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Illuminating interactions between decision-making and the environment
People in fishing boats on the water

Aunifying game theory model describing the feedbacks that occur between strategic decision making and environmental change captured dynamics that occur in fisheries, in human social interactions, in soil-microbe interactions, and much more. (Image: Erol Akçay) 

Illuminating interactions between decision-making and the environment

With a unifying model based in game theory, Andrew Tilman, Joshua Plotkin, and Erol Akçay of the School of Arts and Sciences inform dynamics in fields as diverse as ecology and economics.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Penn announces seven 2020 Thouron Award winners
Seven student faces and the symbol of the Thouron Award with the British and American flags

Penn announced seven Thouron Scholars for 2020. From left, top row: senior Daniel Brennan, 2018 grad Braden Cordivari, 2019 grad Gregory Forkin, and senior Natasha Menon. Bottom row: senior Robert Subtirelu, senior Zachary Whitlock, and 2018 grad Maia Yoshida.

Penn announces seven 2020 Thouron Award winners

Four seniors and three recent alumni have won a Thouron Award to pursue graduate studies in the United Kingdom. Each scholarship winner receives tuition for as long as two years, as well as travel and living stipends, to earn a graduate degree.
A new way of thinking about motion, movement, and the concept of time
Jumping a hurdle; saddle; clearing, landing and recovering Plate 637, with key words “Jumping a hurdle; saddle; clearing, landing and recovering,” model is bay horse Daisy. (Image: University of Pennsylvania Archives)

A new way of thinking about motion, movement, and the concept of time

Eadweard Muybridge’s “Animal Locomotion” was the first scientific study to use photography. Now, more than 130 years later, Muybridge’s work is seen as both an innovation in photography and the science of movement, alongside his personal legacy as someone with an eccentric 19th century style and a dark past.

Erica K. Brockmeier

Semester in D.C. offers capital connections
A group of students standing in front of two flag. The Penn in Washington Fall 2019 cohort visited U.S. Senate offices in September. (Image: Penn in Washington)

Semester in D.C. offers capital connections

Students participating in the Penn in Washington program gain a true sense of day-to-day working life in the nation’s capital.

Kristen de Groot

Fruit fly love songs
Two fruit flies on surface decorated with small hearts

Fruit fly love songs

Yun Ding, assistant professor of biology, studies the courtship behavior of fruit flies to learn how genes and brains evolve to change animal behaviors.

A hallmark year in voting history
a flag with three horizontal stripes with the words Votes for Women in the center

A vintage suffrage banner from the early 20th century. (Image: Birmingham Museums Trust)

  • Q&A

    • A hallmark year in voting history

    This year marks the centennial of the 19th Amendment as well as the bicentennial of Susan B. Anthony’s birth. Penn experts reflect on Anthony’s legacy and voting rights today.

    Kristina García

    The inaugural Provost’s Graduate Academic Engagement fellowship cohort
    Two men stand in front of the brick and stone stairway leading to the Penn Museum

    Paul Wolff Mitchell (left) and Michael Vazquez (right) are the inaugural Provost’s Graduate Academic Engagement Fellows.

    The inaugural Provost’s Graduate Academic Engagement fellowship cohort

    The Provost’s Graduate Academic Engagement fellowship supports scholarship and civic engagement in West Philadelphia. Paul Wolff Mitchell, an anthropology doctoral student, and Michael Vazquez, a philosophy doctoral student, are the inaugural cohort.

    Kristina García

    The Amish and the Anthropocene
    Amish buggy traveling on a road with a farm in the background and snow-covered winter cropland in the foreground.

    The Amish and the Anthropocene

    Nicole Welk-Joerger, a doctoral candidate in the Department of History and Sociology of Science, discusses what a technology adopted by the Amish can tell us about climate change and the future.

    Penn Today Staff

    Nourishing the brain with conversations about food
    Two people standing next to a marble staircase, with stands and a sphinx blurry in the background.

    Penn archaeologist Megan Kassabaum (left) and biocultural anthropologist Morgan Hoke organized the series on food taking place at the Penn Museum on Mondays. During the fall semester, academics from nine institutions spoke on a range of topics, from food as life sustaining to how pizza and sushi gained their prominence. Spring semester, the talks have turned inward, focusing on the research happening across the University.

    Nourishing the brain with conversations about food

    A yearlong colloquium from Penn Anthropology offers a steady diet of research perspectives, delving into how this facet of culture affects modern health and practices, and broadens our historical outlook.

    Michele W. Berger