April 27, 2021 Volume 67 Issue 36

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has selected Penn Medicine as one of five sites across the country to serve as a Center of Excellence for Influenza Research and Response (CEIRR), with the goals of better understanding influenza viruses around the world and learning about the viral strains that have the potential to cause pandemics. Penn Medicine has been awarded nearly $7 million in first-year funding. The contract is expected to be supported for six additional years.

The CEIRR contracts are a major funding mechanism for flu research in the Unites States. Scott Hensley, an associate professor of microbiology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, will serve as Penn’s CEIRR program director.

“This is an opportunity for Penn Medicine to become a major hub for influenza research,” Dr. Hensley said. “This contract will allow us to lead cutting-edge studies that have the potential to improve the seasonal flu vaccine that millions of people receive every year, and to be better prepared for the next flu pandemic.”

NIAID launched the first network of this kind in 2007, known then as Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance (CEIRS), awarding contracts every seven years for 14 years. All CEIRR contracts have five main focus areas: longitudinal human influenza studies, influenza surveillance, risk assessment and response research, pre-pandemic and pandemic emergency response, and pathogenesis and immune response research.

Investigators in the CEIRR network will conduct domestic and international influenza surveillance studies with an emphasis on rapid characterization of viruses that have the potential to cause pandemics. Researchers will collect hundreds of samples from humans, pigs, and birds across the world each year. The CEIRR’s longitudinal studies will seek out how human responses to flu evolve over time. Over the next seven years, the network will conduct a series of studies to better understand influenza virus evolution, how influenza viruses jump from animals to humans, and how humans mount protective immune responses against these viruses. With better scientific knowledge of these aspects, experts will be able to more accurately decide which of the thousands of flu strains should go into the annual flu shot, and which ones have the potential to cause the next pandemic.

“Penn Medicine has been studying influenza for more than 100 years and is especially well-positioned to launch this center because of the expertise of top researchers, like Scott Hensley and his team, who have already been deeply focused on influenza viruses,” said Jonathan A. Epstein, Senior Vice President, Executive Vice Dean, and Chief Scientific Officer of Penn Medicine. “This funding will allow researchers at Penn Medicine to advance knowledge and limit the spread of the seasonal flu.”

The Penn-CEIRR’s Pre-Pandemic and Pandemic Emergency Response Project will test viral strains with pandemic potential that are found in the surveillance projects, as well as viral strains identified at other CEIRR sites. With each viral strain with pandemic potential, researchers will complete large screens to assess human population immunity and other factors that would determine how easily the strain could spread. They plan to identify genetic mutations associated with virulence and transmission, and determine how susceptible these viral strains are to currently available therapies.

“In the event of a flu pandemic, our network will rapidly characterize the new virus and we will determine how the human immune system responds to the new virus,” Dr. Hensley said. “We are also well positioned to respond to pandemics caused by other respiratory viruses like the current coronavirus pandemic.”

Other researchers at the University of Pennsylvania who will be heavily involved in the CEIRR include E. John Wherry, chair of the department of systems pharmacology and translational therapeutics and director of the Penn Institute for Immunology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Michael R. Betts, a professor of microbiology and program leader in the Penn Institute for Immunology, and Sara Cherry, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine.

Vartan Gregorian, former provost, dean, and faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania, died on April 15.

Dr. Gregorian joined Penn’s faculty in 1972 as the Tarzian Professor of Armenian History and Culture. In 1974, he was appointed the founding dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, now known as the School of Arts and Sciences. As dean, he strengthened ties and promoted scholarly exchanges between Penn and the Sorbonne and helped preserve the high academic standing of Penn’s department of romance languages. He served as provost from 1977 to 1981 before resigning when Sheldon Hackney was named President (Almanac October 28, 1980).

After leaving Penn, Dr. Gregorian was named president of the New York Public Library. When Dr. Gregorian took the helm, The New York Public Library was in the midst of a fiscal and morale crisis and he restored its stature as a vibrant cultural resource. In 1989, Dr. Gregorian left the New York Public Library to become President of Brown University. During his tenure at Brown, he oversaw the addition of eleven new departments and over 270 faculty members, and more than doubled its endowment. He left Brown in 1997 to serve as president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, a position he held until his death.

Dr. Gregorian was a renowned historian and scholar. He was the author of several books, including The Road to Home: My Life and Times; Islam: A Mosaic, Not a Monolith and The Emergence of Modern Afghanistan, Politics of Reform and Modernization, 1880-1946, and several articles on history and global affairs. Dr. Gregorian was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and other scholarly institutions.

Dr. Gregorian received awards from the French, Italian, Austrian, and Portuguese governments, as well as numerous honorary degrees, including from Brown, Dartmouth, the Juilliard School, the University of Aberdeen, and the University of St. Andrews. He was awarded the medal of Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor at a ceremony at the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in 2017. The award recognized his 30-year effort to strengthen relations between France and America, to improve links between French and American institutions of higher education, and to promote the study of French culture and language (Almanac February 21, 2017).

In 1986, he was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor as part of the inaugural class, which also included Muhammad Ali and Walter Cronkite. In 1998, President Bill Clinton awarded him the National Humanities Medal and in 2004, President George W. Bush conferred upon him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award.

In 2004, in his honor, the Annenberg Foundation endowed a $2 million Vartan Gregorian Chair in the Humanities at Penn (Almanac November 2, 2004). “Vartan Gregorian is a scholar, a humanitarian, and a truly remarkable individual, whose wisdom, leadership, and counsel have benefited several universities and important philanthropic endeavors,” said the late Leonore Annenberg, then president of the Annenberg Foundation, when the chair was established.

“A lion for public learning and a renowned leader in higher education, Vartan was truly one-of-a-kind,” said Penn President Amy Gutmann. “No matter what task he undertook, from his years of service to Penn to our service together on the Carnegie Corporation Board of Trustees, Vartan always did so with trademark genius and unsurpassed passion for growing the common good. The world will not see his like again.”

Born to Armenian parents in Tabriz, Iran, Dr. Gregorian arrived in the U.S. in 1956 to study at Stanford University where he earned dual doctoral degrees in history and the humanities. He taught European and Middle Eastern history at San Francisco State College, UCLA, and the University of Texas at Austin before joining Penn’s faculty in 1972.

Dr. Gregorian was predeceased by his wife of 58 years, Clare Russell Gregorian. He is survived by his sons, Vahé (Cindy), Raffi, and Dareh (Maggie); his sister, Ojik Arakelian; and five grandchildren, Juan, Maximus, Sophie, Miri, and Dashiell.

April 22, 2021

The widespread distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine now taking place and the many safeguards we have established across campus reinforce our expectation to return to an in-person teaching, research and residential environment for the fall of 2021, as we indicated in our March 16 message. We write today to provide an update and to share new information on what will be involved in our return to a more normal campus experience.

Vaccination Requirement for Students

With the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines now well-established, and with the importance of mass vaccination so central to our commitment to having a safe campus environment, the most significant new element of our plans for the fall is a requirement that all students be vaccinated. Exceptions will only be provided for medical or religious reasons. Students should plan on being fully vaccinated (i.e., two weeks after the last dose of the vaccine) before they return to campus for the fall semester. For any students who have not been vaccinated by the time they return to campus, the University will provide vaccination clinics, however students will need to quarantine for two weeks after receiving their first dose. Further guidance will be forthcoming for international students who received vaccines not currently approved in the United States. In addition to COVID-19 vaccines, flu vaccines will also be mandatory, beginning later in the fall. Information regarding current student immunization requirements can be found here.

Specific details regarding vaccination expectations for faculty and staff are under consideration and will be provided in the near future.  With increasing availability of highly effective vaccines, at this time the University strongly encourages faculty and staff to become vaccinated for your safety and for the long-term safety of our community.

Additional Safety Requirements

Even with increasing numbers of people being vaccinated, we still expect that masks will be required in many campus settings, testing and contact tracing for COVID-19 may still be necessary, and large gatherings may still be limited or modified. Everyone on campus will need to be mindful of social distancing, hand washing and completing their daily PennOpen Pass. The Student Campus Compact will be updated with any changes in expectations for student conduct early in the fall. All students should remain familiar with the standards for behavior that it outlines.

The Academic Year

Barring any significant new developments in the course of the pandemic, we expect to begin the fall semester on time, with move-in beginning on August 25 and New Student Orientation occurring August 25-30.  In recognition that our returning sophomores did not have an in-person orientation this past fall, we also will have an orientation program for them along with the Second Year Experience programming. More information about NSO will be shared in the near future. Convocation for the first-year students will take place on August 30, and the first day of classes will be August 31.

We expect that undergraduate class instruction will be primarily delivered in-person, although online and hybrid delivery is expected in some cases for large classes.  Our academic policies regarding grading will return to their regular, pre-COVID standards. Graduate and professional students will be contacted directly by their schools and programs with information relating to their classroom and research experience.

Housing and Dining

Residence halls will return to their normal occupancy in the fall, and dining options will be expanded and should resemble pre-pandemic configurations, although some social distancing and other health considerations will still be in place. We will continue to follow established health guidelines and best practices in our College Houses and dining facilities and will update our policies as needed. Extra cleaning and ventilation checks will continue in all Penn facilities.

Campus Visitors

As we begin this summer to repopulate the campus, schools, centers, and departments can again consider bringing in scholars and visitors to campus in accordance with social distancing and facility planning guidelines. Visitors must comply with all Penn health guidelines and policies and participate in PennOpen Pass.  All Penn identification holders will have access to testing and vaccination opportunities in accordance with University and municipal and state health policy guidelines.

Domestic and International Travel

Beginning May 18, 2021, Penn will move from suspended to restricted travel.  All domestic and some international travel will no longer require a petition if the travelers are fully vaccinated.  International travel will still require registration in MyTrips but will not require petitions if it is to a CDC Level 1 or 2 country. Non-vaccinated travelers and travelers to CDC Level 3 or 4 countries will continue to require a petition.  Group travel (defined as 5 people or more traveling on the same itinerary) cannot commence before July 1, 2021.  All travelers are expected to follow local and state guidelines regarding quarantine, testing, masking, etc., and should be prepared for changes and modifications.  As government restrictions and guidelines pertaining to domestic and international travel continue to evolve, we encourage anyone planning to travel to consult the Penn Global Travel Guidance website for the most up-to-date information.

Research

Academic research will return to full operations in the fall semester, in alignment with University policies on general space use, gathering, and travel.  New practices that evolved to support safe engagement in the internal and external research community will continue to inform the expansion of research activity in the fall.  We look forward to welcoming more faculty, undergraduate students, graduate students, post docs, and research staff to in-person research on campus in the fall.

Returning to On-Campus Work

For more than a year, most faculty and staff have been working remotely. This was necessary to ensure health and safety on campus as the pandemic continued to spread. With vaccines now plentiful and the possibility of safe campus workplaces ahead of us, we expect to begin to repopulate campus with most faculty and staff returning to their pre-COVID work schedules on campus beginning in July. This will continue to be based on guidance from the city and Commonwealth health officials. The University continues to evaluate hybrid work options and will provide more information as we begin to phase-in the return to campus plans this summer. Penn’s Division of Human Resources has developed a comprehensive guide for the return to in-person work, which will be updated as the guidance continues to evolve.

Conclusion

We remain enormously grateful to everyone in the Penn community for the resilience you have demonstrated as we have managed our way through the many challenges presented by the pandemic. This has been a huge undertaking. The conscientiousness of students, faculty, and staff in complying with our COVID-19 safety procedures has been inspiring, as have been your creativity and determination in together getting through this past year. As we look ahead to the fall, we see the opportunity for a return to campus activities and interactions that are much more in keeping with what we have always known at Penn. We await that with great anticipation. 

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

April 19, 2021

As leaders of the University of Pennsylvania, we write today to affirm unequivocally and in the strongest possible terms Penn’s unwavering commitment to advancing racial equity and social justice in our nation. These are principles that rest at the very soul of our mission.

Talking about race can be difficult. But we should never let that difficulty stand in the way of speaking up for fairness, equity and compassion for all Americans, and for every member of our Penn community.

Inclusion has always stood as one of the three main pillars of the Penn Compact. Our University’s commitment to equity is long-standing. We are proud of the many steps that the University has taken historically, as well as the initiatives we have been able to launch in recent years, to strengthen our efforts to achieve greater equity. We know we have much work still to do but believe that many recent efforts are helping to move us in the right direction. We recently created the Office of Social Equity and Community, led by Vice President Chaz Howard, which is developing programs and initiatives that deepen awareness and help to advance the University’s mission of fostering social equity, diversity, and inclusion. Joann Mitchell has been promoted to Senior Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer, the first time the University has had such a position, giving diversity a truly senior voice at Penn.

Numerous initiatives are also having a meaningful impact, including: 

• The Campus Iconography Group, which just completed a report that outlines steps to ensure the placement and presence of statues and other prominent iconography on campus better reflects the University’s achievements and aspirations to increase the diversity of the Penn community. 
• A Comprehensive Review of the Division of Public Safety, which was designed to focus on ensuring a physically and emotionally safe environment on campus in a way that prioritizes and promotes anti-racism, racial equality and justice. 
• Action Plan for Faculty Diversity and Excellence has proven to be an important blueprint in bringing greater diversity to our faculty.
• Penn First Plus and many other student-focused programs are helping to diversify our student body and provide support for low-income and first-generation students.

In addition to our many University, school, Health System, and center-led initiatives to combat racism, we are proud of the initiatives of all members of our community, including faculty and student initiatives such as the Penn & Slavery Project and the Paideia Program’s panel conversations with faculty and guest experts tackling racial disparity.

As the country continues to grapple with enhancing racial equity, and as the Derek Chauvin trial for the murder of George Floyd concludes in Minneapolis and the emotions it touches rise ever more in people’s consciousness, we want everyone in the Penn community to know that there are resources available to support you if you are feeling stress, anxiety, or have any other concerns that this case has brought to the surface. A list of many of those resources is available here.

This has been a tumultuous time for our community and our country. But with our ongoing work we are hopeful that good will spring from it in the form of increased awareness of the challenges that have confronted so many in minority communities across America and ultimately—and most importantly—in greater racial equity. Penn stands proudly with all of our communities of color on campus in the fight for equal treatment and equal justice.

—Amy Gutmann, President
—David L. Cohen, Chair, Board of Trustees
—Scott L. Bok, Vice Chair, Board of Trustees
—Wendell Pritchett, Provost
—Craig Carnaroli, Executive Vice President
—J. Larry Jameson, EVP, Penn Health System, Dean, Perelman School of Medicine
—Kevin Mahoney, CEO, University of Pennsylvania Health System
—Joann Mitchell, Senior Vice President for Institutional Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer
—Gregory S. Rost, Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff
—Wendy White, Senior Vice President and General Counsel
—John Zeller, Senior Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations
—Jeffrey Cooper, Vice President for Government and Community Affairs
—John J. Heuer, Vice President for Human Resources
—Charles “Chaz” Howard, Vice President, Office of Social Equity and Community
—Trevor Lewis, Vice President, Office of Budget Planning and Analysis
—Stacey J. Lopez, Vice President, Institutional Research and Analysis
—Stephen J. MacCarthy, Vice President, University Communications
—MaryFrances McCourt, Vice President, Finance and Treasurer
—Thomas H. Murphy, Vice President, Information Technology
—Medha Narvekar, Vice President and University Secretary
—Anne Papageorge, Vice President, Facilities and Real Estate Services
—Gregory J. Pellicano, Vice President, Office of Audit, Compliance and Privacy
—Maureen Rush, Vice President, Division of Public Safety
—Marie Witt, Vice President, Business Services
—Sara Bachman, Dean, School of Social Policy and Practice
—Steven J. Fluharty, Dean, School of Arts and Sciences
—Pam Grossman, Dean, Graduate School of Education
—Andrew Hoffman, Dean, School of Veterinary Medicine
—John L. Jackson, Jr., Dean, Annenberg School for Communication
—Erika James, Dean, Wharton School
—Vijay Kumar, Dean, School of Engineering and Applied Science
—Theodore Ruger, Dean, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
—Frederick R. Steiner, Dean, Stuart Weitzman School of Design
—Antonia Villarruel, Dean, School of Nursing
—Mark S. Wolff, Dean, School of Dental Medicine
—Beth A. Winkelstein, Deputy Provost
—Dawn Bonnell, Senior Vice Provost for Research
—Ezekiel Emanuel, Vice Provost for Global Initiatives
—Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum, Vice Provost for Student Engagement
—Mamta Accapadi, Vice Provost for University Life
—Constantia Constantinou, Vice Provost and Director of Libraries
—Laura Perna, Vice Provost for Faculty
—Peter Ammon, Chief Investment Officer
—Russell Di Leo, University Comptroller

April 20, 2021

Today’s verdict is an important step towards justice in this case, but we as a campus community and a country have much more to do in our work toward racial justice and healing. Our thoughts are with Mr. Floyd’s family and we hope that the jury’s verdict brings them some measure of comfort. We must and we will continue to work with renewed resolve to ensure that the University and our nation move ever closer to fulfilling our pledge of liberty and justice for all.

The updated Three-Year Academic Calendar for 2021-2022 through 2023-2024 is now available.

Graduate and professional programs may follow their own calendars; check the website for each School or program.

The University’s Three-Year Academic Calendar is subject to change. In the event that changes are made, the latest, most up-to-date version will be posted to Almanac’s website, almanac.upenn.edu/penn-academic-calendar.

Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, the first two days of Passover and Good Friday are religious holidays that affect large numbers of University community members and that fall during the academic year. To view the University’s policy regarding these and other holidays, please visit https://catalog.upenn.edu/ pennbook/secular-religious-holidays/.

Penn's School of Arts and Sciences announces the following recipients of its 2021 teaching awards.

Ira H. Abrams Memorial Award for Distinguished Teaching

This year’s recipients of SAS’s highest teaching honor are Campbell Grey, associate professor of classical studies, and Eve Troutt Powell, Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of History and Africana Studies. Created in 1983, the Ira H. Abrams Award recognizes teaching that is intellectually challenging and exceptionally coherent and honors faculty who embody high standards of integrity and fairness, have a strong commitment to learning, and are open to new ideas.

Described by a faculty colleague as “Socratic, self-reflexive and inclusive,” Dr. Grey is praised for his ability to get students to think deeply and critically. According to the undergraduate chair, “he has a vivid presence in a classroom—or on Zoom—that makes even Roman tax law exciting. In a seminar, he does all the ground work—provocative readings, set-up questions in Perusall or discussion boards —such that the students run the show in class, doing their own thinking and making their own discoveries.”

A hallmark of Dr. Troutt Powell’s teaching is her exceptional skill in engaging students in some of the most challenging problems in the history of the modern Middle East and the Ottoman Empire. Students describe not only a dynamic lecturer, but also one who is able to convey extremely complicated and nuanced events in a clear and stimulating manner. According to one, “Professor Troutt Powell is one of the most inspiring professors at Penn. She is always so full of energy and spirit when she comes into class, and so wonderfully helpful in office hours. Truly one of Penn’s gems.”

Dennis M. DeTurck Award for Innovation in Teaching

This award, which is named after Robert A. Fox Leadership Professor and former College dean Dennis DeTurck, recognizes exceptional creativity and innovation in instruction.

The 2021 recipient is Marisa Kozlowski, professor of chemistry.

The new features Dr. Kozlowski has introduced into the organic chemistry laboratory course for remote instruction in light of the pandemic are described by the undergraduate chair as “nothing short of remarkable... She has led my organic colleagues and our entire department with a series of ‘firsts’ that have changed the way we teach chemistry.”

Dean’s Award for Mentorship of Undergraduate Research

This award, which recognizes faculty members who have excelled in nurturing undergraduate students’ desires and abilities to conduct meaningful research, goes to Zahra Fakhraai, associate professor of chemistry, for her fierce commitment to training the next generation of scientists and to helping every student realize their full potential. One colleague explains that over the last decade, not only has Dr. Fakhraai mentored no fewer than twenty-seven undergraduate research students who have participated in cutting-edge research in her laboratory, but the work of these undergraduate students has resulted in twelve publications in high-profile journals, a sustained level of productivity that is truly impressive.

Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching by an Assistant Professor

This award recognizes a member of the junior faculty who demonstrates unusual promise as an educator. The 2021 recipient is Mary Channen Caldwell, assistant professor of music. Dr. Caldwell is commended for enabling vibrant classroom discussions and encouraging students to be experimental and creative in thinking about medieval music. As a student notes, “she would often engage in thought experiments and hypotheticals, showing us that we didn’t always need to have an answer to the questions that interested us and the benefits of pushing ourselves beyond our intellectual comfort zones.”

Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching by Affiliated Faculty

Staver Bezhani, senior lecturer in biology, and Anne Duchene, senior lecturer in economics, are the recipients of this award, which recognizes the contributions to undergraduate education made by the School’s non-standing faculty.

One faculty member notes that in providing his students with an excellent introduction to the fundamentals of biology, Dr. Bezhani “makes a point of connecting with each of them, allowing him to identify those students with hidden potential, and he strives to ensure that they have an opportunity to reach that potential.” His students agree; one calls him “an amazing lab instructor” while another states that “He is the reason I love biology now.”

Dr. Duchene not only earns strong praise from her students in Introduction to Microeconomics, which has an enrollment of 900 per year, but she also stands out for “working tirelessly, creatively, and successfully in fall 2020 to rearrange her instruction in ways designed to keep students active and engaged in the virtual environment.”

College of Liberal and Professional Studies Award for Distinguished Teaching in Professional Graduate Programs

The recipient of this award, which recognizes teaching excellence in LPS graduate programs, is Leona Brandwene, lecturer in positive psychology and associate director of Education at the Positive Psychology Center.

Highlighting Ms. Brandwene’s attention to detail and thorough dedication, one student states, “she does such a superb job of constructing a meaningful, cogent longitudinal educational experience, assembling the most incredible guests, ensuring each module is impactful in its own right and complementary to the stage of project and course, and ensuring we get to put the rubber to the road in practice.”

Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching by Graduate Students

This award recognizes graduate students for teaching that is intellectually rigorous and has a considerable impact on undergraduate students.

This year’s awardees are:

• Erik Broess, Music
• Samantha Gillen, Romance Languages
• Lauren Harris, Sociology
• Zain Mian, Comparative Literature
• Brandon Orzolek, Chemistry
• Sammy Sbiti, Mathematics
• Mikhail Strokan, Political Science  
• Stephanie Wesson, Philosophy
• Yosiane White, Linguistics
• Clinton Williamson, English

On behalf of the President, Provost, and Council of Undergraduate Deans, New Student Orientation & Academic Initiatives are pleased to announce that the 31st Penn Reading Project will be August Wilson’s play, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Early in the summer, Penn’s incoming Class of 2025 will have access to the text and supporting materials; immediately before the start of classes, they will participate in small group discussions with other Penn students, faculty, and staff about the book and its ties to the ongoing Provost’s Academic Theme of Civic Engagement.

August Wilson’s 1982 play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is a fictional narrative built around a legendary real-life performer: Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, one of the earliest artists to popularize the blues. Set in Chicago in 1927, the story finds Ma and her band at a recording session where the stakes are high—in an era when records were still a relatively new technology, the results here could bring wider fame to these musicians. But the situation is fraught with personal and professional tensions—particularly between Ma and her gifted but temperamental trumpeter, Levee—that threaten to bring the proceedings to a crashing halt.

Mr. Wilson’s play has been produced nationally (including on Broadway in 1984 and 2003) and internationally. It received the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best American Play of 1985 and was nominated for Tony and Drama Desk Awards. A highly-acclaimed film version for Netflix was released in 2020; produced by Denzel Washington and starring Viola Davis, it also features Chadwick Boseman in his final film appearance. Reviewing the movie, New York Times critic A. O. Scott wrote that “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is a powerful and pungent reminder of the necessity of art, of its sometimes terrible costs and of the preciousness of the people, living and dead, with whom we share it.”

Ma Rainey will offer our incoming Penn students an opportunity to explore the nature of art, as well as themes of race, community, and families, both blood relations and the families we create for ourselves. By turns exuberant and harrowing, Mr. Wilson’s poetic and theatrical story is anchored in history, yet powerfully resonant today. As always with Penn Reading Project texts, the work will also open doors to programming on related topics that intersect and support the academic theme: in this case, Civic Engagement.

One such focus is the larger world of August Wilson’s canon. Ma Rainey is an installment of his “Century Cycle” of ten plays, an omnibus that today is universally recognized as a pinnacle of 20th century American theater. Mr. Wilson, who died in 2005, twice received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, both times for works in the cycle: Fences (1987) and The Piano Lesson (1990). The plays, each set in a separate decade, feature different characters—but taken together, they are a deep exploration of the connections between generations of Black families and the neighborhoods and communities (particularly in Mr. Wilson’s native city of Pittsburgh) that they build and sometimes uneasily inhabit.

Through Ma Rainey, the Penn Reading Project will also look more broadly at blues and jazz not only from a musical perspective but also as a metaphor for American identity and character, representing some of the best aspects of America and Americans. As Duke Ellington said, “Jazz is a good barometer of freedom... In its beginnings, the United States of America spawned certain ideals of freedom and independence through which, eventually, jazz was evolved, and the music is so free that many people say it is the only unhampered, unhindered expression of complete freedom yet produced in this country.”

More information, and opportunities to sign up as a PRP Discussion Facilitator, will be available early in the summer. If you have immediate questions, please contact David Fox, director of New Student Orientation & Academic Initiatives, at dfox@upenn.edu.

University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann has announced the recipients of the 2021 President’s Engagement Prize and President’s Innovation Prize. Awarded annually, the prizes empower Penn students to design and undertake post-graduation projects that make a positive, lasting difference in the world. Each prize-winning project will receive $100,000, as well as a $50,000 living stipend per team member. The prizes are the largest of their kind in higher education.

“This year’s prize-winning projects are inspiring and are important examples of putting a Penn education to work to meet urgent and important human needs in local, national, and global communities: from addressing eating disorder risk among our city’s youth, to improving the experiences of patients and frontline health care workers, to aiding in the global refugee crisis through clean water and agricultural training,” said President Gutmann. “The recipients embody Penn’s core commitment to leadership through service, a most vital and urgent calling during these challenging times.”

The prizes are generously supported by Emerita Trustee Judith Bollinger and William G. Bollinger, in honor of Ed Resovsky; Trustee Lee Spelman Doty and George E. Doty, Jr.; Emeritus Trustee James S. Riepe and Gail Petty Riepe; Trustee David Ertel and Beth Seidenberg Ertel; Wallis Annenberg and the Annenberg Foundation; and an anonymous donor.

The following student recipients will spend the next year implementing their projects.

Elizabeth Carson Eckhard, Natalia Rommen, and Sarah Simon for Project HOPE: Ms. Eckhard, Ms. Rommen, and Ms. Simon will address the lack of legal and reentry support to incarcerated Philadelphians by serving as the core of an expansive advocacy network. They are mentored by Marissa Boyers Bluestine, assistant director of the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School’s Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice.

Martin Leet and Leah Voytovich for Maji: Mr. Leet and Ms. Voytovich will install a solar-powered water tank for both household use and for irrigation in the Olua I refugee settlement camp in Uganda, as well as offer hands-on agricultural training and first aid medical training to refugees. They are mentored by Ocek Eke, director of global and local service-learning programs in the School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Christina Miranda and Amanda Moreno for Be Body Positive Philly: Ms. Miranda and Ms. Moreno will address eating disorder risk among Philadelphia high school students by implementing a validated body-positivity curriculum and an innovative near-peer mentorship model. They are mentored by Caroline Watts, director of school and community engagement at Penn’s Graduate School of Education.

Aris Saxena and Yiwen Li for Mobility: Mobility aims to provide patients across the globe access to healthcare right in their home. The company has created a software solution for health clinics in Africa to seamlessly coordinate at-home primary health deliveries. The software is designed specifically for under-resourced areas with little technological access, requiring minimal WiFi, data usage, and user response. Mr. Saxena and Mr. Li are mentored by Tyler Wry, associate professor of management in Penn’s Wharton School.

Anthony Scarpone-Lambert for Lumify Care: Lumify Care aims to improve the patient experience by developing innovative tools and resources needed to support frontline health care workers. Its flagship product is the uNight Light, a wearable LED light allowing health care workers to illuminate their workspace while decreasing patient sleep disturbances. Mr. Scarpone-Lambert is mentored by Therese S. Richmond, the Andrea B. Laporte Professor of Nursing and associate dean for research and innovation in Penn’s School of Nursing.

“From incarcerated Philadelphians to chronic disease patients in South Africa, Project HOPE, Maji, Be Body Positive Philly, Mobility, and Lumify Care have the capacity to improve the lives of some of the most vulnerable around us,” said President Gutmann. “These members of the class of 2021 have set out to implement extraordinarily promising ventures, and each has brought to the table an outstanding ability and an infectious eagerness to make a tangible, substantial, and sustainable impact.”

This year’s finalists also included, for the President’s Engagement Prize: Angela Kumirai and Arabang Dingalo for Central Pharma, a platform that aims to increase access to vital medications in rural Zimbabwe by improving the medication purchasing experience and reducing stock-outs at healthcare facilities; Abraham Mascio and Rouguiatou Sall for La Graine de Guinee, which aims to address rising diabetes rates in Guinea by enacting a culturally sensitive diabetes awareness program; and Samira Mehta for WASH for San Juan Tlacotenco, which aims to increase access to clean water and sanitation services in Mexico. Ricky Pati was a President’s Innovation Prize finalist for 3Cor Bio, a low-cost, rapid diagnostic platform that has the potential to target multiple infectious diseases, starting with COVID-19.

Ninety Penn seniors, a record total, submitted applications for both prizes this year, with proposals spanning an impressive array of innovative and impactful ideas. Faculty and staff mentors and the staff of the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships worked closely with the students to develop the projects.

“Our great Penn students,” said Provost Wendell Pritchett, “are producing the ideas that will change the future. These exciting projects demonstrate their strong commitment to helping others—and to finding solutions to the most urgent global challenges. They focus especially this year on health and wellness, which will be vital priorities as the world emerges from the pandemic in the years ahead. We are indebted to their faculty advisors and to the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships, who are invaluable partners in developing these visionary ideas.”

Robert (Bob) Allen Fox, C’52, an emeritus trustee and longtime donor to Penn, died peacefully on April 14. He was 91.

Mr. Fox grew up in the Germantown and Mount Airy neighborhoods of Philadelphia and graduated from Germantown Central High School, where he was captain of the football team. He studied economics at Penn, playing football under Coach George Munger when 70,000 to 80,000 fans regularly packed Franklin Field. After graduating in 1952, Mr. Fox formed a home construction company with his brother Richard. Together they built houses across the Philadelphia region, and in 1961, Mr. Fox was elected president of the Philadelphia Home Builders Association. Afterwards, Mr. Fox joined Warner Concrete Company, serving as its president until 1979.

In 1979, Mr. Fox left Warner and founded RAF Industries with the acquisition of a lumber yard in Wilmington, Delaware. RAF Industries was a private investment company that helped grow numerous companies in a diverse range of fields. Later, he helped Warner Concrete Company transform into Waste Resources Corporation, which, as its chair, he developed into a national, publicly-traded firm. Mr. Fox also served on several boards of directors in the business and banking spheres. He and his brother Richard earned Temple University’s Musser Award for Excellence in Leadership in 2007, partly due to this service.

Mr. Fox was first elected to Penn’s Board of Trustees in 1985. At various points, he served as vice chair, chair of the Budget and Finance Committee, and a member of the Executive, Nominating, Facilities and Campus Planning, and Audit and Compliance committees. Mr. Fox was heavily involved with other governance at Penn, including the Athletics Board of Advisors and the Penn Medicine Board. In the School of Arts and Sciences, he endowed three professorships and six scholarships and fellowships, including four Frederic Fox scholarships named after Mr. Fox’s father.

In 2013, Mr. Fox established and permanently endowed the Fox Leadership Program, which oversees New Student Orientation and inspires and equips undergraduates to assume leadership roles in their future endeavors. In 2015, the Robert and Penny Fox Family Pavilion was formally dedicated in honor of Mr. Fox and his wife, Penny Fox, ED’53. Mr. Fox also chaired the board and generously donated to the Wistar Institute, which dedicated its Robert and Penny Fox Tower in 2014. In 1999, Mr. Fox won Penn Alumni’s Award of Merit.

Mr. Fox was heavily involved with civic life in the city of Philadelphia, serving on the boards of several local institutions. He and his wife Penny established the Robert and Penny Fox Historic Costume Collection at Drexel’s Westphal College of Media Arts & Design. They were also significant donors to the Moore College of Art and Design, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Pennsylvania Ballet. Their impact on the city of Philadelphia’s life, arts and culture, education, and medicine is profound.

Mr. Fox is survived by his wife Penny and their children, Debra, Nancy (Jon Edwards), Amy (Edward Wheeler), and Kenneth (Ana), as well as nine grandchildren. Due to the ongoing pandemic, services for Bob are private. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in his memory to the Wistar Institute (wistar.org/robertfox) or the University of Pennsylvania (https://giving.aws.cloud.upenn.edu).

Frank Alexander Welsh III, an emeritus professor of biochemistry in the Perelman School of Medicine’s department of neurosurgery, died on April 2. He was 77.

Born in Evanston, Illinois, Dr. Welsh earned a BS in chemistry from Stanford University in 1965 and a PhD in pharmacology from Washington University in 1970. Afterwards, he completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Duke University. He joined Penn’s faculty in 1973 in the School of Medicine’s department of neurosurgery. In addition to this appointment, he also taught biochemistry to first-year medical students. During his time at Penn, Dr. Welsh was active in the school’s academic community, conducting research that won a University Research Foundation grant in 1990 and serving on Faculty Senate committees.

Dr. Welsh conducted celebrated scientific research at Penn, focusing on strokes and cerebral blood flow, and he published more than 80 peer-reviewed articles. Dr. Welsh’s published research includes his collaboration with adjunct associate professor of neurosurgery Katalin Kariko and her now-famous studies of messenger RNA. This work was a major keystone in the development of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines now being used to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2012, Dr. Welsh retired from Penn, taking emeritus status.

Outside of academic, Dr. Welsh enjoyed yearly trips to Yosemite National Park and around the world. He coached little league baseball teams, played the game himself with a minor-league team, and was an aficionado of a baseball board game called APBA. He also worked with children and youth as a leader in local Boy Scout groups, as an advisor at the Main Line Unitarian Church, and as a leader in a local Sierra Club program that helped city youth from Philadelphia explore nearby parklands.

Dr. Welsh is survived by his wife Barbara, his sons Edward and Frank Alexander IV, daughter-in-law Bessie, son-in-law Jon, four grandchildren, and other relatives. A service will be planned for a later date. In lieu of flowers, family and friends are invited to contribute to the nature group of their choice.

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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. However, notices of alumni deaths should be directed to the Alumni Records at (215) 898-8136 or record@ben.dev.upenn.edu.

The following agenda is published in accordance with the Faculty Senate Rules. Any member of the standing faculty may attend SEC meetings and observe. Questions may be directed 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 Agenda
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
3–4:30 p.m.
 

1. Approval of the Minutes of April 7, 2021
2. Chair’s Report
3. Past-Chair’s Report
4. 2020-2021 University Council Steering Committee Members
   • Senate Committee Reports
   • Senate Committee on Faculty and the Academic Mission (SCOF)
   • Senate Committee on Faculty and the Administration (SCOA)
   • Senate Committee on Faculty Development, Diversity, and Equity (SCFDDE)
   • Senate Committee on Students and Educational Policy (SCSEP)
   • Senate Select Committee on Scholarly Communication
   • Senate Select Committee on the Institutional Response to the Climate Emergency (P4)
5. Recommendations for SEC’s agenda for 2021-2022
6. New Business
7. Passing of the Torch
8. Adjournment and transition to BlueJeans Events for Faculty Senate Seminar:
   FY22 Update:  Penn’s Endowment, Academic Budget, and the COVID-19 Impacts (4:30-5:30 p.m.)
   Registration: https://primetime.bluejeans.com/a2m/register/udzwdyfh
   All faculty are welcomed.

During the final University Council meeting of the 2020-2021 academic year on April 21, held via BlueJeans, attendees heard five Committee year-end reports and the 2020-2021 Report of the University Council Committee on Committees.

Sara Jacoby, assistant professor of nursing and chair of the Committee on Campus and Community Life, said Penn should better communicate the impact of University policy and programs in the West Philadelphia community. Also recommended is more transparency and public-facing data.

Benjamin Garcia, John McCrea Dickson M.D. Presidential Professor in the department of biochemistry and biophysics and the chair of the Committee on Diversity and Equity, said that the committee created three subgroups to tackle each of its charges. They looked into improving accountability, culture, retention, and admission/recruitment and recommend continued work in the broad areas explored and finding ways to overcome barriers to inclusion and diversity.

Michael McGarvey, associate professor of neurology at HUP and chair of the Committee on Facilities, said the committee is pleased with the progress made by the University on all gender restrooms as well as safety protocols and housekeeping procedures related to COVID-19.

Tanja Kral, associate professor of nutrition science and chair of the Committee on Personnel Benefits, said the committee was pleased to learn that employee contributions for vision and dental insurance will remain stable and that medical insurance rates will only see a modest increase. They also discussed retirement contributions, which will remain the same, and the University’s consolidation of plan services to a single record keeper (TIAA).

Kris Laudanski, assistant professor of anesthesiology and critical care at HUP and chair of the Committee on Academic and Related Affairs, said that in response to current issues pertaining to Title IX, there is a need to collect more data to better understand how the experiences of student-athletes compare to the experiences of other students, which the committee believes can be accomplished without jeopardizing student privacy.

For the full reports, including committee charges, responses, and future recommendations, read the 2020-2021 Council Year-End Reports Supplement.

William Braham, professor of architecture and Faculty Senate Chair-Elect, presented four recommendations from the Committee on Committees: avoid midyear changes of committee chairs; have a chair-elect model; increase student participation; and circulate materials quickly.

Penn President Amy Gutmann commended the University Council for their invaluable efforts this academic year. She also acknowledged the Faculty Senate Tri-Chairs and the outgoing PPSA Chair for their service.

Visit the University Council website at https://secretary.upenn.edu/univ-council.

Read the Council 2020-2021 Year-End Reports supplement.

Sebastian Angel, Raj and Neera Singh Term Assistant Professor, is the latest in a line of educators from Penn Engineering to be granted funding through the NSF’s Faculty Early Career Development Program.

Dr. Angel and his team received the funds, roughly $125,000 to date, to continue research on their project “Tools for building online services that hide metadata.”

“The project is all about finding different ways to give companies the tools that they need so they can continue to operate as they do today, but without having to acquire as much information about users,” said Dr. Angel. “For example, how can we build social networks where Facebook doesn’t have to know everything about you or your friends.”

According to the project abstract, although it is “grounded by the needs of companies, this project designs algorithms, tools, and infrastructure to help services continue to work without accessing or collecting certain metadata (e.g., the social graph), limiting the harm of data breaches and insider attacks.”

While benefits to the user that include both comfort and security are apparent, the next phase of the project will hone in on benefits for companies, said Dr. Angel. Tracking these metrics is profitable for companies for many reasons.

The next phase of the project, to be funded with this latest NSF grant, will focus on enticing companies with mockups of what their services could be.

Sam Apple, a faculty member in the School of Arts and Sciences’ creative writing program, was awarded the Beltran Family Award for Innovative Teaching and Mentoring at the Kelly Writers House.

Al Filreis, Kelly Family Professor of English and faculty director of the Kelly Writers House, says, “Students describe Sam as thoughtful and witty, intellectually and aesthetically open and generous, and always willing to spend more time guiding, supporting, and working closely with a student’s writing. He is an accomplished writer himself, of course, and over the years in his creative writing classes and through programs he’s led at the Kelly Writers House he has figured out, with great success, how to integrate his life as a writer with his life as an advocate of other writers who work collaboratively.”

Mr. Apple is the author of Schlepping Through the Alps, American Parent, and The Saddest Toilet in the World. He has written for The New York Times Magazine, and many other well-known publications. Schlepping Through the Alps was a finalist for the PEN America Award for a first work of nonfiction. The Beltran Family Award for Innovative Teaching and Mentoring is presented annually to someone who teaches writing in the extracurricular context of the Kelly Writers House, its projects, programs, and people.

Dakota Becker, a student in the Master of Social Work (MSW) program at Penn’s School of Social Policy & Practice (SP2), has been selected for a Post-Master’s Fellowship in Advanced Clinical Social Work by the Yale Child Study Center at the Yale School of Medicine. The highly competitive two-year training program, which provides advanced multidisciplinary and discipline-specific training aimed at developing clinical social work leaders, offers only two fellowship spots during each application cycle.

Ms. Becker majored in psychology and minored in philosophy and health and human services as an undergraduate at Wake Forest University. After earning her bachelor’s degree, she briefly worked in human resources at financial service companies in New York City and Pittsburgh. Through her work at a psychiatric hospital, Ms. Becker learned more about the social work profession, as well as the many different populations that social workers can serve and the multitude of settings in which they can work.

Ms. Becker, who will graduate in May 2021, is eager to build upon the knowledge and skills that she gained in the MSW program and further refine her areas of specialization during her time as an advanced clinical social work fellow at the Yale Child Study Center. The fellowship program’s focus on advanced training and supervision will enable her to gain expertise in the specialization of pediatric mental health care, in which she envisions—and indeed, is already well on her way to—becoming a leader. Her specialization interests lie in the areas of trauma treatment, trauma processing, grief and loss, and working with youth who engage in life-threatening behaviors —all of which correspond with the trauma-informed treatments and services that the Yale Child Study Center provides to children and families.

Antoinette Brooke, chief operating officer of emergency medicine in Penn Medicine, received the 2020-2021 James J. Scheulen Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the Academy of Administrators in Academic Emergency Medicine (AAAEM) over the course of their career. With over 30 years of experience in senior healthcare operations, Ms. Brooke has served on numerous Health System committees and held various roles within AAAEM, including Treasurer, a role in which she transformed AAAEM’s budget and finance structure and overhauled the committee’s operating guidelines.

Three Penn Dental Medicine students have been appointed national leaders of the American Student Dental Association (ASDA), representing District 3. This year, Penn Dental Medicine represents three of the four students from District 3 appointed to serve in National ASDA roles.

Second-year student Ryan Kaminsky, D’23, was elected District 3 Trustee on the Board of Trustees. Julie Berenblum, D’23, was appointed Council on Membership Associate, and first-year student Hilary Wong, D’24, was appointed Council on Communications Associate. All three students will serve in their new roles for a one-year term that began in February 2021.

The ASDA is a national student-run organization that protects and advances the rights, interests, and welfare of dental students. The ASDA has more than 23,000 student members, located in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, and provides student members the training they need to be better leaders and dentists.

Joseph Francisco, President’s Distinguished Professor of Earth and Environmental Science and professor of chemistry, has been elected a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. The election of new academy members is a rigorous process and demands a consensus of agreement between the Presidium and the Senators of the academy. Election to the academy recognizes scientific achievements and personal standing and members are expected to take an active role in giving talks, nominating new members, and organizing scientific events.

The Leopoldina is the oldest German-speaking society of scholars and can look back on an uninterrupted history of more than 350 years, in which it has adhered continuously to the principles that were the basis of its formation: a free association of scholars, acting to advance human scientific development beyond the boundaries of disciplines and countries. About three quarters of its members are from the German-speaking countries (Germany, Austria and Switzerland), and one quarter from other countries.

Since April 1991, the Leopoldina has been a registered, non-profit association and in 2008, the Leopoldina became the National Academy of Sciences in Germany. In this role, the Leopoldina has a duty to provide science-based advice to both politics and society and to carry out a representative function in international organizations and bodies assembled from national academies.

Toorjo Ghose, an associate professor in the Social Policy & Practice, has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award to India. Dr. Ghose will be hosted by Presidency University in Kolkata as part of a project to document and teach about the strategies deployed by sex workers to negotiate the COVID-19 pandemic.

The project will examine the manner in which lessons learnt in the HIV era are shaping community responses to the current pandemic. During his time in Kolkata, India, Dr. Ghose will connect his work to the classroom by exploring pedagogical strategies to bring together community members with students from Presidency University and the University of Pennsylvania.

As a Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Ghose will share knowledge and foster meaningful connections across communities in the United States and India. Fulbrighters engage in cutting-edge research and expand their professional networks, often continuing research collaborations started abroad and laying the groundwork for forging future partnerships between institutions. Upon returning to their home countries, institutions, labs, and classrooms, they share their stories and often become active supporters of international exchange, inviting foreign scholars to campus and encouraging colleagues and students to go abroad. As Fulbright Scholar alumni, their careers are enriched by joining a network of thousands of esteemed scholars, many of whom are leaders in their fields. Fulbright alumni include 60 Nobel Prize laureates, 86 Pulitzer Prize recipients, and 37 who have served as a head of state or government.

The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to forge lasting connections between the people of the United States and the people of other countries, counter misunderstandings, and help people and nations work together toward common goals. Since its establishment in 1946, the Fulbright Program has funded more than 390,000 scholars to pursue a diverse array of projects. 

Rajan Jain, assistant professor of medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine, received the 2021 Donald Seldin~Holly Smith Award for Pioneering Research from the American Society for Clinical Investigation, which recognizes physician-scientists who have made major contributions to science, mentorship, and translation of discovery to clinical impact. Dr. Jain was awarded $30,000 to advance his academic efforts in understanding and deciphering how cells decide their fate and remember their identity over their lifetime. In addition to his award, Dr. Jain will deliver a scientific talk at the 2022 Association of American Physicians/American Society for Clinical Investigation/American Physician Scientists Association Joint Meeting.

Julie Nelson Davis, professor of history of art, has received a 2021 fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. She is among 184 writers, scholars, artists, and scientists chosen as fellows in the U.S. and Canada from nearly 3,000 applicants.

An expert on Japanese prints and illustrated books, Dr. Davis focuses on Ukiyo-e, the “images of the floating world,” and the arts of Japan’s Tokugawa period (1615-1868). She was the founding director of the Penn Forum on Japan and co-founder of the Penn Faculty Working Group for Reading Asian Manuscripts. Dr. Davis is the author of Utamaro and the Spectacle of Beauty, Partners in Print: Artistic Collaboration and the Ukiyo-e Market, and the forthcoming Picturing the Floating World: Ukiyo-e in Context.

Penn Arts & Sciences has named 20 students from the College of Arts & Sciences, the College of Liberal & Professional Studies, and the Graduate Division as 2021 Dean’s Scholars. This honor is presented annually to students who exhibit exceptional academic performance and intellectual promise.

College of Arts & Sciences

Zoe Belardo (Anthropology)
Jean Chapiro (Communication, Cinema & Media Studies, Visual Studies)
Annah Chollet (Gender & Women’s Studies, Neuroscience)
Carson Eckhard (English, History)
Regina Fairbanks (Biology)
Adam Konkol (Biochemistry, Biophysics, Mathematics, and Physics)
Danielle Miles-Langaigne (Political Science)
Varun Sudunagunta (Neuroscience)
Abigail Timmel (Physics)

College of Liberal & Professional Studies – Undergraduate Program

Emily Davis (Biology)

Professional Master’s Programs

Haley Zeliff (Master of Environmental Studies)

Graduate Division – Doctoral Programs

Ajay Kumar Batra (English)
Thomas Brazelton (Mathematics)
Elizabeth Bynum (Anthropology, Music)
Nicholas Foretek (History)
Briana Last (Psychology)
William Neuhaus (Chemistry)
Ian Peebles (Philosophy)
Rebecca Schut (Demography and Sociology)
Tyler Shine (History of Art)

School of Arts & Sciences Senior Sakshi Sehgal has received a Harry S. Truman Scholarship, a merit-based award of as much as $30,000 for graduate or professional school to prepare for a career in public service.

Ms. Sehgal is among 62 Truman Scholars selected this year from 845 candidates nominated by 328 colleges and universities. She is the 30th Truman Scholar from Penn since the first awards in 1977. While Truman Scholars are typically juniors, Ms. Sehgal was eligible as a graduating senior because she will complete her bachelor’s degree in three years. She is a philosophy major with a minor in chemistry and has sub-matriculated into the philosophy master’s program in the School of Arts & Sciences.

Identifying as a first-generation, low-income student (FGLI), Ms. Sehgal advocates for FGLI-specific needs at Penn through her involvement with the Penn First student group and as a New

Student Orientation coordinator, leading panels about student resources and helping to distribute care packages to incoming FGLI students. Ms. Sehgal also serves as co-chair of the Penn Undergraduate Health Council, co-president of Global Women Empowerment, president of Penn Walks to Wellness, and as a peer manager for the College of Arts and Sciences Peer Advising Program.

Ms. Sehgal also has been deeply engaged in public service in Atlanta; she has interned at the Centers for Disease Control and volunteered with the DeKalb County Medical Reserve Corps, and the South Fulton County Behavioral/Mental Health Community Action Team. A 2018 Gates Scholar and Jack Kent Cooke Scholar, Ms. Sehgal is committed to a career in medicine and public health, particularly the behavioral and mental health needs in lower-income populations. Accordingly, she plans to pursue both an MD and an MPH.

The Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation was created by Congress in 1975 to be the nation’s living memorial to the 33rd president. The foundation has a mission to select and support the next generation of public service leaders. In addition to funding, Truman Scholars also receive priority admission and supplemental financial aid at some graduate institutions, leadership training, and special internship opportunities within the federal government.

Ms. Sehgal applied to the Harry S. Truman Scholarship program with assistance from Penn’s Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships.

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

Work-Life Workshops

Open to faculty and staff.
For full descriptions and to register: www.hr.upenn.edu/registration.

• Webinar: Healthy Connections; accessible online the entire month.
• Webinar: Caregiving Technology Gadgets Apps and More; May 4, 1-2 p.m.
• Chair Yoga; May 5 and May 19, noon-1 p.m.
• 6-Week Resilience and Well-Being Workshop (Week 4); May 6, noon-1:30 p.m.
• Developing a Daily Practice for Calm; May 11, 12:30-1:30 p.m.
• Dealing with Difficult People; May 13, 12:30-1:30 p.m.
• Leadership Awareness Training - Supporting the Well-Being of Your Team; May 18, noon-1 p.m.
• Guided Mindful Meditation; May 21, 12:30-1:30 p.m.
• Minding Your Emotions: A Mindfulness Meditation Workshop with Dr. Michael Baime; May 26, 12:30-1:30 p.m.
• 6-Week Resilience and Well-Being Workshop (Week 5); May 27, noon-1:30 p.m.

Personal and Professional Development Workshops

Open to faculty and staff.
For full descriptions and to register: http://knowledgelink.upenn.edu/.

• Using the Tuition Benefit for You and Your Family; May 12, 12:30-1:30 p.m.
• Getting Work Done; May 26, 12:30-1:30 p.m.

Penn Healthy You Workshops

Open to faculty and staff.
For full descriptions and to register: www.hr.upenn.edu/registration.

• Virgin Pulse Wellness Platform Demo; May 4, noon-1 p.m.
• Mat Pilates; May 7 and May 20, noon-1 p.m.
• Smart Money Moves in Your 20s and 30s; May 12, 11 a.m.-noon.
• Gentle Yoga; May 14, noon-1 p.m.
• Bodycombat; May 17, noon-1 p.m.
• The Psychology of Eating: Does It Really Come Down to Willpower?; May 21, noon-1 p.m.
• Vinyasa Flow Yoga; May 25, noon-1 p.m.

—Human Resources

Conferences

30        Undergraduate Senior Honors Thesis Poster Session; senior communications majors present on their theses; 10:30 a.m.; online event; info: https://www.asc.upenn.edu/news-events/events/ (Annenberg School for Communication).

Exhibits

30        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-30 (Penn Museum).

Fitness & Learning

27        ODEI Spotlight: Understanding Asian Racialized Trauma; aims to help the Asian international student body of Penn and allies to start a conversation, centering Asian perspectives, about the rising anti-Asian hate we are witnessing nationally; 11 a.m.; online event; register: https://understanding-asian-racialized-trauma.eventbrite.com (ODEI; Penn Engineering).

28        Birding at Brigantine; on-location field trip with birder Sharon Meeker; 9:30 a.m.-1 p.m.; tickets: $45/members; $50/non-members; info: https://experience.morrisarboretum.org/Info.aspx?EventID=24 (Morris Arboretum).

            iCommunicate Workshop Series: The World of Intercultural Communication; learn how to advance meaningful exchange, understanding, and respect among members of the diverse Penn community; noon; online event; register: https://tinyurl.com/i-comm-workshop (Nursing).

29        Take Back the Night; digital version of the popular anti-sexual violence march, hosted in conjunction with several local universities; 6 p.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://forms.gle/4pzq2kZFGzBc9NzX9 (Penn Women’s Center, Thomas Jefferson University).

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

28        Visiting Faculty Scholars of Color Series; Monique Morris, author, filmmaker; noon.

29        Literary Lunch with Juliana; for staff and faculty; noon.

            Stress Management; 12:30-3 p.m.

30        IES Predoctoral Program Seminar; Leah Jones, GSE; noon.

Special Events

30        2021 Carnot Prize Award Ceremony; awarded to Sheila Oparaocha, ENERGIA; noon; online event; info: https://tinyurl.com/carnot-2021 (Kleinman Center for Energy Policy).

Sports

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

29        Baseball at La Salle; 3 p.m.

30        Baseball at Lasalle; time TBA.

            (M/W) Track & Field at Penn Twilight; time TBA.

Talks

27        Inductive Bias of Neural Networks; Cengiz Pehlevan, Harvard; 4 p.m.; Zoom meeting; info: https://www.math.upenn.edu/events (Mathematics).

28        Applications of Economics and Behavioral Science to Public Health; Harsha Thirumurthy, medical ethics & health policy; 10 a.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://tinyurl.com/thirumurthy-talk-apr-28 (South Asia Center).

           The Peril and Promise of Three-Dimensional Planets; Emily Rauscher, University of Michigan; 2 p.m.; Zoom meeting; join: https://tinyurl.com/rauscher-talk-apr-28 (Physics & Astronomy).

29        60-Second Lectures - Being Stuck “Here”: Comics’ Lessons for Pandemic Living; Jean-Christophe Cloutier, English; noon; Twitter and Facebook stream: @pennsas (School of Arts and Sciences).

           Not Just a Trend: Digital Activism, Black Lives Matter, and Black Japanese Storytelling; Kimberly Hassel, Princeton; noon; online event; register: https://tinyurl.com/hassel-talk-apr-29 (Center for East Asian Studies).

            Mutualisms to Scale: How Ant-Plant Mutualisms Increase Diversity and Impact the Carbon Cycle; Beth Pringle, University of Nevada, Reno; 4 p.m.; Zoom meeting; join: https://tinyurl.com/murthy-talk-march-18 (Biology).

            Reducing Maternal Mortality: Harnessing Multilevel Approaches to Reduce Maternal Death; panel of speakers; 7-8:45 p.m.; BlueJeans meeting; register: https://primetime.bluejeans.com/a2m/register/tskdgtje (Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies, Nursing).

30        Dear Pandemic: Nerdy Girls Navigating the COVID-19 Overwhelm; Alison Buttenheim, Penn Nursing; 1:30 p.m.; online event; register: https://tinyurl.com/buttenheim-talk-apr-30 (Penn Forum for Women Faculty).

            Social Norms-Based Messaging: A (Nonpolluting) Engine for Environmental Action; Robert Cialdini, author; 4 p.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://tinyurl.com/cialdini-talk-apr-30 (Goldstone Forum, Penn Alumni).

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

27        Nano to Microscale Engineering and Bioprinting of Complex Craniofacial Tissues; Luiz Bertassoni, Oregon Health & Science University; noon.

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

27        Naive Analytics Equilibrium; Ron Berman, Wharton; 4 p.m.

28        Falling Interest Rates and Misallocations: Lessons from General Equilibrium; Vladimir Asriyan, CREI; noon.

            Quantum Proof Systems—How Powerful Are They? Anindya De, economics; noon.

            Demand Analysis Under Latent Choice Constraints: An Application to the US Dialysis Industry; Nikhil Agarwal, MIT; 3:30 p.m.

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

29        Living Room Lecture: Quechua: Celebrating the Relevance of Indigenous Cultures; Américo Mendoza–Mori, Quechua and Spanish; 5:30 p.m.

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To view the full April AT PENN calendar, visit https://almanac.upenn.edu/at-penn-calendar/april-at-penn-2021

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 12-18, 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 12-18, 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.

18^th District

Below are the Crimes Against Persons from the 18th District: 6 incidents (2 assaults, 2 domestic assaults, 1 indecent assault and 1 robbery) were reported for April 12-18, 2021 by the 18th District, covering the Schuylkill River to 49th St & Market St to Woodland Avenue.

Nominations are now open for Penn’s Green Purchasing Awards. Now in its seventh year, the program is held in conjunction with the Environmental Sustainability Advisory Committee (ESAC) Purchasing Subcommittee and Penn Sustainability. This award recognizes the leading actions of any individual or team that advances the development of sustainable purchasing practices at Penn.  This award program is a chance to spotlight those who are championing sustainability across campus, as well as to celebrate projects that are contributing to a more sustainable future. Click here to view the past recipients of the award—some of these achievements may inspire you to submit your colleagues’ work for consideration.

Visit the Green Purchasing Award web page to review the nomination guidelines and information about the submittal process. Nominations will remain open until Friday, July 30, 2021. Award recipients will be honored in fall 2021.

The Wharton School and Penn Engineering are now accepting proposals for the 2021 Ripple Blockchain Research Fund. All Penn standing faculty are eligible to submit their proposals.

The Ripple Project at Penn is funding blockchain research projects across the University through the Wharton School and Penn Engineering, supporting individual or collaborative faculty projects which may be cross-disciplinary and/or cross-school. As an emerging technology, blockchain requires rigorous academic research to address its capabilities, applications, security and legality.

Proposals are due on May 7, 2021. For additional details and submission instructions for Wharton, contact Jennifer O’Keefe at jenncole@wharton.upenn.edu.  For additional instructions and details on applying for funds for Wharton, contact Sarah Hammer at sarah21@wharton.upenn.edu.

Penn is among 17 initial leading global universities engaging with Ripple through its University Blockchain Research Initiative. For more information on this initiative, please visit: https://ripple.com/insights/ripple-introduces-the-university-blockchain-research-initiative/

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

Two-Step Verification has been implemented for most PennKey users at the University of Pennsylvania. The fastest, easiest way to verify yourself for Two-Step is to use the Duo Mobile application on your smartphone (available for both Android and iPhones).

See for yourself how this works at https://www.isc.upenn.edu/how-to/two-step-faq

While Penn supports other verification code delivery methods like key fobs and SMS texts, Duo Mobile is the recommended solution. Key fobs can be lost, accidentally fall out of sync, and rely on non-replaceable batteries that eventually will fail. Verification codes sent by SMS text message usually require network access to work, and may be delayed or go undelivered due to network or carrier issues.

Duo Mobile avoids these problems. Verifying your identity by approving a “push” prompt is fast and requires no typing. Even when you lack network access, verification codes can still be instantly generated on the Duo Mobile app.

To set up and configure Duo Mobile, find detailed Two-Step instructions here: https://www.isc.upenn.edu/how-to/two-step-verification-detailed-instructions

When Duo Mobile is configured, a Two-Step Verification prompt can be accepted by tapping on “Approve,” with no need to type in a verification code. If you have inadequate or non-existent Wi-Fi or mobile data access, you can still use Duo Mobile by opening the application, tapping the University of Pennsylvania profile, and entering the verification code shown onscreen.

Note that with Duo Mobile, enrolling a new or replacement smartphone requires a brief setup process (even when using the same phone number as a previously enrolled device):

• Generate one-time use codes before getting the new phone.
• After the new phone is in hand, go to your Two-Step dashboard by signing in and using a one-time verification code if necessary, and then select “New Phone for Duo Push.”  
• Enroll your phone in Duo Push without having to re-enroll in Two-Step altogether. Directions for a replacement phone: https://www.isc.upenn.edu/how-to/two-step-verification-configuring-replacement-phone

If you need a one-time verification code to access your Two-Step dashboard, contact the Two-Step hotline at (215) 746-2222, available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

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

John Paul MacDuffie

When I talk to my colleagues, we’re all trying to figure out what to keep and what to leave behind when we return to in-person teaching. Virtual teaching highlighted challenges that were always there. Engaging students—never a given—was harder than ever through a screen. Establishing community, where physical proximity provides a head-start, was even more difficult. Unequal access to favorable learning conditions was made literally visible in the vast differences in home situations for our students. Finally, how to calibrate standards and rigor in this new teaching mode?

In March of 2020, I started teaching a brand-new elective: “Work and Technology.” One section, 43 Penn undergraduates. Having never met my students, we began the virtual adventure simultaneously.

Preparing the syllabus in the fall of 2019, I had no trouble finding topics—Luddites and robots, job creation vs. elimination, skill-biased technological change, ethics of AI and machine learning, the gig economy, and algorithmic management. But I worried my own skills with course technology would underwhelm our tech-savvy undergraduates. Linda Lee and Becky Moulder from Wharton’s Courseware team came to my aid. Inspired by a course taught by Wharton alum Adam Seth Litwin at Cornell, we shaped a different sort of elective—with new assignments, course materials, and session designs. Despite the buzz around flipped classrooms and mixing in asynchronous content, I planned to do my usual discussions of readings and cases via volunteers, warm calls, and occasional cold calls.

Then COVID-19 moved quickly from being a distant news item to a proximate threat—and Penn announced that all classes after spring break would be virtual. While scrambling to adjust, I realized that teaching “Work and Technology” gave me leeway to try new things—process aligning with content—in and out of the virtual classroom.

Engagement. To start, I needed to know what my students were facing. Like many, I sent out a survey. Given my manageable numbers, I also asked students to schedule a 15-minute “get acquainted” video meeting with me. I found out who had privacy and who was sharing space with family members; who had fast Internet and who faced spotty service and bandwidth competition; who would be working a job to help out with family finances and who didn’t have to.

I also created a “journal” assignment with a “workspace of one” for each student, inviting them to reflect on “work and tech” experiences, not just in my class but across all of their courses and experiences during COVID-19 lockdown. I encouraged them to use the journal to communicate concerns or feedback to me.

Community. Based on polls about our learning process, I settled on a method to build community. We would start and end in plenary but meet in breakout groups in between—randomized groups on Tuesdays and pre-assigned groups on Thursdays. Blue Jeans (Wharton’s platform at the time) was terrible for pre-assigned breakouts so I appointed a member from each “Bird Group” (names from sports teams, e.g., Eagles!) to set up a video meeting and invite their teammates. Notes on each group’s discussion went into a Google Doc for review later; and I cold called groups back in plenary. From student journals, I learned they enjoyed the combination of “Randomized Tuesdays” to meet new people and “Bird Group” Thursdays to see familiar faces and build friendships.

Access. Besides remembering which students faced technology-related challenges or distractions at home, I became newly conscious of time zones. While I didn’t create asynchronous content, I did adjust team membership for one group assignment, making them small (two) and time-zone-matching the members. Another access choice, encouraged by Linda and Becky, was to provide all my course materials through Penn Library, making them free to students.

Rigor. I had previously chosen new assignments for the elective. The group assignment was a PechaKucha (PK). Japanese for “chit-chat,” this novel format invites creativity while imposing constraints; a PK is 20 slides that auto-advance every 20 seconds, accompanied by a scripted voiceover. Teams would choose a technology from the (distant or recent) past, examine what impact was anticipated, and then analyze what happened. Slides in a PK are filled with striking images—no words—and the narrated voiceover carries the analytic load. I kept this, insisting on tight conformity to format.

The first individual assignment was also new: a “job+technology” interview, i.e., a brief oral history of a subject’s career experiences with technology. I encouraged students to ask a parent, grandparent, or any person they wanted to get to know better. This assignment stayed; it felt perfect for the moment when everyone was stuck at home. Students submitted the video file, a word-for-word transcript of a short segment, and a “headnote” summary.

With less opportunity to assess whether students were absorbing the course materials (which I expanded to include videos, podcasts, and data tables), I added quizzes—right before the end of class, four minutes, four questions. The questions were tough, but the quizzes weren’t graded; doing them got participation points. However, a quiz could be won, based on accuracy and speed; a $5 Starbucks gift card was the prize. From the journals, I knew that students looked forward to the shot of adrenalin from the quiz—and some were extremely gung-ho about winning!

I felt unencumbered in making these on-the-fly changes—indeed, it was fun. At the same time, the weight of COVID-19—rising death tolls, the discovery of aerosol transmission, the burdens of lockdown—was affecting us all. It felt important to acknowledge in every class.

I added a slide on “Learning in a Time of COVID (with apologies to Gabriel Garcia Marquez).” I chose poems about losses and difficulties of COVID-19 times—or tried humor with cartoons or spoofs (e.g. “I wandered lonely as a cloud (Wordsworth)—as the CDC advised”). Another theme was optimism and hope in the midst of darkness, e.g., “Keep your face always towards the sunshine, and the shadows will fall behind you.” (misattributed to Walt Whitman, origin most likely an 1850 Charles Swain poem, some attribute to a Maori saying). We didn’t discuss these—but from the looks on students’ faces (and the journals), I could tell they valued this ritual.

Now it’s 2021 and I’m teaching the course again. I’ve tweaked it, I have two sections now and 100+ students. Zoom is much better than BlueJeans, but by this point Zoom fatigue is real and cumulative; more video cameras are off; not everyone is doing regular journal entries. Overall, though, the feeling of the course is much the same—a learning adventure under extraordinary circumstances.

What will happen when I first teach this course in person? Here’s what I plan to keep: offering many, many avenues for participation; acknowledging what’s going on in the outside world, not just rarely when it intersects a course topic but in every class; assigning videos and podcasts as well as readings; and sticking with unconventional assignments like PechaKucha, the “job+tech” interview, and the personal journal. Breakout groups won’t be as easy but I’ll still use them—and mixing random and familiar groupings is a keeper too.

Seeing my students and their faces outside of a Zoom box is my greatest desire. While rapid switching between speaker and gallery mode can simulate “close listening,” Zoom does best when you are meeting with someone you already know. I’ll need to be back in the classroom to have those relationships again. But I’ll hope to draw on what I experienced in the spring of 2020 to strive for more engagement and community in each and every session. Maybe I’ll mix in the odd virtual class for old time’s sake!

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John Paul MacDuffie is a professor of management at the Wharton School.

This essay continues the series that began in the fall of 1994 as the joint creation of the College of Arts and Sciences,
the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Lindback Society for Distinguished Teaching.

See https://almanac.upenn.edu/talk-about-teaching-and-learning-archive for previous essays.