News Archives

Bookquick/“The Graduate School Funding Handbook, Second Edition”

“The Graduate School Funding Handbook, Second Edition” illuminates the competitive world of graduate school funding. Covering programs in the arts and sciences and engineering, it is an invaluable resource for undergraduate and graduate students who seek information about applying to graduate school in the United States or abroad, at the master’s, doctoral and postdoctoral levels.

News briefs

National Medal of Science President George W. Bush has named Professor of Physics Raymond Davis Jr. one of 15 recipients of the 2001 National Medal of Science, marking the second year in a row Penn scientists have received the award. Davis was the first scientist to detect neutrinos, ghostlike particles produced in solar nuclear reactions that, until recently, have been thought to have zero mass. His work, which found only one-third the number of predicted neutrinos, galvanized astrophysicists into a mad search for the missing particles.

Charitable staff turn trash to treasure

Every September, a tide of some 10,000 students rolls into University City to begin another year at Penn. And when the tide rolls out the following May, it leaves behind a mountain of material goods that have to be disposed of somehow. Of course, one person’s trash is another’s treasure, and the stuff Penn students leave behind underscores the truth of the old saying. “It looked like a thrift shop in the lobby,” said Mike Latimore, front desk manager at Harrison College House, of the food, clothing and household goods departing students donated to charities.

Power tools for your career at Penn

These Learning and Education courses from Human Resources will help boost your career. For information, call 215-898-3400 or visit www.hr.upenn.edu/learning. Registration required. The Penn Perspective Understand the business of running an institution as large and diverse as Penn. Come away with an appreciation for the role you play in this process   - June 25 and 26, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Bodek Lounge, Houston Hall, $50, continental breakfast and lunch included

Benefit of a graduate education

At Work with...Mel Garcia and Johnny Rodriquez

No good reason for health inequities

Ethical failure was blamed for the nation’s uninsured at a conference titled “Toward Health Equity.” Sponsored by the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, the May 10 forum gathered Penn health experts as well as political leaders. Health care expert Mark Pauly said money, or the lack thereof, was not the real problem because the actual cost of covering the uninsured is “peanuts.” “The real problem is political will, not economics,” said Pauly, Bendheim Professor at the Wharton School and chair of Health Care Systems.

Staff Q&A: Afi Roberson

There’s a wisecrack that circulates on many college campuses that goes something like this: The junior faculty are allowed to touch the robe of God. The senior faculty get to talk to God. The dean sits at the right hand of God. And the secretary is God. “Sounds good to me,” Afi Roberson (G’95) said of the joke.

Editor's Pick: The stars come out at night

Wanna see some great old movies? You could a) nuke a bag of popcorn and watch American Movie Classics on TV, or b) bring a blanket or lawn chair and your favorite snacks out to the 40th Street field and see them on the big screen under the stars. Which sounds more fun to you? We thought so. The Moonlit Movie Series, which runs through Aug. 8, features classics from the golden age of movies, shown the way they were meant to be shown, complete with short subjects—an episode each week of the 1939 serial “Dick Tracy’s G-Men.” —S.S.

Campus Buzz

A (relatively) quiet celebration: Although early-morning storms caused the cancellation of the academic procession down Locust Walk for the second year in a row, not a drop of rain dampened Commencement itself. The speaker, PBS “NewsHour” host Jim Lehrer, harbored no illusions about the importance of his speech: “I cannot remember what any of the speakers said at my graduation ceremonies,” he told the Franklin Field crowd. “In fact, I can’t even remember what they looked like.” His speech combined observations on journalism post-Sept.