News Archives

Peter and Geri Skirkanich Donate $10 Million for Penn Bioengineering

PHILADELPHIA University of Pennsylvania alumnus J. Peter Skirkanich and his wife Geri have pledged $10 million to build Skirkanich Hall, Penn new home for bioengineering.The gift, the largest by an individual donor in the School of Engineering and Applied Science history, will help finance a 58,400-square-foot bioengi-neering laboratory facility in the engineering-school complex. The facility, to be located near the Penn School of Medicine, will house faculty, staff, students and researchers as part of the school $57 million bioengineering initiative.

Campus Buzz

A higher calling: Vice Provost for Information Systems and Computing, Professor of Classical Studies, Hill College House Faculty Master Jim O’Donnell will be leaving Penn June 30 to become the provost of Georgetown University. Your Buzz correspondent predicts that his scholarly interest in St. Augustine will mesh nicely with Georgetown’s Jesuit heritage and wishes O’Donnell all the best in his new position.

First chief privacy officer named

To safeguard private information held by Penn that could be accessed by computer, the University has appointed its first chief privacy officer, Lauren Steinfeld (C’89). She is also the first chief privacy officer to be appointed in the Ivy League. Although the position of chief privacy officer appears all over the corporate world, Steinfeld said, in universities the position is a rarity, outside of their health systems. An informal survey of several nearby colleges and universities turned up no other CPOs.

Staff Q&A: Debra Goldader

Blame it on Carl Sagan. His landmark PBS documentary series “Cosmos” got fourth-grader Debra Goldader hooked on the heavens, and she’s kept her gaze focused skyward ever since. “I think the people in my grade school thought it was sort of cute—there was a little girl running around saying, ‘I wanna be an astrophythithithist!’” said the woman who now runs Penn’s two observatories, the Flower and Cook Observatory in Malvern and the campus observatory on the roof of David Rittenhouse Laboratory.

Take a bow

Out and About: Arboretum's flower show springs to life

We found ourselves yearning for a touch of budding nature, thanks to the unseasonably warm weather and the hype for the Philadelphia Flower Show. So we headed far away from the hustling crowds to see the other flower show—at the Morris Arboretum, Penn’s botanical museum at the northwest corner of the city, in Chestnut Hill.

Penn's Dental School Offers Parents Interactive Guide On Intelihealth Website

PHILADELPHIA Parents now have a new on-line resource for getting the answers they need to help promote their child oral health. "A Parent Guide to Tooth Eruption" is an interactive tool developed by the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine for InteliHealth Dental, a comprehensive oral-health information site accessible at www.dental.intelihealth.com. Penn dental faculty review and approve all content on this site.

TV Journalist Jim Lehrer to Speak at Penn Commencement

PHILADELPHIA -- Jim Lehrer, one of the most respected television journalists in the United States and the host of "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," will deliver the Commencement address at the 246th Commencement ceremony of the University of Pennsylvania Monday, May 13. The procession will enter Franklin Field at 9:30 a.m. at 33rd and South streets. Approximately 6,000 degrees will be conferred.

Total Undergraduate Charges at the University of Pennsylvania Will Increase 4.6 Percent for 2002-2003

PHILADELPHIA -- Total undergraduate charges for tuition, fees, room and board at the University of Pennsylvania will increase 4.6 percent for the 2002-2003 academic year from $34, 614 in 2001-2002 to $ 36, 212 in 2002-2003. The increase was approved today by the Board of Trustees.

Study Tracks Health of Rescue Dogs, Handlers Involved in Searches at World Trade Center and Pentagon

PHILADELPHIA When the World Trade Center and sections of the Pentagon came crashing down Sept. 11, the rubble left for rescuers was laden with asbestos, diesel fuel, PCBs and countless other toxins. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have now begun a three-year study of the search-and-rescue mission effects on rescue dogs and their handlers. Comprised of veterinary researchers and psychologists, the team will focus on the physical and psychological toll, possibly sounding an early alert on ailments to watch for among those who have toiled to clear the wreckage.