February 23, 2021 Volume 67 Issue 28

Whitney Soule has been named Vice Provost and Dean of Admissions at the University of Pennsylvania, effective July 1. The announcement was made on February 9 by Penn President Amy Gutmann and Provost Wendell Pritchett. Ms. Soule is currently Senior Vice President and Dean of Admissions and Student Aid at Bowdoin College. She has three decades of experience in admissions at highly selective institutions, including nearly 13 years at Bowdoin.

“Given the uniquely important role that the Dean of Admissions plays at Penn, we co-led this search ourselves,” President Gutmann and Provost Pritchett said in a statement. “In our numerous discussions with Whitney, it became very clear that her vision and philosophy for admissions—along with her proven track record as a leader—will perfectly position Penn to carry forward our Penn Compact vision of ever-increasing inclusion, innovation, and impact.”

During Ms. Soule’s tenure at Bowdoin, the college’s diversity and selectivity have grown. Her leadership resulted in increasing numbers of students of color, first-generation students, and students on financial aid alongside a decreasing admit rate and a growing admit-to-matriculant yield rate.

“Whitney shares our strong belief—proven true in Penn’s growing strength and continued success—that excellence and diversity in higher education are inextricably linked,” President Gutmann said.

Ms. Soule demonstrated a strong commitment to innovation and an eagerness to lead team-based efforts to rethink and improve the recruitment and selection process to better serve students and families while simultaneously advancing institutional priorities and the academic mission.

“By harnessing the latest research on decision-making and implicit bias,” Provost Pritchett said, “she oversaw development and implementation of new evaluation tools to ensure that all applicants—regardless of their backgrounds or personal circumstances—have the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to succeed on campus. She also supported efforts to redesign work processes in the admissions office to increase efficiency and better harness the efforts and talents of the admissions staff.”

Ms. Soule is a leader with a passion for influencing and steering national discussions about college admissions and the role of higher education in driving societal progress, especially as colleges and universities continue to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic and its lasting effects. At Bowdoin, she joined with colleagues to create a unique collaboration with other highly selective liberal arts colleges that improved the ability of students, families, and counselors to learn more about the opportunities available at these types of institutions.

“The admissions team at Penn has a reputation for creative approaches to building talented and diverse classes each year,” Ms. Soule said. “For me, one of the most rewarding aspects of admissions work is the matchmaking between applicant and school and doing so with systems that are responsive and supportive both for the students and for the institution. Penn’s commitment to excellence, access, inclusion, and innovation and the dedication to these values in Penn admissions is a natural fit, and I am excited to join Penn this summer.”

Ms. Soule has chaired the executive admission committee of the New England Small College Athletic Conference, is a member of the College Board Enrollment Leaders Group, and is a board member of both the Coalition for College and the Enrollment Management Association.

She began her career in college admissions at her alma mater, Bates College, where she rose through the ranks and served as associate dean and director of transfer admissions. During an 11-year tenure at Connecticut College, she directed transfer admissions and also oversaw admissions information and systems, including serving as the admission lead for that institution’s implementation of new student information systems. She moved to Bowdoin in 2008, where she worked as Director of Admissions. In 2016, she was named Dean of Admissions and Student Aid until she became Senior Vice President in 2020. In addition to her bachelor’s degree from Bates, Ms. Soule also holds a master’s degree from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education.

President Gutmann and Provost Pritchett praised John McLaughlin’s service as interim dean of admissions since Eric Furda’s departure on December 31. “We thank John for his exemplary work and his love of Penn and look forward to his continued contributions to our campus community in the years to come,” they said.

“Whitney Soule is extraordinarily well prepared and well positioned to lead Penn Admissions during an exciting moment in Penn’s history and during a uniquely challenging moment for our nation and our world,” President Gutmann said. “We have every confidence that she will thrive in this role and will quickly become a vital member of and integral contributor to our Penn community.”

International cancer cell therapy pioneer Carl June, the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the department of pathology and laboratory medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and director of the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies at Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center, has been named a 2021 Dan David Prize Laureate.

The Dan David Prize is endowed by the Dan David Foundation, headquartered at Tel Aviv University, which annually awards three prizes of $1 million each to globally inspiring individuals and organizations, honoring outstanding contributions that expand knowledge of the past, enrich society in the present, and promise to improve the future of the world.

Dr. June has been recognized in the “future” category for his contributions to molecular medicine, including his groundbreaking work in developing chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy, which in August 2017, became the first U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved personalized cellular therapy for cancer (Almanac September 12, 2017). Dr. June will share the prize with Steven Rosenberg, chief of the Surgery Branch at the Center for Cancer Research, and Zelig Eshhar, an immunologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center.

“This global honor could not be more well deserved,” said Penn President Amy Gutmann. “Carl June is among the preeminent scientists in the world. After more than 20 years of pioneering research in his lab at Penn, Carl’s absolute determination to develop personalized cellular therapy for treating cancer is transforming the face of medicine and bringing hope to patients around the globe. The Dan David Award is a fitting recognition of his monumental achievements in medicine.”

“Dr. June is one of Penn’s most distinguished faculty members, and we are thrilled that he is being honored with the Dan David Prize for his work, which launched an immunorevolution that has reshaped the way we approach our fight against cancer,” said J. Larry Jameson, Executive Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System and Dean of the Perelman School of Medicine. “I consider his contributions to the field of oncology to be among the most impressive in any medical or scientific field, and a crucial accomplishment in Penn’s longtime role as a pioneering institution that makes breakthrough medical advances.”

“I am honored and humbled to receive the Dan David Prize,” said Dr. June, who also serves as the director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at Penn. “This is especially meaningful to me to be given the award along with Steven Rosenberg and Zelig Eshhar, who have been my long-term mentors and colleagues over the past 30 years. I also want to thank my wife Lisa and our five children who, along with my team at Penn, have been partners during this journey. Finally, I would like to thank the Dan David Foundation and Tel Aviv University for promoting science to the lay public during the global challenge facing all of us with the pandemic.”

Dr. June and his lab discovered several basic scientific principles of how the cells in the immune system work to fight cancer and infections in the 1980s and 1990s. His lab went on to conduct the first clinical evaluation of gene-modified T cells, initially in people with HIV/AIDS and then in patients with advanced leukemia using CAR T cell therapy, the approach that retrains a patient’s own immune cells to attack cancer. The cellular therapy was awarded “Breakthrough Therapy” status by the FDA for acute leukemia in children and adults in 2014 and Kymriah was approved as the first personalized cellular therapy for cancer in 2017. It is now in use for the treatment of pediatric and adult blood cancer patients worldwide.

The Dan David Prize laureates donate 10 percent of their prize money to postgraduate students in their respective fields, thereby contributing to the community and fostering a new generation of scholars. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Vice Provost for Global Initiatives of the University of Pennsylvania, received the Dan David prize in 2018 for his contribution to the field of bioethics. Past laureates also include cellist Yo-Yo Ma, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, and BRCA scientist Mary-Claire King.

Adapted from a Penn Today article by Steve Graff.

Penn Dental Medicine welcomed its first patients to the new Care Center for Persons with Disabilities in December 2020. A gift of $250,000 from Penn Dental Medicine board member Joan O’Shea helped to make the project possible. Dr. O’Shea, who founded The Spine Institute of Southern New Jersey, is a board-certified neurosurgeon who specializes in orthopedic spine surgery.

“Everyone deserves to have access to quality dental care,” said Dr. O’Shea. “I was particularly impressed by the innovative spirit that the Penn Dental team brought to this project.”

Located in the School’s Robert Schattner Center, the Personalized Care Suite is the clinical care portion of the new 3,500 square-foot  Care Center that provides preventive and interceptive oral health care for patients of all ages living with a physical or intellectual disability. Featuring 12 dental operatories, the suite is outfitted to comfortably treat patients in wheelchairs and on gurneys and includes a quiet room with low lighting and sound baffling for patients with sensory sensitivities. “We are thrilled that this new care center has opened, and that construction was able to proceed on schedule through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Mark S. Wolff, Penn Dental Medicine’s Morton Amsterdam Dean.

Students at Penn Dental Medicine now have the added benefit of gaining training to handle the unique needs of patients with disabilities through direct experience on site.

“A key goal of the Center is to educate students as well as practicing clinicians, teachers, nurses, and caregivers on how preventive practices and teamwork can improve the quality of life for both people with disabilities and their families,” said Dean Wolff. “We will develop and report on best practices for serving this population and advance pedagogy for teaching the next generation of students to manage patients with a wide range of issues that limit their independence.”

The Center will be led by Director Miriam R. Robbins and Associate Director Alicia Risner-Bauman.

Dr. Robbins comes to Penn Dental Medicine from New York University Langone–Long Island (formerly known as NYU Winthrop Hospital) where, since 2015, she has been chair in the department of dental medicine. Since 2019, Dr. Robbins has also served as chair of the department of family dental medicine at NYU Long Island School of Medicine and as an attending surgeon in the department of plastic surgery at NYI Langone Medical Center.

Dr. Risner-Bauman brings a depth of clinical care experience in public health settings to Penn Dental Medicine, most recently serving as a General Dentist in the department of surgery of Binghamton General Hospital as well as Dental Clinic Supervisor of Broome Dental Center within the New York State (NYS) Office for People with Developmental Disabilities.

The Center will be a hub for research with the Colgate-Palmolive Innovation Laboratory, which is embedded within the facility. Through the Innovation Laboratory, Colgate experts will work side by side with Penn Dental Medicine faculty and students to assess needs and develop and refine new products that facilitate optimal dental care for patients with disabilities.

The Care Center for Persons with Disabilities is a priority of the Power of Penn Dental Medicine Campaign, which is fueling its mission to create gateways to quality oral health for all through accessible dental care.

The University of Pennsylvania Libraries have announced that Emily Esten has been named the inaugural Arnold and Deanne Kaplan Collection of Early American Judaica Curator of Digital Humanities.

The new role—the world’s first endowed position in Judaica digital humanities—was established by a series of gifts from Arnold and Deanne Kaplan in 2019 (Almanac December 10, 2019). “The addition of an endowed Kaplan Curator expands the Penn Libraries’ ability to build on our existing collections of Early American Judaica and facilitate new scholarship at the University of Pennsylvania and beyond,” said Constantia Constantinou, H. Carton Rogers III Vice Provost and Director of the Penn Libraries.

“The Kaplans’ gifts encompass not only world-class collections but also the funds for digitization and continued study through research fellowships, ensuring long-lasting support for researchers and scholars.”

As the inaugural Kaplan Curator, Ms. Esten will spearhead projects that facilitate access to and use of Penn’s Judaica collections, promoting them and making connections between them and dispersed Judaica content around the globe. She will also be responsible for curating, building, and researching the Arnold and Deanne Kaplan Collection of Early American Judaica.

The Kaplan Curator will join the Penn Libraries’ planned Center for Research Data and Digital Scholarship, an emerging multidisciplinary hub led by Nicky Agate, Assistant University Librarian for Research Data and Digital Scholarship. The Center will serve as a locus for textual and data analysis, data curation, data visualization, geographic information systems, software creation and management, web platform design, and digital start-ups across disciplines. Ms. Esten will collaborate on experimental, sustainable projects and methods that expand the capacity of the Center, while building collaborative relationships with researchers and scholars involved with digital scholarship and Judaica across the Penn campus and beyond.

Ms. Esten holds a master of fine arts in public humanities from Brown University and bachelor’s degrees in history and digital humanities from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Ms. Esten served as the Judaica Digital Humanities Project Coordinator at the Penn Libraries from 2019 to 2020, and previously held roles at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate and Brown University.

In addition to her new role at the Penn Libraries, Ms. Esten is also the web manager for Contingent Magazine and the director of communications for the National Emerging Museum Professionals Network.

February 16, 2020

In September 2020, the University extended the probationary period by one year for all faculty who are assistant professors and associate professors without tenure in the tenure, clinician-educator, and research tracks whose reviews have not already begun, who are not in their mandatory or terminal year, and who have not already received an extension related to COVID-19. Penn faculty have made rapid changes to their teaching; experienced illnesses and deaths in their families; spent more time advising, mentoring, and supporting students; and experienced barriers to conducting and disseminating research, with limits on field research, lab and facility closures, loss of research subjects, conference cancellations, journal publication slowdown, and more. Most assistant professors in non-health schools who responded to the October 2020 COVID Check-In reported that they were spending more time on teaching than before the start of the pandemic, and most assistant professors also reported that they were spending more time on caregiving and household responsibilities.

The specific short- and long-term implications of the pandemic will be different for different faculty members. For example, the negative implications for traditional measures of faculty productivity may be greater, on average, for women faculty and faculty of color, given gender differences in caregiving responsibilities, disproportionate negative health- and economic-related effects of the pandemic on Black and Brown people and communities, and greater expectations for women faculty and faculty of color to engage in mentoring and institutional service. Early data show that journal submissions during the early months of the pandemic were lower for women than for men. The full implications of the pandemic for faculty work will play out over the next several years, given the cumulative and longitudinal nature of faculty research, grant, and publication processes.

To normalize recognition of these factors, the University is adding a pandemic impact statement to its faculty review process. All faculty members may include pandemic impact statements in their annual performance and activity reports and in their dossiers for appointment, tenure, and promotion. In their pandemic impact statement, faculty should describe how the pandemic has influenced their work and career trajectory. As outlined below, faculty may describe changes made to teaching, advising, mentoring, service, and research in response to the pandemic, as well as other implications of the pandemic for faculty work and life. Faculty are not required to disclose any confidential personal health issues.

External reviewers will be informed that the University added a pandemic impact statement to its review process in spring 2021 and will be asked to consider the short- and long-term implications of the pandemic on working conditions, productivity, and career trajectory when making their evaluations if the dossier includes a pandemic impact statement. Reviewers will also be asked to focus on the quality of scholarly contributions more than the quantity. The revised External Reviewer Letter templates are posted here.

Including pandemic impact statements in the review process is an added step in the University’s response to the pandemic for our faculty. As we move forward, schools and departments are encouraged to consider how they can continue to use these statements to recognize and account for the short- and long-term implications of the pandemic for individual faculty members. We look forward to working with deans, department chairs, and faculty to support the inclusion and use of these statements and advance other related next steps.

Guidance For Pandemic Impact Statements

The pandemic impact statement describes how the pandemic has impacted a faculty member’s work and career trajectory. The statement reflects the faculty member’s individual circumstances and experiences and may include the following:

• Teaching: Changes in course load and course delivery; learning, use, and incorporation of new instructional technologies; changes in time spent.
• Advising and mentoring: Changes in advising load; support provided to students experiencing pandemic-related challenges; changes in time spent.
• Service: Engagement in efforts to make pandemic-related changes to curriculum, advising, lab access, etc.; engagement in pandemic-related initiatives for the department, university, professional association, and other organizations; changes in time spent.
• Research and scholarship: Restrictions on access to research sites, labs, facilities, studios, and other venues; restrictions on professional travel and field research; loss of access to research subjects; need to restart or pivot research; cancellation of seminars, presentations, and opportunities to collaborate; slowing of publication and grant funding processes; redirection of funding; changes in time spent.
• Other challenges: Resource constraints (e.g., internet, work space); caregiving and homeschooling responsibilities; health issues* (for self or family); visa restrictions.

(*Disclosure of personal health issues is confidential and not required.)

Resources

ADVANCE Project, University of Massachusetts-Amherst. (August 17, 2020). Documenting pandemic impacts: Best practices.
Chronicle of Higher Education (2020). “On the verge of burnout”: Covid-19’s impact on faculty well-being and career plans.
Deryugina, T., Shurchkov, O., & Stearns, J.E. (January 2021). COVID-19 disruptions disproportionately affect female academics. National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper.
Malisch, J., et al. (July 7, 2020). Opinion: In the wake of COVID-19, academia needs new solutions to ensure gender equity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Misra, J., Clark, D., & Mickey, E.L. (February 10, 2021). Keeping COVID-19 from sidelining equity. Inside Higher Ed.
Squazzoni, F., et al. (October 9, 2020). No Tickets for Women in the COVID-19 Race? A Study on Manuscript Submissions and Reviews in 2347 Elsevier Journals during the Pandemic. SSRN.

—Wendell E. Pritchett, Provost
—Laura W. Perna, Vice Provost for Faculty

With the shared vision to transform the future of oral health care, Penn Dental Medicine and Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have united to form the Center for Innovation & Precision Dentistry (CiPD). The new Center marked its official launch on January 22 with a virtual program celebrating the goals and plans of this unique partnership. Along with the deans from both schools, the event gathered partners from throughout the University of Pennsylvania and invited guests, including Rena D’Souza, the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research Director (NIDCR), and Christopher H. Fox, the Chief Executive Officer of the International and American Association for Dental Research (IADR/AADR).

Conceived and brought to fruition by co-directors Michel Koo of Penn Dental Medicine and Kathleen Stebe of Penn Engineering, the CiPD is bridging the two schools through cutting-edge research and technologies to accelerate the development of new solutions and devices to address unmet needs in oral health, particularly in the areas of dental caries, periodontal disease, and head and neck cancer. The CiPD will also place a high priority on programs to train the next generation of leaders in oral health care innovation.

“We have a tremendous global health challenge. Oral diseases and craniofacial disorders affect 3.5 billion people, disproportionately affecting the poor and the medically and physically compromised,” said Dr. Koo, professor in the department of orthodontics and divisions of community oral health and pediatric dentistry, in describing the motivation to form the Center. “There is an urgent need to find better ways to diagnose, prevent, and treat these conditions, particularly in ways that are affordable and accessible for the most susceptible populations. That is our driving force for putting this Center together.”

“We have united our schools around this mission,” adds Dr. Stebe, Richer & Elizabeth Goodwin Professor in the department of chemical and biomolecular engineering. “We have formed a community of scholars to develop and harness new engineering paradigms, to generate new knowledge, and to seek new approaches that are more effective, precise, and affordable to address oral health. More importantly, we will train a new community of scholars to impact this space.”

On February 1, Penn Medicine opened its new Interventional Support Center (ISC), the largest instrument processing and surgical supply preparation facility in the country. Located in Southwest Philadelphia, the ISC is the first facility of its kind in Pennsylvania. In this space, staff will both sterilize and package thousands of instruments each day in preparation for surgeries and procedures—from basic scissors and clamps to advanced robotic instruments.

At nearly 110,000 square feet, the ISC is designed to process instruments for up to 200 surgical cases each day. Penn purchased the building in 2018 and built a physical plant to support the ISC’s operations. The ISC will combine instrument processing services from the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) and Pennsylvania Hospital (PAH), as well as three outpatient facilities: the Perelman Center, Penn Medicine Radnor, and the Tuttleman Center. The Pavilion—also known as HUP East—will also be supported by the ISC when it opens this fall.

“The opening of the ISC sets a new standard for sterile instrument processing. It also marks a new approach from Penn Medicine. By moving our processing operations from the traditional hospital setting to an offsite, dedicated facility, we’re able to increase efficiency in a high-quality, cost-effective way—all while keeping up with increasing demand,” said Chris Pastore, ISC managing director. “Plus, the ISC alleviates space at our clinical locations, providing the breathing room hospital departments need to expand services. For example, thanks to the ISC’s capacity, Penn Medicine has been able to dedicate more space to patients at the new HUP East hospital opening later this year.”

In addition to providing hospital locations with much-needed real estate for patient care, consolidating these services off-site helps to minimize any redundant equipment across the health system. The ISC itself was designed with efficiency in mind—built with Six Sigma expertise, it is designed with a one-way forward flow approach that enables efficient instrument processing. The facility includes features that enhance sterilization efficiency, such as the use of clean steam using reverse osmosis water. The ISC will be a nearly dust-free facility thanks to increased air changes and filtration. Airlocks throughout the building also prevent cross-contamination of air between areas where dirty instruments are processed and clean ones are repackaged.

The ISC team currently consists of 140 employees coming together from on-site instrument processing facilities at HUP and PAH. In addition, 25 new employees were hired to staff the new building. The facility was created with ergonomic principles and employee well-being in mind, enabling a comfortable workspace for the ISC team members. All major equipment allows staff to make personalized adjustments, such as height adjustable sinks and assembly tables.

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania has launched an Advanced Business Analytics Program to help mid-career and senior professionals gain hands-on experience with applications of various data analytics tools to drive business transformation.

According to a recent SAP & Forrester consulting survey, more than 90% of companies say that tools such as AI/ML are key to achieving their digital transformation goals. There is a growing demand across industries for leaders who can use these tools to leverage data to drive organizational strategy and improve business performance. The Wharton Advanced Business Analytics Program is specifically designed to address this need.

With this unique offering, participants anywhere in the world can master emerging tools and learn to apply predictive, descriptive, and prescriptive analytics for effective decision-making—gaining both hands-on experience and insights into real-world application of business analytics. The flexible nature of the program allows participants to select online electives as well as an on-campus elective relevant to their role and industry, thereby tailoring their learning for maximum career impact.

The rigorous curriculum has been designed by Wharton faculty to meet the primary goal of providing specific skill sets that meet emerging industry requirements. “In a rapidly digitizing knowledge driven world where data and information are the primary asset, the demand for skilled professionals who can analyze and optimize data into actionable insights and strategies is skyrocketing. Senior professionals need to understand the applications of tools like AI/ML, Big Data, and Data Visualization to stand out and stay ahead of the curve. We, at Wharton, are excited to offer this invaluable program to help them broaden their analytical skills and shape successful careers,” says Jagmohan Raju, Professor of Marketing, Vice Dean of Executive Education at the Wharton School.

The Wharton Advanced Business Analytics Program is led by Prasanna Tambe, Associate Professor of Operations, Information, and Decisions at the Wharton School, and Eric Bradlow, Professor of Marketing, Vice Dean of Analytics at the Wharton School. The faculty team includes Raghuram Iyengar, Miers-Busch, W’1885 Professor, Professor of Marketing, and Faculty Director – Wharton Customer Analytics, Ron Berman, Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School, and Kevin Werbach, Professor of Legal Studies & Business Ethics, an influential figure in Internet policy who served on the Obama Administration’s Presidential Transition Team in 2008. The faculty team also includes various thought leaders and researchers in the business analytics space.

“The Wharton School has been at the forefront of trail-blazing data analytics research and teaching, and with the launch of this course, professionals from across the world will have the opportunity to learn from one of the leading institutions in the world,” says Eric Bradlow, Professor of Marketing, Vice Dean of Analytics at the Wharton School.

The program comprises six core modules spanning 20 weeks, two online electives taught over six weeks each, and a five-day in-class immersion at the Wharton campus in Philadelphia for an elective in either finance, marketing, leadership, or innovation and strategy.

Teachers College, Columbia University (TC) and the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education (Penn GSE) announced that the renowned Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education (CBCSE) has moved from TC to Penn GSE. The Center will be led by assistant professor Brooks Bowden, with founder Henry Levin continuing as Founding Director and Senior Fellow.

“We are so excited to make Penn GSE the new home for the Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education,” said Penn GSE Dean Pam Grossman. “This Center builds on Penn GSE’s work to address critical challenges in education related to educational equity—and to be at the forefront of this research. Dr. Bowden has been an outstanding addition to our school, and I am confident she will continue the Center’s legacy of impact.”

“Dr. Bowden is an extraordinarily talented colleague, with a 12-year record of leadership and productivity at CBCSE,” said Henry Levin, Founding Director of CBCSE. “She has made important contributions to the Center’s success. CBCSE considers itself very fortunate to have such a strong new leader for the directorship.”

The mission of CBCSE is to advance educational equity by conducting economic evaluations of interventions and policies that address educational barriers related to poverty and oppression that prevent students from experiencing the full value of education. One aspect of this work is to assess and demonstrate the value of investing in education and marginalized children and youth. The Center’s website features an array of publications and methods for benefitting educational decisions. The research the Center conducts provides information about effective practices and associated “ingredients” to improve the efficient allocation of scarce resources to better serve students and society. Finally, a major focus of CBCSE is to strengthen the quality of research and economic evaluation.

CBCSE launched in 2007 as an outgrowth of the work begun in the 1970s by Center founder Dr. Levin, who is a key contributor in the field of the economics of education.

With CBCSE now based at Penn, Dr. Bowden plans to build on CBCSE’s groundbreaking work and legacy of improving educational investments and outcomes in the U.S. and abroad. Specifically, Dr. Bowden’s work focuses on leveraging additional resources from families, volunteers, and the community in order to strengthen the supports provided to students. Methodologically, her work focuses on strategies to improve educational research by integrating cost-effectiveness into evaluations.

Upcoming research projects for the Center include cost-effectiveness analyses of interventions addressing early-childhood learning needs among millions of refugee children. This project will be conducted in partnership with NYU’s Center for Global TIES for Children and the Sesame Workshop, with funding from the LEGO Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation.

On January 15, fifteen of the country’s leading research universities, including Penn, launched University Technology Licensing Program LLC (UTLP). The other schools included Brown, Caltech, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, the University of Illinois, Michigan, Northwestern, Princeton, SUNY Binghamton, UC Berkeley, UCLA, the University of Southern California, and Yale.

UTLP brings a subset of intellectual property assets from within these universities’ patent portfolios related to the physical sciences together for efficient licensing, enabling interested tech companies to obtain licenses to inventions from multiple universities for their existing and future product offerings.

In pooling the patents, UTLP will streamline the dissemination of these universities’ technologies, paving the way for continued innovation in the marketplace. Previous university developments in the physical sciences have already generated important patented inventions that have improved lives and enabled new products. By providing a one-stop shop for companies to access technologies of interest, UTLP is designed to accelerate the pace of innovation in the industrial arena.

Multiple technology areas are included in the University Technology Licensing Program, including connectivity (e.g., power management, networking protocols, signal processing and codecs, location tracking, cameras, and image processing); autonomous vehicles; and data applications (e.g., storage, data management, network protocols).

Each participating university will determine which patents from among its intellectual property portfolio to contribute to the UTLP pool. In the future, UTLP may develop additional patent pools related to semiconductor fabrication, applied electronics, batteries, photovoltaics, robotics, and other areas.

The scientific team whose 2005 messenger RNA biology discovery at the University of Pennsylvania helped pave the way for Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines received their first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine together on December 18 at Penn, more than 20 years after they began their basic science collaboration.

Drew Weissman, a professor of medicine in Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, and Katalin Karikó, an adjunct professor at Penn and a senior vice president at BioNTech, together discovered that exchanging one of the four building blocks of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) molecules could greatly increase its therapeutic potential. They shared their perspectives as longtime researchers in the field who are comfortable taking the vaccines themselves, and called on the public to trust the decades of scientific research that has led to these important vaccines now being deployed in the global fight against the virus, encouraging others to get vaccinated when it becomes available to them.

“We understand there are concerns the vaccine was developed quickly, but Kati and I developed our enabling technology fifteen years ago, and we and other scientists have been working on how to use it to develop mRNA ever since,” Dr. Weissman said. “This isn’t brand new—scientists have been studying vaccines using this mRNA platform for at least six or seven years. Based on all of the data available to date, these mRNA vaccines have shown a good safety profile. Clinicians always consider risk–benefit scenarios whenever we recommend a new treatment or a new vaccine to patients and to the public, and with this vaccine there’s no comparison—the benefit is huge and there’s really little to no risk.”

Vaccines relying on mRNA are backed by years of research and safety data, and have several attributes, which are distinct from other historic approaches to vaccine technology. First, they do not contain live virus, so there is no risk of COVID-19 infection from taking the vaccination. Data also show the new vaccines are highly effective, with Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech clinical trials demonstrating efficacy of about 95 percent in all racial groups. In addition, mRNA vaccines are quicker and easier to produce than traditional vaccines. Other mRNA vaccines are now being studied in clinical trials for HIV, herpes, the Zika virus, rabies, and influenza.

A key element of Drs. Weissman and Karikó’s mRNA discovery is it increases mRNA stability while at the same time decreasing inflammation, further paving the way for these modified mRNAs to be used in a wide array of potential vaccines and treatments. Unmodified mRNA molecules are normally unable to slip past the body’s immune system, but Drs. Weissman and Karikó’s breakthrough research made key changes to the molecular structure and manufacturing of mRNA that allow the resulting modified mRNA to avoid immediate immune detection, remain active longer, and enter into target cells to efficiently instruct them to create antigens or other proteins that fight or treat disease.

“I’m a clinician and a researcher, and ever since I started doing research, my dream was always that I would help develop something that actually benefits people, that goes into people and makes them better, cures their disease, does something to help them,” Dr. Weissman said. “We’re so proud that these vaccines are poised to do that.”

“I feel humbled, and happy,” said Dr. Karikó. “I am more a basic scientist, but I always wanted to do something to help patients. I wasn’t thinking about a vaccine or infectious disease; I was always thinking about developing mRNA for therapeutics. I’m hopeful, now that there is so much interest and excitement for this research, that it will be possible to develop and test this mRNA vaccine technology for prevention and treatment of other diseases, too.”

Beyond COVID-19, the mRNA technologies developed at Penn may lead to new strategies for using mRNA, including development of vaccines targeting other infectious diseases as well as new therapeutics and products for protein replacement, immunotherapy, and personalized cancer vaccines.

Note: The Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 mRNA vaccines both use licensed University of Pennsylvania technology. As a result of these licensing relationships, Penn, Dr. Weissman and Dr. Karikó have received and may continue to receive significant financial benefits in the future based on the sale of these products. BioNTech provides funding for Dr. Weissman’s research into the development of additional infectious disease vaccines.

Penn Faculty Fellowships

The Wolf Humanities Center offers fellowships each year to standing faculty at Penn in the humanities and allied departments. The fellowships are for research that relates to the Center’s theme for the year in which the award is granted.

Tenure-track assistant professors receive a $5,000 research fund stipend (paid in two installments).

Tenured professors may apply for either a $5,000 research fund stipend or one to two course reliefs. The Wolf Humanities Center provides course replacement money for up to two courses, to be paid to the fellow’s department at Penn’s LPS instructor rate and to be used solely for course replacement. Advance written approval of any course relief request is required from the applicant’s department chair. Scholars who have already had one semester of course relief not given as compensation for service between fall 2018 and spring 2021 may only apply for a $5,000 research fund stipend or a single course relief.

Fellows are required to attend the Wolf Humanities Center’s weekly Mellon seminars (Tuesdays, noon–1:50 p.m.)* and present their research at one of the sessions during the year. In addition to Penn faculty, seminar members include Mellon Postdoctoral Fellows, regional faculty, the Center’s director and topic director, and others.

*Note: Interested applicants are advised to check well ahead with their department/s to avoid conflicts in scheduling classes and other obligations.

Call for Applications, 2021–2022  

Research Topic: Migration
Application deadline: March 22, 2021

Applications are now being accepted for research on the topic of Migration, the Center’s topic for 2021–22. Please apply via the Interfolio application portal.

Applicants are required to submit an up-to-date CV and a single PDF including the following:

• Project Title
• Project Abstract (125 words maximum)
• Project Proposal (approx. 1,000 words)

Senior Faculty Applicants: if you are applying for course relief, please ask your department chair to email Sara Varney at saravarney@sas.upenn.edu by March 22, 2021 with their written approval of your application and course relief request.

Penn Graduate Student Research Fellowships

The Wolf Humanities Center offers two one-year research fellowships to Penn dissertation-level graduate students in the humanities. Students should be conducting dissertation research related to the Center’s theme for the year in which the award is granted. Fellows are awarded $2,500 stipends and are required to attend the Wolf Humanities Center’s Mellon Research Seminar, held Tuesdays from noon–1:50 p.m.* during the academic year, and present their work at one of the sessions. Seminar members also include postdoctoral fellows, faculty from Penn and regional universities, and the Center’s director and topic director. Graduate Fellows also assist in the planning of a one-day symposium on the annual topic.

*Note: Interested applicants are advised to check well ahead with their department/s to avoid conflicts in scheduling classes and other obligations.

Call for Applications, 2021–2022

Research Topic: Migration
Application deadline: March 22, 2021

Applications are now being accepted for research on the topic of Migration, the Center’s topic for 2021–2022. Please apply via the Interfolio application portal.

Applicants are required to submit an up-to-date CV and a single PDF including the following:

• Project Title
• Project Abstract (125 words maximum)
• Project Proposal (approx. 1,000 words)
• One confidential letter of recommendation from the applicant’s dissertation advisor or graduate chair. Letters must be uploaded to Interfolio no later than the March 22 deadline.

Penn Undergraduate Research Fellowships

The Wolf Humanities Center offers fellowships each year to Penn undergraduate students from any school who are interested in conducting extracurricular research in the humanities on some aspect of the Center’s annual theme. Students must be full time, on campus for the full academic year of the award, and in good academic standing.

Fellows become members of the Wolf Undergraduate Humanities Forum, a community of undergrads who meet to discuss and present their research, pursue various cultural activities of common interest, and occasionally meet in special receptions with the Wolf Humanities Center’s distinguished speakers. In the past, these speakers have included Zadie Smith, Michelle Alexander, Junot Diaz, Slavoj Žižek, and Colson Whitehead. The year’s program culminates in a spring conference at which students give formal presentations on the results of their research.

Fellows are required to attend and participate in regularly scheduled meetings. In-person meetings will be held biweekly on Fridays from 3–5 p.m.; if virtual meetings are required, students must be available for 60-minute meetings that will be conducted weekly on Fridays at 5 p.m. Fellows are also required to participate in the Undergraduate Humanities Forum Research Conference, scheduled next academic year for Friday, March 25, 2022. Additional opportunities for fellows will be announced during the year.

Three positions are available on the Wolf Undergraduate Humanities Forum Executive Board. The UHF Chair and Executive Board Fellows work closely with UHF Director David Spafford and the Wolf staff, and serve important leadership roles, planning and organizing activities throughout the year as well as the spring research conference. The annual call for applications opens each November and closes in mid-March.

Call for Applications, 2021–2022

Research Topic: Migration
Application deadline: March 22, 2021

The Wolf Humanities Center is offering 12 fellowships for the 2021–2022 academic year for Penn undergraduates from any school who are interested in conducting research on some aspect of Migration, the Forum’s theme that year. Applicants must be full time and in good academic standing. Awards are available in three categories:

• Research Fellowship and Undergraduate Chair (one $2,000 award)
• Research Fellowship and Member, Executive Board (two $1,750 awards)
• Research Fellowships (up to nine $1,500 awards)

Please submit the following via our Interfolio application portal.

1. Research Plan. Please explain how your project relates to Migration, the Wolf Humanities Center’s topic for 2021–2022, and outline your theoretical and methodological approach. Your research plan should be uploaded as a single PDF including the following:

• Project Title
• Project Abstract (125 words max)
• Project Proposal (300-500 words)

2. Personal Statement. Please explain how your education, work, and personal experience qualify you to undertake this research. The Wolf Humanities Center is an inclusive intellectual space. If you have had any experiences of diversity that have shaped your approach to your research and educational path, we would be glad to hear about it. (300-500 words)

3. Unofficial Transcript.

4. Confidential Letter of Recommendation. A letter from a Penn faculty member who is familiar with your proposed research is encouraged. Letters must be submitted by the March 22 deadline.

5. Applicants applying for a position on the Wolf Undergraduate Humanities Forum Executive Board should also prepare 200-300 words explaining the following:

• Previous experience you have had in planning events or organizing groups
• Why you think an Undergraduate Humanities Forum is important
• Ideas you have for organizing and motivating your Wolf Undergraduate Humanities Forum colleagues and for inspiring other Penn undergraduates to become involved in future years

The Health-Tech Design and Development program empowers faculty and staff from the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Medicine to develop and commercialize medical devices and health technologies to advance health and health care. The program is co-sponsored by Penn Health-Tech and the Acceleration Lab at the Penn Medicine Center for Health Care Innovation.

Participating teams receive funding, hands-on advising to support development and achieve proof of concept, and access to industry experts and complementary programs to assist with engineering and design, manufacturing, regulatory guidance, quality systems, and marketing.

Penn Health-Tech and the Penn Medicine Center for Health Care Innovation invite faculty and staff from the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Medicine, and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) to submit proposals for pilot funding through the Health-Tech Design and Development program. The goal of this funding is to support the development of medical devices and health technology projects that address important unmet medical needs and/or the translation of the technology (e.g., commercialization, licensing agreement, and start-up formation). Pilot funded projects can include early-stage technologies that do not yet qualify for support by federal agencies through later-stage technologies that are not yet mature enough for private investment. Proposals that cross departments and schools and promote sharing expertise are strongly encouraged.

How to Apply

• Register for a SurveyMonkey account using your University of Pennsylvania, Penn Medicine, or Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia email address.
• Verify your email address to make sure you receive application updates and notifications.
• Fill out the application in its entirety before the application deadline: Tuesday, April 6 at 5 p.m. EST.

Student Registration & Financial Services (SRFS), in partnership with Career Services, will expand their Summer Funding Program this year with an additional $500,000 to support 125-150 middle-income students pursuing summer research and internship opportunities.

Priority eligibility will be for students whose families have an annual income of between $65,000 and $140,000 with typical assets. The first of three application deadlines occurs on February 28. The application requires a detailed budget for an award of up to $4,000.

This program builds on the highly aided summer internship funding program managed by SRFS for those with family incomes up to $65,500 with typical assets. The partnership with Career Services fills a gap by funding internships for students whose family incomes are above these limits. “With the highly aided summer funding program able to provide guaranteed support to undergraduates with the highest levels of financial need, SRFS is thrilled to partner with Career Services to expand the initiative to include students from different income levels,” said Matt Sessa, executive director of SRFS.

“Our funding process really is focused on helping students getting started in their careers,” said Barbara Hewitt, executive director of Career Services. Her team will be looking for student applications that explain how the summer internship will help them achieve a goal or get their foot in the door.

Funding can help with expenses such as food, lodging, and travel for students whose targeted opportunities are not in their hometowns. “We really want to help students both explore what they want to do with their lives after they leave Penn and take steps towards achieving those goals,” Ms. Hewitt said.

In previous years funding has supported students with internships in government, the arts, the nonprofit sector, or start-ups, which are often unpaid, but Ms. Hewitt encourages students interested in any field to apply.

“While many students report that their internships solidified their career goals, sometimes people will come back and say, ‘I didn’t really like this, so I’ve shifted my career goals,’” Ms. Hewitt said. “That’s okay, too. If they decide it’s not for them, that’s helpful to know early on in your career.”

Last year, Career Services awarded funding to Stephanie Acquaye, a senior from Woodbury, Minnesota, for a summer internship at a doula organization in Minneapolis that provides education, wellness services, and other resources to expectant parents. As a nursing major, Ms. Acquaye was drawn to doula work, supporting expectant families “through a process that can be as challenging as it is beautiful,” she said.

Ms. Acquaye said the opportunity gave her “a front seat to watch, learn from, and support the efforts” of a community-based organization during the large-scale health crisis created by the pandemic. “Through this experience, I gained real-world knowledge of some ways in which health policy directly impacts healthcare access, grew in my knowledge and experience as a women’s health advocate, and strengthened my passion to work to improve family and community health in my future career as a nurse,” she said.

Sophomore Mark Wasuwanich said he is passionate about reducing adverse impacts on the environment, hoping to help transform Penn into a zero waste community. A mathematics major from Orlando, Florida, Mr. Wasuwanich was able to take a summer internship with OLIO, a mobile food waste application company, learning leadership, communication, and sales skills, thanks to Career Services funding.

“I was initially reluctant to take an unpaid internship,” said Mr. Wasuwanich, explaining that the pandemic has been “especially tough” on his family’s business. “It was because of this funding that I could explore the sustainability field.”

Mr. Sessa said that the team often hears from students about how important a summer experience can be to augmenting their coursework, and the impact it can have towards their overall education and progression.

“We really hope financing doesn’t get in the way of somebody turning down a great opportunity, because it was underpaid or unpaid,” said Mr. Sessa. “The hope for this program is that it will allow a greater number of Penn students to take advantage of these rich experiences to help them prepare for their future professions.”

Jacob Miller, a former employee in Penn’s comptroller’s office, died on February 1. He was 74.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Mr. Miller lived in Glassboro, NJ, for many years. He served in the U.S. Army in the 3rd Infantry Regiment from 1968 to 1972, including a nine-month stint as a Sentinel for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. After leaving the Army, he received a bachelor’s degree from Penn. In 1975, Mr. Miller was hired as an information control clerk in Penn’s payroll office. In 1981, he became an accountant in Penn’s Office of the Comptroller. Nine years later, he was promoted to tax accountant in the same department, and in 1995, he became a senior tax accountant.

Mr. Miller was well-known around Penn, offering tax preparation advice to the whole Penn community (his name was listed in Almanac several times in the 1980s and 1990s as a reliable person of whom to ask questions). “I was so very saddened to hear of Jake’s passing,” said MaryAnn Piccolo, a colleage of Mr. Miller’s in the Comptroller’s Office. “How do you sum up the memories of a man who was larger than life? I recall fondly the time we worked together during my early days here at Penn. Jake was a great colleague and his knowledge and expertise in the tax arena were unsurpassed. His work here will not be soon forgotten.” Mr. Miller retired in 2005.

He is survived by his wife, Margaret (née Szwajkowski); son, Jacob J. (Angela); brothers, Terry and Stephen Miller; three grandchildren; and a great-grandchild. A memorial service was held on February 8.

Kaitlyn O’Hara, an anesthesiology nurse at Penn Vet’s Ryan Veterinary Hospital, died on February 3 while trying to rescue a stray cat from a busy highway in Cherry Hill, NJ. She was 27.

Ms. O’Hara joined Penn Vet’s staff in 2017 as a medical aide at the Ryan Veterinary Hospital. A year later, she became an anesthesia veterinary tech. “That’s not surprising that she’s on one of the busiest roads in New Jersey, trying to get a hurt animal off the road. That’s who she was,” said Giacomo Gianotti, the hospital’s head of anesthesia and an associate professor of clinical anesthesiology at Penn Vet. “And it wasn’t just animals—she was there for any soul. Everything she did was to help others.”

Ms. O’Hara was also an active volunteer at Randall’s Rescue of Mount Laurel, NJ. She devoted her life to helping abandoned and feral cats, and last month launched a fundraiser for the shelter. “She fostered countless cats, focusing on those most vulnerable: infant bottle baby kittens, semi-feral cats, and abandoned cats or strays,” said Ms. O’Hara’s family in a tribute. “She did this with a full house of her own cats and a dog, whom she loved with her whole heart. She was thought of as the ‘cat whisperer’ for her ability to get these vulnerable, terrified babies to open up and trust her.”

Ms. O’Hara is survived by her parents, Joseph and Melissa O’Hara; her fiancé, Edward Bonen; her siblings, Jessica, Kylie, and Ryan; and grandparents, godparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. Ms. O’Hara’s family has arranged for donations in her memory to be made to Randall’s Rescue at www.randallsrescue.com/donate. So far, her family, friends, and community have raised more than $9,000.

Robert “Robin” Lickely Post, a former instructor and visiting scholar in physiology in Penn’s School of Medicine, passed away on January 26 following a long illness. He was 100.

Dr. Post was born in Philadelphia. He obtained an undergraduate degree and an MD from Harvard and, following an internship in Hartford, CT, briefly joined Penn’s faculty in 1946 as an instructor in physiology. After two years, he joined the faculty of Vanderbilt University Medical School in the department of physiology, where he rose through the academic ranks and became a professor of physiology in 1966. He remained at Vanderbilt until his retirement in 1991, when he and his wife Elizabeth returned to Philadelphia. After his return, Dr. Post served as a visiting scholar and a consultant in the department of physiology at Penn.

Dr. Post’s research, conducted at Vanderbilt, laid much of the groundwork for scientific understanding of the way in which cells maintain their ionic composition through the action of a family of proteins called ion pumps. His cleverly designed experiments and innovative logic placed the central roles of phosphorylated intermediates and occluded cations at the center of later Nobel Prize-winning experiments on pump action.

“Robin Post was a widely appreciated inspiration to those familiar with the man and his work,” said Dr. Post’s Penn colleagues in a tribute. “He was a patient and logical thinker, a thoughtful adviser, and a kind and gentle colleague. His scientific contributions live on and his passing is a great loss to all of us who knew him and valued his presence.”

David Shakow, professor emeritus of law in Penn’s Carey Law School, died on January 16 from causes related to COVID-19. He was 75.

Mr. Shakow received a BA from Harvard in 1967 and a JD from Harvard Law School in 1970. He served as clerk to the Honorable William H. Hastie of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, after which he joined the New York law firm of Davis Polk and Wardwell. He received an LLM in taxation from New York University School of Law in 1976 and served in the Office of the Tax Legislative Counsel of the U.S. Department of the Treasury before joining the Penn faculty in 1982. That year, he was recruited as an associate professor in Penn’s Law School. Five years later, he became a full professor.

While at Penn, Mr. Shakow served on various Faculty Senate committees. Mr. Shakow’s specialty was in taxation, and he wrote, researched, and lectured extensively in the field. His work earned University recognition, such as a UPS Foundation Public Policy Initiatives Fund grant in 1988 and a University Research Foundation Award in 1999 for his influential paper “A Comprehensive Wealth Tax,” written with Alvin L. Snowiss Professor of Law Reed Shuldiner. In 2000, Mr. Shakow retired and took emeritus status, though he remained a lecturer at Penn until his death. After retiring, Mr. Shakow practiced at Chamberlain Hrdlicka.

“David was an integral part of our faculty for many years,” said Dean and Bernard G. Segal Professor of Law Theodore Ruger. “We mourn his passing, and our thoughts go out to his loved ones.”

Mr. Shakow is survived by his wife, Kineret (nee Piltch); and his children.

Anthony Joseph Stracciolini, a former employee in several of Penn’s computing departments, passed away on January 22. He was 89.

Mr. Stracciolini joined Penn’s staff in 1966, when he was hired as the computer manager of the School of Medicine’s new computer facility (Almanac February 1967). In 1984, he became associate director of the Science Computer Center. He joined Penn’s 25-year club in 1991, then retired in 1996. Mr. Stracciolini remained at Penn until 1998 as a part-time employee in the School of Medicine’s computing labs.

Mr. Stracciolini is survived by his wife, Rosalba (nee Villani); his children, Lisa Vannicola (Leonard), Anthony (Kimberly), Paula (David), Andrea (Robert Ross), Eugene (Susan), and Charles (Seema); and 16 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren. A memorial service was held on January 29. Contributions in Mr. Stracciolini’s memory may be made to the Augustinian Defenders of the Rights of the Poor, 2130 S. 21st Street, Philadelphia, PA 19145 or to Women of Hope-Vine, 251 N. Lawrence Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106.

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To Report A Death

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

At the virtual University Council meeting on Wednesday, February 17, the Rev. William Gipson, Associate Vice Provost for Equity and Access, presented on the Campaign for Community, which aims to strengthen the Penn community by finding ways to discuss and understand key issues that may appear to be difficult or intractable. The Campaign has funded more than 200 projects since its launch in 2015.

While most of the projects focus on racial and social justice issues, others tackle civic engagement, mental health and wellness, gender and sexuality, religion, and cultural issues. Some examples include combating anti-Asian racism and voter education and registration efforts.

This year’s grants provided support for research, books, technology, supplies, marketing, outreach, and training of faculty, staff, and students. Applications are accepted online on a rolling basis. Learn more at https://provost.upenn.edu/campaign-community.

The Rev. Charles Howard, Vice President for Social Equity & Community and University Chaplain, presented on Penn Projects for Progress. This new initiative supports the implementation of pilot projects based on innovative research to advance the aim of a more inclusive University and enhance the quality of life for members of the community.

Proposals should be original ideas related to eradicating or reducing systemic racism, achieving educational equity, and/or reducing health disparities based on race, gender, sexual orientation, or social determinants of health. The application deadline is March 1, 2021. Groups of at least three and no more than five people are encouraged to apply, and must be eligible Penn students, faculty, or staff. Learn more at www.curf.upenn.edu/prizes/projectsforprogress.

During the open forum portion of the meeting, there were several registered and unregistered student presenters, who discussed the following topics:

• The University’s Election Day policy
• Spring semester adjustments requested by the Underrepresented Student Advisory Board in Engineering (USABE)
• Differences in undergraduate advising between Schools
• Proposals of a one-year funding extension for all current doctoral students
• The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on low-income and undocumented Philadelphians
• The need to support and maintain U.S. veterans as undergraduates
• Request for fraternities to partner with the University administration
• Call for UPPD to cut ties with other police departments and the Philadelphia Police Foundation
• Concern regarding violations of the Student Campus Compact and a call for stricter sanctions
• Request to cover services such as egg freezing under the University Student Health Plan
• Eight speakers urged Penn to implement more robust climate change education, a universal climate course, and fully divest from fossil fuels

The next meeting of University Council will be on March 24 and will cover the Climate and Sustainability Action Plan 3.0. There will also be an update on the Environmental Innovations Initiative (EII).

The 2021 recipient of The Sheth Foundation Medal for Exceptional Contribution to Marketing Scholarship and Practice is George S. Day.

Dr. Day is the Geoffrey T. Boisi Emeritus Professor and Senior Fellow of the Mack Institute for Innovation Management (which he founded) at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He has reconceptualized strategy from the outside in, harnessed the capabilities of market-driven organizations, and contributed vigilant leadership, innovation prowess, and the peripheral vision of organizations to the field. He is the author of numerous award-winning books and articles and has served on ten boards of directors.

The Sheth Foundation Medal is an award designed to recognize a marketing academic who has made enduring and transformational contributions to marketing scholarship and marketing practice in the form of for-profit, not-for-profit, or governmental organizations. Dr. Day will be honored at a special virtual event on March 12, attended by colleagues from around the world.

Ruth N. Bolton, president of the Sheth Foundation, said: “George Day has made landmark contributions in marketing strategy, especially in the areas of organic growth and innovation, organizational change, and competitive strategies in global markets. He is an inspiring thought leader to marketers worldwide. The Board was especially impressed by how he has helped some of the world’s largest companies address strategic marketing challenges.”

Founded in 1992 by Jagdish Sheth and his wife Madhu Sheth, The Sheth Foundation has given millions of dollars to support the activities of nonprofit marketing organizations around the world. It supports knowledge creation and dissemination in marketing, as well as knowledge recognition. It currently funds more than 15 awards in marketing.

A team led by Iliana Kohler, assistant research professor, associate director of the Population Studies Center, and a Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics, has won a National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Healthy Longevity Global Grand Challenge Catalyst Award supporting aging and health-related research in Malawi, Africa. Titled “Leveraging Social Networks and Linkage to Care to Foster Healthy Aging in a Low-Income Context,” Dr. Kohler’s project is in keeping with the international scope of the NAM program, which gave Catalyst Awards to research teams in the U.S., the UK, the European Union, Israel, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, and Tanzania.

Since 2010, Dr. Kohler has been studying aging and health in Malawi, Africa. The Malawi project is one of 124 receiving Catalyst Awards in the first round of NAM’s new program. The proposed aging research work is an offshoot of the Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health, which has been run by Penn’s Population Studies Center and Population Aging Research Center for two decades.

“Our study population in Malawi broadly represents the living conditions of large numbers of individuals living in poor sub-Saharan countries, so the relevance of our work extends beyond Malawi,” explains Dr. Kohler.

The Penn team’s Catalyst work is aimed at understanding how social networks—physical rather than electronic networks—could be used to disseminate elder health information about non-communicable diseases throughout a country lacking the mass communications infrastructure of industrialized nations.

Founded by NAM and launched in December of 2019 in collaboration with the National Institute on Aging, the Healthy Longevity Global Grand Challenge Catalyst program is a global innovation tournament designed to accelerate scientific advances related to health care and the elderly.

Marisa C. Kozlowski, professor of chemistry in the School of Arts and Sciences, has been appointed editor-in-chief of Organic Letters, one of the premier journals of the American Chemical Society.

“Organic chemistry has never been so thrilling, with continual new discoveries in reactivity and structure that have impacts on so many fields of science that are important to our society,” said Dr. Kozlowski. “I am excited to be part of the process that shepherds the disclosure of these new discoveries and to follow in the footsteps of my colleague Amos Smith, the founding editor-in-chief of Organic Letters, and of Erick Carreira, who further elevated the profile of the journal.”

The central theme of research in Dr. Kozlowski’s laboratory is the rational design of new methods and catalysts for use in organic synthesis, as well as the study of mechanism in order to improve reaction processes and increase understanding of fundamental reaction steps. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including her election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2012 and as an American Chemical Society Fellow in 2013. She has served since 2013 on the editorial board of the Journal of Organic Chemistry.

Organic Letters, which launched in 1999, serves as an international forum for the rapid publication of brief reports of cutting-edge research, creative approaches, and innovative ideas in all branches of the theory and practice of organic chemistry.

Philip V. Scribano, professor of clinical pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine, has won a 2021 Greater Philadelphia Social Innovations Award from the Social Innovations Journal. The seventh annual awards event was held on January 21.

Dr. Scribano won an award for Community Impact: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. He studies the intersection of technology and healthcare, the prevention of child maltreatment and intimate partner violence, and health services for vulnerable populations.

“The 2021 Social Innovations Awards was a special opportunity to shed light on the work of social entrepreneurs, leaders, changemakers, and organizations driving equity and inclusion across Greater Philadelphia,” said Nicholas Torres, co-founder of the Social Innovations Journal. The 2021 Social Innovation Awards included leaders from foundations, organizations, nonprofits, for profits, government, and academic institutions. The award finalists were nominated and selected through a democratic process which included participation by more than 4,000 members of the public.

Liang Wu, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, was announced as one of 150 researchers awarded grants totaling $50 million from the Department of Defense under the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program. The grant will allow the acquisition of a scanning magneto-optical microscope for topological materials for Dr. Wu’s lab, and further cutting-edge research studying light-matter interaction in topological materials. Dr. Wu’s research has wide implications, including significant advances in computing speed and technology.

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

Professional and Personal Development Programs

Open to faculty and staff.
Register (unless noted): http://knowledgelink.upenn.edu/.

TIAA Live Webinar—Actions You Can Take; 3/1, noon-1 p.m.; 3/3, 10-11 a.m. A TIAA financial consultant will help you understand how to access your new account on the TIAA platform and how to select options from the updated investment menu. You’ll also learn about the planning resources available to you as a Plan participant (at no additional cost to you). Register: www.hr.upenn.edu/registration.

TIAA Live Webinar—How to Turn Your Retirement Savings Into a “Paycheck” For Life; 3/2; 2-3 p.m. A TIAA financial consultant will help you understand how to access your new account on the TIAA platform and how to select options from the updated investment menu. You’ll also learn about the planning resources available to you as a Plan participant (at no additional cost to you). Register: www.hr.upenn.edu/registration.

Tools for Career Assessment and Development; 3/10; 12:30-1:30 p.m. In this program we will examine questions for assessing and developing your career. You will contrast your career options by using a variety of tools. By the end of the session you will have the resources needed to develop a plan for career success.

Art of Effective Communication; 3/16; 12:30-1:30 p.m. The skill of effective communication is at the forefront of a successful work environment. We use these skills to keep projects on task, convey responsibilities, and work with individuals of all hierarchy levels and backgrounds. Learning to develop a personal communication plan, recognize different communication styles, and use tools to facilitate effective communication can help individuals to better their working relationship and project plans.

Participating in Performance Appraisals for Staff; 3/24; 12:30-1:30 p.m. Join this workshop to understand the performance appraisal process and learn how you can prepare to have a productive review session.

Conducting Performance Appraisals for Supervisors; 3/25; 12:30-1:30 p.m. You are supervising or managing other employees and feel the need to learn more about how to prepare for and conduct performance appraisals. This is the course you’ve been looking for! Join us to find out best practices for this important annual procedure.

Work-life Workshops

Open to faculty and staff.
Register: www.hr.upenn.edu/registration.

Guided Mindful Meditation; 3/1, 3/26; 12:30-1:30 p.m. This workshop is for participants to practice present moment awareness with kindness and compassion. During the first part of our practice, we will begin with a guided meditation focusing on the breath. The second half of our session will focus our attention on a guided exploration of the body, bringing awareness to the different areas of the body, and allowing ourselves to experience how each part feels, without trying to change anything. No experience necessary.

Mindful Communication; 3/2; 12:30-1:30 p.m. Mindfulness is “paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally.” –Jon Kabat-Zinn. Mindful communication practices shine awareness of our intentions in communication. We learn how to be intentional, stay present, observe our thoughts, and manage our feelings for both listening and being heard—true communication. In this experiential workshop, you’ll see how mindful communication can help you become more intentional, engaged, and effective both at home and in the workplace. No prior meditation or mindfulness experience necessary.

Workspace Ergonomics; 3/4; 11 a.m.-noon. The goal of this workshop is to enhance your remote and traditional workspace comfort, health, and productivity (ergonomics!). Your neck, back, and spine play important roles in your future wellbeing. The workshop will be led by Valerie Perez, a University of Pennsylvania Industrial Hygienist with 20 years of experience, and Maureen Malachowski, associate director with 23 years of experience. Ms. Perez and Ms. Malachowski will provide tips for improving your remote and traditional workspace and preventing ergonomic-related injuries and you’ll learn techniques for maximizing your “fit” with your equipment and environment.

Strategies for Preventing Burnout; 3/11; 12:30-1:30 p.m. This workshop is designed to teach participants about the physiological and emotional dangers of stress and burnout, as well as help them develop effective coping techniques.

Managing Caregiving in the Era of COVID-19; 3/16; 12:30-1:30 p.m. The unique circumstances of COVID-19 add an extra layer to the already complex experience of caregiving. Now more than ever, you have a keen awareness of your loved one’s needs and an eye to supporting their continued health. But senior care providers are themselves working to limit the virus’s spread, making it that much more difficult to navigate the senior care landscape. Where do you go from here? This webinar will address ways in which the senior care landscape has been impacted by COVID-19, considerations when arranging care during this time, and ways to advocate for and support your loved ones during this time.

How to Help the Pandemic Generation Thrive; 3/17; 1-2 p.m. How can we best support our children during this time? Dr. Borba explains why empathy and resilience are key and offers practical, evidence-based, and proven ways to reach kids and help them overcome adversity, be more resilient, and learn skills they will need both now—and in the future—to thrive.

Communication Improved—Conflict Reduced; 3/23; 12:30-1:30 p.m. Effective communication is essential not only for our professional life, but for our personal life as well. This interactive workshop focuses on non-verbal communication, active listening, and barriers to effective communication. It explores how we can learn to effectively resolve conflicts more productively and prevent conflict from occurring, with a greater understanding of our conflict styles and methods of communication.

Stress Relief for Caregivers; 3/1-3/31; accessible the entire month of March. Taking care of others can take a major toll on your life, your mood, and your mental and physical health. Participants will learn to focus on what they can control in their own lives, so they can better manage the strain of their heavy responsibilities. This session will provide a series of simple steps to reduce your stress and avoid burn-out, including relaxation techniques, healthy sleeping habits, healthy coping skills, and building a system of support. Participants will also learn about online resources and the importance of avoiding social isolation for mental and physical health.

Penn Healthy You Workshops

Open to faculty and staff.
Register: www.hr.upenn.edu/registration.

Gentle Yoga; 3/3, 3/12; noon-1 p.m. Let your body reward itself with movement! Join us for this Gentle Yoga session and explore the natural movements of the spine with slow and fluid moving bends and soft twists. During this session, you will flow into modified sun salutations that loosen those tightened muscles and joints of the lower back, neck, shoulders, and wrists. And as an added bonus, you’ll get a workout in the process. To maximize the benefits, we encourage you to use a mat and props.

Bodycombat; 3/5; noon-1 p.m. This fiercely energetic cardiovascular workout program is inspired by martial arts and draws from a wide array of disciplines such as Karate, boxing, Taekwondo, Tai Chi, and Muay Thai. Tone and shape muscles while burning major calories!

Cooking Demonstration with Corporate Wellness Nutrition; 3/8; noon-1 p.m. Celebrate National Nutrition Month by joining a Corporate Wellness Nutrition Registered Dietitian in creating a healthy lunch that is packed with nutrients and will keep you full throughout the workday! Your dietitian will be making a simple stir fry that will not only be healthy, but delicious too!

Chair Yoga; 3/10, 3/24; noon-1 p.m. Chair yoga is a more moderate form of yoga that’s done while sitting in a chair or using a chair for support. You get the same benefits of a regular yoga workout (like increased strength, flexibility, and balance) but don’t have to master complex poses. Chair yoga can even better your breathing and teach you how to relax your mind and improve your wellbeing. Ready to give it a try? Join us for a free Chair Yoga workshop. And don’t worry about your experience or flexibility—chair yoga can be modified for all levels! This workshop will be led by Judith Glass from UPHS.

Marriage Equality—Decision Making for the LGBTQ Community; 3/16; noon-1 p.m. With nationwide same-sex marriage equality comes legal and financial opportunities and challenges to explore. This workshop, sponsored by MetLife, discusses healthcare and beneficiary designations, Social Security, and adoption.

HIIT Strength; 3/17, 3/31; noon-1 p.m. Come for a 45-minute High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workout! Each week will be a different sequence of exercises, with a focus on strength training. This short workout will be a full-body blast, guaranteed to leave you sweating!

Mat Pilates; 3/18; noon-1 p.m. This class is fast-paced and challenging but suitable for beginners. The exercises are designed to align, lengthen, and strengthen the body in a unique way. Most movements are non-impact and non-weight bearing. All require focus and concentration. Every 45-minute-long class is in a small, personalized setting, allowing us to meet each client’s particular needs.

Vinyasa Flow Yoga; 3/22; noon-1 p.m. Vinyasa yoga is a unique sequence of postures aimed at strengthening the mind-body connection. Its hallmark is the emphasis on the connection between breath and body. With roots in multiple forms of classic yoga—including ashtanga vinyasa yoga—this class will allow you to stretch and strengthen your body and clarify your mind. This method encourages vitality, strength, and healing as we work with the body as a whole. No previous experience or knowledge of yoga is required.

Children’s Activities

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

24        Virtual Archaeological Adventures: All Around Africa; 10 a.m.

Conferences

23        Beyond Survival: Eco-Feminist Imaginings in Precarious Times; concerns the overlapping projects of environmental justice, feminist activism, indigenous epistemologies, and artistic performance as feminist method; 4 p.m.; online event; register: https://tinyurl.com/beyond-survival-feb-23 (GSWS). Also February 25, 26.

24        Importance and Challenges of Increasing Ethnic Diversity in Human Genomics Research; speakers discuss their research and experiences in increasing diversity in human genomics and the ethical issues to be considered; noon-4 p.m.; BlueJeans meeting; register: https://primetime.bluejeans.com/a2m/register/bcbdbqzv (Biology). Also February 25, noon-4 p.m.

26        8th Annual Penn Law Entertainment & Sports Law Symposium; five panels discussing various topics of recent research in sports law; 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://tinyurl.com/esls-symposium-feb-26 (Penn Law).

Exhibits

Upcoming

26        Virtual Global Guide Tour: Africa Galleries; 2:30 p.m.; online event; register: https://tinyurl.com/global-guide-feb-26 (Penn Museum).

Fitness & Learning

23        Managing Remotely; specific, research-based steps that managers can take without great effort to improve the engagement and productivity of remote employees; noon; online event; register: https://tinyurl.com/managing-remotely-feb-23 (PPSA).

24        Enhancements to PCIV's Company Formation Programs; PCI Ventures team introduces and further explains their updated company formation models; noon; online event; register: https://tinyurl.com/pciv-feb-24 (Penn Center for Innovation).

            Making Sense of the Science: A Workshop on Effective Scientific Writing; Judith Swan, Princeton; 1:40 p.m.; online event; register: https://tinyurl.com/swan-workshop-feb-24 (PICS).

            Improving the Safety of Virtual Meetings and Conferences; training session on how to protect the privacy of virtual gatherings and learn best practices for securing online meetings and conferences; 3 p.m.; online event; register: https://forms.gle/cwhPkUTgFyPdCww77 (AARC, OIS).

25        Stammtisch 2021; gather around the virtual table and speak German together; 4 p.m.; Zoom meeting; info: cefrei@sas.upenn.edu (Germanic Languages & Literatures).

26        Why Should I Write an NIH Grant? & Other Related Topics; session on grant writing for the Quartet Pilot Competition; 2 p.m.; Zoom meeting; join: https://tinyurl.com/nih-grant-feb-26 (PSC).

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

23        Food for Thought with Zachary Herrmann; noon.

            Virtual Training 101; 12:30 p.m.

24        Navigating Penn’s Tuition Benefit and Financial Aid for Your College Age Dependent; 12:30 p.m.

            Teacher Education Virtual Information Session; 5 p.m.

25        6-Week Resilience and Well-Being Workshop; noon.

            Coping with Change; 12:30 p.m.

Meetings

25        WPPSA Meeting; noon; online event; includes guest speaker Lynn Marsden-Atlass, Arthur Ross Gallery; info: fmariel@upenn.edu (WPPSA).

Readings & Signings

24        PPSA Book Club: The Authenticity Project; noon; online event; info: https://ppsa.upenn.edu/initiatives/ppsa-book-club (PPSA)

25        Book Club Live: The Story and Impact of Filipino Migrant Nurses; 7 p.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://tinyurl.com/nursing-bookclub-feb-25 (Nursing).

Kelly Writers House
Online events. Info and to register: http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/calendar/0221.php

25        Janis Joplin: Her Life and Music; Holly George-Warren; 5 p.m.

Sports

Penn Basketball Virtual Season
Info: https://pennathletics.com/sports/2021/1/19/penn-basketball-virtual-season.aspx

25        Men vs La Salle; original broadcast: February 17, 1981.

Talks

23        Reproduction/Reproduction: An Experiment in Historical Anthropology (on Dante); Carlo Ginzburg, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa; noon; online event; register: https://libcal.library.upenn.edu/calendar/wicshops/ginzburg-dante (Penn Libraries, Center for Italian Studies).

            Role of Telomeres in Cancer and Aging; Maria Blasco, Spanish National Cancer Research Centre; noon; GoToMeeting; join: https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/227215405 (Wistar Institute).

            Penn Veterinary Medicine and the OAA/EOP; Kathryn Waddell Takara, poet; 2 p.m.; Zoom meeting; join: https://tinyurl.com/takara-talk-feb-23 (OAA/EOP).

           The Recording Session with PRISM Quartet; PRISM Quartet; John Senior, Elm Street Studios; 3 p.m.; online event; register: https://tinyurl.com/prism-quartet-feb-23 (Music).

            Distance-Based Summaries and Modeling of Ranked Tree Shapes and Ranked Hierarchical Clustering Trees; Julia Palacios, Stanford; 3:30 p.m.; BlueJeans meeting; join: https://bluejeans.com/553472553 (CCEB).

24        Racism in the Time of COVID-19: Reflections on Theory, Data, and Action; Sharrelle Barber, Drexel; noon; online event; info: https://sociology.sas.upenn.edu/events/ (Sociology).

            Probing Protein Interactions from Molecular to Cellular Scales with Microscale Technologies; Julea Vlassakis, UC Berkeley; 3 p.m.; Zoom meeting; info: https://cbe.seas.upenn.edu/events/ (CBE).

            Enhancing Usability and Explainability of Data Systems; Anna Fariha, UMass Amherst; 3 p.m.; Zoom meeting; info: cis-info@cis.upenn.edu (CIS).

            New Directions in Technology Law and Policy: The Biden Administration; panel of speakers; 4:30 p.m.; online event; register: https://tinyurl.com/law-talk-feb-24 (Center for Technology, Innovation and Competition; Penn Law).

            Corporate Governance Post-Pandemic and Post-President Trump; Leo Strine, former chief justice, Delaware Supreme Court; 4:30 p.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://pennlaw.cvent.com/d/vjq9xd (Penn Law).

            Marian Anderson: Archives of an Extraordinary Life; panel of speakers; 5 p.m.; BlueJeans meeting; register: https://tinyurl.com/anderson-talk-feb-24 (Penn Libraries; Penn Alumni).

            PennIDEAS: Innovation and Discovery in Engineering, Arts & Sciences; Daniel Aldana Cohen, sociology; Karen Goldberg, Vagelos; Shu Yang, MSE; 8 p.m.; online event; register: https://tinyurl.com/pennideas-feb-24 (SAS).

25        Understanding the Role of Depression on Tuberculosis Treatment; César Augusto Ugarte-Gil, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia; 9 a.m.; BlueJeans meeting; join: https://bluejeans.com/368827150 (CCEB).

            Sensing the Physical World using Pervasive Wireless Infrastructure; Elahe Soltanaghaei, Carnegie Mellon; 11 a.m.; Zoom meeting; info: jbatter@seas.upenn.edu (ESE).

            Breaking the Chains of Implicit Trust; Riad Wahby, Stanford; 3 p.m.; Zoom meeting; info: cis-info@cis.upenn.edu (CIS).

            Dissecting Multicellular Therapeutic Responses Using a Large-scale Single-Ccell Profiling Platform; Siyu Chen, Caltech; 3 p.m.; Zoom meeting; info: be@seas.upenn.edu (Bioengineering).

            Frank Lloyd Wright's Modern Masterpiece: Unity Temple; Gunny Harboe, architect; Dorothy Krotzer, Building Conservation Associates; Lauren Levine, documentary filmmaker; 5:30 p.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://tinyurl.com/wright-talk-feb-25 (Historic Preservation).

26        The Impacts of Urban Infrastructure on Hydrology and In-Stream Biogeochemistry; Sarah Ledford, Georgia State; 3 p.m.; online event; info: ncrivaro@sas.upenn.edu (Earth & Environmental Studies).

Annenberg School for Communication
Online events. Info and to register: https://www.asc.upenn.edu/news-events/events

23        A History of Telecommunications and US Empire; Dan Schiller, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; 3 p.m.

Asian-American Studies
Online events. Info and to register: https://asam.sas.upenn.edu/events

23        Traditions; Fieldwork; Tibetan Americans Community; Cambodian American Community; Sarun Chan, Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia; noon.

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

23        Incentives and Efficiency in Constrained Allocation Mechanisms; Joseph Root, Caltech; 4 p.m.

24        Crises and the Direction of Innovation; Jorge Lemus, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign; 3:30 p.m.

Mathematics
Online events. Info and to register: https://www.math.upenn.edu/events

23        A Story on Relocation Strategies, the Allee Effect, and the Ideal Free Distribution; Nancy Rodriguez, University of Colorado Boulder; 4 p.m.

25        A Shuffle Theorem for Paths Under Any Line; Anna Pun, UVA; 3:30 p.m.

            A Real Motivic v_1 Selfmap; Ang Li, University of Kentucky; 4:30 p.m.

26        Cup Products in the Etale Cohomology of Curves Over Finite Fields; Frauke Bleher, University of Iowa; 3:15 p.m.

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AT PENN Deadlines

The March AT PENN calendar is now available. Submit March event updates or events for the April AT PENN calendar at almanac@upenn.edu. The April AT PENN calendar deadline is March 15.

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 February 8-14, 2021. View prior weeks' reports.

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 February 8-14, 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: 9 crimes against persons (3 aggravated assaults, 3 robberies, 2 assaults, 1 rape) with 1 arrest were reported for February 8-14, 2021 by the 18th District, covering the Schuylkill River to 49th St & Market St to Woodland Avenue.

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

Last May, the ISC Office of Information Security (OIS) shared vital tips here for how to Use Zoom More Securely. Since then, additional Zoom security incidents have been reported by campus users. To help prevent future disruptions, newly enhanced and updated guidance from OIS on using Zoom encourages you to:

• Create your PennZoom account at https://upenn.zoom.us/signin.
• Contact your School/Center IT support group to discuss the use of Zoom and recommended functions if you need assistance.
• Make sure to test audio and video, your headset, and microphone.

Before your meeting:

• Require a meeting passcode to prevent unwanted guests from joining.
• Disable desktop/screen sharing for users in large meetings.
• Make sure the “Join before host” feature is disabled.
• Enable “Require authentication to join” (with “Penn users only” selected) for meetings held solely for Penn community members.
• Disable the “File Transfer” and “Allow Removed Participants to Rejoin” options.
• Visit Zoom for Faculty/Staff/TAs on Canvas at Penn for information on integrating Zoom in Canvas.

During your meeting:

• Mute all participants and use the setting to not allow participants to unmute in large and public meetings.
• Lock the meeting and disable the “Chat” option if text chat between participants is not needed.
• Uncheck “Rename Themselves” to prevent participants from renaming themselves to an alias.
• Remove an unwanted participant by clicking on the security icon to select “Remove Participants.”
• Pause the meeting to suspend unauthorized activities by clicking on “Suspend Participant Activities” during the meeting.
• If sharing a screen during a meeting, disable participants’ ability to annotate the screen by navigating to the “More…” menu item at the top of your screen and clicking “Disable participants’ annotation.” Note this option is only available after screen sharing has started.

Additional information: https://www.isc.upenn.edu/security/zoom-best-practices and https://infocanvas.upenn.edu/guides/zoom/zoom-for-faculty-staff-tas/.

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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

Navigating the publishing world can be a daunting process for established and emerging scholars alike. Whether you’re preparing to publish a book or review, or working on journal articles or dissertations, Penn Libraries can help you make informed decisions about where and how to publish.

Services for Authors

The Libraries offers services for authors at every step of the publishing journey. Our team of subject specialists can offer customized recommendations in identifying, evaluating, and assessing the impact of journals and publishers across disciplines. Request a consultation or browse the Libraries’ online resources to start developing a publishing plan that suits your project and audience, choose the best journal or publisher for your work, and identify metrics and tools to measure the influence and scholarly impact of your publications.

The Libraries’ subject specialists, including a new dedicated copyright advisor, can also help you navigate the finer points of copyright, fair use, and open-access publishing. Learn how to retain your rights under copyright as you publish, increase the discoverability of your work, and use the Creative Commons licensing system to control the way you share your work. The Libraries also manages ScholarlyCommons, a freely-accessible repository for the scholarly output of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania.

Get in Touch

Ready to work with us? To learn more about the Libraries’ services for students and faculty:

• Browse our online resources
• Request a consultation
• Connect directly with a subject librarian in your discipline

Spring 2021 Publishing Workshops

The Libraries is hosting a series of workshops this spring focused on various elements of the publishing process. From February to April, tune in to virtual sessions covering citation management, impact metrics, fair use, and more. Find the full suite of publishing workshops online here and register to attend.

The Philadelphia Municipal Primary Election is approaching! Check your voter registration, registration address, and ballot status well in advance of deadlines at www.votespa.com.

The voter registration deadline is Monday, May 3, and the last day to apply for an absentee or mail-in ballot is Tuesday, May 11. Polls will be open from 7 a.m.-8 p.m. on Tuesday, May 18, 2021.

For more information and resources, please visit www.pennvotes.org.

Lisa J. Servon

The best courses I’ve ever taken or taught have benefited immensely from connections made among the students, and between the students and me. I know the magic has begun when I arrive at my classroom around Week 4 and find a group of students already there, chattering about current events, the reading, or last night’s episode of The Bachelorette. They begin to lose their stiffness around me, calling me Lisa instead of Professor Servon without too much discomfort. The shift in dynamics tells me they’re ready to begin to trust each other and to be vulnerable in the classroom. And that vulnerability has a deep impact on the learning environment, especially when you’re teaching about topics like race, inequality, and politics.

How could I possibly create the conditions for those kinds of connections to be made in Zoom World? By the time the pandemic hit and the university shut down last spring, my students had already gotten to know each other. But in the fall I faced a screen full of students who were new to Penn and living all over the country. I spent much of the summer rebuilding my courses from the ground up and felt pretty good about the technical aspects of my courses. My biggest worry was how to create community.
I approached the problem like the researcher I am. Even though I was new to online teaching, others had been doing it for decades. How did those teachers deal with this situation? I read books and articles about the virtual classroom, consulted with colleagues, and took courses with the Center for Teaching and Learning. And then I experimented with different strategies, and checked in with the students regularly to find out what they thought was and wasn’t working. Here are some of the strategies I adopted:

• Opening early, closing late. Students connect with each other before and after class. They arrive early to get a good seat, meet about a project, or just to settle in. They also stay after class to ask questions, or maybe they leave with a classmate to get coffee or lunch. I couldn’t do anything about the coffee or lunch, but I could open the Zoom room early and keep it open after class. I experimented with different situations and ultimately landed on opening the room early just for the students, and then staying after class to answer any questions, or to talk about what we’d done in class more informally.
• Flipping the classroom. I thought about the “synchronous” class time I’d have with my students as expensive real estate that should be used primarily for engaged learning. I couldn’t think of a good reason for my students to show up and listen to me give a lecture live that I could record just as easily and that they could watch on their own time. I also knew that Zoom fatigue was real; I had experienced it myself. So I recorded short—never more than 30 minutes but ideally less—lectures and shortened our synchronous time accordingly. During class, we discussed the readings and my lecture, and I put them into breakout rooms with a set of questions so that they could get to know each other better while learning the material. Early in the semester, I popped into a breakout room about five minutes after I had broken them into groups, and found that they hadn’t begun to address the questions. “Sorry Lisa,” one student said sheepishly. “We haven’t even started yet.” From then on I allotted extra time to group work so that they could connect in other ways, and told them explicitly that that was part of what I hoped they’d accomplish.
• Peer review. I have used peer review before but not consistently, and usually only for big assignments. This past semester I had students work in groups of three to review and comment on drafts of their first assignment, which was to observe and write about a public meeting they had attended (virtually, of course). They loved it. Although I had not planned to use peer review for the other assignments, they asked if they could continue the practice. So we did. I switched the groups up every time, but it would be interesting to keep the same groups all semester also. The peer review process both enhanced the learning process and provided them with another opportunity to connect.
• Using Perusall. Perusall is a platform all Penn instructors can use through Canvas that allows students to collaboratively annotate text. I uploaded a reading the second week of the semester and inserted comments and questions into it for the students to react to. I also invited them to insert comments and questions of their own. When I opened up the reading the night before class, I found all kinds of chatter, responses to my questions, reactions to other students’ posts, and links to books, articles, and videos. Community! Perusall enabled them to “talk to” each other about the reading. And it gave me insight into what aspects engaged them the most. In class, I used their comments as a way to draw them into our conversation. “Jake, I found the observation about power and oppression you made in Perusall really intriguing. Can you say more about that?”

Walter Wallace was murdered by police in West Philadelphia about halfway through the fall semester and the students in my Introduction to Housing, Community and Economic Development class were deeply impacted. One woman, who I’ll call Gaby, grew up a few blocks from the shooting and had moved back to the neighborhood. We had a guest speaker in class that week who works for the City of Philadelphia. Suddenly the ideas we talk about in class—the role of public officials, the work we see ourselves doing—became much less abstract. For Gaby, it was deeply personal. She raised her hand, thanked the speaker for joining us, and then spoke powerfully for several minutes about how she felt about the city, about the police, and about the killing. She had had enough. She told us she was organizing a march for the following week. Several students had already joined with her, volunteering to make banners and bring snacks.

When I arrived at Malcolm X Park the following Monday afternoon for the march, it took me a minute to realize that many of the faces partly hidden by masks were the same faces I had been seeing in the rectangles on my laptop screen twice a week since the beginning of the semester. They showed up for Gaby and for each other. My students constantly amaze me, and I won’t take credit for the way they connected. That’s all them. But perhaps the way I set up the course helped create the space for them to come together.

During the final class of the semester I asked the students to name one aspect of the class that they would take away with them. Some of them mentioned a reading they found particularly powerful. Some recalled an assignment that flipped a switch for them. And each and every one of them talked about the community they found with their fellow students.

Lisa J. Servon is the Kevin and Erica Penn Presidential Professor of City and Regional Planning in the Stuart Weitzman School of Design. She is also the department chair of City and Regional Planning.

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.