Bioengineering a ‘natural connection’ for rotator cuff repair
Researchers at Penn Medicine have developed a new fix that imitates the body’s natural environment and could lead to more durable rotator cuff repairs.
A decade-long Wharton study in Zambia has found that a short course helped girls stay in school, delay marriage, and deliver strong returns on public funding at low cost.
Geomimicry offers a new framework for engineering sustainable materials
In a new paper, Penn Engineers introduce geomimicry, a framework that explores whether the way soils, sediments, and other Earth-mediated substances behave—rather than what they are made of—may be useful for building sustainable materials.
Penn’s 287th academic year formally kicked off with Convocation, where Penn President J. Larry Jameson declared the start of the Class of 2030’s ‘Penn odyssey.’
As Pennsylvania districts consider later bells, Penn Medicine sleep and neuroscience experts explain why adolescent biology can make early school start times especially challenging.
Vaughn A. Booker, associate professor of Africana Studies in the School of Arts & Sciences, investigates the history and diversity of 20th-century African American religions.
Empowering high school students through speech and debate
In an internship through the Netter Center for Community Partnerships, third-year Renee Liu developed a comprehensive afterschool speech and debate program that responded to needs identified by students and faculty in two West Philadelphia high schools.
As part of the New Student Orientation welcome experience, new students kicked off their inaugural campus weekend with movie nights, College House meetings, campus tours and an open-mic, culminating in a night at the National Constitution Center and an afterparty at Houston Hall.
Former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter launches Penn initiative connecting past mayors with future leaders
The first-of-its-kind Public Service and Policy Initiative brings accomplished local governing executives to Penn to translate experience into research, talent development, and policy innovation.
From Aug. 29th through Dec. 13th, Penn students will offer comprehensive tours of the Arthur Ross Gallery’s fall exhibit “At Liberty: Life in the City of Brotherly Love During the Early Republic.” Visitors are invited to explore, ask questions, and connect with the history of Philadelphia through the Revolutionary social landscape. Tours are offered on a first-come, first-served basis throughout the run of the show on Wednesdays from 4:00-6:00 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 12:00-3:00 p.m. The tours are limited to groups of 10. Free and open to the public. No preregistration is required.
During New Student Orientation, the Platt Student Performing Arts House’s Theater Arts Council will host a short concert musical production, followed by a “meet and theat” for students to meet and interact. Free and open to the Penn community.
A University-wide initiative to shape Penn’s future
Guided by Penn’s strategic framework, In Principle and Practice, Penn Forward launched in September 2025 with six working groups of faculty, staff, students, and postdoctoral scholars who challenged legacy assumptions and proposed bold, actionable strategies to advance Penn’s mission and strengthen operations.
Penn Forward’s initial nine priority initiatives aim to build trust with those we serve, enable bold discovery, and extend Penn’s geographic reach and impact across a lifetime. Learn more about these initiatives and follow along with Penn Today as Penn continues to drive forward.
Chapters of Change: Thirty years of life sciences transformation at Penn
In the fourth and final installment of the series, ‘Chapters of Change’ highlights another transformational moment in Penn’s past when the evolution of life sciences research sparked the University to commit to investing in new research facilities and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
Penn’s community engagement progress at the turn of the century
The third installment in the limited series ‘Chapters of Change’ explores how Penn has led community engagement efforts in public education, economic development, and neighborhood prosperity during a time of widespread change in the nation’s cities.
Chapters of Change: Thirty years of life sciences transformation at Penn
In the fourth and final installment of the series, ‘Chapters of Change’ highlights another transformational moment in Penn’s past when the evolution of life sciences research sparked the University to commit to investing in new research facilities and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
How the Quaker Commitment empowered one student to create her path at Penn
Gabrielle Fine, a fourth year in the Wharton School and recipient of financial aid from the Quaker Commitment, will graduate in May with an interdisciplinary skillset and new perspectives from a global adventure and local engagement.
Burnout among psychiatric nurses is high. What can hospitals do to improve?
To reduce nursing burnout, Justinna Dixon of the School of Nursing says, “One of the main takeaways is that 40% of current inpatient psychiatric nurses right now are burned out...Staffing was a huge driver of these outcomes, the impact of the work environment on the poor job outcomes of the nurses.”
The quantum computer revolution is tantalizingly close
“When the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, or Eniac, was first built by the University of Pennsylvania for the US Army in 1946, it weighed about 30 tons and had 18,000 vacuum tubes that filled an expansive room...Now, a typical laptop can do more than 3 billion calculations per second and costs around $1,000.”
The Fed doesn’t know who’s financing the $3 trillion AI boom
Joao F. Gomes of the Wharton School writes, “AI is also creating a large and rapidly evolving financing ecosystem whose leverage, exposures and vulnerabilities are much less well understood.”
