School of Arts & Sciences

By Julie McWilliams Aspiring journalist Brennan Cusack set off on a solo cross-country trek last summer to get an insider’s look and to research four instances where environmental and economic interests were at odds.

by Sarah Welsh After a two-year hiatus, the Large Hadron Collider at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, is gearing up for its second run. The LHC enabled the 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson, which gives mass to all particles, but the world’s most complicated scientific apparatus is far from finished

Why do some people learn a new skill right away, while others only gradually improve? Whatever else may be different about their lives, something must be happening in their brains that captures this variation.

From interning in a kitchen breaking down hundreds of lobsters to hunting truffles in Italy to hosting random four course dinner parties, Amanda Shulman lives to cook. The University of Pennsylvania senior has completed the first level of basic cuisine from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and is as likely to fall asleep reading a cookbook as she is reading a textbook studying for class.

The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded Grant Frame, University of Pennsylvania associate professor of Near Eastern languages and civilizations, a two-year $250,000 grant for his Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period Project. The award brings to nearly $950,000 the total NEH grants Frame has received for the RINAP Project since 2008.

Waking up and seeing a two-ton elephant nearby sounds like it could be a scene from a movie, but that’s exactly what University of Pennsylvania student Hannah Watene experienced while studying abroad in Tanzania.

By Julie McWilliams

Oil-based liquid crystals are ubiquitous; a deep understanding of their properties is behind the displays found in most computer monitors, televisions and smartphones. Water-based liquid crystals are less well understood, though their biocompatibility makes them a potential candidate for a variety of biological and medical applications. 

By Sarah Welsh Ever since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, airport security has been at the forefront of national concern. The United States has since taken numerous measures to tighten security in airports, hoping to prevent similar attacks.

President Amy Gutmann today announced the selection of five undergraduates at the University of Pennsylvania as the inaugural President’s Engagement Prize recipients. Awarded annually to Penn students to design and undertake fully-funded local, national or global engagement projects during the first year after they graduate, the President’s Engagement Prizes underscore the high priority that Penn places on educating students to put their knowledge to work for the betterment of humankind.