January 28, 2020 Volume 66 Issue 20

Margo Natalie Crawford, professor of English and director of the Center for Africana Studies (Almanac September 24, 2019), has been appointed Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Professor for Faculty Excellence. She is a scholar of African American literature and visual culture, with a particular focus on global Black studies and diasporic cultural movements. She earned her bachelors’ at Swarthmore and her master’s and doctorate at Yale. Dr. Crawford taught at Vassar, Indiana University Bloomington and Cornell before coming to Penn in 2017. 

Dr. Crawford is the author of Black Post- Blackness: The Black Arts Movement and Twenty-First-Century Aesthetics, which won the 2019 James A. Porter Book Award; Dilution Anxiety and the Black Phallus; and the co-edited volumes New Thoughts on the Black Arts Movement and Global Black Consciousness. In addition, What Is African American Literature?, a reconsideration of the role of textual production, diasporic tensions and affect in the shaping of the “idea” of African American literature, is forthcoming. 

The Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Professorship for Faculty Excellence was established through a bequest by Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn. Edmund Kahn was a 1925 Wharton graduate who had a highly successful career in the oil and natural gas industry. Louise Kahn, a graduate of Smith College, worked for Newsweek and owned an interior design firm. They supported many programs and projects at Penn, including Van Pelt Library, the Modern Languages program in the Gregory College House and other initiatives in scholarship and the humanities. 

Roxanne L. Euben, professor of political science, has been appointed Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professor in the Social Sciences, and Joshua B. Plotkin, professor of biology, has been appointed Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professor in the Natural Sciences. 

Dr. Euben is a leading scholar of contemporary political theory who specializes in Islamic political thought. She came to Penn in 2018 from Wellesley College. Her books Enemy in the Mirror: Islamic Fundamentalism and the Limits of Modern Rationalism, Journeys to the Other Shore: Muslim and Western Travelers in Search of Knowledge, and Princeton Readings in Islamist Thought: Texts and Contexts from al-Banna to bin Laden, with Muhammad Qasim Zaman, have had a far-reaching impact in her field of study. Her research has been supported by fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the ACLS and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Dr. Euben has served in numerous leadership roles in her field, including secretary of the American Political Science Association governing council and as a member of the editorial boards of the leading journals Political Theory and The American Political Science Review.

Dr. Plotkin holds secondary appointments in the Penn Arts & Sciences’ department of mathematics and the School of Engineering and Applied Science’s department of computing and information science. He is a leader in the field of molecular evolution and mathematical biology. His work leverages mathematical models of populations as a framework for understanding broad patterns of biological, cultural and social evolution. He has an extensive publication record in some of the most prestigious journals in his field, and his many honors include election as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), as well as Packard, Sloan and Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career fellowships. Dr. Plotkin has served on the editorial boards of Science magazine, Theoretical Population Biology and Cell Reports, as well as on the Board of Advisors of the US National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis. At Penn, he has been a Penn Fellow and a member of the Faculty Senate and the Penn Arts & Sciences Committee on Academic Freedom and Responsibility. 

The late Ambassador Walter H. Annenberg received Penn’s Alumni Award of Merit in 1991. He and the late Honorable Leonore Annenberg were both emeritus trustees of the University. The Annenbergs endowed many chairs in Penn Arts & Sciences and made countless generous contributions to the University. They also founded the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania in 1958. 

Bundled against the cold, members of the INTECH construction crew and the project team from Penn’s Facilities and Real Estate Services (FRES) joined representatives from Bohlin Cywinski Jackson (BCJ) architects to celebrate the “topping off” for New College House West (NCHW), the new undergraduate college house bounded by Locust Walk and Walnut and 40th streets. 

The recent ceremony marked a milestone, the placing of the last steel beam of NCHW at the topping-off event on January 17. As part of a long-standing tradition in construction, members of the construction, project and architectural teams were given the opportunity to sign the last beam before it was hoisted via crane to the top of Penn’s newest residence hall. 

Construction on the $169.5-million project began in spring 2018. The topping-off ceremony marks nearly the midway point of construction for the 250,000-square-foot, 450-bed residence that will house sophomores, juniors and seniors. The facility is expected to open in fall 2021. 

“This exciting project will serve as a new western gateway to campus,” said President Amy Gutmann when the project was first announced. “New College House West will enable more Penn students to participate in the College House system, and it will also give us the capacity and flexibility to continue renovating existing student housing.”

This message was sent to all Penn students on January 21. 

Reaffirming the Campus Commitment to Civic Dialogue 

We hope that all of you enjoyed a wonderful winter break and are looking forward to an exciting semester ahead. 

As we return for the start of this new year, we want to take a moment to reaffirm the importance of our shared community. It is more vital than ever, especially as we look ahead to a US election year, for us to sustain our values of mutual support and respect. Our community encompasses every person at Penn, and we all create this community together every day, in the things that we say—both face-to-face and digitally–and in the ways that we choose to act towards each other. 

Above all, what makes us a community is our ability to talk to each other, particularly when we disagree. Open expression is the highest value of our University community and of our democracy. For this reason, the Campaign for Community was introduced in 2015 to strengthen our community by creating opportunities for us to talk about the most complex, controversial, or intractable issues that we share. We encourage all of you to propose Campaign events, which are funded on a rolling basis throughout the year. These events have become an essential way to inspire dialogue across our campus on a wide range of significant topics. 

Along these same lines, we urge all of you to learn more about our historic traditions of open expression and help us advance them together. Open expression means that all voices on our campus must have an opportunity to be heard and included, while also not infringing upon University business such as classes, meetings and speaking events. You can learn more about our Guidelines on Open Expression, which strongly affirm our values of “freedom of thought, inquiry, speech and lawful assembly,” and about the role of Open Expression Observers, faculty and staff members who volunteer to help protect the rights of open expression at any meeting or demonstration. 

Finally, this year we are formalizing our strong campus commitment to civic dialogue through the new Paideia Program. This program, as many of you know, brings together courses and out-of-the-classroom experiences to reimagine the Greek ideal of Paideia—“education of the whole person”—for the 21st century and beyond. The program’s focus on service and citizenship places a particular emphasis on informed civil discourse and deliberation, especially the ability to engage productively across ideological differences. Paideia is offering its first set of courses this semester and will be sponsoring events and forums designed to encourage dialogues across divides. We encourage all Penn students to learn more about its invaluable mission. 

We thank all of you for your extraordinary work in sustaining our beloved Penn community, now and in the future. 

—Wendell Pritchett, Provost 

—Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum, Vice Provost for University Life 

Penn faculty from the China Research and Engagement Fund (CREF), listed below alphabetically by Principal Investigator last name. This year’s awards prioritize projects with the potential to build new interdisciplinary partnerships across departments, schools and centers at Penn. Penn Global welcomes engagement in these new projects by members of the Penn community. Please contact global@upenn.edu for more information. 

• The Future of US–China Relations: led by Stephen A. Cozen Professor of Law and Director of the Center for the Study of Contemporary China Jacques deLisle, this project will convene a new set of voices, especially younger scholars, from across the social sciences to try to predict and shape the future of US–China relations in a time of unprecedented uncertainty. This project convenes faculty from the Schools of Law, Arts & Sciences and the Annenberg School of Communication, as well as researchers from several think tanks and China policy networks. 
• High Speed Rail, Civil Society and Income Inequality: proposed by Chao Guo, associate professor of nonprofit management in the School of Social Policy & Practice and co-director of Penn’s International Master of Public Administration program, this project extends a hypothesis regarding transport links and the strength of civil society derived from research in the United States to the case of China. In addition to the School of Social Policy & Practice, this project will engage the Fox Leadership International Program and the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships to provide research assistance opportunities to first-generation, low-income and/or underrepresented students. 
• Spatial Visions Connecting China and the West: proposed by associate professor of city and regional planning Lin Zhongjie, this project brings together nearly a dozen faculty from across the Weitzman School of Design, the Penn Museum and other parts of the University to chart the shared history of modern architecture in the US and China. This project will engage a total of 10 faculty members from the Weitzman School of Design, representing every major field of study within the School. 
• Penn Global Bioethics Futures Initiative: this project is led by Penn’s community of bioethicists, including Founders Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy and Professor of Pediatrics Steven Joffe, and David and Lyn Silfen University Professor of Ethics Jonathan Moreno, and aims to convene the first-ever structured dialogue between academic biomedical researchers in the United States, China and other countries to address critical emerging issues like gene editing and transgenic organisms. This project will involve faculty members from the School of Arts & Sciences and the Perelman School of Medicine as well as several universities and research institutes within China. 
• Measuring Cultural Determinants of Well-Being in China Using Social Media: proposed by professor of computer and information sciences Lyle Ungar, this project seeks to apply methods developed through a previous effort to measure well-being and mental health outcomes using social media postings in the United States to the case of China, especially by taking account of cultural differences. This project will involve the departments of psychology and sociology within the School of Arts & Sciences and the department of computer and information sciences within the School of Engineering and Applied Science. 

The Fund is one avenue by which Penn Global supports Penn faculty in engaging with China. Penn Global is also able to assist faculty in identifying and connecting with potential research collaborators within China, write and place op-eds and other media-friendly products to highlight China-related research and provide other forms of support. Please contact global@upenn.edu with any questions and to schedule a brief meeting to discuss how Penn Global can support your China engagement activities. 

To the Penn Community:

We are writing to share information about the new strain of coronavirus that has been making the news and to inform you of the steps the University is taking to monitor the situation and keep our community healthy. 

Coronaviruses are a large, very common family of viruses. They most frequently cause symptoms such as mild fever, chest congestion or cough. A new strain of the virus, traced to a seafood market in Wuhan, China, is causing more severe pneumonia-like illness that may include a significant fever and lower respiratory symptoms such as shortness of breath.

At present, there are no reported cases of this new strain of coronavirus at Penn or in Philadelphia, and it does not appear to present any immediate risk to the Penn community.

We do expect to see upper respiratory illnesses in our community, as it is cold and flu season, and urge everyone to take the following general precautions during this time of the year:

1. Use good hand hygiene: Wash hands with soap and warm water for 20 seconds or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.
2. Limit the spread of germs and illness: Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing. If you don’t have a tissue, cough or sneeze into your sleeve or elbow. Avoid sharing food, drinks, utensils, cups, vapes/JUULs, etc.
3. Stay home if you are feeling unwell. If you are not feeling better after 24 hours, seek medical guidance.

If you have traveled to China in the last 14 days and develop cough, fever, or difficulty breathing, please contact your medical provider or the Student Health Service immediately. You should inform them of your recent travel prior to going in for medical treatment.  

At present, we recommend deferring all travel to Hubei Province, where the city of Wuhan is located, in accordance with US State Department travel guidance. Travel to other parts of China can continue as planned, but we urge you to consider deferring all non-essential travel for the time being. All international travelers should register their travel with Penn’s Global Support Services prior to departure to receive the latest information relevant to their itinerary. Additional updates will be provided as the situation develops; see https://global.upenn.edu/travel-guidance/heightened-risk-travel

Our colleagues from Campus Health, the Student Health Service, Risk Management and Penn Global are continuing to monitor the evolving situation, in partnership with the Health System and the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, and will continue to post up-to-date information on the Campus Health website, https://campushealth.wellness.upenn.edu/coronavirus/ and the Penn Global website.

—Wendell E. Pritchett, Provost

—Craig R. Carnaroli, Executive Vice President

—Benoit Dubé, Chief Wellness Officer

Stanley J. Dudrick, former professor of surgery at Penn’s School of Medicine and a world-renowned medical pioneer, died January 18 at his home in Eaton, New Hampshire, after an illness. He was 84. 

With Penn professor of surgery Jonathan Rhoads, Dr. Dudrick developed total parenteral nutrition (TPN) while he was serving as a surgical resident at HUP (Almanac April 1968). The technique, which allows people who cannot eat to be fed through a tube that bypasses their intestines, is credited with saving the lives of millions of acutely ill people who cannot feed themselves. 

Dr. Dudrick was born in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania. He graduated cum laude with a BS in biology from Franklin and Marshall College. He earned his medical degree from Penn in 1961. After his residency at HUP, he joined Penn’s faculty. He was promoted to assistant professor in 1968 and associate professor in 1969. He served as chair of the department of surgery at Pennsylvania Hospital, director of the Residency Training Program in General Surgery at Penn and was also on the surgical staff at the VA Hospital. In 1972, he was promoted to professor but resigned shortly after, as he was recruited to Houston to serve as the first professor and founding chairperson of the department of surgery at the new University of Texas Medical School and chief of surgical services at Hermann Hospital/The University Hospital. 

His development of intravenous feeding earned him numerous awards, including: the American Medical Association’s Goldberger Award (Almanac January 8, 2002); the American Surgical Association’s highest honor, the Medallion for Scientific Achievement for Distinguished Service to Surgery; the Legends of Neonatology Award and the Nathan Smith, MD Distinguished Service Award from the New England Surgical Society; The American College of Surgeons named him a “Hero in Surgery,” one of only four people to receive the distinction; Medscape named him one of the 50 most influential physicians in history; and ASPEN, which he established with 34 other health-care professionals in 1975 as an interdisciplinary association for the purpose of providing optimal nutrition to all people, presented him with the organization’s inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017. The American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition established the annual Stanley J. Dudrick Research Scholar Award in his honor. 

Dr. Dudrick also became internationally known as an expert in fistula surgery, complex re-operative surgery, intestinal failure, surgical metabolism and nutrition. He authored or co-authored more than 2,500 scientific reference citations in Current Contents; served on more than 15 editorial boards of scientific journals and professional publications; was presented more than 120 honors and awards and produced several books, including the American College of Surgeons’ Manual of Surgical Nutrition, for which he served as co-editor. 

Dr. Dudrick is survived by his wife, Terri; and children, Susan Marie, Stanley Jonathan, Holly Anne, Paul Stanley, Carolyn Mary and Anne Theresa. 

The following is published in accordance with the Faculty Senate Rules. Among other purposes, the publication of SEC actions is intended to stimulate discussion among the constituencies and their representatives. Please communicate your comments to Patrick Walsh, executive assistant to the Senate Office, either by telephone at (215) 898-6943 or by email at senate@pobox.upenn.edu

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Actions 

Wednesday, January 22, 2020 

Chair’s Report. Faculty Senate Chair-Elect Kathleen Hall Jamieson presided over the meeting in the absence of Faculty Senate Chair Steven Kimbrough. Professor Jamieson reported on the work of the Senate’s two recently established ad hoc committees. The Ad Hoc Committee on Scholarly Communication is completing a knowledge-gathering process and is expected to continue its work into the next academic year. The Ad Hoc Committee on the Institutional Response to the Climate Emergency (“CIRCE”) plans to divide into three working subcommittees (Education & Research; Operations of the University; and Community, Internal & External) and is inviting suggestions for topics the committee should investigate. Both committees will report on their work to SEC later this spring. 

Past Chair’s Report. No report was offered. 

Update from the Office of the President. President Amy Gutmann reported on Penn’s innovations in higher education during her term as president. There are now 23 Penn Integrates Knowledge Professors, the faculty has grown measurably more diverse in its inclusion of women and underrepresented minorities, the Sachs Program for Arts Innovation has given nearly 50 grants toward using arts to make positive social impact, faculty and students are working hard on getting people out to vote in elections, the Environmental Innovations Initiative is identifying ways to reduce Penn’s carbon footprint, and the AlgoWatch Team—at Penn Engineering and other Penn schools—is monitoring technological algorithms to ensure that fairness, ethics and privacy are taken into consideration. The Paideia Program, which aims to educate “the whole person,” has launched four courses open to all Penn undergraduates on the topics of citizenship, dialogue across divides, service and learning to thrive as a person in society. President Gutmann then addressed questions posed by SEC members, including discussing models for and obstacles to considering civic engagement by faculty in promotion and tenure review. 

Moderated Discussion. SEC members held a robust discussion about whether and how faculty civic engagement should be considered in promotion and tenure review. The ideas generated will be organized and shared with SEC members for distribution to their constituencies. A standing committee of the Senate may also take up the issue during the next academic year. 

Section IV.3(c) of the Council bylaws provides that a University Council meeting “shall incorporate an open forum to which all members of the University community are invited and during which any member of the University community can direct questions to the Council.” 

All members of the University community are invited to bring issues for discussion to the 

University Council Open Forum 

Wednesday, February 19, 2020 at 4 p.m. 

Hall of Flags, Houston Hall 

Individuals who want to be assured of speaking at Open Forum must inform the Office of the University Secretary (ucouncil@pobox.upenn.edu) by 10 a.m. on Monday, February 10, 2020. Please indicate the topic you would like to discuss. Those who have not so informed the Office of the University Secretary will be permitted to speak only at the discretion of the moderator of University Council and in the event that time remains after the scheduled speakers. 

Please see the format given below. Questions may be directed to the Office of the University Secretary at (215) 898-7005 or ucouncil@pobox.upenn.edu

—Office of the University Secretary 

Format for University Council’s Open Forum 

February 19, 2020 

The University Council will devote a substantial portion of its February 19, 2020 meeting to a public forum. The purpose of the Open Forum is to inform Council of issues important to the University’s general welfare and of the range of views held by members of the University. The forum is open to all members of the University community under the conditions set by the bylaws, following guidelines established by the Steering Committee of University Council: 

1. Any member of the University community who wishes to do so may attend the Council meeting. Individuals who want to be assured of speaking at Council, however, must inform the Office of the University Secretary (ucouncil@pobox.upenn.edu) by 10 a.m. on Monday, February 10, 2020, indicating briefly the subject of their remarks. Those who have not so informed the Office of the University Secretary will be permitted to speak only at the discretion of the moderator of University Council and in the event that time remains after the scheduled speakers. 

2. Speakers should expect to be limited to three minutes with the possibility of additional time in cases where members of Council engage the speakers with follow-up questions or remarks. The moderator may restrict repetition of views. 

3. Following the deadline for speakers to sign up with the Office of the University Secretary, the chair of the Steering Committee and the moderator of University Council will structure the subject matter themes, speakers and times for the Open Forum session. In the event that there is not enough time available at the meeting to provide for all those who have requested to speak, the two officers may make selections which accommodate the broadest array of issues having important implications for Council’s work and represent the breadth of Council’s constituencies. The resulting order of Open Forum topics will be made available no later than the Tuesday before the meeting, to be published on the Office of the University Secretary website (https://secretary.upenn.edu/univ-council/open-forum) and, if deadline constraints allow, in Almanac. 

4. Speakers’ statements should be framed to present policy issues and be directed to University Council as a body through the moderator. The moderator will have discretion to interrupt statements that are directed against persons and otherwise to maintain the decorum of the meeting, as provided for in the bylaws. In cases where questions or positions can be appropriately addressed by members of Council, or where a colloquy would seem to be productive given the time constraints of the meeting, the moderator may recognize members of Council to respond to speakers’ statements, with opportunities for follow-up by the speakers. 

5. Should the number of submitted topics of community-wide interest exceed what can be accommodated during a single Open Forum session, discussion will be allowed to continue at the following University Council meeting. 

Download the 2020 Summer Camps and Programs at Penn supplement PDF.

The University City Science Center has announced three awardees in the latest round of its QED Proof-of-Concept Program, which partners with regional academic and research institutions to prepare their most promising life science technologies for commercialization. 

The three researchers, representing the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the University of Delaware and the University of Pennsylvania, are developing a new therapy for acute leukemia using an agent that jump-starts the immune system; nanoparticles that deliver therapeutic cargo to stem cells; and an improved method for diagnosing and detecting cancer in liquid biopsies. 

The awardees will each receive $200,000 and critical support from the Science Center’s network of seasoned business advisors and industry experts to position their technologies for exit out of their host institutions and into a startup or licensing agreement. 

Awardees associated with Penn were: 

Haim H. Bau, professor of mechanical engineering and applied mechanics in Penn’s School of Engineering, for his invention for use in liquid biopsies, a method for enriching target nucleic acid in body fluid samples to enable personalized therapy, early disease screening and disease progression monitoring. For oncologists, the invention will allow high efficiency and specificity to detect cancer earlier in populations at risk, prescribe targeted drugs and alter drug regimen as drug-resistance evolves. 

Ian Henrich, who recently earned his PhD in pharmacology from the Perelman School of Medicine and now works for the department of pathology and laboratory medicine at CHOP, for a novel therapy utilizing USP6 to fire up the patient’s immune system against cancer cells. The team’s first target for proof of concept is acute myeloid leukemia. In the long-term, this therapy may be applied as a powerful immunotherapeutic for a wide range of malignancies and also serve in combination therapy to optimize response to CAR-T cells and checkpoint inhibitors. 

Wendy Chan, assistant professor in Penn’s Graduate School of Education, was awarded $25,000 by the American Educational Research Association (AERA) for the project “The Generalizability of Deeper Learning Using Small Area Estimation.” 

In an extension to the earlier “Study of Deeper Learning” by the American Institutes for Research, Dr. Chan will use hierarchical Bayesian models to estimate the generalized impact of the deeper learning approaches on the proportion of on-time graduation rates among high school students in California and New York. This study is the first to generalize the impacts of deeper learning and to apply small area estimation methods to generalization when the small areas are defined using a generalizability index. 

The Computer and Information Science (CIS) department of Penn’s School of Engineering recently announced the 2019 recipients of the JP Eckert Master’s Fellowship. This fellowship honors J. Presper Eckert, co-inventor of ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic digital computer, developed at the University of Pennsylvania. 

This fellowship provides outstanding master’s students who are US citizens or US permanent residents $10,000 towards tuition. The purpose of the fellowship is to provide financial support to master’s students and to support the University’s interest in obtaining educational benefits by promoting student body diversity. 

All incoming and existing master’s students in each of the six CIS-affiliated master’s programs with at least two semesters remaining in the program are eligible to apply for the JP Eckert Fellowship. Eckert fellows are selected through a highly competitive process, where fellows are evaluated based on their academic achievements, community service and statement of purpose on diversity and outreach in STEM fields. The 2019 Eckert Fellows are: 

• Iciar Andreu Angulo, Computer Graphics and Game Technology (CGGT) 
• Perpetual Baffour, Computer and Information Technology (CIT) 
• Ari Benkov, Computer and Information Science (CIS) 
• Brandon Joel Gonzalez, Robotics (ROBO) 
• Karen Shen, Data Science (DATS) 
• Eric Micallef, Embedded Systems (EMBS)

Three faculty members from the University of Pennsylvania have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Carolyn Gibson of the School of Dental Medicine, Sampath Kannan of the School of Engineering and Applied Science and Ellen Puré of the School of Veterinary Medicine are among 443 members recognized this year for their “scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.” 

Election as a Fellow of AAAS, the world’s largest scientific society, is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers. 

Dr. Gibson earned professor emeritus status in 2014 as a member of Penn Dental Medicine’s former department of anatomy and cell biology (now the department of basic and translational sciences). Her studies focused on the molecular and genetic bases of tooth-enamel formation. In particular, Dr. Gibson investigated the enamel defect present in amelogenesis imperfecta, the most common hereditary disease affecting tooth enamel. The work sets the stage for improved oral health and quality of life for people with AI and has also opened new avenues for studying the effects of the protein amelogenin in other parts of the body. 

Dr. Kannan, the Henry Salvatori Professor in Penn Engineering’s department of computer and information science, is an expert in several subfields of algorithms, including ones that operate on massive data sets. Dr. Kannan’s research explores what can and cannot be computed efficiently, as well as the applications of algorithmic problems in computational biology and other fields. Dr. Kannan is also co-director of MCIT Online, the school’s first all-online master’s program. As with the on-campus Master of Computer and Information Technology program, MCIT Online is designed for students with no previous computer science training to learn the fundamentals of the field in both theoretical and applied contexts. 

Dr. Puré is the Grace Lambert Professor of Biomedical Science and chair of the department of biomedical sciences at Penn Vet. She also serves as director of the Penn Vet Cancer Center, which integrates research and cancer care, speeding the translation of science to the clinic. She is an expert in the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying diseases associated with chronic inflammation and fibrosis, including cancer.

Among other key discoveries, Dr. Puré’s work has uncovered new ways that inflammation and fibrosis contribute to the development, growth and spread of cancer. She is helping pioneer therapeutic strategies that target the tumor microenvironment as a way of slowing or stopping cancer’s spread and working to understand how tumors might “seed” distant tissues to promote metastasis. 

This year’s AAAS Fellows will be honored at the 2020 AAAS Annual Meeting in Seattle on February 15. 

Annenberg Center Executive and Artistic Director Christopher Gruits has been selected as an Eisenhower Fellow in the 2020 USA Fellowship Program and will be one of 10 highly accomplished professionals from the fields of education, finance, the arts and technology who will travel overseas, broadening their horizons as they pursue individual projects that will generate lasting impact in their communities. The USA Fellows will meet with Eisenhower Fellows abroad, unlocking a lifelong connection to an influential global network of likeminded change agents. 

Now in its 66th year and named for America’s 34th president, Eisenhower Fellowships bring together innovative leaders from all fields from around the globe who tackle big challenges to better the world around them. Since 1953, more than 2,400 mid-career leaders from 115 countries have benefited from the unique, customized experience of an Eisenhower Fellowship. 

Mr. Gruits’ fellowship will revolve around travel to South Africa and Singapore to work toward developing a Global Artists Project (GAP) to be integrated into the Annenberg Center, which will provide an opportunity for a significant international artist or ensemble to work within Philadelphia communities. GAP would leverage the educational and programmatic resources of the Annenberg Center and Penn, along with the creative work of the artists. Mr. Gruits’ fellowship aims to redefine community engagement, enhance cross-cultural programming and serve audiences not previously engaged in the performing arts. Another goal for the project is to create a network of individuals to share critical artistic work across music, theatre, dance and film, as well as program structures and suggestions for developing community engagement and cross-cultural understanding. 

The 2019 Gershon Iskowitz Prize at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), which is presented annually to an artist who has made an outstanding contribution to the visual arts in Canada, has been awarded to Ken Lum, the Marilyn Jordan Taylor Presidential Professor and chair of fine arts at Penn’s Weitzman School of Design. Administered by the Gershon Iskowitz Foundation in partnership with the museum, the honor comes with a $38,000 cash prize and a solo exhibition at the AGO that will be staged within the next two years. 

The most prestigious award for service from the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) was given to Gerald J. Porter, emeritus professor of mathematics, on January 16 at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Denver, the world’s largest gathering of mathematicians. Dr. Porter received the Yueh-Gin Gung and Dr. Charles Y. Hu Award for Distinguished Service. This award consists of a cash prize of $5,000, a citation and the recognition of the American mathematical community. Dr. Porter was honored for his contribution and influence to the field of mathematics or mathematical education. The MAA noted the following: 

“Dr. Porter has been a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania since 1965 and has spent decades in service to the MAA in a variety of capacities. Dr. Porter has contributed to mathematics and the mathematical community for many years by publishing substantive papers, being at the forefront of teaching and writing a pioneering book using active learning. Additionally, he has mentored many young mathematicians, nominated them for awards and committees and welcomed them at the section and national meetings. Although retired from teaching, he is still very active in the educational community and is currently serving as an advisor to students.” 

“MAA is a stronger organization because of Jerry’s contributions and for his insistence that we are fair, inclusive and welcoming,” said Michael Pearson, executive director of the MAA. “Jerry is the definition of distinguished service from which the MAA, and our profession, will long benefit. 

J. Michael Steele, C.F. Koo Professor Emeritus of Statistics at Wharton, and co-author, Vladimir Pozdnyakov, professor of statistics at University of Connecticut, were awarded the Mathematical Chauvenet Prize for their article “Buses, Bullies, and Bijections” in Mathematics Magazine at the Joint Mathematics Meetings of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) on January 16. 

This national prize recognizes the year’s best expository article on a mathematical topic and writing on mathematics. “Buses, Bullies, and Bijections” shows the remarkable utility of bijections by considering seating assignments on a bus. Everyone has a designated seat, but all except the last passenger take seats at random. Then the final passenger—a bit of a bully—boards, not only wanting his own seat but demanding that each subsequently displaced person finds his correct seat as well. The authors then use bijections to derive even more surprising and beautiful results including the mean and variance of the number of cycles in a random permutation. 

“We are beyond delighted to join the very distinguished list of winners of the Chauvenet Prize,” said Drs. Pozdnyakov and Steele. “From an early age, we have both been wide-ranging readers of mathematical expositions. Naturally, those papers that have been acknowledged with the Chauvenet Prize have often zoomed to the top of our reading list, even when—perhaps especially when—they offer the chance to learn some mathematics outside of our work-a-day world.” 

“The MAA is proud to honor exceptional expository writing in the field of mathematics. Drs. Pozdnyakov and Steele’s article is an outstanding example of the writing we routinely feature in our journals,” said Michael Pearson, executive director of the MAA. 

Kiersa Sanders (WG’20) was recently named this year’s Whitney M. Young Jr. Memorial Fellowship Scholar. This prize recognizes a second-year AAMBAA member who has demonstrated academic excellence and has made an outstanding contribution to and shown leadership in the community of color at Wharton, Penn or the greater business community. The prize includes a one-time $25,000 fellowship award. 

Ms. Sanders earned an associate’s degree from Seattle Central College in 2011 and graduated at the top of her class at University of Washington’s Foster School of Business in 2014. She then joined Deloitte Consulting’s Strategy and Operations department, where she worked on mergers and acquisitions in the tech industry. 

Ms. Sanders completed Wharton’s MBA Prep Program through Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT) in 2017 and attended Explore Wharton. In 2018, she was accepted to Wharton’s Class of 2020 as an MBA candidate. She currently serves as 100 Series co-chair, helping to organize four events supporting students throughout the year. 

Through the AAM-BAA, she met her business partner, Theresa Shropshire. The two connected over an interest in fitness—specifically, how to navigate strength training as women in gyms where the weight section is often occupied by men. Their startup, currently called Builtable, is like theSkimm, but for fitness and strength training. “It’s a newsletter you get to your email inbox that’s really short and easy to read,” Ms. Sanders said. “The type of content you can expect is exercises demonstrated in the form of short videos or gifs, new Instagram fitness accounts for you to follow, or a comparison of different resistance bands.” 

Angela Duckworth and six researchers from Penn GSE have made Education Week’s 2020 Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings list. 

The list, created by Rick Hess, the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, recognizes scholars whose work shapes public discussion around education. 

Angela Duckworth, Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Psychology, earned the highest slot on the list among Penn professors at number 10. 

Those from Penn GSE were: Vivian Gadsden, William T. Carter Professor of Child Development and Education; Pam Grossman, GSE dean; Richard Ingersoll, professor of education and sociology; Laura Perna, GSE Centennial Presidential Professor of Education; Howard Stevenson, Constance Clayton Professor of Urban Education; and Jonathan Zimmerman, professor of history of education. 

Download the February AT PENN calendar as a PDF or visit the online version at https://almanac.upenn.edu/at-penn-calendar/february-at-penn-2020

Fitness and Learning

29    Historic Preservation: Challenges and Opportunities in Philadelphia Today; Paul Steinke and Patrick Grossi, Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia; noon; Upper Gallery, Meyerson Hall; register: https://tinyurl.com/rawrbx3 (Weitzman).

Meetings

28    PPSA Membership Meeting; featuring speaker Jonathan Zimmerman, history of education; noon; Hall of Flags, Houston Hall; register: https://tinyurl.com/ppsameeting (PPSA).

Readings and Signings

Penn Book Center (PBC)

Info: www.pennbookcenter.com

29    Paradigm Lost; Ian Lustick; 5:30 p.m.

30    Information Hunters; Kathy Peiss; 6 p.m.

31    The Observer Effect; Barry Schwabasky; 6:30 p.m.

AT PENN Deadlines 

The February AT PENN calendar is now online. The deadline for the March AT PENN is February 10. The deadline for the weekly Update is the Monday prior to the week of the issue’s publication.

Cellular images as distinct as abstract art, minerals appearing as future urban landscapes and single-celled organisms of the microscopic netherworld are among the images from the 2019 Nikon Small World competition of photomicrography. These photographs taken through microscopes will be on display at The Wistar Institute, with an opening reception this Friday, January 31, 6-8 p.m. 

The exhibition will run February 3 through April 10, with the top 20 images on view at Wistar, the only Pennsylvania venue to host these remarkable works.

The exhibit is free and open to the public, Monday-Friday 9 a.m.-5 p.m. To register for the opening reception, visit https://wistar.org/events/nikon-small-world-exhibition-5

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 January 13-19, 2020. 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 for the dates of January 13-19, 2020. 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.

18th District

Below are the Crimes Against Persons from the 18th District: 9 incidents (6 robberies, 2 rapes and 1 domestic assault) with 2 arrests was reported for January 13-19, 2020 by the 18th District covering the Schuylkill River to 49th Street & Market Street to Woodland Avenue.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires that Penn send the 1095-C tax form to certain benefits-eligible faculty and staff members. This form includes information about the health insurance coverage offered to you by Penn as well as information for each of your family members enrolled under your Penn benefits plan.

You should receive this form if, for any month in 2019, you were enrolled in or offered health care coverage from Penn; and you were:

• Considered a regular full-time or part-time benefits-eligible staff or faculty member, or
• Worked an average of 30 or more hours per week

The 1095-C form will be mailed and available online on or before the third week in February. To access your form online, go to the My Pay section of the secure U@Penn portal at www.upenn.edu/u@penn then select “My 1095-C form.”

If you have questions about your form, call Equifax at (855) 823-3728. When prompted for your employee ID number, enter your social security number to speak to a customer service representative. You can also contact the Penn Employee Solution Center at (215) 898-7372 or hcmsolutioncenter@upenn.edu for assistance.

While you do not need to attach your 1095-C to your tax return when filing, keep it for your records as it provides proof of qualifying health coverage.

For general information about Form 1095-C, visit the IRS webpage Q&A about Form 1095-C or consult your tax advisor.

—Division of Human Resources

 If you are thinking about applying for a leave of absence, changes are coming to the process for requesting Family Medical Leave (FML), Short-Term Disability (STD) and Paid Parental Leave (PPL). Effective February 1, 2020, all new FML, STD and PPL leaves will no longer be reviewed and approved by Broadspire, a third-party administrator. These leaves will be handled by the FMLA Administrator within the Division of Human Resources. 

The current application process through Workday will remain the same and staff can continue to request leave through the self-service portal (see instructions below). However, you will have to submit your paperwork to the FMLA Administrator, instead of Broadspire. 

This change applies to new leaves beginning on or after February 1, 2020. If you are currently on an approved FML, PPL or STD leave, there will be no changes to your approval. If your request for a FML, PPL or STD leave is pending as of February 1, 2020, Broadspire will continue to administer your leave request until the end date of that leave. If you have any questions about a pending leave request, please contact Broadspire at (866) 357-1122.

How to Apply for a Leave of Absence: 

To apply for FML or PPL leaves, you can log into Workday and follow the steps outlined in the Workday tip sheet and summarized below. 

• Go to the Workday “Time Off and Leave” application
• Click on “Request Leave of Absence”
• Enter the “First Day of Leave” and the “Estimated Last Day of Leave”
• Click on Leave Type “FMLA” or “PPL” and scroll down to locate the type of FMLA or PPL leave you are requesting
• Once the request is submitted, you will receive a notification email from Workday to complete the appropriate leave request forms. You can download a Leave Request Form kit that matches your desired leave from the Requesting a Leave of Absence webpage at https://www.hr.upenn.edu/PennHR/benefits-pay/requesting-a-leave-of-absence  To complete your leave request, you must have the forms completed by your physician and return them to the FMLA Administrator at the University via fax at (215) 405-2929, or you can scan and email them to fmla@hr.upenn.edu Your leave will remain “pending” in Workday until you return all required forms for approval.

This change affects the following policies: 

• Family Medical Leave (FMLA)
• Paid Parental Leave (PPL)
• Short-Term Disability (STD), and 
• Sick Leave and Short-Term Disability for Faculty and Employees at or Above Position Grade 29 or Grades E, F, G, H.  

Please visit the Policy Manual webpage at https://www.hr.upenn.edu/policies-and-procedures/policy-manual to view the updated policies. 

—Division of Human Resources

Purchasing Services is pleased to announce that Catering@Penn, a recent strategic-sourcing initiative, has resulted in an updated portfolio of Preferred Contract Caterers. In alignment with University priorities, key award criteria included sustainability, supplier diversity, utilization of local food sources and an assessment of each supplier’s ability to provide and serve high-quality food safely and in a cost-competitive manner. Over 60 caterers were awarded master contracts and designated with Preferred Contract Caterer status. Among this population, 39 organizations hold at least one diversity classification and 46 companies are based in Philadelphia (19 in West Philadelphia). Included among those supplier choices is Penn’s strategic preferred caterer, Bon Appétit. Bon Appétit continues to work with Penn to drive meaningful impact that supports these established priorities.  

Catering@Penn has been developed to encourage visitors to search for providers based on any combination of criteria such as cuisine type, service offerings and geographic location. Purchasing Services worked closely with Penn Sustainability to conveniently provide information about participating suppliers’ capabilities to service Penn at various levels of “green” requirements.  The online tool also allows individuals to easily seek diversity suppliers. Penn’s buyers are encouraged to use the site to explore options that embrace and support Penn’s goals of sustainability and economic inclusion. 

—Penn Purchasing Services

Another tip in a series provided by the Offices of Information Systems & Computing and Audit, Compliance & Privacy.

Data Privacy: Look Out for Yourself—Data Privacy Day is January 28!

International Data Privacy Day on January 28 kicks off an entire month dedicated to data privacy awareness. Now is an excellent time to take practical steps that offer you a greater degree of control and protection over who sees your personal information. 

Modern society encourages sharing your pictures, activities and other information on social media and through various apps. It is also the age of smart technology for you and your home. Here are some important considerations when using these technologies: 

Sharing Your Information with Apps and Websites

Understand how you are sharing information with social media platforms, apps and websites. Remember, not only are you sharing pictures with friends and family via social media, but you are also sharing your personal information with the social media platform and potentially their third-party service providers as well.  

To learn more on how to take control of this information sharing by configuring your privacy and security settings for specific social media platforms, go to https://staysafeonline.org/stay-safe-online/managing-your-privacy/manage-privacy-settings/

Smart Technology and Your Information

Your personal device or smart technology may be sharing your data with apps and websites without your knowledge. This sharing can be the automatic default setting from the moment you begin using a personal device or smart technology. Some sharing may even occur when you are not actively using the technology. 

For increased data privacy, you may need to manually adjust some of the settings on these types of devices.

• Learn about privacy and Apple’s personal devices at https://www.apple.com/privacy/control/
• Find information on Android devices at https://support.google.com/android/answer/6179507
• For smart home devices such as speakers, go to https://www.consumerreports.org/privacy/smart-speaker-privacy-settings/

Penn Privacy Website

To learn more about how to protect Penn data as well as your own data, please visit Penn Privacy at http://www.upenn.edu/oacp/privacy/

For additional tips, see the One Step Ahead link on the Information Security website: https://www.isc.upenn.edu/security/news-alerts#One-Step-Ahead

Despite strong high school preparation, most students enter Penn’s campus still novices in research, with questions about what research they want to pursue at Penn, and uncertainty about what academic research entails. Students typically also lack understanding of how to produce work suitable for peer-reviewed publication. However, after 17 years of running a chemistry laboratory and mentoring 50 undergraduates, I’ve seen that guiding students in a sustained, in-depth research project is mutually very satisfying as it is in many ways a culmination of their academic experience. Conducting original research requires problem-solving skills from multiple disciplines, strong writing skills and allows students to exercise artistic and verbal expression in communicating their work. By confronting these challenges, undergraduates gain self-awareness that is critical for selecting a suitable career.

So, how do we guide students onto this extremely worthwhile but often murky path? Early in my career at Penn, I often assigned undergraduates the most high-risk projects, typically “a cool idea” that had not been fleshed out yet in my chemistry laboratory. However, only a few benefited from this “let’s hope it works” mentoring style. Over the past decade, I have employed a more directed, team-mentoring approach, where I try to ensure that persistent undergraduates in my laboratory have the support they need to contribute meaningfully to existing projects in my lab. 

This process starts with important conversations to gauge the student’s interests. Are they a good fit for my 12-person academic lab? I start by asking what are their goals from the research experience. I am quick to recommend different labs if a student’s interests are not a good match for my research. Students joining my laboratory require no prior research experience and little prior related coursework. But I like to make sure that students have a passion for chemistry, are sufficiently motivated to work part-time two semesters and full-time at least one summer in my laboratory and are “coachable.” I introduce new undergraduates to other undergraduates and graduate students in my lab, who share the most relevant background information. Students are invited to attend weekly lab meetings to see how group members interact and data are generated, presented and discussed. Every student is encouraged to consider different research options within my laboratory before choosing to join a particular “team.” (My lab currently has three teams, with each team exploring a different project area.) 

I assign every undergraduate to a graduate student or postdoctoral scholar in my lab who has begun to publish their work and has interest in guiding an eager undergraduate. Occasionally, I also task a precocious senior undergraduate with mentoring a junior colleague. But, in all cases, I look for “three-way wins,” where new undergraduate, more senior lab mentor and my laboratory are all likely to benefit. The “buddy system” helps to ensure that students remain engaged in their project, with the additional benefit of maintaining lab safety. The team concept fosters camaraderie and deeper learning. Students also benefit socially, and are more productive for being part of a well-functioning laboratory. Some group members even bring homemade baked goods to share! Our holiday parties include undergraduates and feature good food and a white elephant gift exchange. In recent years, Escape The Room at different Philadelphia venues has been a fun team-building exercise.

One of my most important mentoring tasks is helping each undergraduate to define their independent research project. My goal is to foster independence in novice students: Real learning comes when students take ownership of their research project and are empowered to become creative problem-solvers. As students delve deeper into their projects, they discover many features on their own. Students can start by shadowing their lab mentor, but they gain confidence by initiating their own experiments and figuring out how to analyze their own data. As students progress, they share their data in group meetings and receive critical feedback. Over time, this process yields useful observations and may distill down to one or two experiments that can lead to a new discovery. It is exciting for students to share these efforts in annual formal presentations to the group. As mentors, we need to be realistic about how long projects take. Students tend to be particularly busy in their senior year, and I prefer to begin to engage students in research earlier in their college career.

It is easy to forget the trepidation with which undergraduates approach a new research topic and the significant frustration and disappointment that come from inevitable setbacks. Meeting weekly with students in person is useful in my experience. I try to anticipate the likely pitfalls and equip students with alternate lines of ascent if one path appears to close suddenly. Having strong communication with every student is critically important, as I rely on students’ observations of their research to inform my own thinking. As faculty, we must also gauge when students are pushing too far past their comfort zone. In such instances, I make my own return trips to the primary literature, to provide students with a critical, detailed assessment of what has previously worked in the hands of others. Giving students timely, helpful and encouraging feedback is essential to sustaining the initial sparks that emerge from their investigation and allowing the fire of discovery to grow inside of them. 

We cannot guarantee that students will be successful in research. Progress takes time, persistence, creative problem solving and yes, luck. Students will sometimes be forced to change direction, e.g., to reframe a thesis project that has not yielded the hoped-for result or that mirrors the published literature too closely. The old adage that “an hour in the library can save a week in the lab” holds true in many disciplines. I try to teach students that research “success” comes in many flavors—sometimes proving that a path is truly a dead-end can be just as useful as making an exciting new discovery. I also teach that dealing with “failure” often means iteratively redefining the research “question” until we arrive at a viable “solution.” Undergraduates appreciate that the evolving question-answer paradigm can often yield a novel result. 

The most important final step is to involve students in writing about their research. This arises naturally at Penn with end-of-semester independent research reports, summer fellowships, student grant proposals and thesis chapters. Each of these tasks is a new opportunity to engage undergraduates in thinking critically about their research project and helping them to improve their writing skills by providing detailed, timely edits. It is important that students learn how to connect with their audience. This often involves putting their work in the context of a larger body of scholarship and highlighting the importance of their own scholarly activity. Ideally, in-depth, mentored research experiences give students the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to a peer-reviewed publication. Twenty-one peer-reviewed publications with undergraduates as co-authors have resulted from these endeavors in my lab. But, regardless of the outcome, faculty can foster students’ passionate engagement with research by giving them the tools to understand and communicate their work. By the time they earn the diploma, many undergraduate scholars have stood close to the “academic fire” and felt first-hand the warmth that arises from participating in new scholarship. Students carry this fire with them as they continue on their academic and professional journeys.

Ivan Dmochowski is the Alan MacDiarmid Term Professor of Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry.

___________________________________________________

This essay continues the series that began in the fall of 1994 as the joint creation of the College of Arts and Sciences, the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Lindback Society for Distinguished Teaching.

See https://almanac.upenn.edu/talk-about-teaching-and-learning-archive for previous essays.