Line of defense

Penn’s School of Medicine recently joined the Middle Atlantic Regional Center of Excellence (RCE) for Biodefense and Emerging Diseases, a research consortium dedicated to biodefense research.

As one of 16 biomedical research institutions in the consortium, which was unveiled by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, SOM will work to pursue the development of vaccines against anthrax and smallpox, focus on emerging infectious diseases like West Nile and study new ways to fight viruses that can cause hemorrahagic fever, such as Ebola and Marburg.

Penn researchers are anticipated to receive $6.1 million of a five-year, $42 million RCE grant.

Wharton’s a winner

Penn’s Wharton School jumped to first place in a ranking of corporate recruiters’ favorite M.B.A. programs, published in The Wall Street Journal in mid-September.

Wharton was ranked fifth in the survey last year, and made the jump to the Journal’s top spot because of their long history of teaching ethics courses and research, stellar accounting professors and superb drive of the students.

The recruiters also gave Wharton high marks for academics, placing it in the top ten schools in every field save for information technology. Harris Interactive, a market research and consulting firm, based the results on online responses from nearly 2,200 recruiters between November 2002 and March 2003.

Clarification

The three Penn-sponsored West Philadelphia schools we referred to in our last issue (“News briefs,” Current, Sept. 18) are the Bryant, Lea and Wilson elementary schools. The Penn-Alexander School is a partnership school and not one of the three schools referred to in the Inquirer article.