SOM ranks No. 2

In the 2004 fiscal year, Penn’s School of Medicine was ranked second in the nation for research awards to academic medical schools from the National Institutes of Health. In total, Penn SOM researchers received 947 NIH awards for biomedical research and training worth more than $393.6 million—that’s a 9.4 percent increase from the previous year. To boot, the SOM is the only Philadelphia-area medical school ranked in the top 40. For 2004, the top recipient was Johns Hopkins, while the University of California, San Francisco and Washington University School of Medicine came in third and fourth, respectively.

Café life

World Café Live is scaling back its hours for the summer. Lunchgoers at the Upstairs Live Café can patronize the eatery and music club starting at 11 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The Café opens at 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday and on Sunday when a performance is scheduled. The Downstairs Live space opens its doors at 6 p.m. for all scheduled performances. Check www.worldcafelive.com for a complete schedule of events.

Summer schedule

This summer, some of Penn Museum’s galleries will be closed as refurbishments to the building continue, including plastering, painting, electrical and lighting upgrades and new Plexiglass protection around the walls of the Old Kingdom Tomb Chapel of Kapure. While summer hours for the entire Museum will be maintained throughout the process (Tuesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.), some individual galleries will be closed. A list of these closings will be posted on the Museum’s website, www.museum.upenn.edu, as well as recorded by 9 a.m. each day on the main phone line, 215-898-4000.

Workplace honors

Penn’s Information Systems & Computing office is one of the 100 best places IT professionals can work, according to Computerworld magazine. Ranked first in the mid-Atlantic region and eighth overall in the magazine’s “100 Top Places to Work in IT in 2005,” the judges liked Penn’s diverse workforce and “proactive wellness program,” child-friendly atmosphere, retirement plan and time off. Sharing the top 10 with another university, a mutual funds administrator and a storage manager for an open network environment, among others, Penn beat out such corporate heavyweights as FedEx (#12), Ford Motor Co. (#32) and Verizon Wireless (#29).