The Many Songs of David
Rabbi David Wolpe is an admired writer, the popular leader of one of the largest Conservative Jewish congregations in the country, and one of the “50 most influential Jews in the world.” His latest book, David: The Divided Heart, delves into one of the Bible’s most fascinating—and human—characters.
Plastic Fantastic
Penn Medicine’s Frances E. Jensen is a leader in studying how the brain develops and what that means for learning, behavior, and the treatment of disease at different ages. For her book on the teenage brain, she drew on the latest neuroscience findings—and the experiment going on in her own home.
The Link
As the nation’s first medical school celebrates its 250th anniversary, a look back at how generations of students, faculty, and alumni have served their country, delivered the finest patient care, and advanced medical research and education here in Philadelphia and around the world.
Bankoff’s Time
Is Vox Media CEO James Bankoff WG’96 a Henry Luce for the Digital Age?
“One of Those Prodigious Victorian Polymaths”
Horace Howard Furness was a hopeful ghost-hunter, a Penn leader with a gift for stimulating donors’ “pocketbook nerve”—and the founder of modern Shakespeare scholarship.
Alumni Weekend 2015
Our annual photo essay.
Pure to Applied
Unconventional mathematician Robert Ghrist is using one of mathematics’ most abstract disciplines—algebraic topology—to solve real-world problems in robotics and sensor networks.
The Waymaker
Andy Strauss has spent 25 years preserving land and creating trails to restore natural beauty to blighted landscapes. Now he has a vision for the hardscrabble coal country of northeastern Pennsylvania.
Unconditional Pavlov
Daniel Todes spent 25 years researching and writing his epochal biography of Ivan Pavlov. The result is a science historian’s answer to Tolstoy, Turgenev, and Dr. Zhivago.
Living Up to the Lipstick
In the two decades since her breast-cancer diagnosis, Geralyn Lucas C’89 has become an icon and inspiration to fellow survivors for her flamboyant and gleefully defiant response to her disease. It all started with her choice of lipstick to wear for her mastectomy.
From Skimmer to Fling
Looking back at the (r)evolution of spring festivals at Penn.
Strange But True
How Mike Finkel’s life became a movie.
Elementary
Even in the era of Big Science, some of the greatest discoveries start with someone—Penn physics professor and Nobel contender Charles Kane, for instance—just sitting in a room and thinking.
The T-Cell Warriors
Four years after a tentative but tantalizing breakthrough against leukemia, Carl June and Bruce Levine C’84 have gone from the fringes of gene therapy to the center of a revolutionary approach to cancer treatment.
Journey from the East
More than 80 years ago, the paths of two Penn students—one from China, the other from New Jersey—intersected. The resulting friendship changed their lives, and those of their families.
Down By Law
Alice Goffman was a Penn undergraduate when she began doing the fieldwork for the project that became On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City. It’s an important, unsettling exploration of a serious issue. Just try not to focus on her.
Penn’s Ebola Fighters
They tend to be uncomfortable with terms like “fighter” and “hero,” but it’s hard to know what else to call these alumni and staff volunteers who’ve traveled to the heart of the epidemic to do whatever they can to help its victims.
Rewriting the Final Sentence
Deborah Denno GrW’82 L’89 is one of the country’s leading scholars in the highly charged realm of the death penalty.
Cue the Middlemen
Whether you’re in the market for exotic pickles or looking to invest in the next up-and-coming urban neighborhood, these alumni-owned online businesses have you covered.
Homecoming 2014
Our annual photo essay. Plus: Alumni Award of Merit winners and citations.
The Man Who Knew Talent
That would be Alan Livingston, who invented Bozo the Clown, saved Frank Sinatra’s singing career, and (maybe) launched the Beatles in America.
The Good Neighbor
As a Zionist soldier, civil-rights advocate, and pioneer of joint nonviolent activism between Israelis and Palestinians, Hillel Bardin has dedicated most of his adult life to the pursuit of a most elusive peace.
With the Donbas Battalion
A young reporter gets his first taste of war in eastern Ukraine.
A Principled Man
Nathan Mossell M1882 overcame great odds to become the first African-American graduate of Penn’s School of Medicine. He went on to found Philadelphia’s first black hospital—an achievement he never really wanted.