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Perelman School of Medicine 2021 Teaching Awards

Dean’s Award for Excellence in Clinical Teaching (at an Affiliated Hospital)

The Dean’s Award for Excellence in Clinical Teaching was established in 1989 to recognize clinical teaching excellence and commitment to medical education by outstanding faculty members from affiliated hospitals. One or more Dean’s Awards are given annually, the recipients being selected on the advice of a committee composed of faculty and students. This year there are four recipients.

caption: Adelaide BarnesAdelaide Barnes is an assistant professor of clinical pediatrics within the section of hospital medicine at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Dr. Barnes received her bachelor of arts in sociology from Duke University and obtained her medical doctorate from the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. She completed her pediatric residency training at CHOP. After completing her residency, she served as a Pediatric Chief Resident for the hospital and the pediatric residency program. Dr. Barnes remains active in the pediatric residency program, serving as an associate program director, chair of the Intern Selection Committee, and director of the Global Health Track. She also sits on the CHOP Diversity Council and the division of general pediatrics Committee on Faculty Diversity and Equity and is a department of pediatrics representative for the Executive Committee of the Medical Staff Committee on Diversity and Inclusion. Dr. Barnes serves as a faculty mentor for the Alliance of Multicultural Physicians, a resident-led organization at CHOP comprised of residents, fellows, and attending physicians who are under-represented in medicine and committed to creating a diverse workforce that affords the best and most culturally competent care to CHOP’s patients and families. One of her former trainees commented, “Dr. Barnes is an outstanding clinician educator, leader, mentor and role model. She has led by example, inspiring others—particularly medical students and trainees—with a commitment to excellence, a joy of pursuing and sharing knowledge and above all, a palpable love for her patients.”

caption: Rani NandiwalaD. Rani Nandiwada is an assistant professor of clinical medicine who focuses on general internal medicine in the outpatient and inpatient clinical settings. She was a primary care resident and then chief resident at NYU, followed by a general internal medicine fellowship in medical education and a master’s in medical education from the University of Pittsburgh. She has been a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania for the past five years and serves as the director of the Medical Education and Leadership track for the Internal Medicine Residency, and course director of the Outpatient Externship and the MS1 Foundations of Healthcare Systems course. She also has co-created a Frontiers in Primary Care and Health Systems Science elective for senior medical students. Her medical education focus is on teaching health systems science to trainees across the undergraduate and graduate spectrum, teaching how to teach, and clinical topics around addiction medicine. She was a faculty inductee into the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society in 2019. As one student said during teaching evaluations, “my clinical experiences often have an almost ‘meta’ quality to them as I feel that we not only discuss the clinical care, but how to think about how the experience impacted my own learning and what about it could be changed during future experiences.”

caption: Yu-Heng GuoYu-Heng Guo is a clinical assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, and is also the director of inpatient psychiatry at the Corporal Michael J. Crescenz Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Medical students, psychiatry residents, and addiction psychiatry fellows rotate with him on an inpatient psychiatry dual diagnosis unit, where they treat a lot of veterans with substance use disorders as well as PTSD. In addition, Dr. Guo is the faculty advisor for the Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association at the Perelman School of Medicine at Penn, and is also the director of the cultural psychiatry curriculum for the psychiatry residents at Penn. Dr. Guo enjoys mentoring trainees in their clinical, personal, and professional growth, with the hope that they will become not only better clinicians for Penn patients, but for the Philadelphia community as well. One former trainee commented that, “Dr. Guo is an excellent clinical teacher and is exceptionally organized in his approach to teaching medical students, residents and fellows. For this, he has become one of the most admired attendings by medical students, residents, and fellows alike.”

caption: Zheya Jenny YuZheya Jenny Yu is a child and adult psychiatrist and a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Yu came to the United States to pursue a PhD in molecular genetics after completing her medical education at Tongji Medical School in Wuhan and a master’s degree in public health with a focus on environmental medicine at Shanghai Medical College. A strong desire to make direct impact on people’s lives, especially for those who suffer severe mental illnesses, led Dr. Yu to pursue clinical trainings in adult and child psychiatry, eventually finishing a child psychiatry fellowship at CHOP. Dr. Yu has devoted much of her professional life to advocating for, educating, and serving the Asian families affected by mental illness in greater Philadelphia. Dr. Yu strongly believes that her responsibility is not only to treat her patients’ specific illnesses, but also to foster the health and wellbeing of the younger generation and encourage them to pursue their dreams. She has also strived to promote clinical research, especially in the Asian community, where data is still limited. While serving as a member of the Culture and Diversity Committee of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) from 2010 to 2017, Dr. Yu delivered many lectures and co-authored a book chapter on mental health in Asian youth and also helped establish an International Medical Graduate Caucus within AACAP. Called upon by the urgent needs of the Asian community, in 2018 Dr. Yu launched a free weekly peer support group, “Achieving Harmony for Asian Adolescents,” in partnership with the Teen Club Program at the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation (PCDC). This partnership laid a strong foundation for further collaboration between PCDC and Dr. Yu on behalf of Penn Medicine. Dr. Yu won a Chinese Immigrant Family Wellness grant in 2019 from the Scattergood Foundation with a focus on leadership development and building intergenerational connections. She was twice the recipient of the Penn Medicine CAREs grant (2012 and 2020), which has supported her work in the community, and she has delivered her workshop on this topic to educators, counselors, and parents in schools, churches and Zoom spaces in greater Philadelphia. Dr. Yu was interviewed by the Philadelphia Inquirer and a Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism fellow about mental health topics in Asian youth. Dr. Yu is honored for having had the opportunity to learn from so many medical students and residents she has worked with. As Confucius said: “All those I walk with will serve as my teachers.” One of her former trainees stated that “she was an excellent teacher and mentor for the use of a cultural psychiatry lens and greatly contributed to my interest in working with minority groups. She balanced a hands-off teaching style with adequate supervision, helping me grow tremendously toward being an independent psychiatrist.”

Robert Dunning Dripps Memorial Award for Excellence in Graduate Medical Education

This award was established by the department of anesthesia in 1984. As a pioneer in the specialty of anesthesia and chair of the department from 1943 to 1972, Dr. Dripps was instrumental in the training of more than 300 residents and fellows, many of whom went on to chair other departments. This award is to recognize excellence as an educator of residents and fellows in clinical care, research, teaching, or administration.

caption: Todd BartonTodd Barton is a professor of clinical medicine in the division of infectious diseases. He came to Penn in 1997 for an internship and residency and stayed through the completion of a chief resident year and a fellowship in infectious diseases. Dr. Barton has enjoyed teaching and learning from medical trainees ranging from first-year medical students to senior infectious diseases fellows over his 18 years on the faculty, and currently serves as program director for the Internal Medicine Residency program. He maintains inpatient clinical work in general internal medicine, HIV, and general infectious diseases. Dr. Barton is also a council member in the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine and an occasional participant in local community theater productions. A former trainee commented that “Dr. Barton has been an invaluable educator in my training and I am incredibly grateful for his mentorship. He has taught me and countless other trainees about rigorous evaluation of patient presentations, embracing and enjoying the complexity and uncertainty of medicine. I cannot think of anyone who would be more deserving.”

Blockley-Osler Award

Created in 1987 by the Blockley Section of the Philadelphia College of Physicians, this award is given annually to a member of the faculty at an affiliated hospital for excellence in teaching modern clinical medicine at the bedside in the tradition of Dr. William Osler and others who taught at Philadelphia General Hospital.

caption: Ashok LingannaAshok Linganna is an assistant professor of clinical medicine and an academic hospitalist at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP). He came to the University of Pennsylvania in 2015 after completing his internal medicine residency and chief residency at the University of California, Irvine. Since arriving in Philadelphia, he has focused his energy on the needs of undergraduate and graduate learners. For the past five years, he has served as the co-director of the sub-internship for internal medicine and was recently named the associate director of undergraduate medical education in internal medicine. During this time, he obtained a master’s degree in medical education from Penn and has become renowned for his educational prowess, earning a Penn Pearl and the John M. Eisenberg Teaching award. Further, in 2020, he was inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society and the Gold Humanism Honor Society. A former resident stated that “through his dedication to teaching, he has touched the lives of innumerable medical students, residents, and patients.”

Leonard Berwick Memorial Teaching Award

This memorial was established in 1981 as a memorial to Leonard Berwick by his family and the department of pathology. It recognizes “a member of the medical faculty who in his or her teaching effectively fuses basic science and clinical medicine.” It is intended that this award recognize persons who are outstanding teachers, particularly among younger faculty.

caption: Jonathan DunhamJonathan Dunham is an associate professor of clinical medicine in the division of rheumatology and an advisory dean in the Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Dunham completed medical school at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey—Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, an internal medicine residency at Temple University, and a rheumatology fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Dunham has directed the rheumatology section of the Mechanisms of Disease and Therapeutic Interventions (MDTI) first-year course at PSOM since 2011. In response to student feedback, he undertook a significant curricular redesign with substantial improvements in the course ranking in subsequent years. In addition to curricular development for the course, he also lectures in MDTI and in the first-year Cell and Tissue Biology course, where he gives a lecture on cartilage biology. Dr. Dunham’s teaching efforts have been consistently recognized by medical students. In addition, Dr. Dunham is the course director for the clinical rheumatology elective, where he teaches third- and fourth-year medical students in his outpatient clinic, and is a regular faculty preceptor in the Doctoring course at PSOM. One medical student commented that Dr. Dunham is “really engaging and approachable. He ensures students understand concepts through using comprehensible language and explanations for challenging concepts.”

Scott Mackler Award for Excellence in Substance Abuse Teaching

This award was established in 2000 by the Penn/VA Center for Studies of Addiction and the department of psychiatry. Scott Mackler is known for his excellence in teaching medical students, residents, post-doctoral fellows, nurses, and other Penn faculty in many different departments in the area of substance abuse.

caption: Jeanmarie PerroneJeanmarie Perrone is a professor of emergency medicine, the director of the division of medical toxicology, and the founding director of the Penn Medicine Center for Addiction Medicine and Policy, which addresses the challenges of substance use disorders in the Philadelphia community and advances Penn Medicine as a leader in addiction medicine education and substance use treatment and research. Over the past decade, her influence and impact in this area have been singularly impressive. Dr. Perrone led the judicious response to early reports of opioid overprescribing and has educated students, trainees, and faculty about opioid alternatives to mitigate overprescribing and the prescription drug problem. In 2011, she brought forth internal and external data to Penn’s health system to convene the health system’s opioid stewardship task force, which has proceeded to substantially de-escalate opioid prescribing through educational initiatives and feedback to providers. She has supported a multitude of students, trainees, and fellows to develop opioid-focused research directions and mentored their progression through continued engagement in opioid related policy and treatment initiatives. In addition to teaching the tenets of pharmacology, overdose management and prevention strategies to students and trainees, she has developed a learning module that addresses state requirements for opioid education, which has been completed by thousands of health system clinicians. She has provided content expertise that influences opioid policy at the FDA, CDC, National Quality Forum, and the Pennsylvania state legislature. Pivoting from “de-prescribing,” she is leading the development of multiple pathways for treatment of opioid use disorder directly from the emergency department and expanding them in the health system, streamlining processes in collaboration with primary care clinicians and hospitalists. She is spearheading system efforts to prepare students, trainees, and faculty in the additional training mandated to prescribe medications to treat opioid use disorder and has highlighted patient narratives of successful treatment to engage students and colleagues in local efforts to develop a destigmatizing culture of low barrier treatment. One of her former trainees wrote, “all Penn residents, medical students, faculty members, and nurses who spent time in the ED are lucky to have learned from her leadership, expertise and dedication to SUD patients. There is no other faculty member in the Penn health care system who has garnered such a diverse classroom of students and imparted them with the capacity to make substantive, everlasting change in SUD patient care.”

Dean’s Award for Excellence in Basic Science Teaching

The Dean’s Award for Excellence in Basic Science Teaching was established in 1988 to recognize teaching excellence and commitment to medical student teaching in the basic sciences. One or more Dean’s Awards are given annually, the recipients being selected on the advice of a committee comprised of faculty and students. This year there are two recipients.

caption: Rebecca Ahrens-NicklasRebecca Ahrens-Nicklas is an assistant professor of pediatrics in the division of human genetics. Dr. Ahrens-Nicklas taught middle school and high school science before completing her combined MD/PhD training at the Weill Cornell/Rockefeller/Sloan-Kettering Tri-Institutional program. She completed a combined residency in pediatrics and clinical genetics and a fellowship in medical biochemical genetics at CHOP before joining the faculty of PSOM. She is an attending with the biochemical genetics service at CHOP and specializes in the care of children with rare inherited metabolic disorders. She also leads a translational research laboratory focused on understanding the mechanisms underlying neurometabolic disorders, with the goal of developing better therapies. She participates in the neuroscience and genetics & epigenetics graduate groups and teaches within the MS1 genetics course. Mentoring postdoctoral fellows and graduate, medical, and undergraduate students has been the highlight of her time at Penn. One of her colleagues commented that “Dr. Ahrens-Nicklas always goes above and beyond to help everyone around her, from her patients to her students to her colleagues. Her love for her work makes her an incredible teacher and mentor.”

caption: Daniel WolfDaniel Wolf grew up in Los Angeles, completed undergraduate work at Harvard College, his MD and PhD training at Yale University, a psychiatry residency at MGH-McLean, and a neuropsychiatry fellowship at Penn. He is an associate professor in the neurodevelopment and psychosis section of the PSOM psychiatry department, where he is devoted to a wide range of teaching and mentoring roles. As an outpatient attending psychiatrist, he teaches residents and medical students how to provide longitudinal care to individuals with psychotic disorders. As head of the Laboratory for Motivation in Psychiatry and associate director of the Psychosis T32 Training Program, he provides research supervision and career development mentorship to trainees studying the pathophysiology of psychosis and of motivation impairment. He lectures on the neurobiology of psychosis in the Brain and Behavior course for medical students, as well as in didactic courses for psychiatry residents, psychology graduate students, and nursing students. As director of the Clinical Neurosciences Training Program (CNST), he organizes seminars and mentoring programs for medical and graduate students interested in translating between basic neuroscience research and clinical care. In 2020 he chaired a psychiatry department task force that reviewed and recommended changes across the spectrum of undergraduate medical education efforts in the department. A medical student wrote: “Dr. Wolf has been instrumental toward mine and countless other medical students’ professional development and engagement with the neurosciences. Dr. Wolf inspires me on a near-daily basis with his genuine enthusiasm for the neurosciences and his unwavering commitment to teaching. His clear, engaging lectures on the neurobiology underlying psychosis turned a particularly challenging topic into one of the highlights of the medical school didactic material. Dr. Wolf’s multifold service to students at the Perelman School of Medicine is second to none.”

Dean’s Award for Excellence in Medical Student Teaching by an Allied Health Professional

This award was established in 1997 to recognize outstanding teaching by allied health professionals (e.g.; nurses, physician’s assistants, emergency medical technicians). The recipient is selected on the advice of a committee composed of faculty and students.

caption: Lily FeldmanLily Feldman is a physician assistant in the emergency medicine department. She studied nutrition and dietetics at the University of Vermont, where she obtained her bachelor’s  degree in science and played varsity soccer. She worked in athletics as a personal trainer at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center before attending Drexel University for her graduate studies as a PA. She has been working at HUP since 2017 and has worked both in the emergency department observation unit and the EDs at HUP and Penn Presbyterian Hospital. Ms. Feldman helps to run the emergency department’s APP educational committee. She is responsible for the management of physician assistant students from various local physician assistant programs, including those at Drexel University and Arcadia University. She also helps in assisting hopeful Pennsylvania school candidates to meet their shadowing hour needs. She has a passion for teaching students not only about emergency medicine specifically, but also about the importance of staying up to date on literature and current guidelines throughout the medical field. She loves practicing clinically and taking care of Penn’s local patients. One of her favorite parts of working in the emergency medicine department is the role that she has in teaching patients about their diagnosis and helping to coordinate care once they are discharged. A former student stated that “Lily offered me a well-rounded experience in emergency medicine. The advocacy that Lily demonstrated for me as her student did not go unnoticed and her commitment to excellence and teaching make her a great mentor.”

Dean’s Award for Excellence in Clinical Teaching by Housestaff

This award was established in 2015 to recognize clinical teaching excellence and commitment to medical education by outstanding housestaff. One award is given annually. The recipient is selected on the advice of a committee composed of faculty and students.

caption: Leigh Ann HumphriesLeigh Ann Humphries is completing the final year of her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and is the chief resident for medical education. She will continue her training as a fellow in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at HUP. She received her medical degree from Harvard Medical School, where she led an interest group dedicated to educating and empowering women to pursue surgical specialties. While at Penn, she has been committed to teaching medical students and residents in every setting from the clinic to the operating room. She designed and implemented an OB/GYN boot camp course for fourth-year medical students to prepare them for internships, and the course is now in its third year. She has taken an active role in identifying and mentoring PSOM students interested in OB/GYN, leading personal statement workshops and mock interviews. Dr. Humphries seeks to make learning fun and accessible to students by creating orientation videos, materials for the clerkship, and opportunities for hands-on practice. Dr. Humphries received a Penn Pearls Award in 2019 and was inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society. Dr. Humphries is honored to be recognized for the joy and privilege of teaching at Penn. A former medical student stated that “Dr. Humphries is a stellar human being and impressive clinician. She is a natural leader and committed educator. She has already made immense impact on the department of OB/GYN and I know no one more worthy of notice for her selfless work and commitment to medical education.”

Special Dean’s Award

The Special Dean’s Award was established in 1990 to recognize outstanding achievements in medical education by faculty members, particularly in the development of new, innovative educational programs. The Senior Vice Dean for Medical Education, in consultation with the Teaching Awards Selection Committee, identifies unique contributions by faculty and recognizes exceptional support and innovative planning for all educational programs during COVID-19, resulting in their receipt of this special honor. This year there are two recipients.

caption: Neil FishmanNeil Fishman is the Chief Medical Officer at HUP. His current responsibilities include oversight of Quality and Safety, Regulatory Affairs, Capacity Management and Patient Flow (including the Admissions Center), Case Management and Social Work, Antimicrobial Stewardship, Infection Control, Professionalism, and HUP’s Clinical Effectiveness Teams. Dr. Fishman is an infectious diseases physician who initially entered the quality arena when he and his team designed and implemented the first Antimicrobial Stewardship Program in the U.S., which was designed to improve the way physicians use antibiotics and to limit the emergence of resistance. This program remains a national model for efforts to improve antimicrobial use in the acute care setting. His research career has focused on the epidemiology of, risk factors for, and interventions to limit the emergence of resistance. He is a past president of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America and a past chair of the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee to the CDC. Dr. Fishman also served on the working group for the Report on Antibiotic Resistance from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Dr. Fishman leads biohazard response efforts for HUP and guided the entity’s responses to H1N1, Ebola, and most recently the COVID-19 pandemic. He helped lead an interdisciplinary team that developed guidelines for the care of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2, as well as efforts to guarantee the safety of all staff and students, and organized educational efforts to disseminate these initiatives. Dr. Fishman also helped organize the COVID-19 vaccination site at HUP. One of his former trainees stated that “Neil is clearly a very experienced clinician and was a pleasure to learn from. He is efficient and cared about balancing a very busy HUP service with my learning as a fellow.”

caption: Kathleen MurphyKathleen M. Murphy is an assistant professor of clinical medicine in the division of infectious diseases and the associate hospital epidemiologist at HUP. She received her medical degree from the University of Michigan Medical School and completed her internal medicine residency, chief resident year, and fellowship in infectious diseases at Penn before joining the faculty in July 2019. During her time as an ID fellow at Penn, she also completed the Measey Medical Education Fellowship and was the recipient of the Outstanding ID Clinical Fellow Award in 2018. Her clinical time is primarily spent caring for immunocompromised patients in the Transplant and Oncology Infectious Diseases services. She has an interest in both undergraduate and graduate medical education, and has enjoyed working with medical students through the Introduction to Clinical Medicine and Differential Diagnosis courses, during the second year Infectious Diseases course, and during their time rotating on the ID consult services at HUP. Through her associate hospital epidemiologist role, she has helped HUP navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, and she received the Andrew I. Schafer Award in Leadership in Medicine in June 2020 for her work in the pandemic response. She has collaborated closely with PSOM leadership throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure the safety of students both in the classroom and during clinical rotations, and to keep students informed regarding UPHS COVID-19 policies and procedures. One of her former trainees stated that she “is one of the most well-put-together attendings I have ever worked with. She is incredibly responsive, hard-working, approachable, fun, enthusiastic, kind and patient. I love working with her. She always does a tremendous amount of teaching and she is also so efficient. I can only hope to be a fraction of the attending that Kathleen is one day.”

Sam Duplessis: New Director of Advancement at the Penn Libraries

caption: Sam DuplessisSam Duplessis has joined the Penn Libraries as director of advancement. Mr. Duplessis leads the advancement team and will work to advance the Libraries’ fundraising program in support of its strategic plan. 

Since November 2017, Mr. Duplessis has been regional director for major gifts at the Wharton School. In this role, he has worked with Wharton alumni, friends, and parents across the southeastern United States to raise over $5 million. He has also partnered with colleagues across Wharton and Penn to produce the annual Management 610 alumni program and develop new pathways for engagement with the Wharton Global Youth Program and other pre-college partners.  

Before coming to Penn, Mr. Duplessis was a major gifts officer at Bryn Mawr College and the director of the Alumni Schools Committee and associate director of admissions at the University of Chicago. An avid art collector and arts supporter, he is a past board member of the Center for Emerging Visual Artists, and he has been a guest speaker and curator at the Delaware Contemporary Art Museum. He has a bachelor’s degree in music education from Ohio Wesleyan University and a master’s degree in choral conducting from the New England Conservatory.

From the President, Provost, EVP, and Chief Investment Officer: A Message to the Penn Community on Combatting Climate Change

April 7, 2021

Combatting climate change is one of the paramount challenges of our time. We write today to update the University community on a significant new initiative that Penn is undertaking as part of our deep and wide-ranging efforts to respond to climate change. We are pleased to announce that the Office of Investments has established the goal of reducing the net greenhouse gas emissions from Penn’s endowment investments to zero by 2050.   

This important step builds upon Penn’s longstanding commitment to achieve carbon neutrality across the University’s operations and upon the previous decision by the Office of Investments to factor the assumption of a decarbonizing economy into investment decision-making. It also adds to Penn’s earlier affirmation of the absence of direct holdings of thermal coal and tar sands, and our commitment to continue that position going forward. The Office of Investments’ new goal supports the aim of the 2015 Paris Agreement and the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of reducing the world’s net anthropogenic emissions to zero by 2050 in order to limit the global warming increase to 1.5°C from pre-industrial levels.   

The Office of Investments aims to achieve the endowment’s net-zero goal primarily through the elimination of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the endowment’s underlying investments. This aim critically recognizes that for our world to achieve net-zero by 2050, the world-wide consumption of fossil fuels must decrease as the supply of clean energy increases and its cost decreases. We expect that progress toward the endowment’s net-zero goal will occur both through emissions reductions at the many hundreds of companies in which the endowment is invested, as well as through the redeployment of capital towards investments with low or improving carbon footprints. Any residual emissions across the endowment’s holdings would need to be offset, ideally through investments in enterprises that remove carbon from the atmosphere.   

This is a complex undertaking, and achievement of our goal will require significant efforts across many fronts.  Consistent methodologies for calculating emissions across vastly different investments are still being developed. To this end, the Office of Investments anticipates collaborating with Penn faculty experts, with organizations developing frameworks and accounting standards, and with other institutional investors who have similar goals. As importantly, we will lend our voice and support to Penn’s managers as they encourage their portfolio companies to develop sustainable decarbonization plans. Achieving our goal will also inevitably depend on the commitment of governments to meet emissions reductions goals, on the development of technologies that will support a decarbonized economy, and on significant changes in consumer behavior.  We look forward to updating the community over time as we develop interim goals and as we progress in our overall efforts. 

The steps we are taking with our investment portfolio are important and meaningful ones, all the more so because these represent only one major addition to Penn’s comprehensive, measurable, and successful efforts to combat climate change. Penn’s Climate and Sustainability Action Plan 3.0 embodies our vision for a sustainable university, including our goal of achieving carbon-neutrality across the school’s operations. Penn has already reduced its overall carbon emissions by 37.2% since 2009, even as the scale of the University has greatly expanded. We have dramatically greened our physical footprint, as 27 buildings have now achieved LEED certification, 34 buildings have green roofs, and 14 acres of open space have been added through the creation of Penn Park. We took another major step forward in 2020 with a Power Purchase Agreement that enabled the construction of two solar energy facilities in central Pennsylvania. Scheduled to open in December 2022, the facilities will offset 75 percent of both the University’s and Health System’s electricity consumption through the production of green power.  

Working for a healthier and more livable world is one of our most critical institutional priorities. The battle to defeat climate change requires the commitment of nations around the world and all of us personally, and is one to which Penn is unwaveringly committed.  

For more information on the Net-Zero initiative, see Penn’s Net-Zero Commitment.

—Amy Gutmann, President
—Wendell Pritchett, Provost
—Craig Carnaroli, Executive Vice President
—Peter Ammon, Chief Investment Officer 

Deaths

John Daly, Surgery

caption: John DalyJohn M. Daly, the former Jonathan E. Rhoads Professor of Surgery in Penn’s School of Medicine, and later twice the dean of Temple University’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine, died at home in Philadelphia on March 26. He was 73. 

Dr. Daly earned a bachelor’s degree from La Salle University, then graduated from Temple’s School of Medicine in 1973. After graduating, he worked at the MD Anderson Cancer Center and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center before joining Penn’s faculty in 1985 as a professor in the department of surgery. A year later, he was promoted to Jonathan E. Rhoads Professor of Surgery and division chief of surgery/oncology in Penn’s School of Medicine. While at Penn, Dr. Daly was listed in Steven Naifeh and Gregory Smith’s book The Best Physicians in America (Almanac April 7, 1992). He taught at Penn for eight years, returning to New York in 1993 and serving as the chief of surgery at New York Hospital and a professor at Weill-Cornell Medicine. 

In 2002, Dr. Daly was appointed dean of Temple University’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine. His tenure, which lasted until 2011, was influential, including the construction of a new medical building and the development of a new postdoctoral research program (and the recruitment of a renowned faculty to lead it). Students and colleagues remember Dr. Daly as an engaged teacher and an influential mentor. In 2019, Dr. Daly was appointed interim dean of the Katz School, and in February of 2021, he was appointed to the post permanently for a second time. In the fall of 2020, Dr. Daly spearheaded the launch of a university-wide COVID-19 testing lab at Temple. 

Dr. Daly is survived by his wife, Palma; six children; and several grandchildren. A viewing was held on March 31. 

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Temple University Lewis Katz School of Medicine at giving.temple.edu/deandaly

Governance

From the Senate Office: SEC Actions

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

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Actions
Wednesday, April 7, 2021

Chair’s Report. Faculty Senate Chair Kathleen Hall Jamieson informed SEC members of responses from Penn leaders in the division of Human Resources on two matters that were raised prior to the meeting by faculty members. Those answers, now available on the Faculty Senate website address questions related to (1) Penn’s retirement savings plans transitioning to TIAA and (2) faculty sabbaticals and city wage taxes during the pandemic.

Preview of Results from Questionnaire on Department-Level Decision-Making Practices. Ani Nenkova, Chair of the Faculty Senate Committee on Faculty and the Academic Mission (SCOF), joined the meeting. Prof. Nenkova began a discussion on three matters related to a questionnaire sent in February by SCOF to department chairs in all schools. Questions were posed on departmental voting practices (including whether votes are taken anonymously) and the extent to which various types of faculty have voices in departmental decision-making on hiring, promotion, curriculum, and related matters. SCOF will propose by way of its upcoming annual report that departments should create written bylaws if they have not already done so and make them publicly accessible. SEC members will also consider whether to issue a formal resolution to this end.

New Business. A Faculty Senate Seminar on “(FY21-22) Penn’s Endowment, Academic Budget, and the COVID-19 Impacts” will be held following the SEC meeting on May 12, 2021. The seminar is open to all faculty, and registration may be completed here.

From the Office of the Secretary: University Council Meeting Agenda

Wednesday, April 21, 2021
4 p.m.
Virtual via BlueJeans Events

I. Approval of the minutes of March 24, 2021. 1 minute

II. Follow up comments or questions on Status Reports. 5 minutes

III. Summary reports by University Council committee chairs. 45 minutes

IV. Report of the University Council Committee on Committees. 10 minutes

V. Discussion of possible Focus Issues for next year. 10 minutes

VI. New Business. 5 minutes

VII. Adjournment.

For more information, visit https://secretary.upenn.edu/univ-council.

Supplements

Honors

Bridgette Brawner: ISPN Diversity and Equity Award

The International Society of Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurses (ISPN) recently awarded Penn Nursing’s Bridgette M. Brawner, associate professor in the department of family and community health, its Diversity and Equity Award. The award was presented during the 23rd Annual ISPN Virtual Conference on March 24. Dr. Brawner will present the Diversity/Equity lecture at next year’s conference.

The Diversity and Equity award recognizes an ISPN member who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in providing culturally-sensitive mental health services to individuals, families, and/or groups through the development of innovative and significant contributions to teaching of, research about, and/or practice of culturally sensitive mental health care in nursing; the development of knowledge that contributed to improved understanding or strategies regarding the influences of culture on mental health; and/or the establishment of a culturally sensitive program to promote access to services for diverse individuals, families, and groups.

“I do the work that I do because it is my life’s calling,” said Dr. Brawner. “My motivation isn’t for commendation, so it is truly an honor to receive international recognition for my commitment to improve health in disenfranchised populations and communities. Humbled and overwhelmed are understatements of what it means to receive this award. I am grateful to those who nominated me, as well as to all of the people who believed in me and supported me along my journey.”

Natasha Sarin: Biden Administration

caption: Natasha SarinAssistant professor of law Natasha Sarin is taking a public service leave from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School’s faculty to join the Biden Administration as a Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the Treasury Department. She joined the Law School in the fall of 2018 with a secondary appointment in the finance department of the Wharton School.

Ms. Sarin is at the forefront of empirical law and economics, with research and teaching interests that lie at the intersection of law and finance. Her research engages with contemporary policy debates in the areas of financial regulation and tax policy.

In recent work with former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers that focused on the tax gap, Ms. Sarin has examined why the IRS fails to collect a substantial portion of taxes owed, and what reforms can deliver revenue gains.

Most recently, she produced a report with Cary Coglianese, the Edwards B. Shils Professor of Law and professor of political science, that showed the Trump Administration’s deception in regulatory reform and received national attention. Her work is highly regarded in both academic and policy circles. She has contributed to economic policy research commissioned by the Hamilton Project and the Brookings Institution and has written for and been cited by various media outlets, including The New York Times, Washington Post, Economist, and Bloomberg.

Three Penn Undergraduates: Goldwater Scholars

caption: Emma Keelercaption: Michelle Melinecaption: Max WraganThree University of Pennsylvania undergraduates in the School of Arts & Sciences have received 2021 Goldwater Scholarships, awarded to sophomores or juniors planning research careers in mathematics, the natural sciences, or engineering.

Penn’s 2021 Goldwater Scholars are sophomore Emma Keeler from Rochester, Massachusetts; junior Michele Meline from Philadelphia; and junior Max Wragan from Washington, D.C. 

They are among the 410 students named 2021 Goldwater Scholars from the 1,256 students nominated by 438 academic institutions in the United States, according to the Barry Goldwater Scholarship & Excellence in Education Foundation. Each scholarship provides up to $7,500 annually for up to two years of undergraduate study. 

Emma Keeler is concurrently pursuing a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in biology. She works in the Bushman Lab with Frederic Bushman, the William Maul Measey Professor in Microbiology, studying the newly discovered viral family Redondoviridae. She also conducts computational work for two projects within the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia division of infectious diseases, involving S. pneumoniae and SARS-CoV-2. She has conducted research at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution related to the recovery of clinically relevant fungi from hydrothermally derived sediments. This summer, her research in the Bushman Lab will be funded by the National Institutes of Health’s Undergraduate Translational Research Internship Program.

At Penn, Ms. Keeler is a University Scholar, Marks Family Writing Fellow, and a Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships research peer advisor. She is a recipient of research grants from Penn’s College Alumni Society, as well as the Marjot Foundation and  the Kurt Giessler Foundation. She is editor of the Penn Bioethics Journal and founder and president of the Penn Infectious Disease Club. Ms. Keeler is dedicated to fostering an interest in the field of infectious diseases. She intends to pursue a PhD in microbiology or virology and conduct applied microbiological research to inform the downstream development of diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics.

Michele Meline is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and biophysics with a minor in Hispanic studies and also submatriculating to earn a master’s degree in chemistry. A recipient of the Roy and Diana Vagelos Challenge Award, her current research with Jeremy Wilusz, associate professor of biochemistry and biophysics, focuses on the biogenesis, functions, and regulations of circular RNAs in Saccharomyces Cerevisiae. She has also worked with Melanie Ruffner, assistant professor of pediatrics, on the polygenic risks of eosinophilic esophagitis.

Ms. Meline tutors undergraduates in chemistry and math, is an editor for the student-run publication UnEarthed Penn, and mentors high school students through the American Chemical Society Scholars Program. She is also the recipient of a Merck American Chemical Society Scholar Award. She completed a virtual internship last summer through the American Physician Scientists Association while simultaneously completing a literature review through the Wilusz Lab. Ms. Meline intends to pursue an MD/PhD in biochemistry and research genomic-based therapies for disease.

Max Wragan is majoring in neuroscience and minoring in chemistry. She began her research in molecular biology working to identify the function of sulfur-reducing proteins. Ms. Wragan was awarded Pincus-Magaziner Family Undergraduate Research and Travel Fund support for her thesis work exploring the role of microglia in hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy in the Eisch Lab with Amelia Eisch, professor of anesthesiology and critical care, at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She has received funding to conduct research at the Royal Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh, Pomona College, and Penn.

Ms. Wragan is the co-president and founder of the Satellite Learning Program, a virtual service that provides free one-on-one tutoring to K-12 students for which she received the Student Creativity Grant from the Sontag Center for Collaborative Creativity. She has recently founded a branch of this program at Penn that works to tutor homeless youth in Philadelphia. At Penn, she tutors biology and chemistry and volunteers at the VA hospital’s COVID-19 clinic. She plans to earn an MD/PhD in neuroscience to further expand her neuroscience research.

Penn has produced 18 Goldwater Scholars in the past six years and a total of 50 Scholars since Congress established the scholarship in 1986.

Features

Penn Libraries’ OPenn Service, A Digital Platform for Viewing Ancient Manuscripts

caption: CAJS Rar Ms 419 Letter of appeal, University of Pennsylvania Libraries, and the associated data from OPenn. Photo Courtesy of Penn Libraries.

Once upon a time, examining pages from one of the Medieval manuscripts held by Penn Libraries’ Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books, and Manuscripts would always require someone to make an appointment with a curator, travel to Philadelphia, and visit the Charles K. MacDonald Reading Room. While the experience of viewing a rare book or manuscript in person is still one of vital importance to researchers, this is not a trip that just anyone had the capability to make, even before the COVID-19 pandemic restricted all our movements. Since the late 1990s, Penn Libraries has helped researchers surmount this obstacle through a wide variety of digitization efforts, including projects like Penn in Hand and Print at Penn. The Penn Libraries have recently launched a new platform, OPenn, a website hosting high-resolution archival images of manuscripts and descriptive information about each one of them. Launched in 2015, OPenn now holds just over 10,000 documents and more than 1 million individual images from over fifty institutions, including the African Episcopal Church of St. ThomasColumbia Universitythe Rosenbach, and the British Library, all freely available to download, use, and share. 

Making library materials accessible to as many people as possible has long been central to how librarians conceptualize their work. The availability of technology that allows us to take high-quality images of collections items and share those images in a multitude of ways online has opened up a new universe of possibility. Today, people share and study library collections in ways that are increasingly complex. In response, the Penn Libraries have made it a strategic priority to expand and streamline access to the resources our users need to create, disseminate, and preserve knowledge—including through digitization

But digitizing collections is not as simple as snapping a photo of a cool book and sticking it on the internet. Digital library professionals must consider the cost of equipment that can produce high-quality scans, the fragility of the objects they want to digitize, and the long-term plans for storage of resulting image files, which are often very large. They also must invest in creating metadata—detailed descriptions of digitized items that help people find what they are looking for and tell them important information about it that they could not glean just by looking at it. 

Staff at the Penn Libraries kept these considerations in mind when launching OPenn. The project was inspired by a similar effort at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, to digitize and make accessible a 10th century manuscript called the Archimedes Palimpsest. Doug Emery, the special collections digital content programmer and head of the Cultural Heritage computing group in the Libraries’ Technology & Digital Initiatives division, had been part of the effort at the Walters. The decisions made during the course of that project went on to directly inform OPenn.

“When we first started talking, I thought, well, we’ll build an application that will make it so you can browse through the data,” explains Mr. Emery. Data, in this instance, refers to the images themselves, as well as the descriptive and structural information about the manuscript pages—the metadata. Many digital collections repositories take the approach Mr. Emery first considered, including Penn’s own Colenda Digital Repository. But at the Walters, they ended up going in a different direction. “We decided to just make the data available.”

When Mr. Emery and Dot Porter, the Libraries’ curator of digital research services, came to the Penn Libraries, they decided to replicate what had been done with the Walters, beginning with materials from the Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection of Manuscripts. Thus, OPenn was born. They focused their resources on creating something that granted public access to the highest-quality images possible, a trove of associated information, and the ability to download and manipulate both the images and the metadata. The quality of the images allows users to view minute details they might otherwise miss, and the high level of detail in the metadata encourages them to look at the manuscripts in a new light. In the years since, the manuscripts on the website have grown in scope to include those from other parts of the Penn Libraries’ collections, as well as materials from other institutions.

Though anyone who is interested in looking at high-quality images of historical documents can browse or keyword-search the OPenn website, it is built primarily for researchers and digital humanists with some programming knowledge. With this in mind, people can download all the data and metadata associated with a manuscript in a variety of formats. The metadata is remarkably broad—it includes not just basic information like the author of the manuscript and the date it was published, but also details about the author’s handwriting, the manuscript’s use of symbols and decorations, the way the manuscript was originally structured, the history of its ownership, and more.

How might someone use this information? Ms. Porter has turned a number of manuscripts into ebooks that a person can virtually flip through. Researchers can also explore the manuscripts using the website Ms. Porter created for a 2016 project called Bibliotheca Philadelphiensis, which was specifically dedicated to digitizing Medieval manuscripts held by institutions in the Philadelphia region. BiblioPhilly, as it’s commonly called, takes OPenn’s metadata and lets researchers sort and search manuscripts in a way more conducive to finding something specific. For example, one can use the BiblioPhilly search for all of the project’s manuscripts created in Spain in the 14th century that include illustrations.

Ms. Porter is very excited by the creative and intellectual opportunities offered by OPenn’s data. For example, in recent years, scholars from across the world have embarked on a number of different projects to trace the movement of manuscripts over time. OPenn’s detailed metadata would lend itself well to a similar project. She would also love to see people “play” with the images and information. “Because the data is out there and the images are all out there, someone could create their own ‘My Ideal Manuscript,’ which could be bits and pieces of lots of things. That would be really fun.” With a little creativity and some programming know-how, one could create, for example, an alternate history where 18th century physician Benjamin Rush corresponded with the ancient Roman thinker Hippocrates or a comic book featuring illustrations of birds from illuminated manuscripts. 

Along with serving researchers, OPenn seeks to serve the library and archive community. As noted earlier, digitization efforts are costly and time-consuming, and OPenn has been a boon to a number of institutions who lack the capacity to embark on such efforts on their own, or even just lack the server space to store large amounts of data. “We wanted to extend the idea so that we could collaborate with other institutions and really spread the advantage of OPenn to anyone who wanted to collaborate with us,” said Mr. Emery. “It’s particularly useful and important for those institutions that don’t really have the ability to host their own data online.” This cross-institutional collaboration further helps researchers because they can peruse thematically-connected manuscripts that live in a number of small, separate repositories—for example, collections of documents from many participating churches and synagogues in Philadelphia. “[Researchers] don’t have to go traipsing around to every congregation,” said project cataloger Kelly Tuttle. “The collecting and the making available has already been done by somebody else.” 

Ms. Tuttle came to Penn as part of a project to digitize manuscripts associated with the Muslim world. Noting that many institutions, for a variety of reasons, require researchers and other interested users to get official permission to use digitized materials, Ms. Tuttle said, “OPenn is just so nice because all the data’s there, you can take it, you can do what you want. I get emails from people asking, ‘Can I have this picture?’ And I say, ‘Yes, it’s on OPenn! You don’t have to ask permission to use it.’ That’s what makes it so, so good.” Some of the items do have rules about use—for example, most of them ask that users credit the source—but OPenn strives to provide as few barriers as possible. 

Digitization project coordinator Jessie Dummer agrees: “If we were a product, our ad campaign would be, ‘You don’t have to ask permission.’”

Have you found a creative way to use the data made available through OPenn? We want to hear about it! Email openn@pobox.upenn.edu.

—Penn Libraries

Events

Update: April AT PENN

Conferences

14        The State of the Nation: Antitrust, Privacy, and Healthcare Law and Policy in the Biden Administration; a discussion about the impact the Biden Administration may have on law and policy, with a focus on antitrust, privacy, and healthcare; 5 p.m.; online event; register: https://tinyurl.com/ctic-conf-apr-14 (Penn Law, CTIC).

15        Voting Access and Preparation for Youth in Foster Care; will bring together young adults with experience in foster care, advocates, and child welfare practitioners to offer strategies for improving access to voting for youth in foster care; noon; online event; info: https://www.sp2.upenn.edu/sp2-events/ (SP2, Penn Law).

            Summit 2021: US-Japan Relations, Past, Present and Future; four distinguished speakers discuss Japanese and American aims for the Apr. 16, 2021 Suga-Biden summit and reflect upon U.S.-Japan relations past, present and future; 7 p.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://tinyurl.com/ceas-japan-summit-2021 (CEAS, Perry World House).

16        2021 Screening Scholarship Media Festival: Rupture and Repair; an academic conference/film festival that allows attendees to engage with diverse multimedia projects; 5-7 p.m.; online event; register: https://tinyurl.com/asc-2021-media-festival (Annenberg School). Also April 17, 10 a.m.-7:30 p.m. and April 18, 10 a.m.-6:30 p.m.

17        Penn Global Surgery Group Spring Symposium: Women in Global Surgery; an opportunity for students to learn from mentors in surgery; 11 a.m.-1:15 p.m.; Zoom meeting; info: https://tinyurl.com/women-global-surgery-2021 (Global Health).

Exhibits

16        Virtual Global Guide Tour: Mexico & Central America Gallery; a thought-provoking tour of the Mexico and Central America Gallery by a guide who grew up in the region; 2:30 p.m.; info: https://www.penn.museum/calendar/706/virtual-global-guide-tour (Penn Museum).

Fitness & Learning

13        Architecture Virtual Studio Tour; hosted by  Keith Moskow, Moskow Linn Architects; 6 p.m.; Zoom meeting; info: kmeeks@design.upenn.edu (Weitzman School).

14        Beyond NPL: Post-Grad Perspectives from the Field; panel discussion on post-graduate careers in the nonprofit and social impact sector; noon; register: https://tinyurl.com/npl-postgrad (SP2).

             Black Cultural Studies Collective: Spells & Spirit Writing; Yolanda Wisher, author; 3 p.m.; examine vintage texts by Ntozake Shange and use them as a blueprint for a poetry exercise; online event; register: https://tinyurl.com/wisher-workshop-apr-14 (English).

15        Law School Over Lunch; students interested in law school can connect with the Latinx Law Students Association; noon; online event; info: https://lacasa.vpul.upenn.edu/ (La Casa Latina).

            Exhibiting Your Work; learn about gallery representation, curatorial relationships, self-organized exhibition making, publishing, and online publicity and presence from artists; 6 p.m.; Zoom meeting; info: kmeeks@design.upenn.edu (Weitzman School).

17        Restorative Justice Training; an introduction to restorative justice and restorative processes, with an interactive training on restorative practice skills; 10 a.m.-1 p.m.; Zoom meeting; info: ashapell@pennlaw.upenn.edu (Youth Advocacy Project; Penn Law).

18        Coffee & Conversation: Art Work – Labor and Ecology; conversation that expands on how everyday objects are laden with complex histories of class, race, and gender; 3 p.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://tinyurl.com/coffee-convo-apr-18 (ICA).

African-American Resource Center (AARC)
Online events. Info and to register: https://aarc.upenn.edu/events.

14        Race, Solidarity and Allyship; 5:30 p.m.

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

15        Virtual Spring Penn Employee Info Session; 12:30 p.m.

Special Events

Earth Week 2021
Info and to register: https://sustainability.upenn.edu/news/earth-week-2021

19        Yoga at Shoemaker Green with Penn Recreation; Shoemaker Green; noon.

            Environmental Injustice: A Tool of Israeli Occupation; Zoom meeting; 6:30 p.m.

20        Green Labs Info Session; Zoom meeting; noon.

Talks

13        Green Social Housing at Scale: Lessons from Vienna’s Social Housing on Project Finance, Housing Immigrants, and Climate-Friendly Urbanism; Daniel Aldana Cohen, sociology; noon; Zoom meeting; info: https://www.pop.upenn.edu/ (Population Studies Center).

             Advancing Deep Brain Stimulation Therapy in Movement Disorders: From Surgical Implantation to Behavior-Based Responsive Therapeutic Stimulation; Enrico Opri, Emory University; 4 p.m.; Zoom meeting; join; https://pennmedicine.zoom.us/j/97483734781 (Bioengineering; Neuroengineering).

            The Emergence of Sō-on in Industrial Japan: Kōjō Ongaku and An/Aesthetic Strategies for Factory Management; Keisuke Yamada, University of Pittsburgh; 5:15 p.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://tinyurl.com/yamada-talk-apr-13  (Music).

14        The Impact of Recreational Cannabis Laws on Cannabis Use & Harm: How You Measure the Market Matters; Rosalie Pacula, USC; noon; Zoom meeting; info: https://crim.sas.upenn.edu/events/ (Criminology).

15        Special Briefing: State Budgeting, the COVID-19 Recession, and What Comes Next; panel of speakers; 11 a.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://tinyurl.com/iur-talk-apr-15 (Penn IUR).

            60-Second Lectures - Weaponizing Truth; M. Susan Lindee, HSS; noon; online event; info: https://www.sas.upenn.edu/60-second (60-Second Lectures).

            Lessons from the Pandemic; Howard Kunreuther, Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center; Cary Coglianese, Penn Law; noon; Zoom meeting; register: https://tinyurl.com/kunreuther-coglianese-apr-15 (Penn Law).

            Are You Connected to the Future? Michael Tchong, Ubercool Innovation; 4 p.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://tinyurl.com/tchong-talk-apr-15 (Penn Center for Innovation, 1776).

            Development and Diversity of Neural Cell Types in the Septum; Corey Harwell, Harvard; 4 p.m.; Zoom meeting; join: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/98844553589 (Biology).

            Regulation of Cellular Identity in Lung Cancer; Eric Snyder, University of Utah; 4 p.m.; BlueJeans meeting; join: https://bluejeans.com/497920610 (Penn-CHOP Lung Biology Institute).

            How the Political Communications Profession Helped Divide America; Craig Snyder, Indigo Global Corporation; 6 p.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://www.fels.upenn.edu/events/craig-snyder (Fels Institute).

            Greek Love; Rachel Lesser, Gettysburg; 7 p.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://forms.gle/ZyD7cThzWse3kAgS7 (Classical Studies).

19        COVID-19 and Decision-Making Under Uncertainty; Joseph Kable, MindCORE; Barbara Mellers, psychology; 4 p.m.; online event; register: https://tinyurl.com/kable-mellers-apr-19 (Penn Science Café).

20        Micromechanics of Near-Ideal Polymer Networks; Laurence Brassart, Oxford; 10:30 a.m.; Zoom meeting; info: peterlit@seas.upenn.edu (MEAM).

            Third Annual Jeremy Nowak Lecture: Equitable Recovery and CDFIs; panel of speakers; noon; Zoom meeting; register: https://third-annual-jeremy-nowak-lecture.eventbrite.com (Penn IUR).

            The Pan American Health Organization: Improving Health in the Americas; Marcos Espinal, Pan American Health Organization; 3 p.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://tinyurl.com/espinal-talk-apr-20 (LALS).

             Out of Egypt: Haitian Princesses, Abyssinian Priests, and the Politics of Afro-Reinvention; Brandon Byrd, Vanderbilt University; 4:30 p.m.; online event; info: https://www.history.upenn.edu/node/14211 (History).

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

20        Exploring the Recent Uber Driver Victory in the UK and Its Impact on Gig Workers Across the Globe; Zweli Ngwenya, The Movement; Ali Razak, Philadelphia Drivers Union; Tonje Ettesvoll, Rideshare Drivers United; 1 p.m.

Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (CCEB)
Online events. Info and to register: https://www.cceb.med.upenn.edu/events.

16        Open Insights in Biomedical Data Science: Getting to the Cause of Complex Diseases – State of the Art on Mendelian Randomization; Qingyuan Zhao and Stephen Burgess, Cambridge; 1 p.m.

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

13        Value-Based Distance Between Information Structures; Marcin Pęski, University of Toronto; 4 p.m.

14        Financial Frictions: Macro vs Micro Volatility; Morten Ravn, University College London; noon.

            The Distributional Impacts of Real-Time Pricing; Mar Reguant, Northwestern University; 3:30 p.m.

15        Financial Literacy and Wealth Inequality; Min Kim, economics; noon.

            Job Attachment and Life Cycle Gender Wage Differences; Ni Wang, economics; 12:30 p.m.

19        Empirical Estimates for the Snow Albedo Feedback Effect; Robert Kaufmann, Boston University; 4:30 p.m.

20        Dynamic Information Acquisition Under Ambiguity; Sarah Auster, Universität Bonn, 4 p.m.

--
AT PENN Information

To submit April or May events, email almanac@upenn.edu

WXPN Policy Board Meeting

The next meeting of the WXPN Policy Board will take place Tuesday, April 20, 2021 at 1 p.m. For more information, contact tess@xpn.org.

Crimes

Weekly Crime Reports

University of Pennsylvania Police Department Crime Report

Below are the Crimes Against Persons, Crimes Against Society and Crimes Against Property from the campus report for March 29-April 4, 2021. View prior weeks' reports. —Ed.

This summary is prepared by the Division of Public Safety and includes all criminal incidents reported and made known to the University Police Department for the dates of March 29-April 4, 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.

03/29/21

5:09 PM

4000 Walnut St

Male wanted on warrant/Arrest.

03/31/21

2:45 AM

4037 Pine St

Unknown offender took items from apartment.

03/31/21

2:02 PM

3925 Chestnut St

Unsecured bike taken.

03/31/21

4:38 PM

4001 Spruce St

Complainant threatened by patient via email.

04/02/21

4:15 PM

3603 Walnut St

Offender removed merchandise without payment.

04/04/21

12:01 AM

3400 Spruce St

Offender assaulted complainant with her hands.

04/04/21

3:16 AM

3400 Market St

Offender assaulted a PPD officer/Arrest.

18th District

Below are the Crimes Against Persons from the 18th District: 4 crimes against persons (3 aggravated assaults and 1 simple assault) with 1 arrest were reported for March 29-April 4, 2021 by the 18th District, covering the Schuylkill River to 49th St & Market St to Woodland Avenue.

03/29/21

10:09 AM

414 S 48th St

Aggravated Assault

04/01/21

12:49 PM

3300 Market St

Aggravated Assault

04/04/21

12:01 AM

3400 Spruce St

Simple Assault

04/04/21

3:16 PM

3440 Market St

Aggravated Assault/Arrest

Bulletins

One Step Ahead: Think Security Before You Travel

One Step Ahead logo

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

The increased availability of COVID-19 vaccines may have you thinking about domestic or international travel. At some point in the future, travel for University business will also gradually resume. 

Before you travel, be sure to protect yourself:

  • Read about any COVID-19 restrictions in the area you plan to visit, and consider purchasing travel health insurance.
  • Visit the U.S. State Department travel advisory webpages for international restrictions in areas you plan to visit. 
  • Keep a copy of the address and phone number of your nation’s embassy or consulate with you during international travel.

If you think you may perform work for Penn during your travels, protecting your electronic interactions is also critical:

  • Install antivirus software on your computer and keep it up to date. Penn provides Symantec antivirus software for eligible faculty, staff, and students at no cost.
  • Confirm that your Two-Step Verification settings are ready for your travel. Make sure to print out one-time-use codes as a backup verification method for accessing your Penn data.
  • Discuss additional requirements or applications involved in accessing University systems from new or unfamiliar remote locations with your School/Center IT support staff.
  • Remember that your electronic devices and data may be subject to search, impound, or confiscation during travel. When you travel, make sure your Penn documents are always backed up to a secure, Penn-supported cloud location, such as Penn+Box or Microsoft OneDrive.

For more information visit:

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