For shedding new light on plant behavior, Professor of Biology Anthony R. Cashmore has been honored with election to the National Academy of Sciences. Cashmore, director of Penn’s Plant Science Institute, studies the mechanisms by which plants respond to light. His 1990s research that identified cryptochrome, a plant photoreceptor that detects blue and ultraviolet light, has since been extended by others to animals. Cashmore came to Penn from the Rockefeller University in 1986.

With his election, Cashmore becomes the 38th member of the Penn faculty to be named to the National Academy of Sciences, chartered by Congress in 1863 to further science and its use for the general welfare.

Francis X. Diebold, William Polk Carey Professor of Economics, has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for 2003. He is one of 184 fellows appointed from an applicant pool of over 3,200. Guggenheim Fellows—which include writers, painters, sculptors, photographers, filmmakers, physical and biological scientists and scholars in the humanities—are appointed on the basis of achievement in the past and promise for future accomplishment. Diebold works in econometrics, forecasting, finance and macroeconomics. He has published extensively and has served on the editorial boards of numerous journals, including Econometrica and Review of Economics and Statistics.

Current receives piece of silver

The Penn Current has been honored with a silver medal in the Internal Audience Tabloids and Newsletters category in the 2003 Circle of Excellence Awards sponsored by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). Five medals—one gold, two silver, and two bronze—were awarded in the category, which received 43 entries from schools, colleges and universities throughout the United States and Canada. The judges’ remarks stated, “The publication reflects a clear sense of community and does an excellent job of inviting its readers in through numerous entry points on every page.”