The Penn community gathered inside the newly reopened Weitzman Hall. The adaptive reuse project, completed in 17 months, has nearly 40,000 square feet of space that provides an interdisciplinary hub for research and teaching in the Weitzman School, while also serving as the headquarters for the Department of Fine Arts.
Pennsylvania Hospital, America’s first chartered hospital, founded in 1751, will be transformed into a museum. The museum will feature eight unique galleries and open in May 2026 to coincide with America250 celebrations in Philadelphia.
Penn Today rounded up the latest awards for various faculty and students in the School of Arts & Sciences, Penn Carey Law, the Annenberg School for Communication, and the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
Fourth-year Jonibek Muhsinov, who studies biochemistry and biophysics in the College of Arts & Sciences, was awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. Muhsinov will pursue a Ph.D. in psychiatry at the University of Cambridge in England and is one of 76 recipients worldwide.
MD-Ph.D. candidate Shreya Parchure and her team, in a recent study, explored whether “explainable AI”—a set of machine learning methods and approaches focused on providing rationale behind results—could help doctors tailor speech therapy treatment. The team found that an AI model made detailed evaluations of stroke survivors’ experiences with language production beyond the usual information provided through intake forms and clinical testing scores.
In her undergraduate course Shakespeare in Love, Becky Friedman of the Department of English has students read 10 plays with an aim to analyze love, language, and genre, and challenge previous assumptions about Shakespeare. Third-year Anya Rothman says it has allowed her to see Shakespeare with “fresh eyes.”
Veterinarian Amanda Watkins drew from her clinical experience in large animal surgery for her research on new ways to fight biofilm infections, becoming the first graduate of the Penn Veterinary Scientist Training program (PVSTP). PVSTP is a Ph.D. program designed for post-residency trained veterinarians that gives them the research training needed to become clinical scientists.
Neuroscience fourth-year Prithvi Parthasarathy, with support from the Center for the Advanced Study of India, interned at the Aravind Eye Hospital over the summer in Madurai, India. Parthasarathy leveraged his knowledge of systems-level issues to develop an AI triage tool that assists nurses in routing patients to the appropriate doctors in a timely manner. “From a bioengineering perspective, I think it really helped me take a step back and see [how to] make things more efficient and connect different things operating in silos in the hospital,” he says.
The first part of a limited series, “Chapters of Change” takes a historical look at key moments when the University adapted to meet society’s needs. The second half of the 19th century saw the rise of some of Penn’s first professional schools as society faced industrialization and more.
As ENIAC, or the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, turns 80, Penn Today reflects on the revolutionary device that laid the foundation for today’s digital system. The machine was built in 1946 by Penn’s J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly and configured by a team of pioneering women who were among the first programmers.
Penn hosted its sixth Energy Week, bringing leading experts to campus and showcasing cross-disciplinary solutions for a transition to sustainable energy. “Energy Week provides an opportunity to see the full breadth and depth of climate action and interdisciplinary research related to energy at Penn,” says Nadine Gruhn, managing director of the Vagelos Institute for Energy Science and Technology.
“Nursing the Revolution,” a new exhibit timed with America250 at the Barbara Bates Center for the History of Nursing, traces the history of modern nursing to the Revolutionary War era. Curator Jessica Martucci and guest curator Meg Roberts spoke about the highlights of the exhibit and what research reveals about nursing during that era. “Nurses of the American Revolution laid the foundation of American health care,” Roberts says.
Tired Parents Club, a show about parenting affiliated with WJZY in Charlotte, North Carolina, spoke with PIK Professor Desmond Upton Patton about cell phone access for kids. Patton studies how social media and emergent technologies intersect with youth, violence, and more.
Marcia Chatelain of the Department of Africana Studies, who authored the Pulitzer Prize-winning text “Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America,” was featured in USA Today for a historical story about Black eateries that endure from before the Civil Rights Movement. “During the era of segregation, there were few places where African Americans could dine without fear they would be treated poorly or harmed by other patrons,” she said.