Minding the gap between mass transit and ride-hailing apps As Uber and Lyft become more widely available, researchers zero in on how these ride-hailing services are affecting urban development and the environment. Minding the gap between mass transit and ride-hailing apps With support from the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, doctoral students Caitlin Gorback and Summer Dong are researching how services like Uber and Lyft are changing our transport habits, cities, and environments.
Through gemstones, a glimpse into ancient Egyptian civilization Doctoral student Shelby Justl studies the semiprecious stones of ancient Egypt in an effort to better understand the role that red jasper, carnelian, and others played in that society. Here, she is seen at the British Museum in 2018. (Photo: Courtesy Shelby Justl) Through gemstones, a glimpse into ancient Egyptian civilization Doctoral student Shelby Justl’s research expands what we know about who controlled semiprecious stones like red jasper and carnelian, plus their cultural and economic significance.
Making insights into ancient marine ecosystems with 3D-printed shells Erynn Johnson monitors the progress of the lab’s 3D printer in Hayden Hall as it produces a resin-based replica of a snail shell. Her research, which relies on mathematical modeling paired with paleontology, gives insights into how shelled marine creatures that lived hundreds of millions of years ago evolved to withstand the crunching jaws of predators. Making insights into ancient marine ecosystems with 3D-printed shells If you’re a snail hoping to survive an encounter with a hungry fish, it helps to have a strong shell. Paleoecology doctoral student Erynn Johnson is using 3D printing to understand how predator-prey interactions may have played out hundreds of millions of years ago.
A deep dive into digital humanities at Penn Dot Porter’s Digital Surrogates course, seen here in Lea Library, was one of nine offered during the DReAM Lab. Topics ranged from text analysis to digital humanities in the classroom. (Photo: Sarah Milinski) A deep dive into digital humanities at Penn The weeklong DReAM Lab, put on by the Price Lab for Digital Humanities and the Penn Libraries, offered participants the chance to study a range of subjects, from text analysis to augmented reality and Afrofuturism.
Historical treasures of ‘most talented woman in 20th-century philosophy’ come to Penn Philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe was both a divisive figure and one of the most important female philosophical minds of her time. Notebooks filled with old postcards and scrawled responses, like those viewed here by graduate student Paul Musso (left), associate professor Errol Lord, and graduate student Marie Barnett, reveal Anscombe’s thought process as she corresponds with Anthony Kenny, a philosopher and priest, about God and faith. Historical treasures of ‘most talented woman in 20th-century philosophy’ come to Penn On loan from the Collegium Institute, an archive of materials written to and by Elizabeth Anscombe will be at the Libraries’ Kislak Center for Special Collections for the next three years.
Views from the top of the world Views from the top of the world Members of the Penn community give accounts of their expeditions to Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world.
Penn’s 263rd Commencement Penn’s 263rd Commencement The Class of 2019 took to Franklin Field on Monday, May 20, for Penn’s 263rd Commencement ceremony, where President Amy Gutmann urged graduates to “weave together a world better, freer, and more inclusive.”
Inaugural Provost’s Graduate Academic Engagement Fellowships awarded Michael Vazquez (left) and Paul Wolff Mitchell. (Photo: Netter Center for Community Partnerships) Inaugural Provost’s Graduate Academic Engagement Fellowships awarded Michael Vazquez, a philosophy Ph.D. student, and Paul Wolff Mitchell, an anthropology Ph.D. student, are the first recipients of the award for 2019-2021.
Training physician-scholars to see patients as people, not categories The anthropology M.D.-Ph.D. program, run by Adriana Petryna (left) of the Anthropology Department, in concert with Lawrence Brass of the Perelman School of Medicine, combines clinical and ethnographic training with an eye toward preparing students like Utpal Sandesara (right) to tackle health inequalities. Sandesara, who will graduate this month, is one of nine students in the 10-year-old program. Training physician-scholars to see patients as people, not categories The anthropology M.D.-Ph.D. program, recently graduating its first two students, combines clinical and ethnographic skills aimed at working with and caring for society’s marginalized.
Kurdish is the newest class on the global language roster For the first time, students at Penn had the chance to learn Kurdish, through a class offered by the Annenberg School for Communication and taught by doctoral student Mohammed Salih (center), a native speaker. Kurdish is the newest class on the global language roster A course taught by Annenberg doctoral student Mohammed Salih offered, for the first time at Penn, entrée into the basics of a language spoken by 30 million people worldwide.