Faculty Archive

By developing the first theoretical physics-based framework for how pollen patterns form, researchers from the Department of Physics and Astronomy have enabled scientists to study a large class of biological materials, including the cell walls of plants and the scales of butterfly wings.

LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, founder of the first resistance camp at Standing Rock, joins Native American and First Nations language teachers for a two-day conference at Penn focused on the revitalization of Indigenous languages and culture.

A small sampling of recent highlights.

Arts & Sciences researchers see collaboration as key to recharging the planet’s battery.

Sophia Rosenfeld, Walter H. Annenberg Professor of History, digs up the roots of the relationship between democracy and truth.

Research led Doris Wagner, Robert I. Williams Term Professor of Biology, identified a gene that, when stifled, generates blooms.

Professor of Economics Jeremy Greenwood’s new book takes a macroeconomics view of changes in family life.

Karen Detlefsen, Professor of Philosophy, is opening young minds in the Philadelphia community to a new kind of philosophical thinking.

When Penn students studied classics 100, or even 50, years ago, they focused on learning the ancient languages Latin and Greek, often building on their high school Latin. The texts they read in those languages were seen as giving access to a unique historical high point, a time of unrivalled achievement when the political systems, philosophical ideas, and literary and artistic forms that shaped modern America were first invented.

Masao Sako, Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy, and Mark Trodden, Fay R. and Eugene L. Langberg Professor of Physics, explain how dark matter and dark energy shape their work.

Hanming Fang, Class of 1965 Term Professor of Economics, and his collaborators have created VoxChina.org, a space for discussing China’s economy.

Hundreds of books looted by the Nazis during World War II provide a window into history and individuals we may otherwise have never known.

Ian Fleishman, Assistant Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures, looks at wounding to study narrative.

Charles Kane and Eugene Mele, both Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professors of Physics, have been recognized with two awards for their work on topology and symmetry in physics.

Penn Arts & Sciences faculty were recognized with University-wide teaching awards in 2019.

Two Penn Arts & Sciences faculty were recognized for their ground-breaking work by the Penn Center for Innovation (PCI), the University’s hub for innovation, venture creation, and commercialization.

A new Penn Arts & Sciences mentoring initiative, called the First Two Years Program: Getting Launched, is bringing together junior and senior faculty for knowledge-sharing and networking.

In her Language and the Brain course, Kathryn Schuler, Assistant Professor of Linguistics, asked 30 undergrads to think big about big problems—and their solutions didn’t disappoint.

Discover the stories behind the Professor of Biology's favorite office items.

Bhuvnesh Jain, Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professor in the Natural Sciences, and Michael Weisberg, Professor and Chair of Philosophy, discuss the mystery of dark matter and the use of some of the world’s largest telescopes to search for it.