Awards

The Ivy League released the 2025 Ivy League men’s soccer preseason poll with the University of Pennsylvania men’s soccer team landing the top spot. Penn earned the favored spot with 120 points and ten first-place votes after ending last season as the Ivy League regular-season champions.

Historian Benjamin Nathans’ huge volume on the stories and lives of Soviet dissidents has gotten renewed attention after winning the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. Nathan’s research and insights span a four-decade-long career studying Russia and the USSR, modern Jewish history, and the history of human rights.

Eugenie Birch, Lawrence C. Nussdorf Professor of Urban Research and Education in the Department of City and Regional Planning and co-director of Penn’s Institute for Urban Research, has been selected to receive the Above and Beyond Award from the Regional Plan Association (RPA) for her contributions to urban planning policy and longstanding service to the RPA.

Zhang, a professor in the Department of Preventive & Restorative Sciences and Director of Restorative Research at Penn Dental Medicine, has been recognized for his leadership in advancing the field of dental materials as the 2025 recipient of the International Association for Dental Research Distinguished Scientist Wilmer Souder Award.

The James H. Broussard Best First Book Prize, awarded annually to the best first book by a new author published in the previous calendar year and dealing with any aspect of the history of the early American republic, went to Sarah L. H. Gronningsater, associate professor of history at Penn’s School of Arts &N Sciences, for “The Rising Generation: Gradual Abolition, Black Legal Culture, and the Making of National Freedom.”

Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt's book, “Yuan: Chinese Architecture in a Mongol Empire,” has won the Booklaunch award for Best Architectural History Book of 2024. Shatzman Steinhart is a professor of East Asian art at the School of Arts & Sciences. Her book is the first comprehensive English-language study of Chinese architecture during the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty.

Teles, a professor in the Department of Basic & Translational Sciences at Penn Dental Medicine and a core member of the Center for Innovation & Precision Dentistry, has been recognized for her research as the 2025 recipient of 2025 IADR/IAP Ricardo Teles Clinical Research Award. Her research focuses on the oral microbiome, particularly the discovery and characterization of previously uncultivated periodontal pathogens; her lab aims to identify hidden members of oral biofilms. 

A Bronze Radio Award in the News Report/Features category was awarded for “Abdullah Ibrahim Hears the World in Many ‘Different Colors,’” a feature produced and presented by World Cafe contributing host, Stephen Kallao. And World Cafe host Raina Douris was awarded a Finalist Diploma in the Craft/Interview category for her thoughtful and emotionally rich interview with Nick Cave, timed with the release of his album “Wild God.”

Pappas, UPS Foundation Professor of Transportation in Electrical and Systems Engineering at Penn Engineering, has been awarded the Leon K. Kirchmayer Graduate Teaching Award for “inspirational mentoring” of graduate students.

Tewksbury, an assistant professor in nutrition science in the Department of Biobehavioral Health Sciences, has been awarded the 2025 TREO Foundation LEAD Award for Excellence in Nutrition.