Turning the desert into an oasis In Senegal, the ambitious Dakar Greenbelt project seeks to create an extensive network of ecological infrastructure in and around the city to sustainably address environmental concerns and enhance urban life. With support from David Gouverneur and Ellen Neises, Ph.D. candidate Rob Levinthal in the Weitzman School of Design led two courses that included a field trip to Dakar, that culminated in students presenting their visions for parts of the Greenbelt.(Image: Courtesy of Chaowu Li) Turning the desert into an oasis Students from the Weitzman School of Design journeyed to Senegal to help with a massive ecological and infrastructural greening effort as part of their coursework. The Dakar Greenbelt aims to combat desertification and promote sustainable urban growth.
New campus choir finds harmony nocred New campus choir finds harmony The new Penn Staff & Community Choir, formed by Penn’s Office of Social Equity and Community in the fall, will have its debut mini-concert on Feb. 4, led by director Ruth Naomi Floyd.
The practice of art collection as a collaboration nocred The practice of art collection as a collaboration As part of an undergraduate course, Penn faculty and students curated an Arthur Ross Gallery exhibition of works from the Neumann family’s extensive collection of modern and contemporary art.
Revolutionizing data centers: Penn Engineers’ breakthrough in photonic switching Image: Bella Ciervo Revolutionizing data centers: Penn Engineers’ breakthrough in photonic switching Researchers have developed a photonic switch that can redirect signals in trillionths of a second with minimal power consumption.
New ways to modulate cell activity remotely Cells are dynamic, fast-changing, complex, tiny, and often hard-to-see in environments that don’t always behave in predictable ways when exposed to external stimuli. Now, researchers led by Lukasz Bugaj of the School of Engineering and Applied Science have found new ways to modulate cell activity remotely.(Image: iStock/Maksim Tkachenko) New ways to modulate cell activity remotely Penn researchers use temperature to guide cellular behavior, promising better diagnostics and targeted therapies.
New quantum sensing technology reveals subatomic signals A rendering of the minute nucleic differences detectable using the form of nuclear quadrupolar resonance.(Image: Mathieu Ouellet) New quantum sensing technology reveals subatomic signals Penn Engineers have created a novel approach to detect tiny variations in individual atoms, enabling protein research in drug development.
How will the workplace change in 2025? Image: iStock/piranka How will the workplace change in 2025? The Wharton School’s Peter Cappelli expects incremental changes in the workplace this year, a continuation of bigger trends that began during the pandemic.
Study shows drop in life expectancy in the Gaza Strip Displaced Palestinians outside their tents near the seaside in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip in January 2025, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.(Image: Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via AP) Study shows drop in life expectancy in the Gaza Strip A collaborative team of international researchers estimate that between Oct. 2023 and Sep. 2024 compared to pre-war levels, life expectancy in the Gaza Strip almost halved.
Breakthroughs in gene editing and expression control with mvGPT Sherry Gao, Tyler Daniel (pictured), and their coauthors have developed a new tool that can simultaneously and independently edit multiple genes and regulate their expression.(Image: Bella Ciervo) Breakthroughs in gene editing and expression control with mvGPT Penn Engineers have created a gene editing tool that can address different genetic diseases in the same cell.
The motor driving Penn’s biomedical research Michael Ostap is the interim senior vice dean and chief scientific officer of the Perelman School of Medicine.(Image: Courtesy of Penn Medicine Magazine) The motor driving Penn’s biomedical research For nearly three decades, interim senior vice dean and chief scientific officer of the Perelman School of Medicine Michael Ostap has investigated how molecules such as myosin feel force, in an effort to understand how cellular mutations cause disease.