Nearly a year after being awarded the 2025 President’s Engagement Prize, President’s Innovation Prize, and President’s Sustainability Prize, the recipients—now alumni—provide updates on their projects.
2025 PEP, PIP, and PSP winners: Where are they now?
Penn Dental Medicine’s Kyle H. Vining and Hardik Makkar take a biomaterials approach to understanding periodontal disease, using a hydrogel system to investigate how the physical properties of the gum tissue impact inflammation.
Annenberg School for Communication postdoctoral fellow Baird Howland looks at prominent narratives in the news media and how they shape Americans’ worldviews.
Butler, a fourth-year anthropology and communication double-major from Philadelphia, is starting a master’s program at the Graduate School of Education in the fall, with the goal of becoming a museum educator.
Through their new project, SideGig, School of Arts & Sciences faculty Paul Saint-Amour and Kevin Platt explore songs and sound. Plus, it gives the pals a chance to hang out.
In a message to the University, President J. Larry Jameson reflects on the Declaration of Independence and its profound opening words: “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.” He outlines Penn’s efforts to advance equality through educational access, amplifying different perspectives and fostering dynamic networks of learning.
The fourth-year guard on the women’s basketball team discusses playing basketball with her best friends, the responsibilities of a team captain, her most memorable game, and supporting well-being.
Where economic modeling meets real-world legislation
The Penn Wharton Budget Model is the only non-governmental group analyzing how public policy simultaneously affects the federal budget, macroeconomic growth, and human welfare.
Penn announces new partnership with Service to School to support veteran and military-affiliated applicants
The University joins a select group of schools that are committed to expanding access to higher education for veterans and service members and supporting their academic and professional aspirations.
The Philomathean Society invites the Penn community to the Bicentennial Annual Oration, marking the 200th consecutive address hosted by the oldest literary society in the U.S. Angie Hobbs, professor of the public understanding of philosophy emerita at the University of Sheffield, will discuss how Plato’s insights remain crucial in today’s most pressing challenges, from AI and fake news to political polarization, and share her experience using classical philosophy to advise the U.K. government and health system. Register to attend.
Penn Climate Seminar: New Experiments in Public Power
Shelley Welton, Presidential Distinguished Professor of Law and Energy Policy at Penn Carey Law and the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, will discuss and assess the recent creation of state-owned clean energy companies in New York State and the U.K., considering their theory, politics, and promise alongside their early implementation challenges and limits. Free and open to the Penn community. Register to attend.
On Sept. 12, PBS, WHYY, and the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media are set to gather a group of community leaders, journalists, science communicators, and scientists to explore the role of storytelling in climate change education.
Penn’s guiding principles are the University’s enduring values and distinctive strengths: anchored, inventive, interwoven, and engaged. The practices support and strengthen Penn’s core educational mission.
At Penn Today, we focus on some of the ways the University is putting this framework into action. From student, faculty, and staff profiles to research updates and event coverage, Penn Today highlights the latest examples of the University’s principled approach to excellence.
Students test one way to combat extreme heat in Philadelphia
Third-year students Nafisa Bangura and Angelica Dadda expanded upon a multidisciplinary research endeavor to evaluate a reflective pavement coating as a tool to mitigate extreme heat. Their work may inform policy efforts to improve urban heat resilience.
Penn Forward’s Access, Affordability, and Value co-chairs on creating opportunity
As co-chairs of Penn Forward’s Access, Affordability, and Value working group, Sara Bachman, dean of the School of Social Policy & Practice, and Patrick Harker, a professor and dean emeritus of the Wharton School, discuss breaking down barriers and opening pathways.
A conversation with Penn Forward’s Global Opportunity and New Markets co-chairs
In a Q&A with Ezekiel Emanuel and Megan Ryerson, co-chairs of the Global Opportunity and New Markets working group for Penn Forward, the duo discuss the charge of their group, where they are in the process, and leaning into global engagement.
188-year-old NYC pharmacy has been ‘packed like sardines’—all because of $40 headbands and FX’s ‘Love Story’
Jonah Berger of the Wharton School discusses established brands or products that go viral when a new demographic sees them as offering something they haven’t discovered yet.
SEC moves closer to ending quarterly earnings requirement
Jessica Wachter of the Wharton School comments on a proposal to require publicly traded companies to report earnings twice rather than four times a year.
