rigitte Weinsteiger has been appointed the interim director of the Penn Libraries.She will also continue to serve as the Penn Libraries Gershwind&Bennett Family Senior Associate Vice Provost for Collections and Scholarly Communications,a role she has held since Sept.2022.Weinsteiger has served in multiple leadership positions since she joined the Penn Libraries staff in 2008.As senior associate vice provost,she directs the Libraries’academic and community engagement services;collection strategy;acquisitions,access,and licensing;the preservation,conservation,and exhibits programs;and library counsel and scholarly communications.In addition,she oversees the Penn Libraries’10 departmental libraries,directing personnel,facilities,access services,and operations at these locations across campus.She leads ateam of 115 staff,in addition to hundreds of student employees and interns,and has direct oversight of the Libraries’information budget of$27 million.Among the priorities Weinsteiger has championed at Penn is the preservation of global scholarship and cultural heritage,endeavoring to increase the diversity and inclusiveness of the Libraries’collections and engagement with the Penn and Philadelphia communities.She launched the Diversity in the Stacks initiative and,most recently,instituted the new Center for Global Collections.Weinsteiger has also advanced,both locally and nationally,sustainable models for scholarly communications and partnered with Penn faculty and publishers on long-term,mutually viable solutions to expanding access to scholarly literature while sustaining ahealthy publishing enterprise.In support of these and other Libraries’priorities,Weinsteiger plays acritical role in building and growing endowments for the Libraries’deep and distinctive collections,ensuring astrategic match between scholarly content needs and the resources necessary to address them.Weinsteiger assumed the role of interim director of the Penn Libraries on Sept.13,2023.Constantia Constantinou,who was appointed H.Carton Rogers III Vice Provost and director of the Penn Libraries in Aug.2018,recently stepped down from the role for personal family reasons. 查看详细>>

Gregory R.Bowman,a pioneer of biophysics and data science,has been named aPenn Integrates Knowledge University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania.The announcement was made today by President Liz Magill and Interim Provost Beth A.Winkelstein.Bowman holds the Louis Heyman University Professorship,with joint appointments in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics in the Perelman School of Medicine and the Department of Bioengineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science.His research aims to combat global health threats such as COVID-19 and Alzheimer’s disease by better understanding how proteins function and malfunction,especially through new computational and experimental methods that map protein structures.This understanding of protein dynamics can lead to effective new treatments for even the most seemingly resistant diseases.“Delivering the right treatment to the right person at the right time is vital to sustaining—and saving—lives,”Magill said.“Greg Bowman’s novel work holds enormous promise and potential to advance new forms of personalized medicine,an area of considerable strength for Penn.A gifted researcher and consummate collaborator,we are delighted to count him among our distinguished PIK University Professors.”Bowman came to Penn from the Washington University School of Medicine’s Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics,where he served on the faculty since 2014.He previously completed athree-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California,Berkeley.Bowman’s research utilizes high-performance supercomputers for simulations that can better explain how mutations and disease change aprotein’s functions.These simulations are enabled in part through the innovative Folding home project,which Bowman directs.Folding home empowers anyone with acomputer to run simulations alongside aconsortium of universities,with more than 200,000 participants worldwide.His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation,National Institutes of Health,National Institute on Aging,and Packard Foundation,among others,and he has received aCAREER Award from the NSF,Career Award at the Scientific Interface from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund,and Thomas Kuhn Paradigm Shift Award from the American Chemical Society.He received aPh.D.in biophysics from Stanford University and aB.S.(summa cum laude)in computer science,with aminor in biomedical engineering,from Cornell University.“Greg Bowman’s highly innovative work,”Winkelstein said,“exemplifies the power of our interdisciplinary mission at Penn.He brings together supercomputers,biophysics,and biochemistry to make avital impact on public health.This brilliant fusion of methods—in the service of improving people’s lives around the world—will be atremendous model for the research of our faculty,students,and postdocs in the years ahead.”The Penn Integrates Knowledge program is aUniversity-wide initiative to recruit exceptional faculty members whose research and teaching exemplify the integration of knowledge across disciplines and who are appointed in at least two schools at Penn.The Louis Heyman University Professorship is agift of Stephen J.Heyman,a 1959 graduate of the Wharton School,and his wife,Barbara Heyman,in honor of Stephen Heyman’s uncle.Stephen Heyman is aUniversity Emeritus Trustee and member of the School of Nursing Board of Advisors.He is Managing Partner at Nadel and Gussman LLC in Tulsa,Oklahoma. 查看详细>>

Why do workplaces,including university faculties,often lack racial diversity?One of the most common explanations is that the pool of minoritized candidates is too small and hard to reach.But to Penn GSE assistant professor Damani White-Lewis,the cause runs deeper.He explains that workers are often hired based on what hiring committees believe and want.And those decisions are usually supported by mechanisms that favor the continuation of previous inequitable patterns.At Penn GSE,White-Lewis is working to identify attitudes,practices,and policies within faculty hiring structures at colleges and universities.He hopes to shift attitudes and inspire new practices by sharing ironclad data,cultivating effective interventions,and jumpstarting conversations about power and organizations.Now part of Penn GSE’s top-ranked Policy,Organizations,Leadership and Systems Division,his research combines organizational behavior and social psychology.He is also aconfessed data hound.“If you are really going to convince the people who need to change—and who need to change their organizations—that there are real,legitimate interests,big problems,and not just one-off problems that occur because of some bad actor,our empirical claims need to be as strong as possible,”he warns.That’s why alarge part of his research involves measuring inequalities.The other part of his work involves applying knowledge to practice and measuring changes caused by interventions.“Reforming the structures of hiring priorities is important,yet inadequate,in advancing equity and inclusion.On the one hand,improving faculty input systems and having broad departmental hires expand the input base,minimize reproduction by deemphasizing factional competition,and encourage responsiveness to emerging trends in the field that do not fit neat subfields.Yet without explicitly infusing diversity—the second requisite of advancing equity through hiring formation—efforts may still come up short,”he wrote in apaper last year.White-Lewis recommends avoiding hiring direct replacements for retiring faculty and instead thinking about how diversity can enrich the department‘s portfolio of subdisciplines.He advises people to look at emerging trends—especially equity and inclusion—and to be transparent when setting priorities.He adds that this advice applies to all university departments,from the humanities to STEM. 查看详细>>

Kathleen Shields Anderson’s call to service has been along time brewing:As aCatholic kid in the Philadelphia suburbs,much of her commitment to social justice was molded through acommunity-minded upbringing.Service was part of her curriculum while attending agrade school run by Holy Child Sisters,constantly engaging in volunteer activities from back-to-school drives to visiting local nursing homes.“The motto for their order is‘Actions,not words,’”Shields Anderson explains.“It’s something Istill say to this day.What you do is as important as what you say.”Shields Anderson was educated by Jesuits at the College of the Holy Cross for her bachelor’s degree,an order popularly known for its role in education and fighting poverty—the most famous of these Jesuits,of course,being Pope Francis.She later received aJ.D.from Villanova University School of Law and an MBA from Temple University’s Fox School of Business.As ayoung professional,she also served as alegislative aide in the U.S.House of Representatives,working on foreign policy and environmental policy.However,it was 9/11 that was the impetus for her career in social justice.A career in justice“When Sept.11 happened,I sat in my office and watched the Pentagon burn from my window,”says Shields Anderson.“I think 9/11 impacted alot of people in different ways—I have friends who enlisted,others who were inspired to volunteer.But what inspired me was the work of the first responders.”Eager to learn,she spent time doing ride-alongs with the D.C.Fire and Emergency Services Department,observing the relationships between firefighters and their community.What struck her was the depth in which they knew the community they served,including the ability to put names to faces.“To watch that level of intimate care and the relationships between the first responders and people experiencing what is likely one of the worst experiences of their life,[it was inspiring],”she says.When she began as aprosecutor in the District Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia,this same impression would again leave its mark—except this time,from Penn police.While handling preliminary hearings at 55th and Pine streets,in the 18th Police District,often consisting of felonies related to charges like burglaries,robberies,gun possession cases,and more,she recalls the process often feeling like conducting achaotic orchestra.But when she handled her first case involving Penn,she remembers vividly the attention to detail the attending Penn police investigators had paid—providing an immense amount of discovery paperwork,a written confession,video footage,and even avictim support unit to take the student home.Given all this information,the defense attorney agreed to adeal.“I used to call Penn cases‘presents’because they’d be completely investigated and supported—like being wrapped up in alittle bow—and that’s what made me interested in coming here,”she says.“It showed me the effectiveness of acomplete public safety program.” 查看详细>>

The European Union in 2019 faces multiple pressures,including Brexit(the U.K.plan to leave the EU),trade issues between the union and its partners,the migration crisis,the growth of populism across the region,and ashaky relationship with the Trump administration.As part of the“2019:A Look Ahead”series,Wharton finance professor Joao Gomes and Garret Martin,a lecturer at the American University’s School of International Service,share their perspectives on the challenges the European Union faces this year.The most urgent issue is Brexit,and on Tuesday,British Prime Minister Theresa May’s compromise proposal to leave the EU by March 29,2019,all but collapsed as British MPs voted out her revised Brexit deal that aimed to smooth the exit process.As for the larger ramifications of the vote,Gomes says the EU does not consider Brexit to be“an existential threat”anymore.“It is alittle bit like afire that has been contained,”he said.“It is amess for the U.K.,though.It is amess they created,and they have to live with it.”According to Gomes,2019 will be“a year of transition”for the EU.“The Union has to come to grips with how it is going to work effectively with 27 countries at the table,or 28 maybe(if Brexit does not materialize). 查看详细>>

For more than two decades,states and school districts around the country have experimented with avariety of programs offering vouchers,tax credits,scholarships,and savings accounts to allow families to send their children to private,sometimes religiously affiliated,schools instead of public schools.The programs,including many that Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has said she favors expanding,have triggered debates over the separation of church and state,equity in school funding,and the purpose of public school.Rand Quinn,associate professor in the Graduate School of Education In an article in Phi Delta Kappan,Penn GSE’s Rand Quinn and co-author Tina Cheuk,of Stanford,offer an overview on the state of vouchers under the Trump administration and new research on Americans’views.“We found that about half of adults support publicly funded school vouchers while almost athird are opposed and that public opinion on school vouchers varied across the political spectrum,”they write.“Not too surprisingly,respondents who identified as liberal had more negative views of school vouchers than those who identified as conservative.” 查看详细>>

The University of Pennsylvania announced a$25 million gift that will spearhead construction of atransformative new campus building to be named Tangen Hall,and establish an international scholarship fund.Nicolai Tangen,founder of London-based investment partnership AKO Capital,is a1992 Wharton undergraduate alumnus,and the donation was made by the AKO Foundation to Penn on the recommendation of Mr.Tangen and his wife,Katja.The gift is asignificant contribution to Wharton’s More Than Ever fundraising campaign.“We are profoundly grateful to Nicolai and Katja Tangen for their extraordinary commitment to extend opportunities for entrepreneurship to all Penn students,”said Penn President Amy Gutmann.“Talented and creative students are working hard to identify challenges where they can implement efficient,sustainable,and actionable solutions through innovative ventures.Their efforts will start in Tangen Hall and have impact across the country and around the world.We are also grateful that Nicolai and Katja are expanding their steadfast scholarship support,enabling the best students from every part of the world to attend Penn,to thrive in their studies,and to serve communities worldwide.”Tangen Hall,which will be nearly 70,000 square feet and located at 40th and Sansom Streets,represents the first-ever dedicated space for cross-campus student entrepreneurship at Penn.As such,it will crystalize and centralize entrepreneurship and innovation scholarship and practice for students.Penn Wharton Entrepreneurship and other student entrepreneurship programs across the University will come together within Venture Lab at Tangen Hall.The building will become the new home for such longstanding campus entrepreneurship-focused programs as Penn Wharton Entrepreneurship;the Goergen Entrepreneurial Management Program;Weiss Tech House;the Sol C.Snider Entrepreneurial Research Center;the Wharton Small Business Development Center;and the master’s level Integrated Product Design Program. 查看详细>>