School of Arts & Sciences

When the Department of Defense offers researchers the chance to think big and take risks, and provides the funding to back it up, scientists tend to get really excited.

RNA, once thought to be a mere middleman between DNA and protein, is now recognized as the stage at which a host of regulatory processes can act to allow for flexibility in gene expression and thus the functions of cells and tissues.

Four faculty members at the University of Pennsylvania have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  They are among a class of 347 researchers that have been awarded this honor by AAAS because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications

Adebisi (Debi) Ogunrinde, a University of Pennsylvania senior from Halifax, Nova Scotia, has won a Rhodes Scholarship.  She is one of 11 recipients from Canada. Ogunrinde will pursue a masters in social anthropology and a masters in public policy at the University of Oxford.

Two University of Pennsylvania seniors have been awarded Rhodes Scholarships for two to three years of graduate study at Oxford University.

University of Pennsylvania senior Jennifer (Jenna) Hebert from Pittsburgh, Pa., has won the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. She plans to pursue a master’s degree in psychiatry at the University of Oxford in England.

Biological molecules are chiral. Like gloves, they have either left- or right-handed versions that can’t be superimposed on one another. Macromolecules like DNA are also chiral and are exclusively made of building blocks with the same handedness.  

The Organization of World Heritage Cities has voted to name Philadelphia as a World Heritage City. With the announcement, Philadelphia became the first American city to join an elite group that includes Paris, Cairo and Jerusalem.

Emilio A. Parrado is concerned about how immigrants incorporate into new communities.

WHO:             Daud Ali                       Associate Professor                       Department of South Asia Studies