U.S. Sen. John S. McCain, whose recent race for the Republican presidential nomination inspired admiration across party lines, but not enough votes, will deliver the Commencement address at the 245th Commencement ceremony May 21.
McCain, 64, has brought campaign finance reform to the top of the legislative agenda with the McCain-Feingold bill. He gained a reputation as a war hero after spending more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam’s infamous “Hanoi Hilton.”
Other honorary degree recipients are Nobel Laureate Peter C. Doherty, an immunologist with research vital in avoiding organ transplant rejection; Andrés M. Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, architects who have changed how cities are redeveloped; Daniel Kahneman, a psychologist whose work in decision-making has influenced fields from economics to the social sciences; and Ruth J. Simmons, the newly-named first woman president of Brown University and the first African American to head an Ivy League university, for her efforts to attract a diverse group of students to higher education.
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.
