Sandy Smith

Twenty-five years since they were in the same room together at Penn, three honored scientists reunited on their old stomping grounds for a special symposium.

Like any good teacher, Alyse Edwards did some prep work before sitting down for our interview — specifically, reading past Staff Q&As. “I was reading some of the other Staff Q&As and I’m like, God, I did not do anything deserving of this treatment,” she said.

Although nurses have long known that they play a critical role in healing the sick, not everyone agreed. Now, Neville Strumpf, interim dean of the School of Nursing, has proof.

Good facts make for great fiction. That roughly sums up the message best-selling author Tom Wolfe delivered in a chat with one of his admirers April 18 before a packed Kelly Writers House audience.

How are we doing? Quite well, according to a new progress report describing goals met under the Agenda for Excellence, Penn’s five-year strategic plan released in the fall of 1995.

Thanks to a gift from a prominent Philadelphia broadcaster, Penn has a new center for criminology. The Jerry Lee Center for Criminology brings together researchers engaged in work on crime, violence and crime prevention in several schools of the University, including Arts and Sciences, Education, Medicine, Social Work and Wharton.

Hollywood has the Oscars. Broadway has the Tonys. And Penn has the Models of Excellence.

Being a single parent can be tough. There’s work, home and children to juggle, and the responsibility for all three falls on just one person. On top of that, finding support can be difficult.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright combined reflection, humor and diplomacy in an address that received an enthusiastic response from a capacity crowd in Irvine Auditorium April 3.

Jack St. Clair Kilby did not set out to change the world when he began tinkering with the idea of an integrated circuit back in the 1950s. “In 1958 my goals were simple — lower the cost, simplify the assembly and make things faster and cheaper,” he said of the research effort he led at Texas Instruments that produced the first integrated circuit.