Provost Wendell Pritchett and Vice Provost for Faculty Laura Perna are pleased to announce the appointment of the thirteenth cohort of Penn Fellows.
The Penn Fellows Program provides leadership development to select Penn faculty in midcareer. Begun in 2009, the program includes opportunities to build alliances across the University, meet distinguished academic leaders, think strategically about University governance, and consult with Penn’s senior administrators.
Danielle Bassett, professor of bioengineering in Penn Engineering and physics & astronomy in the School of Arts and Sciences, studies the structure and function of networks, predominantly in physical and biological systems.
Nelson Flores, associate professor of educational linguistics in the Graduate School of Education, focuses on how language and race intersect in bilingual education policies and practices in ways that are harmful to bilingual students of color.
Maria Geffen, associate professor and interim chair of otorhinolaryngology, neuroscience, and neurology in the Perelman School of Medicine, researches the way the brain encodes information about the world and how our perception is shaped by our emotional state and experience.
Nancy Hodgson, chair and professor of biobehavioral health science and Anthony Buividas Endowed Term Chair in Gerontology in the School of Nursing, focuses on the development, testing, and dissemination of person-centered and family-centered interventions for persons living with dementia.
Sara Jaffee, professor of psychology in the School of Arts and Sciences, researches at-risk families and children and studies how stressful environments exacerbate underlying genetic vulnerabilities to affect children’s development.
Mechthild Pohlschröder, professor of biology in the School of Arts and Sciences, focuses on microbiology, cell and developmental biology, genetics, and genomics.
Elizabeth Rhoades, professor of chemistry in the School of Arts and Sciences, aims to elucidate the principles that link protein conformational change with structure-function relationships, focusing on understanding structural plasticity in intrinsically disordered proteins.
Wendy Roth, associate professor of sociology in the School of Arts and Sciences, studies how social processes challenge racial and ethnic boundaries and transform classification systems, as well as how these processes change conceptions of the nature of race.
Patrick Seale, associate professor of cell and development biology in the Perelman School of Medicine, focuses on obesity through the biology of adipose (fat) cells and tissue, a highly dynamic and plastic organ that regulates many aspects of whole-body physiology.
Russell Shinohara, associate professor of biostatistics in the Perelman School of Medicine, focuses on the assessment of structural and functional changes in the brain throughout development and in neurological, psychiatric, and developmental disorders.
Orkan Telhan, associate professor of fine arts in the Weitzman School of Design, works in a unique area called biological design, an emerging field at the intersection of manufacturing, environmental sciences, and computational design.
Tariq Thachil, associate professor of political science and director of the Center for Advanced Study of India, researches political parties and political behavior, identity politics, and urbanization, with a regional focus on India.
Harsha Thirumurthy, associate professor of medical ethics and health policy in the Perelman School of Medicine, specializes in the intersection of economics and public health, with a focus on HIV prevention and treatment as well as maternal and child health.
Kathryn Wellen, associate professor of cancer biology in the Perelman School of Medicine, researches the intersection of nutrient availability,epigenetic modification and cancer cell metabolism.
Dagmawi Woubshet, Ahuja Family Presidential Associate Professor of English in the School of Arts and Sciences, is a scholar of African American literature and visual culture who works at the intersections of African American, LGBTQ, and African studies.
Nancy Zhang, Ge Li and Ning Zhao Professor of Statistics and Vice Dean of Doctoral Programs in the Wharton School, studies the development of statistical and computational approaches for the analysis of genetic, genomic, and transcriptomic data.