School of Arts & Sciences

Penn Faculty Receive Alternative Energy Project Grants

PHIADELPHIA — Alternative energy research projects involving four faculty members from the University of Pennsylvania have been awarded grants from the Energy Commercialization Institute, a translational-research partnership that draws upon several regional universities.

Evan Lerner

Penn Researchers Show ‘Neural Fingerprints’ of Memory Associations

PHILADELPHIA -- Researchers have long been interested in discovering the ways that human brains represent thoughts through a complex interplay of electrical signals.  Recent improvements in brain recording and statistical methods have given researchers unprecedented insight into the physical processes underlying thoughts.  For example, researchers have begun to show that it is possib

Evan Lerner

Penn Researchers’ Study of Phase Change Materials Could Lead to Better Computer Memory

PHILADELPHIA -- Memory devices for computers require a large collection of components that can switch between two states, which represent the 1’s and 0’s of binary language. Engineers hope to make next-generation chips with materials that distinguish between these states by physically rearranging their atoms into different phases.

Evan Lerner

T Cells ‘Hunt’ Parasites Like Animal Predators Seek Prey, a Penn Vet-Penn Physics Study Reveals

PHILADELPHIA — By pairing an intimate knowledge of immune-system function with a deep understanding of statistical physics, a cross-disciplinary team at the University of Pennsylvania has arrived at a surprising finding: T cells use a movement strategy to track down parasites that is similar to strategies that predators such as monkeys, sharks and blue-fin tu

Katherine Unger Baillie



In the News


Philadelphia Inquirer

A collector donated 75,000 comic books to Penn Libraries, valued at more than $500,000

Alumnus Gary Prebula and his wife, Dawn, have donated a $500,000 collection of more than 75,000 comic books and graphic novels to Penn Libraries, featuring remarks from Sean Quimly of the Kislak Center and Jean-Christophe Cloutier of the School of Arts & Sciences.

FULL STORY →



Philadelphia Inquirer

He started college in prison. Now, he is Rutgers-Camden’s first Truman scholar

Tej Patel, a third-year in the Wharton School and College of Arts and Sciences from Billeria, Massachusetts, was one of 60 college students nationwide chosen to be a Truman Scholar.

FULL STORY →



KQED Radio (San Francisco)

Violence escalates in Sudan as civil war enters second year

Ali Ali-Dinar of the School of Arts & Sciences discusses the forces driving the civil war in Sudan and how the global community is responding.

FULL STORY →



BBC

From Ancient Egypt to Roman Britain, brewers are reviving beers from the past

Patrick McGovern of the School of Arts & Sciences and Penn Museum oversaw the first hi-tech molecular analysis of residues found in bronze drinking vessels during a 1950s excavation of an ancient Turkish tomb.

FULL STORY →



The Washington Post

Forecast group predicts busiest hurricane season on record with 33 storms

A research team led by Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences is predicting the upcoming Atlantic hurricane season will produce the most named storms on record, fueled by exceptionally warm ocean waters and an expected shift from El Niño to La Niña.

FULL STORY →