March|April 2015
Volume 113, No. 4
FEATURES
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. By Kevin Hartnett
Four years after a tentative but tantalizing breakthrough against leukemia, Carl June and Bruce Levine have gone from the fringes of gene therapy to the center of a revolutionary approach to cancer treatment backed by Novartis and fast-tracked by the FDA. But first they had to run out of money, conquer skeptics, and turn a 12-year exile from cancer research into a pivotal advantage. By Trey Popp
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. By Christine Lutton Foster
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. By Samuel Hughes
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. By Melissa Jacobs
DEPARTMENTS
First Person: Essays
NOTES FROM THE UNDERGRAD Full plate
ALUMNI VOICES Grief, and a gift
ELSEWHERE The only place to be
EXPERT OPINION “We can learn to use technologies more wisely.”
Gazetteer: News & Sports
Jonathan Moreno on “J.L.,” his psychodrama-founding father
Alternative Spring Break program celebrates 25 years of service
Conference tackles food waste (all 1.3 billion tons a year)
Who ya gonna call … to study the “sociological truth” of ghosts?
College senior Rutendo Chigora of Zimbabwe named a Rhodes Scholar
A close look at the Center for the Analysis of Archaeological Materials
Language on Twitter can predict heart-disease risk in a community
Matt Hanessian’s unlikely journey to—and from—varsity basketball
High expectations for baseball and men’s lacrosse
Arts
ARCHITECTURE White Towers Revisited at Architectural Archives
BOOKS A sociologist’s self-examination. When Marx Mattered
Music Q&A with Ben Yagoda G’91 on his book, The B-Side
Exhibition Beneath the Surface at the Penn Museum
Alumni: Profiles
CBS Sports’ “Madness” men Stephen Karasik C’95 and Tyler Hale C’96
Natalie Shieh EAS’02 LPS’08 GCP’09 is helping reshape 30th Street
Alumni who love baseball, numbers, and baseball numbers
Sheldon Posen Gr’78 curates Canadian culture, and celebrates it in song
Andy Toy C’80 G’81 got Chinatown’s community center off the ground
: Events
: Notes