UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA Tuesday February 12, 2019 Volume 65 Number 23 www.upenn.edu/almanac Penn’s 2019 Commencement Speaker and Honorary Degree Recipients Commencement Speaker Bryan Stevenson, a public interest lawyer, author, founder and executive director of The Equal Justice Initiative, which in 2018 created the Legacy Museum and National Memorial for Peace and Justice, will be Penn’s Commence- ment Speaker at the 2019 Commencement on Monday, May 20. He and seven other individuals will each receive an honorary degree from Penn. Penn’s Vice President and University Secretary Leslie Laird Kruhly announced the 2019 honorary degree recipients and the Commencement Speaker for the University of Pennsylvania. The Office of the University Secretary manages the honorary degree Bryan Stevenson Jon Bon Jovi Temple Grandin Richard Lugar selection process and University Commencement. The 263rd Commencement begins at 10:15 a.m. on May 20 and will be preceded by student and academic processions through campus. The ceremony will feature the conferral of degrees, the awarding of honorary degrees, greetings by University officials and remarks by the Com- mencement Speaker. It will be streamed live on the Penn website. For University of Pennsylva- nia Commencement information, including his- torical information about the ceremony, academ- ic regalia, prior speakers and honorary degree recipients, see www.upenn.edu/commencement See pages 4-5 of this issue for the biogra- Denis Mukwege Laurie Olin Neville Strumpf Jill Tarter phies of this year’s honorary degree recipients. Expanding the Wharton People Lab with a $2 Million Gift from Robert Katz to Empower Individuals and Organizations for Long-Term Success The Wharton School of the University of help organizations recruit several important contributions to Penn since Pennsylvania is pleased to announce a $2 mil- the best talent but also to Mr. Katz graduated from Wharton in 1988. They lion gift from Robert Katz (W’88) and his wife help people grow in their have supported undergraduate financial aid for Elana Amsterdam to expand the People Lab, careers and fulfill their students in the Jerome Fisher Program in Man- a research and education ecosystem built by aspirations. People Lab’s agement & Technology; Professor Sigal Bars- Wharton People Analytics (WPA) to help peo- work will be invaluable ade’s research on emotional intelligence; and the ple identify and develop qualities vital to their not only to organizations Penn Fund. Mr. Katz serves on the Leadership long-term success. outside the University Advisory Board of the McNulty Leadership Pro- The People Lab uses a digital platform to de- but also to Wharton as gram. He is the chief executive officer of Vail velop and administer a broad collection of sci- we strive to personalize Resorts, a premiere mountain resort company entifically grounded assessments linked to per- the world-class education and leader in luxury lodging experiences. sonalized learning and experiential programs. our students receive.” Wharton People Lab is a core project of At the core of these assessments is research by Mr. Katz’s gift will Wharton People Analytics (WPA). With re- leading Wharton and Penn faculty on grit, gen- scale the People Lab’s Robert Katz search as its intellectual backbone, WPA part- erosity, humility and ambition, which provides capacity to advance the ners with organizations to educate the next gen- game-changing opportunities for students and science and practice of assessment and develop- eration of organizational leaders by conducting their career fulfillment and trajectories. ment in organizations, building on the success research and translating research into practice. The Katz Fund will support continued de- of the People Lab’s pilot programs. The pilots The People Lab seeks to create and sustain a velopment of the People Lab’s infrastructure, advanced the development of the lab’s core as- diverse network of stakeholders including stu- education and research. The impact will ex- sessments and its delivery platform, serving a dents, executive education participants, alumni, tend from undergraduate and MBA students to select group of Wharton MBA candidates with faculty and external partners. executive education students and external cli- new character trait assessments and action plans ents. Major milestones anticipated through Mr. to advance their professional growth. INSIDE Katz’s support include the refinement of assess- “In today’s ever-changing business land- 2 Deaths; URF Fall 2018 Awards ment tools used to further the individual devel- scape, the core driver of long-term success is the 3 URF Funding; Two New Funding Opportunities; strength of the talent throughout an organiza- Council Meeting Agenda; Correction opment of students, executive coaches and or- 4 2019 Commencement Speaker and Honorary ganizational partners as well as best-in-class tion,” said Mr. Katz. “I feel fortunate to be able Degree Recipients’ Bios research, education and technology resources. to provide early support towards the creation of 6 Penn Family Night with Penn Basketball; “The greatest asset for most organizations today the Wharton People Lab, to better use data and KWH Summer Program; Penn & Pencil Club; analytics to broaden our understanding of how One Step Ahead: Security and Privacy Tip is their people,” said Wharton Dean Geoffrey Gar- 7 A Centennial Exhibition and Conference in Honor of rett. “Rob’s incredible gift will allow People Lab to to assess and develop great business leaders.” the Gotham Book Mart; Update; CrimeStats develop cutting-edge, data-based tools not only to Mr. Katz and Ms. Amsterdam have made 8 Research Roundup ALMANAC February 12, 2019 www.upenn.edu/almanac 1 Deaths Marshall Blume, Wharton Marshall Edward Blume, the Howard Butch- er III Professor Emer- itus of Finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsyl- In the recent Fall 2018 cycle of Penn’s internally-funded University Research vania, died January 27 Foundation, URF Conference and Impact Seminar Support (noted with *), after a sudden and brief the Office of the Vice Provost for Research has announced awards to illness. He was 77. the following members of the faculty for the projects listed below. After graduating from Trinity College in 1963 with a degree in mathematics, Dr. Blume Fall 2018: URF Awards earned an MBA in 1965 and a PhD in finance in Oscar Aguirre-Mandujano, SAS, Poetics of Zhongjie Lin, Design, Constructing Uto- 1968, both from the Uni- Empire: Literature and Political Culture at the pias: China’s Emerging New Town Movement versity of Chicago. Marshall Blume Early Modern Ottoman Court (1452-1512) James Lok, Veterinary Medicine, Regulat- Dr. Blume spent 44 Keith Bredemeier, PSOM, Enhancing Work- able CRISPR/Cas9 Mutagenesis in Parasitic years on the faculty at Penn. He came to the ing Memory to Reduce Undesirable and Persis- Nematodes University in 1968 as an assistant professor of tent Thoughts (ERUPT): Development of an Ad- Michele Margolis, SAS, Who is a Christian finance, moving up to full professor in 1974. He junctive, Transdiagnostic Intervention in the Age of Trump? Understanding the Con- was named the Howard Butcher III Professor of Eugene Buckley, SAS, Kashaya Fieldwork sequences of Religious Identification in Politics Finance in 1978. From 1982 to 1986, Dr. Blume and Database *Michael May, Veterinary Medicine, VMD- served as chair of the finance department, and Robert Carpick, SEAS, Novel Hydrogel PhD 50th Anniversary Symposium from 1986 to 2009, he was also director of the Coatings for Intrinsically Lubricating Condoms *Enrique Mendoza, SAS, Frontiers of Busi- Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research, Kimberly Christian, PSOM, Functional Role ness Cycle Research 25th Anniversary Confer- which established the Marshall Blume Prizes in ence Financial Research in his honor in 2011. He also of Adult Hippocampal Neurogenesis in Learn- helped develop OTIS, Wharton’s Online Trad- ing and Memory Peter Noël, PSOM, Ultra-low Dose PET/ ing and Investment Simulator, to help teach stu- Jean-Christophe Cloutier, SAS, Shadow Ar- CT—Reducing the Integral Radiation Dose for dents investment and portfolio management. In chives: The Lifecycles of Black Literary Papers each Patient 1990, he won the Smith Breeden Prize of the Julie Davis, SAS, Publication Subvention *Mitchell Orenstein, SAS, Social Impacts American Finance Association for his paper, for Two Books: Utamaro and the Spectacle of of Post-Socialist Transition and Policies for the “Order Imbalances and Stock Price Movements Beauty; Ukiyo-e in Context Future on October 19 and 20, 1987.” *John Detre, PSOM, Richards-Goddard In- Laura Perna, GSE, What is the Statutory, Throughout his time at Penn he served on var- terdisciplinary Neuroscience “Brainspace” Regulatory and Financial Framework for Sup- ious committees of the Faculty Senate, including Forum porting Learner-Centered Education in K-12 serving as chair of the Committee on Administra- *David Dillenberger, SAS, Decision Theory Schools and Civic Engagement in Higher Ed- tion and serving on the Cost-Containment Over- at Penn ucation sight Committee in the early 1990s. He retired in Laurel Redding, Veterinary Medicine, Veter- 2011 and earned emeritus status at that time. Walter Englander, PSOM, Protein Biophys- ics and Function by Hydrogen Exchange and inarian Perspectives on Antimicrobial Steward- Dr. Blume was widely recognized as a pio- ship Metrics neer in empirical asset pricing research and was Mass Spectrometry a noted scholar