9/11, 20 years later Tribute in Light, an annual display near the site of Ground Zero, commemorates the Sept. 11 attacks. (Homepage image: Scott Spitzer) 9/11, 20 years later Experts across the University share their thoughts on how 9/11 transformed their field, their research, and the world.
Exploring extracurriculars at the Fall Student Activities Fair The Penn Chess club table was busy all afternoon with students playing the game, asking questions, and signing up for the club on the laptop set up on the table. Freshman Lincoln Nyarambi plays club member and junior William Li, both in Penn Engineering. Exploring extracurriculars at the Fall Student Activities Fair For the first time Penn’s annual Fall Student Activities Fair was both in person and online over a three-day period. Nearly 600 groups registered to participate this year, and thousands of students signed up for organizations.
Archiving empire with religious studies’ Megan Robb Professor Megan Robb (center) worked with a team of students including Michael Goerlitz (left) and Juliana Lu (right) to create a digital archive centered on Elizabeth Sharaf-un-Nisa, an 18th-century Mughal woman who cohabited with a European man working for the East India Company, bearing children, marrying him, and ultimately living out the remainder of her life in England. Archiving empire with religious studies’ Megan Robb A long-unseen archive centered on an 18th-century Mughal woman will soon be publicly accessible, thanks to the work of religious studies professor Megan Robb of the School of Arts & Sciences and a team of Penn students.
Coding the emotions that anti-tobacco ads evoke Junior Gabriela Montes de Oca from Houston has a background working on public health issues and supporting marginalized populations as part of Penn’s United Minorities Council, as a member of the First-Generation, Low-Income Dean’s Advisory Board, and through her role as a Penn Civic Scholar. This summer, in addition to interning in the lab of Andy Tan, she worked on Covid-19 testing and vaccinations at Sayre Health Center. Coding the emotions that anti-tobacco ads evoke Sophomore Oulaya Louaddi and junior Gabriela Montes de Oca interned this summer with Annenberg’s Andy Tan, helping the research team design and test culturally appropriate anti-smoking campaigns for young women who identify as sexual minorities.
Harun Küçük brings science, philosophy, and history to the Middle East Center Harun Küçük, a historian of early modern Ottoman science, is the new faculty director at the Middle East Center. Harun Küçük brings science, philosophy, and history to the Middle East Center The newly appointed faculty director says his aim “first and foremost is to maintain all the good things that the Center’s already doing.”
Interact, adapt, repeat: A summer studying coevolution To study coevolution, the responsibilities of Nova Meng and Linda Wu included caring for plants in the Penn greenhouse. (Image: From July 2021, when masks were not required) Interact, adapt, repeat: A summer studying coevolution Sophomores Linda Wu and Nova Meng spent the summer studying coevolution among plants, mutualistic bacteria, and parasitic nematodes in Corlett Wood’s biology lab.
TikTok talk In linguistics, “whoever’s cool leads the change,” which explains why trends come and go via TikTok, says linguistics professor Nicole Holliday. Q&A TikTok talk Largely characterized as a Gen Z phenomenon, TikTok is a video-sharing app with more than 100 million active users in the U.S. alone—and it’s changing the way that we speak, says sociolinguist Nicole Holliday.
Ilyse Reisman summer in the writers’ room Senior Ilyse Reisman, an English and cinema studies major in the College of Arts and Sciences, was a summer intern at the film studio Indigenous Media in Los Angeles. Ilyse Reisman summer in the writers’ room An aspiring comedy writer, senior Ilyse Reisman got a chance to be on set and in meetings to pitch production ideas during her RealArts@Penn summer internship at the film studio Indigenous Media in Los Angeles.
Evolutionary ‘arms race’ may help keep cell division honest Evolutionary ‘arms race’ may help keep cell division honest Research from the lab of Michael Lampson in the School of Arts & Sciences suggests that certain proteins may have evolved to reduce the likelihood of chromosomes “cheating” to bias their chance of winding up in an egg during the cell-division process meiosis.
Atomically-thin, twisted graphene has unique properties New collaborative research describes how electrons move through two different configurations of bilayer graphene, the atomically-thin form of carbon. These results provide insights that researchers could use to design more powerful and secure quantum computing platforms in the future. Atomically-thin, twisted graphene has unique properties Researchers describe how electrons move through two-dimensional layered graphene, findings that could lead to advances in the design of future quantum computing platforms.