A roundup of the latest appointments and awards for various faculty members in the Graduate School of Education, the School of Arts & Sciences, and the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
Two faculty members from Penn‘s School of Arts & Sciences received recognition. In December, Nancy Bonini, Florence R.C. Murray Professor of Biology, received the seventh annual Sean M. Healey International Prize for Innovation in ALS. Bonini and a colleague discovered that repeat expansions in a gene called ataxin-2 can cause ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. In January, Anna Papafragou, a professor in the Department of Linguistics and associate director of research for MindCORE, was among six who were named a 2026 Fellow of the Cognitive Science Society.
Penn physicists led by Bo Zhen have created hybrid light-matter particles that interact strongly enough to compute, pointing toward ultrafast, low-energy optical AI hardware.
Penn’s newest supercomputer is transforming research
Penn’s first campus-wide HPC and AI cluster, “Betty,” is expanding access to powerful computing, enabling groundbreaking projects, and fostering new collaborations across disciplines.
A bioengineered bean gum from the lab of Penn Dental’s Henry Daniell is found to reduce the levels of three microbes associated with head and neck squamous cell cancer to almost zero, without affecting the beneficial bacteria normally found in the mouth.
Fighting oral cancer with bioengineered chewing gum
Research led by Penn Dental’s Henry Daniell shows that antiviral and antibacterial chewing gums reduce the levels of three microbes linked to worse outcomes in oral cancers, paving the way for more effective and affordable therapies.
The performing arts at Penn: Process, practice, and purpose
In the vivid tapestry of performing arts groups at Penn, students prepare for their performances while simultaneously enriching their college experience.
