Dawn Bonnell has won the American Ceramic Society’s Ross Coffin Purdy Award for her pioneering work on scanning impedance microscopy, a technique that is used to measure the properties, in particular electromagnetic properties, of nanostructures like molecular wires and nanotubes. Bonell is Trustee Professor of Materials Science and Director of the Center for Science and Engineering of Nanoscale Systems.

Christine Poggi, associate professor of art history, has been awarded the Dedalus Foundation’s 2003 Senior Fellowship for her project “Modernity as Trauma: The Cultural Politics of Italian Futurism.” Poggi plans to study the cultural program of Italian Futurism in light of its changing political goals, from the inception of the movement in 1909 to its demise in 1944. The Dedalus Foundation supports public understanding of modern art and modernism by facilitating research, education, publications, collections and exhibitions in the field.

Kent Smetters has won a Paul Samuelson Award Certificate of Excellence for his work “Controlling the Cost of Minimum Benefit Guarantees in Public Pension Conversion,” which appeared in the March 2002 Journal of Pension Economics and Finance. Sponsored by the TIAA-CREF Institute and named in honor of the Nobel laureate economist, the award recognizes research that improves the lifelong financial security of Americans. Smetters is an assistant professor of insurance and risk managment at Wharton.

Crowned in gold

Penn Current has nabbed a Gold Medal in the 2003 CASE District II Accolades Awards program; recognition was given in the magapapers (tabloid newspapers) category. This marks the Current’s fifth honor—four golds and one bronze—from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.