American Academy of Arts and Sciences: Four Penn Professors

Four researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s most prestigious honorary societies and a leading center for independent policy research.

The new honorees are:

• Nancy Bonini, professor of biology in the School of Arts & Sciences and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

• Garret A. FitzGerald, the Robert L. McNeil Jr. Professor of Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, chair of the department of pharmacology and director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics in Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine.

• Carl H. June, the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the department of pathology and laboratory medicine and director of Translational Research in the Abramson Cancer Center in the Perelman School of Medicine.

• M. Celeste Simon, professor of cell and developmental biology, scientific director and investigator for the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute in the Perelman School of Medicine and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

The Academy’s current membership includes some of the world’s most accomplished leaders from mathematics, the physical and biological sciences, medicine, the social sciences, business, public affairs, the humanities, government and the arts. Among the Academy’s Fellows are more than 250 Nobel laureates and 60 Pulitzer Prize winners. The complete list of the new members is located at https://www.amacad.org/content/members/members.aspx

The new class will be inducted at a ceremony in October, at the Academy’s headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Inaugural Renfield Foundation Award for Global Women’s Health: Ms. Ismail

Edna Adan Ismail, Somaliland’s first qualified midwife, foreign minister and key World Health Organization (WHO) leader, is the inaugural recipient of the $100,000 Penn Nursing Renfield Foundation Award for Global Women’s Health.

The award, is sponsored by the Beatrice Renfield Foundation, named for the philanthropist who devoted years of service and resources as an advocate for the nursing profession. The foundation is led by Beatrice’s sister Jean Renfield-Miller, PAR’15, a member of Penn Nursing Science’s Executive Committee for the Healthy Cities: Healthy Women 2011 New York conference.

Presented at the final Healthy Cities: Healthy Women conference held at Penn Nursing, the award celebrated Ms. Ismail’s advocacy, championship and leadership in advancing better health for women and girls in Africa and around the world. She was nominated by Nicholas Kristof, columnist for the New York Times and co-author of Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women, which features Ms. Ismail among its many stories.

Ms. Ismail was the first Somali girl to earn a scholarship to study in Britain, where she learned nursing, midwifery and nursing management. As her country’s first qualified nurse-midwife, she helped establish modern health practices, lowering the mortality of infants. As a WHO diplomat, she trained nurses and midwives across the Middle East and advocated for the abolishment of harmful traditional practices, including Female Genital Mutilation.

When she retired in 1997, Ms. Ismail sold all her possessions to create Somaliland’s largest privately built hospital and training center for midwives. She opened the Edna Adan University in 2012.

Penn presented Ms. Ismail with an honorary Doctor of Sciences at its 258th commencement ceremony last week.

Penn Prize for Excellence in Teaching by Graduate Students

The awardees for this year’s Penn Prize for Excellence in Teaching by Graduate Students were honored at a reception on May 12. 
The 2014 awardees are:

Front row, left to right: Justin Bernstein, Salar Mohandesi, Prakirti Nangia, Andy Wu. Back row, left to right: Gartaa Yieleh-Chireh, Michael Noss, Vice Provost Andrew Binns, Adam Mally, J. Maxwell Rogoski. Not pictured: Marina Isgro and Ursula Williams.

Justin Bernstein, philosophy

Marina Isgro, history of art

Adam Mally, computer graphics and game  technology

Salar Mohandesi, history

Prakirti Nangia, political science

Michael Noss, chemistry

J. Maxwell Rogoski, medicine and history and sociology of science

Ursula Williams, chemistry

Andy Wu, applied economics

Gartaa Yieleh-Chireh, mathematics

OAH Award: Dr. Berry

For a lifetime effort to bring her training as a historian to public service, Mary Frances Berry, professor of history in the School of Arts & Sciences, has received the 2014 Roy Rosenzweig Distinguished Service Award. The award is given annually by the Organization of American Historians (OAH) to an individual or individuals whose contributions have significantly enriched our understanding and appreciation of American history.

Dr. Berry served as OAH president from 1990-1991.

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter appointed Dr. Berry to the United States Commission on Civil Rights and 13 years later she was named chair by President Bill Clinton. During her 25-year tenure, the Commission emerged as a visible protector of minority rights, creating significant reports on issues ranging from environmental justice and affirmative action to conditions on Native American reservations.

WUC Chair: Dr. Birch

Eugenie Birch, co-director of the Penn Institute for Urban Research, Penn IUR, has been elected chair of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme’s World Urban Campaign (WUC), a global coalition of public, private and civil society partners acting to promote sustainable urbanization.

Dr. Birch was elected to her new role as chair for a two-year term ending in 2016. Previously, she served as co-chair of the WUC for four years.

Over the next two years, under Dr. Birch’s leadership, the WUC will help to shape the World Urban Forum 7’s Post-2015 Development Agenda, a conceptual framework that addresses the critical interplay of equity, inclusive growth and sustainable urban development while also addressing human rights, inequality and gender disparities. Dr. Birch will also steer the WUC as it helps prepare for the Third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) in 2016.

Royal Society of Chemistry Fellows

David Christianson and Dan Mindiola have both been elected as Fellows of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC). The Royal Society of Chemistry is the largest organization in Europe for advancing the chemical sciences and traces its roots to the Chemical Society of London, established in 1841. Each year, the designation FRSC is given to a group of elected Fellows who have made major contributions to the chemical sciences.

Dr. Christianson is theRoy and Diana Vagelos Professor in Chemistry and Chemical Biology and his research interests include structural aspects of the mechanisms of hydrolytic metalloenzymes such as the arginases.

Dr. Mindiola is the Presidential Professor of Chemistry. His research entails the synthesis of transition metal complexes that possess interesting coordination environments, reactive ligand scaffolds and unusual electronic and magnetic features.

Honorary Degree: Dr. Joullié

Madeleine Joullié, professor of chemistry in the School of Arts & Sciences, received an honorary degree at Simmons College's 109th Commencement in Boston. Dr. Joullié received a bachelor of science degree from Simmons. She was noted as "an internationally recognized champion of women in the field of chemistry who holds the distinction of being one of the first female professors to earn tenure in chemistry at an Ivy League institution."

Dr. Joullié research focuses on synthetic organic chemistry including heterocyclic and medicinal chemistry.

Distinguished Alumnus: Dr. Kumar

Vijay Kumar, UPS Foundation Professor and professor of mechanical engineering and applied mechanics in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, has been named a 2013-2014 Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur Distinguished Alumnus. This award from IIT Kanpur is given to alumni for their exemplary achievements in their area of work. Dr. Kumar earned his bachelor’s degree from IIT in 1983.

The IIT Kanpur Alumni Association states, “Professor Vijay Kumar is one of the top roboticists of his generation. His fundamental contributions, which straddle both theory and practice, address the control and planning of multiple cooperating robot systems and autonomous robots capable of cooperating to explore, map and manipulate in 3D environments.”

Dr. Kumar studies collective behaviors in biological and robotic systems to design novel architectures, create abstractions for systems of interacting individuals and develop new algorithms for cooperating robots.

Outstanding Investigator: Dr. Lee

Daeyeon Lee, associate professor in the department of chemical and biomolecular engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, is the recipient of the 2014 Unilever Outstanding Young Investigator Award from the American Chemical Society (ACS) Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry. This award recognizes and encourages fundamental work in colloid or surfactant science carried out in North America by researchers in the early stages of their careers.

The vision of Dr. Lee’s Soft Nanomaterials Lab is to develop deep understanding of the interactions between soft materials (e.g., polymers, colloids and biologicals, etc.) near or at interfaces. The Lab seeks to extend the obtained knowledge to direct the assembly of macroscopic structures that have designed properties and functionality.

AERA Fellow: Dr. Perna

Laura W. Perna, professor of higher education and executive director of Penn’s Alliance for Higher Education and Democracy (AHEAD), has been selected as a 2014 AERA Fellow by the American Educational Research Association.

AERA Fellows are nominated by their peers and selected by the AERA Fellow Committee and governing body for their outstanding achievements and commitment to educational research.

Dr. Perna’s areas of expertise include access, choice, and equity in higher education, college finance and affordability and federal and state involvement in pre-college and college education.

Humboldt Award: Dr. Ponte

Pedro Ponte Castañeda, the Raymond S. Markowitz Faculty Fellow and professor in the department of mechanical engineering and applied mechanics in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, was awarded a Humboldt Research Award to fund year-long collaborations with colleagues in Germany. The Foundation grants the awards “to academics whose fundamental discoveries, new theories or insights have had a significant impact on their own discipline and who are expected to continue producing cutting-edge achievements in the future.”

Dr. Ponte, whose research involves mathematical theories that underpin composite and “smart” materials, will be visiting the University of Stuttgart.

Florian Pop, the Samuel D. Schack Professor of Algebra in the School of Arts & Sciences, was also a recipient of the Humboldt Award (Almanac March 4, 2014).

Shoah Foundation: Professor Reicher

Harry Reicher of the Law School has been named as the recipient of the USC Shoah Foundation-The Institute for Visual History and Education’s inaugural Rutman Teaching Fellowship.

Professor Reicher will spend one week at the USC Shoah Foundation on the campus of the University of Southern California to learn how to best teach with the institute’s testimonies by Holocaust survivors.

As a Fellow, he will utilize the institute’s Visual History Archive in his Penn Law course Law and the Holocaust. The testimonies will help emphasize how the legal system set in place by the National Socialist regime dehumanized a particular demographic of its citizens, creating a new way in which students can examine the historic laws and how they personally affected individuals. 

The Rutman Teaching Fellowship was established by Penn alum Lori Rutman Fife, C’80,  in memory of her parents, Henry and Sherry Rutman.

Leadership Award: Ms. Sadao

Amy Sadao, the Daniel W. Dietrich II Director of Penn’s Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), received ArtTable’s 2014 New Leadership Award at the organization’s benefit in New York City. ArtTable, a nonprofit group dedicated to advancing professional women’s leadership in the visual arts, honored Ms. Sadao for her work at the ICA and at Visual AIDS, where she was executive director prior to her arrival at Penn in 2012.

Under Ms. Sadao’s leadership, Visual AIDS gained momentum as an organization that supports HIV-positive artists and provoked dialogue about the virus at a time when the political climate made HIV/AIDS a controversial topic.

Inaugural Sobti Family Fellowship: Mr. Selvakumaran

Penn’s Center for the Advanced Study of India awarded its inaugural 2014-2015 Sobti Family Fellowship to Vignesh Selvakumaran, EAS’14.

Established through a gift from alumnus Rajiv Sobti, Gr’84, and Slomi Sobti, Penn parents, the Fellowship is the first program at Penn to provide funding for a recent Penn graduate to conduct independent research in India.

As a Sobti Family Fellow, Mr. Selvakumaran will work with Aurolabs at Aravind Eye Care System in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, this fall.
His project aims to create a new low-cost medical device for cataract surgery. 

As part of a senior design requirement, Mr. Selvakumaran’s team designed a device to allow physicians to use pulse wave velocity to access patients’ cardiovascular health during regular check-ups. The group was awarded the Honorable Berger Award and took third place in the Engineering School’s Senior Design Competition.

“This opportunity helps invest in Penn students beyond graduation,” said Devesh Kapur, CASI director and Madan Lal Sobti Associate Professor in the School of Arts & Sciences. “Through the Sobti Family Fellowship, a recent graduate can take their independent interests and research beyond the classroom towards real world applications. CASI can now support a graduating senior to further develop ideas in the field and provide a bridge between undergraduate studies and future scholarly aspirations. We look forward to guiding Vignesh as he begins work in India this fall.”

Mr. Selvakumaran is applying to medical school for the fall of 2015.

Wharton Business Plan Competition

The Wharton School announced that student team Slidejoy won the $30,000 Perlman Grand Prize of the 2014 Wharton Business Plan Competition. The prize was awarded at the Wharton School’s annual Venture Finals, where student finalists received more than $125,000 in combined cash prizes and in-kind legal/accounting services.

Slidejoy is an intelligent Android app that pays users to view beautifully designed ads every time they unlock their phones. Sanghoon Kwak, WG’14; Jaeho Chung, WG’14; Robert Seo WG’12, explained that over time Slidejoy learns the preferences of a user based off of previous behaviors during different times of day and at different locations and curates a more profitable and relevant user experience. Users are paid between $5-$15 per month for using Slidejoy.

The winners are:

Perlman Grand Prize: $30,000 to Slidejoy

Second Prize: $15,000 to PhaseOptics

Third Prize: $10,000 to VeryApt

Wharton Social Impact Prize: $10,000 to Dana Cita

Gloeckner Undergraduate Award: $10,000 for the highest ranking Wharton undergraduate team to Black Box Denim

Michelson People’s Choice Award: $3,000 to PhaseOptics

Committee Award for Most Disruptive Company: $1,000 to Senvol

Committee Award for Best Use of Technology: $1,000 to Identified Technologies

Committee Award for Committee’s Choice: $1,000 to Command Health

The Wharton Business Plan competition is managed by Wharton Entrepreneurial programs and is open to any Penn student. See http://bpc.wharton.upenn.edu/venturefinals.html