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Eric Sucar
Articles from Eric Sucar
‘Music connects’ for Summer Institute students
Timothy Rommen next to a piano and a podium teaching a class full of students.

Timothy Rommen (right) teaches a class on Dominica’s popular music, one of several in this year’s Center for Africana Studies Summer Institute for Pre-Freshmen.

‘Music connects’ for Summer Institute students

The Summer Institute for Pre-Freshmen brings new students together with experienced faculty and graduate students to discuss cultural themes in Africana studies.

Kristina García

With school out, construction crews work in earnest
Two construction workers work on the interior of Penn Boathouse.

A new room for hosting events inside the Penn Boathouse. Completion of the Boathouse renovation is one of 395 active projects on and around campus, encompassing $1.2 billion in approved total budgets and 339 construction workers on campus daily.

With school out, construction crews work in earnest

Campus may have depopulated for the summer, but construction workers have moved in to begin or accelerate work on projects both big and small. Here, an overview of what’s in progress on Penn’s campus—and beyond.
A fish harvest that’s more sustainable—and tastier, too
Wharton graduate Saif Khawaja

Saif Khawaja, a graduate of Wharton, is one of the winners of the inaugural Penn President’s Sustainability Prizes.

A fish harvest that’s more sustainable—and tastier, too

December graduate Saif Khawaja’s President’s Sustainability Prize is helping him build Shinkei Systems, a company that has developed a robotics-based system for minimizing waste in the fishing industry.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Can nature-inspired designs affect cognition and mood?
Farhan Jivraj sits at a desk and looks at the topographic rug in the biophilic room

Can nature-inspired designs affect cognition and mood?

A team from the Center for Neuroaesthetics created a biophilic room to test the idea. Preliminary findings from a small pilot show promise, but also spur many questions about how to best use such a space.

Michele W. Berger , Kelsey Geesler , Michael Grant

Mentorship strategies to boost diversity in paleontology
Scientists Erynn Johnson and Aja Carter use a 3D printer to make shell shapes

Erynn Johnson and Aja Carter both earned their doctoral degrees in paleontology from Penn, employing pioneering techniques, such as 3D printing to replicate the forms of ancient creatures. In a new publication, they share advice for attracting and retaining students and trainees from underrepresented groups to paleontology. 

Mentorship strategies to boost diversity in paleontology

Drawing on research as well as their experiences as women of color in paleontology, Aja Carter and Erynn Johnson, who earned doctoral degrees from Penn, coauthored a paper offering advice for making the field more inclusive.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Grappling with a watershed’s uncertain environmental future
Several people around a table, one holds a satellite map.

Grappling with a watershed’s uncertain environmental future

Artists supported by the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities created tools for navigating unpredictable ecological challenges, then brought them to life in a series of public workshops at the Independence Seaport Museum.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Examining experimental print in ‘Cut/Copy/Paste’
Whitney Trettien standing in a stairwell.

Whitney Trettien, assistant professor of English in the School of Arts & Sciences, has just published her first book, "Cut/Copy/Paste." 

Examining experimental print in ‘Cut/Copy/Paste’

In her first book, Whitney Trettien of the School of Arts & Sciences experiments with printed and digital assets while examining bookwork from the 17th and 18th centuries.
New Arthur Ross Gallery exhibit ‘From Studio to Doorstep’
two adults and one child look at prints hanging on a very pink wall

Prints created for middle class Americans from 1934 to 2000 are featured in the current Arthur Ross Gallery exhibition, “From Studio to Doorstep,” through Aug. 21. The 37 signed and numbered Associated American Artists prints are part of the Penn Art Collection, many exhibited for the first time.

New Arthur Ross Gallery exhibit ‘From Studio to Doorstep’

Prints from 1934 to 2000 are featured in the current Arthur Ross Gallery exhibition, “From Studio to Doorstep,” through Aug. 21. The 37 Associated American Artists prints are part of the Penn Art Collection.
Who, What, Why: Annenberg doctoral student Ava Irysa Kikut
Ava Kikut in front of the Annenberg School for Communication

Ava Kikut, a 2020-22 Provost’s Graduate Academic Engagement Fellow, focuses on health communication. 

Who, What, Why: Annenberg doctoral student Ava Irysa Kikut

Through a Netter Center ABCS course, Kikut worked with high school students and Penn undergrads to develop media messages that speak to the health needs and inequalities pertinent to adolescent Philadelphians.

Kristina García

The Higgs boson discovery, 10 years later
workers with hard hats stand next to the complex machinery of the Large Hadron Collider

The 25-meter-tall and 46-meter-long ATLAS detector, which identified the Higgs boson, is attached to the Large Hadron Collider. Lipeles and colleagues are moving into new research directions, including exploring how the Higgs might interact with dark matter. (Image: Yomiuri Shimbun/AP Images)

The Higgs boson discovery, 10 years later

Penn physicist Elliot Lipeles reflects on the past, present, and future of physics, from the discovery of the Higgs boson to theories about new subatomic particles.

Marilyn Perkins

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