In good company

Among the many honors bestowed upon Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Marie Curie was membership in the American Philosophical Society. Now a Penn professor and the chairman of a Penn Museum board have been added to those exalted ranks: Bruce Kuklick, the Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Professor of American History and A. Bruce Mainwaring, chairman emeritus of the Museum’s Board of Overseers from 1991 to 1995.

Founded in Philadelphia in 1743, the APS honors top scholars from a variety of disciplines. Kuklick, who is working on a book examining how intellectuals have understood war and the influence they have had on democracy, is the 12th member of the School of Arts and Sciences to be elected to the APS.

Going Greek

To honor this summer’s Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, the U.S. Postal Service looked to an ancient source for its commemorative stamp: a Greek vase in Penn Museum’s collection known as the Attic Black Figure Lekythos. The circa 550 B.C. piece, which is part of the Museum’s permanent collection, depicts a series of black-figure runners likely competing in the stadion, or footrace. The vase is on special display this summer in the Museum’s Ancient Greek World gallery, where other treasures include a strigil, a cleaning instrument athletes used to scrape oil and sand from their bodies.

Seventy-one million 37-cent stamps have been printed and are currently available for sale.

With honors

Outgoing Penn President Judith Rodin CW’66 recently garnered two more honorary degrees. Along with her Honorary Doctor of Laws, honoris causa conferred at Penn’s Commencement, Rodin also received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa from New York University, where she was an assistant professor of psychology from 1970 until she left for Yale in 1972. Rodin was also one of eight recipients of honorary degrees at Brown University, receiving a Doctor of Laws degree on May 31.

Jolly good fellows

One trustee and two faculty members are among 178 Americans elected this year as Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Leonore C. Annenberg, trustee emeritus and president and chairman of the Annenberg Foundation, Robert James Sharer, curator of the American Section and the Sally & Alvin Shoemaker Professor of Anthropology and Rogers M. Smith, the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science, were all recognized earlier this year for their significant scholarly contributions.

What do you think?

Love the Moravian Cafes food court? Have a suggestion for improvement? Take a few minutes and share your thoughts with Business Services, which is conducting an online survey of the food court, located at the corner of 34th and Walnut streets. Just visit the site, www.upenn.edu/survey/moravian, to complete the survey. Be sure to include your email address for a chance to win one of two $50 gift certificates to the University Square retailer of your choice.