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Climate Change

When the Schuylkill swallowed the city
Two people looking at the flooded highway overpass in Philadelphia after flooding from Hurricane Ida.

Image: Jessica Kourkounis / Stringer via Getty Images

When the Schuylkill swallowed the city

New Penn research shows that Hurricane Ida wasn’t a once-in-a-century anomaly but a preview of how climate change, urbanization, and aging infrastructure are rewriting flood risk.

5 min. read

How the Quaker Commitment empowered one student to create her path at Penn
Gabrielle Fine leads a campus tour with prospective students and their families.

Gabrielle Fine, left, leads a Kite & Key campus tour for prospective students and their families. 

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How the Quaker Commitment empowered one student to create her path at Penn

Gabrielle Fine, a fourth year in the Wharton School and recipient of financial aid from the Quaker Commitment, will graduate in May with an interdisciplinary skillset and new perspectives from a global adventure and local engagement.

6 min. read

Financing resilience for ocean economies
A wave in the ocean.

Image: Abstract Aerial Art via Getty Images

Financing resilience for ocean economies

Perry World House’s “Financing Resilience for Ocean Economies” workshop brought together policymakers, practitioners, and academics to discuss how to close the $175 billion annual investment gap in ocean resilience.

2 min. read

What happens when an iceberg melts?
An iceberg in Iceland.

Research from Hugo Ulloa, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth & Environmental Science, and Daisuke Noto of Hokkaido University, models how icebergs melt and move in their environments.

(Image: Gabi Musat / 500px via Getty Images)

What happens when an iceberg melts?

With ice balls, lasers, and cameras, School of Arts & Sciences’ Hugo Ulloa recreated a melting iceberg in his lab. This project revealed that icebergs don’t sit passively on the water’s surface but actually release dense, cold water and jet across the surface, churning and mixing everything in their paths.

From Omnia

2 min. read

How markets can help society adapt to climate change
People working on a laptop and a screen looking at climate initiatives.

Image: Kindamorphic via Getty Images

How markets can help society adapt to climate change

Environmental and labor economist R. Jisung Park co-authored a new paper reporting that carefully designed markets and supportive public policy can help individuals and communities more effectively approach climate adaptation.

From the School of Social Policy & Practice

2 min. read

Beating the heat: Designing cooling for bodies in motion
Two workers in a lab working on cooling structures.

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Beating the heat: Designing cooling for bodies in motion

Dorit Aviv, director of Weitzman’s Thermal Architecture Lab, studies how humans, technology, and design intersect, paving the way for the development of novel approaches to cooling people efficiently.

5 min. read

Solar solutions for farmers in The Gambia
A group photo in front of a borehole drilling machine at Alna Farms in Gambia.

Students visited Alna Farms and posed for a picture in front of a borehole drilling machine.

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Solar solutions for farmers in The Gambia

For students in Engineers Without Borders at Penn, collaborating with Gambian farmers to design an irrigation system is a way to both address food insecurity in the smallest country in mainland Africa and apply their knowledge from the classroom in the real world.

4 min. read