In an unprecedented effort to address the harmful effects of structural racism on health, 60 predominantly Black neighborhoods in Philadelphia will be part of an ambitious study to assess the impact of a multi-component intervention addressing both environmental and economic injustice on health and well-being, led by Penn Medicine researchers Eugenia South and Atheendar Venkataramani.
At the community level, the study includes tree planting, vacant lot greening, trash cleanup, and rehabilitation of dilapidated, abandoned houses. For households, the study will help connect participants to local, state, and federal social and economic benefits, including food, unemployment, and prescription drug assistance, provide financial counseling and tax preparation services, and offer emergency cash assistance.
This randomized controlled trial (RCT) is funded by a nearly $10 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), awarded to researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania through the NIH Common Fund’s Transformative Research to Address Health Disparities and Advance Health Equity initiative. Through this initiative, the NIH has announced 11 grants totaling $58 million over five years for highly innovative health disparities research across the U.S.
“Previous efforts to reduce racial health disparities have been less impactful than we would like because they often only address a small number of the many mechanisms by which structural racism harms health,” said Atheendar Venkataramani, assistant professor of medical ethics and health policy and director of the Opportunity for Health Lab. “Our multi-component intervention is designed to address these multiple mechanisms all at once.”
Recent research illustrates that the roots of poor health in Black neighborhoods are structural, resulting from decades of disinvestment and neglect. The impacts of structural racism are evident from neighborhood-level factors such as crumbling houses, lack of green space, trash build-up, and declining economic opportunity. The impact on the health of individuals living in those communities is profound and includes increased rates of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and heart disease compared to their white counterparts.
The researchers also aim to make it easier for individuals to navigate the process of determining their eligibility and getting help from multiple providers through development of a platform that makes collaboration between community financial service agencies simpler and more efficient. Community partners, including the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, Campaign for Working Families, Benefits Data Trust, and Clarifi will implement the interventions.
“Black communities are centered in this proposal,” said Eugenia South, assistant professor of emergency medicine and the faculty director of the Penn Urban Health Lab. “Collectively, our team has spent a significant amount of time talking and working with leaders and community groups in Black Philadelphia neighborhoods and with this study we are committed to being responsive to the economic and environmental needs they have identified. We will also be hiring four full-time community members to the Penn Medicine team to advise on the entire process and lead recruitment.”
The researchers will enroll 720 predominantly Black adults across the 60 study neighborhoods, half of whom will receive the proposed interventions. The study will meet participants where they are via door-to-door recruitment, rather than relying on clinic referrals or responses to flyers, which may exclude the most vulnerable adults. Investigators will use standardized surveys to evaluate the overall health and well-being of participants at multiple times over the course of the trial. They will also evaluate the impact on violent crime.
The overall goal is to show that deeply entrenched racial health disparities can be closed by concentrated investment in Black neighborhoods. Researchers are hopeful that their interventions will be successful in improving the health not just of participants in the study, but other members of the household and of the whole community. The findings of this bold project could serve as evidence to policymakers that these sweeping, “big push” interventions work and should be implemented broadly.
Shelley Welton has accepted an appointment at the University of Pennsylvania as a Presidential Distinguished Professor of Law and Energy Policy. From decarbonization in a democracy to clean energy justice, Dr. Welton’s legal research focuses on how climate change is transforming energy and environmental law.
Dr. Welton’s faculty appointment is at Penn Carey Law, where she will hold an affiliation with the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy in the Weitzman School as part of President Amy Gutmann’s 2019 commitment to building a multidisciplinary energy policy faculty affiliated with the Kleinman Center.
“I’m thrilled and honored to be joining Penn Carey Law and the Kleinman Center. I look forward to collaborating across the University to enhance Penn’s leadership in climate and energy scholarship, policymaking, and education,” said Dr. Welton.
Dr. Welton will start her tenure at Penn in the fall of 2022. This year, she is already connecting with Penn faculty and students by participating in law school seminars; she will also serve in the spring as a Kleinman Center visiting scholar. Starting next fall, she will teach environmental law and host an advanced climate and energy seminar at Penn Carey Law in addition to her Energy and Climate course at the Kleinman Center.
“In her work, Shelley explores the relationship of law to real-world environmental challenges and imagines meaningful solutions,” said Fritz Steiner, Dean and Paley Professor at Weitzman.
Dr. Welton will be the second faculty research appointment at the Kleinman Center, following the 2020 hiring of carbon capture expert Jennifer Wilcox (Almanac September 15, 2020), who is now on leave at the Department of Energy. Both appointments are possible due to an anonymous $30 million gift to the Kleinman Center in 2019, as well as generous University support.
Dr. Welton comes to Penn from the University of South Carolina School of Law, where she has taught administrative law, energy law, environmental law and policy, and climate change law. Her scholarship has appeared in publications like the California Law Review, Columbia Law Review, and Harvard Environmental Law Review. Before entering academia, Dr. Welton worked as the deputy director of Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. She also was a clerk for Judge David Trager of the Eastern District of New York and Judge Allyson Duncan of the Fourth Circuit.
Perry World House, the University of Pennsylvania’s international affairs hub, has been awarded a new grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York. The $500,000 grant will support Perry World House’s efforts to connect Penn’s research and expertise with the global policy community as the world recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This Carnegie grant affirms Perry World House’s mission to make a tangible impact on the world’s most urgent shared challenges,” said Penn Interim Provost Beth A. Winkelstein. “As we continue to emerge from the pandemic, the grant will enable Penn scholars to work together with global leaders and policymakers to help shape the future of our changing world.”
Since 2017, two other major grants from Carnegie Corporation of New York have helped Perry World House to inform policy debates and shape academic research agendas on the world’s biggest challenges. The most recent grant, awarded in fall 2019, supported policy and academic convenings on how COVID-19 affected global mobility; the dynamics shaping the future of transatlantic security; and how the United Nations can tackle the twin challenges of a pandemic and great power competition, among others. The grant also underpinned Perry World House funding for Penn faculty, helping them to transform their teaching and make it more relevant to global policy.
“We are delighted to renew our partnership with Carnegie Corporation of New York this fall,” said Perry World House Director and Richard Perry Professor Michael C. Horowitz. “In the past four years, their support, expertise, and faith in our work have been essential in building and strengthening bridges between Penn and the policy community, and this grant will support yet more new workshops, new teaching, and new ideas.”
In addition to hosting new workshops and supporting additional course development, Perry World House will use the grant to emphasize evolving issue areas where there is the greatest need for the academic and policy worlds to connect, which may include trust in emerging technologies and global security, questions surrounding climate governance, and examining how systemic racism impacts U.S. foreign policy. Drawing on lessons learned from the first two grants, especially the experience of remote operations during the COVID-19 pandemic, Perry World House will also experiment with new formats for workshops, continue to expand participation in its programs from the Global South, and engage directly with government officials in the United States and beyond.
Building upon the scope and depth of the school’s academics and scholarship, Penn Dental Medicine welcomes Alonso Carrasco-Labra to its faculty. A leading authority in evidence-based health care, Dr. Carrasco-Labra joined the school on October 25. He was appointed an associate professor on the tenure track in the department of preventive & restorative sciences pending approval by the school’s personnel committees and the Provost’s Office.
“We are tremendously pleased to have Dr. Carrasco-Labra with us,” said Penn Dental Medicine’s Morton Amsterdam Dean, Mark S. Wolff. “He is one of the top global experts in evidence-based dentistry and evidence-informed health policy and will contribute greatly to expanding our leadership in these areas.”
Dr. Carrasco-Labra comes to Penn Dental Medicine from the American Dental Association (ADA), where he served as senior director of the department of evidence synthesis and translation research within the ADA Science and Research Institute. Before that role, he was the director of ADA’s Center for Evidence-Based Dentistry.
He earned his DDS from the University of Chile and completed his PhD in health research methodology and a master’s in clinical epidemiology from McMaster University in Canada. Dr. Carrasco-Labra has an extensive portfolio as a widely published author, invited lecturer, and national and international consultant. He has served as clinical practice guideline and policy methodologist for the Pan-American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO), the World Bank, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), as well as the governments and health care agencies in Saudi Arabia, Spain, Dominican Republic, the U.K., Canada, Colombia, Chile, and other ministries of health worldwide. For many years, Dr. Carrasco-Labra has also been active in Cochrane, an independent global organization internationally recognized as the benchmark for high-quality information about the effectiveness of health care. Presently, he serves on Cochrane’s Oral Health Group, the Wounds Group, the Patient Reported Outcome Methods Group, and the GRADEing Group.
In the realm of research, Dr. Carrasco-Labra is currently principal investigator of an FDA-funded grant titled “Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Guideline for the Management of Acute Dental Pain: Development, Implementation, and Evaluation Using Data Analytics to Target an Implementation Strategy.” Over his career, he has held faculty appointments and has been a visiting scholar at the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Chile; the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto; the School of Dental Medicine, University of Buffalo; and the School of Dentistry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
At Penn Dental Medicine, Dr. Carrasco-Labra will work as part of the school’s new Center for Integrative Global Oral Health (CIGOH), which launched earlier this year (Almanac August 10, 2021).
The University of Pennsylvania Libraries has received a rare collection of 151 interpositive glass plates by photographer Edward S. Curtis (1868–1952) from collector William H. Miller III. Appraised at $4.2 million, this gift to the Penn Libraries complements holdings across the University, making Penn a major center for research and work on Mr. Curtis, who was one of the most prolific American photographers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Mr. Curtis photographed Native Americans from more than 80 tribes over three decades. Selecting from among the 40,000 photographs he took, he produced a 20-volume work titled The North American Indian, published between 1907 and 1930.
“The Penn Libraries has made it a strategic priority to build, preserve, and steward collections with a focus on education, access, and resource-sharing,” said Constantia Constantinou, H. Carton Rogers III Vice Provost and Director of Libraries. “It is an honor to receive this gift, which significantly expands our collections in the history of photography.”
Mr. Curtis used a photogravure process in which interpositive glass plates represent a key moment between capture and a final printed image. Every 14 x 17 glass negative that Mr. Curtis prepared was printed again as a glass positive before the image was moved onto a copperplate for etching. The vast majority of the interpositive glass plates that Mr. Curtis had produced were destroyed. The collection of 151 plates received by the Penn Libraries is the largest group known to have survived and contains details lost in the printing process.
Mr. Miller made the gift to the Penn Libraries based on guidance from Stephan Loewenthiel, founder and president of the 19th Century Rare Book and Photograph Shop and a member of the Penn Libraries Board of Advisors.
"The use of glass plates by the great 19th century photographers, including Edward Curtis, required a cumbersome and time-consuming process involving heavy equipment, delicate glass plates, volatile chemicals and great artistic ability to make each photograph successful,” said Loewenthiel. “The Penn Libraries, in conjunction with the Penn Museum, will allow this process and resulting masterworks to be exhibited and studied, allowing for both wide public exposure and study by experts, students and the interested public."
Scholars have noted that Mr. Curtis removed aspects of modernity, such as alarm clocks, from the final prints he made, and that many of his images are highly stylized. Mr. Curtis often posed the people he photographed for his North American Indian volumes dressed in traditional clothing.
“Edward S. Curtis’s photographs raise complex issues of representation of Native American peoples in both the past and the present” said Christopher Woods, Williams Director of the Penn Museum. “This gift to the Penn Libraries complements the Penn Museum’s existing Curtis collection. Through interdisciplinary collaboration at the University and beyond, we can create meaningful opportunities to expand teaching and research in conversation with today’s living Native American photographers, scholars, artists, students, and community members.”
The Penn Museum’s link to Mr. Curtis dates back to 1912, when he first exhibited his photographs there. The Museum Archives includes among its holdings 66 platinum prints signed by Mr. Curtis and 109 photogravures. The Museum Library has a nearly complete set of the original edition of The North American Indian. It is missing volumes one and four among its 20 volumes of text and portfolio—12 among the accompanying 20 volumes of portfolio plates.
The collection of interpositive glass plates from Mr. Miller also complements growing photographic collections held by the Penn Libraries’ Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books, and Manuscripts, which include recent gifts by Arthur Tress and Laurence Salzmann. The Curtis plates will join foundational collections in the history of photography, such as the Eadweard Muybridge Collection, and collections focused on Native American cultures and histories, such as the Berendt-Brinton Linguistic Collection and the Brinton Library; the Robert Dechert Collection; and the Caroline Schimmel Collection. Related materials across the University include Muybridge collections at the University of Pennsylvania Archives, two Curtis photographs in the Penn Art Collection, and other collections of Curtis materials at the Penn Museum Archives.
Curators in the Penn Libraries and in the Penn Museum will work together to study, interpret, and introduce audiences to these works, and to understand their significance alongside other objects, artifacts, images, and books.
“Teaching with collections and making them accessible to researchers is central to our work,” said Sean Quimby, Associate University Librarian and Director of the Kislak Center. “The staff of the Kislak Center are developing a plan to catalog, preserve, and provide access to the glass plates in the classroom, exhibition galleries, and online. We look forward to partnering with colleagues at Penn to steward this collection.”
Robert Elder Forster II, M’43, an emeritus professor of physiology in the Perelman School of Medicine, passed away on September 19, 2021. He was 101.
Dr. Forster was born in 1919 in the Philadelphia suburbs and graduated from Radnor High School. He received a BS from the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale University in 1941, then received an MD from Penn in 1943. He did a year-long internship at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, then spent two years as a captain in the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps in the Climatic Research Laboratory in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Dr. Forster took a postdoctoral fellowship in the department of physiology at Harvard, then in 1951, Julius Comroe recruited him to join the department of physiology at Penn’s School of Medicine.
Immediately, Dr. Forster had an impact on Penn’s department of physiology and the field at large. In 1959, he became graduate chair of the department, and eleven years later he became the department chair, a position he held until retiring in 1990. In 1962, Dr. Forster received a generous grant from the U.S. Public Health Service to research the gas uptake of blood cells, research that led him to speak internationally. He had an impressive record of service around Penn, ranging from University Council and Faculty Senate committees to special committees for the selection of new deans, which drew upon his medical expertise. Dr. Forster continued probing and innovating long into his career, receiving a University Research Foundation (URF) grant as late as 1996; he had an active NIH grant supporting his research until 2005.
Dr. Forster’s research focused on CO2 and HCO3 exchanges and chemical reactions, using rapid mixing instruments and stable isotopes. He studied carbonic anhydrase in cells and subcellular particles, as well as pulmonary capillary gas exchange, blood flow, gas exchange, alveolar ventilation, carbon dioxide metabolism, and carbonic anhydrases. In 1956, Drs. Forster and Comroe wrote The Lung, a textbook that was later updated three times; Dr. Forster’s research was also published extensively in peer-reviewed publications. In 1973, he was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences; twenty years later, he also received a prestigious Von Humbolt Fellowship. Dr. Forster was a member of the Society of General Physiologists, the Biophysical Society, the American Physiological Society (where he served as president from 1966 to 1967), and the American Society for Clinical Investigation. Outside of academia, Dr. Forster was a member of an advisory committee to NASA that had recommended against using 100% oxygen during tests on the ground before the Apollo 1 fire in 1967.
In his free time, Dr. Forster loved to sail his ketch, the Tyche, and his sloop, the Old Cove. He also enjoyed playing tennis at the Merion Cricket Club and the Duxbury Yacht Club.
He is survived by his four children, Julia Bacon Forster, Jameson Forster, John Montgomery Forster V, and Elizabeth (Babs) Forster Camerota; nine grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
Dr. Forster’s life will be celebrated at the Church of the Redeemer in Bryn Mawr on Saturday, November 13 at 11 a.m. The service will be livestreamed on www.theredeemer.org. He will be interred next to his late wife, Elizabeth Hilbert Day, in Duxbury, Massachusetts. In lieu of flowers, gifts can be made to Penn Medicine’s department of physiology. Checks can be made out to “The Trustees of the University of PA – Physiology.” In the memo section, add “In Honor of Dr. Robert E. Forster II” and mail to: c/o Andrew Bellet, 3535 Market Street, Suite 750, Philadelphia, PA 19104.
Michael Byron Simson, the Samuel Bellet Associate Professor in the department of cardiology in internal medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine, passed away on September 14. He was 77.
Dr. Simson earned a BA in 1966 and an MD in 1970, both at Harvard. In 1971, he joined the faculty of Penn’s School of Medicine as an assistant instructor in medicine. Four years later, he was promoted to research associate in the department of cardiology, and the next year he became an assistant professor. In 1977, Dr. Simson accepted the secondary post of assistant professor of physiology in the department of animal biology at Penn Vet, where he conducted research that involved animals as models of human disease in order to study fundamental mechanisms in rhythm disorders of the heart. Dr. Simson continued to rise through the ranks, becoming an associate professor of cardiovascular medicine at Penn’s School of Medicine in 1983. The next year, he was named the Samuel Bellet Associate Professor of Medicine in the department of cardiology (Almanac February 21, 1984), a position he held until his retirement and assumption of emeritus status in 2021. Beginning in 1976, he also had a secondary appointment in animal biology in Penn Vet.
Dr. Simson was a leading researcher and specialist in rhythm disorders of the heart. As early as 1977, he won the American College of Cardiology’s Young Investigator Award for his work with Wenckebach Arrhythmia. In the early 1980s, he invented an electrocardiograph instrument that was designed to alert doctors of ventricular tachycardia, a condition of life-threatening periods of excessively rapid heartbeats that occurs after heart attacks. This instrument was patented and mass-manufactured. In 1985, Dr. Simson received a grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to study this disease.
Dr. Simson is survived by his wife, Sharon Pastor Simson; his son, Michael D. Simson (Jennifer); a grandson; his siblings, Mary Ann Phillips, William C. Simson, and Susan Pittman; and many nieces and nephews. Services and interment were private. Send contributions in Dr. Simson’s memory to Kitty Cottage Adoption Center at www.kittycottage.org.
Almanac appreciates being informed of the deaths of current and former faculty and staff members, students and other members of the University community. Call (215) 898-5274 or email almanac@upenn.edu.
Faculty Senate Executive Committee Agenda Wednesday, November 10, 2021 3–5 p.m. EDT
At the virtual University Council meeting on Wednesday, October 27, Lizann Boyle Rode, associate vice president in the Office of the University Secretary, read responses to three topics raised during new business at the September University Council meeting. The topics included University recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, having a centralized sexual assault hotline, and proposed changes to transfer student advising.
President Amy Gutmann said the groundbreaking on the School of Engineering and Applied Science’s new data science building took place in early October (Almanac October 12, 2021). The building, to be named Amy Gutmann Hall, is a critical investment that is funded by the single largest gift in SEAS’s history. She introduced SEAS’s Nemirovsky Family Dean, Vijay Kumar, who then gave a presentation about data science at Penn and showed renderings of the new building, which will be located on the northeast corner of 34th and Chestnut Streets.
It is believed that data science is leading to significant societal transformations and will change the process of scientific discovery. The amount of data created, captured, and stored over the last decade has increased tremendously, from approximately five zettabytes in 2011 to 79 in 2021, said Dean Kumar.
Data science impacts every discipline and Penn is well positioned in this area, he said. It’s important to educate everyone to have realistic expectations of data and adhere to FATE: fairness, accountability, transparency, and ethics in artificial intelligence (AI).
Interim Provost Beth Winkelstein said Penn Libraries is at the heart of research and scholarly missions at Penn and played a crucial role in welcoming the Penn community back to campus. She introduced Constantia Constantinou, the H. Carton Rogers III Vice Provost and Director of the Penn Libraries, who presented on the topic of inspiring critical inquiry and creative expression.
Dr. Constantinou said that during the pandemic, Penn Libraries staff responded to accelerated user demand for access to physical library materials from those who could no longer access them in person. Curators deployed new technologies and scanned rare documents to share with researchers around the world.
Penn Libraries has implemented contactless technologies, including a mobile app and kiosks, for patrons to check out materials. Students can now also request that library materials be delivered to them on campus.
Dr. Constantinou said the new Biotech Commons displays a vision for a library of the future, with a mixed reality lab, digital fabrication lab, and an anatomage table, among other services. Penn Libraries is committed to advancing information equity to the University, Philadelphia, and the world, she said.
Going forward, Penn Libraries plans to further address information challenges and opportunities, make strategic investments in technology, reimagine its physical spaces, and contribute to local and national movements to address inequities.
Ms. Rode announced that the December 1, 2021 University Council meeting will be an Open Forum in Bodek Lounge, Houston Hall. Individuals who want to be assured of speaking must inform the Office of the University Secretary (ucouncil@pobox.upenn.edu) by 10 a.m. on Monday, November 8, 2021 (Almanac October 26, 2021).
The Division of Public Safety is committed to enhancing the quality of life for the campus community by integrating the best practices of public and private policing with state-of-the-art technology. A critical component of a comprehensive security plan using state-of-the-art technology is Closed Circuit Television (CCTV).
As prescribed by the University Policy “Closed Circuit Television Monitoring and Recording of Public Areas for Safety and Security Purposes” (Almanac April 29, 2008), the locations of all outside CCTV cameras monitored by Public Safety are to be published semi-annually in Almanac. The locations and descriptions of these cameras can also be found on the Division of Public Safety website: https://www.publicsafety.upenn.edu/about/security-technology/closed-circuit-television-cctv/.
The following existing cameras meet those criteria:
The following faculty members will receive this year’s Perelman School of Medicine Awards of Excellence. The distinguished awardees exemplify our profession’s highest values of scholarship, teaching, innovation, commitment to service, leadership, inclusion, and dedication to patient care. They epitomize the preeminence and impact we all strive to achieve. The awardees range from those at the beginning of their highly promising careers to those whose distinguished work has spanned decades.
—J. Larry Jameson, Executive Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System and Dean of Perelman School of Medicine
The Stanley N. Cohen Biomedical Research Award goes to E. John Wherry, Richard and Barbara Schiffrin President’s Distinguished Professor and chair of the department of systems pharmacology & translational therapeutics. Dr. Wherry is an internationally recognized immunologist, who has done pioneering research on T cell exhaustion and immunity to chronic infections and cancer.
The William Osler Patient Oriented Research Award goes to Katalin Susztak, professor of medicine in the division of renal-electrolyte and hypertension. Dr. Susztak is a physician-scientist who has made discoveries fundamental towards defining critical genes, cell types and mechanisms of chronic kidney disease, with great translational relevance and therapeutic potential.
The Samuel Martin Health Evaluation Sciences Research Award goes to Raina M. Merchant, professor in the department of emergency medicine. A pioneer in the field of digital media and health services research, Dr. Merchant is the director of the Penn Medicine Center for Digital Health and Associate Vice President of Digital Health at Penn Medicine.
The Michael S. Brown New Investigator Research Award goes to Golnaz Vahedi, associate professor in the department of genetics. Dr. Vahedi is a rising star in the field of immunology, with a focus on T cell biology, epigenetics, and autoimmunity.
The Marjorie A. Bowman New Investigator Research Award goes to Mucio Kit Delgado, assistant professor in the departments of emergency medicine and epidemiology. Dr. Delgado has led pioneering studies to combat opioid overprescribing, reduce distracted and drunk driving, curb firearm injuries, and optimize emergency care systems for acutely ill and injured persons.
The Louis Duhring Outstanding Clinical Specialist Award goes to Beverly G. Coleman, emeritus professor in the department of radiology and director of fetal imaging at the Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment at CHOP. Dr. Coleman is widely recognized as a preeminent radiologist who has played a pioneering role in fetal therapy and has blazed a trail for Black clinicians in the field of radiology over the course of her long and distinguished career.
The Sylvan Eisman Outstanding Primary Care Physician Award goes to Judy S. Chertok, assistant professor of family medicine and community health and the associate program director of the residency program. Dr. Chertok is a highly regarded clinician who has developed deep relationships with her patients. She has actively engaged in quality improvement and service excellence work within her department and has been a leader in the care of patients with opiate use disorder and initiatives to increase equity and access for them.
The Luigi Mastroianni, Jr. Clinical Innovator Award goes to Adi Hirshberg, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology. Dr. Hirshberg and her team developed and implemented the Heart Safe Motherhood program, an innovative remote monitoring tool that is transforming the care of women with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy across Penn Medicine and the city of Philadelphia.
The Alfred Stengel Health System Champion Award goes to Jeanmarie Perrone, professor of emergency medicine. Dr. Perrone’s leadership as the director of the Penn Center for Addiction Medicine and Policy has helped thousands of patients gain access to medications for opioid addiction, transforming the management of pain and the treatment of opioid use disorder at Penn Medicine.
The Arthur K. Asbury Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award goes to Frances K. Barg, emeritus professor of family medicine and community health. Dr. Barg is a pioneer in the field of qualitative health research and is a role model for medical faculty who wish to pursue research that incorporates patient and community perspectives.
The Duncan Van Dusen Professionalism Award for Faculty goes to Carmen E. Guerra, the Ruth C. and Raymond G. Perelman Professor of Medicine in the division of general internal medicine and associate director of diversity and outreach at the Abramson Cancer Center. Dr. Guerra’s multifaceted leadership in support of diversity, equity, and inclusion has had far-reaching impact across Penn Medicine.
The Michael P. Nusbaum Graduate Student Mentoring Award goes to Kristen Lynch, Benjamin Rush Endowed Professor and chair of the department of biochemistry and biophysics. Dr. Lynch is recognized as an outstanding mentor to graduate students inside and outside her laboratory and has used her leadership to support women and underrepresented students.
The Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching goes to Angela M. Ellison, associate professor and vice chair of the department of pediatrics. Dr. Ellison is an exceptional educator who teaches in a variety of settings at CHOP and PSOM and has served as an outstanding voice and leading role model over the past year as the department and hospital have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and wide-ranging effects of systemic racism.
The Provost’s Award for Distinguished Teaching goes to Keith William Hamilton, associate professor of clinical medicine. Dr. Hamilton is a star educator in the department of medicine and is widely respected as medical education leader at Penn in his roles as the internal medicine clerkship director and director of undergraduate medical education in the department of medicine.
The Leonard Berwick Memorial Teaching Award goes to Jonathan Dunham, associate professor of clinical medicine in the department of medicine. Dr. Dunham is an outstanding rheumatologist and educator who has dedicated his teaching career to fusing basic science and clinical medicine and is widely admired for his skill at teaching how immune mechanisms play a role in clinical medicine.
The Robert Dunning Dripps Memorial Award for Excellence in Graduate Medical Education goes to Todd Barton, professor of clinical medicine and director of the residency program in the department of medicine. Dr. Barton has worked with learners at all levels in Penn Medicine for over two decades and strives to teach a multitude of skills from collaborative teamwork to individual clinical problem-solving to bedside humanism.
The Jane M. Glick Graduate Student Teaching Award goes to Rebecca A. Hubbard, professor of biostatistics in the department of biostatistics, epidemiology & informatics. Dr. Hubbard is an enthusiastic, highly effective, and truly committed teacher and mentor who has had a remarkable impact on the graduate group in epidemiology and biostatistics (GGEB), promoting a productive and caring environment for BGS students through her teaching and mentoring.
Each of these recipients was chosen by a committee of distinguished faculty from the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania. The contributions of these clinicians and scientists exemplify the outstanding quality of patient care, mentoring, research, and teaching.
Chemistry’s Zahra Fakhraai and Marisa Kozlowski will be honored by the American Chemical Society, one of the world’s largest scientific organizations with more than 155,000 members in 150 countries.
Dr. Fakhraai, an associate professor of chemistry, will receive a Rising Star Award from the American Chemical Society Women Chemists Committee (WCC). The WCC Rising Star Award recognizes up to 10 female-identifying individuals approaching mid-level careers who have demonstrated outstanding promise for contributions to their respective fields. Dr. Fakhraai studies the effect of nano-confinement and interfacial interactions on the structure, dynamics, and other properties of nanostructured materials.
Dr. Kozlowski, a professor of chemistry, will receive an Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society. The award recognizes and encourages excellence in organic chemistry. Ten Arthur C. Cope Scholars are named each year. Dr. Kozlowski’s work focuses on rational design of new methods and catalysts for use in organic synthesis. She was elected a fellow of the American Chemical Society in 2013.
Penn Medicine’s new Pavilion of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania’s campus has broken new ground for sustainable healthcare construction and design with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Healthcare Gold Certification. Incorporating sustainability efforts since the beginning of its development, the 17-story, future-ready patient facility is the largest certified project in the world to achieve Gold certification or higher in LEED Healthcare. At 1.5 million square feet, the Pavilion—which opened on October 30—is also the first hospital in the United States of more than one million square feet to achieve certification in LEED Healthcare.
LEED, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), is the most widely used green building rating system in the world and an international symbol of excellence. The LEED Healthcare rating system focuses on green initiatives at inpatient, outpatient and licensed long-term care facilities, medical offices, assisted living facilities, and medical education and research centers. To become LEED certified, a building must earn a threshold of points across multiple measurements for green building excellence, from sustainable site development to energy efficiency and water savings.
Conservation initiatives during the Pavilion project included recycling materials that were collected after the demolition of Penn Tower, which formerly stood on the new hospital’s site, including 291 tons of scrap steel and 17,000 tons of concrete.
In addition, during the Pavilion’s construction, about 25 percent of materials were prefabricated and manufactured off-site, including more than 570 mechanical/electrical/plumbing racks and all 504 bathrooms for each patient room. This process minimized on-site waste, reduced traffic impact and site congestion, increased quality, and lowered cost.
Overall, the energy efficiency efforts at the Pavilion are anticipated to save more than 14 percent in annual energy costs compared to merely a code-compliant hospital. The building itself also uses 100 percent outside air through its HVAC system, using energy recovery wheels to capture and repurpose waste energy.
Along with saving energy, the facility was constructed to cut 30 percent of typical indoor water use through the installation of select fixtures and designs that use significantly less water, such as low-flow and low-flush toilets, sinks, and showers.
In addition, more than 20 percent of the water required for the building’s HVAC equipment is provided by water captured and reused on site, such as rainwater, condensate, and foundation dewatering. Two cisterns, which help supply the chilled water system, are projected to process seven million gallons of captured non-potable water each year.
Homecoming Hustle, a homecoming weekend workout event, is free to Penn students, faculty, staff, and alumni. On November 6, 2021 at 8 a.m., join a functional training workout on historic Franklin Field or a guided run through Penn Park. The groups reconnect to end their workouts at 9 a.m. with a guided functional stretch, followed by free coffee, swag bags, and raffle prizes. The event wraps up by 9:30 a.m., with plenty of time to join all of the other events happening on campus. More information and sign-up links will be posted online and through social media–check @PennCampusRec on Instagram or email Erica Hildenbrand, director of programs, at ericah@upenn.edu for more information.
To register, visit https://tinyurl.com/homecoming-hustle.
Online events. Info: https://www.penn.museum/calendar/.
9 At-Home Anthro Live: Celebrating Diwali; 1 p.m.
Online and in-person events. Info: https://www.penn.museum/calendar/.
5 Graduate Guide Highlights Tour; 11 a.m.
Virtual Global Guide Tour: Asia Galleries; 2:30 p.m.
6 Africa Galleries Tour; 11 a.m.
Global Guide Tour: Middle East Galleries; 12:30 p.m.
7 Egypt Galleries Tour; 11 a.m.
The Stories We Wear Guided Tour; 1 p.m.
Global Guide Tour: Mexico & Central America Gallery; 2:30 p.m.
2 Truman Scholarship Application Review and Scholar Panel; a virtual information session featuring recent Truman Scholarship recipients; 4 p.m.; Zoom meeting; register: https://tinyurl.com/truman-scholars-nov-2 (Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships).
9 Professional, Personal, Virtual: Fostering Human Connections; panel of experts in organizational dynamics and instructional design share tools and resources to help you stay emotionally connected while socially distant and create a renewed sense of community; 5:30 p.m.; online event; register: https://tinyurl.com/professional-personal-virtual (Penn Alumni, School of Arts & Sciences).
Graduate School of Education (GSE)
Online and in-person events. Info: https://www.gse.upenn.edu/news/events-calendar.
4 Submatriculation Information Session; noon, Ben Franklin Room, Houston Hall.
Unless noted, online events. Info: https://tinyurl.com/lgbt-center-calendar.
5 Chinese LGBTQ+ Board Game Night; 5 p.m.; LGBT Center.
5 Inspiration: Songs in the Key of Love; a carefully curated set of songs by student acappella group The Inspiration, guaranteed to bring out emotions and thoroughly entertain; 8 p.m.; Harold Prince Theater, Penn Live Arts Annenberg Center; tickets: https://pennlivearts.org/event/the-inspiration. Also November 6, 6 p.m.
7 Relâche: Re|Union; five instrumental pieces by contemporary classical group Relâche celebrating workers, solidarity and the strength of the human spirit; 1-3 p.m.; Widener Hall, Penn Museum; tickets: $20/adult, $10/student, $25/door; register: https://relache.ticketleap.com/reunion/ (Penn Museum).
2 When the Stars Begin to Fall: Overcoming Racism and Renewing the Promise of America; Theodore Johnson, NYU; 4 p.m.; World Forum, Perry World House and Zoom; register: https://tinyurl.com/johnson-reading-nov-2 (Perry World House).
9 John Keats: Scientist and Poet; Toni Bowers, English; Jason Karlawish, PMC; 7 p.m.; Kelly Writers House and YouTube livestream; register: https://pennmemorycenter.org/keats/ (KWH, PMC).
2 A Communications Perspective on Digital Privacy; Elza Erkip, NYU; 11 a.m.; Zoom meeting; join: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/2822214402 (Electrical & Systems Engineering).
How Intervention Research Informs Policy and Inequality; Rekha Balu, MDRC Center for Applied Behavioral Science; 1:30 p.m.; rooms B21/B26, Stiteler Hall (GSE).
Sketching Algorithms; Jelani Nelson, UC Berkeley; 3:30 p.m.; Wu and Chen Auditorium, Levine Hall and Zoom; info: cherylh@cis.upenn.edu (Computer & Information Science).
3 Reeducation Camps and the Politics of Morality and Citizenship in Socialist Mozambique, 1974-1990; Benedito Machava, Yale; 5:30 p.m.; room 401, Fisher-Bennett Hall; register: https://tinyurl.com/machava-talk-nov-3 (Africana Studies).
4 Blue Shield Georgia and its Work With the Heritage Community; Manana Tevzadze, Georgian National Committee of the Blue Shield; 12:30 p.m.; online event; tickets: https://tinyurl.com/tevzadze-talk-nov-4 (Penn Museum).
Landscapes of Glass; Douglas Jerolmack, Earth & environmental science and mechanical engineering & applied mechanics; 12:30 p.m.; auditorium, LRSM Building; info: info-mse@seas.upenn.edu (Materials Science & Engineering).
Critical Race Theory and DEI: From Theory to Practice; panel of speakers; 5:30 p.m.; Zoom meeting; join: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/7443577924 (Office of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Programs).
5 Can Information Reduce Physician Bias? Jevay Grooms, Howard University; noon; auditorium, Colonial Penn Center; register: https://tinyurl.com/grooms-talk-nov-5 (Leonard Davis Institute).
9 2D Materials, from Academia to Industry; Carl Naylor, Intel Corporation; 11 a.m.; Zoom meeting; join: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/2822214402 (Electrical & Systems Engineering).
Single-Cell Multi-Omic Velocity Infers Dynamic and Decoupled Gene Regulation; Joshua Welch, University of Michigan; 3:30 p.m.; BlueJeans meeting; join: https://bluejeans.com/812676289/1348 (CCEB).
Visual Studies/Sachs Lecture in Contemporary Art; Liz Deschenes, photographer; 5:30 p.m.; ICA and Zoom; info: ejchong@ica.upenn.edu (Institute of Contemporary Art).
Online events. Info: https://www.dental.upenn.edu/news-events/events/.
2 Clinical Solutions for Esthetic Rehabilitations Using Adhesive Dentistry; Sillas Duarte, USC; 6 p.m.
In-person events. Info: https://economics.sas.upenn.edu/events.
2 Growing a Mega City; Xuequan Elsie Peng, economics; noon; room 101, PCPSE.
3 Technology Transition with Frictions: Evidence from the IP Address Market; Sarah George, economics; 3:30 p.m.; room F45, Huntsman Hall.
8 Forecasting with Prior Wisdom on Group Structure; Boyuan Zhang, economics; noon; room 100, PCPSE.
Online and in-person events. Info: https://www.english.upenn.edu/events.
3 Milton, Spinoza, and the Critique of Institutions: Natural Religion and Rational Religion; Russ Leo, Princeton; 5:15 p.m.; room 330, Fisher-Bennett Hall.
Online and in-person events. Info: https://www.math.upenn.edu/events.
3 4D/2D Duality and Representation Theory; Tomoyuki Arakawa, Kyoto University; 3:45 p.m.; Zoom meeting.
8 Curved Koszul Duality and Cyclic (Co)Homology; Yining Zhang, University of Colorado; 2 p.m.; Zoom meeting.
Online and in-person events. Info: https://www.physics.upenn.edu/index.php/events.
3 Broken Symmetries in Living Matter; Nikta Fakhri, MIT; 3:30 p.m.; Zoom meeting.
8 An Introduction to the Lattice-Continuum Correspondence; Djordje Radicevic, Brandeis University; 2 p.m.; location TBA.
Online and in-person events. Info: https://sociology.sas.upenn.edu/events.
3 What Is Perceived When Race Is Perceived and Why It Matters for Causal Inference; Issa Kohler-Hausmann, Yale; Lily Hu, Harvard; noon; room 150, McNeil Building.
For a complete listing of events in November, visit the November AT PENN calendar.
Below are the Crimes Against Persons, Crimes Against Society and Crimes Against Property from the campus report for October 18-24, 2021. View prior weeks’ reports. —Ed.
This summary is prepared by the Division of Public Safety and includes all criminal incidents reported and made known to the University Police Department for the dates of October 18-24, 2021. The University Police actively patrol from Market St to Baltimore and from the Schuylkill River to 43rd St in conjunction with the Philadelphia Police. In this effort to provide you with a thorough and accurate report on public safety concerns, we hope that your increased awareness will lessen the opportunity for crime. For any concerns or suggestions regarding this report, please call the Division of Public Safety at (215) 898-4482.
Complainant received fraudulent checks via email
Secured bike taken from bike rack
Offender attempted to use complainant’s credit card
U-lock bike taken from bike rack
Wallet and electronics taken/Arrest
Defiant trespass and disorderly conduct/Arrest
Employees threatened by an unknown offender
Complainant punched in the face by known offender
Unknown offender wrote graffiti on the hallway wall in marker
Unsecured laptop taken from backpack
FTA warrant on offender/Arrest
Unsecured bike taken from lobby rack
Unsecured firearm stolen from employee lounge
Below are the Crimes Against Persons from the 18th District: 5 incidents (3 robberies and 2 assaults) were reported for October 18-24, 2021 by the 18th District, covering the Schuylkill River to 49th St & Market St to Woodland Avenue.
S 40th & Walnut Sts
Visit https://pennsway.upenn.edu for more information. Paper forms must be submitted by noon on Friday, and online participation must be completed by midnight on Sunday for inclusion in a given week’s drawing that Monday morning. Note: list subject to change.
Each year, we see the outpouring of kindness and generosity from Penn’s faculty and staff in supporting the many worthy causes represented by the Penn’s Way campaign. Our partner organizations (United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, Philadelphia Alliance for Change, and Penn Medicine) work closely with us to ensure that the Penn community’s contributions are used to address needs across our region.
During this time of unprecedented need, families, nonprofits, and local businesses are struggling to stay afloat. Community organizations and foundations are being called upon to help people who have lost jobs, health care, homes, etc., and the charitable organizations that work to assist people, are themselves struggling. The Penn community has demonstrated year after year that we can, and will, rise to meet the challenge.
We encourage the Penn community to bring home the message of caring by contributing to organizations that support the three “Pillars of Need” identified by the Penn’s Way Campaign:
This week we are highlighting organizations that focus on Health Care Disparity:
If you have an organization within the campaign that you would like to support, whatever their mission, you can be sure that they need your contribution this year more than ever. You can see more organizations that support our Pillars of Need on the website. Log in at www.pennsway.upenn.edu to help.
—Penn’s Way Leadership
The FY21 year in review highlights innovation, investment, and technology commercialization at Penn, all achieved amidst the myriad operational disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic over the course of the past fiscal year.
For all the accomplishments and highlights from July 2020-June 2021, visit https://tinyurl.com/pci-year-in-review.
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