Three Penn faculty members have been elected to the American Philosophical Society (APS) as part of its 2024 cohort earlier this year. They are Dawn Bonnell of the School of Engineering and Applied Science and Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman of the Perelman School of Medicine.
Established by Benjamin Franklin in 1743 for “promoting useful knowledge,” APS is the oldest scholarly society in the United States. It upholds Franklin’s spirit of inquiry by offering a platform for the open exchange of ideas. Election to the APS honors exceptional achievements across various disciplines.
Bonnell is the Henry Robinson Towne Professor and senior vice provost for research, shaping the strategic direction of Penn’s research enterprise and overseeing the development of new research facilities and initiatives that span the University.
A leader in materials science, Bonnell’s research explores atomic-scale surface properties with applications in biosensors and solar cells. She founded Penn’s Nano/Bio Interface Center, directing $35 million in funding to advance technology and biology collaboration.
Bonnell is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and has received numerous accolades, including the Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation and the Staudinger-Durrer Medal from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. She has served as president of the American Vacuum Society and vice president of the American Ceramic Society, contributing significantly to the scientific community with more 200 papers and seven edited books.
Karikó is an adjunct professor of neurosurgery at the Perelman School of Medicine renowned for her groundbreaking work in mRNA technology, which laid the foundation for the COVID-19 vaccines. She was awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine for discoveries that enabled the use of modified mRNA in Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines. At Penn Medicine, Karikó helped develop a method to modify mRNA and package it in lipid nanoparticles, making it safe and effective for triggering immune responses.
Karikó also holds 14 U.S. patents and is a professor at the University of Szeged in Hungary. Her contributions to science have been recognized with the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, the Princess of Asturias Award, the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, and the Vilcek Prize for Excellence in Biotechnology.
Weissman, also a 2023 Nobel Laureate in Medicine, is the Roberts Family Professor in Vaccine Research and director of the Penn Institute for RNA Innovation at the Perelman School of Medicine. As a physician-scientist, Weissman is a pioneer in immunology, most notably for his discovery of nucleoside-modified mRNA technology that avoids adverse immune responses.
This innovation, the result of decades of research, is the foundation for the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines and holds promise for targeted therapeutics against numerous diseases. Weissman has published more than 100 papers and holds numerous patents for key mRNA modifications.
His groundbreaking work has earned him numerous accolades, which include the Rosenstiel Award, the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, the Princess of Asturias Award, and the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, among many others.
