--both The Christian Science Monitor and The New York Times dialed Vince Pigott for an assessment of the discovery. Dr. Pigott, the resident archaeometallurgist at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, noted that the discovery of monsoon-fanned furnaces built into the windward slopes of Sri Lanka's hills are "rare and remarkable installations."

In a report on possible causes of schizophrenia, National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" interviewed Megan Hollister, a Penn Medical Center researcher, about the connnection between Rh-blood incompatibility and schizophrenia.

The American Banker printed commentary by Patrick Harker, professor of systems engineering, and Kathleen McClave of Wharton's Financial Institutions Center about new technology's value to the banking industry.

A University of Pennsylvania study linking head injuries to later development of Alzheimer's disease was noted in a story by Agence France Presse, which quoted Tracy McIntosh, director of the Head Injuries Center.

In an article recently published in Investor's Business Daily, Penn Sociology Professor Emeritus E. Digby Baltzell discussed the role that very wealthy people play in society.

Francis Johnston, professor of anthropology, was quoted in an Associated Press story about the relationship between obesity and poverty, and a lack of grocers and healthy foods in inner cities. The story ran in several newspapers, including the Charleston Daily Mail and Memphis Commercial Appeal.

Since 1993, law professor Lani Guinier's name has appeared in the media many times, but it made it into a somewhat different part of The New York Times on Feb. 15: the crossword puzzle. The clue for 10-across (four letters) was "Legal scholar Guinier."

Albert Stunkard, psychiatry professor emeritus, was quoted by The Washington Post in a story about "blizzard bloat." The internationally recognized obesity expert noted that people predisposed to weight gain may tend to add pounds during snowy winters "as a result of many factors: less sunlight, less cardiovascular exercise, more boredom, increased access to food; there are many environmental influences."

The Boston Globe called on social work professor Dennis Culhane to discuss the increase in homeless populations.

Republican and Democratic perspectives on the stock market were discussed by Jeremy Siegel, professor of finance, in a Washington Post Sunday story, Feb. 18.

The New York Times reported the testimony of Joseph DiGiacomo, professor of psychiatry, in a subway bombing trial in New York City. Dr. DiGiacomo testified that the combination of three psychotropic drugs taken by the defendant, Edward J. Leary, in 1994 put him in a dreamlike state that "fragmented" his mind and left him without the capacity to grasp the consequences of his actions.

Alan Lerner, practice associate professor of law, was interviewed by PBS for "Mississippi/America," a documentary that aired Feb. 13. He discussed his role as a law student during the 1964 Freedom Summer.

Return to Compass Features for March 5, 1996