After a six-year journey, Luka Krizanac, at 28, became Penn Medicine’s fifth hand transplant recipient in fall 2024, a milestone accomplishment for the program. “You do 1,001 activities every day with your hands. Prosthetics cannot simulate or replace that. Our team is very proud of the many things we’ve done as ‘firsts,’” says L. Scott Levin, who built the hand transplant program at Penn Medicine with Benjamin Chang.
Russell Composto and Kelly Jordan-Sciutto have been appointed as Penn’s new vice provosts for undergraduate and graduate education, starting July 1. These roles will assume many responsibilities previously held by the deputy provost and vice provost for education. Both are longtime Penn educators and first-generation college graduates, recognized for their leadership and commitment to student success.
A $50 million gift from the Lurie family will establish the Lurie Autism Institute, a joint initiative between Penn Medicine and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The institute will focus on groundbreaking autism research and treatment across the lifespan, working to develop more advanced lab models, study autism-related genes and their potential as therapeutic targets, and more.
As part of the Pennsylvania Animal Diagnostic Laboratory System (PADLS), the School of Veterinary Medicine’s New Bolton Center (NBC) assists Pennsylvania’s agricultural community by rapidly identifying chemicals and contaminants and diagnosing diseases to protect animals and humans from health threats and minimize economic loss. “PADLS is here in Pennsylvania for lots of reasons,” says Lisa Murphy, resident director of PADLS-NBC. “We’re here to accurately diagnose disease in animals. We’re here to protect food safety. And we also ensure public health through what we do.”
A naming gift from Stephanie and Dan Zilberman has established the Zilberman Family Center for Global Collections at Penn Libraries. The center will transform the fifth floor of Van Pelt-Dietrich Library into a hub for global engagement, featuring galleries, seminar rooms, and spaces for study and collaboration. The project is part of a broader effort to modernize library spaces by 2026.
A new study led by Penn climate scientist Michael Mann finds that extreme summer weather patterns—like heat domes, floods, and wildfires—have nearly tripled since the 1950s due to a phenomenon called quasi-resonant amplification (QRA). QRA occurs when large, slow-moving planetary waves in the jet stream intensify and become stalled. “It’s the first study to demonstrate a historical increase, taking advantage of the more reliable atmospheric ‘reanalysis’ observations that are available today,” says Mann.
In her new book, “Elusive Cures,” psychology professor Nicole Rust explores why decades of neuroscience research haven’t led to effective treatments for brain disorders like Alzheimer’s and depression. Citing the brain as a complex system that’s more than a “long domino chain of causes that lead to effects,” Rust calls for a shift in scientific thinking and greater integration of emerging technologies to bridge the gap between research and real-world cures.
A collaborative team from the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Perelman School of Medicine have unraveled the mathematics of a 500-million-year-old protein network that acts like the body’s bouncer, “deciding” which foreign materials get degraded by immune cells and which are allowed entry. “This discovery enables us to design therapeutics the way you would design a car or a spaceship—using the principles of physics to guide how the immune system will respond—rather than relying on trial and error,” says Jake Brenner, co-senior author of the study. (Image: iStock Md Saiful Islam Khan)
The Penn Glee Club completed a 12-day tour of Asia, performing in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Beijing under new director Sam Scheibe. Highlights included a concert at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall with Keio University’s choir, a “Sight and Sound” performance at a Hong Kong art gallery, and a show at the U.S. embassy in Beijing. Rising fourth-year Hailey Tobin planned the tour, working closely with alumni to make connections and trip decisions.
Third-year Kampton Kam of the Wharton School earned First Team All-America honors at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships on June 13, finishing tied for eighth in the men’s high jump. (Image: Courtesy of Penn Athletics)
PIK Professor Shelley Berger in the School of Arts & Sciences and Perelman School of Medicine led a team of researchers studying the genetic basis of how communal-dwelling organisms, such as leafcutter ants and naked mole rats, divide labor among their societies. They discovered that pathways dating back hundreds of millions of years are conserved across animal kingdoms, findings that offer fundamental insights into the origins of complex social behaviors.
In a conversation with Penn Today, Benjamin C. Lee of the School of Engineering and Applied Science explained what neural processing units are and why they’re showing up in newer consumer electronics like high-end smartphones and laptops. NPUs, he says, are the “frontier” for today’s processor designers. (Image: Narumon Bowonkitwanchai via Getty Images)
As managing director of Research, Centers, and Academic Initiatives at the Wharton School, Lauren Nelson Hyppolite oversees numerous AI- and analytics-related initiatives that prepare future business leaders for a rapidly evolving workforce and bridge the connection between academia and industry. “We’re building cutting-edge programs for students to develop the skills they’re going to need as the workforce changes,” Hyppolite says.
The AI x Science Postdoctoral Fellowship program, through the School of Arts & Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Science, offers mentorship, shared computing resources, and peer engagement for its fellows. The program will scale to include new disciplines in the future, including the Wharton School and Penn Medicine.
