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Marrying models with experiments to build more efficient solar cells
Solar panels with sunlight shining on the top right corner.

Marrying models with experiments to build more efficient solar cells

Penn chemist Andrew M. Rappe, in collaboration with former postdoc Arvin Kakekhani and researchers at Princeton University, has gained insight into how the molecular make up of solar cells can affect their properties and make them more efficient.

Luis Melecio-Zambrano, Michele W. Berger

Can nature-inspired designs affect cognition and mood?
Farhan Jivraj sits at a desk and looks at the topographic rug in the biophilic room

Can nature-inspired designs affect cognition and mood?

A team from the Center for Neuroaesthetics created a biophilic room to test the idea. Preliminary findings from a small pilot show promise, but also spur many questions about how to best use such a space.

Michele W. Berger, Kelsey Geesler , Michael Grant

Art museums plant seeds of human flourishing
A view of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a long building of orange brick and blue angled roofs. The Schuylkill River flows in the foreground.

A view of the Philadelphia Museum of Art from the Schuylkill River. A recent review shows the many ways that art museums benefit human flourishing. 

Art museums plant seeds of human flourishing

Researchers from the Humanities and Human Flourishing Project in the Positive Psychology Center at Penn have found that art museums are associated with wide-ranging benefits to human health.

Luis Melecio-Zambrano

Jamaal Green on geographic information systems, urban planning, and housing quality
Jamaal Green wearing a backpack in front of the entrance to Fisher Fine Arts Library.

Jamaal Green, assistant professor of city and regional planning at the Weitzman School.

Jamaal Green on geographic information systems, urban planning, and housing quality

The assistant professor of city and regional planning combines his expertise in city planning, housing, and mapping with his teaching, and conducts research on housing quality issues for low-income homeowners in Philadelphia.

From the Weitzman School of Design

An arms race that plays out in a single genome
Illustration of Alice in Wonderland chasing the Red Queen

Like Alice furiously running to keep up with the Red Queen, but remaining in one place, two genetic elements in the fruit fly genome are engaged in an evolutionary arms race to simply keep the biological status quo, according to new research by Penn scientists. (Image: John Tenniel in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass)

An arms race that plays out in a single genome

School of Arts & Sciences biologist Mia Levine and Cara Brand, a postdoc, shed light on an example of coevolution in fruit flies that has implications for human health.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Genomic differences selected through evolution may offer clues as to why COVID-19 outcomes vary widely
two DNA double helixes next to an illustration of the SARS-CoV-2 virus

COVID-19’s hard-to-predict effects likely owe in part to genetic differences. A Penn-led study analyzing the genomes of a diverse set of populations globally points to genetic variants that may help explain some of the variability in disease severity.

Genomic differences selected through evolution may offer clues as to why COVID-19 outcomes vary widely

A team from the University of Pennsylvania analyzed genomic data from global populations, including thousands of ethnically diverse Africans, to identify genetic variants that may be associated with clinical COVID-19 outcomes.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Penn Athletics hires Liz Nobis as first-ever mental health professional
Franklin Field, with center city Philadelphia to the right in the background.

Penn Athletics hires Liz Nobis as first-ever mental health professional

Nobis earned her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Biola University’s Rosemead School of Psychology in 2021 and has been serving as a postdoctoral fellow at Penn’s Counseling Services for the past year.

Penn Today Staff

People imitate accent features they expect to hear, even without hearing them
An illustration of many different-colored heads with many different-colored talking bubbles.

People imitate accent features they expect to hear, even without hearing them

Research from postdoc Lacey Wade confirmed this idea, what she calls expectation-driven convergence, in a controlled experiment for the first time. The work reveals just how much the subconscious factors into the way people speak.

Michele W. Berger

Researchers find topological phenomena at high technologically relevant frequencies
a close up of a needle etching stars into a blue membrane with a Z down the middle

Researchers find topological phenomena at high technologically relevant frequencies

A collaborative new study led by researchers in the School of Arts & Sciences demonstrates topological control capabilities in an acoustic system, with implications for applications such as 5G communications and quantum information processing.

Erica K. Brockmeier