Santosh Nori and Jay Shah in front of medical van

Primary care, delivered

Class of 2019 alumni, in collaboration with Sayre Health Clinic, bring housing and food insecure people in Philadelphia primary care through a medically outfitted van.

Pedestrians and bicyclists at a crosswalk wearing face coverings in a Taiwanese city.

Taiwan’s tech-savvy citizens helped flatten its COVID-19 curve

Single hospital bed in an abandoned hallway

Half of low-income communities have no ICU beds

Announcement

Fall Semester Planning

Learn more →

SP2 student launches remote health care Kickstarter project during COVID-19

Phase II of research resumption expands on-campus activities

Lessons from Hiroshima, 75 years later

Family and primary care doctors may have been most at risk of dying from COVID

Flipping the pyramid: Steps companies can take to close the opportunity gap

Gouverneur Morris: A Founder, disabled American

Update to undergraduates on plans for the fall semester

EVENTS → NEWS ARCHIVES →

Introducing Wharton dean Erika James

On July 1, James began a new chapter in her career as the first woman and first person of color to be appointed dean of the Wharton School in the institution’s 139-year history.

From Wharton Stories ・ August 4, 2020

Masked person puts a sign on door that says "OPEN BUSINESS AS NEW NORMAL"

Why the pandemic introduces language that is ‘hard to explain’

Linguist Andrea Beltrama discusses new words and phrases that have entered the language during the current health crisis, and the “massive” impact the pandemic has had on language.

Kristina García ・ August 3, 2020

Old-fashioned alarm clock on top of an empty plate with a table setting

How our body’s internal clocks communicate may impact our overall health

Most cells contain molecular clocks, but the requirement of peripheral clocks for rhythmicity, and their effects on physiology, are not well understood. Now, a new study reveal the roles of the hepatocyte clock in cell communication and metabolism.

From Penn Medicine News ・ August 4, 2020

A person standing along a glass wall in a building with a yelllow waffle ceiling.

Brain scans of 9- to 11-year-olds offer clues about aggressive, antisocial behavior

Two new papers, one about gray matter, the other about reward behavior, suggest that at the neural level not all conduct problems look the same.

Michele W. Berger ・ July 31, 2020

designs for drive thru and walk up testing sites in pastel colors

Expressions of color, comfort, and creativity in the fight against COVID-19

With many summer internships disrupted by the pandemic, the Architecture Department at Penn partnered with Surface magazine to create the Summer School at Penn, a month-long virtual lecture series and design competition.

Erica K. Brockmeier ・ July 30, 2020

Offsetting carbon emissions, one ton at a time

delaware river at sunrise with a boat on the water

Campus & Community

What would it take to make the Delaware ‘swimmable’?

black lives matter protest in a full street

Health Sciences

Police killings and Black mental health

Campus & Community

COVID-19’s assault on Black and Brown communities

Racism, inequality, and the coronavirus have combined to cause an alarming number of COVID-19 cases and deaths among African-American and Latinx populations.

Open magazine with a photo of Shirley Chisholm on the left and an article titled The Ticket That Might Have Been: Shirley Chisholm on the right.

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

Design faculty and Art for Philadelphia raise money against police brutality

Weitzman faculty members David Hartt and Sharon Hayes are among a group of Philadelphia-based artists participating in Art for Philadelphia, a fundraising initiative to support those protesting against police brutality.

A hand holds a pen in front of an iceberg in the ocean

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

Engaging with the climate crisis, online

Across a quartet of digital platforms, including one for this week’s Climate Sensing and Data Storytelling convening, the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities is encouraging public engagement and the pairing of environmental art and science on climate issues.

Professor standing with hands on her hips in the library with a chandelier in the background

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

Understanding the Americas through material texts

Penn and Princeton partner to create a now-virtual symposium to explore 38 objects, including books, journals, maps, musical scores, visual art, wampum, textiles, stone tablets, and various kinds of handwork.

Campus & Community

Loyal classmen

At the turn of the 20th century, Julian Abele and Louis Magaziner—a Black man and an immigrant Jew—were standouts in Penn’s School of Fine Arts about to launch distinguished careers in architecture. They were also beginning what would be a lifelong friendship. A Magaziner descendant and Abele admirer investigates what brought them together.

Illustration of a T cell releasing signaling molecules, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-10, and IL-13

Health Sciences

Navigating cytokine storms

Pairing their expertise, Nilam Mangalmurti of the Perelman School of Medicine and Christopher Hunter of the School of Veterinary Medicine have been working to understand the protective and harmful aspects of the immune response, including in COVID-19.

Two people side by side in different images. In the one on the left, the person stands in an office and a blue suit, hands crossed low in front. In the one on the right is a person in a tie and white coat that reads, "Carl H. June, M.D. Abramson Cancer Center"

Health Sciences

Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Carl June elected to National Academy of Sciences

The researchers, from the Annenberg Public Policy Center and the Perelman School of Medicine, join a class of honored scholars recognized for their unique and ongoing contributions to original research.

Fluorescent microscopic image shows mammary gland cells

Health Sciences

Tailoring treatment for triple-negative breast cancer

Research led by the School of Veterinary Medicine’s Rumela Chakrabarti identified a molecular pathway responsible for the disease’s progression and spread.

Health Sciences

Racing to deliver a vaccine to the masses

While the world works to flatten the curve, scientists at Penn and Wistar hope to deliver the COVID-19 pandemic’s silver bullet: a vaccine that effectively protects people from infection.

Several smokestacks giving off smoke in a scene showing a top of a building and the skyline in the distance.

Health Sciences

Continued CO2 emissions will impair cognition

Rising CO2 causes more than a climate crisis, according to a study from Penn and CU Boulder. It may directly harm our ability to think.

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

The Arctic could have almost no summer sea ice by 2040, decades sooner than expected

Statistical analysis by economists from Penn and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco could supplement current climate models and help global climate prediction.

Aerial view of large greens landscape with solar panels set out over a large field.

Campus & Community

Penn signs Power Purchase Agreement for largest solar project in Pennsylvania

The agreement will result in the construction in central Pennsylvania of two new solar energy facilities that combined can generate 220 megawatts of electricity.

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

Ecuador’s vice president talks biodiversity protection

Vice President Otto Sonnenholzner spoke to a packed Perry World House about protecting the environment while balancing economic growth.

Tzu-Yung Huang, Lee Bassett and David Hopper in the Quantum Engineering Laboratory.

Science & Technology

Engineers ensure quantum experiments get off to the right start

Research from the group of Lee Bassett in the School of Engineering and Applied Science describes a new approach for resetting and validating quantum states to reduce uncertainty in quantum computing experiments.

four people standing in front of an optics table behind a tangle of wires in a lab in

Science & Technology

Bringing ideas to life through experimental physics

Researchers in the lab of Liang Wu are generating data to gain a better understanding of the properties of quantum materials. Their fundamental research can lead to applications ranging from better optoelectronic devices to quantum computers.

a group of 40 people posing on a staircase

Science & Technology

A ‘quantum leap’ for quantum information science

By bringing together experts across campus and across disciplines, Penn is poised to lead ongoing efforts towards developing quantum applications using atomically-thin materials.

blue and yellow swirls of light around a large dark spiral

Science & Technology

Unique electrical properties in quantum materials can be controlled using light

New research on Weyl semimetals, a class of quantum materials, unlocks unique quantum properties that can be used to create light-controlled electronic devices in the future.

Forbes

National Science Foundation invests $104 million to launch four new engineering research centers

Cherie Kagan of the School of Engineering and Applied Science spoke about the Penn-led IoT4Ag center’s work: “We need new technology to meet the challenges of a world with a growing population and changing climate. We simply need to produce more crops for every drop of water or Joule of energy we’re currently using to realize a food, energy and water-secure future.”

FULL STORY →

The New York Times

Five-minute coronavirus stress resets

Research by Veena Graff of the Perelman School of Medicine found that serene music can be highly effective in decreasing preoperative anxiety in patients.

FULL STORY →

The Washington Post

Schumer’s overblown attack on GOP proposal for medical malpractice lawsuits

Allison Hoffman of the Law School said the Republican-proposed Safe to Work Act wouldn’t wholly prevent medical malpractice lawsuits, as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has suggested it would, saying that it would actually only apply to coronavirus-related health care services. However, she said, the bill does have other concerning loopholes.

FULL STORY →

Associated Press

Biden on cognitive test: ‘Why the hell would I take a test?’

Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center said verbal slips are not enough to conclude that a presidential candidate is unqualified for the job. “If you can’t focus, that’s a problem. If you can’t provide a coherent answer, that’s a problem. (But) sometimes what you’re seeing, it may be annoying, but it doesn’t speak to a person’s capacity to govern,” she said.

FULL STORY →

The Washington Post

The Technology 202: Microsoft’s possible acquisition of TikTok could also bring increased Washington scrutiny

PIK Professor Herbert Hovenkamp spoke about Microsoft’s interest in acquiring TikTok, a move unlikely to trigger an investigation by antitrust regulators. “We don’t have any actual case law that pursues mergers simply because the companies are big,” he said. “They have to be competitors, for the most part, and have significant market share.”

FULL STORY →

The New York Times

Health experts to F.D.A: Make your vaccine deliberations public

Paul Offit of the Perelman School of Medicine spoke about the FDA’s emergency authorization of hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment, despite a lack of evidence of its efficacy. “I think the administration bent or imposed its will on the F.D.A.,” he said. “There’s a concern that this would happen [with the vaccine], too.”

FULL STORY →

The Washington Post

Facebook’s fact-checkers have ruled claims in Trump ads are false—but no one is telling Facebook’s users

Facebook employed fact checkers, including the Annenberg Public Policy Center’s FactCheck.org, to assess political ads on the platform but has not shared the results with the ads’ viewers. “The policy should be that you provide Facebook users with as much information as you can to make good decisions. That’s why we’re here,” said Eugene Kiely of FactCheck.org. “I don’t see how you can argue against giving Facebook users more information.”

FULL STORY →

The New York Times

Massachusetts court won’t use term ‘grandfathering,’ citing its racist origins

Nicole Holliday of the School of Arts & Sciences spoke about the phasing out of words with direct links to slavery, such as “grandfathering.” “This is the legal system, and there are wrongs to be righted,” she said.

FULL STORY →

Forbes

What to do about contracts during COVID-19

David Hoffman of the Law School and a University of Virginia Law School colleague published a paper about the impact of COVID-19 on contracts. They recommend renegotiating contracts to minimize damages over trying to enforce or fight the terms.

FULL STORY →

The New York Times

‘Like a horror movie’: A small border hospital battles the coronavirus

Genevieve Kanter of the Perelman School of Medicine spoke about a study she co-authored that warned of disparities in access to critical care facilities amid the pandemic. “Unfortunately, there will be a lot of unnecessary suffering and deaths from COVID-19 because of the lack of I.C.U. capacity in these low-income areas,” she said.

FULL STORY →

Justice Now

Between the Lines: August

Living Room Lecture

BlackStar Film Festival

The Latest

Introducing Wharton dean Erika James

Why the pandemic introduces language that is ‘hard to explain’

How our body’s internal clocks communicate may impact our overall health

Brain scans of 9- to 11-year-olds offer clues about aggressive, antisocial behavior

Expressions of color, comfort, and creativity in the fight against COVID-19

Inside Penn

Upcoming Events See all →

Multimedia

Summer at Penn 2020

Featured

Campus & Community

COVID-19’s assault on Black and Brown communities

Racism, inequality, and the coronavirus have combined to cause an alarming number of COVID-19 cases and deaths among African-American and Latinx populations.

Big Ideas

Design faculty and Art for Philadelphia raise money against police brutality

Engaging with the climate crisis, online

Understanding the Americas through material texts

Loyal classmen

Navigating cytokine storms

Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Carl June elected to National Academy of Sciences

Tailoring treatment for triple-negative breast cancer

Racing to deliver a vaccine to the masses

Continued CO2 emissions will impair cognition

The Arctic could have almost no summer sea ice by 2040, decades sooner than expected

Penn signs Power Purchase Agreement for largest solar project in Pennsylvania

Ecuador’s vice president talks biodiversity protection

Engineers ensure quantum experiments get off to the right start

Bringing ideas to life through experimental physics

A ‘quantum leap’ for quantum information science

Unique electrical properties in quantum materials can be controlled using light

Penn in the NewsSee all →

National Science Foundation invests $104 million to launch four new engineering research centers

Five-minute coronavirus stress resets

Schumer’s overblown attack on GOP proposal for medical malpractice lawsuits

Biden on cognitive test: ‘Why the hell would I take a test?’

The Technology 202: Microsoft’s possible acquisition of TikTok could also bring increased Washington scrutiny

Health experts to F.D.A: Make your vaccine deliberations public

Facebook’s fact-checkers have ruled claims in Trump ads are false—but no one is telling Facebook’s users

Massachusetts court won’t use term ‘grandfathering,’ citing its racist origins

What to do about contracts during COVID-19

‘Like a horror movie’: A small border hospital battles the coronavirus