The Presidential Commission on Countering Hate and Building Community published its final report. The Commission worked with constituents across Penn to determine a set of recommendations to move the University forward. “I was incredibly proud of the way people were able to step outside their own silos and niches and think broadly. We left as friends. We modeled what we know Penn can be,” reflected Penn GSE Dean Katharine Strunk, who co-led the Commission with Penn Engineering Dean Vijay Kumar. “I think we have laid the groundwork now, and it’s my hope that every single one of us at Penn picks up the ball and moves it forward.”
In a Q&A with Penn Today, Penn Dental Dean Mark Wolff, chair of the University Task Force on Antisemitism, reflected on the process and outcome of a report months in the making, encouraging the Penn community to engage with the report. “I hope our report and our recommendations represent enduring change, and that this work continues to matter for Penn and to yield positive changes that carry important ripple effects far beyond this moment,” remarked Wolff.
The University announced the creation of Penn Washington, a physical and programmatic home for Penn’s engagement in Washington, D.C. Vice Provost for Global initiatives Ezekiel J. Emanuel will serve as the initial faculty director of Penn Washington, and the new Penn Franklin Initiative will serve as a new set of programs that focus on domestic policy through curriculum, scholarship, and convenings.
Felicia Washington was named vice president of human resources at Penn, succeeding Jack Heuer, who is retiring. Washington previously served as senior vice president of human resources at the University of Southern California. Senior Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli praised “her exceptional leadership skills, experience, and commitment to the mission of higher education.”
In partnership with the nonprofit Forum Philly, Penn Museum hosted a free inaugural Juneteenth event featuring community-building activities, workshops, and performances. Williams Director of the Penn Museum Christopher Woods remarked that “museums need to provide spaces for co-creation, where the community can explore their own cultural traditions and traditions of others in the context of our galleries.”
Brigitte Weinsteiger was named the H. Carton Rogers III Vice Provost and director of the Penn Libraries; she has served as interim vice provost and director since September 2023. “Brigitte has been a visionary and dynamic leader of the Penn Libraries for more than 16 years,” said Provost John Jackson, “placing a high priority on engaging our campus and our community, advancing diversity and inclusion across our collections, and promoting open communications both internally and externally.”
Penn Today highlighted iconic photos from the 2023-24 academic year, ranging from Holi celebrations to a gathering of the Penn community on College Green for the solar eclipse.
Rising fourth-year swimmer Matthew Fallon is the first American swimmer in Penn’s program history to qualify for the U.S. national team. Fallon’s winning time at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Indianapolis set a new American record and is the fastest time in the world so far this year.
On Friday, June 7, bells tolled at 1 p.m. at 44 locations around the region, as part of Penn Live Arts’ ‘Toll the Bell’ community initiative. “Truly, no city in America is more connected to the imagery, history, and symbolism of the bell than Philadelphia,” said Christopher Gruits, executive and artistic director of Penn Live Arts, in opening remarks. “But Toll the Bell is not a profile in tragedy; it is a sonic disruption as a call to action, a warning, and an invitation to Philadelphians to stop and reflect on our fellow citizens, our brothers and sisters who have lost their lives, and also to learn more about this urgent issue.”
Researchers across Penn have developed an artificial intelligence tool for mining genetic elements from ancient molecules to discover new antibiotics—increasingly important as drug-resistant bacteria emerge. “With traditional methods, it takes around six years to develop new preclinical drug candidates to treat infections and the process is incredibly painstaking and expensive,” says Presidential Assistant Professor Cesar de la Fuente. “Our deep learning approach can dramatically reduce that time, driving down costs as we identified thousands of candidates in just a few hours, and many of them have preclinical potential, as tested in our animal models, signaling a new era in antibiotic discovery.”
Chonnipha (Jing Jing) Piriyalertsak was selected as a 2024 Yenching Scholar with full funding to pursue an interdisciplinary master’s degree in China studies at the Yenching Academy of Peking University in Beijing. She is the seventh Penn scholar to be awarded the scholarship since the program’s inception in 2015.
Nia Akins, a 2020 graduate of Penn’s School of Nursing, won the 800 meter final at the USA Track & Field Olympic Trials, punching her ticket to the Paris Olympics. Akins won four individual Ivy Heptagonal championships during her career at Penn and was named College Athlete of the Meet at the 2019 Penn Relays.
In a class this spring, Jeffrey Vadala of the Penn Brain Science Center taught students to analyze virtual reality landscapes and create their own, with students imagining their own uses for virtual reality—including to address social issues. “Right now is the best time to get into virtual reality, and it’s easier than ever to do it. There are tools for people of all levels,” Vadala says.
Kotaro Sasaki and his team at the School of Veterinary Medicine led pioneering research on seminoma, a form of testicular cancer. “We now better understand the origins, chromosomal anomalies, and signaling pathways involved. And most excitingly, we have developed the first in vitro seminoma model, a vital step toward understanding and potentially treating the disease,” Sasaki says.
The annual Supplier Diversity Forum & Expo showcased local construction firms, suppliers, agencies and organizations, and Penn buyers, with more than 500 people in attendance at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. The University spent approximately $170 million with diverse suppliers in 2023 and is on track to exceed that number in 2024.
Penn Global announced the recipients of the newly established Penn Global Dissertation Grants program, which provides as much as $8,000 each in funding to 11 Ph.D. students across four schools. The initiative is part of a main priority for Penn Global under its third strategic framework, with an aim to develop initiatives that support graduate and professional research with global dimensions.
New findings by Robyn Sanderson and collaborators suggest the galaxy’s last major collision was billions of years later than previously thought. They used cosmological simulations to determine that this last collision did not, in fact, occur between eight and 11 billion years ago, as previously believed.
