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Researching cultural heritage at the Penn Museum
Sierra Williams standing on a stairway in a library.

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Researching cultural heritage at the Penn Museum

Aiming for a career in the museum field, Sierra Williams, a rising third-year in the College of Arts & Sciences, is working on a research study at the Penn Museum’s Penn Cultural Heritage Center through the Summer Humanities Internship Program.

5 min. read

Lynn Meskell elected Fellow to the British Academy
Lynn Meskell

Meskell is the Richard D. Green Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor with joint appointments in the School of Arts & Sciences, the Weitzman School of Design, and the Penn Museum.

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Lynn Meskell elected Fellow to the British Academy

The honor recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding contributions to the humanities and social sciences.

3 min. read

A hands-on education of Pennsylvania and New Jersey ecology
Three people walking through a field.

One of six field trips in Sally Willig’s Regional Field Ecology class took students to Natural Lands’ Mariton Wildlife Sanctuary.

(Image: Chi-Hyun Kim)

A hands-on education of Pennsylvania and New Jersey ecology

Sally Willig has been teaching Regional Field Ecology at Penn since 1999, educating students about plants, soils, and more at sites such as Ringing Rocks County Park and the Pine Barrens.

4 min. read

Strongest nor’easters getting stronger
A map showing increase in nor’easters.

Image: Courtesy of Michael Mann

Strongest nor’easters getting stronger

Research from Professor Michael Mann and Ph.D. students Annabelle Horton and Mackenzie Weaver shows that as the worst of these East Coast winter storms intensify, so does their destructive potential—a facet that current coastal risk assessments often ignore.

Michele W. Berger

2 min. read

Penn students and alumni awarded Fulbright 2025-26 U.S. Student Program grants
headshots of 17 people

The 17 Penn students and alumni who have been offered 2025-26 Fulbright U.S. Student Program grants are (from left) (top row) Emily R. Antrilli, Leo Biehl, Emmie Chacker, Claire Elliot, Zane Grenoble, and Arielle Hardy; (center row) Theresa Haupt, Timothy Lie, Paul Lin, Henry McDaniel, and Nova Meng; (bottom row) Aleena Parenti, Rajat Ramesh, Elan Roth, Emma Steinheimer, Rachel Swym, and Teresa Xie. Not pictured: Anjalee Bhuyan and Margaret Gerhart.

(Images: Courtesy of the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships)

Penn students and alumni awarded Fulbright 2025-26 U.S. Student Program grants

As of early July, 19 Penn students and alumni have been offered Fulbright U.S. Student Program grants for the 2025-26 academic year. They will conduct research, pursue graduate degrees, or teach English in more than a dozen countries.

5 min. read

Library research in action: Wandering the stacks with Mengliu Cheng
Mengliu Cheng.

History doctoral student Mengliu Cheng.

(Image: Courtesy of Penn Libraries)

Library research in action: Wandering the stacks with Mengliu Cheng

The history doctoral student is working on a dissertation about agricultural science in modern China with the help of Penn Libraries’ Zilberman Family Center for Global Collections.

From Penn Libraries

2 min. read

Can data from the Large Hadron Collider snap string theory?
Close-up of ATLAS detector at CERN.

ATLAS’s wheel-like end-cap reveals the maze of sensors primed to catch proton smash-ups at the LHC. Researchers comb through billions of events in search of fleeting “ghost” tracks that might expose cracks in string theory.

(Image: Courtesy of CERN)

Can data from the Large Hadron Collider snap string theory?

Theoretical physicist Jonathan Heckman of the School of Arts & Sciences has put a spin on ideas related to testing string theory: Rather than looking to verify it, he and his collaborators sought a novel way to falsify it. Heckman and Ph.D. candidate Rebecca Hicks explain string theory, researchers’ quest to unify physics, and what their new paper puts forward.

10 min. read

How to prepare for the impacts of a changing climate
A map of precipitation anomalies in Central America.

Precipitation anomalies in the Dry Corridor in Central America. Regions in red show significant drying during El Niño summers.

(Image: Courtesy of Environmental Innovations Initiative)

How to prepare for the impacts of a changing climate

Irina Marinov, associate professor at the Department of Earth and Environmental Science, leads a research community focused on understanding global climate impacts, risks, and vulnerabilities to enable local action.

From the Environmental Innovations Initiative

2 min. read