Michele W. Berger

Kimeze "Dickson" Teketwe

Who, What, Why: Kimeze Teketwe brings Luganda to Penn

The GSE master’s student from Uganda taught the first ever course on this language in the spring of 2022. This fall the program continues with another intro class, followed by an advanced class next spring.

Michele W. Berger ・

A drawing of two people shouting at each other from castle turrets, which are placed on top of silhouetted heads. Ladders are on the side of each head, and in the background are clouds, sky, and plant fronds.

How ideologically divided is the American public?

The Polarization Research Lab, a new initiative from Annenberg’s Yphtach Lelkes and colleagues at Dartmouth and Stanford, will work to answer that question through surveys and partnerships with community organizations.

Michele W. Berger ・

Solar panels with sunlight shining on the top right corner.

Marrying models with experiments to build more efficient solar cells

Penn chemist Andrew M. Rappe, in collaboration with former postdoc Arvin Kakekhani and researchers at Princeton University, has gained insight into how the molecular make up of solar cells can affect their properties and make them more efficient.

Luis Melecio-Zambrano , Michele W. Berger ・

Sophia Zehler removes the Quaker mascot head in costume at the Palestra.

Inside the Quaker’s head

Sophia Zehler recently earned her master’s degree from the Fels Institute of Government. The first-generation Cuban American also spent the year as Penn’s mascot, her third mascotting position in five years.

Michele W. Berger ・

Nursing student Aman Uppal assists a student from the HMS School for Children with Cerebral Palsy during art class. She holds up a painting, and painting supplies are all around.

Learning nursing care in a different type of classroom

Penn Nursing students Aman Uppal and Michelle Tran spent the summer before their final semesters in a clinical rotation at the HMS School for Children with Cerebral Palsy.

Marilyn Perkins Michele W. Berger, Ed Federico ・

An illustration of an old television with a person in sunglasses on it. On top sits a laptop computer with an arm reaching out past the screen, holding a rolled up newspaper. Another newspaper lays flat on top of the screen.

TV news top driver of political echo chambers in U.S.

Duncan Watts and colleagues found that 17% of Americans consume television news from partisan left- or right-leaning sources compared to just 4% online. For TV news viewers, this audience segregation tends to last month over month.

Michele W. Berger ・

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 ・

A map of the Pacific Ocean. Australia is in the bottom-left corner, with Indonesia and New Guinea to the north. Also pinpointed are Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia, with arrows signifying five migration paths designated M1, M2, M3, M4, and M5. M1, M2, and M4 originate in East Asia. M3 originates around New Guinea, and M5 originates between Polynesia and Melanesia.

Solving the mystery of migration into Micronesia

Penn anthropologist Theodore Schurr explains how the use of both ancient DNA and modern genetic materials revealed five paths into this western Pacific region of Oceania, and uncovered subtleties about the society’s marital customs.

Michele W. Berger ・