April 7, 2020 Volume 66 Issue 29

On March 30, University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann announced a series of new initiatives that total $4 million in emergency financial assistance to Penn employees, third-party contract workers and organizations impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. The University’s dedication of $4 million for these new initiatives is in addition to the $1 million employee assistance fund announced earlier in March by Penn Medicine (https://www.med.upenn.edu/evpdeancommunications/2020-03-15-192.html) for a total of $5 million in emergency assistance and also in addition to the pay continuation for the Bon Appetit contract dining workers through May 15, which was previously announced.

Penn will use this $4 million to provide financial support to the PHL COVID-19 Fund, emergency assistance for eligible Penn employees and third-party contract workers and resources for independently owned small businesses in University City. 

“This is a crucial time for civic leadership,” said President Gutmann. “To tackle the impact of COVID-19, the people of Penn and Penn Medicine have rapidly mobilized to do everything in our power. We are enlisting all of our intellectual expertise across disciplines along with every administrative and operational area of the University.”

Financial Support for the PHL COVID-19 Fund

The PHL COVID-19 Fund, founded by the City of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Foundation, and United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, raises and distributes money in support of local non-profit social services agencies. 

“We believe it is critically important that we partner with our City and community to fight the COVID-19 pandemic,” President Gutmann said. “What we are doing builds on our primary educational, research and clinical care missions, working together with our neighborhood partners to protect the health and safety of our community.”

Emergency Fund for Grants to Assist Penn Employees and Contract Workers

Penn has created an emergency fund for distributing grants to its full-time and part-time employees, as well as certain third-party, non-dining-related contract workers in need of emergency assistance. As previously announced, dining workers employed by Bon Appetit will receive pay continuation through the end of the semester. Eligible applicants who earn at or below $70,000 can receive a tax-free grant up to $1,500. These grants are to assist Penn employees and third-party contract workers who are adversely affected by the economic downturn created by the COVID-19 crisis. Penn is also evaluating ways to accept donations from interested members of the Penn community, as well as third-party contractors, who want to support this effort. 

Support for University City Retailers and Neighborhood Businesses

Through a partnership with the University City District (UCD), Penn is providing monetary assistance coupled with UCD’s technical assistance to independently-owned University City-located businesses negatively impacted by the pandemic. All of Penn’s additional funds will be distributed to for-profit, independently-owned retailers and restaurants located in the University City District boundaries that have been in business for at least 12 months as of March 1, 2020. The grants, between $1,000 and $5,000, are to help operators stay afloat in advance of CARES Act stimulus funding. 

“UCD is a trusted partner,” said Penn Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli. “They can get the funds into the hands of the businesses enduring financial disruption during the pandemic.”

Along with this support, Penn is also providing short-term rent abatement for locally owned and operated retailers in its commercial real estate portfolio. 

“These actions are critical,” said EVP Carnaroli. “Our campus retail portfolio is more than 60% independently owned, and all of University City is well served and made more vibrant by this sector.”

“Penn is, itself, adversely affected in major ways by the disruptions caused by the pandemic,” said Provost Wendell Pritchett. “Penn is very proud to be an historic part of our vibrant community. We know that we must all help each other make it through this crisis, which none of us could have anticipated. Our mission of teaching, learning and research relies on the health of our community. Our work together makes all of us stronger, and we look forward to continuing it together through all the weeks and months ahead.”

The Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has established a new center to help expand and accelerate research related to the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, that causes the respiratory illness known as COVID-19. The Center of Research on Coronaviruses and Other Emerging Pathogens aims to advance research to better understand the pathology of the coronavirus and, ultimately, support the development of potential vaccines, diagnostic tools, and effective therapies.

Susan Weiss, professor of microbiology at Penn Medicine and world-renowned leader in coronavirus research, and Frederic Bushman, chair of microbiology, will serve as co-directors of the Center.

“There’s an urgent need to gain a greater understanding of the basic biology of SARS-CoV-2 and to advance research efforts that can help inform our diagnostic and therapeutic approaches,” said Dr. Weiss, whose lab has researched coronaviruses for the last four decades. “Our goal in establishing this Center is to coordinate the efforts among our large, multidisciplinary group—comprised of investigators and clinicians—to help expedite the discovery of safe and effective therapies and potential vaccines.”

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2, is part of a family of viruses known as coronaviruses. Seven strains of coronaviruses—including this novel virus—are known to infect humans. Two of the strains cause common colds, two others cause more serious disease, including pneumonia and bronchiolitis, while the others are known to cause potentially life-threatening respiratory illnesses: severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). Cases of COVID-19, which was first reported in China in early December 2019 and has since spread worldwide, can cause mild to severe illness, and even death.

Under Dr. Weiss’s direction, Penn has long been a leader in research on coronaviruses. Currently, there are a number of ongoing research efforts, including:

• Screening of a variety of potential therapies for activity against SARS-CoV-2
• Developing Rapid Diagnostic Tests: Research is underway to develop cutting-edge, rapid diagnostic tests that are designed to be used at home, in the clinic, and at points of entry to healthcare facilities
• Investigation of host innate immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 and how it differs from other human coronaviruses
• Developing advanced vaccines: multiple strategies are under development across the Penn campus and Wistar Institute
• Investigating SARS-CoV-2 and the Lung Microbiome: Teams are collecting samples to analyze the effects of the novel coronavirus infection on the lung microbiome. The findings will help guide physicians in their efforts to treat patients

“We’ve seen a rapid mobilization of research efforts—both here at Penn and in the scientific community nationwide—to address the novel coronavirus outbreak,” Dr. Bushman said. “Through this Center, we hope to scale up existing research efforts and launch targeted new projects to help develop safe and effective ways to diagnose, treat and even prevent SARS-CoV-2 infections.”

Researchers from Penn Medicine, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and The Wistar Institute will serve on the Center’s Internal Advisory Board. 

For more information, visit the Center’s website at https://www.pennmedicine.org/research-at-penn/research-specialty-areas/penn-research-programs-and-interests/coronavirus-research-center

Teaching Awards Recipients 

The Lindback and Provost’s Awards are given in recognition of distinguished teaching. We congratulate this year’s winners and look forward to recognizing them next year once it is feasible to do so.

Non-Health Schools

Health Schools

2020 Provost’s Awards

For Teaching Excellence by Non-Standing Faculty

Provost’s Awards for Distinguished PhD Teaching and Mentoring

We are grateful to all of you for your hard work and creativity in resuming classes—and for your patience in navigating the many unwanted disruptions to our semester. We are writing now to let you know that our current remote learning plan will extend to all credit-bearing courses scheduled to begin on May 26, including both Summer Session I and the 11-week Summer Session. This decision, while not taken lightly, arises from the indefinite stay-at-home order in Philadelphia and the need to resume campus activities only when it is considered safe do so.

The summer sessions will offer remotely many of the courses scheduled for on-campus instruction. The roster of credit-bearing summer session courses is always subject to change, as it is based on enrollments and available instructors. Undergraduates, please check Penn InTouch for updated summer course information. Graduate and professional students, please consult your Schools and programs. We expect both summer sessions to begin as planned on May 26 and end as planned on July 1 (Summer Session I) and August 7 (11-week Summer Session).

Our work of teaching, learning and research at Penn will carry on, as we together face this ongoing global crisis. We greatly appreciate the partnership of every member of the Penn community, and we will continue to update you as the situation moves forward. 

—Wendell Pritchett, Provost

—Beth Winkelstein, Vice Provost for Education

Provost Wendell Pritchett announces the formation of an Ad Hoc Advisory Committee to advise him on the appointment of a new Vice Provost for University Life. The current Vice Provost for University Life, Dr. Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum, will assume the new position of Vice Provost for Student Engagement (see Almanac February 18, 2020). 

The members of the Advisory Committee are: 

• Herman Beavers, Professor of English and Africana Studies, School of Arts and Sciences
• Batsirai Bvunzawabaya, Associate Director for Outreach and Prevention, Counseling and Psychological Services 
• Grace Calhoun, T. Gibbs Kane, Jr. W’69 Director of Athletics and Recreation
• Gregory Callahan, President, Graduate and Professional Student Assembly
• Barbara Hewitt, Executive Director, Career Services
• Marc Lo, Executive Director, Penn First Plus
• Claire Lomax, Member, Board of Trustees
• Natasha Menon, President, Undergraduate Assembly
• Ryan Miller, Director, Office of Learning Resources
• Joann Mitchell, Senior Vice President for Institutional Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer 
• Jennifer Pinto-Martin, Past Chair, Faculty Senate
• Maureen Rush, Vice President for Public Safety
• Karen Winey, Professor and Chair of Materials Science, School of Engineering and Applied Science 
• Meredith Wooten, Director, Graduate Student Center

The work of the committee will be supported by Mark Dingfield, Associate Provost for Finance and Planning; Lynne Hunter, Associate Provost for Administration; Ufuoma Pela, Senior Director of Human Resources, Provost Administrative Affairs; and the search consultant Storbeck Search & Associates. 

The Provost and the committee welcome nominations of and applications from candidates, which can be sent by Friday, May 1, 2020 to UPennVPUL@storbecksearch.com You can find the full position description at:  https://assets.storbecksearch.com/files/resources/penn-vpul-pd.pdf

University of Pennsylvania Athletics recently announced the appointment of two new head coaches. 

Meredith Schamun has been named the head volleyball coach. A highly decorated setter at Rice University in Houston, Ms. Schamun helped lead Villanova to a 39-23 record in her two seasons as the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. Prior to Villanova, Ms. Schamun served as an assistant coach at Tulane and UCF. After playing in college, Ms. Schamun played professionally before coaching. 

Casey Brown has been named the Douglas N. Brush Head Coach of Women’s Soccer. Ms. Brown spent the last three season at Holy Cross as the head coach and was named the 2019 Patriot League Coach of the Year while leading her team to new heights. Prior to Holy Cross, Ms. Brown was the associate head coach at Boston University, after serving as a graduate assistant coach at LIU Brooklyn. Ms. Brown had a successful playing career at Boston University and helped the Terriers to four NCAA tournaments and three conference titles. 

Penn’s School of Social Policy & Practice Associate Professor Ezekiel Dixon-Román and others recently announced the launch of the Institute in Critical Quantitative, Computational & Mixed Methodologies (ICQCM).

Funded by the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation and the William T. Grant Foundation, the training institute is designed for scholars from underrepresented backgrounds as well as for scholars doing critical research on communities of color. The first of its kind in the nation, the institute will serve as a network of scholars of color who use, teach, or critique the Westernized application of quantitative methods in research about Latinx, Indigenous and Black
communities.

“Scholars from underrepresented backgrounds are often concerned with social justice and critically oriented scholarship in order to interrogate the social and political processes that have shaped precarious conditions and categories of difference. However, because of the history of quantification in relation with the entanglement between colonialism and capitalism, they seldom see quantitative methods or data science as analytical tools for their interests. As a result, we continue to see disproportionately less scholarship employing data science from scholars from underrepresented backgrounds. As one of the main discourses of power, this has to be addressed,” said Dr. Dixon-Román, who is also the director of SP2’s master of science in social policy degree program.

“Westernized and positivist applications of quantification on Latinx, Indigenous and Black communities often result in narratives of pathology, deficiency and depravity. The old eugenics ideology is often cloaked in discourses of the comparative analytics of ‘objective science.’”

According to Dr. Dixon-Román, ICQCM’s mission is to advance the presence of scholars of color among those using data science methodologies and challenge researchers to use those methods in ways that dismantle structural barriers and concurrently enable equity and justice for underrepresented communities, professionals and young people.

For its first three years, the institute expects to train at least 75 scholars, from PhD students to faculty and non-academic PhD researchers, in critical theoretically informed uses of quantitative and computational methodologies and their integration into mixed methods, e.g. how to use social network analysis in order to examine the movement and force of shifting power relations or how to study the extent to which policy shapes the spatial arrangement of power and difference via multilevel modeling or spatial analytics.

Also, the newly-formed initiative will establish a repository of knowledge about the quantification of the sociopolitical relations of race and ethnicity, and its role in shaping inequality and opportunity.

ICQCM will start by training a strong group of PhD students who have completed two years of course work and looking to enhance their quantitative and mixed methods skills in their scholarship. This first cohort of scholars will be in place by summer 2020.

Loving families are dynamic and take diverse forms. Many parents welcome children into their homes through adoption. The University strives to ensure faculty and staff members who adopt have the best possible support through this phase of their lives.

To assist these families, the University of Pennsylvania amended the Adoption Assistance Plan. Effective March 2, 2020, the revised plan extends benefits to eligible faculty and staff for the adoption of their spouses’ children.

Penn’s Adoption Assistance Policy was implemented to reimburse eligible employees for qualified expenses resulting from the adoption of an eligible child. Now the child of an eligible faculty or staff spouse is considered eligible. Participants may be reimbursed up to $5,000 for costs directly related to a legal adoption, such as travel and court fees.

The updated Adoption Assistance Plan, along with details about eligibility, timelines, and tax treatment for qualified adoptions, is available at www.hr.upenn.edu/adoptionpolicy

If you have questions about adoption assistance, please contact Karen Kille, senior work-life consultant, karener@upenn.edu or (215) 898-7729.

—Division of Human Resources

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, academic research is more important than ever, and the large-scale shift to distance learning at colleges and universities around the world means students need new forms of access to content. In response to these new and extensive demands, the University of Pennsylvania Press is pleased to announce that all content available through the Press’ digital publishing partners will be made accessible at no cost to consumers.

The decision to make digital content freely accessible reflects Penn Press’ key role in supporting the international academic community as it endeavors to perform the vital work of research, discovery and education under current global circumstances. The Press is able to provide this accessibility for scholars and readers with the support of its digital publishing partners worldwide: DeGruyter, EBSCO, MUSE and ProQuest. Members of the Penn community should access this material via Penn’s membership in these services. 

“At a time like this, reliable, carefully vetted research is crucial to support anyone who is working to find solutions to the current public health crisis. Penn Press has always been dedicated to the University’s pedagogical mission, and we are ready to contribute to sustaining teachers and students around the world seeking to continue their education through this challenging time,” said Mary C. Francis, director of Penn Press.

As our understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic and its global impact evolves, Penn Press’ publications will make an important contribution to how we think about our history and look to our future to reform and rebuild: from public policy to urban infrastructure, economics to international relations. 

Penn Press’ free digital access will be available through June 30, 2020. 

Donald (Don) Fitts, emeritus professor of chemistry who also served as associate dean for graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania for many years, died March 25. He was 87.

Born in Concord, New Hampshire, his family moved to Keene, New Hampshire, where Dr. Fitts graduated from Keene High School in 1950 and received a scholarship to attend Harvard University. In 1954, he graduated from Harvard, magna cum laude with highest honors in chemistry, and he earned a PhD in chemistry in 1957 from Yale University for his theoretical work with John G. Kirkwood.

After a one-year appointment as a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Amsterdam, he joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania in 1959 as an assistant professor in chemistry, rising to the rank of full professor. For his first several years he also served as an assistant professor in LRSM (the Laboratory of Research in the Structure of Matter). He was a theoretician and a mainstay in Penn’s physical chemistry division.

From 1978 to 1994, Dr. Fitts also served as the associate dean for graduate studies for Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences (Almanac September 27, 1994). His 16 years in the position was the longest term of any graduate dean at Penn since 1928. During his term, he increased multi-year funding for doctoral students, created fellowships for minority students and strengthened the school’s international programs. He also served as acting dean of SAS from 1982 to 1983, and on the Faculty Senate, University Council and the PASEF Board (after his retirement) as an at-large member of the executive committee.

Dr. Fitts’ sabbatical leaves were spent in Britain as a NATO Senior Science Fellow at Imperial College, University of London; as an Academic Visitor in Physical Chemistry, University of Oxford; and as a Visiting Fellow at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University. He authored three books, Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics (McGraw-Hill, 1962), Vector Analysis in Chemistry (McGraw-Hill, 1974), and Principles of Quantum Mechanics (Cambridge University Press, 1999), as well as over 50 academic journal articles in the field of physical chemistry. He retired from Penn in 2011 (Almanac May 24, 2011) and earned emeritus status.

Dr. Fitts is survived by his wife, Beverly Hoffman Fitts; sons, Robert and William; and grandchildren, Benjamin and Samantha.

Memorial donations may be made in his memory to the Arts and Sciences Graduate Fellowship Fund at the University of Pennsylvania (checks should be made out to “Trustees of Univ. of PA” with memo line “Arts and Sciences Graduate Fellowship Fund”). Please send to Univ. of PA, 2929 Walnut St., Ste 300, Philadelphia, PA 19104. To make an online gift, visit: https://giving.apps.upenn.edu/fund?program=SAS&fund=342114

Calvin Frederick Nodine, emeritus professor of radiology in Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, died March 19 in Hershey, Pennsylvania. He was 87.

Dr. Nodine was born in Hightstown, New Jersey. He served in the US Army, earning the Army of Occupation Medal (Germany) during his active duty. He earned his BA degree from Bucknell University and his PhD from University of Massachusetts in 1962. He served as professor of psychology at Temple University and was granted professor emeritus status upon retirement. He then went on to join the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania in 1985.

He began his career at Penn as a research associate in the School of Medicine’s department of radiology. In 1993 he became a research professor in the same department. He retired in 2003 and earned emeritus status at that time. His published works in the field of eye movement research served and benefited the medical imaging community as well as the military in camouflage development.

Dr. Nodine is survived by daughters, Renee D. (Alexander Levengood) and Linda N. Jacobson (Michael); son, Richard L. Nodine; step-children, Farrell Friedenberg (Rich) and Abby Goodman; grandchildren, Sarah Sholly, Clayton Levengood, Daria Jacobson, Emma Jacobson, Stella Nodine, Danny Friedenberg, Max Friedenberg, Orli Friedenberg; and ex-wife and friend, Barbara (Fracassi) Nodine.

Hans Reiner Stoll, former associate professor in the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, died March 20 in Nashville. He was 80.

Dr. Stoll was born in Regensburg, Germany. He graduated from Swarthmore College in 1961 and then earned his MBA in 1963 and a PhD in 1966, both from the University of Chicago.

Dr. Stoll joined the faculty at Penn in 1966 as an assistant professor of finance at Wharton. In 1971, he became an associate professor. A few years later, he also took on the role of assistant director of the Wharton PhD program. While at Penn, Dr. Stoll spent a year with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Almanac October 1968). The following year he participated in a high-priority study of securities markets for the Securities and Exchange Commission (Almanac November 1969). In 1980, he received a grant from the Center for the Study of Future Markets at Columbia University.

Dr. Stoll left Penn in 1980 to join the faculty at Vanderbilt’s Owen School. He served as the Anne Marie and Thomas B. Walker Professor of Finance, emeritus. He became best known for developing and testing the put-call parity relation for option prices, modeling and testing the behavior of securities markets dealers, his work on program trading and the “triple witching hour,” and his work on the sources and components of the bid-ask spread.

He authored, co-authored or edited several books and over 60 published articles and served on the editorial board of a variety of financial journals. As founding director of the Financial Markets Research Center at Owen, Dr. Stoll fostered research among financial markets scholars around the globe and brought together countless financial authorities from academia, business concerns and government agencies to discuss timely and critical issues. He served as resident of the Western Finance Association (1992-1993), president of the American Finance Association (1999-2000) and on various government and industry advisory panels, including the Quality of Markets Committee of the NASD formed to study the 1987 stock market crash. He was a member of the Economic Advisory Board for the NASD, a public governor of the Pacific Stock Exchange, and a public director of the Options Clearing Corporation, Interactive Brokers Group and the Futures Industry Association. He received numerous honors and awards including Vanderbilt’s 1996 Earl Sutherland Prize for Achievement in Research across all fields; the 1994 Chicago Board of Trade Earle M. Combs, Jr. Award for leadership and contributions to the futures industry; and an honorary doctorate from Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany.

Dr. Stoll is survived by his wife, Margie; children, Erica Stoll Hammack, Andy and Kevin; six grandchildren; and siblings, Dagi Stoll Murphy and Michael.

Kevin Maurice (Bub) Thorpe, a mail carrier for Penn Mail for several years, died February 29. He was 38. 

Mr. Thorpe grew up in the Mantua section of West Philadelphia. He graduated from Edward W. Bok Technical High School in Philadelphia, then he earned his certified nursing assistant degree from Community College of Philadelphia. He went on to earn a degree in carpentry from Orleans Technical College. He also attended Philadelphia Culinary Arts Institute.

He began his career at the University of Pennsylvania in the Division of Business Services in Penn Transportation Services in 2008. He joined Mail Services in 2012, becoming a mail carrier in 2014. He remained in this position for the remainder of his career.

Mr. Thorpe is survived by his wife, Tiffany Shavonne Pickford; children, Khali, Talia, Kaden and Kyndric-Taylor (KT); grandmother, Evelyn; grandfather, William (Anita); mother, Sheila; father, Lewis Kenny White (Phyllis); sisters, Audra Thorpe and Kenisha Jackson; brothers, Kenneth White, Christian Jackson and Wanya White. 

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To Report A Death

Almanac appreciates being informed of the deaths of current and former faculty and staff members, students and other members of the University community. Call (215) 898-5274 or email almanac@upenn.edu

However, notices of alumni deaths should be directed to the Alumni Records Office at Suite 300, 2929 Walnut St., (215) 898-8136 or email record@ben.dev.upenn.edu

On March 31, at a special virtual Meeting of the Executive Committee of the Penn Trustees, they approved a Resolution to Authorize a $150 Million Line of Credit for the University of Pennsylvania Health System to deal with the pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus. The resolution read, in part, “In preparing to meet the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Health System has taken substantial efforts to create inpatient capacity and protect the Health System’s limited provider capacity by preserving and acquiring Personal Protective Equipment. These efforts include the deferral of all elective procedures and non-essential physician office visits while allocating significant resources to convert office visits to telemedicine, support the Health System’s physicians and staff and prepare the Health System’s facilities. These efforts and the Health System’s continuing response to this crisis of unknown duration will have a negative impact on the Health System’s financial position and liquidity. To bolster the Health System’s liquidity, Management of the Health System (‘Management’) is recommending that the Health System enter into an additional $150,000,000 line of credit (the ‘Line of Credit’) with one or more commercial banks or other financial institutions (collectively, the ‘Bank’) in order to provide financing for the working capital needs of the Health System. The Line of Credit will be evidenced by a line of credit letter agreement or similar loan agreement and a line of credit note (the ‘Line of Credit Documents’).”

The following agenda is published in accordance with the Faculty Senate Rules. Any member of the standing faculty may attend SEC meetings and observe. Questions may be directed 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 Agenda

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

3-5 p.m.

Remote Meeting

1. Approval of the Minutes of March 18, 2020 
2. Chair’s Report
3. Past-Chair’s Report
4. Coping with Changes to Penn’s Operations
5. Update from the Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Scholarly Communication
   • Discussion with Committee Chair Dan Raff
6. Update from the Senate Ad Hoc Committee on the Institutional Response to the Climate Emergency (“CIRCE”) 
   • Discussion with Committee Chair and Subcommittee on Operations Chair Bill Braham, Subcommittee on Community and Policy Chair Simon Richter, and Subcommittee on 
   • Research and Education Chair Michael Weisberg
7. New Business

Read the National Architecture Week supplement The Quad at 125: A Penn Landmark. This year, Penn commemorates the 125th anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone of its famous Quadrangle.

Steve Dolan, the James P. Tuppeny/Betty J. Costanza Director of Track & Field/Cross Country, has been recognized by the Ivy League and the US Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

After the University of Pennsylvania women’s track & field team’s third straight Ivy League Heptagonal Indoor Championship and fifth straight title overall, he was named the Ivy League Coach of the Year. This marks the sixth unanimous Coach of the Year award for Mr. Dolan. He was previously named the 2016 Ivy League Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year, and the Women’s Indoor and Outdoor Coach of the Year in 2018 and 2019.

Mr. Dolan was also named US Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Mid-Atlantic Region Women’s Coach of the Year. This is Mr. Dolan’s seventh USTFCCCA regional coaching award.

Eric J. Schelter, professor of chemistry, has won the Inorganic Chemistry Lectureship Award, an annual award that recognizes individuals who have demonstrated creativity and impact in the field of inorganic chemistry. It is awarded by the American Chemical Society (ACS) Division of Inorganic Chemistry and Inorganic Chemistry. Dr. Schelter received the honor for his development of methodologies related to rare-earth element separations and elucidation of the electronic structures of f-block complexes. His research aims to address the problems associated with recycling heavy-duty batteries and electronics.

Rare earth elements are required in the manufacture of batteries, wind turbine generators, hybrid and electric vehicles, fiber optics, cell phones and flat-panel displays. Mining and purifying these metals is an expensive, labor-intensive and ecologically destructive process. Dr. Schelter’s goal is to develop efficient, environmentally friendly separations and recycling processes for certain high-value rare earth metals based on their unique physical and chemical properties.

The world’s largest scientific society, ACS represents professionals at all degree levels and in all fields of chemistry and sciences that involve chemistry.

Filene Research Institute recently launched the Center of Excellence for Consumer Financial Lives in Transition and welcomed Lisa Servon, the Kevin and Erica Penn Presidential Professor and chair of city and regional planning at Penn’s Stuart Weitzman School of Design, as its new research fellow.

This four-year research project focuses on strengthening credit unions’ capacity to adapt to consumers’ changing financial lives and livelihoods as they face new forms of economic struggle and financial fragility. The Center will be led by Dr. Servon.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System has been selected by Engineering News-Record editors as the 2019 ENR MidAtlantic Owner of the Year.

Owners of the Year are chosen for their innovation and creativity throughout the region as well as their contributions to their community. The last six MidAtlantic winners were the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, DelDOT, Douglas Development, PennDOT, DC Public Schools and DC Water.

Penn Medicine was recognized for the following: “[Its] construction procurement practices are unbiased, equitable, and focused on minority and union participation, insuring that all stakeholder groups have a fair opportunity to get work. They also make sure that their projects spread the work among multiple local vendors, often using IPD contract structures and creative collaborations. Penn Medicine is dedicated to the continuing education of its vendor base, providing seminars and workshops on innovative techniques relevant to the project at hand.” Penn Med is the nation’s oldest teaching hospital and the largest employer within the University of Pennsylvania, which is Philadelphia’s largest employer with 45,000 people on the payroll.

Penn Medicine is currently putting the finishing touches on the new Penn Medicine Radnor, replacing its current facility in Radnor Township. The new location will provide comprehensive cancer care, including radiation oncology services and chemotherapy provided by the Abramson Cancer Center, as well as primary care, heart and vascular, orthopaedic and neuroscience care. It is also double the square footage of the old facility. Additional services will include same-day surgery, with six operating rooms and four endoscopy suites, along with full radiology and laboratory services. The project also includes 150,000 gross square feet of office space and a hotel component comprising 75,000 gross square feet, with a projected 100 rooms–which Penn Medicine officials say will help make the new Radnor facility a destination for patients traveling for specialized outpatient services from outside the area.

The Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, in a partnership with the Philadelphia Museum of Art and researchers at other universities, has been named a National Endowment for the Arts Research Lab. The national network of labs is dedicated to investigating the impact of the arts through the social and behavioral sciences.

The Positive Psychology Center received a $150,000 grant, renewable for up to five years, for its Humanities and Human Flourishing Lab, directed by James Pawelski. The lab is a collaboration between Penn and Purdue University. For over five years, the lab has studied how engaging in the arts and humanities can bring well-being to individuals and communities. In this latest initiative supported by the NEA, the lab examines the relationship between immersive visual arts experiences and psychological well-being among university students. Prompting participants to view artworks with a mindful approach, the project will assess the influence of regular museum-viewing experiences on students’ immediate and ongoing levels of social and emotional “flourishing” by using a multi-method research design.

“We are delighted to be designated an NEA Research Lab,” said Dr. Pawelski, professor of practice in the Positive Psychology Center. “This support will allow us to continue our scientific inquiries into the well-being effects of engagement with the arts and humanities and will make possible a partnership with the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Our findings will enable us to make evidence-based recommendations to art museums and their visitors on how to optimize the well-being effects of museum visits.”

NEA Research Labs are housed at universities and made up of transdisciplinary teams of researchers that explore the arts in one of three topic areas; health and social/emotional well-being; creativity, cognition, and learning; and entrepreneurship and innovation.

The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing was once again ranked #1 nursing school in the world by QS World University. The rankings highlight the world’s top universities in 48 different subject areas based on academic reputation, employer reputation and research impact. This is the fifth consecutive year that Penn Nursing has taken the top spot. The QS World University Rankings by Subject aim to help prospective students identify the world’s leading schools in their chosen field in response to high demand for subject-level comparisons.

The College Squash Association (CSA) has announced that Penn’s men’s squash team has earned the 2019-2020 Sloane Award for team sportsmanship. The award is the first for the Quakers’ team in program history. Two men, including Head Coach Gilly Lane in 2007, and four women have taken home the CSA’s respective individual sportsmanship honors in years past.

Created in 1981, the Sloane Award is given to a team for their collective spirit and sportsmanship. Named after former Williams College head coach Sean Sloane, the award is presented annually to one team that best exemplifies the values that Mr. Sloane instilled in his athletes.

Across Philadelphia and the surrounding counties in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, shops and restaurants have closed their doors, schools and businesses have turned to virtual operations, and all nonessential workers have been ordered to stay at home in an effort to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. As much of the region falls quiet, construction crews are on the job around the clock at the Pavilion, the new hospital on the campus of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP), to expedite the completion of 120 patient rooms by mid-April—15 months ahead of the facility’s planned opening.

The 17-story, 1.5-million-square foot, $1.5 billion hospital is the largest capital building project in Penn’s history (Almanac May 9, 2017) and will serve as an extension of HUP. Thanks to support from Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf and the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council, the Pavilion and other healthcare construction projects were exempted from the state-wide shutdown of all “nonessential businesses” to slow to spread of the virus. Inside the bronze-clad building in West Philadelphia, workers are swiftly finishing floors and ceilings, painting walls, fitting pipes, wiring rooms, installing medical gases and technology systems and more, joining the providers and health care professionals who are on the frontlines of the epidemic.

“What these crews are doing—working day and night just like our doctors, nurses, and staff caring for patients—is herculean,” said Kevin B. Mahoney, chief executive officer of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. “Philadelphia is facing a crisis, and these men and women stepped up to do lifesaving work. There is no other team in the world that could execute the mission we’ve asked of them, and their efforts will make a tremendous difference in our ability to care for our neighbors and the patients this pandemic will bring to us.”

The exterior of the Pavilion was completed just months ago, at the end of 2019, allowing construction teams to turn their attention to the development of interior lounges and corridors. Now, in order to support the need for increased capacity to care for patients with COVID-19, every team member has been refocused to work on bringing 120 of the planned 500 patient rooms into operation in a few short weeks.

These rooms—60 in the emergency department and 60 inpatient rooms designed for extended care—will serve as overflow spaces for low acuity patients and patients under observation, freeing up beds at HUP for patients with COVID-19. Stephen Greulich, Penn Medicine’s associate vice president for large capital projects, says the expedited project has called for creativity to adapt plans. Though the new spaces will be inside a still-unfinished building, they will be outfitted with state-of-the-art technology and equipment that allow for top-notch patient care.

“There are dozens of elements related to this project that we’ve needed to assess and say, ‘We can’t fully realize our final plans yet, but this is how we can deal with the current needs,’” he said. “The building is about 75 percent completed and about a year away from completion, but the project team has been dedicated to figuring out how we can get these rooms fully functioning as quickly as possible and ensure they can remain open as long as they need to. There’s been an unbelievably positive response to this challenging, changing situation; everyone has really jumped on board to get this done.”

At the heart of these efforts are the construction workers who have continued working full steam ahead. The effort spans three shifts that work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. To stay safe during the COVID-19 outbreak, crews have added to their normal worksite safety precautions by using their daily “Toolbox Talks” to reinforce the prevention guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, such as working further apart whenever possible. Penn Medicine is doing everything it can to protect the 350 workers on site each day. Each worker is screened by clinical staff and have their temperatures taken before they can begin their shift.

Mr. Greulich has been astounded by how much each person has taken this shared mission to heart. “It’s a real cause,” he said. “When the coverage of the virus started, there was a noticeable concern across the workforce and staff, but now that we have this immediate, extremely important goal, everyone is pushing their hardest to meet it. It has been amazing to watch.”

Since its earliest planning stages, the Pavilion has been described as a future-proofed facility that will offer the highest quality health care for generations to come. Though the COVID-19 pandemic has cast a shadow of uncertainty and anxiety across the world, the flexibility, teamwork, and unwavering dedication of the project and construction teams has made one thing clear: The Pavilion will deliver on this promise even earlier than expected.

Fitness and Learning
       National Poetry Month Featured E-Books; a roundup of featured e-books that are digitally accessible via Penn’s Franklin Catalog; https://tinyurl.com/NatPoetryMonth (Libraries).

Meetings
13    PPSA Virtual Board Meeting; 1-2 p.m.; anyone interested in attending should email ppsa@lists.upenn.edu for more information.

Talks
7    Are We Winning The War Against Coronavirus?; Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Vice Provost for Global Initiatives; 10 a.m.; register: https://tinyurl.com/WinningWarCoronavirus (Perry World House).
8    60-Second Lectures—Quarantine Edition; 60-Second Lectures go digital as we seek to understand this difficult and unique moment in time; noon; info: www.sas.upenn.edu/events/60-second-lectures-quarantine (SAS). Also April 15, 22, 29.
      Q&A with Tiger King Editor Dylan Hansen-Fiedler (C ’14); noon; connect via Zoom at https://sasupenn.zoom.us/j/790206153; Dial: +1 646 558 8656, Meeting ID: 790 206 153 (Cinema Studies).
13    Combating Climate Change Through Regulatory Relief; Hannah Wiseman, Florida State Univ.; 4 p.m.; zoom; register: https://tinyurl.com/CombatingClimateChange (Kleinman Center for Energy Policy).

AT PENN Deadlines
The April AT PENN calendar is online. The deadline for the May AT PENN is April 13. The deadline to submit your virtual events to be featured in the next Update is the Monday prior.

The Kislak Center for Special Collections at the Penn Libraries presents a virtual exhibition at http://sceti.library.upenn.edu/LenkinHolyLandPhotos/

The 19th century was a time of a great fascination in the West with the Holy Land. Tourists, surveyors, archaeologists, novelists and photographers made the journey to this peripheral region of the Ottoman Empire, which during the 19th century started its transformation from a neglected area of secondary importance to a focus of Western geopolitical and cultural interest.

The technology of photography arrived in the Middle East and the Holy Land shortly after the invention of the daguerreotype, the first practical photographic process, in 1839. Early photographers were limited by the constraints of early photographic technology, such as bulky equipment and long exposure periods. Yet, for the first time, Western viewers could be provided with realistic and scientifically accurate images of archaeological and religious sites that stirred Western religious imagination for centuries.

Technological improvements during the second half of the 19th century contributed to the popularization of photography and the rise of a market for commercial travel photography.

Responding to market demands, growing numbers of professional photographers traveled to the Holy Land in search of imagery that would appeal to their European audiences: architectural and religious sites, scenes of pastoral life and timeless Biblical landscapes.

GWW (George Washington Wilson?), The “Fair Water Carrier,” Nazareth. Lantern slide.

Going for a (socially distanced) walk around the block? The Morris Arboretum’s F. Otto Haas Executive Director Bill Cullina has done a video identifying common landscape trees and shrubs that might be blooming now in neighborhoods in the Philadelphia area. The Arboretum encourages people to look for flowering trees and shrubs on their block at this time. Check out the video, What Tree/Shrub is That?, at morrisarb.org/treesandshrubs to see a variety of plants in bloom.

Music for Your Plants: Arboretum staff have put together a Youtube playlist of music that will encourage your plants to grow big and beautiful. Play it for them and the vibrations from the music will enhance their growth factors, http://www.morrisarboretum.org/connect_new.shtml

At this historic moment, Perry World House has launched an innovative Penn Pandemic Diary to create a record of what Penn undergraduates, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows are seeing and feeling during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

The first six entries are already available and there will be regular updates and new submissions. See https://global.upenn.edu/perryworldhouse/news?field_pg_news_tt_category_target_id=736#views-exposed-form-pg-v-news-block-view-news-list

Perry World House invites the Penn community to participate in a Penn Pandemic Diary that will collect posts by students and other Penn affiliates from different years, backgrounds and disciplines. They want to record what people are seeing and feeling during the pandemic. These 500-1,000 word posts can be about personal experiences, views on the virus and response and thoughts about the world to come.

They seek to post 3-4 posts in the diary each week—either anonymously or under your byline—on the Perry World House website. Also, these posts may be collectively published in some form in the future. Those who are interested may sign up for a coming week at the weblink below. Perry World House staff will remind authors of the due date and work with contributors to edit posts for publication.

To submit a diary entry, please visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdVHXU_qH8TV8a-aXXpsIo71w5zv0He7LxgfL1sxL4kWICqbQ/viewform

University of Pennsylvania Police Department Crime Report

Below are the Crimes Against Persons, Crimes Against Society and Crimes Against Property from the campus report for March 23-29, 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 March 23-29, 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: 4 incidents (3 robberies, 1 domestic assault) with 1 arrest were reported for March 22-29, 2020 by the 18th District covering the Schuylkill River to 49th Street & Market Street to Woodland Avenue.

Did you have a summer camp planned that has now changed due to the pandemic? Let us know at almanac@upenn.edu and we’ll publish the updated information in an upcoming issue.

Stay-at-home orders have made this a challenging time for children, parents and caregivers. Penn GSE’s team of psychologists and child therapists want to help. They are anonymously fielding questions about managing stress, anxiety, routines and new behavior problems during the pandemic.

To submit a question, visit https://tinyurl.com/GSEparentingduringpandemic

Answers will be posted (without naming the person who asked) in a roundup on Penn GSE’s News Room and social media.

This virus spreads fast, but we can spread the love even faster. Leave your messages of support, encouragement, gratitude and hope for the Penn Medicine frontline staff and they’ll be spread system-wide and delivered to the staff to be sure they see your wishes and feel your support! No name or contact information is required but if you’d like to sign your first name and location, you’re more than welcome.

Go to https://upenn.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_03qsqJSrIfjrQpf

This edition of Almanac is digital-only. Please distribute to your colleagues and encourage them to subscribe to receive the E-Almanac at almanac.upenn.edu/express-almanac

No issues were printed to distribute across campus because of COVID-19.