Katherine Unger Baillie

There will be 6 billion people living in cities by 2050, says Eugenie Birch, co-director of the Penn Institute of Urban Research (Penn IUR), “and they all have to be fed.” An international conference scheduled for March 13-15 at Penn will address two pressing global trends: urbanization and food insecurity.

Some were high school sports stars. Others barely know the rules of American football.

Conjure up an image of a forest. Chances are you’re imagining a vast tract of treed space seemingly untouched by humans. So why, then, did the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) open an office in the urban, heavily populated landscape of Philadelphia?

In the spring of 2011, Nicole Khan, a doctoral student in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science in the School of Arts & Sciences, was wrapping up a few weeks of field work in Puerto Rico. She had been studying the island’s mangrove forests in an attempt to reconstruct ancient sea levels.

Many professors who embark on teaching a massive open online class, or MOOC, may be apprehensive about conveying their subject material to thousands.

Everyone has heard of DNA, the blueprint for life. But if it were up to Brian Gregory, an assistant professor of biology at the University of Pennsylvania, DNA’s close cousin, RNA, would get equal billing.

For the 14th year, Penn’s Models of Excellence Program is honoring exceptional staff members who have gone well beyond their expected duties to effect positive change at the University.

PHILADELPHIA — The spring 2011 flood on the Mississippi was among the largest floods ever, the river swelling over its banks and wreaking destruction in the surrounding areas.

PHILADELPHIA — Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine have discovered that a protein called Jagged-1 stimulates human stem cells to differentiate into bone-producing cells.

Penn Vet’s Kimberly Agnello, a Boston Marathon finisher, is a dedicated athlete, so it’s only appropriate that she performs surgeries that help return injured dogs, cats, and other animals back to their active selves as quickly as possible.