January 26, 2021 Volume 67 Issue 24

President Amy Gutmann and Provost Wendell Pritchett announce the appointment of Christopher Woods as Williams Director of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, beginning April 1, 2021.

Dr. Woods is John A. Wilson Professor of Sumerology at the University of Chicago and Director of UChicago’s Oriental Institute, one of the world’s leading centers for interdisciplinary research on Near East civilizations. Founded in 1919, the Oriental Institute is the largest center of its kind in the world, including the largest collection of ancient Middle Eastern artifacts in the United States and sponsoring twelve field projects across the Middle East and Central Asia. The Oriental Institute Museum, comprehensively renovated and reinstalled for its 2019 centennial, houses more than 350,000 artifacts and offers extensive public programs and publications.

“An experienced and collaborative leader and award-winning scholar who believes deeply in the power of museums to connect past to present, Chris Woods is an ideal choice to lead the Penn Museum,” said President Gutmann. “Chris is passionately committed to the Museum’s essential missions of research, teaching, and public outreach and engagement.  He is taking the helm at a time of great transformation and excitement for the nation’s finest university archeological museum. From its recently renovated and reimagined galleries of the Middle East, Africa, and Mexico and Central America to the launch of the groundbreaking Center for the Analysis of Archaeological Materials to the creation of interactive and hands-on learning opportunities for our region’s schoolchildren, the Penn Museum continues to show a tremendous capacity for growth and reinvention. Chris’s excellent track record at the University of Chicago Oriental Institute is proof positive of his ability to provide visionary leadership, and we are most fortunate to bring him to Penn.”

Dr. Woods served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Near Eastern Studies from 2009 to 2020 and has published a wide range of scholarly books and articles, spanning such areas as Sumerian language and writing, the origin and development of writing and writing systems, and early Mesopotamian history, literature, religion, and state formation. His work has been supported by grants from the U.S. Department of State, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, among many others. After earning a PhD in Assyriology from Harvard University and a BS in Physics from Yale University, he was appointed to the Harvard Society of Fellows before joining the University of Chicago in 2002.

“Chris Woods comes to Penn at a pivotal moment,” said Provost Pritchett, “when our great Museum is more vital and contemporary than ever. An eminent museum director who is also a distinguished scholar, he is the ideal leader to help us shape, for a new decade, the Museum’s historic educational mission: illuminating the present and the future by helping us to better understand—and vividly experience—our collective past. I am deeply grateful to the members of the consultative committee, who worked closely with me to consider many outstanding candidates from around the world and arrive at this exciting appointment.”

The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, founded in 1887, houses one of the world’s greatest collections of historic artifacts, illuminating the cultures of Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the Mediterranean, from the first cities of the Middle East to the pharaohs of ancient Egypt, from early Mexico to the lives of Native American communities today. Extensively renovated and reconfigured since 2017, the Museum’s comprehensive galleries transform understanding of the human experience through a wide range of public exhibits and programs, innovative research and teaching at the Center for the Analysis of Archaeological Materials, and educational initiatives for schools and many other audiences.

The School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn Vet) has named Hyemi Sevening, a senior fundraising professional with more than 17 years of development experience, as its new Associate Dean for Institutional Advancement. Her appointment began on January 19, 2021.

Ms. Sevening comes to Penn Vet from the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California at Davis (UC Davis), where she served as Assistant Dean of Advancement and oversaw that institution’s wide-ranging fundraising efforts. Prior to her appointment as Assistant Dean in 2017, she served as that school’s Interim Assistant Dean of Advancement and Senior Director of Development, and she previously held fundraising positions at Illinois Institute of Technology’s Armour College of Engineering and Iowa State University’s College of Engineering.

As Associate Dean for Institutional Advancement at Penn Vet, Ms. Sevening will be responsible for the overall conceptualization, planning and execution of a coordinated program of private source fund raising, constituent relations, and communications to support the long and short range goals of the School. She will also lead the closing of The Power of Penn Vet Campaign.

“Hyemi has an outstanding record of achievement. I am confident that Hyemi will be an extraordinary fundraiser, thought-partner, colleague, and team builder,” said Andrew M. Hoffman, Gilbert S. Kahn Dean of Veterinary Medicine. “Her impressive background and expertise in both veterinary health care and higher education will be essential as we advance our ambitious plan to accelerate veterinary medicine’s impact on animal, human, and environmental health.”

Some of Ms. Sevening’s most significant accomplishments at UC Davis include leading efforts toward the $500 million “Expect Greater” School of Veterinary Medicine campaign goal, directing a $44 million annual fundraising and planned gift program, doubling annual giving contributions, establishing the Terry Holliday Equine and Comparative Neurology Presidential Chair, and garnering unrestricted programmatic support for the school’s centers and institutes.

“I am thrilled and honored to join Penn Vet, which has a distinguished legacy of translational research and clinical veterinary specialties,” said Ms. Sevening. “The School has a dynamic and forward-looking educational mission, and a vision for the future of veterinary medicine. As we move into an exciting new decade, I welcome this extraordinary opportunity to work with the entire Penn Vet community in achieving the School’s goals.”

The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School named A. Christopher Wailoo as Associate Dean for Business Services and Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Wailoo joined the Law School after a decade with the Smithsonian Institution as the Associate Director of Finance and Administration of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

Mr. Wailoo’s success in translating financial information into service to stakeholders, stewardship of revenue streams, and accomplishment of strategic goals make him an excellent addition to the Law School at an exceptional moment in its history, given its receipt over the past two years of two of the top ten gifts—$125 million from the W. P. Carey Foundation, and $50 million from the Robert and Jane Toll Foundation—ever made to US law schools.

“We are at a critical moment in the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School’s distinguished history: the possibilities ahead of us in light of the generous commitments of the Carey Foundation, the Toll Foundation, legions of supportive alumni, and other donors are limitless,” said Dean Ted Ruger. “With outstanding nonprofit and private sector experience, Chris Wailoo brings a disciplined approach to the funding of creative strategic initiatives that will allow us to expand the reach and impact of our goals. We are excited to add his energy and expertise to our team.”

The Associate Dean for Business Services and Chief Financial Officer is the principal architect of the Law School’s responsibility-centered budgeting process and performance each year. Mr. Wailoo, who began in December, is an essential strategic advisor to Dean Ruger, partnering with faculty, staff, students, and University finance and business leadership to ensure the Law School’s continued fiscal strength and wise stewardship of tuition and donor dollars.

The role also requires the careful development and supervision of the Law School’s annual operating budget and all of its component parts, while providing expert advice and consultation to the Dean, faculty members, staff, and student group leaders.

“I am eagerly looking forward to becoming a part of the outstanding team at Penn Law School and providing my experience and energy to help implement the school’s priorities,” Mr. Wailoo said. “What an exciting and important time to join in the School’s important mission.”

Mr. Wailoo’s body of work includes experience across both private businesses and public non-profits, with leadership roles in government advocacy, commercial banking and strategic consulting for American Express and SunTrust Bank. At the Smithsonian Institution, he directed the financial oversight for the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, which included leading a staff of more than 70 people who manage and curate the work of modern and contemporary artists, while providing budgeting, planning and executive leadership as a liaison for the Hirshhorn across the other 19 museums in the Smithsonian organization.

Throughout his tenure at the Hirshhorn Museum, Mr. Wailoo also consistently led financial and strategic analysis for three major exhibitions per year, valued at over $1 million per exhibition.

Mr. Wailoo received a Master of Arts in International Affairs from George Washington University and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Dartmouth College. He has held Board seats with Signature Theatre, the Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center, E.L. Haynes Public Charter School, and Horton’s Kids.

After a national search involving students, faculty, and staff, Krista L. Cortes, GED ’11, ’13, has been named and begun her work as Director of the Center for Hispanic Excellence: La Casa Latina, in the Division of the Vice Provost for University Life.

“It is heartwarming to welcome Dr. Cortes back to Penn,” said Vice Provost for University Life Dr. Mamta Motwani Accapadi. “Her integration of academic scholarship, community engagement, and deep care for the holistic well-being of students is inspiring, and we are truly lucky to have her as a leader in our community.”

“I am delighted that Krista Cortes has joined Penn in her new role as director of La Casa Latina,” added Associate Vice Provost for Equity and Access Rev. William Gipson. “Krista brings deep knowledge of the communities for which La Casa is held especially dear, as well as the narratives that give life resilience, vibrancy, and meaning to these communities.”

La Casa Latina promotes greater awareness of Latinx issues, culture, and identity for undergraduate, graduate, and professional students at Penn. The University is home to six cultural resource centers, which are part of the University Life division: Greenfield Intercultural Center, La Casa Latina, LGBT Center, Makuu: The Black Cultural Center, Pan-Asian American Community House, and Penn Women’s Center.

Dr. Cortes succeeds Johnny Irizarry, who retired in April after 10 years as Director of La Casa Latina.

“Fusing community and academia is the cornerstone of my professional practice and I see La Casa Latina as an important site to do this work, building deep connections between the center and Philadelphia’s Latinx communities,” Dr. Cortes explained. “My collective experiences as a first-generation Afro-Puerto Rican mother, scholar, and activist, inform my investment in consequential programming that is transformative for Latinx students who continue to face long and storied barriers in the university setting.”

Dr. Cortes earned her PhD in Education from the University of California Berkeley, with a concentration in Critical Studies in Race, Class, and Gender. She holds two graduate degrees from Penn (in Language and Literacy and in Teacher Education). She earned a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.

Dr. Cortes taught Introduction to Chican@ History to undergraduates and Language Study for Educators at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education. Prior to pursuing her doctorate, she taught at Furness High School in Philadelphia.

At Berkeley, Dr. Cortes undertook research on Afro-Puerto Rican mothers and Puerto Rican identity formation. She also engaged in research and writing analyzing Latinx families’ use of digital media.

Dr. Cortes is a member of the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education, the American Educational Research Association, Puerto Rican Studies Association, and other professional organizations.

Dr. Cortes joins Kareli Lizarraga (C’13, GED’20), La Casa’s Associate Director who served as Interim Director. The Office Manager position is vacant, after the recent retirement of inaugural Center staff member Maritza Santiago-Torres.

Provost Wendell Pritchett and Vice Provost for Faculty Laura Perna announce the appointment of José Bauermeister, most recently Presidential Professor of Nursing, as the fifth Albert M. Greenfield Professor of Human Relations, effective January 1, 2021.

Dr. Bauermeister—who also serves as Chair of the department of Family and Community Health in the School of Nursing, a Senior Fellow of the Penn Center for Public Health Initiatives, and a Senior Fellow of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics—is a pioneer of new ways to improve public health for teenagers and young adults, especially in the treatment of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. In particular, his landmark research brings together approaches from medicine, public health, and social science to address the inequities and health disparities that affect the health of racially/ethnically and socioeconomically diverse LGBTQ communities.

“José Bauermeister’s wide-ranging work,” said Provost Pritchett, “exemplifies the core missions of research at Penn: innovating new ways to approach urgent social challenges, bringing together perspectives across disciplines, and making a tangible impact on peoples’ lives around the world. He embodies the empathetic and humanitarian vision of Albert M. Greenfield, whose legacy also lives on in our Greenfield Intercultural Center, Greenfield Memorial Lectures, and countless philanthropic initiatives in Philadelphia, including our local Greenfield Elementary School (where I began my career as a proud first grader).”

Dr. Bauermeister is an author of more than 200 peer-reviewed publications (as first or senior author on more than 125 of them) who has received more than $30 million in federal and foundation funding as a principal investigator and more than $120 million in funding as a co-investigator. At Penn, he founded the Program on Sexuality, Technology and Action Research (PSTAR), which implements his commitment to developing new public health initiatives, especially using technology, that lessen health disparities and improve health education and health outcomes for members of minority groups. This work includes trials of new drug therapies, programs to strengthen life skills and integrate substance abuse counseling into HIV prevention and care, and studies of best practices in outreach and communications, including for parents, in sex education, and by the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.

Dr. Bauermeister came to Penn in 2016 from the University of Michigan, where  he started teaching in 2009. He earned a PhD and MPH in Health Behavior and Health Education from the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan and a BA magna cum laude in Psychology from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez. From 2007-2008, he was the NIH Postdoctoral Fellow of the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies at the Columbia University Medical Center.

The Albert M. Greenfield Professorship, designated for a distinguished scholar in the field of human relations, was created in 1972 by a gift from the Albert M. Greenfield Foundation. The foundation supports activities that carry on the humanitarian vision of the late Albert M. Greenfield (1887-1967), a longtime city leader who chaired the Philadelphia City Planning Commission and many other civic and philanthropic organizations.

Simone White has been named the Stephen M. Gorn Family Assistant Professor of English. Dr. White is a scholar of 20th- and 21st-century Black studies and radical Black poetics, as well as a critically-acclaimed poet.

Dr. White received the prestigious Whiting Award in 2017 and recently received a 2021 Creative Capital Award (Almanac January 19, 2021). She has published three books: Dear Angel of Death, a collection of poems and critical essays; Of Being Dispersed (poems), and House Envy of All the World (poems), as well as two poetry chapbooks.

Another poetry collection, Or, On Being the Other Woman, will be published by Duke University Press in 2021. In addition, Dr. White has published numerous critical essays and poems in popular periodicals such as Artforum, Boston Review and Harper’s Magazine. Prior to receiving her doctorate in English from The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, Dr. White earned a JD from Harvard Law School and an MFA from The New School.

The Stephen M. Gorn Family Assistant Professorship was established in 2008 by the Stephen M. Gorn Family Foundation for a preeminent scholar and teacher in the department of English at Penn Arts & Sciences.

The Carpick Research Group is partnering with Pixelligent Technologies and the Argonne National Laboratory to create self-assembling nanocomposites for use in advanced lubricants, thanks to a $1.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office.

Robert Carpick, John Henry Towne Professor in the departments of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM) and Materials Science and Engineering (MSE), is an expert on nanotribology, the atomic-scale study of friction, wear, and other phenomena that arise at the interface between two surfaces. For example, lubricants containing specially designed nanoparticles can use the forces involved in two surfaces sliding against one another to bond those nanoparticles together into protective films.

Pixelligent, which leads the project, makes nanoparticles that can be added to lubricants, creating self-assembling films that adhere to metal surfaces, improving energy efficiency and reducing wear. They are especially useful in harsh environments, including wind-turbine gearboxes, wheel bearings in electric vehicles, marine components, steel and aluminum rolling plants, and space-related applications.

“We have partnered with Pixelligent for the past five years on multiple advanced lubricant programs sponsored by the U.S. Departments of Energy and Defense,” says Dr. Carpick. “Our development work to date has helped demonstrate the potential energy efficiency impacts of embedding their PixClear zirconia nanocrystals in various lubricants. The performance is unsurpassed in terms of rapidly forming protective anti-wear films on surfaces.”

Marie Gottschalk, Professor of Political Science, has been appointed Edmund J. Kahn Distinguished Professor. Dr. Gottschalk is a widely acclaimed scholar of American politics whose research is focused on public policy, especially health policy and criminal justice. She is the author of several books, including Caught: The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics, which received the 2016 Michael Harrington Book Award from the American Political Science Association’s New Political Science Section and the 2018 Michael J. Hindelang Book Award from the American Society of Criminology. Her book, The Prison and the Gallows: The Politics of Mass Incarceration in America, was awarded the 2007 Ellis W. Hawley Prize from the Organization of American Historians.

Dr. Gottschalk is the recipient of numerous other honors, including two at Penn for her teaching: the Penn Arts & Sciences Dean’s Award for Innovation in Teaching in 2009, and the School’s Ira H. Abrams Memorial Award for Distinguished Teaching in 2017. In addition to serving as President of the Politics and History Section of the American Political Science Association and as an editor of Studies in American Political Development, Dr. Gottschalk has served on the American Academy of Arts and Sciences National Task Force on Mass Incarceration and was a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on the Causes and Consequences of High Rates of Incarceration. She is widely quoted in the media, including in the Academy Award-nominated film 13th.

The Kahn chairs were established through a bequest by Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn. Edmund Kahn was a 1925 Wharton graduate who had a highly successful career in the oil and natural gas industry. Louise Kahn, a graduate of Smith College, worked for Newsweek and owned an interior design firm.

Nicolas Plachta has been named the William Richard Gordon President’s Distinguished Professor in Genetics in the department of cell and developmental biology, a new professorship supported by George A. Weiss, W’65, HON’14, Penn Medicine Trustee and Trustee Emeritus of the University.

Dr. Plachta, who came to Penn in 2019, is widely recognized as a leader in the cellular and transcriptional mechanisms that determine the development of the pre-implantation mammalian embryo. Employing pioneering single-cell imaging techniques, his lab studies how all cell constituents, including its genes, proteins and organelles, interact to control cell behavior in real time to guide the earliest stages of embryonic life.

Among his notable discoveries are how transcription factors bind to DNA within single cells of live mouse embryos to control cell fate, how the intermediate filament protein keratin provides a memory of cell state during asymmetric cell divisions, how embryonic cells generate mechanical forces to establish the first differentiated lineages during development, and how cells assemble new forms of cytoskeletal organization, such as ring structures made of actin and intercellular bridges made of microtubules, which enable the embryo to establish the first forms of tissue organization.

Dr. Plachta’s work spans the multiple research interests of faculty in the department of Cell and Developmental Biology, and his elegant, impactful, and rigorous science will further enhance the outstanding reputation of the department. His long-term goals are to discover the major processes controlling the formation of the early embryo, establish how these mechanisms work at the molecular level, and determine how diverse mechanisms operating at the level of DNA–protein interactions, epigenetics, cytoskeletal elements, and morphogenetic changes are integrated within each cell to assemble a complex organism.

Dr. Plachta has published his findings in high impact journals, including Nature, Science, Cell, Developmental Cell, Nature Communications, and Nature Cell Biology. He has received several major international awards for his accomplishments. These include the prestigious EMBO Young Investigator award, a Howard Hughes International Research Scholarship, and the Gibco Emerging Leader Prize of the American Society of Cell Biology.

Dr. Plachta brings to our community a unique international background. A citizen of Argentina, Australia, and Israel, he earned his BSc at the University of Tel-Aviv and his PhD at the University of Basel, and completed postdoctoral training at the California Institute of Technology with support from the Swiss National Science Foundation and the European Molecular Biology Organization. He has held appointments at EMBL Australia and the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute; the Agency for Science, Technology, and Research in Singapore; and the Institute of Zoology, State Key Laboratory Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing.

The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, also known as the Penn Museum, has been awarded a $750,000 Challenge Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities that will help catalyze fundraising as the Museum shifts into the second phase of its Building Transformation project.

The grant will support renovation of the Penn Museum’s historic Egyptian Wing, the first stage in creating the forthcoming Ancient Egypt and Nubia Galleries. These dramatic galleries will be reinforced and reconfigured to highlight and display the soaring 23-foot columns of the 13th century BCE Palace of Merenptah—the only pharaoh’s palace outside Egypt—in the upper galleries, and an intact Old Kingdom tomb chapel in the lower galleries. The new galleries will also display, for the first time, the Museum’s important collections from ancient Nubia.

“Support from the National Endowment for the Humanities signals that the overall Building Transformation and the new Ancient Egypt and Nubia Galleries are remarkable on a national level,” says Amanda Mitchell-Boyask, Co-Interim Director and Executive Director of Development at the Penn Museum. “This grant will enable us to re-envision our Ancient Egypt and Nubia Galleries, giving visitors the opportunity to experience the majesty and ingenuity of ancient Egypt and spark new understanding about the people who lived there long ago.”

The grant will support much-needed air conditioning and electrical and mechanical upgrades throughout the Museum’s entire Egyptian Wing. It will also add individual study spaces and a seminar room to the storerooms, expanding access to the collections for students and researchers.

The Challenge Grant will provide $750,000 once the Penn Museum has raised $3,000,000 in additional gifts from other donors.

Other recent grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities include a $215,000 NEH CARES emergency relief grant to support Penn Museum operations and public engagement through digital programming during the COVID-19 pandemic; and a $250,000 grant in 2017 for the Middle East Galleries, which were the first galleries to open as a part of the Museum’s Building Transformation project.

This is a summary of the annual report of The University of Pennsylvania Health & Welfare Program, Plan No. 503, sponsored by The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, EIN 23-1352685, for the period that began on July 1, 2019 and ended on June 30, 2020. This annual report has been filed with the Employee Benefits Security Administration, as required under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”). Please note that not all employees are eligible to participate in all of the benefits available under the Plan. Please consult your Plan materials for specific eligibility information.

Medical, Prescription Drug, Dental, and Long Term Disability Benefits

The University of Pennsylvania has committed itself to pay certain medical and prescription drug claims, dental benefits and long-term disability benefits incurred under the terms of the Plan on a self-insured basis. In addition, the Plan has a contract with CIGNA Health and Life Insurance Company to pay certain medical claims incurred under the terms of the contract. The total premiums paid for the plan year ending June 30, 2020 to CIGNA were $71,075. The Plan also has a contract with Standard Insurance Company to pay certain long-term disability benefits incurred under the terms of the contract. The total premiums paid to Standard Insurance Company for the plan year ending June 30, 2020 were $1,265,603.

Vision Benefits

The Plan has contracts with Davis Vision Plan and Vision Service Plan to pay vision claims incurred under the terms of the contract. The total premiums paid under these contracts for the plan year ending June 30, 2020 to Davis Vision Plan were $698,044 and to Vision Service Plan were $673,277.

Life Insurance Benefits

The Plan has a contract with Metropolitan Life Insurance Company to pay life insurance, dependent life insurance and accidental death and dismemberment insurance claims incurred under the terms of the contract. The total premiums paid under this contract for the plan year ending June 30, 2020 were $6,569,401.

Long Term Care Benefits

The Plan has contracts with John Hancock Life Insurance Company and Genworth Life Insurance Company to pay long term care claims incurred under the terms of the contracts. The total premiums paid under these contracts for the plan year ending June 30, 2020 to John Hancock Life Insurance Co. were $1,254,646 and to Genworth Life Insurance Co. were $878,116.

Your Rights to Additional Information

You have the right to receive a copy of the full annual report, or any part thereof, on request. Insurance information is included in this annual report. The items listed below are included in that report:

1. financial information and information on payments to service providers; and
2. insurance information including sales commissions paid by insurance carriers.

To obtain a copy of the full annual report, or any part thereof, write or call the office of the Plan Administrator, c/o Joanne M. Blythe, Retirement Manager, University of Pennsylvania, 3401 Walnut Street, Suite 527A, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6228, (215) 898-9947. The charge to cover copying costs will be $5.00 for the full annual report or 25 cents per page for any part thereof.

You also have the legally protected right under ERISA to examine the annual report in the offices of the Employer at the address for the Plan Administrator, above, and at the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C., or to obtain a copy from the U.S. Department of Labor upon payment of copying costs. Requests to the Department should be addressed to: Public Disclosure Room, Room N-1513, Employee Benefits Security Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20210.

—Division of Human Resources

Joseph Biden, Jr., former Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, was inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States on Wednesday, January 20, 2021. Penn’s President Amy Gutmann and her husband, Michael Doyle, (pictured above) were in attendance.

President Biden was the driving force behind the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, which opened in 2018; he was Penn’s 2013 Commencement speaker, where he was awarded an honorary degree; he began the “Moonshot” to find a cancer cure at Penn Medicine in 2016; and he has headlined and supported many campus events.

Jonathan Black, a former professor of orthopedic surgery at Penn’s School of Medicine, died on December 5, 2020 at Meadowood Senior Living in Worcester, PA. He was 81.

Born in London, England, Dr. Black moved with his family to Ithaca, NY, where he graduated from Ithaca High School in 1957. He earned a BS in Physics from Cornell University, an ME in Engineering Science from Penn State University, and a PhD in Materials Science from Penn’s School of Engineering. Dr. Black joined the faculty of Penn’s School of Medicine in 1970 as an associate in orthopedic surgical research. In 1972, he was promoted to assistant professor of orthopedic surgery, and in 1976 he became an associate professor of research in orthopedic surgery. In 1977, Dr. Black was one of five professors named to the faculty of HUP’s new Center for Sports Medicine (Almanac July 27, 1978). In the 1980s, Dr. Black became the Chief of Biomaterials in the department of Orthopedic Surgery. In the latter part of the decade, he conducted research with Paul Ducheyne, co-director of the Center for Joint Reconstruction, on reliable joint implants. He also served on the University Council Bookstore Committee and wrote several Speaking Out letters for publication in Almanac, on subjects such as confidentiality of recommendation letters (Almanac November 18, 1986) and the overabundance of parking lots on campus (Almanac October 27, 1987).

In 1988, Dr. Black left Penn to become the Hunter Chair of Biomaterials at Clemson University. Five years later, he left Clemson to become an independent consultant in biomaterials science and engineering, which he remained for the rest of his life. He also served as an adjunct professor of Biomedical Engineering at Cornell University from 2011 to 2015. Dr. Black published many scholarly articles and several books, including the influential Biological Performance of Materials. He was a founding member and past president of the Society for Biomaterials and was one of the Society’s charter Fellows of Biomaterials Science and Engineering.

The memorial service will be private. Dr. Black is survived by his wife, Toni Louise (née Rogers); his children, Matthew, Christina (Harold), and David (Kathryn); and two grandchildren.

Prabodh Kumar Gupta, an emeritus professor in Penn Medicine’s department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, passed away on December 23, 2020. He was 83.

Born in India, Dr. Gupta earned an undergratuate degree from the Premedical University of Delhi in 1955. Afterwards, he studied at the Medical College in Amritsar and Panjab University in Chandigarh, India, obtaining an MB, MS (bachelor of medicine, bachelor of surgery) from the latter in 1960. Five years later, Dr. Gupta earned an MD from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. He then came to the U.S., where he did a clinical fellowship and training at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Afterwards, Dr. Gupta returned to India and established a cytopathology laboratory in New Delhi, but later returned to join the faculty at Johns Hopkins University.

In 1988, Dr. Gupta arrived at Penn Medicine. He started his career as a Professor and Director of Cytopathology and Cytometry, and stayed in the department for over two decades. His leadership of the department put it among top 10 cytopathology departments in the country on multiple occasions. Dr. Gupta established the Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA) services at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) and was active on Penn Faculty Senate committees. Notably, he served as a member of the Executive Board, Vice President and President of the American Society of Cytopathology (ASC). The ASC gave him its Papanicolaou Award in 2001 and an Excellence in Education Award in 2011 to recognize him for his service. In addition, Dr. Gupta was on the editorial boards of many journals; he published over 270 scientific papers and the textbook The Fundamentals and Basic Concepts of Cytopathology.

Dr. Gupta’s teaching and research won many awards. He received the 2012 Papanicolaou Society of Cytopathology L.C. Tao Educator of the Year Award in recognition of his contributions to the field (Almanac March 20, 2012). The International Academy of Cytology awarded Dr. Gupta its 2011 Maurice Goldblatt Award, and in 2005, Penn recognized him with the Peter C. Nowell Award for outstanding teaching. Dr. Gupta was listed several times among the top 1% pathologists in the country by US News and World Report and as an America’s Top Physician. Dr. Gupta became a member of Penn’s 25-Year Club in 2013 and retired in 2016, taking emeritus status.

“Deeply committed to the education of trainees and staff, he created a line of multiple generations of world class pathologists, cytopathologists, and cytotechnologists,” said members of the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in a eulogy for Dr. Gupta. “In light of his dedication and longstanding service to the Department, the HUP Cytopathology signout room was renamed in honor of Prabodh K. Gupta in 2015.”

Dr. Gupta is survived by his daughter Anjali; two grandchildren; two brothers; two sisters; and many nieces and nephews.

Michael R. Sandler, W’62, a former University Trustee, died on December 29, 2020 from complications of Alzheimer’s Disease. He was 80.

Born in Portland, Maine, Mr. Sandler earned a BS in economics, marketing and finance from Penn’s Wharton School in 1962. After graduating, Mr. Sandler put his entrepreneurial skills to good use, building and selling several businesses. These included Marsan Industries, which merged with ITT Corporation, and Auto Parts Distributors, which was sold to Rite-Aid Corporation. From 1989 to 1991, he was a senior fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School, where he conducted research on the intersection of business, government and education. Later academic appointments included a position as executive-in-residence at the University of Southern California, 2006-2007, and a visiting fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education, 2011-2012.

One of the founders of the education industry, Mr. Sandler founded several innovative companies that served the education market, including A Different September Foundation, Eduventures, and the Education Industry Foundation, where he continued to work until his death. He also served as president of the Education Industry Foundation, the CEO of the Education Industry Group and a senior advisor at the Parthenon Group. He was a member of the New American Schools Project, which helped to shape the national No Child Left Behind Act. In 2010, Mr. Sandler published the book Social Entrepreneurship in Education: Private Ventures for the Public Good; which traced the history of the education industry and his role in it.

Throughout his entrepreneurial exploits, Mr. Sandler (and his wife, Ellen Cooper Sandler, CW’62, a former member of the Graduate School of Education Board of Advisors) remained loyal to Penn. In 1964, Mr. Sandler founded the Penn Club of Portland (Maine); shortly afterwards, he launched a Boston-based Penn alumni network that was a model for later local networks of Penn alumni all over the country. Mr. Sandler took on several prominent roles in Class of 1962 reunion committees, including organizing the 1987 fundraiser that led to the installation of the iconic Ben on the Bench sculpture. In 2007, Mr. Sandler spearheaded Class of 1962 fundraising for the 37th Street walkway of Benjamin Franklin quotations; five years later, he served as the Gift Chair for the Class of 1962’s 50th reunion. In 1987, he wrote a manual on organizing class reunions that has served class reunion committees since.

From 1991 to 1995, Mr. Sandler served as a University Trustee. “When Mike joined the Board of Trustees in 1991, he had already spent decades leading various alumni efforts,” says Vice President and University Secretary Medha Narvekar. “We are also grateful for his and Ellen’s devotion and philanthropic support for a wide variety of efforts across the University, especially to Athletics, the School of Arts and Sciences, The Penn Fund, and scholarships, as well as their generosity as founding donors to The Penn Club of New York.” Mr. Sandler was a devout Red Sox fan, throwing out the first pitch at a game in 2010, and an enthusiast of all things Boston.

Mr. Sandler is survived by his wife, Ellen Cooper Sandler; three daughters, Marcy (Jim Janover), Susan, C’88 (Mike Brennan) and Amy; four grandchildren; his brother, Jerry (Kathy); and a niece and nephews. Due to current health restrictions, private services were held. A celebration of his life will be scheduled at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory may be made to The Penn Fund at the University of Pennsylvania or a charity of the donor’s choice.

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Almanac appreciates being informed of the deaths of current and former faculty and staff members, students and other members of the University community. Email almanac@upenn.edu.

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

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Actions
Wednesday, January 20, 2021

Chair’s Report. Faculty Senate Chair Kathleen Hall Jamieson reported that two new charges have been jointly assigned to the Senate Committee on Faculty and the Academic Mission (“SCOF”) and to the Senate Committee on Students and Educational Policy (“SCSEP”) with the request that they work jointly together over the course of the next 1.5 years to address them:

• Review and comment on Instructor and Course Evaluation Reports with a focus on their uses in student course selection, improvement of the quality of delivered courses, and hiring, tenure, promotion, and merit-based salary increase decisions.
• Review and comment on existing methods for eliciting student feedback, including without limit mid-course or ongoing feedback mechanisms available to the instructor to aid in course correction and in the identification of students who may need assistance.

Similarly, selected school deans will be invited to an upcoming SEC meeting to engage them on selected topics, including “greening” efforts the schools have taken and on their perspectives on course evaluation structures as noted above.

The Senate Rules are still under review with an expectation that a Full Faculty Senate meeting will be held at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, March 17, 2021, to vote on the amendments.  Following the discussion in December 2020, no changes will be made at this time related to membership in the Faculty Senate.

Prof. Jamieson invited SEC members to refer faculty members to her (via senate@pobox.upenn.edu) so that she can enter them into the newly established process that enhances the overall number of honorary society awardees that Penn can claim institutionally. Major honorary societies include without limit the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academic of Arts and Sciences.

Past Chair’s Report. No report was offered.

Update from the Office of the Provost. Provost Wendell Pritchett addressed two topics: civic engagement and support for junior faculty.

Firooz Aflatouni, associate professor in the department of electrical and systems engineering, in collaboration with Farshid Ashtiani, a postdoctoral scholar in Dr. Aflatouni’s research group, won the Bell Labs Prize, awarded by Nokia Bell Labs, for their proposal for “Integrated Photonic-mmWave Deep Networks.”

Dr. Aflatouni’s expertise is in the design of photonic-electronic chips, which use light to transmit and process information akin to the way traditional computer chips use electricity. The first prize-winning proposal presents a deep neural network that uses a photonic platform to perform computations as light travels through the system, theoretically allowing for image and video recognition at almost the speed of light.

“Our system performs image recognition in the optical and millimeter-wave domains,” says Dr. Aflatouni, “which in addition to being very fast, eliminates optical to electrical signal conversion, analog-to-digital conversion, and the need for a large memory module. The goal is not to replace the current deep learning digital hardware platforms, but to introduce a low-cost photonic millimeter-wave co-processor or accelerator to significantly reduce the computation time while maintaining or improving the classification accuracy.”

Such a system could be integrated with cell phones, among other devices, and enable applications like facial recognition or augmented reality at a much faster speed than today’s digital computational platforms.

The Bell Labs Prize is a yearly contest in which researchers from around the world submit proposals for “disruptive innovations that will define the next industrial revolution.” Participants are paired with Nokia Bell Labs researchers to refine their ideas, ultimately presenting them to a panel of experts and industry leaders.

Gustavo D. Aguirre, professor of Medical Genetics and Ophthalmology at Penn Vet, is the recipient of the Sanford and Susan Greenberg End Blindness Outstanding Achievement Prize, which distinguishes scientists for their groundbreaking medical contributions to eradicate blindness. Dr. Aguirre was selected for his “uniquely valuable research having the greatest impact toward advancing restoration of vision in human patients.” He is among 13 scientists sharing the $3 million award and is the co-recipient of the Outstanding Achievement Prize with five other researchers, including the Perelman School of Medicine’s Jean Bennett and Albert Maguire and the University of Florida’s William Hauswirth. The recipients of the award were announced during the live-streamed End Blindness 2020 Ceremony on December 14, 2020.

Dr. Aguirre’s internationally renowned research, generated over the course of 40+ years, has investigated the genetic basis of a variety of inherited vision disorders, including Leber’s congenital amaurosis, Best disease, achromatopsia and retinitis pigmentosa. His seminal work on novel gene therapy approaches to treatment, which deliver to the eye a functional copy of a gene that is otherwise defective, has restored vision in animal models of X-linked retinitis pigmentosa and Leber’s congential amaurosis. His therapy for a form of Leber’s congenital amaurosis caused by mutations in the RPE65 gene is now commercialized after successful completion of human clinical trials.

“Dr. Aguirre espouses the highest standards of academic rigor, delivering world-class translational research in his field,” said Oliver A. Garden, Henry and Corinne R. Bower Professor of Medicine and chairman of the department of Clinical Sciences and Advanced Medicine at Penn Vet. “His scientific career is extraordinary and he epitomizes the excellence and impact that we all strive to achieve here at Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine. We’re thrilled that the governing council and scientific advisory board of End Blindness 2020 has recognized Dr. Aguirre’s remarkable contributions.”

The Sanford and Susan Greenberg Prize aims to create a worldwide research community that will contribute its collective skills and resources to ending blindness.

Roger Allen, Professor Emeritus of Arabic and Comparative Literature, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding.

Dr. Allen served as Professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature in the department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations for 43 years. From 2005-2011 he was Chair of the department, and in 2008 he became president-elect of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and served as the association’s president in 2009-2010. He is the author of dozens of articles and translations, in addition to a textbook, a major study on the Arabic novel, and an anthology of critical writings. For the series The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature, he edited the volume spanning 1150 to 1850, titled The Post-Classical Period.

Dr. Allen’s research interests have focused on a number of issues within the broader field of Arabic literature: the problems of evaluation of literary works within the complexities of a post-colonial situation, the need to rewrite the literary history of most regions of the Arab world to reflect new understandings concerning the relative significance of different cultural trends, and the status of the fictional genres in the Arab world in the new era of alternative means of publication and new media.

The first person to obtain a doctorate in modern Arabic literature at the University of Oxford, Dr. Allen joined the Penn faculty in 1968. He served as faculty director of Penn’s Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business from the program’s inauguration in 1994 until 2006.

The Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding was founded in Doha, Qatar in 2015. It is an international prize run by a board of trustees, a steering committee, and independent panels of judges. The award seeks to honor translators and acknowledge their role in strengthening the bonds of friendship and cooperation among peoples and nations of the world.

Carmen Guerra, the Ruth C. and Raymond G. Perelman Associate Professor of Medicine has been named a 2020 Women in Medicine Award Winner. The other two awardees, both Penn alumni, are Marie A. Bernard and Dana Beyer.

The Elizabeth Kirk Rose, M’26, INT’30 Women in Medicine Award recognizes the extraordinary record of commitment and contributions to advancing the education and careers of women in academic medicine by an alumna, faculty, or staff member.

Carmen Guerra, GM’06, is the Ruth C. and Raymond G. Perelman Associate Professor of Medicine, the Vice Chair of Diversity and Inclusion in the Department of Medicine, and Associate Director of Diversity and Outreach at the Abramson Cancer Center. She also serves as an Advisory Dean of students for the Dr. Helen O. Dickens House at the Perelman School of Medicine.

Marie A. Bernard, M’76, is Deputy Director of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the acting NIH Chief Officer for Scientific Workforce Diversity at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Bernard’s research focuses on nutrition and function in older populations with special focus on underrepresented minorities, as well as related to geriatric education.

Dana Beyer, M’78, is a retired eye surgeon who has been an advocate on public health issues, including research on the effects of DES and endocrine disruptors on human sexuality and reproduction. She was lead staffer passing the first countywide ban of artificial trans fats in the US, helping to lead to the disappearance of trans fats from the national marketplace.

A celebration of Women in Medicine has occurred annually since 1962, when Elizabeth Kirk Rose began holding picnics for women students and alumnae as a way for them to encourage and support one another.

More recently, the celebration has been an awards luncheon sponsored by the Elizabeth Blackwell Society and Penn Medicine Development and Alumni Relations for students, faculty, and alumni.

This year will mark a new milestone: the first virtual celebration of this award on February 4.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center and professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, was honored with the 2021 Franklin Founder Award during a virtual celebration of Benjamin Franklin’s 315th birthday.

The celebration, usually held in Philadelphia, was conducted online on Friday, January 15, two days before Franklin’s birth date. The event was established to “bring international attention to Franklin’s ideas and accomplishments, and to highlight his relevance in the modern world,” and the award is presented to someone who has excelled in the theme highlighted each year. This year’s theme: “The Disintegration of Trust: Restoring Confidence in American Institutions.”

In introducing Dr. Jamieson, Donald Smith, chair of the Franklin Birthday Celebration, noted that last year National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt said Jamieson’s “nonpartisan, evidence-based approach to science communication and political analysis is an invaluable national treasure.”

In her acceptance speech, Dr. Jamieson spoke about the resilience of democratic institutions in the face of a pandemic, a divisive presidency, ideological polarization, and disinformation. She argued that the First Amendment’s protection of free speech, press, right to petition, and peaceable assembly are similarly instrumental to protecting the nation’s democratic foundations.

Each January, the Franklin Birthday Celebration is held in Philadelphia to commemorate Franklin and to explore ideas important in his time and ours. Prior themes have included “Race Awareness,” “Criminal Justice Reform,” “Increasing Wealth and Income Inequality,” and “Exploring the World Around Us.”

Melissa Sanchez, Donald T. Regan Professor of English, received recognition from the Modern Language Association (MLA) for her book Queer Faith: Reading Promiscuity and Race in the Secular Love Tradition. The book received an honorable mention for the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies, given annually to an outstanding scholarly work that is written by a member of the association and that involves at least two literatures.

In announcing the prize, the award committee stated that Dr. Sanchez’s book “brilliantly defamiliarizes well-known early modern texts by Petrarch, Shakespeare, Milton, and others by reading them alongside Pauline theology,” adding that “Sanchez makes a compelling and surprising case for what she calls the ‘translatability of religious writing to queer theory.’”

Dr. Sanchez is the author of two other books, Erotic Subjects: The Sexuality of Politics in Early Modern English Literature, and Shakespeare and Queer Theory. She is currently editing the Routledge Companion to Queer Literary Studies and has recently begun two new book-length projects: What Were Women Writers? and The Affordances of Guilt. At Penn Arts & Sciences, Dr. Sanchez will serve as the director of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies and the Alice Paul Center for the 2021-2022 academic year.

Founded in 1883, the MLA and its over 24,000 members in 100 countries work to strengthen the study and teaching of languages and literature.

Michele M. Volpe, chief executive officer of Penn Presbyterian Medical Center (PPMC), has been named the new chair of the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania’s (HAP) Board of Directors. She began her term as chair on January 1, 2021.

“I have been involved with HAP for decades,” Dr. Volpe said. “Throughout my entire career, I’ve participated in work on impactful committees addressing topics like behavioral health and strategic planning. When I was asked to join the Board of Directors, I was excited by the opportunity to be closer to the decision-making and to play a greater role in helping the organization formulate their positions and drive solutions to support and transform healthcare across Pennsylvania. My association with HAP has been not only enjoyable, but gratifying; now, having privilege to work with [HAP President and CEO] Andy Carter and his team as chair is truly a key moment in my career.”

Dr. Volpe has served as PPMC’s chief executive officer since January 1999. During her tenure, she has overseen transformative projects including the opening of Penn Medicine University City, the relocation of Penn Medicine’s Level 1 Trauma Center from the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania to PPMC, and the construction of the Pavilion for Advanced Care, a state-of-the-art facility for critically ill and injured patients, which opened in 2015. Additionally, she has been a member of HAP’s Board of Directors since 2016 and has served as its treasurer since 2019.

HAP is a statewide membership services organization that advocates for more than 240 hospitals and health systems in Pennsylvania. The 28-member board, comprised of health care leaders from across the commonwealth, works to set the association’s strategic direction and priorities relating to fostering a robust hospital community and promoting access to high-quality care for patients.

“Now, more than ever, our Board of Directors needs the steady hands of seasoned leaders to steer the hospital community through the COVID-19 crisis and into a post-pandemic world,” said Andy Carter, HAP president and CEO. “I have every confidence that—with the leadership of Michele Volpe—our new class of directors will bring the right mix of best practices, collaboration, and new ideas to help us evolve to meet the changing needs of our hospitals and health care workforce, and the patients they serve.”

Daniel Wagner, UNESCO Chair in Learning and Literacy at Penn GSE, has been named an Honorary Fellow by the Comparative & International Education Society.

The honor reflects Dr. Wagner’s career-long dedication to improving educational opportunities around the world, in both his research and his work with UNESCO, and his service to CIES. As CIES noted in its announcement, Dr. Wagner’s work continues to shape the conversation around how education can be transformed across the global south.

“Recently, Dan’s book on Learning as Development has been influential in helping to move our field forward,” said the CIES announcement. “His body of work around smaller, quicker and cheaper measures contributed to increasing the evidence base regarding the learning crisis in low- and middle-income countries. This work was foundational in the decisions that many funders made to invest deeply in learning outcomes and the quality of education. Finally, Dan’s work on technology in education has consistently pushed the envelope on what is possible in improving outcomes through technology.”

The Honorary Fellows award was established by CIES in 1987 to honor senior members of the society who have advanced the field qualitatively and significantly, through life-long service and contribution to the field of comparative and international education as evidenced by scholarship, teaching, research, and technical service. The award recognizes those scholars who have made the most marked contributions to growth in the field.

CIES also lauded Dr. Wagner for “serving as a chair or discussant on countless panels at CIES.” It also mentioned that Dr. Wagner “has grown CIES’s relationships with other researchers, NGOs, and international organizations worldwide such as UNESCO, World Bank, USAID and others.”

Dr. Wagner will receive his Honorary Fellowship at an upcoming CIES conference.

Download the February AT PENN calendar as a PDF or visit the online version at https://almanac.upenn.edu/at-penn-calendar/february-at-penn-2021

A Conversation with Stacey Abrams, moderated by Benjamin Todd Jealous and with remarks from University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann, will take place Friday, February 19, 2021 at noon. 

Stacey Abrams is an author, serial entrepreneur, nonprofit CEO and political leader. The event is sponsored by the Annenberg School for Communication, Penn Carey Law School, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Paideia Program, and the Penn Provost’s Office.

For more information and to register, visit https://asc.upenn.edu/news-events/events/conversation-stacey-abrams

Children’s Activities

Penn Museum
Online events. Info and to register: https://www.penn.museum/calendar

26    At-Home Anthro Live: The Meaning and Making of Mandarin Squares; 1 p.m. 

27    Virtual Archaeological Adventures: Celebrate Chinese New Year Traditions; 10 a.m. 

Exhibits

Upcoming

28     In Conversation About Milford Graves: A Mind-Body Deal; join musicians Susie Ibarra and Will Calhoun for a discussion of rhythm in Milford Graves’ work; 6:30 p.m.; online event; info: https://tinyurl.com/milford-graves-jan-28 (ICA). 

29     Virtual Global Guide Tour: Middle East Galleries; 2:30 p.m.; online event; register: https://tinyurl.com/global-guide-jan-29 (Penn Museum). 

Films

28     Keep Saray Home; screening and discussion; “rallying cry against ICE deportations”; 4:30 p.m.; online screening; info: https://asam.sas.upenn.edu/events (ASAM). 

Fitness & Learning

26     Connecting With Balance: Virtual Class by Pilobolus; helps people of all ages reconnect with their bodies and environment; 7 p.m.; online event; register: https://annenbergcenter.org/event/pilobolus-connecting-with-balance-class (Annenberg Center). 

27     The Fascinating History of the Morris Arboretum; Bob Gutowski, Morris Arboretum; 1 p.m.; online class; info and registration: https://experience.morrisarboretum.org/Info.aspx?EventID=31 (Morris Arboretum). 

         Lessons in Leadership from Penn Women Deans; hear three of Penn’s women deans speak about their paths to leadership and the lessons they have learned; 1 p.m.; online event; register: https://tinyurl.com/pfwf-panel-jan-27 (PFWF). 

         Structuring Your Unstructured Time; learn how to create a schedule that promotes productivity and balance; 4 p.m.; Zoom meeting; join: https://tinyurl.com/unstructured-time-jan-27 (Weingarten Center, GSE). Also January 29, 9 a.m.

29     Faculty Panel for Black Students in STEM at Penn; find out how to get more involved with STEM faculty and students and learn from current students; 4 p.m.; Zoom meeting; join: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/97562319571 (SEAS, Makuu). 

Graduate School of Education 
Online events. Info and to register: www.gse.upenn.edu/news/events-calendar

27      Fright, Flight or Fight: Navigating Racially Stressful Moments While Teaching; 9 a.m.

          Literary Lunch with Juliana; open to staff and faculty; noon.

29      Friday Virtual Chats with Admissions; 8 a.m.

          IES Predoctoral Program Seminar: Dr. Rekha Balu; noon. 

30      School Leadership Program Virtual Information Session; 10 a.m.

Penn Libraries
Online events. Info and to register: https://guides.library.upenn.edu/workshops   

27     R Advanced: Write and Publish in Markdown; noon.

         Remote Research Recap; 12:30 p.m.

29     Collaborative Quaranzine Workshop; 2 p.m.

Penn Nursing
Online events. Info and to register: https://www.nursing.upenn.edu/calendar/view/month

28     Diverse Perspectives in Nursing: Introduction to Penn Nursing Admissions Webinar; 6 p.m.

Readings & Signings

26     The Intellectual World of Sixteenth-Century Florence: Humanists and Culture in the Age of Cosimo I; Ann Moyer; 4:30 p.m.; Zoom meeting; join: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/7391452355 (History). 

29     Amazonian-Andean Reading Group: Rethinking the Adnes/Amazonia Divide; 6 p.m.; online event; info: mervic@sas.upenn.edu (Hispanic & Portuguese Studies). 

Special Events

28      Behind the Lion Dance; go behind the scenes of a Chinese tradition to see why so many love this whimsical mark of the new year; 6 p.m.; online event; register: https://tinyurl.com/lion-dance-jan-28 (Penn Museum). 

Talks

26      Health Care During COVID-19: Systemic Racism, The Government’s Pandemic Response, and Racial Inequities in COVID-19; Seema Mohapatra, Indiana University; Ruqaiijah Yearby, St. Louis University; noon; Zoom meeting; join: https://zoom.us/j/92922786283 (Medical Ethics & Health Policy). 

         Targeting Neoantigens to Augment Antitumor Immunity; Mark Yarchoan, Johns Hopkins; noon; GoToMeeting; join: https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/227215405 (Wistar Institute). 

         “See My Face On the Other Side”: Cecile McLorin Salvant and the Art of Catching Up with Geeshie & Elvie; Daphne Brooks, GSWS and Africana Studies; 5:15 p.m.; online event; register: https://tinyurl.com/brooks-talk-jan-26 (Music). 

27      Black Advantage Vision: Flipping the Script on the Study of Racial Inequality; Mary Pattillo, Northwestern University; noon; online event; info: https://sociology.sas.upenn.edu/events (Sociology). 

          Counter-Dataveillance; panel of speakers; noon; online event; join: http://www.asc.upenn.edu/ascmediariskevents (ASC). 

          Defining Transitions in a Parasitic Life Cycle; Sebastian Lourido, MIT; noon; BlueJeans meeting; join: https://primetime.bluejeans.com/a2m/live-event/xqbzwhrb (Microbiology). 

          Fielding RCTs in the US Legal Profession: Randomizing Incarceration And Its Downstream Effects; Jim Greiner, Harvard; noon; Zoom meeting; ID: 994 9962 1451; password: CRIM558 (Criminology). 

          Rescuing 911: Opportunities for Reform in Police Dispatch; Jerry Clayton, Washington County (MI) sheriff’s office; Jessica Gillooly, NYU; John Hawkins, Police Scotland; noon; online event; register: https://pennlaw.cvent.com/d/m7qhmt (Penn Law). 

          Opinion Dynamics on Discourse Sheaves; Robert Ghrist, math; 3 p.m.; Zoom meeting; info: https://www.math.upenn.edu/events (Mathematics). 

          Zero Sets of Laplace Eigenfunctions; Aleksandr Logunov, Princeton; 3:30 p.m.; Zoom meeting; info: https://www.math.upenn.edu/events/ (Mathematics). 

         Designing Dissenting Histories; Sue Mobley, Monument Lab; 5 p.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://tinyurl.com/mobley-talk-jan-27 (Center for Public Art and Space). 

         Fels Racial Equity and Social Justice Conversation Series; Cherelle Parker, Philadelphia councilwoman; 6 p.m.; Zoom meeting; info: https://www.fels.upenn.edu/events/fresjc-cherelle-parker (Fels Institute). 

         The Jeffrey Fine (C’76, MArch’78) and Andrea Katz Lecture; Jeanne Gang, Studio Gang; 6:30 p.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://tinyurl.com/gang-talk-jan-27 (Architecture). 

28     HepatoScore: A New Biological Blood Signature For Hepatocellular Carcinoma; Jeffrey Morris, Wharton; 9 a.m.; BlueJeans meeting; join: https://bluejeans.com/368827150 (CCEB). 

         The Future of Cape Town Water; Michael Webster, city of Cape Town; noon; online event; register: https://tinyurl.com/webster-talk-jan-28 (Penn Water Center). 

        A Parallel World?: Notes on Alternative Academia in South Korea; Nuri Kim, Cambridge; 1 p.m.; Zoom meeting; join: https://tinyurl.com/kim-talk-jan-28 (Korean Studies, CEAS). 

        Designing Biology for Detection and Control; Pamela Silver, Harvard; 3 p.m.; online event; info: be@seas.upenn.edu (Bioengineering). 

        O-Ring Production Networks; Ana Cecilia Fieler, Yale; 3:30 p.m.; online event; info: https://economics.sas.upenn.edu/events/ (Economics). 

        A Three-Way Communication Circuit Between Macrophages, Alveolar Epithelium, and Monocytes Promotes Antibacterial Defense Within the Lung; Sunny Shin, PSOM; 4 p.m.; BlueJeans meeting; join: https://bluejeans.com/497920610 (CHOP). 

        Climate Change and Global Water Crises: Implications of Too Much and Not Enough Water; Brian Soden, University of Miami; Scott Moore, Penn Global; Howard Neukrug, Penn Water Center; 4 p.m.; online event; register: https://tinyurl.com/pwc-talk-jan-28 (Penn Water Center). 

        The Evolution of Cancer Malignancy: How Cows Beat Cancer?; Günter Wagner, Yale; 4 p.m.; Zoom meeting; join: https://tinyurl.com/wagner-talk-jan-28 (Biology). 

        Microcosm, Macrocosm, and the Question of Scale in the Ancient Roman City; Amy Russell, Brown; 4:30 p.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://tinyurl.com/russell-talk-jan-28 (Classical Studies). 

        The Earth Architect; Diana Agrest, Agrest and Gandelsonas Architects; 5 p.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://tinyurl.com/agrest-talk-jan-28 (Landscape Architecture). 

29     Citizenship in Crisis? A Panel Discussion on India and Myanmar; panel of speakers; 11 a.m.; online event; register: https://tinyurl.com/casi-panel-jan-29 (CASI). 

         COVID’s Impact on Fertility Intentions Among Married Singaporean Women; Joan Ryan, sociology; noon; online event; info: https://sociology.sas.upenn.edu/events/ (Sociology). 

         Nursing and Social Justice: Past, Present and Future Legacies; panel of speakers; 4 p.m.; BlueJeans meeting; join: https://primetime.bluejeans.com/a2m/register/jhtyryuy (Penn Nursing). 

30     Handmade History—Tea: Tradition and Medicine; Victor Mair, EALC; Tracey Wang Stuligross, TranquiliTEA Temple; 3 p.m.; online event; register: https://tinyurl.com/mair-stuligross-jan-30 (Penn Museum). 

Penn Dental
Online events. Info and to register: https://www.dental.upenn.edu/news-events/events/

26      Complex Treatments in Full Digital Workflow; Carlo Poggio, Studio Associato Poggio, 5 p.m.

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 January 11-17, 2021. View prior weeks' reports. -Editors.

This summary is prepared by the Division of Public Safety and includes all criminal incidents reported and made known to the University Police Department for the dates of January 11-17, 2021. 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: 7 crimes against persons (3 aggravated assaults, 2 robberies, 1 indecent assault, and 1 rape) with 3 arrests were reported for January 11-17, 2021 by the 18th District, covering the Schuylkill River to 49th Street & Market Street to Woodland Avenue.

At the University of Pennsylvania, we’re committed to offering a retirement savings program that helps you plan for—and build—long-term financial security. The University of Pennsylvania Tax-Deferred Retirement Plan Investment Committee (TDR Committee), working with an independent advisor, recently conducted a retirement program review to evaluate plan efficiencies and service enhancements.

As a result of this review, the University of Pennsylvania will be making changes to the administration of the University of Pennsylvania Basic, Matching, and Supplemental Retirement Annuity Plans (the Plans). The effective date of these changes will be in April of 2021. Although TIAA will be the single record keeper, participants will still be able to select Vanguard investment funds, as well as TIAA annuities and a new Blackrock fund. The changes will benefit participants by:

• Consolidating plan services to a single recordkeeper, leading to lower administration fees for Plan participants
• Increasing access to investment education and retirement planning advice
• Providing consolidated retirement information and investment advice services, and a single statement for participants who have investments from more than one company (brokerage accounts will still have a separate statement)
• Providing a streamlined investment menu that may make it easier to construct a diversified portfolio aligned with your retirement goals

A Single Record Keeper

The University will make these enhancements by streamlining administration of the Plans with one recordkeeper. A recordkeeper is the service provider for the retirement plans and is responsible for maintaining participant accounts, processing investment transactions, and providing participants with account-related information, such as statements and online access. Regardless of the investments you own, your retirement account is considered to be “held” at your recordkeeper. Recordkeepers also provide other services to participants—including education and advice about investment elections and planning for retirement.

The TDR Committee chose TIAA to serve as the Plans’ sole recordkeeper. By having a single recordkeeper, the University will be able to reduce overall plan management costs, simplify administration, and improve the participant experience. As the single recordkeeper, TIAA can host a variety of mutual funds from different fund families.

For participants currently using Vanguard as the recordkeeper, new accounts will automatically be created at TIAA. The new investment menu—including Vanguard funds and TIAA annuities—will be available through your new account on the TIAA platform.

Your New Options

Beginning February 16, 2021 all Penn participants can select investment options for all future Plan contributions beginning in April. Participants can also select options for how their current mutual fund balances at TIAA and Vanguard will be invested after the change to single recordkeeper.

The new investment lineup (including a self-directed brokerage option) will be available for investment selection in April.

If you do not select investment choices from the new menu before March 31, 2021, your current mutual fund balances and future contributions will be directed to an age-based Vanguard Institutional Target Retirement Fund.

What Is Not Changing?

• The University’s employer contribution levels
• Eligibility and vesting requirements
• Contribution types (pretax and Roth)
• Voluntary contribution levels
• Loan, withdrawal, and distribution availability
• The University’s commitment to help you plan and save for retirement

Actions You Can Take

Mark your calendar with these key dates listed above and the Transition Guide timeline and make a plan. You should receive a copy of the transition guide at your home address soon.
Review the inside front cover of Transition Guide checklist of things to do and actions to consider to make the most of the upcoming Plan changes.

Attend an Upcoming Plan Changes webinar. Live webinars have available since January 22. At each webinar, a TIAA financial consultant will provide more details about the changes as well as actions you can take. Visit www.hr.upenn.edu/PennRetPlan to register. Virtual drop-in office hours will be offered every Monday, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. (ET), and every Friday, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. (ET), January 15, 2021, through February 12, 2021. Review the complete schedule of events at www.hr.upenn.edu/PennRetPlan.

Get retirement advice. Meet one-on-one during a virtual session with a TIAA financial consultant to build a personal plan for your future. Schedule an investment advice session online by visiting TIAA.org/schedulenow-upenn, or by calling 800-732-8353, weekdays, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (ET).

Choose investment options from the new menu. Once your new account is issued on February 16, 2021, you will be able to change the way future contributions are directed.

Beneficiaries

Name a beneficiary for your new account. Your existing beneficiary designations will not be transferred. Make sure this important information is up-to-date in your new account.

What Happens If You Do Nothing?

All existing mutual fund balances and all future contributions to the Plans will transfer to the new accounts and will be directed to the Vanguard Institutional Target Retirement Fund that most closely corresponds to the year you turn 65. Please see page 12 of the Transition Guide for the specific Target Retirement Fund that applies to you. Annuity balances will remain in existing legacy contracts. Your existing beneficiary designations will not be transferred and your beneficiary will be set to the Plan default.

If you have any questions or need assistance, please contact the University of Pennsylvania Retirement Call Center at 877-736-6738, weekdays, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (ET). You can also Schedule an investment advice session online at TIAA.org/schedulenow-upenn or by phone at 800-732-8353, weekdays, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (ET).

—Division of Human Resources

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

International Data Privacy Day on January 28 kicks off an entire month dedicated to data privacy awareness. The “Internet of Things” has rapidly moved towards compiling data about users themselves, through technology like wearable health devices, exercise platforms, video streaming devices, and online meeting services. The current pandemic has only amplified the uses of these technologies and the amount of data shared with them as we transition to a more virtual world.

Now is an excellent time to take practical steps that offer you a greater degree of control and protection over who sees your personal information. To learn more on how to configure your privacy and security settings for specific platforms and exert control over how this information is shared, go to https://staysafeonline.org/stay-safe-online/managing-your-privacy/manage-privacy-settings/

Sharing Information at Penn

It’s also important to know what tools exist here at Penn to facilitate our new remote world, and the protections in place for Penn data. For now, video conferencing and online meeting spaces have replaced most interactions on campus. To see what data-sharing is appropriate on Penn-offered video conferencing tools, go to https://www.isc.upenn.edu/how-to/video-conferencing-tools#Sharing-Sensitive-Data

Penn Privacy website

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

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

While you do not need to attach a 1095-C to your tax return, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires that Penn send the 1095-C tax form to certain benefits-eligible faculty and staff members. This form includes information about the health insurance coverage offered to you by Penn and information for each of your family members enrolled under your Penn benefits plan.

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

If you have questions about your form, contact the Penn Employee Solution Center at 215-898-7372 or hcmsolutioncenter@upenn.edu for assistance.

—Division of Human Resources

The Next Generation Student Systems (NGSS) project is a large-scale effort to deploy modernized student information technology to better support the University’s student records and financial aid systems.

In order to implement these systems within the planned timeline, the NGSS project needs to limit changes to current systems that would impact functionality for both Release 1 (August 2021) and Release 2 (March 2022). As of January 1, 2021, the NGSS project began a Current Systems Freeze Period, which will continue until the Release 2 Go-Live in March 2022.

Exceptions to the freeze period will be made for known regulatory changes and those identified on the Academic Calendar. In addition, the NGSS team, in collaboration with appropriate University stakeholders, will review requests for non-regulatory exceptions during the freeze period to determine whether the need warrants an exception. The linked NGSS Current Systems Freeze Information Packet and the NGSS Current Systems Freeze page on the NGSS website provide further details on the freeze period, including the list of impacted systems, contacts for exception requests, and specific data/transactions with freeze dates occurring in Spring 2021.

Please reach out to the team with questions or concerns related to the Current Systems Freeze period by emailing ngss_freeze_cr@lists.upenn.edu

Roxanne L. Euben

The confluence of multiple pandemics—from COVID-19 to racial violence to partisanship that’s gone off the rails—has produced a moment of arguably unprecedented polarization in both politics and the classroom. Teachers now confront what seem to be distinctive and unusually daunting obstacles to the kind of critical, potentially transformative engagement with texts and one another at the heart of a liberal arts education.

Yet there’s also something here that feels familiar to me. Perhaps this is because both my research and teaching are located at the intersection of two fields with particularly bad reputations:  political theory and Islamic political thought. Political theory is often regarded by undergraduates as either intimidating or irrelevant to the immediacy of everyday events—sometimes characterized even less flatteringly as the study of books by “dead, white, Western men.” In the United States, Islamic political thought is so routinely seen through the lens of 9/11 and its aftermath that Muslim thinkers of all kinds tend to register as violent terrorists until proven otherwise.

In many ways, I learned how to teach—and how not to teach—by shepherding fractious class debates about everything from the Racial Contract to government justifications for torture to the relationship between Islam and democracy. Unsurprisingly, my pedagogy (which owes much to dedicated teachers who came before) normalizes disputation and even intense disagreement as constitutive of the process of collective inquiry and participatory learning. To put the same point slightly differently: for me, conflict in the classroom isn’t something to be either domesticated or ignored but centered as a critical dimension of higher education.

This sounds nice, but isn’t always easy. Many students are uncomfortable with any conflict in the classroom, are unused to arguing directly with others, and equate open contention with unleashed hostility. Other students deliberately avoid challenging their classmates’ convictions on the assumption that tolerance and respect for others requires withholding judgment. (The trouble is, they make judgments all the time and rightly so; it’s impossible to talk about what is unjust or wrong without them.) Then there are the students whose eagerness to position themselves as sole arbiters of right and wrong tends either to provoke equally doctrinaire reactions or throttle discussion entirely. 

On the first day of class I say explicitly that disputation is central to what we’ll be doing; that arguments can be productive rather than dangerous; and that paying very close attention to claims you disagree with is a unique opportunity to examine convictions of your own that often go unquestioned in the online echo-chambers of the like-minded in which many people now reside. Toward this end, I push every student, regardless of their politics or background, to justify their positions and make explicit the assumptions undergirding those positions and the political stakes of holding them. In other words, I use my authority in the classroom to normalize exchanges where students are challenged to make available to others the evidence (textual or otherwise), logic, experiences, and emotional investments behind their convictions.

To show what this looks like, I ask students: Why are you in this classroom? Why bother going to college? Why UPenn in particular? If the answer is “college will help me succeed,” (and it often is), I press them: How are you defining success and why define it this way? Why are you sure that this is going to give you a full, good or happy life? Continually asking versions of “why?” sounds overly simple, but doing so takes the pat, almost habitual answers we often give as only the beginning of a process that dives ever deeper into the assumptions anchoring political shibboleths such as “human beings are naturally self-interested,” or “Islam is intolerant” or “government is about protecting rights and maintaining order.”

I have to play devil’s advocate for this to work, and I do try to make it playful as well as serious. This makes it easier for students to reflect critically on what’s seemingly natural, inevitable, a given, and even take the risk of thinking differently or otherwise. But the key point I make here is that critical purchase on your own position need not threaten your commitment to it; it can also provide you with a deeper sense of why you believe what you do. After all, Socrates’s practice of interrogating all comers in the streets of Athens wasn’t in the service of nihilism or questioning for its own sake but to ensure that the truths we endorse and the convictions we embrace are actually worth having. Of course, in the process of thinking critically about your own positions, there’s usually a shift, incremental or significant, in what you believe, why you believe it, or both.

To ensure that all students engage in this activity, I’ve developed some strategies to encourage quieter students, shy students, and students who feel marginalized to feel safe in speaking up. This is critical to addressing the inequalities and power imbalances that tend to pervade classroom dynamics but are often avoided as an unwelcome source of division. Here—and always—it’s essential to have a sense of humor. I often say that I’ll call on students who haven’t yet spoken to hear “their mellifluous voices,” or because I know that “still waters run deep.” This signals my confidence that what more reticent students have to say is worth hearing, that naïve questions can be invaluable, and that their comments don’t have to be brilliant (though they occasionally are) because sometimes participation is itself an accomplishment. The effect, I find, is to coax such students into the conversation by lowering the stakes of the comments they offer and reducing the anxieties that often attend such reticence.

In all these exchanges I try to model two things: First, I show how much I enjoy it when students first begin to push back in my exchanges with them. This is not difficult to do, as I take genuine pleasure not just in the growing confidence students show in their ability to make cogent arguments back to me about a text or a judgment, but also in the liveliness of the exchange itself. Such confidence tends to be contagious as students become increasingly comfortable arguing with each other on political, intellectual, and methodological grounds, and learn to do so with precision and self-control, even or especially when the issue at hand is highly contentious and brings intense passions to the surface. Second, I model intense listening: I pay very close attention to what each student says and push them to clarify what is confused or show us supporting textual evidence. Through this back and forth I present myself as an ally rather than just an interrogator in developing what is often an inchoate or reflexive instinct into an argument with justifications that are at least accessible—if not convincing—to others. 

I do far more of this in the early part of the course than in later weeks, as students usually become acclimated to this direct style of exchange and interrogation relatively quickly. If I’ve done my job, students eventually begin conducting their exchanges with one another in ways that mimic how I engage with them. Still, these techniques don’t necessarily produce a happy, linear progression in which antagonism, outrage or felt injury inevitably give way to critical thinking and mutual appreciation. This is partly because, like all human endeavors, learning is often disorderly and unpredictable. But it’s also because emotion and reflection aren’t opposites; rather, they inform one another in unexpected ways to shape the course of the class conversation, sometimes for worse but sometimes—if we’re lucky—for the better.

Roxanne L. Euben, professor of political science, is the Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professor in the Social Sciences. She is a leading scholar of contemporary political theory who specializes in Islamic political thought.

This essay continues the series that began in the fall of 1994 as the joint creation of the College of Arts and Sciences, the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Lindback Society for Distinguished Teaching. See https://almanac.upenn.edu/talk-about-teaching-and-learning-archive for previous essays.