A vast majority of the earth’s water is salty, making it unfit for people to drink. Researchers are working on a technology that could potentially offer a new method of desalinating water that would be both fast and scalable.
Grave Gardeners program reconnects the Woodlands and Penn
The Woodlands Grave Gardeners program, now in its third season, pairs volunteer gardeners with the park’s cradle graves—tombstones with a bathtub-like extension—to plant them with lush flowers, as the makers had intended.
The panel addressed the topic, “People and Policy Adrift: A 21st Century Framework for Asylum Seekers, Refugees, and Immigration Policy,” at a time when the world is facing one of the highest levels of displacement on record. Recent reports from the United Nations note an unprecedented 65.6 million people currently forced from their homes.
Talking immigration, at home and abroad
This year’s David and Lyn Silfen University Forum focused on “People and Policy Adrift: A 21st Century Framework for Asylum Seekers, Refugees, and Immigration Policy.”
Biden, Gutmann and Penn trustees Chairman David L. Cohen officially open the new Penn Biden Center. Biden said he hopes the Center will be "a place where ideas are exchanged, where people come and disagree with us, as well as agree with us."
Penn’s new home in Washington
The Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement—a place for debate and discussion—opened on Feb. 8 in Washington, D.C.
Ben-Porath’s research focuses on citizenship education, normative aspects of educational and social policy, and the social and educational effects of war.
The importance of free speech on college campuses
Running Penn’s Committee on Open Expression has given Sigal Ben-Porath an up-close look at free speech on campus—and even inspired her to write a book on the topic.
Penn Wharton Budget Model’s Zheli He, Richard Prisinzano, Daniela Viana Costa, and Efraim Berkovich at their 220 S. 40th St. office. PWBM also has a site in Washington, D.C.
An ‘honest broker’ for Washington
Since its inception, the Penn Wharton Budget Model has been at the forefront of informing the nation’s budget, providing fast, in-depth, and transparent analysis for policy makers, the media, and the general public alike.
Hajishengallis, an expert in the immune mechanisms behind the gum disease periodontitis, worked with an international team to show that the innate immune system--typically thought to lack immune memory--can in fact be trained to "remember" past threats.
By altering bone marrow, ‘training’ can prepare innate immune system for future challenges
George Hajishengallis of the School of Dental Medicine and an international team of colleagues have found that “training” the immune system causes changes in the precursors of immune cells in the bone marrow. These changes could facilitate a more robust response to future infections or even enable the immune system to regenerate faster after chemotherapy.
