On Campus


Faculty Awards
Tom Lubensky, the Mary Amanda Wood Professor in Physics and department chair, and Alan MacDiarmid, the Blanchard Professor of Chemistry and Nobel laureate, were elected to the National Academy of Sciences, an honorary society of the country’s top scientists.

Three SAS faculty members received Guggenheim fellowships this year. They include chemistry professor Marsha Lester for a study of radical reactions in the lower atmosphere, history professor David Ludden for a history of knowledge about South Asian economies from 1770 to 1930, and history professor Kathy Peiss for research on acquired taste and the myth of American classlessness. The fellowships are presented annually for distinguished scholarly achievement and exceptional promise in the sciences, humanities, and creative arts.

Julia Paley, C’86, assistant professor of anthropology, was awarded the American Ethnological Society’s Sharon Stevens Prize for her book, Marketing Democracy: Power and Social Movements in Post-Dictatorship Chile. The prize recognizes the best first book, an ethnography or critical work in contemporary theory, by a junior scholar of anthropology.

Student Awards
Vanessa Cuerel, C’02, an economics and international relations major, received a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship and will pursue a master’s degree in international development at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in Spain.

Amol Pawar, C’02, a biochemistry major, received a Gates Cambridge Scholarship and will pursue a Ph.D. in biochemistry at Cambridge University.

Vijay Sankaran, C’02, a biophysics and biochemistry major, received a Churchill Scholarship and will pursue a master’s degree in philosophy at Cambridge’s Churchill College.

USA Today named Dana Hork, C’02, and Paul Bergman, C’02, W’02, G’02, WG’02, to its All-USA First Academic Team. Dana is an economics and communication major. Paul is enrolled in both the College and Wharton.

Appointments
Dean Sam Preston announced the following appointments:

Chemistry professor J. Kent Blasie to the Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professorship in the Natural Sciences.

English professor Peter Stallybrass to the Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professorship in the Humanities.

Kunho Cho, C’75, co-head of Lehman Brothers’ investment banking in Asia, and Michael Price, W’79, vice chairman of the New York investment-banking firm Evercore Partners, Inc., to the SAS Board of Overseers.

SAS in the News
The journal Science published findings by several SAS researchers:

Biology professor Nancy Bonini led a team that discovered a class of proteins that blocks the progression of Parkinson’s disease in fruit flies.

A team led by chemistry assistant professor Feng Gai found that misfolded proteins that contribute to neurodegenerative diseases might be corrected by unfolding them and allowing them to refold properly.

Researchers from Penn and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign reported that "nano peapods," carbon molecules resting in straws of carbon atoms called nanotubes, have tunable electronic properties, which allow them to be transformed from conductors to insulators. The team included physics professor Eugene Mele and associate physics professor Charlie Johnson. The findings have implications for the fabrication of single-molecule-based devices such as diodes, transistors, and computer memory elements.

Distinguished Speakers

Gene-technology pioneer J. Craig Venter spoke at the Dean’s Forum on February 28. The former president and chief scientific officer of Celera Genomics is credited with accelerating the completion of the Human Genome Project.

At the Goldstone Forum on March 21, Cass R. Sunstein, professor of law and political science at the University of Chicago, spoke about the lack of social and economic guarantees in the U.S. Constitution. The Goldstone Forum is an annual lecture on issues of philosophy, politics, and economics that was established in 2001 through the generosity of Steven F. Goldstone, C’67.

International financier and philanthropist George Soros spoke about the effects of recent U.S. foreign policy on globalization at the annual Granoff Forum on International Development and the Global Economy on April 8. The Granoff Forum was established in 2000 through the generosity of Michael D. Granoff, C’80.

Call for Nominees

SAS alumni and faculty are invited to nominate candidates for next year’s School of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Alumni Award. The 2002 award went to Nobel laureate Ahmed Zewail, Gr’74, Hon’97, for his pioneering work in the field of femtochemistry. The award recognizes outstanding achievement and is presented annually to an alumnus/a of the College, College for Women, Graduate Division, or College of General Studies. The 2003 award will be presented at a dinner on February 18 following the Dean’s Forum, which will feature Pulitzer prize winning biographer David McCullough. To submit a nomination, send the candidate’s name, title, and address along with a short description of accomplishments to Distinguished Alumni Award Program, SAS External Affairs, 3440 Market Street, Suite 300, Philadelphia, PA 19104 or e-mail jodyw@sas.upenn.edu. Be sure to include your name and contact information.