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Closing the wealth gap in West Philadelphia
Four adults and three high school students posed with social media frames

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney (fourth from left) announced Penn's Netter Center for Community Partnerships will develop and implement a financial literacy program, Project Elevate, for high school students. Also at the press conference were (from left) Jill Bazelon and Ira Harkavy, of the Netter Center. Penn Provost Wendell Pritchett (not pictured) also spoke. (Image: Samantha Madera)

Closing the wealth gap in West Philadelphia

The City of Philadelphia and Actions Not Words have selected Penn’s Netter Center for Community Partnerships to develop and implement a new entrepreneurial program, Project Elevate, offering financial literacy education at public high schools.

Kristina García

Revealing ‘storytelling pockets’ in the life of Frank Lloyd Wright
Paul Hendrickson speaking at a podium in front of a seated crowd, his arms outstretched, with a photo of a house on the screen behind him.

Paul Hendrickson, a senior lecturer in Penn’s English Department since 1998, speaks at Kelly Writers House about his new book examining the life of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The Wright-designed B. Harley Bradley House pictured is on the street where Hendrickson grew up in Kankakee, Illinois. 

Revealing ‘storytelling pockets’ in the life of Frank Lloyd Wright

Paul Hendrickson’s new book, “Plagued by Fire: The Dreams and Furies of Frank Lloyd Wright,” brought him full-circle to the famed architect of his childhood in Illinois.
Leading the way in the field of energy policy
Mark Alan Hughes at his desk standing and talking with associates by windows in the sunlight.

Hughes (second from left) with the Kleinman Center team, including from left to right, Angela Pachon, Bill Cohen, Mollie Simon, Cornelia Colijn, and Kimberle Szczurowski.

Leading the way in the field of energy policy

During two decades at Penn, Mark Alan Hughes has made the University a leader in the field of energy policy—and he’s showing no signs of slowing down.

Michele W. Berger , Lindsey Samahon

Syrian journalist to speak in Penn’s ‘Writer at Risk’ weeklong visiting fellow program
Zaina Erhaim

Syrian journalist Zaina Erhaim, now living in exile in the United Kingdom, is visiting Penn through the Writer at Risk program. 

Syrian journalist to speak in Penn’s ‘Writer at Risk’ weeklong visiting fellow program

Syrian journalist Zaina Erhaim will visit Penn to discuss the armed conflict in Syria, the importance of an independent press, and the challenges of working in war-torn areas for female journalists. 
Summer aerospace research at the Jet Propulsion Lab
alex ulin standing in front of the jet propulsion laboratory sign, under the nasa logo and next to text that reads california institute of technology

Summer aerospace research at the Jet Propulsion Lab

Senior Alex Ulin from Los Angeles spent the past two summers working at a NASA-contracted field center, and is now aiming for a career leading teams of aerospace scientists and engineers.

Erica K. Brockmeier

Weighing the environmental impacts of a byproduct of biofuel combustion: plant skeletons
Pile of shredded straw from Miscanthus sinensis, Chinese silver grass

Chinese silver grass, Miscanthus sinensis, is a common source of biomass, burned to produce electricity or heat in power plants. Each piece is roughly 2-3 centimeters in length. (Image: Reto Gieré)

Weighing the environmental impacts of a byproduct of biofuel combustion: plant skeletons

The School of Arts and Sciences’ Reto Gieré and Ruggero Vigliaturo and colleagues found that phytoliths—small, silica-containing deposits present in many plant species—are emitted during biofuel combustion.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Physicists look to navigational ‘rhumb lines’ to study polymer’s unique spindle structure
microscope images of polymer spheres that twist into elongated and twisted objects

Scanning electron microscope images showing polymers in a spherical configuration (far left); when a new solvent is added, the spheres twist and change into elongated twisted spindles (far right). At the top of the spindles (center panel) are one micron spirals. (Image: Daeseok Kim)

Physicists look to navigational ‘rhumb lines’ to study polymer’s unique spindle structure

Researchers show how polymer spheres contract to form unique spiral structures known as loxodromes, or rhumb lines, creating patterns that are ten times smaller than the width of a human hair.

Erica K. Brockmeier

From the classroom to the lab and back again
a person sitting at a microscope looking at a computer screen surrounded by pipet boxes, chemicals, and cabinetry

From the classroom to the lab and back again

Senior Adithya Sriram is busy earning two degrees, researching new applications for graphene, and preparing physics courses for students in West Philadelphia.

Erica K. Brockmeier

A quest to restore cultural heritage in Iraq, one site at a time
people gathered around surveying iraqi destruction

A quest to restore cultural heritage in Iraq, one site at a time

Penn archaeologists, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Mosul and Iraq’s State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, seek to undo the terrible destruction ISIS wrought, particularly on targeted minority groups.

Michele W. Berger