October 13, 2020 Volume 67 Issue 14

September 25, 2020

As you know, Eric Furda has decided to step down as dean of admissions on December 31, 2020 after more than 12 years of dedicated and exemplary service to Penn. We are pleased to announce that John McLaughlin will serve as interim dean of Admissions, effective January 1, 2021, and until a new dean of Admissions is in place.

John currently serves as vice dean and director of Admissions in Penn Admissions. In this senior leadership role, he manages the core elements of the admissions office, including the teams responsible for recruitment, selection, yield, and equity and access. During his term as director and under Dean Furda’s leadership, John and his team have consistently brought to Penn students who exemplify our commitment to diversity and excellence. John has also built deep relationships with faculty and key partners across campus, including through his service on the Faculty Council on Access and Academic Support. Before being promoted to vice dean, John helped create a research and analysis group in Penn Admissions that used experimental and data analytics to better understand and improve various aspects of the Penn Admissions process, including the campus visit experience, recruitment, and yield. A proud member of the Penn Class of 2005, John’s relationship with Penn Admissions began as a work-study student and a tour guide nearly 20 years ago.  Between his student days and his return to Penn Admissions, John earned graduate degrees from Oxford and Harvard and was a senior research associate at the Consortium on Financing Higher Education (COFHE).

The search for Penn’s next Admissions dean is well underway and we have convened an Advisory Committee of Trustees, deans, senior administrators, faculty, and students to partner with us on this critically important search. We welcome your suggestions, input, and nominations as we work to identify and recruit an admissions leader who will help strengthen and expand our already exceptionally successful efforts to recruit to Penn the nation’s and the world’s most diverse and excellent students who will make unique contributions to our University community.

Please join us in again celebrating Eric Furda’s exceptional service to Penn and in thanking John McLaughlin for taking on this important interim leadership role for Penn Admissions. We look forward to keeping you updated in the months ahead on the search for Penn’s next Admissions dean.

—Amy Gutmann, President
—Wendell Pritchett, Provost

The Penn Center for Multi-Scale Molecular Mapping of the Female Reproductive System, supported by the National Institutes of Health, will define a cellular atlas uncovering the complex interactions of cells that determine reproductive health.

Junhyong Kim, chair and Patricia M. Williams Professor of Biology in the School of Arts and Sciences, and Kate O’Neill, assistant professor, department of obstetrics and gynecology in the Perelman School of Medicine, have been awarded a Human BioMolecular Atlas Program (HuBMAP) grant supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development and the Common Fund of the National Institutes of Health. Drs. Kim and O’Neill are leading a multi-disciplinary team to create a comprehensive resource for women’s health by documenting the molecular characteristics of individual cells in the female reproductive system. This four-year, $4.5 million grant from the NIH along with support from the University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences, Perelman School of Medicine, and the Center for Research on Reproduction and Women’s Health will fund creation of the Penn Center for Multi-Scale Molecular Mapping of the Female Reproductive System. 

The female reproductive system is composed of the uterus, fallopian tubes, and the ovaries. Together these organs are critical for the establishment of pregnancy, fetal development, and parturition and are central to common, costly, and debilitating disorders, including polycystic ovary syndrome, endometriosis, fibroids, and gynecologic cancers. Moreover, in addition to fertility, a functioning reproductive system is interrelated with overall health.

The new center, leveraging Penn’s leadership in single cell biology and reproductive biology, is an interdisciplinary effort requiring experts in gynecology, organ transplant, pathology, genomics, informatics, biomedical imaging and radiology. Co-investigators and collaborators involved in this project include: Kurt Barnhart, William Shippen Jr. Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Ronny Drapkin, Franklin Payne Associate Professor of Pathology in Obstetrics and Gynecology; Jim Eberwine, Elmer Holmes Bobst Professor of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics; Michael Feldman, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine; James Gee, associate professor of radiologic science and computer and information science; Nawar Latif, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology; Alison Pouch, assistant professor of radiology and bioengineering; Lauren Schwartz, assistant professor of clinical pathology and laboratory medicine; Abraham Shaked, Eldridge L. Eliason Professor of Surgery; all from the Perelman School of Medicine; Brian Gregory, associate professor and graduate chair of biology from the School of Arts and Sciences; and Arjun Raj, professor of bioengineering from the School of Engineering and Applied Science.

This important endeavor is made possible due to collaboration with the Gift of Life Donation Program and the generosity of donor families and Penn patients to participate in groundbreaking scientific research.  

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania recently announced the debut of a new, three-part Tarnopol Dean’s Lecture Series led by Wharton Dean Erika James entitled Beyond Business. It will tackle complex, pressing issues impacting individuals and organizations in the U.S. and around the world. With a goal of shining a light on the nation’s challenges with racial unrest, the inaugural set of discussions will focus on racial injustice. The first session, Race & The Entrepreneur, is set for October 21, at 12:30 p.m. ET and will look at the systemic issues of race that impact success for Black entrepreneurs and how industry and individuals can partner for meaningful change. All sessions are open to the public at no cost and will stream live to a global audience on the Wharton School’s LinkedIn page.

Barriers facing Black entrepreneurs include blocked access to investors, limited mentoring options, and fewer educational choices. Joining Dean James to tackle these challenges will be 1993 Wharton undergraduate alumnus Josh Kopelman, founding partner of First Round Capital, and 2007 Wharton undergraduate alumnus Chris Bennett, founder of Wonderschool. The second half of the session will feature a Q&A with the LinkedIn Live audience moderated by Wharton Vice Dean of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Karl Ulrich.

“Through this lecture series, Wharton is making a statement on the importance of prioritizing race and inclusion in America and asking firms to consider what it will take to place the issue at the top of the corporate agenda,” said Dean James. “I’m delighted such distinguished panelists will be joining me for the first session as we begin this conversation that will inspire others to make long-term change.”

Dean James began her tenure at Wharton on July 1, 2020, and in doing so became the first-ever woman and African American to lead the world’s oldest collegiate school of business. Prior to Wharton, she was dean of Goizueta Business School at Emory University. Throughout Dean James’ award-winning career as a researcher and instructor, she has investigated issues of diversity, leadership, and crisis management. She is the author of numerous journal articles, co-author of the book Leading Under Pressure: From Surviving to Thriving Before, During, and After a Crisis, and she was named one of the Top 10 Women of Power in Education by Black Enterprise magazine.

Subsequent Beyond Business sessions are planned for November (Race & Corporate Power) and December (Race & The Selling of America) and will feature additional acclaimed guest speakers. More information is available here. 

The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Involvement Recognition Awards will be presented to five individuals in the following areas:

• Community Award presented to two residents (youth and/or adult) of the greater Philadelphia community involved in community service and/or working for social justice efforts.
• Community Award presented to a faculty or staff at Penn involved in community service and/or working for social justice efforts.
• Community Award presented to a Penn student involved in community service and/or working for social justice efforts.
• The Rodin Education Award presented to a Penn faculty, staff, student or Philadelphia resident who demonstrates significant contributions in community service and/or working for social justice efforts through the advancement of education and educational opportunities in Philadelphia.

The awards will be presented as part of the University’s commemoration of the MLK holiday during the Interfaith program. We seek your help in nominating individuals whose work most merits recognition. Please share this information with others in your families, communities, schools, departments and organizations so that we may identify those most deserving of this award.

Due to COVID-19 nomination forms may be accessed and submitted through November 13, 2020 at: https://aarc.upenn.edu/mlk/mlk-award-nominations

If there are any questions, email aarc@upenn.edu. 

—2021 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Symposium Executive Planning Committee

To Members of the University and Surrounding Community:

The National Institute for Women of Color (NIWC) has proclaimed March 1 National Women of Color Day. Penn, UPHS, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and Pennsylvania Hospital seek to increase awareness of the talents and achievements of women of color by recognizing them with the Women of Color Day Award.

The Women of Color Awards are given in recognition of individuals who have conscientiously endeavored to increase respect for women of color at Penn, University of Pennsylvania Health Systems, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Pennsylvania Hospitals and the Delaware Valley community. Annually, awards are given in up to five categories:

• Helen O. Dickens Award: must have demonstrated over 25 years of previously recognized service
• Joann Mitchell Outstanding Legacy Award
• Faculty/Staff, Graduate or Professional Student Award
• Undergraduate Student Award
• Community Member Award

Nominees must be affiliated with Penn, UPHS, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center or Pennsylvania Hospital and/or the local Philadelphia area and have demonstrated:

• Outstanding leadership
• Distinguished service
• Positive impact on the community
• Commitment to enhancing quality of life for and/or serving as a role model for women of color

Joann Mitchell Outstanding Legacy Award nominees must have worked with the Women of Color Executive Planning Committee or have proven support through donations, event involvement and action advocacy of the WOCAP mission.

Nominations must be submitted on or before November 6, 2020, to Lanese Rogers at larogers@upenn.edu.

Applications are available online at https://aarc.upenn.edu/women-color/women-color-awards.

Learn more about the 2021 WOCAP Day Awards Program at https://aarc.upenn.edu/women-color/programs.

—Women of Color Executive Planning Committee

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

• The Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching honors eight members of the standing faculty: four in the non-health schools (Annenberg, Weitzman, SEAS, GSE, Law, SAS, SP2, Wharton) and four in the health schools (Dental Medicine, PSOM, Nursing, Veterinary Medicine).
• The Provost’s Award for Distinguished PhD Teaching and Mentoring honors two faculty members for their teaching and mentoring of PhD students. Standing and associated faculty in any school offering the PhD are eligible for the award.
• The Provost’s Award for Teaching Excellence by Non-Standing Faculty honors two members of the associated faculty or academic support staff who teach at Penn, one in the non-health schools and one in the health schools. 

The nomination forms are available at the Teaching Awards website. The deadline for nominations is Friday, December 4, 2020. Full nominations with complete dossiers prepared by the nominees’ department chairs are due Friday, February 5, 2021. For more information, please email provost-ed@upenn.edu or call (215) 898-7225.

Criteria and Guidelines

1. The Lindback and Provost’s Awards are given in recognition of distinguished teaching. “Distinguished teaching” is teaching that is intellectually demanding, unusually coherent, and permanent in its effect. The distinguished teacher has the capability of changing the way in which students view the subject they are studying. The distinguished teacher provides the basis for students to look with critical and informed perception at the fundamentals of a discipline, and s/he relates that discipline to other disciplines and to the worldview of the student. The distinguished teacher is accessible to students and open to new ideas, but also expresses his/her own views with articulate and informed understanding of an academic field. The distinguished teacher is fair, free from prejudice, and single-minded in the pursuit of truth.
2. Skillful direction of dissertation students, effective supervision of student researchers, ability to organize a large course of many sections, skill in leading seminars, special talent with large classes, ability to handle discussions or structure lectures—these are all attributes of distinguished teaching, although it is unlikely that anyone will excel in all of them. At the same time, distinguished teaching means different things in different fields. While the distinguished teacher should be versatile, as much at home in large groups as in small, in beginning classes as in advanced, s/he may have skills of special importance in his/her area of specialization. The primary criteria for the Provost’s Award for Distinguished PhD Teaching and Mentoring are a record of successful doctoral student mentoring and placement, success in collaborating on doctoral committees and graduate groups, and distinguished research.
3. Since distinguished teaching is recognized and recorded in different ways, evaluation must also take several forms. It is not enough to look solely at letters of recommendation from students or to consider “objective” evaluations of particular classes in tabulated form. A faculty member’s influence extends beyond the classroom and individual classes. Nor is it enough to look only at a candidate’s most recent semester or opinions expressed immediately after a course is over; the influence of the best teachers lasts, while that of others may be great at first but lessen over time. It is not enough merely to gauge student adulation, for its basis is superficial; but neither should such feelings be discounted as unworthy of investigation. Rather, all of these factors and more should enter into the identification and assessment of distinguished teaching.
4. The Lindback and Provost’s Awards have a symbolic importance that transcends the recognition of individual merit. They should be used to advance effective teaching by serving as reminders to the University community of the expectations for the quality of its mission.
5. Distinguished teaching occurs in all parts of the University.  Therefore, faculty members from all schools are eligible for consideration. An excellent teacher who does not receive an award in a given year may be re-nominated in some future year and receive the award then.
6. The Lindback and Provost’s Awards may recognize faculty members with many years of distinguished service or many years of service remaining. The teaching activities for which the awards are granted must be components of the degree programs of the University of Pennsylvania.

Dear Penn Community Member,

We are writing today to announce the opening of the 2021 grant cycle for The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation. If you have an innovative and ambitious idea for the arts at Penn, you may be eligible for Sachs Program funding. 

Over the summer we assessed our grants program, interviewing students, faculty, staff, and leadership at the University. One of the key findings of the assessment was to continue to build flexibility into our grants program, recognizing the range of needs on campus and the different planning horizons for various groups.  

In response to the findings of the assessment, we have made several notable changes to the grants program for 2021: 

• Annual Grant Opportunities for Penn faculty, staff, student groups, departments, programs, and centers are now consolidated into four core categories (Curricular, Project Grants, Independent Production, and Artist Residencies). Applications for these annual grants will be due January 22, 2021. 
• Student Grants are now available twice a year. Fall student grants will be due November 20, 2020. Spring student grants will be due February 19, 2021.  
• We will also be providing additional targeted grant opportunities in response to specific community needs, announced as opportunities are available.  

Grants range in size, with most opportunities between $3,000 and $8,000. All grantmaking is aligned with the Sachs’ vision to support teaching art, making art, and presenting art, as well as their aim to provide Penn students with increased access to the arts and humanities. This year’s grant cycle provides multiple categories of arts funding that are open to the Penn community including faculty, staff, students, departments, programs, and centers. 

If you would like to apply for Sachs funding, please visit our website at www.sachsarts.org.  

Complete details on eligibility, deadlines, funding levels, and how to apply are available at www.sachsarts.org/grants. Please feel free to share this announcement with your friends and colleagues at Penn. 

—The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation

The University of Pennsylvania’s Division of Recreation and Intercollegiate Athletics is pleased to announce updates to its Plan of Action: First Steps to Combat Racism (released this summer; Almanac June 23, 2020) and the composition of its Racial Justice Task Force.

The Racial Justice Task Force, which has met regularly since July, is comprised of student-athletes, coaches, athletics administrators, alumni, and campus partners. The group represents a broad spectrum of backgrounds with the common goal of combatting racism and helping Penn Athletics become a more anti-racist organization.

The charge for this task force is to recommend action items to the Division of Recreation and Intercollegiate Athletics that include near- and long-term initiatives to improve and support the experience of people of color at Penn. The task force has been divided into sub-committees to allow for more focused discussions and planning in specific areas of the Plan of Action: First Steps to Combat Racism.

The task force will complete its full recommendations by the end of October. Responsibility for implementation will be transferred to an internal Diversity and Inclusion Committee of the Division, which will be led by the Athletics Diversity and Inclusion Designee, a new designation implemented by the NCAA this year.

“This task force is composed of an array of diverse minds, backgrounds, and experiences who are well situated to help our Division become a more accepting, supportive, and inclusive environment,” said M. Grace Calhoun, the T. Gibbs Kane, Jr. W’69 Director of Athletics and Recreation. “We have asked this task force to be thoughtful and deliberate as they provide recommendations to enact meaningful change within our Division and beyond. This is not an exercise in public relations; this is an effort to improve our Division’s support of our student-athletes, coaches, and staff of color, and to begin to break the chain of systemic racism.”

The following steps have already been taken as the Division strives to fulfill its Plan of Action.

Penn Athletics hosted three virtual “Addressing Racial Awareness” conversations this summer. Two were open to the entire Penn Athletics community and one was specific to coaches and staff. In June, Rev. Charles Howard C’00, (Vice President for Social Equity and Community), Brian Peterson,  (Director of Makuu), and student-athletes Michae Jones C’21 (women’s basketball), Raven Sulaimon C’21 (volleyball), and Mitch Bartolo C’21 (men’s lacrosse) hosted a panel discussing racism, discrimination, police brutality, and actionable steps to take as individuals and members of the Penn community. In July, Ms. Jones, Ms. Sulaimon, and Mr. Bartolo were joined by Herman Beavers, (Faculty Director, Civic House Professor, English and Africana Studies) and Nat Graham C’97 (Associate Head Men’s Basketball Coach) for a conversation regarding different types of racism, allyship, and anti-racism. The Addressing Racial Awareness series will continue this fall with additional programming.

The position of Diversity and Inclusion Chair has been created for the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). Raven Sulaimon C’21 of the volleyball team has been named to this position in 2020-2021. 

Penn Athletics will be offering implicit bias training to all student-athletes, coaches, and staff this fall in collaboration with the Penn LGBT Center and other campus partners.

Penn Athletics is producing social media and website content that promotes the impact of current and former student-athletes of color beginning this fall.

Penn Athletics is partnering with Penn Leads the Vote, a non-partisan student organization, to promote voter engagement and education.

Penn Athletics, the Ivy League, and the NCAA have designated Election Day as a day off from any required athletics activity, beginning this year and continuing into the future.

Penn Athletics is represented by Senior Associate AD/Chief Financial Officer Joy De Jesús WG’02 on the Ivy League Diversity and Inclusion Task Force.

Penn Athletics is actively exploring virtual civic engagement opportunities to positively impact the local West Philadelphia community.

The task force, chaired by Matt Valenti, C’07, Associate AD/Student-Athlete Success and Rudy Fuller, MSOD’20, Senior Associate AD/Intercollegiate Programs, is divided into four sub-committees:

Training and Education Sub-Committee
Objective: To provide resources for student-athletes, coaches, and staff and make recommendations for ongoing training and education.

• Rosemarie Burnett, Assistant AD/Academic Services and Student-Athlete Success
• Nia Caldwell, C’22, Student-Athlete, Women’s Track and Field
• Erin Cross, Director of the LGBT Center at Penn
• Steven Downs, Assistant Football Coach
• Nat Graham, C’97, Associate Head Men’s Basketball Coach
• Ufuoma Pela, Senior HR Director, Provost Center

Programming and Civic Engagement Sub-Committee
Objective: To create avenues for Penn Athletics to best support our student-athletes of color in their academic pursuits and community involvement. Identify a physical and inclusive gathering space for student-athletes of color and allies.

• Jen Capozzoli, SPP’17, Associate Director of Center for Student-Athlete Success
• Chloe Cole, Assistant Director, Fitness and Wellness
• Ryan Glover, W’21, Student-Athlete, Football
• Michae Jones, C’21, Student-Athlete, Women’s Basketball
• Sarah Parks, W’19, Director of Men’s Basketball Operations
• Roger Reina, C’84, Head Wrestling Coach
• Malik Washington, Director of Penn Violence Prevention

Building Our Community Sub-Committee
Objective: To collect demographic data on alumni and sport board composition. Approaches to recruiting and hiring racially-diverse student-athletes, coaches, and staff; equipment and financial inclusion.

• Kellie Vetter, Administrative Coordinator, Office of the Director of Athletics
• Rebecca Block, Associate Director HR, Provost Center
• Joy De Jesús, WG’02, Senior Associate AD/Chief Financial Officer
• Julie Durmala, Senior Accountant/Financial Analyst
• Stan Greene, C’78, Men’s Basketball Alum
• Erica Hildenbrand, Director of Recreational Programs
• Rev. Charles Howard, C’00, Vice President for Social Equity and Community & University Chaplain
• Nicole Maloy, W’95 SPP’18, Associate Dean, Equity & Access
• Meredith Schamun, Head Volleyball Coach
• Jelani Williams, C’21, Student-Athlete, Men’s Basketball

Marketing & Communications Sub-Committee
Objective: To identify and promote the historical impact of racially diverse student-athletes and alumni at Penn.

• Kevin Bonner, Senior Associate AD/Governance and Administration
• Mitch Bartolo, C’21, Student-Athlete, Men’s Lacrosse
• Denis Elton Cochran-Fikes, C’74, WG’79, Men’s Cross Country/Track and Field Alum
• Denise Fitzpatrick, Assistant AD/Marketing and Fan Engagement
• Mike Mahoney, Director of Athletic Communications
• Ray Priore, George A. Munger Head Football Coach
• Raven Sulaimon, C’21, Student-Athlete, Volleyball
• Jerome Williams, C’69, Men’s Track and Field Alum

Emile Bruneau, research associate and lecturer at the Annenberg School for Communication, director of Annenberg’s Peace and Conflict Neuroscience Lab, and lead scientist at the Beyond Conflict Innovation Lab, died September 30 from a brain tumor. He was 47.

Dr. Bruneau was born in California. Shortly thereafter, his mother developed schizophrenia. Dr. Bruneau credits his mother for inspiring what would become one of his core professional interests: empathy. By being forced to understand his mother’s reality, he developed a strong sense of empathy at an early age, as well as a desire to understand more about the human mind. Dr. Bruneau went on to Stanford University, where he earned his degree in human biology in 1994. He spent the next seven years in the Bay Area, teaching high school and elementary school. 

He volunteered at a conflict resolution-focused camp for Catholic and Protestant boys in “The Troubles”-era Ireland. After three weeks of seeming success, an all-out brawl broke out on the last day, split along religious lines. Dr. Bruneau realized then that conflict resolution strategies lacked any scientific evidence as to what actually works. He was also in South Africa at the end of apartheid and in Sri Lanka during a Tamil Tiger attack. Seeing the darkest impulses in humanity—and how similar they seemed across cultures—led him to his life’s work: using the tools of neuroscience to bring groups of people together and building lasting peace.

Dr. Bruneau received his PhD in cellular and molecular neuroscience from the University of Michigan in 2008. While he loved looking at how brain cells change, Dr. Bruneau was drawn more to questions about how minds change. As a postdoc at MIT, he learned the tools of neuroimaging to identify brain regions associated with conflict and how different experimental interventions altered participants’ brain activity. 

In 2015, Dr. Bruneau joined the Annenberg School at Penn, first as a visiting scholar and then as a research associate and lecturer. He established the Peace and Conflict Neuroscience Lab, which has a tagline that neatly summarizes Dr. Bruneau’s professional mission: “Putting science to work for peace.” In addition to studying empathy, Dr. Bruneau’s research was concerned with metaperceptions, which concern how someone believes their enemy sees them­—beliefs that are often harsher than reality. The lab also studied dehumanization, the degree to which people view outgroups as less than fully human—a strong predictor of violence against them. He was also the lead scientist for Beyond Conflict, a global non-profit focused on reducing conflict and promoting reconciliation. 

Annenberg School Dean John L. Jackson, Jr. described Dr. Bruneau as “the most humane person I have ever met. Emile spoke with such kindness and optimism and hope about the world around him, even as his research forced him to focus on some of most intractable and violent problems that plague us as a people,” said Dean Jackson. “I found him an inspiration.”

A short film about Dr. Bruneau’s life can be found at www.asc.upenn.edu/emilefilm.

Dr. Bruneau is survived by his wife, Stephanie; and children, Clara and Atticus. 

Donations in honor of Emile Bruneau can be made to the Germantown Mutual Aid Fund or the Miquon School’s Financial Aid Fund.

David B. Geselowitz, assistant professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania, died August 22 after a brief illness unrelated to COVID-19. He was 90.

Dr. Geselowitz was known for his contributions to the theory of the electrocardiogram and the development of the artificial heart. 

He was born in Philadelphia in 1930. He graduated from Central High School in Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania, where he received BS, MS, and PhD degrees in electrical engineering in 1951, 1954, and 1958, respectively. He was awarded the Atwater Kent Award as the top student in his undergraduate class.

Dr. Geselowitz’s doctoral dissertation dealt with theoretical approaches to the electrocardiogram with consideration of the relationship of ECG potentials on the skin to electric sources in the heart. A paper reporting this work became a Science Citation Classic on the basis of the number of references to it in subsequent literature. Other early work with Dr. Paul H. Langer, Jr. established the significance of small notches in the electrocardiogram. 

In 1951, after he earned his undergraduate degree, he joined Penn’s faculty as an assistant instructor in the Moore School of Electrical Engineering. He went on to become an instructor in 1955. After earning his PhD, Dr. Geselowitz became a professor research associate, then a few years later an assistant professor. Dr. Geselowitz became an associate professor in electrical engineering in medicine in 1965, and he founded Penn’s doctoral program in biomedical engineering. A paper by Dr. Geselowitz, “Multiple Representation for an Equivalent Cardiac Generator,” was chosen the best paper in the field by the professional group on Medical Electronics of the Institute of Radio Engineers (Almanac April 1961). 

In 1971, Dr. Geselowitz left Penn for Pennsylvania State University, where he established a graduate program in bioengineering. There, he served as a Distinguished Alumni Professor Emeritus of Bioengineering and a Professor Emeritus of Medicine. 

His major contributions were in theoretical electrocardiology. With his student Walter T. Miller, he developed the Miller-Geselowitz model, which relates cardiac sources to the electrocardiogram. The model accounted for the normal ECG as well as a number of abnormalities. He also developed the theory for magnetic fields generated by the heart and brain. This theory is used extensively by researchers in magnetocardiography and Magneto-encephalography. Another seminal paper developed a theory for impedance plethysmography which is the use of measurements of electrical resistance to visualize internal structures in the body. Dr. Geselowitz was also involved in the development of an artificial heart, a joint effort with the Colleges of Engineering and Medicine at Penn State. 

He served as a visiting professor at MIT, Duke, University of Oklahoma and University of New Mexico. He was also a Guggenheim Fellow. Dr. Geselowitz was a member of an advisory board established by Hubert Pipberger of the VA Hospital in Washington, D.C., who pioneered in the development of a computer program for interpretation of the electrocardiogram. Dr. Geselowitz also served on numerous panels of the national Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. He was the author of more than 150 papers and he co-edited one book, The Theoretical Basis of Electrocardiology. Dr. Geselowitz was a founding member and former director of the Biomedical Engineering Society. He helped found the International Society for Computerized Electrocardiography. He was a member of the North American Society of Pacing & Electrophysiology. He was one of the first three engineers elected a fellow of the American College of Cardiology. He was also a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) as well as the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a founding fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1989. Dr. Geselowitz was awarded the Ragnar Granit Prize for contributions to bioelectromagnetism in 2005. 

Dr. Geselowitz was the editor of the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering from 1967 to 1972 and served on the editorial board of four other journals. He received the Career Achievement Award of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society in 1985.

He was actively involved in the development of standards for electrocardiographs and electric safety in medical instruments through the Committee on Electrocardiography of the American Heart Association and served at one point as the committee’s chairman. From 1983 to 1988, he served on the Cardiovascular Devices Panel of the Food and Drug Administration, which was responsible for approving medical devices for clinical use. 

As noted by the late Dr. Herman Schwan, who was known as the “founding father of biomedical engineering” and was a professor of electrical engineering and assistant professor of physics in medicine at Penn: “David was the best man I had met in electrocardiography work. The National Academy of Engineering recognized him for that work. He became a leader in the country in the field.”

Dr. Geselowitz is survived by his wife, Lola; sons, Daniel (Sandra Cohen), Michael (Emily Schneider), Ari (Bettina Welz); grandchildren, Samuel, Rezyl, Gabriela, Israel (EAS’14), Benjamin, Rye Welz Geselowitz, and Joshua; three great-grandchildren; and sister, Judy Gordon (C’52). 

Susan Haas, lecturer in the Annenberg School for Communication and the School of Social Policy of Practice at the University of Pennsylvania, died September 25 from a heart attack. She was 63.

Dr. Haas was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Her father’s career as a metallurgical engineer and executive at Bethlehem Steel and Union Carbide took the family to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Illinois. Dr. Haas attended Hood College in Maryland and studied chemistry before transferring to Eastern Illinois State University, where she majored in art history. 

She moved to Allentown, Pennsylvania, to work for the Lehigh County Historical Society, running its gallery, doing archival work, and advising on historical restorations. She also wrote feminist columns for the Lehigh Valley’s newspaper, The Morning Call, and she taught as an adjunct professor of art history at Kutztown University. The latter experience uncovered her love for teaching. She went on to earn an MA in nonprofit management from Penn State University. 

Dr. Haas began teaching at Penn in 2004 as a research/teaching fellow at the Annenberg School  and became a lecturer in 2013. Meanwhile, she attended Annenberg as a PhD student, earning her degree in 2014. Her dissertation was titled “Communities of Journalists and Journalism Practice at Radio Free Europe during the Cold War (1950-1995).” Her dissertation supervisor, emeritus professor Carolyn Marvin, described it as “a brilliant study of the internal news life of Radio Free Europe, and the only history of its kind that has been done.” Annenberg Dean John L. Jackson, Jr., who was on Dr. Haas’s dissertation committee, noted that “her commitment to the research project was impressive and inspiring.”

She taught the undergraduate communication internship seminar annually from 2014 through 2020. Dr. Haas also taught policy communications in the MS in social policy program as a lecturer at SP2, from 2012 to 2019. In 2018, she became the internship coordinator for the Annenberg School. She also oversaw the school’s Annenberg in Washington program. Dr. Haas also taught at other nearby universities, including Saint Joseph’s, Temple, and Rutgers.

“Susan ... taught [the students] how to insert their point of view on a policy into a Twitter conversation and become an important source,” said her co-instructor Meg Shope Koppel, chief research officer at Philadelphia Works. “She taught them how to take their passion and get attention within a large arena.”

“Susan was passionate about advancing educational equity,” said Annenberg’s associate dean of undergraduate studies Litty Paxton, “and one of her greatest achievements was the successful work she did to diversify the AIW fellow pool.” 

Dr. Haas is survived by her daughter, Olivia Haas (C’12) and son, Fran Haas. 

To contribute a note to the family, visit https://tinyurl.com/susanhaas. Donations in her memory can be made at https://www.gofundme.com/f/in-memory-of-dr-susan-haas to help support her children in settling her estate. Any remaining funds will be used to help archive her dissertation interviews in the hopes that they will be studied by future scholars.

The Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education was recently awarded to Estela Bensimon, Michelene (Micki) Chi, and Joseph Krajcik. They were recognized for their achievements in higher education, learning science research, and pre-K-12 education, respectively. 

Since 1988, the McGraw Prize has celebrated innovation in education by recognizing outstanding individuals who have dedicated themselves to improving education and whose accomplishments are making a huge impact. Earlier this year, the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Family Foundation announced that the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education (Penn GSE) would be the new home for the Prize. As part of the new partnership, Catalyst @ Penn GSE has created a yearlong programming series, with a particular focus on sharing ideas and insights from McGraw Prize winners as education change agents. Each winner will receive $50,000 and a prize sculpture and will be honored at a virtual event on October 21. 

Dr. Bensimon is the Rossier Dean’s Professor in Educational Equity at the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education and Founding Director of the Center for Urban Education (CUE). With a singular focus on increasing racial equity in higher education outcomes for students of color, she developed the Equity Scorecard, a process for using inquiry to drive changes in institutional practice and culture. 

Dr. Chi is the Dorothy Bray Endowed Professor of Science and Teaching at Arizona State University and director of the Learning and Cognition Lab. A global leader in cognitive and learning science research, Dr. Chi has made numerous advances to our understanding of how students learn, particularly in STEM domains. 

Dr. Krajcik is the Lappan-Phillips Professor of Science Education at Michigan State University and director of the CREATE for STEM Institute. Dr. Krajcik has partnered with science teachers globally to reform science teaching practices to promote student engagement in and learning of science through the design, development, and testing of project-based science learning environments. He served as lead writer of both the National Academies of Science Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards. These standards have transformed the teaching of science in the United States and around the world.  

Joan DeJean, Trustee Professor of Romance Languages in the department of French, was made a Fellow of the prestigious British Academy for the humanities and social sciences.

Dr. DeJean’s expertise is in 17th- and 18th-century French literature, with an emphasis on women’s writing, the history of sexuality, the development of the novel, and material culture. She received a Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching (Almanac October 13, 1987) and was the winner of the 2003 MLA Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for French and Francophone Studies for her book The Reinvention of Obscenity: Sex, Lies, and Tabloids in Early Modern France. Dr. DeJean has a secondary appointment in the department of English and is also affiliated with the Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies program.

Each year, the British Academy elects to its fellowship up to 52 outstanding UK-based scholars and up to 20 international scholars who have achieved distinction in any branch of the humanities and social sciences. Past Fellows include Winston Churchill and C.S. Lewis.

Christopher B. Murray, Richard Perry University Professor in Chemistry and in Materials Science and Engineering, has been selected as a Citation Laureate for 2020. The honor is awarded by Clarivate, the analytics company that operates the citation index Web of Science. This distinction goes to researchers whose work has been deemed “Nobel Class” by being among the most highly cited, and thus influential, in their fields.

Citation Laureate candidates are selected from the authors of the .01 percent of studies that have been cited more than 2,000 times. Because the Nobel Prizes in scientific disciplines are awarded to researchers who have exceptionally high impacts on their fields, such citation rates are often good leading indicators of future winners. Since the award’s creation in 2002, 54 Citation Laureates have gone on to receive a Nobel Prize.

Dr. Murray is being recognized in the category of chemistry for his research on the “synthesis of nanocrystals with precise attributes for a wide range of applications in physical, biological, and medical systems.” He is being honored alongside Moungi G. Bawendi, Lester Wolfe Professor of Chemistry at MIT, and Hyeon Taeghwan, SNU Distinguished Professor at Seoul National University.

A Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor with appointments in Penn Engineering and Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences, Dr. Murray’s research bridges the boundary between chemistry and materials science, focusing on how the electronic, optic and magnetic properties of nanocrystals and semiconductors relate to their size. His work involves the creation of “artificial atoms,” a suite of nanocrystalline materials that can self-assemble into more complex structures with new functionalities, much like elemental atoms assemble into molecules.

James Pikul, assistant professor in mechanical engineering and applied mechanics, has been awarded a 2020 Moore Inventor Fellowship. Created by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, this fellowship supports scientist-inventors who create new tools and technologies with a high potential to accelerate progress in the foundation’s areas of interest: scientific discovery, environmental conservation and patient care. Dr. Pikul is the first Penn researcher to win this prestigious award.

As one of five Fellows selected from nearly 200 nominees, Dr. Pikul will receive $825,000 over three years, of which $50,000 per year comes from Penn Engineering. This funding will support his research on his metal-air scavenger technology, a new kind of hybrid energy system that combines the best qualities of batteries and “harvesters,” such as solar panels.

Batteries can provide faster and more consistent sources of energy than harvesters because that energy comes from chemical reactions between the elements stored within the battery. The downside of this approach is that their energy stores are intrinsically limited and are directly related to their size and weight, a property that has been especially restrictive for small-scale electronics and robotics. Dr. Pikul’s scavenger technology gets around this limitation by using the same sort of energy-freeing reactions as batteries but applying them to chemical bonds prevalent in the atmosphere and in metal surfaces found in the environment. The result is a power source that has 10 times more power density than the best energy harvesters and 13 times more energy density than lithium-ion batteries.

Rather than a battery, the researchers’ metal-air scavenger vehicle gets energy from breaking chemical bonds in the aluminum surface it travels over. The vehicle keeps going until the hydrogel slab it is dragging dries out or the surface is completely corroded, but a freely moving robot could seek out new sources of water and metal.

In the long term, this type of energy source could be the basis for a new paradigm in robotics, where machines keep themselves powered by seeking out and “eating” metal, breaking down its chemical bonds for energy like humans do with food. Using this approach, Dr. Pikul aims to create a “synthetic metabolism” that will “power off-grid electronics that conserve and monitor the health of our planet.”

These off-grid portable electronics play important roles in maintaining ecosystems by reducing deforestation and monitoring the health of oceans, but their capabilities are severely limited by their lack of quality energy sources. Dr. Pikul’s research seeks to overcome this energy limitation so that these important electronic systems can realize their full potential.

“The Moore Inventor Fellowship recognizes the power of innovation to solve problems and reimagine our world,” said Harvey V. Fineberg, president of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. “We are pleased to recognize the spectrum of disciplines, ideas and approaches embodied in this group of fellows.”

A new, rare genetic form of dementia has been discovered by a team of Penn Medicine researchers. This discovery also sheds light on a new pathway that leads to protein build up in the brain—which causes this newly discovered disease, as well as related neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease—that could be targeted for new therapies. The study was published in Science.

Abnormal neurofibrillary tangles—a buildup of tau protein in parts of the brain—helped Edward Lee, assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine in PSOM, and other Penn scientists uncover this new form of dementia. Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by a buildup of proteins, called tau proteins, in certain parts of the brain. Following an examination of human brain tissue samples from a deceased donor with an unknown neurodegenerative disease, researchers discovered a novel mutation in the Valosin-containing protein (VCP) gene in the brain, a buildup of tau proteins in areas that were degenerating, and neurons with empty holes in them, called vacuoles. The team named the newly discovered disease Vacuolar Tauopathy—a neurodegenerative disease now characterized by the accumulation of neuronal vacuoles and tau protein aggregates.

“Within a cell, you have proteins coming together, and you need a process to also be able to pull them apart, because otherwise everything kind of gets gummed up and doesn’t work. VCP is often involved in those cases where it finds proteins in an aggregate and pulls them apart,” said Dr. Lee. “We think that the mutation impairs the proteins’ normal ability to break aggregates apart.”

These findings describe a new biologic function of VCP, define a new mechanism that leads to tau protein aggregation, and suggest a new possible therapeutic target for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

Read the full Penn Medicine News story at https://tinyurl.com/pennmedraredementia

When the COVID-19 pandemic began taking hold in the U.S., one of the first “superspreader” events was an academic conference. It quickly became clear that the traditional format for these events would need to radically change.

Konrad Kording, a Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor with appointments in the departments of bioengineering and computer and information science in Penn Engineering and the department of neuroscience at PSOM, had already started brainstorming ways of reinventing the traditional conference format with the issues of prohibitive costs and environmental impact of travel in mind when the pandemic made it a necessity.

The resulting event, Neuromatch, involved algorithmically analyzing participants’ work in order to connect researchers who might not otherwise meet. Building on the success of that “unconference,” Dr. Kording and his colleagues launched the Neuromatch Academy (NMA), a free-ranging online summer school organized around the same principles.

Ashley Juavinett, writing for The Simons Collaboration on the Global Brain, recently wrote about Neuromatch:

“Kording already had experience quickly pulling together online events. Early in the pandemic, together with Dan Goodman, Titipat Achakulvisut and Brad Wyble, he developed an online ‘unconference,’ which featured both lectures and a virtual networking component designed to mimic the in-person interactions that make conferences so valuable. Soon after, they decided to spin that success into a full-fledged summer school offering live lectures with top computational neuroscientists, guided coding exercises to teach mathematical approaches to neural modeling and analysis, and community support from mentors and teaching assistants (TAs).

“The result was a summer school with well-designed content, a diverse student body, including participants from U.S.-sanctioned Iran, and a determined group of organizers who managed to pull off the most inclusive computational neuroscience school yet. NMA now has its eye on a future with even broader representation across countries, languages, and skill levels. This year has been incredibly difficult for many, but NMA has provided an important precedent for how to collaborate across, and even dismantle, all sorts of barriers.”

Read more at https://www.simonsfoundation.org/2020/09/17/the-self-organized-movement-to-create-an-inclusive-computational-neuroscience-school/)

Since the first COVID-19 quarantine orders, there’s been limited, inconsistent data about how such restrictions have affected the frequency of intimate partner violence and sexual assault, said Susan B. Sorenson, SP2 professor of social policy, professor of health & societies, senior fellow in public health, and director of the Ortner Center on Violence & Abuse in Relationships.
“Global leaders said there was a substantial increase in domestic violence and people thought that made sense,” said Dr. Sorenson. “Some hotlines in Europe and elsewhere were reporting an increase. But we weren’t seeing the same thing in the States.”

In Philadelphia, services are citywide, with one domestic violence hotline, one rape-crisis hotline, and one police department. The researchers examined calls to each service between January and May 2020.

Here are four takeaways from that work, conducted by Dr. Sorenson, Laura Sinko, an LDI associate fellow and national clinician scholar at PSOM, and Richard Berk, professor of criminology and statistics, in conjunction with local community-based agencies:

1. The week following mid-March school closures, calls to Philadelphia’s domestic violence hotline dropped slightly. When the quarantine took effect, they returned to previous levels. This decrease likely was not due to a temporary dip in violent behavior, the researchers said, but rather due to asking families to acclimate to a new and stressful home situation.  
2. Calls to 911 for domestic violence did not change. By contrast, 911 calls for general assault fell by nearly one-half. Given that domestic violence calls are the most common type made to law enforcement, it’s notable that requests for help for problems in the home did not decrease.
3. Call volume to the city’s rape-crisis hotline and calls to police regarding rape fell immediately following the statewide emergency declaration and remained lower. “We aren’t sure why it would change like that,” Dr. Sorenson said. “Rape-crisis hotline staff thought it might be related to a change in the population at risk, not necessarily to a change in the phenomenon.” Historically, rates of sexual assault on colleges campuses are high, with acquaintances being the most common perpetrators, so closing campuses may have dispersed a vulnerable population.
4. More data and research are needed to understand completely how pandemic-related changes affect those who experience or are at risk for intimate partner violence. For example, this work didn’t include fatalities related to domestic violence. “We don’t have information about whether those changed at all, and we would need a much larger geographic population to check,”Dr. Sorenson said. “Service providers anticipate that hotline calls will increase when people start going back to work and school, that is, when it’s safe to call again.”

While there is broad support in the United States for pro-vaccination policies, as many as 20% of Americans hold negative views about vaccines. Such misinformed vaccine beliefs are by far the strongest driver of opposition to pro-vaccination public policies—more than political partisanship, education, religiosity, or other sociodemographic factors, according to new research from the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC).

The findings, published online in the American Journal of Public Health, show how misperceptions about vaccination have the potential to shape public policy. The study is based on an APPC multi-wave panel survey of 1,938 U.S. adult respondents conducted in 2019, during the country’s largest measles outbreak in a quarter-century.
The researchers found that belief in a group of negative misperceptions about vaccination:

• reduced the probability of strongly supporting mandatory childhood vaccines by 70%,
• reduced the probability of strongly opposing religious exemptions by 66%, and
• reduced the probability of strongly opposing personal belief exemptions by 79%.

“There are real implications here for a vaccine for COVID-19,” said lead author and former APPC postdoctoral fellow Dominik Stecula, an assistant professor of political science at Colorado State University. “The negative vaccine beliefs we examined aren’t limited only to the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, but are general attitudes about vaccination. There needs to be an education campaign by public health professionals and journalists, among others, to preemptively correct misinformation and prepare the public for acceptance of a COVID-19 vaccine.”

Dr. Stecula was on a team of APPC researchers that included former APPC postdoctoral fellow Ozan Kuru; Dolores Albarracín of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who is an APPC distinguished research fellow; and APPC Director Kathleen Hall Jamieson.

Read more at https://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/how-misinformed-vaccine-beliefs-affect-policy-views/

Children’s Activities

Penn Museum

Info and to register: www.penn.museum/calendar

14    Virtual Archaeological Adventure: Mexico and Central America; 10 a.m.-1 p.m. 

17    At-Home Anthro LIVE: Reading Ancient Artifacts; 11 a.m. 

        Ask the Scientists: Ancient “-ologies”; 1 p.m.

Films

Cinema Studies

Info and to register: https://cinemastudies.sas.upenn.edu/events

15     Jeronimo; includes talk with director Joseph Juhn; 8 p.m.

19     Jean Gentil; 6 p.m.

Fitness & Learning

16     Mindfulness at the Museum with Kate Johnson; noon; Zoom meeting; register: https://tinyurl.com/ica-mindfulness-oct-16 (ICA). 

         Master in Law Virtual Info Session for General Audiences; noon; Zoom meeting; register: https://tinyurl.com/law-info-session-oct-16 (Penn Law). 

         Career Paths Panel; Penn English PhDs share their experiences; 1 p.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://www.english.upenn.edu/events/ (English). 

17     Knowledge that Fits in the Palm of Your Hand—Analyzing 5,000-Year-Old Seeds; Center for the Analysis of Archaeological Materials workshop; 10 a.m.; virtual event; register: https://www.penn.museum/calendar/570/caam-workshop (Penn Museum). 

Readings & Signings

13     A Conversation with Karley Sciortino; 6 p.m.; YouTube stream; info: http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/calendar/1020.php (Kelly Writers House). 

17     Duchamp Is My Lawyer; Kenneth Goldsmith, author; 1 p.m.; Zoom meeting; join: https://cinemastudies.sas.upenn.edu/events (Cinema Studies).

Special Events

Penn Museum

Info and to register: www.penn.museum/calendar

15     Ofrenda Workshop; 5 p.m. 

17     Monsters, Myths, and Legends: Spirits and Storytelling; 7-9 p.m.

Talks

14     The Bluest Eye at 50: Reading Toni Morrison in the Age of Trump; Herman Beavers, English; noon; virtual event; register: https://tinyurl.com/herman-beavers-talk (Africana Studies).

         Farm of the Future-III. Carbon; panel of environmental experts; 2 p.m.; virtual event; register: https://tinyurl.com/future-farm-oct-14 (Penn Vet). 

         Fuels and Chemicals Decarbonized; Ted Sargent, University of Toronto; 3 p.m.; Zoom meeting; info: chebiom@seas.upenn.edu (CBE). 

         Computational Epidemiology at the time of COVID-19; Alessandro Vespignani, Northeastern University; 4 p.m.; Zoom meeting; info: https://www.physics.upenn.edu/events/ (Physics & Astronomy). 

15     Novel Affordable Oral Therapeutics and Booster Vaccine for COVID-19; Henry Daniell, biochemistry; noon; BlueJeans event; info: https://www.dental.upenn.edu/news-events/events/ (Penn Dental).

         Cultivated by Hand: Amateur Musicians in the Early American Republic; Glenda Goodman, music; noon; virtual event; register: https://libcal.library.upenn.edu/event/7132446  (Penn Libraries). 

         The Really Real: Fantasies of Materiality in the Study of Religion; Maia Kotrosits, Denison University; 3 p.m.; virtual event; info: https://rels.sas.upenn.edu/events/ (Religious Studies). 

16     Uncertainty-Driven Geometry Reconstruction and Understanding; Qixing Huang, UT Austin; 10 a.m.; info: cis-info@cis.upenn.edu (Sig Center for Computer Graphics). 

         MIC Center Roundtable; Sarah J. Jackson, Victor Pickard and Todd Wolfson, Media Inequality and Change (MIC) Center directors; noon; Zoom meeting; info: https://www.asc.upenn.edu/news-events/events/ (ASC). 

19     A Three-Dimensional Extracellular Matrix Supports Organoid Phenotype by Reducing Cortical Actin Tension to Maintain Endoplasmic Reticulum Function; FuiBoon Kai, UCSF; noon; virtual event; info: manu@seas.upenn.edu (PSOC).

Economics

Info and to register: https://economics.sas.upenn.edu/events

14     Inequality and Asset Prices during Sudden Stops; Sergio Villalvazo Martin, economics; 4 p.m.

15     Productivity Gains from Labor Outsourcing: The Role of Trade Secret; Gorkem Bostanci; economics; noon.

         Dynamic College Admissions and the Determinants of Students’ College Retention; Tomas Larroucau, economics; 3:30 p.m.

19     Sequential Learning with Endogenous Consideration Sets; Daniel Fershtman, Tel Aviv University; noon.

         Homophily and Selection: The Network Propensity Score; Alejandro Sanchez Becerra, economics; 4:30 p.m.

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AT PENN Deadlines 

The November AT PENN calendar deadline is today. The deadline to submit your October events to be featured in the next Update is the Monday prior. 

View the full list of October AT PENN events which will be updated throughout the month.

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 September 28-October 4, 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 September 28-October 4, 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: 8 crimes against persons (3 assaults, 3 indecent assaults, 1 aggravated assault, and 1 domestic assault) were reported for September 28-October 4, 2020 by the 18th District, covering the Schuylkill River to 49th Street & Market Street to Woodland Avenue.

What is Penn’s Way?
Penn’s Way is the workplace charitable giving campaign for the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Medicine. One of the most generous campaigns in the region, Penn’s Way raises money each year to help those less fortunate in our Penn community and beyond. In these difficult times, help is needed more than ever.

How can I learn more about Penn’s Way?
Visit the Penn’s Way website at pennsway.upenn.edu for information about how Penn’s Way serves the community by partnering with three organizations that utilize their expertise to confront the challenges facing our community today. They are: Philadelphia Alliance for Change, Penn Medicine, and United Way. You can see the full list of organizations that Penn’s Way supports on the website.

How do I participate in Penn’s Way?
It is easy to participate—visit the Penn’s Way website at pennsway.upenn.edu to enter your pledge online as a secure, convenient and timesaving way to support your community.

When is the Penn’s Way Campaign?
Penn’s Way runs from October 5 through November 27. With your generosity and our combined commitment to making a difference in our region, we will build stronger neighborhoods, improve the quality of life for our communities, and provide options for healthier living for all.

Leading up to Election Day on Tuesday, November 3, Almanac will run a bi-weekly FactCheck.org roundup. Here are some of the latest stories:

FactChecking the Vice Presidential Debate (October 8, 2020) The candidates disagreed on the facts regarding the coronavirus, jobs, taxes, and more.

Biden Bungles Clemency, Race Statistics (October 7, 2020). During an NBC News town hall, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden botched statistics about clemencies during the Obama administration and the size of the Black population in Delaware.

Timeline of Contradictory Statements on Trump’s Health (October 5, 2020) Since President Trump announced on October 2 that he had tested positive for COVID-19, White House staff and the president’s physicians have provided confusing and at times contradictory information about the president’s health.

Misinformation, Speculation Follow Trump COVID-19 Diagnosis (October 2, 2020). The news that President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump contracted the novel coronavirus led to a wave of social media posts spreading misinformation—and politically charged speculation.

FactChecking the First Trump-Biden Debate (September 30, 2020). In a chaotic debate with plenty of crosstalk, there was also plenty to fact-check.

Trump Has Not Been ‘Clear’ in Support of Masks (September 25, 2020). Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar says President Trump has been “clear” in calling for the public to “wear face coverings when you can’t social distance.” The official messaging from the White House has been clear. The president’s statements have been anything but.

Almanac will publish weekly through the rest of the fall 2020 semester, with the exception of December 1, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving break. Submissions are due Mondays for the next Tuesday's issue. Email almanac@upenn.edu

This edition of Almanac is digital-only. Please distribute to your colleagues and encourage them to subscribe to receive the E-Almanac by visiting https://almanac.upenn.edu/express-almanac The email will include links to the newly posted material. 

No issues were printed to distribute across campus because of COVID-19. Almanac is distributed electronically each Tuesday.

Register to vote and/or request a mail-in ballot so you can vote safely in the upcoming U.S. election. Visit http://vot-er.org/penn or text VOTE PENN to 34444. Don’t delay; the Pennsylvania voter registration deadline is Monday, October 19, 2020! You can also use the link and phone number to register and/or request a mail-in ballot for other states.