Recent recognitions for our faculty include:
The American Academy of Arts & Sciences awarded William Labov, John H. and Margaret B. Fassitt Professor of Linguistics Emeritus, the Talcott Parsons Prize for distinguished and original contributions to the social sciences. Labov is regarded as the founder of variationist sociolinguistics, which seeks to understand language in relation to social factors including region, race, class, and gender. His work has impacted the practice of language science around the world, been referenced in hundreds of publications, and inspired the countless students and scholars he mentored. His influence is felt in education, sociology, computational and cognitive science, and law.
(L–R) William Labov, John H. and Margaret B. Fassitt Professor of Linguistics Emeritus; Mirjam Cvetič, Fay R. and Eugene L. Langberg Professor of Physics; James Primosch, Professor of Music; Angela Duckworth, Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Psychology
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation recognized Mirjam Cvetič, Fay R. and Eugene L. Langberg Professor of Physics, with the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Research Award. This honor is granted to researchers whose fundamental discoveries, new theories, or insights have had a significant impact on their discipline and who are expected to continue producing cutting-edge achievements in the future. Cvetič is regarded as an expert in string theory and its consequences for fundamental particle physics. She will conduct research at the Max Planck Institute for Physics and the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich.
James Primosch, Professor of Music, received the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Virgil Thomson Award in Vocal Music, which recognizes an American composer of vocal works. Primosch’s instrumental, vocal, and electronic works have been performed throughout the U.S. and in Europe, and they have received accolades in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and the Chicago Sun-Times. His other honors include a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Regional Artists Fellowship to the American Academy in Rome. At Penn he directs the Presser Electronic Music Studio.
Angela Duckworth, Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Psychology, was included in the top 10 of Education Week’s 2020 Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings. The list recognizes scholars whose work shapes public discussion around education. Duckworth is an internationally recognized scholar of positive psychology and the psychology of achievement. She is known for her role in developing and advancing the concept of grit—the ability to maintain effort toward long-term objectives—and self-control as factors in the pursuit and attainment of goals.
