The University of Pennsylvania is one of six institutions to receive funding from the National Science Foundation for a new Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center. The Penn center will receive $11.6 million during the next five years. The center will administer Penn’s new Undergraduate Minor and Ph.D. Certificate Program in Nanotechnology along with serving as a national resource for single molecule analysis. The center will collaborate with partners including Drexel University and Cambridge University.

The University of Pennsylvania has received $2 million from Clark Enterprises Inc. to create and endow the Lawrence C. Nussdorf Chair at the new Penn Institute for Urban Research. The Institute serves as a hub for urban research, education, and practice at the University. The gift honors Lawrence Nussdorf who is a University trustee, Graduate School of Education overseer and president and chief operating officer at Clark Enterprises.

Linda Aiken, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, has been placed at number 10 on the annual “100 Most Powerful” list by Modern Healthcare.

Shu Yang, an assistant professor in Penn’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, has been named by Technology Review to the 2004 list of the world’s “100 Top Young Innovators.” The list consists of people younger than 35 whose innovative work in technology has a profound impact on today’s world. Yang’s laboratory studies the programming of synthetic polymers to function with unique electrical, optical and bio-sensing abilities.