April 20, 2021 Volume 67 Issue 35

The terms of two deans at the University of Pennsylvania have been extended. Pam Grossman, dean of the Graduate School of Education, and Ted Ruger, dean of the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, will now serve until June 30, 2023, at the request of President Amy Gutmann and Provost Wendell Pritchett.

“As we continue to chart our recovery from the global COVID-19 pandemic, we are especially pleased to recognize Pam’s and Ted’s many impressive achievements as deans of Penn’s education and law Schools,” President Gutmann and Provost Pritchett said in making the announcement.

“Pam’s inspiring vision, inclusive style, and strategic approach over these past six-plus years have led Penn GSE to preeminence,” President Gutmann and Provost Pritchett said. “We particularly salute Pam’s compassionate, empathetic, and warm leadership, which has been on particular display this past year, and her close collaborative work with all members of the GSE community.”

During Dean Grossman’s tenure, she has appointed more than a third of the current standing faculty, which includes the appointment of GSE’s first Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor. Research at GSE has flourished, and grant revenues have more than doubled. The student body is the largest, most qualified, and most diverse in the School’s history, with total enrollment of nearly 1,500 students, and master’s student scholarships have increased by 40 percent during the last three years.  

The School is a national leader in educational innovation, including the creation of Catalyst @ Penn GSE and the decision of the Harold W. McGraw Jr. Family Foundation to make Penn GSE the home of the prestigious McGraw Prize in Education. Dean Grossman has also significantly strengthened GSE’s partnership with West Philadelphia schools, with school-specific collaborations with the neighboring Lea and Penn Alexander schools. She has led a networked partnership approach to local elementary schools through initiatives such as the Responsive Math Teaching project, now in its sixth year. 

GSE has been an exemplar of inter-School partnerships to address pressing real-world concerns, including the Penn Futures project, in which GSE has joined forces with Penn’s School of Nursing and School of Social Policy & Practice to improve the lives of Philadelphia’s young people.  

Philanthropy is stronger than ever before, with the GSE endowment growing by more than 90% during Dean Grossman’s term. The School has raised more than $93 million during the Extraordinary Impact campaign to support GSE priorities, including scholarships, the capital expansion project, faculty aid, research, and other priorities. The School’s rankings have consistently placed it among the best research-oriented education Schools in the nation, with GSE achieving a number 1 ranking in the U.S. News & World Report rankings in March (Almanac April 6, 2021).

Ted Ruger was instrumental in securing the W.P. Carey Foundation’s transformational $125 million gift—the largest gift ever to a law School—and the Robert and Jane Toll Foundation’s visionary $50 million gift with its goal of doubling the number of graduates practicing in the public interest. These gifts, along with support provided by thousands of donors to the Law School’s Advocates for a New Era campaign, provide a strong foundation for the School’s ongoing ascent to preeminence. 

“As dean of the Law School, Ted Ruger has prioritized access, opportunity, and investing in future leaders, creating new pathways to public service while recruiting and retaining transformative legal thinkers who drive new era discoveries,” President Gutmann and Provost Pritchett said.

Under Dean Ruger’s leadership, the Law School has championed the Penn Compact strategic goals of advancing inclusion, innovation, and impact. The Law School’s entering classes have grown in racial, ethnic, and gender diversity alongside increases in academic eminence. At the same time, financial aid has grown by nearly 60 percent since FY16.  

The Toll Loan Repayment Assistance Program has provided more than $3.6 million in post-graduate debt relief since 2015. Financial aid support for students headed into public interest careers will double by FY25. New initiatives like the Dr. Sadie T.M. Alexander Scholarships and the expansion of programs such as the Toll Public Interest Scholars and the Toll Public Interest Fellows support students whose education, experience, and professional commitments respond to some of society’s most pressing needs and challenges.

Since 2015, Dean Ruger has spearheaded the hiring of eleven new faculty members, including three Penn Integrates Knowledge Professors and a presidential assistant professor, among them both women faculty and faculty from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in law. This hiring has helped the School grow in both traditional and cutting-edge areas of practice. Dean Ruger has especially embraced the recruitment of scholars and practitioners who blend legal expertise with the methods and approaches of other disciplines and professions and has also supported the creation of a new Future of the Profession Initiative.

World-renowned 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, received the $1 million Sanford Lorraine Cross Award for his groundbreaking work in developing chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy.

Sanford Health, the only health system in the country to award a $1 million prize for achievements in the medical sciences, announced the award on April 13 at a special ceremony in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The biennial award recognizes life-changing breakthroughs and bringing emerging transformative medical innovations to patients.

“This is a well-deserved and exciting award for one of Penn’s most distinguished faculty members, whose pioneering research has reshaped the fight against cancer and brought fresh hope for both adults and children with the disease,” said J. Larry Jameson, Executive Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System and Dean of the Perelman School of Medicine. “His contributions truly have been transformative for patients across the globe and taken the field of oncology in new and powerful directions.”

Finalists for the award are determined through a rigorous selection process that uses machine learning to identify innovative areas of discovery and breakthrough science. The candidate selection is then focused on the areas with the most promising potential for patients. Two other finalists for this year’s Sanford Lorraine Cross Award were honored at the ceremony, including Mark Denison of Vanderbilt University, who has studied coronaviruses since the 1980s, and Michael Welsh of the University of Iowa, a pulmonary physician.

“This was an amazing and accomplished group of finalists, so it’s an honor and a thrill to be receiving this award,” said Dr. June, who also serves as the director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at Penn.

He is the second Penn Medicine faculty member to receive the prize since its establishment three years ago. In December 2018, Jean Bennett, the F.M. Kirby Professor of Ophthalmology in Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, and Katherine A. High, president of Spark Therapeutics, received the inaugural Sanford Lorraine Cross Award for their cutting-edge work that led to the first gene therapy for an inherited disease.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Dr. June and his lab discovered several basic scientific principles of how the cells in the immune system work to fight cancer and infections. 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 was approved as the first personalized cellular therapy for cancer, Kymriah, in 2017. It is now used to treat pediatric and adult blood cancer patients worldwide.

Dr. June, who has published more than 500 manuscripts, has received numerous prizes and honors, including election into the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine) in 2012, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2014, and the National Academy of Sciences in 2020, and the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize. In 2017, he was named a fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research Academy and received the David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He was most recently named a 2021 Dan David Prize Laureate (Almanac February 23, 2021).

The recipients of the annual Penn Engineering teaching and advising awards are selected directly by Penn Engineering students after thoughtful consideration. The School is filled with gifted educators who inspire students with their dedication and excellence.

S. Reid Warren, Jr. Award

Eric Detsi, Stephenson Term Assistant Professor in Materials Science, has been awarded the S. Reid Warren, Jr. Award, which is presented annually by the undergraduate student body and the Engineering Alumni Society in recognition of outstanding service in stimulating and guiding the intellectual and professional development of undergraduate students.

Dr. Detsi was nominated for both his excellent teaching and his emphasis on engaging students in research. One student remarked that while teaching, “Dr. Detsi would go above and beyond,” occasionally even emailing students outside of class to make sure they understood the material. Through his research lab, Dr. Detsi has been extremely proactive in making sure students are engaged in projects.

Dr. Detsi received a BSc in Applied Physics from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands in 2006. He subsequently earned a PhD in applied physics from the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials of the University of Groningen.

Ford Motor Company Award for Faculty Advising

Chris Callison-Burch, associate professor of computer and information science, has been awarded the Ford Motor Company Award for Faculty Advising. This award recognizes dedication to helping students realize their educational, career, and personal goals.

One student remarked, “Dr. Callison-Burch is a caring, engaging, and helpful advisor. He has made strong efforts to get to know his advisees on Zoom, despite how hard we all know this can be. His dedication to both his research and his advisees and students is a clear inspiration.”

Dr. Callison-Burch received his BS in symbolic systems from Stanford University in 2000. He went on to earn an MS in computer science and a PhD in informatics from the University of Edinburgh in 2002 and 2008, respectively.

Hatfield Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Lecturer and Practice Professor Track

Bruce Kothmann, senior lecturer in mechanical engineering and applied mechanics (MEAM), has been awarded the Hatfield Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Lecturer and Practice Professor Track. This award recognizes outstanding teaching ability, dedication to innovative undergraduate instruction, and exemplary service to the School in consistently inspiring students in the engineering and scientific profession.

Dr. Kothmann was nominated for his strength as a lecturer and his care for his students. In his lectures, Dr. Kothmann creates an environment where students can participate, struggle healthily, and learn. His engaging stories in lecture capture students’ attention. His students describe him as an “empathetic professor” who truly understands them.

Dr. Kothmann received his PhD in engineering from Princeton University.

The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology has announced its action plan regarding the repatriation or reburial of ancestors, including the remains of Black Philadelphians, within the Samuel G. Morton Cranial collection. This plan is based on an April 8, 2021 report outlining recommendations from the Morton Collection Committee, which was formed in August 2020; the Committee’s report was publicly released on April 12, 2021. 

Collected in the first half of the 19th century by Samuel G. Morton, whose research was used to justify white supremacist views, the collection was moved from the Drexel Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia to the Penn Museum in 1966. It is currently housed in storage in the Museum’s physical anthropology section. 

“The Penn Museum and the University of Pennsylvania apologize for the unethical possession of human remains in the Morton Collection,” Dr. Christopher Woods, the Penn Museum Williams Director, said. “It is time for these individuals to be returned to their ancestral communities, wherever possible, as a step toward atonement and repair for the racist and colonial practices that were integral to the formation of these collections. We will also reassess our practices of collecting, stewarding, displaying, and researching human remains.” 

The Morton Collection Committee was composed of museum leadership, staff, anthropologists, and students who have been comprehensively evaluating next steps for repatriation and reburial since last summer. The committee’s report documents an action plan as well as fundamental community involvement and resources required for implementation. 

“An initial phase of rigorous evaluation was critical for ensuring an ethical and respectful process around repair,” Dr. Woods explained.  “As we move into implementation, the museum will immediately begin the process of working with local communities to understand their wishes for repatriation.” 

In addressing the remains of Black Philadelphians, the Museum will now charge a new committee that includes members from Penn’s offices of Social Equity and Community, Government and Community Affairs, the University Chaplain, General Counsel, and others to explore options for reburial in a historically Black Philadelphia cemetery. 

A new infrastructure for assessing repatriation and reburial requests, which will include community consultation at every stage, is also being established. The process will be modeled after the Museum’s NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, 1990) program, which has a 30-year track record of proactively informing and consulting Native peoples and returning relevant materials. 

The Museum will also work with Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences to create a new full-time faculty position for a BIPOC bioanthropologist. This person will have expertise in the analysis of human remains with a record of advocacy for Black and Indigenous matters in repatriation requests and hold a dual position as Penn Museum curator and faculty member in the department of anthropology. 

“There is no ’one size fits all’ approach to handling repatriation and reburial in any circumstance,” Dr. Woods said. “Each case is unique and deserves its own consideration. This is incredibly sensitive work. And while we all desire to see the remains of these individuals reunited with their ancestral communities as quickly as possible, it is essential not to rush but to proceed with the utmost care and diligence. As we confront a legacy of racism and colonialism, it is our moral imperative to do so.” 

April 12, 2021

Vaccines are one of the greatest tools in the fight against the pandemic. We write today to announce that Penn will open the Penn Cares COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic on Wednesday, April 14, and begin administering vaccines to eligible faculty, staff, and post-doctoral trainees. This phased approach is consistent with the Philadelphia Department of Public Health (PDPH) guidelines, which prioritizes by age adult members of the Penn community.  

Please read the details below carefully for clinic location and hours, eligibility guidelines, and the process for scheduling. We strongly encourage eligible faculty, staff, and postdocs to schedule the first available appointment. 

The clinic will open by appointment only on April 14 and is located in the Gimbel Gymnasium at the Pottruck Health and Fitness Center, 3701 Walnut Street. Hours of operation may change weekly based on vaccine interest and availability. 

Vaccines will be administered according to the phased approach outlined by PDPH. Everyone in the below groups must be a Philadelphia resident, as this is the current PDPH guideline. The following Phase 1c populations are eligible to be vaccinated beginning April 14:  

• Part-time and full-time faculty, staff, and postdocs 
• Retired and emeritus faculty 
• Third-party workers and those living in on-campus housing currently eligible for Penn Cares testing 
• Temporary workers 

Schedule an appointment by going to www.coronavirus.upenn.edu and clicking on the “Schedule Test or Vaccination“ button on the homepage. From there, select “Schedule Vaccination,” read and accept consent to vaccinate, select “Participant,” and follow the instructions to schedule your vaccine appointments. When scheduling your first appointment, you must select a day and time for your second dose. You will receive an email confirmation. A reminder email will be sent one day prior to your appointments.  

There are currently three vaccines available in the United States: Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson (ed. note: available vaccines subject to change). The vaccines administered at the clinic will be selected by PDPH based on available supply. As a result, it will not be possible to choose which vaccine you will receive.  

On the day of your appointment, you will be required to show your PennCard and a Green PennOpen Pass. If you have mobility issues or require language assistance, you can bring a companion to the appointment to support your needs; however, the companion is not permitted to be vaccinated. Your appointment will include a 15-minute observation period after the vaccination. For tips on scheduling your vaccine appointment and how to prepare for getting vaccinated, please review the COVID-19 Scheduling tip sheet.  

The Penn Cares COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic is just one avenue to get vaccinated. We encourage everyone in the Penn community to explore all options available to receive your vaccination by accessing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Vaccine Finder.

If you have any questions about the Penn Cares COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic, visit the Getting Vaccinated webpage or view these vaccine-related FAQs. You can also contact the COVID Resource Call Center at (215) 573-7096 or email covidresource@upenn.edu.  

We understand that many will be eager to be vaccinated as quickly as possible. However, the vaccine supply and distribution process remain fluid and our ability to offer vaccines will be determined by the number of doses we are allotted by PDPH each week. Current guidelines also encourage initial access to older and more vulnerable individuals; as such, we appreciate everyone’s patience as we offer as many appointments as possible every week. 

We are grateful for the opportunity to offer vaccines to Penn community members as we look forward to a safe return to some on-campus operations in the fall and a restoration of normalcy in our lives.  

—Amy Gutmann, President 
—Wendell Pritchett, Provost 
—Craig Carnaroli, Executive Vice President 

Robert A. Zimmerman, a celebrated neuroradiologist who helped pioneer the use of magnetic resonance imaging for the brain and a former professor of radiology at Penn’s School of Medicine, HUP, and CHOP, died of kidney cancer on February 23. He was 82.

Dr. Zimmerman grew up in Strawberry Mansion, Philadelphia, and graduated from Central High School. He received an undergraduate degree in biology from Temple in 1960, then earned an MD from Georgetown in 1964. He interned at Georgetown University Hospital, then completed a radiology residency and fellowship at Penn. In 1969, he joined the U.S. Army as a radiologist, serving in Europe and advancing to the rank of major. In 1972, Dr. Zimmerman joined the faculty of Penn’s School of Medicine as an assistant professor of radiology. In 1978, he became an associate professor and, three years later, a full professor. Dr. Zimmerman also gained secondary appointments in the department of pathology and laboratory medicine and in the department of neurosurgery at HUP.

In 1988, Dr. Zimmerman moved from HUP to CHOP. There, he established a division of neuroradiology, where he served as the division chief and director of the fellowship program. Under his leadership, the division grew to become one of the largest and most respected pediatric neuroradiology programs in the United States. During his entire time at Penn and its affiliated hospitals, Dr. Zimmerman was active in the community, serving on Faculty Senate and University Council committees and bringing prestige to Penn by appearing on several national “Best Doctors” lists in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1997, Dr. Zimmerman joined Penn’s 25-Year Club, and in 2018 he retired and took emeritus status. CHOP created the Robert A. Zimmerman Endowed Chair in Pediatric Neuroradiology upon his retirement.

Dr. Zimmerman lectured widely and published nearly 500 papers. He also authored several influential texts about neuroradiology and served as president of the American Society of Pediatric Neuroradiology from 1995-1996. Most notably, he was one of the first researchers to describe the craniocerebral findings of abusive head trauma, cerebral edema and shear injuries related to trauma, and evolution of hematomas on CT. He pioneered the first clinical spiral CT in the United States and worked with General Electric on the development of the first 1.5T MRI. This work merited Dr. Zimmerman several awards, including CHOP’s Richard D. Wood distinguished alumni award in 2014. Many of his students and colleagues remember him as not only knowledgeable, but also an inspiring and generous mentor.

He is survived by his wife, Dianne (née Cooper); his children, Rachel (John Boyko) and Sara (George Kobiella); and two grandchildren. Services are private. Contributions in his memory may be made to InLiquid (www.inliquid.org/donate).

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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.

Ira Harkavy, Associate Vice President and founding director of the Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnerships, will receive an honorary degree from Augsburg University in Minneapolis, MN. He will receive the degree at a virtual commencement ceremony on May 3, 2021.

As director of the Netter Center since 1992, Dr. Harkavy has helped to develop academically based community service courses and participatory action research projects that involve creating University-community partnerships and University-assisted community schools with Penn’s local community of West Philadelphia. Dr. Harkavy teaches in history, urban studies, and Africana studies, as well as in the Graduate School of Education. Dr. Harkavy has written and lectured widely on the history and current practice of urban university-community-school partnerships and the democratic and civic missions of higher education. He is co-author or co-editor of eleven books.

The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School won the Americas Regional Round of the Monroe E. Price Media Law Moot Court Competition this past month.

The Price Media Law Moot Court is a world-wide, international competition run by the University of Oxford that deals with cutting-edge issues in international and media law.

Each year, competitors participate in qualifying regional rounds before moving to the finals. Diana Cummiskey, L’21, and Nithya Pathalam, L’23, argued for applicants, while Danuta Egle, L’22, and Tiffany Keung, L’22, argued for respondents.

Both teams were supported by their of-counsels, Meri Baghdasaryan, LLM’21, and Nikki Bourassa, L’23, WG’23.

The Law School team will compete in the finals this month, held virtually at Oxford.

Samuel Orloff, C’21, has been named a James C. Gaither Junior Fellow, one of an estimated 12 in the country chosen for a one-year fellowship at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C.

A history and political science major, Mr. Orloff will be working on research pertaining to U.S. foreign policy and diplomacy. He recently completed his senior thesis in history, on the memory of fascism and anti-fascism in postwar Britain, with Alex Chase-Levenson, assistant professor of history. He has also conducted research through the Penn & Slavery Project and as a Perry World House Student Fellow. He is associate editor of the Penn Undergraduate Law Journal and has been active with the campus Jewish community at Penn Hillel.

The Gaither Junior Fellows program is designed to provide a substantive work experience for students who have a serious career interest in the area of international affairs.

Antonia Villarruel, the Margaret Bond Simon Dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, will chair the second phase of the National Academy of Medicine’s (NAM) Culture of Health Program (CoHP) Advisory Committee, which engages a diverse group of experts/advisors to provide strategic guidance to ensure the CoHP meets its intended aims. Her term runs from 2021 through 2023.

The CoHP—funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation—was established in 2015 to identify strategies to create and sustain conditions that support equitable good health for everyone in America. The COVID-19 pandemic has most recently illuminated the long-existing health disparities experienced by people of color, and the nation is readier than ever before to acknowledge that one of the root causes of health inequity is structural racism. The pandemic has likewise amplified unequal allocation of power and resources as another underlying cause of health inequity.

Current events in the United States present an extraordinary opportunity to advance health equity. The CoHP intends to build on the work of the past five years to strengthen and expand efforts to eliminate health disparities and achieve health equity for everyone in America.

“The Culture of Health Program is well-positioned to build and strengthen the evidence base to address structural racism. This work will be accomplished together with communities and the multiple private- and public-sectors that intersect to promote health,” said Dean Villarruel. “I look forward to working with NAM and the new and returning committee members to advance this important initiative.”

Six master of architecture students in the Weitzman School of Design were selected for Metropolis Magazine’s Future 100, a group of the top 50 interior design and top 50 architecture students graduating from North American institutions. There were only 31 students in the Graduate Architecture category, with Weitzman students comprising of nearly 20 percent.
Featured students include Maria Fuentes (MArch’21), Paul McCoy (MArch’21), Hanqing (Amie) Yao (MArch’21), Megan York (MArch’21), Chenyang (Jane) Yu (MArch’21), and Jingyi Zhou (MArch’21).

All six Weitzman students were nominated by Andrew Saunders, associate professor and director of the MArch program. The student work is featured online and in the March/April print issue.

Of the selected students, Metropolis Magazine said, “They are a diverse group—with many identifying as BIPOC or LGBTQIA—who advocate for openness, equity, and inclusion through their work and extracurriculars. They are leaders on their campuses who are sure to be forces in the industry.”

Nikolai Matni, assistant professor in electrical and systems engineering, is one of Penn Engineering’s most recent recipients of the National Science Foundation’s CAREER Award. The CAREER Award is given to early-career faculty researchers who demonstrate the potential to be role models for research and education and are committed to outreach and public engagement.

Dr. Matni’s work sits at the intersection of two branches of applied mathematics, control theory and machine learning, and focuses on the theoretical side of artificial intelligence.
“My work attempts to combine the strengths of control theory and machine learning,” said Dr. Matni. “An example of a traditional control system is cruise control in a car. This simple algorithm operates based on a feedback principle, measuring the difference between the current and desired speed of the car and accelerating or slowing down based on this difference. This feedback allows cruise control to operate well across a broad range of road conditions, accounting for some amount of uncertainty in the environment.”

Dr. Matni plans to use funds from the CAREER Award to develop specific courses for undergraduate and graduate students at Penn. These courses will take the many disciplines of this emerging field and translate them into a common language and perspective that will aid in the development of a new and interdisciplinary research field. In addition to increased student engagement, Dr. Matni plans to bring his research to the public, a customary initiative of CAREER Award winners and a mission that sets the CAREER Award apart from other research grants.

The University of Pennsylvania Glee Club and the Penn Sirens have decided to merge their choral groups, meaning that for the first time since its founding 159 years ago, the Glee Club will include singers of all genders and will perform repertoire for soprano and alto voices, in addition to tenor and bass, and for all four voice parts.

In the final step in a yearslong process to make the Glee Club fully gender-inclusive, currently active members voted unanimously April 9 afternoon to approve an amendment to the club’s constitution and by-laws to allow singers of all genders and all voice parts.

“It’s a milestone day for sure; we are all really excited. It’s quite the accomplishment for all of us. It’s incredible that it’s done. It’s one for the history books,” said senior Jake Milner, Glee Club president, minutes after the vote. 

“We talked a lot about the fact that we bill ourselves as the unofficial musical ambassadors of the University, and it’s tough to be an ambassador for the University if a significant portion of the student body is not eligible to be in the chorus,” said Mr. Milner, a finance and accounting major in the Wharton School from Chicago. “It feels like we accomplished something real, something that is good for the future of the Glee Club and its members, but also good for Sirens and its members, good for the performing arts, and good for Penn.”

The Sirens, founded in 2011 as a female vocal ensemble, supported the proposal that opens membership in the Glee Club’s Singers section to students of all genders.

“This merger will provide amazing performance opportunities to all Penn students and creates a more inclusive performing arts community,” said junior Marina Dauer, Penn Sirens president.

“The plan that we have created allows current Sirens members to have representation on the Glee Club’s board and leadership positions while preserving Sirens as a soprano-alto subgroup to make sure we are able to continue our traditions,” said Ms. Dauer, a political science and environmental studies major in the College of Arts and Sciences from Dallas. “The core goal is to be the best performance group possible and put on meaningful shows, and that requires recruiting the people who are the most talented and committed and should include people of all genders.”

The Glee Club was founded on November 5, 1862, during the Civil War and when the student body was all male, by eight undergraduate students in the classes of 1864 and 1865 as a “furthering of musical talents,” according to the University Archives. The Glee Club was the first performing arts group at the University, and by the close of the 19th century had become a regular fixture at ceremonies, events, and sporting games, performing traditional Penn songs such as “The Red and Blue,” “Hail! Pennsylvania,” and “Fight On, Pennsylvania.”

Those traditions continue to this day. Many events featuring the Glee Club are led by Penn’s president and leadership, from Convocation at the start of the school year to Commencement at the end. The Glee Club is one of the groups that touches every student’s life on campus.

“The Penn Glee Club and Penn Sirens—two student groups near and dear to my heart who often perform at our most coveted celebrations on campus—have decided to merge, singing a most beautiful song of their commitment to gender inclusivity,” said President Amy Gutmann. “This change is historic, as the all-male choir component of Penn Glee Club is almost 160 years old. Both groups have exhibited enormous care, with the thoughtful direction of advisors and leaders at Penn, during the process of making this transformative shift, and I am proud to see where they’ve landed.”

The Glee Club’s decision to become fully gender-inclusive is in line with student performing arts at Penn and other universities as fewer students choose to try out for single-gender groups.

“This is a discussion that we are seeing across student groups about equity and access and social justice,” said Laurie McCall, director of Penn’s Platt Student Performing Arts House and advisor to the nearly 50 undergraduate performing arts groups that make up the student Performing Arts Council. “Students across campus are embracing a movement where gender is not a requirement for membership, and gender is not considered to be binary.”

The Performing Arts Council approved the proposed change to the Glee Club’s mission statement on March 29, which opened the way for the Club to change its constitution and bylaws on Friday.

In early April, the club voted in a new Board of Governors for the next academic year, which will include two appointed soprano-alto representatives. The new board will become active on June 1. Recruitment for the Glee Club in the fall semester will be open to the entire student body. Board elections a year from now, for 2022-2023, will be open to all group members.

“We members of the Glee Club feel like there is no justification for excluding people on the basis of their gender anymore,” said Mr. Milner. “We don’t want to turn talented musicians away on the basis of their gender. That just seems like the wrong thing to do. We know the history we have gives us a certain amount of privilege within the community, and we want to use that in a positive way to open up more opportunities for everybody.”

The first performance as a merged chorus will be a recording for the Baccalaureate service on May 16, to be included in a virtual presentation as part of Penn’s 265th Commencement. The combined group will sing the Glee Club’s anthem, “Afterglow,” in a new arrangement with all four voice parts.

In addition to the full chorus, the Glee Club will include two separate chamber choirs: one that sings soprano and alto repertoire and the other repertoire for tenor and bass voices. Additionally, there will be two student-run a cappella subgroups within the Glee Club: the existing Penn Pipers with tenor and bass parts and the Penn Sirens with soprano and alto parts.

The Glee Club Singers section is the final component of the Glee Club to become gender-inclusive. According to senior and Club Historian Benjamin Banker, the first woman to become a member of the group in 1992 was piano accompanist Sharon Hudson. A woman became a technical crew member in 1993, and women were members of the band when it officially became a section of the club in 2009.

Choral singing has not been as popular in recent years, in comparison with a cappella, and both groups were attracting fewer singers to auditions, Ms. McCall said. The Glee Club Singers section has less than half the members it had just a few years ago, Mr. Milner said.

The number of active members in the Glee Club before the merger was 32, but only 14 are singers, a fraction of the 40 typically in the group in the past. Other members include 12 in tech, five in the band, and one accompanist. Penn Sirens has 17 members, all singers. Together they expect to create a Glee Club Singers group of about 30 before auditions and hope to have 40-45 singers as a result of recruitment in the fall.

The pandemic was one of the many catalysts that led to the April 9 vote. All performing arts groups were forced by the pandemic to make changes, from rehearsing to performing to trying to maintain a sense of community while apart. Every interaction was through computer screens.

“It was all new, and it was all different, and any pretense of ‘this is the way it has always been’ went out the window,” Mr. Milner said. “I think that mindset of having to reimagine every single thing that we do, top to bottom, definitely permeated the ethos of the club over the year. Doing things differently gave us an opportunity to think about the future and think about how we can make this a better experience.”

When asked by the students for guidance, Ms. McCall provided directives on possible steps to take in the process, including discussions with current members, discussions with alumni, and consultation with the Penn Women’s Center, the LGBT Center, and other campus leadership.

“The effort was entirely student-driven. There was no mandate from the Platt House or the University,” Ms. McCall said. “With good will and in good faith, the Glee Club met with the Sirens to develop a partnership to explore scenarios. They understood the impact of this decision. And they worked in a way that would be most equitable.”

The Glee Club surveyed alumni, receiving feedback from 148 former members, ranging from the class of 1955 to the class of 2020. An analysis of the survey and comments did not show a definitive consensus.

“Even those alumni who disagree with the decision have acknowledged how crucial it is that the Penn Glee Club be the right group for its current members, serving their wants and needs above all,” Glee Club director Daniel Carsello said. “As an alum of the Glee Club myself, I believe it is the students’ group once we leave, and then alumni take on a legacy role as the living history of the Club.”

Alumni in the survey expressed concern about losing the tenor-bass repertoire and sound that had made the Club unique but also acknowledged a need to evolve to promote greater diversity, equity, and inclusion, and to include more music.

Sonja Breda, who graduated from the College of Arts and Sciences in 2016, was a member of both groups, an alto in Sirens and a member of the Glee Club Tech Staff, on the board as secretary-librarian and alumni liaison.

“I remember at different moments in my college career wishing that the opportunities afforded to Glee Club singers were afforded to people of all genders. I wasn’t alone, and I’m proud of the advocacy that was born out of that shared vision for a more inclusive Glee Club,” Ms. Breda said. “While I’m proud of the strides we made during my time at Penn, I must admit, it is bittersweet to see these changes realized after I graduated. I always wanted to be a singing member of the Glee Club.”

The Glee Club performs frequently during the school year and performs two big campus shows, in the spring and the fall. In addition to the major University events, dozens of smaller events feature the group, as well as some high-profile opportunities, like performances at the White House, a Phillies baseball game, and television appearances. In addition, the group goes on extensive annual tours, alternating between domestic and international destinations.

“It’s been moving to see my former classmates who opposed this idea during my time at Penn come around to this initiative and support current students in advancing more equitable and inclusive practices than the ones we knew when we were at Penn,” Ms. Breda said. “It feels right to represent Penn’s diversity on the stage.”

The Penn Sirens revived a tradition of women’s choral singing that dates back more than 100 years. A Women’s Glee Club with soprano and alto voices was founded in 1917 and often performed at events with the Men’s Glee Club, including at the Academy of Music. But in 1957, the women’s group became the Penn Syngers, known today as the Penn Singers, a gender-inclusive light opera troupe.

“I remember seeing the Glee Club perform during my Convocation and thinking ‘Oh, I wish that was for me,’ because I have been singing my whole life. I absolutely love it,” said Ms. Dauer. “In an ensemble known for musical excellence and serving as an ambassador for the University, it is critical for everyone to see themselves reflected.”

Student performing arts groups at universities across the country, including in the Ivy League, are moving to become gender inclusive. Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding musical theater troupe, founded in 1770, and Yale University’s Whiffenpoofs a cappella group, founded in 1909, decided to open to all genders in 2018. At Penn, the Bloomers comedy troupe no longer identifies as all-female, instead accepting “all minority genders.”

“Looking around the campus and the performing arts community, there are a lot of moves happening to be more inclusive and to create a more equitable environment, and the Glee Club wanted to be a part of that,” Mr. Milner said.

The new perspective gained during the pandemic, and the time to focus on the process, was especially important for the seniors who have lost so much of the traditional Penn experience, Mr. Milner said. They worked consistently over the past year to move gender inclusivity forward in the club, not expecting to actually accomplish it before they graduated, he said.

“I think it was motivating to see how we could come out of this very difficult time for everybody stronger on the other side and bring us to this gender-inclusive reality that everybody has been wanting for years,” said Mr. Milner. “When I think about being stewards of a 159-year-old organization, that’s pretty amazing.”

Adapted from a Penn Today article by Louisa Shepard, April 9, 2021.

Climate modeling is future-facing, its general intent to hypothesize what our planet might look like at some later date. Because the Earth’s vegetation influences climate, climate models frequently include vegetation reconstructions and are often validated by comparisons to the past. Yet such models tend to be oversimplified, glossing over or omitting how people affected the land and its cover.

The absence of such data led to LandCover6k, a project now in its sixth year that includes more than 200 archaeologists, historians, geographers, paleoecologists, and climate modelers around the world.

Led by archeologists Kathleen Morrison of the University of Pennsylvania, Marco Madella of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, and Nicki Whitehouse of the University of Glasgow, with data expertise from Penn landscape archaeologist Emily Hammer and others, LandCover6k’s goal is to aggregate archaeological and historical evidence of land-use systems from four slices of time—12,000 years ago, 6,000 years ago, 4,000 years ago, and around the year 1500—into a single database that anyone can comprehend and use.

The project offers what the researchers hope will become a tool to improve predictions about the planet’s future and fill in gaps about its past. “Understanding the human impact on the Earth is more than looking at past vegetation. It’s also important to understand how humans used the land, and in particular, the relationship between human land use and vegetation,” Dr. Morrison said.

Though current Earth system models suggest that human activity during the past 12,000 years influenced regional and global climate, Dr. Madella said, “the models do not capture the diversity and intensity of human activities that affected past land cover, nor do they capture carbon and water cycles.”

Archaeology provides important information around land use that “helps reveal how humans have affected past land cover at a global scale,” added Dr. Whitehouse, “including the crops and animals being farmed, how they were being farmed, and how much land was needed to feed growing populations.”

In a new PLOS ONE paper, the team provides a detailed introduction to LandCover6k’s land-use classification system and global database.

Creating A Common Language, System

To share such data meant first creating a common language that scientists across disciplines could understand. It’s a task more fraught than it might sound, Dr. Morrison said. “Classification means putting hard edges on something. That’s very challenging, as archaeologists are often much more comfortable with narrative.”

Partially because of a lack of shared terminology, archaeologists have not tried to aggregate and compare data on a global scale, something the project’s paleoecologists and modelers had already been doing, she added. “We spent years consulting with colleagues around the world, discussing all the different types of land use and developing a communication system—the same language, the same terminology—that could be used anywhere.”

Because such categories historically have had different meaning depending on place, context, and time period, some archaeologists initially balked at committing to single definitions for each. Dr. Hammer offered the concept of “farming” as an example. “The line between what is called ‘farming’ and what is considered small-scale food production by hunter-gatherers really varies across the world,” she said. So, how could the field fairly judge when the actions of hunter-gatherers managing wild plant and animal resources became “farming”?

Questions like these prompted the LandCover6k team to create a hierarchy within the classification system, with an upper-level category capturing an idea at its broadest and several distinct subcategories funneling down from there. In the farming example, the research team created a subgroup—low-level food production—which could include the work of the hunter-gatherers. The hope was to offer enough nuance for the archeological community yet still make the data accessible to climate modelers.

In addition to this flexible hierarchy and the uniform terminology, the final classification has three other principal features. It is scale- and source-independent, meaning it accounts for the myriad ways something can be studied. It “takes the perspective of land rather than people,” as the researchers write in PLOS ONE, and it employs a consistent 8x8 kilometer grid scale. “That’s quite large, from an archaeological perspective,” Dr. Hammer said, “but we did that so that one person isn’t drawing something very small and another person very large.”

Concrete Examples

To showcase how the classification works, the researchers offer the example of the Middle East 6,000 years ago. This region, the area represented by modern day Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Yemen, was home to some of the earliest agriculture in the world. Using the new classification and database, project participants built a regional land-use map, despite data availability differing from one spot to the next.

“Mesopotamia has been studied since the mid-19th century, so there’s a lot of data and a lot of syntheses to rely on,” Dr. Hammer explained. “Arabia has not been nearly as well-studied. There are only a couple of data points, particularly for this period, and because of climatic events, the data are even rarer than for other periods. We wanted to illustrate the approach you would take in a situation where you have a lot of data versus a place with just a little.” The new map of Middle Eastern land is proof of concept for the project, showing the contrast between the settled farms of Mesopotamia and the more sparsely settled lands of Arabia.

The researchers don’t see information gaps, like those of Arabia, as problematic. Rather because the land-use database also records data coverage and quality, it can highlight areas needing more research. “Humans have transformed landscapes for thousands of years,” Dr. Morrison said. “But we can’t just say that. We have to demonstrate it.”

That’s just what LandCover6k aims to do, merging what archaeologists have gleaned about human land use from different times and places into a single, accessible database for climate modelers—and each other. “This project is really about translating what we do,” Dr. Hammer said, “not only about the standardization of the terminology so we can talk at a global scale, but also about weaving together the narratives of the past.”

Adapted from a Penn Today article by Michele W. Berger, April 14, 2021.

Join Penn Sustainability and our partners for a mix of in-person and virtual events to celebrate Earth Week 2021!

Event Highlights

Virtual Earth Day 5K With Penn Recreation—Run the race any time through April 25; the suggested course route will go through Penn Park, passing by the Penn Park Farm! Register Here

Yoga at Shoemaker Green with Penn Recreation—Friday, April 23 at noon; Shoemaker Green. Register Here

Green Labs Info Session—Please join us for an informal meeting to discuss ways to improve the sustainability of labs on Penn's campus. Tuesday, April 20 at noon; Zoom Link to Join

Penn Park Farm Tour with the Penn Food and Wellness Collaborative Coordinator Lila Bhide. Wednesday, April 21 at noon; Penn Park Farm. Register here to attend in-person; this event will also be live-streamed via the Penn Sustainability Instagram account

Campus Ecology Tour with Penn's Landscape Architect Bob Lundgren. Thursday, April 22 at noon; meet at the Ben Franklin Statue in front of College Hall. Register here to attend in-person; this event will also be live-streamed via the Penn Sustainability Instagram account

Ray’s Reusables Pop-Up—Tour Philadelphia’s first mobile refill station. Saturday, April 24 from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.; Clark Park Farmers Market. Learn more about Ray's Reusables here

West Philadelphia Cleanup—Saturday, April 24 at 11 a.m.; meet at 40th and Locust Walk. Register here to attend in-person Can't make it to this cleanup, but want to host your own? Check out our guide on how to host an Earth Week Clean-Up event!

Events from Penn’s Academic Centers 

• SAS Earth Day 60-Second Lecture: Good Climate Policy Starts with Good Water Policy 
• Charting the Electric Vehicle Future: Accelerators and Roadblocks 
• Penn Alumni Water Forum: Networking Event 
• The Water Center Graduate Student Grant Recipient Showcase and Networking Session 

Events for the Student Sustainability Association at Penn (SSAP)’s Green Week 

• UPOC + Fossil Free Penn Environmental Justice Art Build 
• Tour of Hives @ Penn Park with Penn Beekeeping Club 
• Environmental Injustice: A Tool of Israeli Occupation 
• GreenWeek Volunteering @ Penn Park Farm 

—Penn Sustainability

Children’s Activities

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

23        Virtual Passport Day: STEAM; 11 a.m.

27        At-Home Anthro Live: Create Your Own Tapa Cloth; 1 p.m.

Conferences

23        Senior Research Conference; poster sessions from undergraduate students in Earth & environmental science; 1-4 p.m.; Zoom meeting; join: https://tinyurl.com/ees-conf-apr-23 (Earth & Environmental Science).

Exhibits

23        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.; online event; register: https://tinyurl.com/global-guide-apr-23 (Penn Museum).

26        Virtual Exhibit: Capturing My Healing; Laura Sinko will share her work amplifying survivor perspectives of healing and recovery through storytelling, photography, and film; 4-5 p.m.; info: https://stories.ourwave.org/share (GSWS).        

Fitness & Learning

20        Addressing DEI Issues in the Workplace and the Job Search Process; a safe forum for current students who identify as BIPOC to network with BIPOC alumni, ask career questions, and learn from others’ experiences; 6:30 p.m.; Zoom meeting; info: https://www.design.upenn.edu/career-resources/events/ (Weitzman School).

            Black Cultural Studies Collective: Ambient Fugitivity: Synthesizing and Integrating Deep Listening; explores deep listening to music as a radical act; 7 p.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://forms.gle/Yqe7EGktA5fQv8xg8 (English). Also April 27.

23        Master Class: All About Producing; learn about the process of producing films from film executives Alexandra Milchan and Scott Lambert; 4 p.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://tinyurl.com/cinema-masterclass-apr-23 (Cinema Studies).

25        Coffee & Conversation: Materializing the Everyday; a discussion of Jessica Vaughn’s current ICA exhibit; 3 p.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://tinyurl.com/coffee-convo-apr-25 (ICA).

Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships (CURF)
Online events. Info and to register: https://www.curf.upenn.edu/curf-events.

23        CURF Spring 2021 Research Fair; 1-4 p.m.

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

21        Administrative Professionals' Day - Tango Concert; 4 p.m.

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

23        Virtual Wellness Workshop: Meditate with Manuel; noon.

            Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations; 1 p.m.

Meetings

29        WPPSA Meeting; features guest speaker Benjamin Oh, Netter Center; noon; Zoom meeting; join: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/7027535959 (WPPSA).

Readings & Signings

27        Book Launch: Another Aesthetics Is Possible Arts of Rebellion in the Fourth World War; Jennifer Ponce de León, English; 4:30 p.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://tinyurl.com/ponce-deleon-book-launch (GSWS).

            Celebrating New Faculty Books: Traveling Black: A Story of Race and Resistance (2021); Mia Bay, Jared Farmer; history; 4:30 p.m.; Zoom meeting; https://upenn.zoom.us/j/98382156078 (History).

Kelly Writers House
Online events. Info and to register: http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/calendar/0421.php.

20        Writing About Politics in the Biden Era; noon.

Sports

Penn Athletics
Online streams of games. Info: https://pennathletics.com/index.aspx

20        Baseball at La Salle; 3 p.m.

21        Softball at Drexel; 2 p.m.

            (W) Tennis at St. Joseph’s; 2:30 p.m.

22        (M) Tennis at St. Joseph’s; 2 p.m.

            (W) Lacrosse at La Salle; 4 p.m.

24        (M/W) Track & Field at Philadelphia Metropolitan; time TBA.

Talks

20        The Evolution of the Racism Sequence; Ben Jealous, People for the American Way; Jeanne Arnold, Gettysburg; Jack Lewis, SP2; Amy Hillier, SP2; noon; Zoom meeting; register: https://www.alumni.upenn.edu/sp2speakerseriesfour (SP2).

           Cancer Cells and Their Epithelial Neighbors; Katrina Podsypanina, Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques; 4 p.m.; Zoom meeting; join: https://tinyurl.com/hinow-talk-feb-9 (Mathematics).

21        Pandemic Health Legislation and Policy Around the World: What Have We Learned and What is Needed Now? Michele Forzley, Forzley & Associates; Kashish Aneja, O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law; Matthew Kavanagh, O’Neill Institute; 9:30 a.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://tinyurl.com/law-talk-apr-21 (Penn Law).

           The Politics of Dating Apps: Gender, Sexuality, and Emergent Publics in Urban China; Lik Sam Chan, Chinese University of Hong Kong; noon; Zoom meeting; register: https://tinyurl.com/chan-talk-apr-21 (Center for the Study of Contemporary China).

22        Atomic-Scale Insights into Electrocatalyst Structure and Function; Anthony Shoji Hall, Johns Hopkins; 10:45 a.m.; Zoom meeting; info: info-mse@seas.upenn.edu (Materials Science & Engineering).

            60-Second Lectures - Good Climate Policy STARTS with Good Water Policy; Howard Neukrug, Penn Water Center; noon; online event; info: https://www.sas.upenn.edu/events/upcoming-events (School of Arts and Sciences).

            Making Black Lives Matter in Philadelphia: Perspectives from the Health Sciences; Eugenia South, emergency medicine; 3-5 p.m.; online event; register: https://libcal.library.upenn.edu/calendar/webinars/blm-health (Penn Libraries).

            México y el Multilateralismo Regional; Efraín Guadarrama, Mexican Ministry of Foreign Relations; Spanish-language talk; 3 p.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://tinyurl.com/guadarrama-talk-apr-22 (LALS).

            Promoting Appendage/Limb Regeneration in Jellyfish, Drosophila, and Mouse; Lea Goentoro, Caltech; 3 p.m.; Zoom meeting; info: be@seas.upenn.edu (Bioengineering).

            Imperial Entanglements: Kinship, Accommodation, and Imagination of Self; Ananya Chakravarti, Georgetown University, Jessica Marie Johnson, Johns Hopkins; 7 p.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://tinyurl.com/chakravarti-talk-apr-22 (History).

23        Autonomous, Agile Micro Drones: Perception, Learning, and Control; Davide Scaramuzza, University of Zurich; 11 a.m.; Zoom meeting; join: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/95220228264 (GRASP Lab).

            A Nourishing Prescription: Food as Medicine to Promote Health and Health Equity; panel of speakers; noon; BlueJeans meeting; join: https://primetime.bluejeans.com/a2m/live-event/xjbffkve (Leonard Davis Institute).

            Community Justice & The Ivory Tower; panel of speakers; 5:30 p.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://tinyurl.com/community-justice-423 (Wolf Humanities Center).

26        Brazilian Black Movements Against Police Violence in Brazil: From Redemocratization to the Present; Paulo Ramos, CEBRAP Brazil; 10 a.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://tinyurl.com/ramos-talk-apr-26 (LALS).

            Preparing for Climate Change in the Wake of Houston’s Water Crisis; Yvonne Forrest, Houston Public Works; noon; online event; register: https://tinyurl.com/forrest-talk-apr-26 (Penn Water Center).

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

21        Center for Media at Risk Film Discussion: Movement at the Margins; Farrah Rahaman, Maori Karmael Holmes, Annenberg School; D. Sabela Grimes, USC; noon.

22        Mental Health and Abolition: Racism, Policing, and Care; panel of speakers; 5:30 p.m.

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

27        Jointly Interpreting Graphical Models and Correlation Networks for Omics Data Analyses; Denise Scholtens, Northwestern University; 3:30 p.m.

Computer and Information Science (CIS)
Online events. Info and to register: https://www.cis.upenn.edu/events/.

21        Learning with Label Noise: A Progressive Approach; Yikai Zhang, Yuriy Nevmyvaka, Morgan Stanley ML Research; 3 p.m.

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

21        Cognitive Imprecision and Choice Under Risk; Michael Woodford, Columbia; 4 p.m.

22        Where is Standard of Living the Highest? Local Prices and the Geography of Consumption; Rebecca Diamond, Stanford; 3:30 p.m.

26        Costly Misallocation: Endogenous Growth and Asset Prices; Di Tian, economics; noon.

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

21        Orofacial Rehabilitation: The Impact of Maxillofacial Prosthodontics on Survivorship; Sarah Lee, Mayo Clinic; 6 p.m.

22        Management of Pediatric Ankylosis of Mandible and Associated Facial Deformities; Douglas Sinn, cosmetic surgeon; 5:30 p.m.

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

22        Heritage, Rights, and Land Reclamation for California Native American Tribes; panel of speakers; 12:30 p.m.

            Living Room Lecture: A Hidden Cultural Lens: Investigating Museum Science Displays (New Date); Lizzie Oakley, anthropology; 5:30 p.m.

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AT PENN Information

The April AT PENN calendar is online. To submit events for the May AT PENN calendar, email almanac@upenn.edu.

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 April 5-11, 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 April 5-11, 2021. The University Police actively patrol from Market St to Baltimore and from the Schuylkill River to 43rd St in conjunction with the Philadelphia Police. In this effort to provide you with a thorough and accurate report on public safety concerns, we hope that your increased awareness will lessen the opportunity for crime. For any concerns or suggestions regarding this report, please call the Division of Public Safety at (215) 898-4482.

18th District

Below are the Crimes Against Persons from the 18th District: 7 incidents (4 robberies, 2 assaults, and 1 indecent assault) were reported for April 5-11, 2021 by the 18th District, covering the Schuylkill River to 49th St & Market St to Woodland Avenue.

The Class of 2021 President’s Engagement and Innovation Prize winners were announced Monday, April 19. A detailed write-up of the winners will be published in the April 27 edition of Almanac.

A free bus from Penn’s campus to Chinatown will run every 30 minutes from 1-4 p.m. on April 24 and May 1. The bus is for Penn faculty, post-docs, staff and students.

For more information, visit bit.ly/PennChinatown.