John Legend to Speak at Penn’s 258th Commencement

John Legend, a nine-time Grammy Award-winning soul artist, philanthropist and Penn alumnus will deliver the address at the University of Pennsylvania’s Commencement on Monday, May 19, Leslie Laird Kruhly, Vice President and University Secretary announced.

Jeanne Leong

Penn Geophysicist Teams With Mathematicians to Describe How River Rocks Round

For centuries, geologists have recognized that the rocks that line riverbeds tend to be smaller and rounder further downstream. But these experts have not agreed on the reason these patterns exist. Abrasion causes rocks to grind down and become rounder as they are transported down the river.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Expanding Horizons Through Arab Music at Penn

After hearing Arab music for the first time at a wedding a couple of years ago, University of Pennsylvania senior Idrees Syed was so enthralled with the sounds that he soon began taking drumming lessons in the Arab Music Ensemble percussion class at Penn.“The sounds were just mesmerizing,” Syed says.

Jeanne Leong

Penn Researchers ‘Design for Failure’ With Model Material

When deciding what materials to use in building something, determining how those materials respond to stress and strain is often the first task. A material’s macroscopic, or bulk, properties in this area — whether it can spring back into shape, for example — is generally the product of what is happening on a microscopic scale.

Evan Lerner

Penn Sori Brings Korean Music, Culture And A Little K-Pop to Campus

When Penn Sori performs at the University of Pennsylvania, there’s a surprising element: K-Pop.The student group, which sings in both English and Korean, enjoys adding the popular musical genre from South Korea to its renditions of familiar American songs.  

Jeanne Leong

Penn Dental Medicine’s Tina Chou Learns There’s More to Dentistry Than Teeth

By Marjorie FerroneWith a craving to “see dentistry beyond the domestic boundaries,” Tina Chou, a second-year student at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, seized the opportunity to advance dentistry in The Gambia in a unique internship opportunity this past summer.

Katherine Unger Baillie