Inside Higher Ed

UPenn president nominated for German ambassadorship

Amy Gutmann has been nominated by President Biden to serve as U.S. ambassador to Germany.

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The Washington Post

Joe Biden is sending an academic to Germany. Here’s why it might pay off

An op-ed by Elisabeth Piller, a German professor, considered the long-standing tradition of sending U.S. scholars and university presidents to Germany as ambassadors. Amy Gutmann’s “standing as an esteemed political philosopher and university president uniquely positions her to help achieve Biden’s goal of rebuilding alliances,” Piller wrote.

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Gizmodo

What was the earliest music?

Mary Channen Caldwell of the School of Arts & Sciences said there’s evidence of written music from as early as 1400 BC. “The western musical notation that is often, if misleadingly, considered ‘standard,’” she said, “is only one possible system for recording music, and can only reasonably be used to notate musical works that follow certain conventions of pitch, rhythm, harmony, etc.”

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WHYY (Philadelphia)

Racial differences in COVID mortality rates linked to unequal hospital quality, Penn study shows

David Asch and Rachel Werner of the Leonard Davis Institute co-authored research that found disparities between COVID-19 outcomes based on which hospital a patient was admitted to. “Patients tend to go to hospitals that are near them, and therefore Black patients are more likely to go to hospitals that are underresourced,” said Asch. “It’s a story of inequity, it’s a story of structural racism that has its origins centuries in the past.”

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NPR

A mysterious illness is killing Mid-Atlantic songbirds

Lisa Murphy of the School of Veterinary Medicine spoke about the Wildlife Futures Program’s research on the illness killing songbirds in the Mid-Atlantic region. "I think what's especially challenging about this is that it's not localized ... to one specific geographic area [and] it's not localized to one particular bird species,” she said.

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Philadelphia Inquirer

Penn finds a surprising benefit to wisdom tooth surgery: better taste

Research by Richard Doty of the Perelman School of Medicine and Dane Kim, a student in the School of Dental Medicine, found that people who have had wisdom teeth removed had a slightly stronger sense of taste over time. Earlier studies have focused on the temporary loss of taste associated with the procedure.

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The Washington Post

The controversial approval of an Alzheimer’s drug reignites the battle over the underlying cause of the disease

Jason Karlawish of the Perelman School of Medicine spoke about the ramifications of the FDA’s approval of Aduhelm, an Alzheimer’s drug. “One of the consequences is that other companies will say, ‘If this is your new lower bar, we want our drugs approved on that basis,’” he said. “Companies are companies, I can’t fault them for doing what companies do, but we have now unleashed drugs that we are not sure what the benefits are, and that could have enormous consequences.”

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Philadelphia Inquirer

What won’t the infrastructure plan do? Repair our crumbling schools

Nell Williams, a Ph.D. student in the Graduate School of Education, wrote an op-ed in support of the Biden administration’s infrastructure plan, which allocates funds to repair school buildings. “As the infrastructure plan undergoes further negotiation in the House and Senate, I urge policymakers note the gaping hole that was left when most U.S. schools went virtual last year,” she said.

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  • Penn Vet parasitologist named Penn Presidential Professor

    Penn President Amy Gutmann has appointed De’Broski R. Herbert, in the Department of Pathobiology at the School of Veterinary Medicine as Presidential Term Associate Professor. Herbert is currently associate professor of immunology, and an active collaborator with faculty at Penn Medicine who concentrate on immunologic mechanisms of disease, as well as with faculty from the Institute for Immunology, the Penn Center for Pulmonary Biology, and the Penn Digestive Diseases Center.

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  • National Society honors three Penn Nursing professors

    The Gerontological Society of America honored three Penn Nursing Professors with awards for their outstanding research, distinguished leadership in teaching and service, and for fostering new ideas in gerontological science: Kathryn H. Bowles, professor of nursing and the van Ameringen Chair in Nursing Excellence; Nancy A. Hodgson, the Anthony Buividas Term Chair in Gerontology, professor of nursing, and chair of the Department of Biobehavioral Health Sciences; and Pamela Z.

    FULL STORY AT Penn Nursing News →