Graduate Students

The soils beneath the solar fields

How do solar farms impact soil health? It’s a question that master’s student Hannah Winn is exploring at the central Pennsylvania site where solar energy production is helping Penn progress toward carbon neutrality.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Finding new ways to evaluate voters’ beliefs

In his dissertation research, joint communication and political science doctoral student Nicholas Dias searches for new ways to gauge voter competency.

From Annenberg School for Communication

Romance and race

Sociology Ph.D. candidate Olivia Hu is studying how people choose romantic partners across race lines, and how those relationships affect their understandings of social difference.

Susan Ahlborn

Lessons from the 17th century ‘New Netherland’

Through study of the fur and wampum trade between the Lenape and Dutch in the 1600s, fourth-year history Ph.D. candidate Molly Leech is aiming to recenter Indigenous contributions to global trade.

Michele W. Berger



In the News


Toronto Star

Few options available to Western leaders weighing response to Vladimir Putin critic Alexei Navalny’s death

Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon of the School of Arts & Sciences says that Western countries have little practical leverage to push Russia off its authoritarian path after Alexei Navalny’s death, given the economic and diplomatic sanctions already levied against Vladimir Putin.

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Philadelphia Inquirer

Bus Revolution would bring frequent bus service to 1 million SEPTA riders

In an Op-Ed, graduate student Jonathan Zisk of the Weitzman School of Design says that SEPTA should green-light the Bus Revolution project and allow the rollout of transformative bus service across the Philadelphia region.

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Baltimore Sun

What did I get from affirmative action? Three Ivy League degrees and another underway

In an Op-Ed, Wharton School doctoral student and Penn Carey Law student Olamide Dozier-Williams says that his academic journey reflects the value and educational equity once provided by affirmative action.

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Philadelphia Inquirer

Too many Philly police are no-shows in court, derailing cases and undermining our justice system

Research by Sandra Mayson of Penn Carey Law, Aurelie Ouss of the School of Arts & Sciences, and doctoral candidate Linsday Graef finds that Philadelphia police officers failed to appear in 31% of cases for which they were subpoenaed between 2010 and 2020.

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NBC Philadelphia

A family affair: Three sisters stick together as they attend Penn Dental Medicine at the same time

Joanna Haddad, Mira-Belle Haddad, and Anna-Maria Haddad are making history as one of the few groups of three or more siblings to be simultaneously enrolled in the School of Dental Medicine.

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United Press International

Herniated discs could be repaired with biologic patch one day, researchers say

Preclinical research by Robert Mauck of the Perelman School of Medicine, Thomas Schaer of the School of Veterinary Medicine, and Ana Peredo, a Ph.D. graduate of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, reveals how a biologic patch activated by natural motion could become a key tool for repairing herniated discs in the back and relieving pain.

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