November 3, 2015 Volume 62 Issue 12

University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann announced last Wednesday the launch of the President’s Innovation Prize, a competitively awarded annual prize aimed at building on the University’s culture of innovation and entrepreneurship while underscoring the high priority that Penn places on educating students to put their knowledge to work for the betterment of humankind.

The Prize will be awarded to a graduating Penn senior, or group of Penn seniors, in the spring of 2016. At $100,000, plus a $50,000 living stipend per team member, the Prize is among the largest opportunities in higher education for undergraduate students to pursue innovation and entrepreneurship outside the classroom.

“Everything we do to reward innovation and impact fuels Penn’s core missions of teaching, research and service,” Dr. Gutmann said. “Penn students are educated to think creatively and are equipped to master new areas of knowledge and collaborate across cultural and disciplinary boundaries. This Prize gives our graduating seniors a unique and life-changing opportunity to be inventive and think broadly about cutting-edge commercial projects that also have social impact.”

The President’s Innovation Prize is the commercial analogue to the nonprofit President’s Engagement Prizes, which were first awarded in March (Almanac March 31, 2015). Project ideas must be envisioned as commercial enterprises with a social component, designed to generate a profit that is sustainable over time. As part of the Prize, student winners will also receive dedicated office space at the University’s new Pennovation Works for one year, as well as mentorship from Penn Center for Innovation staff.

“Penn students and alumni have a long and impressive track record of being on the vanguard of innovation and of proving that social entrepreneurship and enterprise can remediate social ills around the globe,” Dr. Gutmann said. “From chewing gum that helps fight dental disease in the developing world to eye glasses whose sales support the donation of eyewear to people in need, they are building businesses on the idea that the generation of a profit can, and often should, be mutually supportive of social good.”

The President’s Innovation Prize further advances the Penn Compact 2020’s core commitment to innovation and impact. The Prize is the newest addition to the Presidential Initiatives, which include the President’s Engagement Prizes launched last fall (Almanac September 2, 2014). Other key Penn Compact 2020 initiatives include a comprehensive effort to raise an additional $240 million for Penn’s endowment to support undergraduate financial aid (Almanac March 4, 2014), bringing the University total to nearly $900 million raised since the start of the Making History campaign, as well as the new President’s Distinguished Professorship Fund to create as many as 50 new endowed professorships during the next four years (Almanac March 18, 2014).

Any full-time graduating senior in the College of Arts & Sciences, School of Engineering & Applied Science, School of Nursing or Wharton School who will complete an undergraduate degree in December 2015, May 2016 or August 2016 will be eligible to apply.

The application process for the President’s Innovation Prize will be jointly administered by the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships (CURF) and the Penn Center for Innovation. Details of the application process are available on the CURF website at http://www.upenn.edu/curf/fellowships/presidents-innovation-prize

This year’s application deadline is February 12, 2016. The inaugural President’s Innovation Prize will be awarded in April 2016.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have received a five-year, $3.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop materials for multifunctional coatings on emergency tents, enabling them to manage water, prevent the spread of bacteria and capture and store solar energy.

These disparate capabilities all stem from fundamental research on how materials behave on the nanoscale, where minute structural details can produce large-scale effects.

The grant is part of the NSF’s Partnerships in International Research and Education (PIRE) program, which seeks to foster global collaborations on topics of societal importance.

The Penn team features dozens of faculty members and students in the School of Engineering & Applied Science (SEAS), School of Arts & Sciences (SAS) and Perelman School of Medicine. It is being directed by Russell Composto, SEAS’s associate dean of undergraduate education and a professor in the department of materials science & engineering. Zahra Fakhraai, an assistant professor in SAS’s department of chemistry; Daeyeon Lee, an associate professor of chemical & biomolecular engineering; and Kristin Field, director of programs at the Nano/Bio Interface Center, are also on the leadership team.

Their project, “Research and Education in Active Coatings Technologies for the human habitat” (REACT), is principally a collaboration with Grenoble Innovation for Advanced New Technologies (GIANT), a public-private research partnership based in Grenoble, France, which has received a complementary grant from the French science funding agencies Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and Angence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR). Patrice Rannou, associate director of international research, is the director of the GIANT contingent.

“We have a longstanding relationship for international research experience and student exchange with GIANT,” Dr. Composto said. “This grant is going to expand this relationship and organize it around three coating technologies: water management, infection control and energy collection and storage.”

The project is also being conducted in conjunction with the Complex Assemblies of Soft Matter Lab (COMPASS), which is itself a collaboration between Penn, CNRS and Solvay, a multinational company with facilities near Penn and Grenoble. Ryan Murphy, the research and innovation external affairs coordinator for Solvay North America, leads the Solvay contingent.

Penn will also collaborate with researchers at Alabama State University, Villanova University and Bryn Mawr College.

The ultimate goal for the PIRE project is a prototype of an emergency tent that exhibits all three active coating technologies, or ACTs. However, the fundamental nature of the properties they will exhibit means they could be applied, individually or together, in many architectural contexts.

“These types of coatings can have much broader impacts,” Dr. Lee said. “Since they can be sprayed or painted on a variety of materials, they could be used to completely renovate already existing buildings to make them more eco-friendly and energy efficient.”

Members of all of the project’s partner institutions will collaborate on the basic science and industrial design necessary to realize the three ACTs.  

ACT 1, Hierarchical Structures for Water Management, will be led by Robert Riggleman, assistant professor in the department of chemical & biomolecular engineering, and Shu Yang, professor in the department of materials science & engineering. Whether environmental conditions involve too much or too little water, controlling where it goes is of critical importance. ACT 1 research will involve developing superhydrophobic coatings that are inspired by natural examples, like beetles and cacti. These coatings will provide a flexible way of channeling water through nanoscale membranes that will filter out harmful impurities.

ACT 2, Prevention of Infection Transmission, will be led by Dr. Lee and Mamie Coats, an assistant professor of microbiology at Alabama State University. In crisis zones, the need for medical attention may rise as the ability to maintain sterile conditions drops. This research track will investigate how surface features influence adhesion, with the specific aim of preventing the formation of infection-spreading biofilms. Research into bacteria’s chemical and mechanical tools for clinging to surfaces will inform soft material-based countermeasures, such as coatings that react by releasing antimicrobial agents or that attempt to directly destroy these cells’ membranes.

ACT 3, Self-assembled Nanomaterials for Energy Generation and Storage, will be led by Dr. Fakhraai; Christopher Murray, a Penn Integrates Knowledge professor with appointments in chemistry and in materials science & engineering; and Karen Winey, the TowerBrook Foundation Faculty Fellow and professor in materials science & engineering. Lighting, heating, cooling and communications are also critical in disaster zones, so emergency shelters that can provide their own electricity would be more self-sufficient. ACT 3 aims to develop nanoscale “waveguides” that can channel sunlight to photovoltaic panels, as well as polymer-based batteries to store it while in the field.

“The idea is to have energy-harvesting layers, water-collecting layers and antibiotic layers,” Dr. Fakhraai said. “We can make them transparent and porous so they can stack them in different orders depending on what the needs are. The most challenging part will be to make it so that their properties don’t interfere.”

Beyond exchanging researchers and sharing nanoscale tools, the partnership will develop students’ teaching and presentation skills through Penn’s Center for Teaching and Learning. In addition, students will receive mentoring and internship opportunities with GIANT and Solvay.

“We’re training them for science in an international environment,” Dr. Field said.

Solvay is also sponsoring the group’s kick-off symposium in December where REACT members from all partner institutions will have a chance to meet and begin planning their research agenda for the next five years. Harvey Rubin of Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, an expert on natural disasters and emergency response, will provide a keynote address. Vijay Kumar, the Nemirovsky Family Dean of Penn Engineering; Dawn Bonnell, Penn’s vice provost for Research, and Xavier Morise, head of CNRS’ North American office, will also speak.   

Nominations for Penn’s University-wide teaching awards are now being accepted by the Office of the Provost. Any member of the University community, past or present, may nominate a teacher for these awards. There are three awards:

The Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching honors eight members of the standing faculty—four in the non-health schools (Annenberg, Design, Engineering & Applied Science, GSE, Law, SAS, Social Policy & Practice and Wharton) and four in the health schools (Dental Medicine, Medicine, Nursing and Veterinary Medicine).

The Provost’s Award for Distinguished PhD Teaching and Mentoring honors two faculty members for their teaching and mentoring of PhD students. Standing and associated faculty in any school offering the PhD are eligible for the award.

The Provost’s Award for Teaching Excellence by Non-Standing Faculty honors two members of the associated faculty or academic support staff who teach at Penn, one in the non-health schools and one in the health schools.

The nomination forms are available at http://provost.upenn.edu/education/teaching-at-penn/teaching-awards The deadline for nominations is Friday, December 4, 2015. Full nominations, with complete dossiers prepared by the nominees’ department chairs, are due Friday, February 5, 2016.

Note: For the Lindback and Non-Standing Faculty awards, the health schools—Dental Medicine, Nursing, Medicine and Veterinary Medicine—have a separate nomination and selection process. Contact the relevant Dean’s Office in order to nominate a faculty member from one of those schools.

There will be a reception honoring all the award winners in the spring. For more information, please e-mail provost-ed@upenn.edu or call (215) 898-7225.

Criteria and Guidelines

1. The Lindback and Provost’s Awards are given in recognition of distinguished teaching. “Distinguished teaching” is teaching that is intellectually demanding, unusually coherent and permanent in its effect. The distinguished teacher has the capability of changing the way in which students view the subject they are studying. The distinguished teacher provides the basis for students to look with critical and informed perception at the fundamentals of a discipline, and s/he relates that discipline to other disciplines and to the worldview of the student. The distinguished teacher is accessible to students and open to new ideas, but also expresses his/her own views with articulate and informed understanding of an academic field. The distinguished teacher is fair, free from prejudice and single-minded in the pursuit of truth.

2. Skillful direction of dissertation students, effective supervision of student researchers, ability to organize a large course of many sections, skill in leading seminars, special talent with large classes, ability to handle discussions or structure lectures—these are all attributes of distinguished teaching, although it is unlikely that anyone will excel in all of them. At the same time, distinguished teaching means different things in different fields. While the distinguished teacher should be versatile, as much at home in large groups as in small, in beginning classes as in advanced, s/he may have skills of special importance in his/her area of specialization. The primary criteria for the Provost’s Award for Distinguished PhD Teaching and Mentoring are a record of successful doctoral student mentoring and placement, success in collaborating on doctoral committees and graduate groups and distinguished research.

3. Since distinguished teaching is recognized and recorded in different ways, evaluation must also take several forms. It is not enough to look solely at letters of recommendation from students or to consider “objective” evaluations of particular classes in tabulated form. A faculty member’s influence extends beyond the classroom and individual classes. Nor is it enough to look only at a candidate’s most recent semester or opinions expressed immediately after a course is over; the influence of the best teachers lasts, while that of others may be great at first but lessen over time. It is not enough merely to gauge student adulation, for its basis is superficial; but neither should such feelings be discounted as unworthy of investigation. Rather, all of these factors and more should enter into the identification and assessment of distinguished teaching.

4. The Lindback and Provost’s Awards have a symbolic importance that transcends the recognition of individual merit. They should be used to advance effective teaching by serving as reminders to the University community of the expectations for the quality of its mission.

5. Distinguished teaching occurs in all parts of the University. Therefore, faculty members from all schools are eligible for consideration. An excellent teacher who does not receive an award in a given year may be re-nominated in some future year and receive the award then.

6. The Lindback and Provost’s Awards may recognize faculty members with many years of distinguished service or many years of service remaining. The teaching activities for which the awards are granted must be components of the degree programs of the University of Pennsylvania.

7. A faculty member may not be considered for a teaching award in a terminal year or the year in which s/he is being considered for tenure.

Marilyn Hess, professor emerita of pharmacology at Penn, died of natural causes on October 20 at the Quadrangle in Haverford, Pennsylvania. She was 90 years old.

Dr. Hess was born in Erie, Pennsylvania. She earned her BS in chemistry and biology from Villa Maria College in 1946. She then studied at Penn, earning her MS in physiological chemistry and physiology in 1949 and her PhD in pharmacology (the first granted at Penn) and physiology in 1957. She later continued her studies, completing her MSEd at Penn in 1985.

Dr. Hess was a research assistant at Penn from 1946-1950. She joined the faculty in 1951 as an assistant instructor in physiology, and later that year, in pharmacology. She left her post in physiology in 1952 and rose through the ranks in pharmacology; she became an assistant professor in 1963, associate professor in 1968 (Almanac November 1968) and full professor in 1976.

She became the course coordinator for the Pharmacology Graduate Group in 1976 and the course director of Pharmacology 100 in 1985. Garret A. FitzGerald, the Robert L. McNeil, Jr., Professor in Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, called Dr. Hess’ Pharmacology 100 “the best integrated course on pharmacology for medical and graduate students developed at any university in the country. Students taking her course consistently outperformed in this discipline in national standardized tests.”

Dr. Hess served as acting chair of the department of pharmacology from 1987-1988. She served on the Faculty Senate and its Senate Executive Committee and on the University Council (Almanac November 23, 1976) and its Steering Committee (Almanac May 24, 1977).

She received the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching (Almanac April 4, 1989) and the School of Medicine’s Special Dean’s Award (Almanac April 21, 1998).

Dr. Hess pursued her research on the relationship between perturbed metabolism and cardiac function. She obtained a prestigious Research Career Development Award from the NIH and became an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association (AHA). She coupled her science with community service, particularly to the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics and the AHA, often participating on leadership committees. She also served on the examination committee of the National Board of Medical Examiners.

Dr. Hess retired from Penn in 1994. After her retirement, she served as treasurer/secretary of the Association of Senior and Emeritus Faculty of the School of Medicine (ASEF).

“It is as a teacher supreme that Marilyn will be most fondly remembered,” said Dr. FitzGerald. “She wasn’t just widely admired, but also widely loved. It was easy to see why. She was a highly intelligent, feisty, funny and generous person, devoted to her students, but also serving as energizer bunny and social catalyst amongst the faculty. Marilyn cared for us all—new children or grandchildren, sickness or major life events, she cared for us as if we were her family. Of course, Marilyn had her own family who loved her too; we only got to borrow her. Marilyn was a fount of knowledge—pharmacology, physiology, hiking, opera, sports or beer—she loved life and it showed. We shall miss this warm soul of our department, consoled only by the echoes of her humor and the attention with which she mentored her successors.”

Dr. Hess is survived by her nieces, Karla Cook, Lesley Desautels and Gillian Desautels; her nephew, the Honorable Kevin Hess; eight grandnieces and grandnephews, and numerous great-grandnieces and great-grandnephews.

Funeral services will be held on Friday, November 6 at Minshall, Shropshire-Bleyler Funeral Home, 608 South Old Middletown Road, Media, PA 19063. Visiting hours will be from 10-11 a.m., followed by a memorial service from 11 a.m.-noon. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to the American Heart Association (https://donatenow.heart.org) or the American Cancer Society (https://donate.cancer.org).

Donald H. Fey, a retired development writer and news officer at Penn, died on October 18 of heart failure at Bryn Mawr Hospital in Bryn Mawr,

Pennsylvania. He was 82 years old.

Mr. Fey grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and attended West Philadelphia High School. In 1952, he enlisted in the Army and was stationed as of 1953 in Seoul, South Korea, where he analyzed, decoded and translated intercepted radio messages of the North Korean army. He rose to the rank of sergeant and was discharged in 1955 with the technical rank of SP2. He then joined the Philadelphia Fire Department in Center City, Philadelphia, where he served until the early 1960s before leaving for college.

Mr. Fey studied at Franklin and Marshall College and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and graduated from Temple University. He was an editor at Business Week before joining Penn’s staff in 1968 as a news officer for engineering and the physical sciences (Almanac September 1968). In 1972, he became a science editor (Almanac December 19, 1972). In 1975, he became a development writer, then was promoted in 1976 to senior staff writer. He retired from Penn in 1981 and was later director of development communications at Thomas Jefferson University.

Mr. Fey published The Complete Book of Fund-Raising Writing in 1995. He lectured on fund-raising writing at Penn and several other colleges and universities, as well as non-profits. He also received an award from Time Life for excellence in copywriting.

He is survived by his wife, Jeanne; his son, Peter; his daughter, Tina; one sister; two brothers and three grandchildren. Gifts in his honor may be made to a scholarship fund established in his name to support returning veterans enrolled in the department of journalism at Temple University’s School of Media & Communication. Checks should be made payable to “Temple University—Donald H. Fey Memorial Scholarship” and sent to Temple University, P.O. Box 827651, Philadelphia, PA 19182-7651.

At the October 28 University Council meeting, the first portion was devoted to the focus issue: the history and current status of open expression and academic freedom at Penn. Senior Vice President and General Counsel Wendy White provided the historical context, then Associate Vice Provost for Student Affairs Karu Kozuma spoke about Penn’s approach to open expression and the role of guidelines as well as a Council committee and the observers (formerly known as monitors). Vice Provost for Faculty Anita Allen noted that while open expression is a “glorious public value” with moral limits it can have adverse consequences. Associate Vice Provost for Equity and Access Will Gipson focused on the Campaign for Community as an opportunity to contribute to discussions about what matters most and to address national issues that impact the Penn community.

The second portion was devoted to the annual State of the University. There were two topics discussed; below is the first of two presentations. After mentioning the newly announced President’s Innovation Prize (see page 1), Penn President Amy Gutmann introduced John Zeller, who described Penn Impact 2020, which is part of Penn Compact 2020.

The second presentation concerned Mental Health Issues on Campus and will be in next week’s issue.

John Zeller, Vice President, Development & Alumni Relations

I was reflecting on the last time that I appeared before this group. It was 10 weeks before the conclusion of the Making History campaign and when asked where we stood I was unable to articulate what the number was because we were keeping it a secret (Almanac November 6, 2012). A few months later we announced that we had surpassed the $3.5 billion-dollar goal with commitments of $4.3 billion and cash of $3.6 billion. This is a remarkable testament to the entire Penn community: alumni, friends, donors, leadership, trustees, the list goes on. But there was another goal associated with the Making History campaign that wasn’t measured in terms of numerical contributions. That was the effort to not only successfully meet the three core priorities of the Campaign: the $3.5 billion goal, the highest priorities of the Schools and Centers and what we called our non-financial objectives, but also to elevate and sustain our post-campaign engagement in support of the Penn family so that all of the work that was done to increase our engagement and our success in our fundraising would continue.

Dr. Gutmann articulated the post-campaign focus for Development and Alumni Relations under her broader plan known as the Penn Compact 2020. We have taken that charge and built an infrastructure to support fundraising and alumni engagement. We have created the development and alumni relations portion as you just heard from the President branded as Penn Impact 2020.

The Penn Impact 2020 focuses on key University priorities that also marked the center post of the Making History campaign: support for undergraduate, graduate and professional student aid, endowed faculty positions at all levels and the continuation of our engagement activities University-wide.

Penn Impact 2020 is a focused five-year effort that began last year with the aforementioned University priorities, and will evolve this year to include strategic priorities for the Schools and Centers. Given the transitions of a number of Deans, this activity will be ongoing as priorities are identified in the various Schools. All of this activity will have annual goals for each element embedded in the planning. This represents what we focus on, and as Dr. Gutmann said, the final push will occur in FY19.

Let me give you a quick update on the University priorities. Following the conclusion of the Campaign, Dr. Gutmann reiterated the importance of sustaining the momentum in two key areas: student aid and faculty support.

For student aid, a goal was established of raising $350 million in new support in addition to the $650 million raised during the Campaign, bringing the total raised for this key priority since 2005 to $1 billion. At the end of September 2015, we were at $826 million dollars towards that billion-dollar goal. This is a very positive trajectory.

Let me break it down for you, as undergraduate financial aid is really one of the fundamental core elements. We finished the Campaign at $366.5 million and we stand at $477.6 million through September 30 with the aspirational goal of achieving $600 million towards additional endowment support towards undergraduate financial aid.

When you tie undergraduate financial aid fundraising and the financial aid budget together, you see the importance of focusing on undergraduate financial aid. In a need-blind environment, the budget has grown from $80 million to $206 million this past year. I should note that when we began the Campaign, roughly 10% of the undergraduate financial aid budget came from endowment. At the conclusion of the Campaign, coupling both new commitments and the investment returns, that number is now 25%. We still have a long way to go but are making a lot of progress.

The resonance of this with our alumni and friends is pretty dramatic. Since 2005 we have created 1,135 new scholarships across the four undergraduate Schools. The peak of this was in 2006 and it dipped a little during the recession, but our donors stayed with us and we achieved a really remarkable return.

Graduate-level aid was one of the objectives of the Campaign. It did give me some pause; I was nervous about how we would do in raising funds because the nature of graduate aid is so different across the 12 Schools. However, we received $285 million in graduate aid through the Campaign with the goal of adding another $115 million, bringing the total to $400 million for new endowment. We are at roughly $350 million to date. I don’t like to make predictions but I think that we are going to blow through the $400 million goal relatively soon.

An equally important priority for Penn Impact 2020 is the continued emphasis on faculty support. Faculty is the fundamental key to the success of any University. Dr. Gutmann had charged us with looking at how we could build on the success of $573 million in new faculty support. This is predominantly endowments at all levels—the assistant, the associate, the full and the PIK program that Dr. Gutmann initiated when she started her presidency. The goal is to bring the total to $900 million, of which we are at $719 million. This has been accelerated by the President creating the matching program for donors for at least 50 new endowments in faculty appointments across the Schools. That incentive match has already generated 18 new Presidential Distinguished and PIK Professorships in 14 months, so the resonance and the messaging around this has been very strong.

I think it is important to see how the growth of support for key priorities has grown, from pre-campaign levels to the Campaign averages, but more importantly, how that level has continued into the Penn Impact 2020. Our goal of sustaining our momentum and level of support has been a focus of our work and we are seeing the positive results. This is one of the great challenges coming out of the Campaign—being able to not only achieve a new level of fundraising but to sustain it.

The fundraising priorities are distributed across the University, ranging from student aid, faculty, capital, programs and research, and unrestricted. This of course varies by School and Center, and in the aggregate, it is very similar to the distribution for the Making History campaign, when we were doing the planning in 2005-2006. The categories really do have an impact in all 12 Schools and in the six Centers.

Engagement was the third element of the Making History campaign, and like fundraising, our goal was to build on the success of the Campaign and grow our engagement activities across all Schools, taking best practices and applying the principles to the unique nature of each program. We said at the beginning of the Campaign, if we don’t take the energy, effort and resources to launch the Campaign and at the same time embrace the opportunity for people to participate in the fabric of the life of the University, in whatever way that might be, we would have failed. I am pleased to say that our engagement has never been stronger, more diverse or more global in its nature and we will continue to focus on this.

I am going to put a shameless plug in here. How many of you sitting in this room are members of Quaker Net? Quaker Net is something that you should join because it is a search engine tool that you can use by affinity, by class, by geography and by nature of employment. You can connect with people on it and we have found it to be an incredibly robust tool to bring people together. It is kind of modeled on Facebook. If you are not on it, I would strongly encourage you to join as it is a tool that no matter where you are in the world, you can log in and say, “I wonder if I have somebody from this class or from this area of interest within 25 miles away from where I happen to be.”

This slide gives you a graphic 10-year history of our donor growth by constituency. It shows where we started in the beginning of the Campaign and the continued growth in engagement and how support of Penn’s priorities has grown. As you can see, we have very broad support that continues to grow each year. This is a testament to the vision the Penn Compact 2020 represents, and how it resonates with the entire Penn family.

In closing, the Penn Impact 2020 development model is constructed of the three core priorities combined with programs and research, capital and unrestricted support. It provides for focus and goals, but also the continuing development of new priorities for each of the Schools and Centers. We wanted to build a construct that would allow us to attach to those core priorities the individual School and Center priorities—whether they fall in programs or research, capital and unrestricted support. That process will continue over the next few months and I am very excited about what the outcome will be for Penn. It will have a great impact to help us reach the new objectives for the new and long-term seated Deans and Center directors.

Linda H. Aiken, the Claire M. Fagin Leadership Professor in Nursing, professor of sociology and director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at Penn, received the Anthony J. Jannetti Award for Extraordinary Contributions to Health Care.

This award, the highest honor given by the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses (AMSN), is presented to an outstanding nurse leader who promotes the image of the nursing profession and contributes to the enhancement of healthcare as a whole. Dr. Aiken received the award during AMSN’s annual conference in Las Vegas in September. She also served as the keynote speaker, presenting on the impact nursing has on quality patient outcomes.

Erika L.F. Holzbaur, a professor of physiology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, received the 2015 F.E. Bennett Award from the American Neurological Association (ANA). This award is presented annually to an “outstanding researcher and educator in neurology.”

Dr. Holzbaur is recognized for her research and teaching on molecular motors. As the recipient of the award, she delivered the F.E. Bennett Memorial Lecture, “Autophagy and Mitophagy in Neuronal Homeostasis and Neurodegeneration,” at ANA’s annual meeting in Chicago in September.

The Philadelphia Business Journal presented the 2015 Health Care Innovator Award in October in Philadelphia, naming Carl June an Individual Innovator of the Year.

Dr. June is the director of translational research at Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center and a pioneer in immunotherapy to fight cancer. In 2011, his research team published findings that represented the first successful and sustained demonstration of the use of gene transfer therapy to treat cancer. Clinical trials using the approach, in which patients are treated with genetically engineered versions of their own T cells, are now underway for adults with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, as well as adults and children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. He and his team hope to continue to refine this approach in order to use it to treat patients with different types of cancers.

Xiaowei Zhuang, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and David B. Arnold Jr. Professor of Science in the departments of physics and chemistry & chemical biology at Harvard University, received the 2015 Award for Research Excellence in Nanotechnology from the Nano/Bio Interface Center (NBIC) at Penn.

Dr. Zhuang is a biophysicist recognized for her work in the development and application of advanced optical imaging techniques for the studies of biological systems. She invented Stochastic Optical Reconstruction Microscopy (STORM), one of the first single-molecule-based super-resolution imaging methods, and established STORM as a powerful tool for biology. She invented a single-cell transcriptome imaging method, MERFISH (multiplexed, error-robust fluorescence in situ hybridization), which allows in situ transcriptomic analysis in the native context of cells and tissues.

As the award recipient, Dr. Zhuang gave a talk last week entitled “Illuminating Biology at the Nanoscale with Single-molecule and Super-resolution Fluorescence Microscopy.”

Provost Vincent Price, Vice Provost for Education Beth Winkelstein, the Council of Undergraduate Deans and the Office of New Student Orientation and Academic Initiatives (NSOAI) are pleased to announce the Year of Media as the Provost’s Academic Theme Year for 2016-2017, and Orson Welles’ film, Citizen Kane, as the Penn Reading Project for 2016.

Penn Reading Project

This year is the 26th year of the Penn Reading Project (PRP), which was created as an introduction for incoming freshmen to academic life at Penn.

During New Student Orientation (August 25-29, 2016), the entire freshman class will gather in small groups with Penn faculty and senior academic administrators for a discussion of Citizen Kane. Immediately following the small group discussions, students will write an essay on the film; all PRP participants will also take part in a morning presentation on Citizen Kane and its themes.

Citizen Kane, released in 1941, is considered to be producer/director/star Orson Welles’ magnum opus, and it regularly tops lists of the greatest American films ever made. A fictionalized biography—of “Charles Foster Kane,” a character closely modeled on real-life newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst—Citizen Kane explores themes of power and media, including the importance of the news, how the news can be manipulated and how power shapes our leaders in both positive and negative ways. At the heart of Citizen Kane is a perhaps unanswerable question: Can we ever really interpret and understand a person’s life? In pursuit of an answer, Welles’ film famously switches the narrative among different observers, a technique that has had far-reaching resonance in later films.

Past Penn Reading Projects have included Langston Hughes’ The Big Sea, Anne Fadiman’s The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Adam Bradley’s Book of Rhymes, John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt, Lawrence Lessig’s Free Culture, Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography, Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Narrative of the Life of Frederic Douglass and Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia—as well as Thomas Eakins’ painting, The Gross Clinic. More information about the Penn Reading Project and its history can be found on the current Theme Year website: www.yearofdiscovery.org

Faculty members and senior academic administrators in all 12 Schools are invited to take part as PRP discussion leaders. You may sign up directly at www.prpleaders.org (If you have participated in the last few years, you can simply update your information.)

The Year of Media

Citizen Kane and the Penn Reading Project will open the Year of Media, devoted to exploring the theme of media across many areas of inquiry. A significant factor in the committee’s choice is Citizen Kane’s focus on news and newspapers, as well as politics, since 2016 is a Presidential election year. The fact that it is the first film chosen for the Penn Reading Project also reinforces the ever-growing prominence of media in academic discourse. We expect programming throughout the year to continue exploring these topics and others, including the evolving world of social media.

Penn’s academic theme years aim to provide a shared intellectual experience for the entire Penn community, with programming that is developed both centrally and in individual Schools and centers. NSOAI offers funding beginning July 1, 2016 to support theme year programs for the following year and invites current students, faculty and staff to design collaborative program opportunities across Penn’s campus and community. More information about applying for these grants will be available at www.themeyeargrants.org

Recommendations for Future Penn Reading Project Books and Theme Years

Penn Reading Projects and Academic Theme Years are selected by the Office of the Provost and the Council of Undergraduate Deans from nominations by members of the Penn community. NSOAI invites all current Penn students, faculty and staff to participate in the process at www.prpsuggestions.org

The PRP text should be an outstanding work that will form the basis for a lively discussion. PRP texts can be fiction or nonfiction, historical or contemporary. They can also be films, musical compositions and other works of art. When you submit your suggested text, explain why you think it will make a good PRP—and also suggest a theme year topic that arises from it. These topics should be broad in scope (e.g. Year of Media, Year of Discovery and Year of Proof) and encourage interdisciplinary exploration across all Penn Schools and centers.

Submissions can be made at any time, and will be reviewed by a nomination committee as they are submitted.

For more information, contact David Fox, director of Penn’s New Student Orientation and Academic Initiatives, at dfox@upenn.edu or (215) 573-5636.

The Veterans @ Penn Committee invite the Penn community to attend the Veterans Day Flag Raising Ceremony on College Green on Veterans Day, Wednesday, November 11. It will start at 8:30 a.m. with Ralph J. De Lucia, associate director of the Office of Affirmative Action & Equal Opportunity Programs, giving the opening remarks. The Penn Navy ROTC Battalion will lead the Pledge of Allegiance. The National Anthem and Presentation of Colors will be performed by the Penn Glee Club and the Penn Navy ROTC Color Guard. The Rev. Charles Howard, University chaplain, will give the Invocation, and Anne Cocos, a military veteran and graduate student from Penn’s School of Engineering & Applied Science (SEAS) will be the keynote speaker. The Penn Glee Club will also perform “America the Beautiful.” The Office of Affirmative Action & Equal Opportunity Programs, VPUL TRIO: Veterans Upward Bound and SEAS are sponsoring this annual event. The rain location is the Franklin Room in Houston Hall.

For more than two centuries military veterans have been a part of the Penn community. For a brief history of veterans at Penn, see the Benchmarks article (Almanac November 11, 2014).

The reception for the Homecoming Alumni Show at The Burrison Gallery is Friday, November 6 from 3-6 p.m. The exhibit will be open from November 5-8. Above are some works from the annual show (clockwise from top left): Gorilla: Clemson Smith Muniz, C’79; Malachite Tiles: Lillian Sun Tadlock, W’93; Narni from Monte Sorotte: Paul Reuther, CGS’97; Once Upon a Time in Siwa: Mariam Georges, ENG’10 & GEN’11; Wildflowers: Donna Porter, GFA’86; Gull Reflections: Jim Schaefer, C’69 & GFA’74.

Environmental Health and Radiation Safety (EHRS) and the Office of Animal Welfare (OAW) are hosting an event this month to encourage registrants to properly dispose of outdated and unwanted controlled substances. This event is open to all University employees who are current DEA registrants. The Office of the Vice Provost for Research is covering the disposal costs.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has recently published new regulations pertaining to the use and disposal of controlled substances. EHRS and OAW will be onsite to answer questions and provide information about these new regulations.

Instructions to participate in the event:

1. A drug inventory form must be completed electronically and submitted to EHRS. Forms must be forwarded electronically to Jim Crumley and received by November 13, 2015 if you wish to participate.*

2. On November 20, 2015, bring the items to PSOM Stellar-Chance, room 104, from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. DEA regulations require that two employees of the registrant escort the materials to the event and those two people must sign over the controlled substances to Penn’s licensed reverse distributor. The materials will be sent offsite for incineration at the conclusion of the event.

3. Copies of the transfer documents will be provided as documentation. These must be maintained in your file for a minimum of two years.

* This event is limited to current DEA registrants who wish to dispose of outdated or unwanted controlled substances. If you have any questions please contact: Jennifer Davis, OAW, (215) 573-0790, jennifd@upenn.edu or Jim Crumley, EHRS, (215) 746-5036, jcrumley@ehrs.upenn.edu

Children's Activities

7    Tim Kubart: Mario the Magician; Peanut Butter and Jams concert; doors open 10:30 a.m., show 11 a.m.; World Cafe Live; $12; tickets: www.worldcafelive.com/ (WXPN).

Special Event

5    International Opportunities Fair 2015; 11 a.m.-3 p.m.; Bodek Lounge, Houston Hall; valid student identification required (Career Services).

Talks

3    First Tuesday Lecture Series: Synovial Joint Infections; Carrie Jacobs, New Bolton Center; 6:30 p.m.; Alumni Hall, New Bolton Center; RSVP: (610) 925-6500 (Penn Vet).

6    Navigating Life After Penn; Eugena Oh, C’03, I Have a Dream Foundation; 4 p.m., Greenfield Intercultural Center (GIC; PAACH).

8    Coffee & Conversation: Text and Translation; Kristen Gill, history of art; 2 p.m.; ICA (ICA).   

Morris Arboretum’s Wellness Walks provide an opportunity to get outside and get some exercise beginning November 7 at 10:30 a.m. Visitors will relish the splendor of the garden and pump up their heart rate during these guide-led Wellness Walks, offered Saturday mornings, November 7 through March 26. Kick off your day with beauty and energy! Walkers meet at the Visitors Center wearing comfortable clothing and shoes to walk two-mile loops on the paved paths. For more information, visit www.morrisarboretum.org

The University of Pennsylvania Police Department Community Crime Report

Below are the Crimes Against Persons, Crimes Against Society and Crimes Against Property from the campus report for October 19-25, 2015. View prior weeks' reports. —Ed.

This summary is prepared by the Division of Public Safety and includes all criminal incidents reported and made known to the University Police Department between the dates of October 19-25, 2015. The University Police actively patrol from Market St to Baltimore and from the Schuylkill River to 43rd St in conjunction with the Philadelphia Police. In this effort to provide you with a thorough and accurate report on public safety concerns, we hope that your increased awareness will lessen the opportunity for crime. For any concerns or suggestions regarding this report, please call the Division of Public Safety at (215) 898-4482.

10/20/15      11:45 AM       209 S 33rd St                    Theft              Secured bike taken

10/20/15      12:56 PM       233 S 33rd St                    Theft              Secured bike taken

10/20/15      3:39 PM         51 N 39th St                      Theft              Cell phone taken/arrest made

10/20/15      4:10 PM         3600 Civic Center Blvd     Theft              GPS taken from vehicle

10/20/15      4:48 PM         451 University Ave            Theft              Wallet taken

10/21/15      2:44 PM         3730 Walnut St                 Theft               iPhone taken

10/21/15      5:32 PM         3701 Chestnut St              Vandalism      Wall spray painted

10/22/15      8:29 AM         3700 Spruce St                 Narcotic         Male in possession of narcotics/arrest

10/22/15      6:52 PM         233 S 33rd St                    Theft              Backpack and contents taken

10/23/15      4:02 AM         3900 Walnut St                  DUI                Intoxicated driver arrested

10/23/15      4:04 AM         250 S 36th St                    Arson             Fire in residence

10/23/15      8:26 AM         3850 Spruce St                 Theft              Industrial floor dryer missing

10/23/15      4:11 PM         3441A Chestnut St           Other Assault Threatening phone call received

10/23/15      7:57 PM         3604 Chestnut St              Theft              Merchandise taken without payment/arrest

10/24/15      2:38 AM         3700 Spruce St                 Assault           Complainant struck in nose

10/24/15      10:23 AM       120 S 36th St                    Theft               Merchandise taken without payment/arrest

10/24/15      12:35 PM       3400 Spruce St                Theft                Debit card taken from patient

10/24/15      1:10 PM         214 S 40th St                    Fraud              Funds taken without authorization

10/24/15      4:50 PM         233 S 33rd St                    Theft               Wallet taken

10/24/15      5:53 PM         200 S 43rd St                    Other Offense Male wanted on warrants/arrest

10/25/15      1:06 AM         3200 Walnut St                 Theft                Bike taken/arrest made

10/25/15      11:06 AM       3421 Chestnut St             Theft                Unsecured iPhone 6 taken

10/25/15      9:05 PM         3931 Walnut St                 Other Assault  Unwanted messages received

18th District Report

Below are the Crimes Against Persons from the 18th District: 5 incidents (3 assaults and 2 robberies) were reported between October 19-25, 2015 by the 18th District covering the Schuylkill River to 49th Street & Market Street to Woodland Avenue

10/19/15    11:26 PM    1200 S 47th St             Robbery

10/21/15    2:35 PM      100 S 46th St               Assault

10/21/15    5:57 PM      4542 Sansom St          Assault

10/24/15    4:04 AM      3700 Spruce St            Assault

10/25/15    12:23 PM    4800 Springfield Ave    Robbery

In the season of Thanks and Giving, please contribute to the Annual Food Drive at the University coordinated by Penn VIPS. We are collecting non-perishable foods (cans and boxed foods) as well as turkeys.

Donations will re-stock the pantry at Achievability and the People’s Emergency Shelter and will help many deserving families in the area.

Please take donated items to one of our conveniently located drop sites listed below.

—Isabel Mapp, Associate Director, Netter Center for Community Partnerships, Office of Government and Community Affairs

As several Schools and Centers across campus prepare to migrate their email and calendaring accounts to a single common service over the course of the next year, it’s more important than ever to be on guard against “phishing” attacks: fraudulent email messages that masquerade as legitimate messages from trustworthy organizations.

The Office of Information Security’s catalogue of Penn-specific phishing attempts (www.upenn.edu/computing/security/phish) reveals that a significant number of recent attacks have been disguised as notifications about email system updates.

To avoid being victimized, be on the lookout for the hallmarks of phishing attacks:

• Legitimate organizations should not prompt you to provide usernames, passwords or other sensitive information via email or links provided in email.

• Be suspicious of any email or communication (including text messages, social media posts and ads) with “Urgent” requests for sensitive or personal information.  Major changes in electronic systems such as email should be accompanied by a well-timed series of scheduled communications.

• The information shown in the “From:” field is vague, unfamiliar or does not contain a domain match (such as @upenn.edu) for the purported sending organization.

• Likewise, the links contained in fraudulent emails will often display URLs (web addresses) that differ from the known online home of the purported sending organization. Watch for subtle variations in spelling and domain (.net vs. .com, .eu vs. .edu).

• Phishing attacks are frequently characterized by errors in spelling, grammar and language usage in their content as well.

You can also take proactive steps to protect yourself:

• If you are unsure whether an email request is legitimate, try to verify it by contacting the sending organization directly through a published phone number, email or web address.

• When in doubt, don’t respond to a suspicious email — instead, contact your Local Support Provider (LSP) for assistance. You can locate your LSP’s contact information at https://www.isc.upenn.edu/get-it-help

If you believe you have mistakenly clicked a malicious link or otherwise disclosed private information in a phishing attack, immediately change your email and PennKey passwords, contact your LSP and notify Penn’s Office of Information Security by emailing security@isc.upenn.edu

Penn’s Way Week Three Winners

Penne Restaurant & Wine Bar: $75 gift certificate–Jennevior Chin, HUP

Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts: Two tickets to any performance—Trudy Lauro, CPUP

Longwood Gardens/The Rose Group: Two tickets to Longwood Gardens & $25 gift certificate to Applebee’s—Leticia Pendleton, HUP

Shake Shack: $40 gift card—Daniel Pashley, HUP

Doc Magrogan’s Oyster House: Cheerful Basket $100—Michael Subick, Penn Police

SSM Group: Padfolio w/ $25 restaurant gift card—Tamika Rushing, HUP

Garrison Printing Company: $100 gift card for the Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College—Melissa Novella, Pennsylvania Hospital

Philip Rosenau Company: $50 iTunes gift card—Nicole Petsis, HUP

Penn’s Way 2016 Raffle Prizes Week 5 (11/10 drawing)

Landmark Theaters: Four admissions

Lamberti Restaurants: $100 gift certificate to any of their restaurants

Mutter Museum: Four admissions

Lori’s Gift Shop by Impark: Snack Pack full o’ goodies!

SSM Group: Logo merchandise

Philip Rosenau Company: $50 Barnes & Noble gift card

The Belgian Café: $50 gift certificate

Visit the Penn’s Way website for more information about what a gift can provide, pledge forms, a payroll deduction guide, an agency list and more frequently asked questions & answers: http://www.upenn.edu/pennsway/