After Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman were named winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine, the Penn Medicine community gathered to celebrate them with a “flash mob” at Smilow Commons Lobby at the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine. “I wish you, all of you, to persevere, enjoy what you are doing, and have fun,” Karikó said in response to the crowd. “Do great things, and don’t give up that easily.” (Image: Peggy Peterson)
At a ceremonial ribbon cutting, nearly 200 people gathered to celebrate the opening of the renovated Graduate School of Education building, including Penn President Liz Magill, GSE Dean Katharine Strunk, and former GSE Dean Pam Grossman, among others. The project consolidated GSE’s degree programs in one location, connecting two buildings through a $35.6 million expansion that added 16,200 square feet of space. “There is intention behind every single inch of this space,” said Magill. “It was designed to encourage engagement far beyond Penn. GSE will bring people together from other Penn Schools, from the city of Philadelphia and beyond—all with the aim of imagining new ways of thinking and learning.” (Image: Greg Benson)
President Liz Magill, Provost John L. Jackson Jr., and Vice Provost for Education Karen Detlefsen announced this year’s 15 2023 Presidential Ph.D. Fellows, from all nine schools at Penn that offer Ph.D. programs. “Presidential Ph.D. Fellows show exceptional promise in research and teaching that make a difference,” said Magill. “We are excited to welcome and proud to support this year’s cohort. They and all Presidential Ph.D. Fellows make Penn and our community that much more insightful, dynamic, and broadly excellent.”
Penn economists Jere Behrman and Petra Todd discussed the importance of the work of Claudia Goldin, a faculty member at Penn Economics from 1979 to 1990 who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in October. “She’s shown that gender gaps through the decades in the U.S. and labor force outcomes have not primarily been because of discrimination but have been because of a number of other factors,” says Berhman of one of the most important findings of her research. (Image: CQ Roll Call via AP Images)
The SNF Paideia Program at Penn received a $13 million grant from the program’s namesake to support its mission to equip undergraduates with the knowledge and experiences to foster robust, informed, and respectful dialogue across difference. The grant spans 2024-29. “A thriving society requires broadly educated and service-minded leaders who express their views openly, listen to others respectfully, and disagree productively,” said Penn President Liz Magill. “We are deeply grateful for the ongoing support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, which strengthens opportunities for Penn students to hone and practice these essential skills.”
Benjamin Franklin arrived in Philadelphia on Oct. 6 300 years ago; to mark the occasion, Perry World House hosted an event with speakers that included Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor Ezekiel Emanuel and Professor of History Emma Hart. “This moment of arrival, when all the possibility is before him, is the launch point for Franklin to becoming the famous individual who made himself into something out of nothing,” says Hart. “In that respect it is a critical chapter in his story of success.”
As part of a Penn Global Engagement Fund project grant, Heather Huntington, a professor of practice in the School of Arts & Sciences and associate director of DevLab@Penn, is monitoring the impacts of reforestation and sustainable agriculture interventions in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. “By identifying the mechanisms that link ecosystem, wildlife, and human health and rigorously testing practical interventions, this research will identify the most effective types of interventions for improving health in the context of climate change.”
The Office of Postdoctoral Affairs was established in the spring to centralize resources, information, and events for Penn’s nearly 1,400 postdocs, many of whom are housed in biomedical sciences. The Office of the Vice Provost for Research worked closely with the Perelman School of Medicine’s Office of Biomedical Postdoctoral Programs to launch the new office. (Image: Ellen Song)
Cary Coglianese, the Edward B. Shils Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science at the Carey Law School, was elected to the National Academy of Public Administration as a 2023 Class of Academy Fellows. “I congratulate Cary Coglianese on his well-deserved election to the NAPA,” says Carey Law Dean Sophia Z. Lee. “This distinctive honor is a testament to his dedication to advancing the field of regulatory policy and governance, which is evident in his extensive body of work—from his prolific scholarly writing to his exemplary leadership as the founding director of the Penn Program on Regulation.” (Image: Dave Barbaree)
The Quakers’ Oct. 26 matchup against Brown marked 50 years since a Penn v. Brown football game at Franklin Field became the first in Ivy League history to feature two African American starting quarterbacks. Penn Today dug through the archives to tell the stories of Penn’s Martin “Marty” Vaughn” and Brown’s Dennis Coleman. (Image: Richard M. Titley/Philadelphia Inquirer)
Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor Desmond Upton Patton, along with Kurt T. Barnhart, Christopher B. Forrest, Susan L. Furth, and Robert H. Vonderheide from the Perelman School of Medicine are among the 100 new members of the National Academy of Medicine, elected by current NAM members. They join 83 other members from Penn.
Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor Christopher B. Murray, a former advisee of Moungi Bawendi, a recent recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, shares his excitement about his former advisor’s work on quantum dots. Explains Murray: “The work that’s been recognized with this Nobel Prize in Chemistry is a nod to the fact that these nanoparticles can be engineered using novel tricks—novel in the sense that much of the work done on semiconductors since their inception in the 1950s and 1960s has shown this to be done with compositional changes relying on large machinery, deposition tools, and fabrication infrastructure, whereas here it can be approached with a chemical synthesis.” (Image: iStock / Tayfun Ruzgar)