School of Arts & Sciences

By Julie McWilliams University of Pennsylvania senior Tess Michaels has found herself in an enviable situation not unlike game show contestants who must pick Door No. 1, Door No. 2 or Door No. 3.

WHO:            Masha Alekhina and Nadya Tolokonnikova, Russian conceptual artists and founding members of the art collective Pussy RiotWHAT:          “A Conversation With Pussy Riot” 

The field of metamaterials is all about making structures that have physical properties that aren’t found in nature. Predicting what kinds of structures would have those traits is one challenge; physically fabricating them is quite another, as they often require precise arrangement of constituent materials on the smallest scales.

By Madeleine Stone  @themadstoneRivers drive the evolution of Earth’s surface by eroding and depositing sediment. But for nearly a century, geologists have puzzled over why theoretical models, which use principles of physics to predict patterns of sediment transport in rivers, have rarely matched observations from nature.

Beginning in her freshman year at the University of Pennsylvania, Dandi Zhu figured that being successful could only be helped by being around other women who wanted, as she did, to be leaders.That’s what drew her to Ware College House’s Women in Leadership residential program.

University of Pennsylvania junior Roderick Cook believes that it’s important for those in positions of privilege and power to redistribute resources to help marginalized communities in Philadelphia and beyond.

Blake Harwood first developed a passion to learn languages in high school as a teenager in Highland Park, Ill. when she won a scholarship to study Arabic in Cairo for six weeks in a foreign exchange student program.

Three University of Pennsylvania faculty members are among this year’s Sloan Research Fellowship recipients.

A friendship formed while studying business at the University of Pennsylvania led two students from India to co-found a start up business. The pair, now seniors, say they’ve learned a lot about themselves in the process.   Pranshu Maheshwari, from Chennai, and Yash Kothari, from Mumbai, first met before the start of their freshman year at a reception in India for newly accepted Penn students.

By Madeleine Stone  @themadstone Collaboration across scientific disciplines can lead to groundbreaking innovation. But, just as it takes a special type of scholar to cross academic boundaries, it takes a special type of building to make interdisciplinary alliances possible.