Man, The Drinker
Biomolecular archaeologist and Penn Museum researcher Patrick McGovern Gr’80 has found some of the oldest alcoholic beverages known to history, and he wants you to take a glug. They might just be responsible for civilization as we know it. (Not to mention your next hangover.)
Steeped in Tea
Professor of Chinese Language and Literature Victor Mair spent years immersing himself in tea lore. His new book gives a fresh infusion of history to a venerable subject.
How to Succeed in Show Business by Really, Really Trying
She’s played an amateur porn actress and a president’s wife, produces movies with her (fellow alum) husband, and is now poised to direct her own first film. Elizabeth Banks C’96 is working almost as hard as she did at Penn.
Homecoming 2009
Homecoming 2009
Are Better Brains Better?
Penn neuroscientists Martha Farah and Anjan Chatterjee believe the answer is more complicated than you think.
Darwinism Comes To Penn
A century-and-a-half after the November 1859 publication of On the Origin of Species, a Penn microbiologist looks back at how Darwin’s ideas were received by some of the University’s leading thinkers.
“Red and Blue Makes Green”
The University’s new Climate Action Plan is good for the environment—and won’t hurt Penn’s bottom line, either.
The Justice Who Was of Two Minds
Appointed to the Supreme Court for his crusading prosecution of the Teapot Dome Scandal in the 1920s, Owen Roberts went from New Deal obstructionist to enabler after Roosevelt threatened to “pack” the court. Was the alumnus and future Law School dean merely expedient, or a statesman who put country before consistency?
A Hymn to the Parks
Dayton Duncan sees the national parks as the “Declaration of Independence applied to the landscape.” Now he and Ken Burns have made an epic movie about them.
In the Spotlight
Penn’s thriving arts-and-culture scene takes center stage this year.
Disney’s Channeler
Mixing up-to-the-minute marketing techniques, tried-and-true entertainment formulas, and engaging young stars and stories, Disney Channels Worldwide President Richard Ross C’83 is helping ensure that the company remains supreme in the kid-entertainment universe.
A Life Worth Living
Thanks to advanced technology and the family, friends, colleagues, and caretakers who make up his “crew,” Penn neuroscientist and alumnus Scott Mackler continues to function professionally and personally a decade after being diagnosed with the lethal neurodegenerative disease ALS.
The Future of Our Past
Penn’s Architectural Conservation Laboratory takes a rigorous approach to historic preservation.
Sunrise in Philadelphia
On a crisp September day, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention gathered to sign the document they’d hammered out over the long, hot summer of 1787, flaws and all. An excerpt from Plain, Honest Men by History Professor Richard Beeman. Plus: An interview with the author.
Alumni Weekend 2009
Alumni Weekend 2009 Slideshow
Crossing the Street
It’s just a short walk from Penn’s campus to the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center, but for the hundreds of medical students and residents who train there the experience can be transformative.
The Vital Thread of Tom Sugrue
In The Origins of the Urban Crisis and now Sweet Land of Liberty, Penn historian Thomas Sugrue has shattered the conventional narrative about the struggle for Civil Rights in this country. The new book was published on the same day a black man was elected president; still, says Sugrue, “We’ve got a lot of overcoming to do.”
Ultimate Fundraising Championship
Philanthropy at the end of a fist. Grad students beyond thunderdome. Chin-rattlers. Brain-shakers. Welcome to Fight Night.
Intelligent Designs
Three Penn alumni are making their mark on fashion with clothing and accessories that are both thoroughly functional and very easy on the eyes.
Open Treasure
Penn’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library has a message for students, alumni, and book lovers everywhere. Online or on campus, come up and see us sometime!
Digging Routes
Nick Spitzer C’72’s sonic gumbo is unlike anything else on radio.
Inside the Cancer-Cell Smasher
In the last century, American medicine has gone from a cottage industry to a technology-driven juggernaut. The machine at the heart of the new Roberts Proton Therapy Center, dubbed “the world’s most expensive and complex medical device,” provides a glimpse of what the coming years may hold.
An Architect Walks Into the Lab
Can architects help create next-generation treatments for cancer and lung disease? Will the buildings of tomorrow have intelligent skins? What does figure skating have to do with it? An unusual partnership between Penn cell biologists and design students is tackling a lot of strange questions. Their answers may rewrite the rules of biomedical research.
The Energizer Dean
From her distinctive outfits to her influential research to her indefatigable efforts to raise the profile of Penn’s School of Nursing, Dean Afaf Meleis commands attention—provided you can keep up with her.