2009 Roy and Diana Vagelos Science Challenge Awards Honor Distinguished Undergraduate Students

Given annually to outstanding undergraduate students in the submatriculation program in chemistry or physics, the 2009 Roy and Diana Vagelos Science Challenge Awards were conferred in June by a committee of standing faculty. This year’s recipients are biochemistry and physics major Kevin Axelrod, C’11, biochemistry and chemistry major Phillip Benedetti, C’10, biochemistry and physics major Matthew Berck, C’10, biochemistry major Edward Kreider, C’11, and physics major Aaron Levy, C’11. Equal to current tuition and fees, the awards are intended to challenge College science students to get the most from Penn and themselves—both in the classroom and in the laboratory—and are given to rising juniors or seniors independent of financial need.

Dr. P. Roy Vagelos, C’50, Hon ’99, majored in chemistry at Penn and received his medical degree from Columbia University. Retired chairman and CEO of Merck, he served as chair of the University’s Board of Trustees from 1995 to 1999 and is a former member of the SAS Board of Overseers. His wife Diana served as an overseer of the Penn Museum from 1996 to 2002. In addition to the Science Challenge Awards, their many gifts to Penn include the Vagelos Scholars Program in Molecular Life Sciences, the Roy and Diana Vagelos Laboratories of the Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, and the Roy and Diana Vagelos Chair in Chemistry and Chemical Biology.

Arts & Sciences News

Azuma and Hart Named Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Professors of American History

Eiichiro Azuma specializes in Asian American and transpacific history, while Emma Hart teaches and researches the history of early North America, the Atlantic World, and early modern Britain between 1500 and 1800.

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Arts & Sciences Students Honored during 37th Annual Women of Color Day

Sade Taiwo, C’25, and Kyndall Nicholas, a Ph.D. candidate in neuroscience, were honored for their work.

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Nine College Students and Alums Named Thouron Scholars; Will Pursue Graduate Studies in the U.K.

The Scholars are six seniors and three recent graduates whose majors range from neuroscience to communication.

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Irma Elo Named Tamsen and Michael Brown Presidential Professor in Sociology

Elo’s main research interests center on inequalities in health and mortality across the life course and demographic estimation of mortality. In recent years, she has extended her research to include predictors of cognition in high-, middle-, and low-income countries.

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Julia Hartmann Named Fay R. and Eugene L. Langberg Professor in Mathematics

She specializes in algebra and arithmetic geometry, a newer field that applies techniques from algebraic geometry to solve problems in number theory and co-developed the method of field patching.

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Holger Sieg Named Baird Term Professor of Economics

Sieg focuses his research on public and urban economics, as well as the political economy of state and local governments.

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