News Archives

Annenberg stage crew

Making the Most Out of Reading to Your Pre-Schooler

PHILADELPHIA -- Reading to your pre-schooler should never be a chore for parents or kids.  There are small things parents can do to get the most out of time spent cuddling together reading "Where the Wild Things Are" or "Olivia Saves the Circus," said Lawrence Sipe, who teaches courses on and researches children's literacy and how youngsters interact with picture books at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania.

Campus Buzz

40th reunion: After Laurie Anderson got everyone caught up on what she’s doing now (see “Art Talk”), her Institute of Contemporary Art hosts got down to partying to celebrate the ICA’s 40th anniversary.

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Extra credit Moody’s Investors Service has kicked Penn’s bond rating up a notch, from A1 to Aa3. Moody’s cited Penn’s strong fundraising performance, increased matriculation rates for accepted students and the turnaround of the Health System’s finances as factors that led them to upgrade the rating now, even though there is a changing of the guard at the top. Vice President for Finance Craig Carnaroli estimates that the higher rating will save Penn $3 million over 30 years on every $100 million borrowed.

Frog Skin And Supercomputers Lead Penn Chemists to Designing Better Bacteria Killers

PHILADELPHIA -- A peptide called magainin, first found in the skin of the African clawed frog, holds the secret to creating bacteria-killing surfaces, according to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania. The Penn scientists have taken a joint experimental-computational approach to mimicking magainin. They designed, synthesized, tested, and then improved novel antibacterial compounds, using a combination of laboratory experiments and painstaking simulations on supercomputers.

Penn Hosts Feast of Fools Festival April 1

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Penn Chemist Virgil Percec Receives American Chemical Society Award in Polymer Chemistry

PHILADELPHIA -- Virgil Percec, a professor of chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, will receive the American Chemical Society Award in Polymer Chemistry at the society 277th national meeting in Anaheim, Calif.  A prolific scientific author, Percec is recognized for the breadth of his creative work, from the discovery of cyclic and dendritic liquid crystals to the synthesis of self-assembling chemicals that can spontaneously form organized structures.  

University of Pennsylvania Finalizes Purchase of U.S. Postal Service Property

PHILADELPHIA - The University of Pennsylvania announced today that it has finalized arrangements for the acquisition of the U.S. Postal Service Philadelphia 30th Street facility, a 24-acre parcel of land in the University City section of Philadelphia.  The agreements signed on March 26 by representatives of Penn and the Postal Service cover a site west of the Schuylkill River and east of the Penn campus between Market and South streets.

Penn's Jerry Lee Center of Criminology Awarded $1.6 Million to Test U.K.'s "Justice Without Court"

PHILADELPHIA -- The University of Pennsylvania's Jerry Lee Center of Criminology has been chosen to lead the United Kingdom's test of a program known as Restorative Justice as a Diversion from Prosecution.The project will be the most substantial test ever conducted of diverting serious offenders from prosecution to "justice without court," said Lawrence W. Sherman, director of the center and a Penn professor of human relations.

University of Pennsylvania Museum Awarded Three-Year, $301,000 Grant from the National Science Foundation for Native American Research Opportunities for Undergraduates

PHILADELPHIA, PA 2004 - The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology has been awarded a three year, $301,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to support an innovative research experience for undergraduates: "Native Voices, Past and Present, Studies of Native American Collections at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology."