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Alexis Borden’s perfect game
Alexis Borden holds the ball in her left hand in the pitcher's circle as she prepares to throw a pitcher at Penn Park, wearing her white Penn jersey.

Alexis Borden’s perfect game

The 2015 alumna, the most decorated pitcher in Penn softball history, threw the first perfect game in school history in May of 2012.
Digging into the government report on UFOs
meteor streaks across a night sky

Digging into the government report on UFOs

In a Q&A, historian of science Kate Dorsch illuminates the history behind reporting and investigating UFO sightings and contextualizes the new government report on such phenomena.

Katherine Unger Baillie

New grant aims to broaden participation in cutting-edge materials research
two people talking to each other inside of a research lab

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.

Erica K. Brockmeier

Filmmaker Claire Sliney heads to Paris with a Nat Geo Storytelling Fulbright
Student standing outside wearing graduation cap and gown

Claire Sliney graduated in May from the College of Arts and Sciences. She was the first Penn undergraduate to win an Academy Award, when she was a sophomore. As a senior, she was the first to receive a National Geographic Storytelling Fulbright Fellowship. (Image: Eric Sucar, University of Pennsylvania Communications)

Filmmaker Claire Sliney heads to Paris with a Nat Geo Storytelling Fulbright

May graduate Claire Sliney is the first Penn undergrad to receive an Academy Award, and to receive a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellowship. She heads to Paris to shoot a documentary about how female immigrants in France are portrayed in film.
Obscuring the truth can promote cooperation
Businesspeople shaking hands holding up masks to their faces

Obscuring the truth can promote cooperation

People are more likely to cooperate if they think others are cooperating, too. New research by biologists in the School of Arts & Sciences shows that overstating the true level of cooperation in a society can increase cooperative behavior overall.

Katherine Unger Baillie

In These Times: ‘Race and Repair’
Drawing of books, an African American student’s face, a diploma, a fist in the air.

Image: Adriana Bellet

In These Times: ‘Race and Repair’

OMNIA’s final episodes look into how institutions have perpetuated racial hierarchies, how the past reverberates through the present, and consider what justice looks like.

From Omnia

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor: 40th anniversary of a historic first
Three people stand in front of a bookcase full of books in burgundy binding, the man on the left is wearing judge robes and has his right hand in the air, the woman on the right is in judge robes and has her right hand in the air and left hand on a bible and a man in the middle wears a suit and tie, is holding the bible and is looking at the woman

Sandra Day O’Connor is sworn in to the Supreme Court by Chief Justice Warren Burger as her husband John O’Connor looks on.

(Image: Courtesy of U.S. National Archives)

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor: 40th anniversary of a historic first

July 7 marked 40 years since O’Connor was nominated to the Supreme Court. Scholar Marci A. Hamilton shares her thoughts on O’Connor’s legacy

Kristen de Groot

A fieldwork experience, no travel required
Three people sitting at a table outside all wearing masks. They are around a yellow bin. They are holding tweezers and inspecting small items in the bin. In the foreground are nine styrofoam containers, some with blurred plant material.

During the archaeobotany lesson led by Chantel White (not pictured) of the Penn Museum’s Center for the Analysis of Archaeological Materials—part of a two-week archaeology bootcamp—students including (from left to right) Ashley Ray, Emily Gladden, and Sarah LaPorte, learned a technique called dry sieving used to separate out organic materials like carbonized seeds, wood, and nutshell.

A fieldwork experience, no travel required

During a two-week in-person bootcamp at the Penn Museum, 11 undergrads learned basic archaeological skills in subjects from ceramics and sample-taking to archaeobotany.

Michele W. Berger

Supreme Court decision rules Arizona’s laws constitutional
Glass doors read "polling station" with opening times listed

“What you should be doing with voting is trying to make it as easy as possible for people to vote with the fewest restrictions,” says Mary Frances Berry. 

Supreme Court decision rules Arizona’s laws constitutional

In Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee, the Supreme Court ruled that Arizona’s election laws—pertaining to out of precinct ballots and whether or not third parties can pick up and deliver absentee ballots—do not violate the Voting Rights Act.

Kristina García

Collaborative report examines polling problems in the 2020 election
A stylized map of the United States is full of depictions of men and women packing the country

A newly released report from the American Association of Public Opinion Researchers (AAPOR) that takes a look at what went wrong with polling in 2020.

  • Q&A

    • Collaborative report examines polling problems in the 2020 election

    The Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies took a leading role in the newly released report on polling. The program’s faculty director, John Lapinski, shares his takeaways.

    Kristen de Groot