Dotdash Rising

After putting the familiar but failing website About.com out of its misery, Dotdash CEO Neil Vogel W’92 has managed to craft a thriving group of websites from the company’s wreckage.

Finding Life in Death

As a nursing professor, Kimberly Acquaviva teaches students about end-of-life issues and hospice and palliative care. When her wife, also a leading hospice expert, was diagnosed with a fatal type of cancer, Acquaviva turned their home into a virtual classroom, inviting anyone on the internet to witness the intimate details of dying—while making a case for more varied and inclusive options for the terminally ill.

American Byzantine

Andrew Gould has been called “America’s foremost Orthodox church designer.” Melding deep conservatism with romantic fantasy, his work is the architectural version of historical fiction.

Loyal Classmen

At the turn of the 20th century, Julian Abele and Louis Magaziner—a black man and an immigrant Jew—were standouts in Penn’s School of Fine Arts about to launch distinguished careers in architecture. They were also beginning what would be a lifelong friendship. A Magaziner descendant and Abele admirer investigates what brought them together.

Her General Tubman

In Lorene Cary’s new play—her first—Harriet Tubman shuttles between leading a Civil War raid that freed hundreds of enslaved plantation workers and a men’s prison in present-day Philadelphia, where she finds love and recruits soldiers for the Union Army. The path to its production was complicated, too.

The New Climate Advocates

From mayors and MBAs to lawyers and landscape architects, the face of climate change activism is changing. At Penn, a mix of pragmatic thinking and visionary ambition has sparked a sense that what is urgent might also be achievable.

Augmenting Reality

Will augmented reality change everything we see? A growing number of Penn alumni, staff, and faculty think so. And even as they bump up against its challenges and limitations, they’re still committed to pulling AR further into our lives.

Toward a New Boyhood

From toxic masculinity to feminist overreach, angry white men to benevolent sexism, #HimToo to #TimesUp, American manhood is in disarray. Into the fray steps Michael Reichert, with a blueprint for raising the next generation right.

The Unlikely Legend

After a staggering 50 years guiding Penn’s oft-overlooked sprint football team, Bill Wagner decides to step down—but not before leaving more than 1,500 alumni with unique athletic memories, life lessons, and a stockpile of indelible “Wagisms.”

The Story of Liang and Lin

Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin came to Penn at the height of Philadelphia’s Beaux-Arts building boom. They returned to revolutionary China with ideas that made a lasting mark on the development of architecture in the People’s Republic.

Unleashing Hope

Drawing on groundbreaking immunotherapy techniques pioneered at Penn, the Vet School’s Nicola Mason is working toward a cure for bone cancer in dogs and children and to spark broader advances in the field of comparative medicine.

Heisman’s Game

It’s not just about the trophy. As a player and coach, John Heisman was one of football’s fiercest (and trickiest!) competitors and a great innovator, who championed multiple changes that made the sport safer and more exciting.

A Man and His Environment

A half-century after the publication of his pathbreaking manifesto, Design With Nature, Ian McHarg’s work is more urgent, timely—and influential—than ever.