Cecil Balmond: 2016 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal

Cecil Balmond, professor of practice in architecture at PennDesign, is the recipient of the 2016 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture. This medal is the highest honor bestowed by the  University of Virginia and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello.

Mr. Balmond, an internationally renowned artist, architect, writer and structural engineer, is among four honorees recognized in architecture, law, citizen leadership and global innovation. As part of the award, he gave a public talk followed by a reception and book signing earlier this month at the University of Virginia. At Penn, he founded the Non-Linear Systems Organization, a material and structural research unit. He also designed the Weave Bridge pedestrian overpass at Penn Park. 

Marge Bruchac: Mellon Foundation Fellowship

Margaret M. Bruchac, assistant professor of anthropology and coordinator of Native American & indigenous studies at Penn, received a prestigious fellowship funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. The Career Enhancement Fellowship for Junior Faculty is intended to increase the presence of minority and other faculty members who are “committed to eradicating racial disparities, and breaking down stereotypes and promoting cross-racial understanding in core fields in the arts and sciences.”

Dr. Bruchac will be on sabbatical leave for the 2016-2017 academic year, composing a series of publications based on findings from her research projects, including On the Wampum Trail (funded by the Penn Museum) and The Speck Connection (funded by the University Research Foundation).

Sona Dadhania: 2016 Science Ambassador Scholarship

Sona Dadhania, a Penn freshman, was chosen from among more than a thousand applicants to receive the Cards Against Humanity 2016 Science Ambassador Scholarship. The scholarship is intended “to raise visibility of women in science.” Ms. Dadhania has won a full scholarship to study materials science & engineering.

As part of the application process, students submitted personal videos explaining topics in science. Ms. Dadhania’s video on nanotechnology was selected by an advisory board of over sixty women who hold higher degrees and work in science fields.

Josep Dalmau: 2016 AAN Cotzias Lecture and Award

Josep Dalmau, an adjunct professor of neurology and founder and director of the Penn Center for Autoimmune Neurology in the Perelman School of Medicine, received the American Academy of Neurology’s (AAN) 2016 Cotzias Lecture and Award at the organization’s 68th annual meeting last week in Vancouver, British Columbia. 

Dr. Dalmau is a world authority on autoimmune and paraneoplastic disorders affecting the nervous system. His Cotzias Lecture, “Antibody mediated disorders of the synapse,” included a discussion of advances in these diseases, particularly anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, an autoimmune neurological disease first identified by Dr. Dalmau and colleagues at Penn in 2007.

Goldwater Scholarships

Penn students Elyse Chase, Kevin Chen and Jordan Doman have won Barry M. Goldwater Scholarships, awarded annually to juniors and sophomores interested in careers in mathematics, the natural sciences or engineering research. They are among 300 sophomores and juniors selected. The scholarship will provide a maximum of $7,500 annually to fund as many as two years of undergraduate study.

Ms. Chase, a junior in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, is majoring in mechanical engineering & applied mechanics. She is a member of the Haptic Lab of Katherine J. Kuchenbecker, the Class of 1940 Bicentennial Endowed Term Chair Associate Professor, focusing on implementation of touch feedback in the da Vinci robotic surgical system. She plans to pursue a PhD in mechanical engineering.

Mr. Chen, a sophomore studying physics, biophysics and biochemistry in the School of Arts & Sciences, is a member of physiology Professor Yale Goldman’s lab in Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, focusing on developing zero mode waveguides for studying single molecule dynamics. He plans to pursue a doctorate in biophysics.

Ms. Doman, a junior, will earn both a bachelor’s in biochemistry and a master’s in chemistry when she graduates next year. Her master’s thesis, under the direction of Ivan Dmochowski, professor of chemistry, focuses on the synthesis of biosensors to be used in conjunction with a new kind of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging for the ultrasensitive detection of proteins implicated in cancer and other diseases. She plans to pursue a PhD in chemical biology.

Leonore Annenberg Arts Fellowships

Nine early-career artists have been named as the recipients of grants from the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund for the Performing and Visual Arts, which awards $50,000 a year for up to two years to help promising individuals make a breakthrough in their artistry, broaden their skills and achieve professional success. The Fund is administered by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at Penn. Fellowships totaling $450,000 were awarded to violinist Robyn Bollinger; bass-baritone Brandon Cedel; actors Jeremie Harris, Miriam Hyman and David Pegram; cellist and conductor Nico Olarte-Hayes; visual artist Nyugen Smith; ballet dancer Devon Teuscher; and musician and musicologist Daniel Walden.

Rahul Mangharam and Aaron Roth:  Presidential Early Career Awards

Rahul Mangharam, an associate professor in the departments of electrical & systems engineering and computer & information science, and Aaron Roth, the Raj and Neera Singh Assistant Professor in the department of computer & information science, both in Penn Engineering, are recipients of the 2016 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). This is the highest honor bestowed by the United States Government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.

Dr. Mangharam’s research focuses on merging computing, communications and the physical world into integrated cyber-physical systems, enabling seamless communication with and control of objects such as smart buildings, the human body and automobiles in the physical world.

Dr. Roth’s interests lie in designing new algorithms for querying large datasets that protect an individual’s personal information while leading to more reliable outcomes. He and his colleagues are developing a “differentially private” approach that allows a company like Google to examine consumer trends in data while ensuring that individual information is not revealed.

Mitchell Orenstein: Alfred Rubin EPIIC Colloquium Award

Mitchell Orenstein, a professor in the department of Slavic languages & literatures at Penn, has received the Alfred Rubin Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC) Colloquium Award of the Tufts University Institute for Global Leadership. He is recognized for teaching an intensive, condensed course covering the state of Russia and Europe in international affairs to students in a year-long colloquium program at Tufts during an Outward Bound weekend retreat.

During the modified course in January, Dr. Orenstein covered the basics about the European Union, Russia’s domestic and international politics, how Russia differs institutionally from the European Union and a bit of background about the current state of Ukraine.

Penn IUR’s Urban Leadership Awards

The Penn Institute for Urban Research (Penn IUR) announced the recipients of its 12th annual Urban Leadership Awards, which recognize leaders who are guiding cities toward a sustainable and vibrant future. The 2016 awardees are Angela Glover Blackwell, president & CEO of PolicyLink, and Jeremy Nowak, president of J Nowak and Associates. They were honored earlier this month at Penn IUR’s 12th annual Urban Leadership Forum.

Ms. Blackwell started PolicyLink in 1999 and continues to drive its mission of advancing economic and social equity. Under her leadership, PolicyLink has become a leading voice in the movement to use public policy to improve access and opportunity for all low-income people and communities of color, particularly in the areas of health, housing, transportation, education and infrastructure.

Dr. Nowak operates a consulting firm that specializes in social investment, urban policy and strategy. In 2011 and 2012, he was president of the William Penn Foundation, where he developed the blueprint for their current grant making. He is a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a scholar at Penn IUR and former chair of the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

Penn Nursing: QS World University’s #1 Nursing School

The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing is the number one nursing school in the world, according to QS World University Rankings. The rankings highlight the world’s top universities in 42 different subject areas based on academic reputation, employer reputation and research impact. The rankings by subject are compiled using global surveys of academics and employers, which are used to assess institutions’ international reputation in each subject, and research impact, based on research citations per paper and h-index in the relevant subject. This year’s rankings were based on responses from 77,000 academics worldwide.

Penn Vet’s 2016 Student Inspiration Awards

Jane Karpowicz, W. Wendy Kuo and Ellen Lapuck received Penn Vet’s prestigious Student Inspiration Awards for 2016. Launched in 2008, the award is presented annually to Penn Vet students who demonstrate the potential to significantly advance the frontiers of veterinary medicine and expand the profession’s impact on the wellbeing of animals and society.

Ms. Karpowicz and Ms. Lapuck, both second-year students, received $25,000 for their winning proposal, “A Focus on Poultry: Reducing Morbidity and Mortality for Smallholder Farmers in Uganda.” The funds will be used to develop a program in Uganda to train poultry farmers and implement a vaccine campaign against the Newcastle Disease virus. The program will provide farmers with training and resources on basic poultry husbandry. 

Ms. Kuo, also a second-year student, received $25,000 for her winning proposal, “Little Biota, Big Data.” The funds will be used to compile microbiome data representative of a healthy baseline for different food animal species. Based on the compiled data, visualization and analysis tools will be developed, and the data and analysis will be incorporated into a central repository. The project aims to rapidly detect emerging antibiotic-resistant microbes by recognizing patterns in changing communities of the microbiome of food animals.

2016 Thouron Prize Winners 

Three Penn sophomores received John Thouron Prizes to pursue summer studies at Pembroke College, Cambridge University. The Prize, awarded each year to nine undergraduate students from Harvard University, Yale University and Penn, covers tuition, room and board and travel for the eight-week summer study program.

Isabella Cuan is majoring in biological basis of behavior (BBB). She will study classical British architecture and medicine and disease in European history and conduct independent research in neuroscience.

Emily Hoeven is majoring in English. She will study international law, 18th century English literature and art history and conduct an independent research project in literature.

Justin Hopkins is majoring in political science. He will study international law and warfare and Western national security and pursue an independent research project in social sciences.

UCD: Win-Win Challenge Grant 

The Job Opportunity Investment Network (JOIN) selected University City District (UCD) to receive a $300,000, two-year implementation grant through its Win-Win Challenge. The funds will be used to launch Green City Works, a new social enterprise that will provide high-quality groundskeeping services while developing job skills and advancement opportunities for low-income workers interested in landscaping trades. Green City Works is an extension of UCD’s West Philadelphia Skills Initiative program.

In addition to grant funding, UCD will receive peer support and technical assistance, access to the National Fund for Workforce Solutions annual meeting, programmatic evaluation and case studies, one-on-one support from JOIN staff and consultants, and opportunities to share learnings and results with media and policy, program and philanthropic leaders.

The 2016 Newly Retired Faculty

The following faculty members were accorded emeritus status during the 2015-2016 academic year.  Those marked with an asterisk (*) have elected not to use the emeritus title modifier. The year each one joined the Penn faculty ranks is noted in parentheses.

Sherrill Adams, Professor Emerita, Biochemistry, Dental Medicine (’79)

Jay Amsterdam, Professor Emeritus C-E, Psychiatry, PSOM (’79)

Steven Arnold, Professor Emeritus, Psychiatry, PSOM (’90)

Judith Aronchick, Associate Professor Emerita C-E, Radiology, PSOM (’83)

Jaclyn Biegel, Professor Emerita C-E, Pediatrics, PSOM (’90)

Stanley Caroff, Professor Emeritus C-E, Psychiatry, PSOM (’81)

Theodore Cheek, Associate Professor Emeritus C-E, Anesthesia, PSOM (’82)

Mortimer Civan, Professor Emeritus, Physiology, PSOM (’72)

George Day, Professor Emeritus, Marketing, Wharton (’91)

L. Henry Edmunds, Jr., Professor Emeritus, Surgery Administration, PSOM (’73)

*Dean Foster, Professor, Statistics, Wharton (’92)

Nigel Fraser, Professor Emeritus, Microbiology, PSOM (’81)

Thomas Gerrity, Professor Emeritus, Management, Wharton (’90)

Eduardo Glandt, Professor Emeritus, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, SEAS (’73)

Prabodh Gupta, Professor Emeritus C-E, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, PSOM (’88)

Trevor Hadley, Professor Emeritus C-E, Psychiatry, PSOM (’88)

William Hamilton, Professor Emeritus, Management, Wharton (’67)

Lothar Haselberger, Professor Emeritus, History of Art, SAS (’91)

Ronald Heppenstall, Professor Emeritus, Orthopaedic Surgery, PSOM (’69)

Loretta Jemmott, Professor Emerita, Family & Community Health, Nursing (’95)

Arthur Johnson, Professor Emeritus, Earth & Environmental Science, SAS (’75)

Mary Keenan, Professor Emerita C-E, Orthopaedic Surgery, PSOM (’03)

Ellen Kennedy, Professor Emerita, Political Science, SAS (’89)

Lawrence Levin, Associate Professor Emeritus C-E, Oral Surgery and Pharmacology, Dental Medicine (’92)

Irwin Lucki, Professor Emeritus, Psychiatry, PSOM (’84)

Reynold Panettieri, Professor Emeritus, Pulmonary, Allergy & Critical Care, PSOM (’84)

Robert Perelman, Professor Emeritus, English, SAS (’90)

*Andrew Porter, Professor, Education, GSE (’07)

*Michele Richman, Professor, Romance Languages, SAS (’74)

Richard Ross, Professor Emeritus C-E, Psychiatry, PSOM (’84)

Susan Ross, Professor Emerita, Microbiology, PSOM (’94)

*Paul Rozin, Professor, Psychology, SAS (’63)

Jitendra Singh, Professor Emeritus, Management, Wharton (’87)

Larry Sneddon, Professor Emeritus, Chemistry, SAS (’74)

Jonathan Steinberg, Professor Emeritus, History, SAS (’00)

Peter Steiner, Professor Emeritus, Slavic Languages & Literatures, SAS (’78)

David Stern, Professor Emeritus, Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations, SAS (’84)

Hugh Sweeney, Professor Emeritus, Physiology, PSOM (’89)

*David Weiner, Associate Professor, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, PSOM (’86)

Kenneth Wolpin, Professor Emeritus, Economics, SAS (’94)