University of Puerto Rico’s Edgardo Sánchez (left) and Penn graduate Zhiwei Liao working in the lab of Daeyeon Lee. Via the Advancing Device Innovation through Inclusive Research and Education program, researchers from Penn and the University of Puerto Rico will continue their materials science collaboration while supporting STEM career pathways for underrepresented groups. (Image credit: Felice Macera).
New grant aims to broaden participation in cutting-edge materials research
As one of eight teams to be awarded National Science Foundation funding, a partnership between Penn and the University of Puerto Rico will continue its long-running collaboration focused on innovative research and STEM career pathway support.
As Penn looks forward to a fully in-person campus experience for the fall semester, this summer will be a period of transition as faculty, staff, postdocs, and students navigate evolving public health measures while returning to campus in a way that helps keep the community safe.
What to expect as Penn transitions to a fully in-person fall semester
Penn Today looks at guidelines for those on campus this summer, what members of the community can expect as they return to campus, and the role that vaccines have in safely resuming in-person activities.
The discovery of the comet estimated to 100-200 kilometers across was made by Penn researchers following a comprehensive search of data from the Dark Energy Survey. Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein is the most distant comet ever discovered and possibly the largest seen in modern times.
Shifting sands, creeping soils, and a new understanding of landscape evolution
New experiments show that, even when undisturbed, piles of sand grains are in constant motion, challenging theories of how soils and other types of disordered materials behave.
Connecting a star’s chemical composition and planet formation
Along with developing a new statistical method for studying exoplanets, researchers from Penn found that the majority of stars in their dataset are similar to the sun, implying that many stars in the Milky Way could host their own Earthlike planets.
Dark Energy Survey interim analysis sheds light on the evolution of the universe
Analysis of the survey’s first three years of data, which were used to make the most precise 3D map of the universe to date, is a key step towards understanding dark matter and dark energy.
The Office of the Vice Provost for Research announces the 2021 cohort of Penn’s Postdoctoral Fellows for Academic Diversity, the largest in the program’s history thus far. This fellowship program is designed to help postdocs advance their careers while enriching the community of scholars here at Penn.
2021 cohort of Postdoctoral Fellows for Academic Diversity named
The competitive program, managed by Office of the Vice Provost for Research, is designed to support early career researchers and scholars while enriching the Penn community.
A blueprint for designing and synthesizing new, multifunctional materials
By combining theory, computational simulations, chemical synthesis, and assembly, researchers demonstrate how an “inverse design” strategy can create unique materials using difficult-to-mix nanocrystals.
Vaccines, variants, and the evolving lexicon of COVID-19
Penn Today shares the third update to the pandemic glossary, providing insights into the jargon becoming an everyday part of conversations and news headlines about the ongoing public health crisis.
The potential role of vaccine certificates in the next phase of the pandemic
Public health law expert Eric Feldman and medical ethicist Emily Largent discuss the legal and ethical implications of companies and organizations requiring proof of vaccination to reengage with different sectors of the economy.
