News Archives

New department an Ivy first

The study of crime now has a department all its own at Penn. At their June 20 meeting, the Trustees approved the creation of the first criminology department in the Ivy League. The new department in the School of Arts and Sciences will have Albert M. Greenfield Professor of Human Relations Lawrence W. Sherman as its first chair. Sherman is currently director of the Jerry Lee Center of Criminology and the Fels Institute of Government.

Silent witnesses to history

Today, many deaf Americans recognize themselves as members of a distinctive cultural and linguistic community. “History through Deaf Eyes,” at the Arthur Ross Gallery through July 28, explains that evolution.

Outlook for skin cancer: Sunny

Things are looking up for patients who suffer from one of the most talked about threats of the season—skin cancer.

AWARDS & HONORS/Top Cops Honored

Credit safer streets and happier communities to these Penn heroes, who were recognized for their “quick response” and “diligent actions” in a May 13 Public Safety commendations ceremony: Michael J. Fink, Christopher Denshuick, Domenic DiLorenzo, Michael Sylvester, Denis Daly, Rudi Palmer, Craig Everage, Gary Williams, John Newton, Joanne Ketler, John Alexander, Hayward Cureton, Andrew Malloy, Eric Rohrback, Henry Vega, Perdetha Watson, Nicole Wilson, Darren Young, Chuck Schull, James Orman, Christina Boston and Dennis Hill.

Anthony Antonucci and Donald Kelley

Rodin to call it a decade in 2004

Judith Rodin (CW’66) will step down as president of the University next June 30. Rodin announced her decision at the Stated Meeting of the University Trustees on June 20. The first woman to run an Ivy League university returned to her alma mater in 1994 from Yale, where she had served as provost for two years. She set the tone for her presidency in her first year, laying out an ambitious “Agenda for Excellence” that aimed to strengthen Penn’s status as one of the nation’s top research universities and its ties to the community and the city.

STAFF Q&A/Tracy Byford

STAFF Q&A/Tracy Byford has worked for more than two decades to keep Penn’s botanical garden a place all can enjoy “It is just such a surprise to see this on an urban campus.”

Sleep Deprivation within Five Hours of Learning Impairs Memory Consolidation in Mice

PHILADELPHIA -- Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have found new support for the age-old advice to "sleep on it."  Mice allowed to sleep after being trained remembered what they had learned far better than those deprived of sleep for several hours afterward.The researchers also determined that the five hours following learning are crucial for memory consolidation; mice deprived of sleep five to 10 hours after learning a task showed no memory impairment.  The results are reported in the May/June issue of the journal Learning & Memory.

CD-ROM Teaches Medical Students How Prime-Time TV Doctors Affect Patients' Feelings About Physicians

PHILADELPHIA-Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have created a new training tool for medical students, a CD-ROM that examines how television medical dramas present ideas about doctors that may affect how patients interact with real physicians. Approximately 20,000 first-year medical students will get the CD-ROM as part of the traditional ceremony in which they're presented white lab coats welcoming them into medical school.

Study Suggests a Newly Mapped Enzyme Could Yield New Treatments for Female Sexual Dysfunction

PHILADELPHIA -- New research from the University of Pennsylvania and other institutions indicates that the enzyme arginase II, which can short-circuit a biochemical pathway leading to sexual arousal in men, is also present in the female genitalia and represents a promising target for new drugs to treat sexual dysfunction in women.