undergraduate research opportunities penn state

Undergraduate research and fellowships can expand your personal and professional growth in ways you may have never imagined.

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Rosalie Sowers ’ 19 Majors in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Computer Science

I am extremely honored to have been awarded the Goldwater scholarship. It is gratifying to receive recognition for the hard work that I have put into my research over the past several years. The Fellowships Office provided constructive and targeted feedback on my application materials throughout the process to help give me the best chance of succeeding. It forced me to think critically about my long-term career aspirations. As a result, I now feel more confident about the steps I want to take when I graduate from Penn State.

Claire Kelling ’ 21 Dual-title Ph.D. in Statistics and Social Data Analytics

Claire has the background, energy, ability, and even the already-established personal connections to succeed. She has shown an amazing level of leadership and gone way beyond the typical expectations of a first-year graduate student.

Lucy Spicher ’ 21 Biomedical and Mechanical Engineering

Without URFM and the Spark Program, I wouldn’t have understood the full range of opportunities available to me as a Penn State student. I feel that I’ve truly made the most of my time here, and I can’t wait to see where my education will take me.

Madison Taylor ’ 18 Major in Biology, minor in Global Health

After spending a whole summer working on my essays, I walked into that interview only to have the panel tell me the essays didn’t sound like me or capture who I was in person. I was discouraged to hear this, but with only a week until the application was due, I sold my football ticket for that weekend and sat in a coffee shop all day on Saturday, re-writing my essays, this time from the heart. It turned out to be worth my time, because I ended up getting the fellowship many months later!

Benjamin Rowles ’ 18 Major in English

While I didn’t receive the Marshall Scholarship, during the application process I passed the exams to enter the U.S. Foreign Service as a diplomat. That was my goal all along, and I think the fellowship preparation I did with UFO provided me with skills that helped me achieve it.

Scout Cheeks ’ 18 Majors in International Politics, Criminology

With the volume of opportunities available at Penn State, I now realize the importance of tailoring my academic career/experiences to accommodate my exact ambitions and career goals. Students have a wide range of freedom to take advantage of those opportunities whether that be through selection of majors, courses, campus involvement, extracurricular activities, professional networking, etc.

Penn State  

Undergraduate Research Opportunities

Students who want to experience research as an undergraduate may arrange research projects independently with individual faculty members or through their classes. For more information, go to Undergraduates Research on Penn State’s Undergraduate Education website.

Student Research  in the College of Engineering’s Center for Engineering Outreach and Inclusion provides opportunities for undergraduate students to become involved in research or academically focused enrichment programs. The experience empowers students to better conceptualize course material in the classroom and determine areas of interest and to explore career paths.

Engineering Career Resources and Employer Relations provides the opportunity for students to seek undergraduate research experiences. These include research projects in engineering at Penn State, projects at other universities, or research internships at Penn State's Applied Research Lab, in industry, or with national laboratories.

Students in the Schreyer Honors College , the Millennium Scholars Program , or the Engineering Science Undergraduate Degree Program will have the opportunity to conduct research as part of their thesis.

There are research centers at the university, college, and department levels that may offer options for undergraduate students to participate in research projects. Look to College centers and institutes for opportunities that may interest you.

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In This Section

Undergraduate students at Penn State find many opportunities for getting involved in research. It's as simple as finding a faculty member with similar interests and asking how you get get involved!

All students in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences are encouraged to participate in undergraduate research while a student in the college. Students may earn course credit or a stipend for their work.  Participation can be during any semester and at any time as an undergraduate student.

Undergraduate Research Videos

Here's a look at how some of our students are engaged in undergraduate research.

College Undergraduate Research Opportunities

• Geography The department's Undergraduate Research Opportunities Connection (UROC) offers research and professional development opportunities in the Department of Geography. These opportunities allow undergraduate students to gain valuable research experience and technical skills through collaboration on projects within the department and supervised by faculty and/or graduate students, as well as 1-3 credit hours to apply towards graduation.
• Materials Science and Engineering The department provides undergraduate students with rich research opportunities to compliment and enhance our academic offerings through a variety of programs. 
• Meteorology and Atmospheric Science The department maintains a listing of REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) opportunities available at both Penn State and at other organizations.

University-level Undergraduate Research Opportunities

• Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP) — The Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP) is an eight-week research program designed to interest talented undergraduate students from underrepresented groups in academic careers and to enhance their preparation for graduate study through intensive research experiences with faculty mentors. In addition to the research experience, the program includes professional development workshops, seminars, field trips, and social activities.
• EnvironMentors Penn State Chapter EnvironMentors is the college access program for underrepresented and underserved high school students across the country, created by the Global Council for Science and the Environment (GCSE). EnvironMentors has the mission to mentor and motivates high school students from underrepresented and underserved communities in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). High school student participants are paired with an undergraduate student, a faculty member, and a graduate student, who serve as their mentors on research teams for the academic year.
• Undergraduate Research Opportunities Database Database is a great resource in helping students find exciting undergraduate research opportunities at Penn State. 
• Erickson Discovery Grant Program Program supports undergraduate student engagement in original research, scholarship, and creative work under the direct supervision of a faculty member - available for summer semester.
• Undergraduate Research Conference Presentation Support Penn State undergraduates who are presenting the results of their research or creative work at national or regional professional conferences may request financial support to defray the costs of attendance at the conference.

Research and Poster Exhibitions

• CUE - Celebration of Undergraduate Engagement CUE provides an opportunity for undergraduate students in EMS to showcase their research, and connect and share their work with other students, faculty, staff, and the community.
• College of Engineering Research Symposium (CERS) CERS 2017 showcases the cutting-edge interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary research that is being conducted at Penn State in paper and poster formats.
• Environmental Chemistry and Microbiology Student Symposium (ECMSS) ECMSS is an annual student run symposium held at Penn State’s University Park campus, which brings together graduate students, undergraduate students, and faculty members engaged in environmentally relevant research. Note: information about symposium is on the Student Association of Environmental Science and Engineering's webpage.
• Penn State Undergraduate Exhibition Penn State's annual Undergraduate Exhibition communicates and celebrates the participation of undergraduate students from across the University in research and creative endeavors.

External Competitions

• Collegiate Inventors Competition The Competition brings together the nation’s brightest college minds to showcase, recognize, and award their cutting-edge research and discovery.

Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU)

The Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program supports active research participation by undergraduate students in any of the areas of research funded by the National Science Foundation.

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Undergraduate research, what is undergraduate research.

According to the Council on Undergraduate Research , undergraduate research is defined as a mentored investigation or creative inquiry conducted by undergraduates that seeks to make a scholarly or artistic contribution to knowledge.

Penn State offers a variety of undergraduate research opportunities for students. To explore these options further, check out the Understanding Research page on the Undergraduate Research and Fellowship Mentoring Office's website .

What Are the Benefits of Undergraduate Research?

Engaging in undergraduate research brings a wealth of benefits your way. It's not just about hitting the books; it's about forging meaningful mentoring connections with faculty members , taking your academic experience to a whole new level. This connection significantly contributes to boosting student retention rates and achieving higher graduation success within academic programs. What's even more exciting is that diving into undergraduate research serves as a launchpad for increased enrollment in graduate education , setting the stage for effective career preparation.

This experience isn't just about learning; it's about refining key skills like critical thinking, creativity, problem-solving, and intellectual independence . As you get hands-on with research methodology, you'll gain a thorough understanding of the investigative process . The emphasis on research isn't just a nod to innovation; it's about cultivating a forward-thinking mindset . Ultimately, the benefits of undergraduate research extend beyond academic enrichment, shaping competencies essential for career readiness and ensuring a workforce that's well-prepared for the future.

How do the University Libraries Support Undergraduate Research?

Academic libraries are instrumental champions of undergraduate research, providing a wealth of resources and support services. Whether it's access to an extensive collection of books, journals, and online databases or the guidance of knowledgeable librarians offering consultations and information literacy workshops, students find a rich tapestry of assistance. The technological amenities, including computer labs and collaborative spaces, offer the necessary tools and environments for seamless research collaboration. Interlibrary loan services expand the horizons of available resources, while citation management support aids students in meticulous source attribution. Specialized offerings, such as archives and special collections , unveil unique primary sources, and online catalogs ensure 24/7 access to digital materials. In essence, academic libraries are warm and dynamic hubs, fostering an environment where undergraduate students feel empowered to embark on meaningful and rigorous research journeys.

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Penn State offers many opportunities for undergraduate students to participate in research and creative endeavors. Working with faculty mentors, undergraduates engage in active learning in the laboratory, library, studio, and field. Through these experiences, students share in the excitement of discovery, develop important skills, and explore career choices. They get to know faculty members and connect with a disciplinary community. Many publish, perform, exhibit, or present their work, sharing it with audiences beyond Penn State.

Building Engineering—Seminal Undergraduate Research Experience (BE—SURE)

The BE—SURE program partners undergraduate AE students and students majoring in other building-related disciplines with AE faculty members to increase the students' educational, research, and professional opportunities. The year-long program runs during the fall, spring, and summer semesters but, shorter appointments are allowed if needed by the student. BE—SURE works to expand research opportunities for undergraduates and provides a research "on-ramp" for students to learn more about the research process, science communication, and post-graduate research opportunities. Students involved with BE—SURE receive weekly communication from faculty highlighting details for graduate fellowship opportunities, professional development opportunities, research experiences for undergraduates at other institutions, and scholarships for undergraduate research. Additionally, faculty work to engage the students with programs provided by  Penn State University Libraries , the  Writing Center @ Penn State Learning , and  Penn State Undergraduate Research and Fellowships Mentoring . At the end of each semester, students participate in a poster session to showcase what they learned and accomplished that semester. The poster session also provides students not enrolled in BE—SURE with the opportunity to learn more about the program and see what research could be like for them.

Undergraduate students interested in participating may apply  here . 

Faculty interested in participating may apply  here . 

In addition to the existing paid experiences, BE—SURE faculty are currently working to expand the program to include for-credit opportunities. Faculty are also working to expand the program to provide graduate students with mentoring opportunities.

Additional Opportunities

To learn more about other research opportunities, please visit the research opportunities page on the Office of Undergraduate Education site  here .

BE—SURE Applications

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BE—SURE Student Spotlights

• Spring 2022
• Rebecca Napolitano, assistant professor 209 Engineering Unit A [email protected]

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Research Opportunities

Please note that this is not a complete list; you may also want to review the list of Faculty Research Interests and contact faculty whose interests correspond with yours.

NOTE: These ads are for undergraduate research assistants; compensation is research experience credit or work-study pay based on a financial aid award. These positions are not available to graduate students seeking stipend support.

You can either scroll through the entire list, or click below to go directly to the area in which you are most interested:

Table of Contents

Non-department opportunities.

(good experience, elective (not PSYCH) credit available) 

World Campus 

Opportunities in this section are open  only to World Campus students.

Online Social Perception Laboratory

Faculty Adviser :  Dr. Anthony Nelson ( [email protected] )

Lab duties:  The Online Social Perception Laboratory is seeking students interested in gaining research experience to serve as research assistants. This experience is especially geared toward preparing students for research in graduate school. Instead of assisting on an existing project, students are encouraged to pursue their own research projects (or group research projects) under the guidance of Dr. Nelson. To get the most out of this experience, students should be prepared to participate across multiple semesters. In the first semester, students will be expected to conduct a comprehensive literature review on a topic of their choice to develop an understanding of the existing literature in the field. Additionally, students are expected to learn a new statistical program (JASP, SPSS, or R).

After the first semester, students are encouraged to develop their own studies once they have demonstrated that they have enough background knowledge in their topic of choice to develop a novel hypothesis. This experience would allow the student to learn all aspects of the research process from start to finish, including submitting an IRB, preregistering hypotheses, programming study materials, recruiting participants, analyzing the data, and preparing the results for dissemination, either via conference presentation and/or journal submission.

In addition to the above-mentioned duties, students are expected to participate in weekly discussions where one member of the lab will provide a research article to be read and discussed. Each member of the lab will be expected to assign the weekly reading at least once each semester.

Who should apply:  Students who are interested in pursuing graduate education in psychology, especially PhD programs, where research will be a major component of the program. Generally, students should have already taken (or are currently taking) PSYCH 301, however this is not a strict requirement. Students with PSYCH 301 experience will be given priority if there are more applicants than there are available positions.

Students who apply to the lab must be self-motivated. This is NOT a typical course where students will be graded on frequent assignment submissions. Students must take the initiative to do the work, and to reach out to Dr. Nelson when they need guidance. Dr. Nelson will be checking in occasionally and offering feedback, but the students are ultimately responsible for their own progress. Students who have the most success in this lab are not afraid to reach out to Dr. Nelson frequently.

How we meet:  The lab is asynchronous, meaning that there are currently no set meeting times. We use Canvas for all lab correspondence. If a live meeting is desired with Dr. Nelson, this can be scheduled.

Credits : Students are expected to sign up for 3 credits of PSYCH 494, which consists of 9 hours of work per week. Exceptions will be made for lower amounts of credits on a case-by-case basis. Students may also volunteer for this experience. Please note that PSYCH 494 credits can be earned each semester, however, only the first 3 credits will count toward your 400-level course requirements.

Other benefits : In addition to earning credits and learning valuable research skills, students can request a letter of recommendation from Dr. Nelson. Getting letters of recommendation from faculty members you have worked on research with outside of a classroom is essential for getting into research-oriented graduate programs.

Peter Arnett

Neuropsychology of Multiple Sclerosis Research Lab (Not accepting applications)

Contact information :

Garrett Thomas ( [email protected] ) or Megan Bradson ( [email protected] )

Description of Research :  Our research looks at changes in cognitive, affective, and behavioral functioning that result from brain injury or disease. Specifically, we investigate the effects of multiple sclerosis, a neurodegenerative disease. Undergraduate research assistants will be trained to score standardized measurements, enter data, and use statistical software. They will also attend lab meetings and, depending upon interest and ability, participate in other lab projects. Experience in a research lab exposes students to research design and implementation, allows students to understand the clinical applications of such research, and provides students with advice and training that enhance their applications to graduate and medical school programs.

Requirements/Qualifications :  We are looking for motivated, conscientious, and responsible undergraduate students with a minimum GPA of 3.0 who are interested in research experience in clinical psychology. Interested students must be able to commit a minimum of 2 semesters to the lab, 6-9 hours per week during the semester. Preference is given to students with interests in pursuing graduate training in the mental health field or medical school.

Methods of Compensation :  Undergraduate research assistants receive 1 Research Project (Psy 494) credit for every 3 hours worked. Students can earn up to 3 course credits for 9 hours of work per week. Opportunities to continue work in the lab may be available over summers and beyond the current academic year. Honors options for Psy 496 Independent Studies or Senior Thesis Research projects may be available after 2 semesters of participation and satisfactory performance in the lab.

Please contact the Program Coordinator, Garrett Thomas ( [email protected] ) or Megan Bradson ( [email protected] )  for further information on applying.

Sports Concussion Research Lab (Not accepting applications)

Garrett Thomas ( [email protected] ) or Megan Bradson ( [email protected] )

Description of Research :  Our research looks at changes in cognitive, affective, and behavioral functioning that result from brain injury or disease. We investigate brain injury in college athletes who have suffered mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) due to concussion. Undergraduate research assistants will be trained to score standardized measurements, enter data, and use statistical software. They will also attend lab meetings and, depending upon interest and ability, participate in other lab projects. Experience in a research lab exposes students to research design and implementation, allows students to understand the clinical applications of such research, and provides students with advice and training that enhance their applications to graduate and medical school programs.

Methods of Compensation :  Undergraduate research assistants receive 1 Research Project (Psy 494) credit for every 3 hours worked. Students can earn up to 3 course credits for 9 hours of work per week. Opportunities to continue work in the lab may be available over summers and beyond the current academic year. Honors options for Psy 496 Independent Studies or Senior Thesis Research projects may be available after 2 semesters of participation and satisfactory performance in the lab. Please contact the Concussion Program Coordinator, Garrett Thomas ([email protected]) or Megan Bradson ([email protected]) for more details and to schedule an interview. In your email, include your current year of schooling, your major or academic interests, your GPA, and any prior research experience.

Please complete and submit the Research Assistant Application.

Pamela Cole (Not accepting applications)

We have opportunities in all projects in the Cole Emotion Regulation lab.  In each study we try to understand the early development of emotional competence and mental health risk and the role of parents in their children’s development. If you are interested in a project (described below), please contact Tawni Stoop email:  [email protected].  You can find our applications and more information on line at https://sites.psu.edu/coleerlab/

Who are we?

• A team—devoted to understanding how young children develop the ability to perceive and manage emotions
• A team—we are a team of faculty, post-doctoral scholars, graduate students, full time research staff, & undergraduate research assistants
• A team—and a place to learn about research with children, to gain research skills, & receive support for planning for work and/or graduate school after college

What are we doing?

Processing of the Emotional Environment Project (PEEP II) is currently recruiting 7- and 8-year-old children and their families.  PEEP II uses a number of innovative methods, including functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to:

• examine how children process affective prosody (non-semantic features of speech that convey emotion)
• examine if neural activation differs when children hear unfamiliar and familiar emotional voices
• examine relations between children’s everyday emotional environment and their neural processing

Undergraduate Research Assistants on this project are trained to assist in recruitment efforts, collecting data from young school age children, obtaining assent to participate from children, administering standardized tests, preparing children for a neuroimaging visit, and processing collected data

The Development of Self-Regulation Dynamics is collecting data from children between the ages of 2 ½ to 5 years and from their parents.  This innovative methods in this study are its generation of data that can be used to understand self-regulation as a process of change and not a static, trait.  We:

• investigate how very young children handle feeling apprehensive or frustrated
• examine how children shift from relying on their parents to handle those feelings and become more self-reliant

Undergraduate Research Assistants on this project are trained to assist in recruitment efforts, collecting data from very young children and their parents, administering and recording standardized observational procedures, and processing collected data, including learning to code emotion

The Development of Toddlers Study (D.O.T.S.) has finished data collection and now focuses on what we can learn from the data.  This work examines:

• characteristics of very young children and their parenting that contribute to the development of emotion regulation by kindergarten age, e.g., child language, child temperament, and parents’ use of emotion talk, of conversations, and of structuring child self-regulation

Undergraduate Research Assistants on this project are trained to score and code data collected in the lab and at families’ homes.  This includes processing how young children use their language, both when they are coping on their own and when they are interacting with their parents, and how parents talk to their children.

What’s required of undergraduate RAs?

• Minimum of 10 hours a week
• Minimum of 2 semesters commitment
• Completion of the PSU required clearances and certifications needed to work with children
• Reliable and on time attendance at all meetings and family visits
• A love of children and a deep interest in how they develop and the careers aimed at helping them!

Chardée Galán

Research Assistant Positions in the Dismantling Racial inEquities Around Mental health (DREAM) Lab

Description of Lab:  The Dismantling Racial inEquities Around Mental Health (DREAM) Lab at Penn State is recruiting volunteer research assistants! The DREAM Lab is directed by Dr. Chardée Galán, an Assistant Professor of Psychology in the Child Clinical Area ( https://galanlab.org/ ). Our lab aims to: 1) advance research on the mental health effects of racism on youth and families of color, including work on racial trauma; 2) develop and test interventions that leverage cultural strengths to promote resilience and mitigate the detrimental effects of racism on youth and families of color; and 3) address key drivers of racial inequities in mental health, including the lack of culturally humble mental health providers and the perpetration of racism by dominant racial groups.  

This position would be an excellent fit for applicants interested in pursuing graduate study in clinical psychology, developmental psychology, or related disciplines or interested in attending medical school. However, our lab is highly interdisciplinary, and we have also had students from other fields in our lab, including students with training in graphic design, computer science, and statistics (e.g., students with graphic design background have assisted with creating promotional materials for our research studies; students with statistics training have assisted with data management).

Start Date:  The position would begin at the start of the Fall 2023 semester.

Responsibilities:  Research assistants will assist with an exciting new project in which we are piloting a novel intervention (One Talk at a Time – AntiRacism) that seeks to equip White parents with the knowledge and skills to promote anti-racism in their children. Responsibilities will include:

–       Recruiting and screening families 

–       Conducting study assessments

–       Administering survey, observational, and interview assessments

–       Managing data collection

–       Transcribing and coding interviews and parent-child interaction tasks

There are select opportunities to take on more of a leadership role on this project for exceptional applicants

Requirements:  We are looking for students who share our commitment to social justice and demonstrate strong organizational, leadership, and time-management skills with an exceptional attention to detail.

Essential for this role is the adeptness to work independently as well as part of a team with a collaborative approach to problem solving. Other requirements include:  

–       Minimum 3.2 GPA

–       Commit a minimum of 10 hours a week of volunteer work

–       Commit to two consecutive semesters of service

–       Attend weekly lab meetings

–       With the exception of religious observances, we expect volunteers to commit to assisting with weekend assessments

Method of Compensation:  Research assistants will receive Research Project (PSY 294/494) credits. Generally, one hour of credit is given for every three hours of work per week, although actual hours worked may vary. Work study positions are available for qualified students. Volunteers are also welcome.

  How To Apply:  If you are interested in this research internship, please complete the application found  here  and email it, along with any requested materials (e.g., your transcript, resume), to Dr. Galàn ( [email protected] ). Preference will be given to students who apply by  August 25 th .  Select applicants will be invited for an interview. Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the positions are filled.

Cynthia Huang-Pollock 

Description of Research:  We are currently conducting two research projects.  The first is exploring the neuropsychological and emotional processes related to learning problems in children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).  The second is studying the cognitive effects of nicotine withdrawal in regular smokers ages 18-45, with and without ADHD.  Research assistants working in the lab will receive training in the use of common statistical programs (such as SPSS) as well as the use and scoring of diagnostic behavior rating scales.  Exceptional undergraduate RAs will have the opportunity to work directly with child and adult participants in administering intellectual, academic achievement, and neuropsychological tests.

Our weekly lab meetings provide a forum to discuss theory and clinical application of the research, address any questions that arise from work in the lab, and receive career guidance.  This includes applying to graduate schools, formatting vitas, how to write a competitive personal statement, and career options for psychology majors.

Finally, Dr. Huang-Pollock has extensive experience in supervising undergraduate level theses and research projects.  Students graduating in Spring 2017 or later can complete a project for credit.

Method of Compensation:  You can receive 3 credits of PSYCH 294, 493, or 494 for 9 hours of work per week.  You will also be required to attend lab meeting each week (fall and spring semesters only).

Requirements/Qualifications :  We require a minimum GPA of 3.5 .  Preference is given to underclassmen with interests in pursuing graduate training in mental health.

Contact Information :   Please click here to complete the online application.  If you have any questions, please contact our Project Coordinator, Marissa Reynolds, at [email protected]

Kenneth Levy

Laboratory for Personality, Psychopathology, and Psychotherapy Research

Description of Research : Developmental psychopathology, attachment theory and research, emotion regulation, personality and personality disorders, and psychotherapy process and outcome research.

Requirements/Qualifications : I am looking for people who are bright, highly motivated, responsible, are seriously interested in pursuing doctoral level studies, and have sufficient time to commit to a project. Students must have a 3.5 GPA and be able to commit to a minimum of at least 9 hours per week during the semester and/or 12-20 hours per week during the summer, for at least two semesters.  Good computer skills and prior office experience are helpful.  In addition, students must be able to attend a weekly lab meeting.  I am particularly interested in freshman and sophomore research assistants, though qualified juniors are also encouraged to apply.

Method of Compensation : Research assistants will receive Research Project (PSY 294 or 494) credits or Work Study opportunities. Generally, one hour of credit is given for every three hours of work per week, although actual hours worked may vary. There are opportunities for work study if you are eligible, and paid positions are possible after a semester of participation. Honors options are available that can become PSY 496 Independent Studies or Senior Thesis Research (PSY 493).

Benefits:  Advanced students may have the opportunity to be involved in the writing of journal articles and presentations for conferences. Research assistants will gain valuable research skills, bolster their applications for doctoral level clinical or counseling psychology graduate programs, and have the opportunity to develop their interests within the field. Students will gain knowledge about relationships, attachment theory and assessment, personality disorders, and psychotherapy research from a developmental psychopathology framework.  Research assistants will also gain familiarity with experimental psychopathological methods used in current studies, such as cortisol, neurocognitive, smartphone technology, psychophysiological, and genetics (e.g., telomeres, candidate genes). In addition, research assistants will have the opportunity to conduct clinical interviews and assessments. This is an excellent set of experiences for anyone interested in preparation for doctoral studies in clinical psychology or related fields. Additionally, working on research with a faculty member gives faculty an opportunity to get to know you well enough to write an effective letter of recommendation. Finally, several students from our laboratory have received internal and external laboratory fellowships for school and have received clinical and research experiences beyond Penn State.  A large number of students in the lab have been accepted into prestigious and competitive doctoral programs.

Contact Info : If you are interested in a position please visit the laboratory website at:  https://levylab.la.psu.edu/ to complete the application for prospective undergraduate students listed under the “Apply” section.

Amy D. Marshall

Relationships and Stress Research Lab 

Description of Research : The mission of the research program in the Relationships and Stress Research Lab is to understand how posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) interacts with social information processing (e.g., attention to threat, recognition of emotions) to lead to relationship dysfunction and aggression. This model includes the study of interpersonal processes (e.g., reciprocal and multiplicative communication patterns) and contextual factors (e.g., emotional arousal) that may contribute to changes in information processing skills that are particularly important to the maintenance of adaptive close relationships. Additional foci of the lab include the study of hormones (e.g., estrogen, oxytocin, arginine vasopressin) that may explain the sex difference in PTSD prevalence, as well as explaining the link between PTSD and relationship dysfunction. We also study predictors of the co-occurrence and within-incident spillover of intimate partner violence and child abuse. Undergraduate research assistants may be trained to code couples’ and families’ videotaped interactions, run participants through study protocols, conduct recruitment interviews, search relevant literature, manage databases, and generally use your skills and creativity to assist in the development of new studies. In addition, lab meetings provide a forum to learn more about the topic under study and future opportunities in the field.

Method of Compensation : It is preferred that undergraduate research assistants earn independent research credit. Research assistants will gain valuable research experience and mentoring, especially helpful for those interested in pursuing graduate education.

Requirements/Qualifications : Highly motivated and responsible undergraduate students with an interest in clinical research are encouraged to apply. Students must have a 3.2 GPA. Preference is given to technologically competent students who are able to commit at least six hours per week to the lab (three hours of work for each hour of credit), as well as those who may be interested in continuing in the lab beyond the current semester.

Contact Information : Interested students should contact Angie Morrison for more information and to schedule an interview.

Aaron Pincus (accepting applications)

Aaron Pincus: [email protected] , 863-1723 Lab Website: http://psupersonalitylab.weebly.com

Description of Research: Research conducted in the Personality Psychology Laboratory broadly integrates personality and clinical psychological science. Current work focuses on:

• Interpersonal processes in personality, psychopathology, psychotherapy
• Pathological narcissism and Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Conceptualization, etiology, assessment, and treatment.
• Classification, assessment, and treatment of personality disorders.
• Integrating personality structure and personality dynamics.
• Personality assessment and personality disorders in Chinese culture.

Methods of Compensation: Research assistants will receive Research Project (PSY 294/494) credits. Generally, one hour of credit is given for every three hours of work per week, although actual hours worked may vary. Workstudy positions are available for qualified students.

Requirements/Qualifications : Motivated, conscientious, and responsible students in their junior, sophomore, or freshman years (sorry, no seniors) with a minimum GPA of 3.2. Interest in personality preferred. A minimum time commitment of at least 9 hours per week for at least two semesters is required. Students must be able to conduct research sessions in the early evening hours and attend a weekly lab meeting. This is an excellent opportunity for students interested in learning more about personality, clinical psychology, and quantitative methods in preparation for graduate school.

José A. Soto

Contact Information :

615 Moore Building [email protected]

Please send an email to [email protected] to request an application or for additional information. You may also complete the application here .

Description of Research Project : Members of our lab will study how, why and under what circumstances culture exerts an influence on the emotion system. We will study emotion using various methods including self-report, coding of behavioral data, and collection of psychophysiological data. We will also study different aspects of the emotion system such as emotional reactivity or expressivity, emotion regulation, empathic understanding of other’s emotions, and emotion language. Finally, we will study how the interaction of culture with these processes affects the psychological and physical well being of the individual.

Compensation : Research assistants can work on a volunteer basis or can earn independent research credit (PSY 494). Those eligible for work-study may be paid for their work. Research assistants will also gain valuable research experience for those interested in pursuing graduate school.

Qualifications : We are looking for motivated, detail-oriented undergraduates. Duties may include any or all of the following: attend weekly lab meetings, develop stimulus materials, conduct literature searches, assist with study implementation, train to use psychophysiological equipment, run subjects through psychophysiological protocol, and enter data. Students with computer savvy and a love for technology are especially encouraged to apply. Preference will be given to students who can work 2 consecutive semesters for at least 6 hours/week.

Sandra Testa Michelson (not accepting applications)

The Penn State Psychological Clinic is looking for Research Assistants!

The Pennsylvania State University Psychological Clinic is a community mental health clinic (CMHC) that also serves as a Practice Research Network (PRN) that fully and seamlessly integrates research and clinical practice.  We are currently looking to expand our team of motivated, conscientious, and responsible individuals, and this position is especially well-suited for undergraduates who would like to pursue graduate training in clinical psychology since it will help to gain valuable experience with clinical research that is being conducted within a large-scale CMHC.

As an RA, you will

• Learn data entry and management techniques for large-scale, longitudinal data
• Gain experience with how to structure, clean, and work with cross-sectional as well as longitudinal data
• Gain experience with reviewing project proposals and assisting with the oversight of research projects that are being conducted within PSU’s Psych Clinic
• Gain exposure to Electronic Health Records systems, common assessment batteries, and routine outcome monitoring techniques

Research assistants will receive Research Project (PSY 294/494) credits. Generally, one hour of credit is given for every three hours of work per week, although actual hours worked may vary from week to week though never exceed the agreed upon amount. Work hours contain both data management and didactic components. This is currently a remote position.

Contact : Sandra Testa Michelson, PhD ( [email protected] ) to apply.

Martha Wadsworth (not accepting applications)

Coping and Regulation of Environmental Stress Lab

Description of Research: The CaRES lab focuses on environmental stress and how children and families adapt to it. We are particularly interested in discovering sources of resiliency in children and their families and using this information to build programs to strengthen children and families who face stress. We focus on coping, self-regulation, and family support in our basic and applied research studies. The lab’s current project, Building a Strong Identity and Coping Skills (BaSICS) is an innovative intervention program for low-income youth which seeks to foster the development of a positive identity through social justice education and strengthen coping skills to buffer against the negative effects of stress.

Responsibilities: Include behavioral video coding, data entry, preparing assessment materials, assisting with data collection, and conducting literature searches.

Requirements/Qualifications: We are looking for highly motivated, detail-oriented, and responsible undergraduate students with a minimum GPA of 3.0 who are interested in research experience in clinical psychology. Interested students must be able to commit a minimum of 2 semesters to the lab, 10 hours per week during the semester.  Opportunities for summer are also available. Preference is given to students with interests in pursuing graduate training in mental health or other careers working with children. Spanish speaking ability is also a plus, but not required.

Compensation: Students can receive 3 course credits for 10 hours of work in the lab and attending weekly lab meetings. Volunteers are also welcome.

Contact info: E-mail the Lab Coordinator, Allison Pequet, [email protected] for more information and applications. Chardée Galán

Nancy Dennis 

Now Recruiting

Description of Research : The Cognitive Aging & Neuroimaging (CAN) Lab, in the Department of Psychology at Penn State, examines the effects of aging on learning and memory processes using both behavioral and functional neuroimaging (fMRI) methods. Our lab focuses on several cognitive processes associated with learning and memory including the study of true memories, false memories, relational memories, implicit learning and cognitive control of both remembering and forgetting. With respect to cognitive aging, our research concentrates on the examination of age-related neural markers of cognitive decline, as well as mechanisms for neural compensation.

Description of Position : 2-3 positions available. Undergraduate students in the laboratory will help with general lab organization, participant recruitment, designing and planning experiments, data collection and analysis, and participate in a weekly lab meeting. Great experience if you are considering graduate school in psychology or neuroscience.

Requirements : Rising Sophomores or Juniors preferred – at least 9 hours per week during the semester – preference will be given to those students who can commit for multiple semesters. General computer skills necessary. Students may receive PSY 494 research project credits or work study funds

If interested please email Dr. Nancy Dennis. Please include your year of schooling, your academic interests, GPA, relevant classes taken, times you are available to work, computer skills, career goals.. Possibilities exist to enroll in Psych 496 Independent Studies or Senior Thesis Research in future semesters.

Michele Diaz 

Language and Aging Lab/Michele Diaz

Not accepting applications

Description of Research : We investigate age-related differences in language processing using behavioral methods, electrophysiology, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Our research questions examine the relations between behavior, functional brain activity, and the neural structures that underlie these phenomena.

Description of Position : We are currently recruiting 2-4 undergraduate students. Research assistants are involved in a variety of lab activities including analyzing behavioral data, conducting experimental sessions, and developing experimental stimuli. Students are expected to complete 10 hours per week over the course of 2 consecutive semesters.

Method of Compensation : Research assistants will receive 3 credits for Psy 296/496 (Independent Study) or Psy 294/494 (Research Project).

Requirements/Qualifications : We are looking for highly motivated, responsible students with a minimum GPA of 3.4. Previous research experience is preferred, but not required. Interested students should complete and submit an application ( http://sites.psu.edu/mdiazlab/prospectivestudents/ ) to [email protected] . Questions can also be directed to the same email address.

Janet van Hell 

Bilingualism and Language Development Lab

Now recruiting

414 Moore Building

Description of Research : Our lab studies the cognitive and neurocognitive processes related to language development, second language learning, and bilinguals’ use of two languages. We combine behavioral, neuropsychological (ERPs), and linguistic techniques to study patterns of cross-language interaction and transfer in child and adult second language learners at different levels of proficiency. We also study the neural and cognitive mechanisms involved in code-switching and in the comprehension of foreign accented speech. A second research theme in our lab focuses on language development in school-aged children with typical or atypical development.

Description of Position: Undergraduate students receive extensive training in research and actively participate in lab activities, including recruitment of participants, development of experimental materials, conducting behavioral and electrophysiological testing, and scoring and analyzing data. This is ideal research experience if you are considering applying to graduate school in psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, or related fields. We also engage in community outreach and science education events, including Brain in Action demonstrations at local elementary and secondary schools and activities related to Bilingualism Matters and the Center for Language Science.

Method of Compensation: Research assistants will receive Research Project (PSY494 or LING494) credits or Work Study opportunities. Summer opportunities are also available.

Requirements/qualifications . We are looking for motivated and responsible undergraduate students. A 2-semester commitment (minimum) is preferred, for 6-9 hours per week (2-3 credits a semester).

Contact Information:  For more information, please visit the laboratory website at: https://bild.la.psu.edu/ . If you are interested, you can email me ( [email protected] ) for more information. In your email please include: your year at Penn State, your major or academic interests, your training goals, and any prior research experience you may have.

Developmental

Rina d. eiden.

Accepting applications for Fall 2021

Description of Research: At the Development, Risk & Resilience Lab, we are trying to understand when and under what circumstances developmental trajectories of children begin to diverge from normative trajectories among families who are struggling with substance abuse and related issues (e.g., mental health symptoms; caregiving unpredictability). We are interested in how prenatal and early adversities shape the development of children’s self-regulation; how these associations may be mediated or moderated by parenting quality; and in applying this understanding to prevention. We are also working to understand protective factors that promote resilience in children in the face of early adversities.

Description of Position:   Potential duties include video coding, conducting literature reviews, and recruitment and data collection involving study participants. Various tasks related to project start up may also be assigned.

Method of Compensation: Research Credit (Psych 494 or other). Volunteer opportunities exist as well. Opportunities to use data for thesis and capstone projects available.

Requirements: Students must be able to work out a schedule with our lab staff and be consistent in their work hours and must be available for 3-9 hours per week. Students who can commit at least two consecutive semesters will be given first priority acceptance.

Interested Students: Please email [email protected] your availability for the upcoming term, desired number of credits/hours, and a copy of your resume.

Koraly Pérez-Edgar

Description of Research:  Our research focuses on the ways in which emotion and attention interact to shape how individuals navigate their social world. We do this through biological measures, self-report questionnaires, and observations of behavior in our laboratory. Our main focus is on the interaction between temperament, early appearing biases in emotion, and attention in infants and children.

Description of Position: Potential responsibilities include assisting with behavioral, eye-tracking, EEG and RSA data collection and assisting with behavioral coding and processing of physiological data. We may also develop tools for data collection and data processing.

Method of Compensation:  We offer research credit (e.g. Psych 494, other disciplines) as well as volunteer opportunities.

Requirements: We are recruiting responsible students who can commit 6-10 hours per week to the lab. Students must have a minimum 3.0 GPA. Students interested in assisting in the development of tools for data collection and data processing must be proficient in Python.

To Apply: Please complete our application . Feel free to contact us with any questions, [email protected] .

Erika Lunkenheimer

Now Accepting Applications

Parent-Child Dynamics Lab

Research Assistant Position(s)

Title of position:  Undergraduate Research Assistant, Parent-Child Dynamics Lab

Summary of position:  In Dr. Erika Lunkenheimer’s Parent-Child Dynamics Lab, we study the ways that parenting and parent-child interaction patterns influence child development. We use dynamic time series analysis to examine how parents and children coordinate their emotions, behaviors, and physiology, and how this coordination is related to the development of children’s self-regulation and behavior problems. We also examine how parent-child interaction patterns relate to resilience and risk in the family, such as risk for child maltreatment, and how a better understanding of these patterns can inform the development and improvement of preventive interventions for stressed and overburdened families. Undergraduate Research Assistants will work both independently and as a team to support a broad range of research efforts, such as data collection with families and data processing of videos, biological data, and questionnaires.

Website URL:  www.pcd.la.psu.edu

Number of opportunities:  1-2

Start posting date:  Immediate – to start Fall 2022

End posting date:  Ongoing – until positions filled

Responsibilities:  Potential responsibilities include project preparation, recruiting families for research involvement, conducting study visits with families on Zoom or in the lab, recruiting families, coding behavior and affect in videotaped parent-child interaction tasks, entering questionnaire data, and/or processing physiological (breathing and heart rate) data. Training is provided. Undergraduate Research Assistants attend a regular group meeting which includes professional development topics, presentation of lab research, and discussion of relevant literature.

Qualifications:  Strong candidates will be enthusiastic, committed to the project, communicative, detail-oriented, and responsible.  Comfort with learning and utilizing computer software and/or lab equipment is required.  Prior experience in research is desired but not required.  Prior experience working with children and/or families is also desired.

Position Type : Course credit

Work setting : In-person research lab in Moore Building on UP campus

Application procedure : Email your CV or Resume to Alexa Nordine at [email protected] or  fill out our online application form: 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9V9HeL4aafaUp86sVB45gecUnhxPabxj4EwiN6jzHhBMw2g/viewform

Suzy Scherf, PhD 

Laboratory of Developmental Neuroscience 2017

Description of Research: Our research focuses on understanding how we become so good at recognizing faces and facial expressions from childhood through adulthood. It turns out that this is a very difficult task for the visual system to accomplish and takes many years to develop. Our lab conducts research with children, adolescents and adults to understand these developmental changes in face processing abilities, biases in processing faces of different ages, the ability to detect socially complex expressions, and whether face recognition ability is related to individual differences in neural activation. We examine these developmental trajectories by utilizing behavioral testing methods with computerized tasks as well as eye-tracking and neuroimaging (fMRI and DTI) methods. We have also just started a big project that aims to use gaming technology to help adolescents with autism process important social cues from faces.

Description of Position: Potential duties include: attending lab meetings, recruiting participants, developing study materials, conducting behavioral testing, and analyzing data. This is ideal research experience if you are considering applying to graduate school. We also host “Brain Camps” in conjunction with the Discovery Space down town.  In these day camps, we teach children about the science of the brain and of the visual system and give them an opportunity to participant in the very research that they are learning about.  We often need undergraduate students to help run the activities in the camps and at other local events, like Arts Fest.

Method of Compensation: Research assistants will receive Research Project (PSY 294 or 494) credits or Work Study opportunities. Summer opportunities are also available.

Requirements/Qualifications: We are looking for motivated and responsible undergraduate students. A 2-semester commitment (minimum) is preferred, for 6-9 hours per week (2-3 credits a semester). Students must have a 3.0 GPA or above. In your email please include: your year at Penn State, your major or academic interests, your GPA, and any prior research experience.

Contact Information: If you are interested, please contact [email protected]  for more information.

Kristin Buss 

Accepting Applications for Fall 2024

Description of Research :

Method of Compensation : Research assistants may apply for PSY 494 course credit or on a volunteer basis. Students eligible for work-study may be able to work in the lab for compensation after having worked in the lab for at least one semester. Participation provides a valuable experience and reference base for those considering graduate studies. 

Requirements/Qualifications : Because of the nature and training involved with the study, we ask for a minimum overall GPA of 3.3 and a minimum commitment of at least 2 semesters (although the majority of our undergraduates stay on the project longer than the minimum requirement). Students should plan to spend 10 hours per week involved in lab-related activities, including a weekly lab/coding meeting which research assistants are required to attend.

Contact Information : To apply or for more information, please contact Stacey Levan at [email protected] .  Interested students may also visit our website at  https://emotiondev.la.psu.edu.

Jenae Neiderhiser 

Gene-Environment Interplay Throughout the Lifespan

Accepting applications for spring 2021

Description of Research : Our lab is interested in understanding the interplay between genes and the environment in development. We are currently looking for undergraduates to work with us on one two different projects:

Early Growth and Development Study (EGDS): EGDS is a longitudinal adoption study interested in disentangling the effects of genes, prenatal drug exposure, and parenting on child outcomes and family adjustment. Opportunities for undergraduate research assistants include:

• Ordering, de-identifying and coding medical records of birth mothers (prenatal and delivery) and child medical records (0-10yrs).
• Other varied opportunities for data management/analysis and literature reviews.

Minimum qualifications: We are looking for undergraduate students (with a minimum GPA of 3.0) to work at least 10 hours per week. A commitment of 2 semesters is required. Accepted applicants will have to complete IRB human subjects training.

If interested, please go to  https://geinterplay.la.psu.edu/ to complete an application or contact Jenae Neiderhiser ( [email protected] ) or Allison Mitchell ( [email protected] ).

Pennsylvania Twin Registry

The Departments of Psychology and Human Development and Family Studies are seeking volunteers to work on the Pennsylvania Twin Registry. The PA Twin Registry is currently recruiting adolescent twins in the state of Pennsylvania to register for and participate in future studies. Volunteers’ tasks include recruiting school administrators for participation, sending out mailings to participants, and managing databases.

Minimum Qualifications : Volunteers must have a GPA of 3.0 or above, have excellent interpersonal skills, and be willing to commit to 10 hours a week in the lab for a minimum of 2 semesters. Accepted applicants will also be expected to complete IRB human subjects training, Child Abuse Reporting Training, and will have to have a full background check.

Please send a resume to Tong Chung [email protected] .

Method of Compensation : Research assistants may work on a volunteer basis or receive credit for PSY 494. Our lab provides an excellent opportunity for students interested in developmental or clinical psychology, human development, biology, or medicine.

Dawn Witherspoon 

Context and Development Lab (CDL) – Undergraduate Research Assistant position

Description of Research : Research interests in the lab involve understanding how context shapes adolescents’ development and how race, ethnicity, and other cultural attributes interact with contextual characteristics to influence adolescent outcomes. Past projects in the lab ( FAN-C: Families, Adolescents, and Neighborhoods in Context ) have explored the roles of different contexts such as residential neighborhood, school, family, etc. on African American and Latino adolescent’s academic outcomes, beliefs, and behavior. Our current project ( PLACES/LUGARES ) is designed to explore the roles of residential neighborhoods and youth’s activities spaces on Latino and African American adolescents’ problem behavior, substance use, and affiliation with deviant peers as well as parents’ monitoring strategies. PLACES/LUGARES is a collaborative project with Dr. Mayra Bámaca and her IMPACT lab.

Undergraduate research assistants will be involved in preparing research materials, interacting with adolescents, and assisting with data collection. Research assistants will also be trained to enter and code data, conduct literature searches, and complete annotated bibliographies. Other lab tasks may be assigned as needed. Publication possibilities exist.

Method of Compensation: Research assistants may apply for PSY 494 or HDFS 496 course credit or work on a volunteer basis. Participation provides a valuable experience and reference base for those considering graduate studies.

Requirements/Qualifications: Because of the nature and training involved with the study, we ask for a minimum overall GPA of 3.3 and a minimum commitment of at least 2 semesters. Students are required to spend 10 hours per week involved in lab-related activities, including a one-hour weekly lab/coding meeting which research assistants are required to attend.

Bilingualism (i.e., Spanish) is desired but not required.

summer opportunities are available.

If you are interested in becoming a member of the Context and Development lab, please complete the Undergraduate Research Application (available online: https://contextlab.la.psu.edu/ ) and email it to Dr. Witherspoon, [email protected] OR [email protected], with the subject: Context and Development Lab Undergraduate RA application.

Social Vision and Interpersonal Perception lab (social VIPs)

Contact information:  Please contact Dr. Reginald Adams ( [email protected] ) for more information or complete an application .

Description of research project:  Our lab focuses on the study of social vision—the intersection of social psychology and vision science. In our work, we recognize the interplay of visual and social processes both in terms of those that are innately prepared (via evolution), and those that have emerged as the product of individual variation and cultural learning. Our focus is on the study of Compound Social Cues. More specifically, we study how social and emotional meaning is extracted from the human face given the multiple social messages it conveys (e.g., emotion, gender, race, etc.). We utilize behavioral, neuroscientific, and cross-cultural methods to accomplish this work. We are currently seeking RAs who are interested in helping examine: 1) threat perception and individual differences, 2) emotion perception in the face and its interaction with social categories (e.g., race, age, gender), 3) social humor, 4) face perception in sub-clinical populations, and 5) perception of the self and others. Our goal is for RAs to experience all phases of the research process from idea generation to stimulus and program preparation, data collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation. All interested students are encouraged to apply.

Compensation:  Students will earn 3 hours of course credit by enrolling in Psych 494 (independent study). Working in a research lab is invaluable to those seeking to pursue graduate work in research psychology. Gaining early experience in a lab is also helpful for those who anticipate doing an honors thesis. 

Requirements/Qualifications:  We are looking for motivated, reliable, detail-oriented students with a strong work ethic and creative instinct. 

Daryl Cameron 

Description of research project: The Empathy and Moral Psychology (EMP) Lab focuses on the psychological processes involved in empathy and moral decision-making.  We use models and methods from affective science and social cognition to understand empathy and morality.  These include examining variation in empathic emotions and behaviors across different social contexts—for instance, why do people feel less empathy and help less when confronted with large-scale events (e.g., natural disasters, genocides) and with victims who are dissimilar (e.g., racial out-groups)?  In other work, we use cognitive tasks and mathematical modeling to understand the nature of moral judgment—i.e., how people decide whether an action or person is morally wrong and should be punished—in student, clinical, and incarcerated populations.

Research assistants are involved in every step of the research process.  This includes attending regular lab meetings; conducting literature searches; programming tasks and online surveys; administering studies; compiling and coding data; learning basic statistical analyses; and assisting with brainstorming and providing feedback.  Overall, this experience will provide an overview of psychological research and an opportunity to learn more about empathy and morality.  This experience is well suited for students who are interested in graduate study in psychology, as research assistants have the opportunity to contribute to creative discussions through all phases of the research process.

Method of compensation: Research assistants receive course credit (PSYCH 494).  Working in the EMP Lab will provide useful research experience and be good preparation for graduate school.

Requirements/qualifications: We are looking for interested, motivated, and highly conscientious students who want to learn more about psychological research.  No prior experience is required, but the minimal GPA to apply is 3.0.  We prefer students who can commit to 10 hours per week, and who can commit to work in the lab for multiple semesters.  Students with dual interests/majors in relevant fields (e.g., psychology & philosophy) are especially encouraged to apply.

To Apply for this position please visit : https://pennstate.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6lOXCSylfhvlVzv

Contact Information: [email protected] .

Jonathan Cook

Group Identity and Social Perception Lab (GISP)  

What do we research?

Our research investigates how group identities (e.g. race, gender, sexual orientation, chronic illness, religion, being a student) can affect social perceptions. Much of our current research seeks to understand how people manage stress that can arise from important social identities. This phenomenon is called social identity threat. Our lab seeks to understand how social identity threat affects motivation, behavior, and basic biological processes and ultimately contributes to intergroup disparities in education, employment, and health. Additionally, we study how psychological interventions – such as brief writing and reflection exercises – can be used to mitigate the negative consequences of social identity threat.

More information about our research is available at  http://gisp.la.psu.edu

How do you join?

If interested, please fill out this form and email it to  [email protected] . Please note that your unofficial transcript should be included with your application.

We welcome research assistants from all demographic backgrounds and aim to create a work environment that is inclusive and respectful.

What would be your role?

Research assistants play an integral role in the lab and participate at all stages, from designing and running studies to organizing and analyzing participant responses. Past research assistants have also presented their work at national psychology research conferences. In some circumstances, research assistants can be co-authors on publications.

Can you volunteer, work for course credit, or apply your work-study hours in our lab?

Research positions are available on a  volunteer basis  or in exchange for  course credit (PSYCH 494) . Eligible students can also get involved for  work-study .

Please note that for applicants who seek course credit, we expect  a minimum of a 2-credit commitment , which corresponds to about  6 hours per week . Because of the time involved to get people trained, we ask for a  minimum of a two-semester commitment . While we consider GPA and relevant experience in the application process,  all are welcome to apply.

Contact information:  [email protected]

Karen Gasper 

518 Moore,  [email protected]

Description of Research Project  : Our lab is searching for a couple of motivated students who are interested in learning about how moods and emotions influence everyday activities. Some questions under investigation will be:

• How do people differ in their understanding of emotional experiences? Are some individuals more aware of their experiences than others?
• How do feelings influence judgment? For instance, do sad individuals always view the world more negatively than those who are happy? Under what circumstances does this change?
• How do our feelings influence information processing? For instance, are happy individuals more creative than sad individuals?

You will gain some valuable experience in using appropriate scientific methods, in running and conducting experimental sessions, and in analyzing and interpreting data. 

Method of compensation : Independent Study Opportunity. 

Requirements/Qualifications:  Knowledge of computers would be a plus, but it is not required. We are looking for responsible, creative, and articulate people with an interest in psychology. For more information and an application form, please go to:  http://fbiplab.weebly.com/

Sean Laurent

Morality and Social Cognition Laboratory (MASC Lab)

Contact Information:   Contact Dr. Sean Laurent ( [email protected] ) with any questions. See the lab webpage  for more information about the lab and what we do. If you decide to apply, fill out the form on this page  and email it to [email protected] and [email protected] . 

Description of Research Projects:  We are looking to recruit a few motivated and conscientious students to assist us in the morality and social cognition laboratory (MASC Lab). Our studies focus on “how people understand other people,” which includes things like how information about others’ minds influences the way they and their behaviors are evaluated, how information about others’ behaviors influences beliefs about their minds and character, how information about people’s attitudes, behaviors, or backgrounds contextualize how people evaluate their minds and behaviors, and how all of these pieces of information intersect to guide how people think about other people. See the MASC Lab website for more information. 

Responsibilities:  Students will gain a wide understanding of different aspects of research in social psychology and have the opportunity to learn a wide variety of skills. Students are expected to complete all assigned duties in a timely fashion, show up on time for research sessions, and if at all possible, attend weekly lab meetings where they will have opportunities to collaborate with others about research ideas and provide input on ongoing and future projects. Highly motivated students who have shown their commitment to the lab and to learning more about research might have opportunities to collaborate on a research project, present work at a professional conference, or be included as an author on a scientific publication. 

Methods of Compensation:   In addition to gaining research skills and learning about professional development and career opportunities, students can earn course credit by registering in PSY 294 or 494. Students can also volunteer.

Requirements/Qualifications:  To join the lab, students must be willing to commit to working in the lab for at least 2 semesters. Given the time and energy it takes to train new assistants well, longer participation is preferred. In addition, students must commit to working at least 6 hours in the lab (2 credits) during their first year. Students can apply during any year of their program (1st-4th) although first and second year students are preferred and last year students (i.e., seniors) are unlikely to be recruited except in special circumstances. Although we will also consider students who are interested in any career, we are particularly interested in students who are at least considering studying social psychology in graduate school. 

Jes Matsick 

Contact Information:  Contact Dr. Jes Matsick ( [email protected] ) if you have any questions. Interested students should submit an application by completing the following questionnaire:  https://pennstate.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_bOOkcLHGCBwRDE1

Description of Research Projects:  Our lab is focused on prejudice, sexuality, and diversity:  we are committed to conducting research that highlights the perspectives and experiences of women, ethnic minorities, and LGBTQ people.  In one area of research, we study how members of marginalized groups view dominant groups (e.g., men/white people/heterosexual people). For example, what are LGBTQ people’s thoughts and feelings about heterosexuals?  Similarly, how might minority groups’ attitudes toward dominant groups predict their well-being?  We also study how to promote diversity and inclusion in male-dominated STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and the experiences of underrepresented groups in those fields. These interests include multiple projects that are at various stages of the research process (e.g., from being “just an idea” to being a nearly published article).

Responsibilities:  Students are expected to attend weekly lab meetings and their scheduled lab hours.  Students will learn how to collect online data, to conduct reviews of scientific articles, to design surveys on Qualtrics Survey Software, to organize data in Excel and SPSS (statistical software), to properly format APA references and data tables, and to collaborate with others during the brainstorming process. Students who have demonstrated a commitment to the lab and to learning more about research may have the opportunity to present at professional conferences in the future. 

Methods of Compensation:  In addition to gaining research skills and learning about professional development and career opportunities, students can earn course credit by registering in PSY 494 or WMNST 494. Enrollment in WMNST 494 requires formal approval from Dr. Matsick and the department’s undergraduate director. Please see here for more information about WMNST 494: https://wgss.la.psu.edu/undergraduate/internships-and-opportunities/

Requirements/Qualifications:  Students must be willing to work either 6 hours (2 credits) or 9 hours (3 credits) per week in the lab.  Given the time and energy it takes to become a well-trained research assistant, students must be willing to make a 2-semester commitment to working in the lab. Preference will be given to students who have taken courses in Psychology and/or Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and to students who display interest in thinking critically about gender, race, and sexual orientation.

Janet K. Swim (last update 6-21-16)

Contact Information : Please fill out an application at https://swimlab.weebly.com/application-to-be-the-pact-lab.html .  For further information contact the lab manager, Mike Lengiezia at [email protected] .

Description of Research Project: Janet Swim researches the psychology of environmental sustainability. More specifically, she is examining individual, situational, and cultural barriers and facilitators to behaviors that influence engaging in sustainable practices. Projects range from small scale (a single experiment or survey on college students) to large scale (examining climate change conversations at recreational sights such as zoos and aquariums or tourist destinations). For more information see  http://swimlab.weebly.com/research.html . We are looking for several students and most work will be done at University Park.  However, we are looking for a student who can spend a few weekends each semester in Philadelphia collecting data to work on a new project this year with Mount Cuba Botanical garden near Philadelphia collecting baseline data on homeowners’ reactions to and use of natural landscaping. 

Compensation : Research assistants receive course credit (PSYCH 494) that may count towards the 400 level credit requirements for psychology majors. Additionally, working in our lab will provide you with valuable experience in conducting research, which is excellent preparation for graduate school.

Qualifications : We are looking for motivated, detail oriented students who can give thoughtful feedback on data coding, survey development, and experimentation. Our research assistants typically learn how to: create online surveys, design experiments, enter and code data, manage both the subject pool and publicly available on-line samples, and conduct basic statistical analyses.  Some years, students learn computer game programing and how to run focus groups.  We prefer students who are able to commit for 9 hours/week

Sheri Berenbaum

“Are you interested in gaining research experience? Interested in biological influences on behavior? Want to learn about the ways hormones affect sex differences in development and cognition?

The Berenbaum Lab is currently seeking motivated and responsible undergraduate research assistants. Students will be involved with the collection and analysis of data for several ongoing studies, one of which involves neuroimaging. Students may also have the opportunity to utilize lab materials and data for honors theses and independent study projects. This is an excellent opportunity for students interested in learning more about human neuroscience or developmental psychology in preparation for graduate school.

Ideal candidates are sophomores or juniors with a strong interest in research and a desire to attend graduate school in the future. Eligible candidates must be willing to commit 10 hours/week for at least 3 semesters. Preference is given to students who will be available to work in the summer. Assistants will be given credits for PSYCH 494.

Apply on-line at:  https://berenbaumlabpsu.wixsite.com/cah-info

Contact Information : Interested students should email ( [email protected] ) for more information and to get an application.

Understanding Research

Below you’ll find answers to some commonly asked questions. For more information on getting involved with undergraduate research, please schedule an appointment with someone from our office.

Undergraduate research is an opportunity for you to feed your curiosity by exploring a topic of interest, working with a mentor, and communicating your findings to others. Though some disciplines might use such as terminology “creative inquiry” or “creative activity” in place of research, opportunities exist in every discipline, including humanities and the arts, at every campus, and during every year of your undergraduate career at Penn State.

Undergraduate research can look like the following:

• Course-based research – completing an individual or group class project designed to develop applied research skills, such as a course with a laboratory component or a course enhanced through an honors option  
• Program-based research – participating in a competitive program designed to offer funding or course credit, hands-on research experience, opportunity to present your contributions to the project, and/or individual mentorship, such as Geography’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Connection  or the NASA Space Grant Research Internship Program .  
• Assistance on a research project – working closely with a graduate student, post-doctoral researcher, or faculty member on an existing project to gain valuable training in how to conduct research; the tasks you are assigned can vary in degree of difficulty or repetitiveness, but there is always something you can learn from the research experience  
• Individual project – exploring a topic that interests you through a project or a thesis, independent study, or creative project under the supervision of a post-doctoral researcher or faculty member

Whether you choose to participate can depend on your personal and professional goals, as well as other activities competing for your time. We encourage you to meet with our office to help you make an informed decision on whether to participate, as well as talk with your professors, instructors, and teaching assistants when undergraduate research comes up as a topic in class.

Participating in undergraduate research and creative activity enriches your educational experience by giving you the unique opportunity to be intellectually challenged in a supportive space. By engaging in research, you will:

• Meet new people with similar interests, which can help to make this big University feel smaller
• Receive individualized mentorship from experts, such as graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and professors
• Clarify your professional goals (even if that means research is not for you)
• Develop the top skills employers are looking for, such as problem solving, critical thinking, and effective communication
• Increase your chances of earning a fellowship

There is no “right” time in your undergraduate career to get involved with research. Once you feel adjusted to the expectations and demands of college, you can dive in. That being said, your research experience might look different depending on the amount of time you have left at Penn State.

• Getting involved in research as a first- or second-year student will give you time to develop an understanding of your chosen topic area and refine your research interests as you gain new skills. You may also have the time to take on increased responsibilities within the project or team. Doing so can lead to strong letters of recommendations or references. Or, you may find during your first experience that your interests change and you want to move onto another opportunity. If you start with research early, you will likely have time remaining in your undergraduate career to join a new project or team if you so desire. Do not worry that what you learned during your first experience will go to waste. The skills you develop in one research experience will transfer to another and you will take from the experience what you learned about yourself.
• Getting involved as a third- or fourth-year student is not too late! By waiting to have completed introductory courses, you likely will have begun to identify questions that interest you. In fact, many students with a thesis requirement for graduation do not identify their thesis topic until the spring of their third year. If you get involved as a third- or fourth-year student, you likely will have started to make connections with potential research mentors. As a result, you will be able to make a more informed decision about the kind of project or team you want to join.

Undergraduate Research Opportunities Connection (UROC)

Penn State Department of Geography

These opportunities allow undergraduate students to gain valuable research experience and technical skills through collaboration on projects within the department and supervised by faculty and/or graduate students , as well as 1-3 credit hours to apply towards graduation. This is  a valuable resume-building experience for undergraduate students and can be beneficial for both future employment and graduate school. View spring 2019 UROC project presentations at Coffee Hour.

The UROC program began in Spring 2014 and has greatly benefited both graduate and undergraduate students of Penn State’s Department of Geography.

The two most important things I gained through my UROC experience was how to apply my knowledge outside the classroom/lab setting and gaining professional development through working with someone in my desired field. Throughout the program I gained experience in cartographic design, public speaking, and written communication. Over this last year I  worked with a wonderful mentor, Nari Senanayake, who was willing to provide me guidance both on the project and my professional career. – Brittany Waltemate (undergraduate student)

View past projects

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Undergraduate Research Opportunities and Resources

4 types of participation.

Your participation in undergraduate research could take any of the following forms.

1. As a volunteer  

If earning course credit is not important and being paid is not an option, you can gain research experience by volunteering for a project or team. Be sure to still include your participation on your résumé.

2. For course credit

You can earn credits by taking a research-based course or working with a faculty member and enrolling in a research project (-294, -494). To earn credit, you will want to talk with your research mentor and/or academic adviser to complete the necessary paperwork.

Some courses may be helpful in getting started on research. Courses that cover statistics or research methods may give you some good background. Taking one of these classes early in your academic program may enable you to connect with research groups. To earn course credit for your research experience, contact the Center for Student Advising and Engagement to discuss relevant rules and prerequisite courses.

3. Through grant funding

There may be grants available that can support the costs associated with your research or creative activity. For example, the Erickson Discovery Grants and the College of Health and Human Development Smith Research Grants and other funds support student-initiated projects, and the Student Engagement Network funds engagement experiences , including undergraduate research and unpaid internships for summer, fall, and spring. Individual departments, colleges, and campuses may also have grant funding available.

• Learn more about finding an opportunity

If a faculty member or department has funding available (internal or external), you might be able to be paid for your work. Or, if you have received a federal work-study (FWS) award , tell your mentor! Your mentor can work with the undergraduate research office so that you earn work-study wages for your work on a research project or team.

Whether you choose to participate can depend on your personal and professional goals, as well as other activities competing for your time. We encourage you to meet with staff in our Undergraduate Office to discuss your interests, as well as talk with your professors, and teaching assistants about any research that they have in progress.

Resources for HHD undergraduate research

There are a number of unique research opportunities across Penn State that are open to HHD Undergraduates.

Three related programs supported by the NASA Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium (PSGC) offer different pathways to the same program. Learn more about the  Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) , Minority Undergraduate Research Experience (MURE) , and First-Year Undergraduate Research Program (FURP) .

Undergraduates can present research at department and college events, and at the annual Penn State Undergraduate Research Fair and the annual Student Engagement Expo .

The University maintains databases that list many (but not all) undergraduate research opportunities at Penn State and another or research opportunities outside of Penn State .

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Twenty-two students receive NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

The Graduate School at Penn State welcomes 22 new National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) recipients for the 2024-25 academic year.

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Chancellor Ron Darbeau shares ‘Vision 2030’ for Penn State Altoona

Penn State Altoona Chancellor Ron Darbeau

ALTOONA, Pa. — Penn State Altoona Chancellor Ron Darbeau shared the college’s “Vision 2030,” a comprehensive plan for the campus by the decade's end, during the University’s Board of Trustees meeting today (July 19) at Penn State Altoona. 

“Our approach to promoting the viability and success of Penn State Altoona must focus on increasing campus vitality and enrollment while simultaneously — through measured frugality — strategically reinvesting savings toward areas where significant growth opportunities exist,” Darbeau said. “In alignment with President Neeli Bendapudi’s vision for Penn State and after consultation with the full range of stakeholders at Penn State Altoona, our leadership team has developed a comprehensive plan for the college with a target of 2030.” 

Penn State Altoona’s “Vision 2030” includes three fundamental tenets: raising enrollment to between 3,250 and 3,500 students, enhancing campus diversity, and fundraising to support initiatives and create viable enrollment pipelines. Some highlighted tactics for achieving these tenets include: 

Enhance Existing Academic Programs  

Penn State Altoona has cultivated an array of engineering majors and is well-positioned to continue building on its success by increasing enrollments in existing programs, which include Mechanical Engineering, Electro-Mechanical Engineering Technology, and Rail Transportation Engineering — the only degree of its kind in the nation. The college will explore opportunities for timely programs that meet student needs and market demand. Engineering remains one of the three most sought-after baccalaureate programs both domestically and internationally. It is, therefore, one of the program areas identified for significant growth. 

Penn State Altoona’s Nursing programs boast impressive outcomes, not the least of which is the recent 100% NCLEX-RN pass rate for the Second Degree (SCND) cohort. As the demand for nurses is projected to remain strong, the college will work to expand the current program by adding a spring cohort in 2025. Additionally, we will establish an accelerated general nursing option. These proposals require the addition of faculty and support staff as well as infrastructure build-out and expanded space for classrooms, labs, and offices.  

Increase International Enrollment 

During fall 2023, Penn State Altoona enrolled 121 international students, representing only 4.7% of the overall student population. Through ongoing efforts, including collaborations with Indian and Chinese universities, the campus intends to raise its international enrollment to between 350 to 400 students or roughly 10% of its projected enrollment. 

Strategically Enhance Athletics 

Student-athletes comprise approximately 10% of the enrollment at Penn State Altoona. Athletics will help increase enrollment, diversity and campus vitality. To these ends, the college will strategically introduce select sports over the next seven years. This begins with the addition of sports that require little or no infrastructure commitment, while fundraising to build out the requisite facilities for the other sports the campus intends to add. 

In fall 2024, Penn State Altoona will reintroduce men’s wrestling and launch programs in women’s wrestling and women’s golf, for which there is an anticipated enrollment bump of 45-60 students. Fall 2025 will see the advent of men’s and women’s cross country. Fall 2026 will be the launch of men’s and women’s track and field programs. Future potential additions to the athletics array include field hockey and lacrosse. The college’s ultimate goal is to increase the number of student-athletes by 300 to 350 while still providing playing time and positive experiences for each student-athlete. 

Enhance Technology-Assisted Education 

Beginning fall 2024, all Penn State Altoona students will have access to technology devices appropriate for their chosen degree program through the college’s Digital Equity Initiative. Through this program, students can borrow devices like laptops, iPads, tablets, and accessories for short- or long-term use. 

The landmark program will not only give Penn State Altoona students access to the breadth of learning tools available on these devices but may also reduce the cost of textbooks potentially to zero as faculty work to transition largely or exclusively to e-Books and Open and Affordable Educational Resources. 

Enhance Co-curricular Student Support Programs 

An early success of the college’s “Vision 2030” is the creation of the Student Success Center (SSC), which came online in fall 2023. Its role is to serve as a resource for students who need assistance with any issues that affect their persistence and success. The SSC serves as a one-stop shop to triage students’ needs and to leverage Penn State Altoona’s breadth of services in assisting them. 

Enhance Campus Diversity 

In summer 2023, Penn State Altoona hired an inaugural director of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB). Since then, the college has created a vital Belonging Center, with broad, robust programming for students and personnel of underrepresented minority (URM) groups. The DEIB office is also spearheading the Faculty Diversification Initiative (FDI) by cultivating partnerships with graduate programs that graduate large numbers of URM faculty by hosting their students as adjunct faculty on campus. These FDI scholars will be housed, without cost, in the college’s Beech House on campus, which is currently under renovation for ADA compliance. 

Fundraise to Support Initiatives and Create Viable Enrollment Pipelines 

Fundraising is critical to realization of Penn State Altoona’s “Vision 2030,” Darbeau said.  By the decade’s end, the college will endeavor to raise funds to support the following initiatives: 

Expansion of engineering 

Expansion of nursing 

Support the creation of new undergraduate programs 

Support the creation of select graduate programs, particularly in social and mental health fields 

Create a robust and responsive workforce development program 

Create the Penn State Altoona Health Science Complex 

Strategic expansion of athletics 

Support for undergraduate students 

Support of faculty and staff professional development, as well as undergraduate and graduate student research and research-training

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June 18, 2024 Volume 70 Issue 37

From the board of trustees chair: update on a search for penn’s next president, from the university leadership: temporary standards and procedures for campus events and demonstrations, launch of penn washington, felicia washington: vice president of human resources, brigitte weinsteiger: h. carton rogers iii vice provost and director of the penn libraries, mary-hunter “mae” mcdonnell: bantwal family goldman sachs presidential professorship, fayyaz vellani: bozza family penn first plus faculty co-director, ellen furxhi: vice dean and chief of staff, school of arts & sciences, newly soundproofed recording studios in the penn libraries' albrecht music library’s ormandy music and media center, paver stone in memory of jennifer ehmann, david espey, english, donald trachtenberg, penn dental medicine, trustees june meeting coverage, charlene compher: president of the aspen rhoads research foundation, annamarie hufford-bucklin: american constitution society next generation leader, penn medicine: human rights campaign foundation lgbtq+ healthcare equality leader, antonia m. villarruel: modern healthcare’s 50 most influential clinical executives, andrew zahrt: scialog funding for automating chemical laboratories, association found between media diet and science-consistent beliefs about climate change, replacing registered nurses in high stakes hospital care is dangerous to patients, exploring the limits of robotic systems, update: summer at penn, weekly crime reports, recognized holidays for fiscal year 2025, 2024-2025 university catalog, call for applications: regional network collaborative for water leadership.

• June 18, 2024
• vol 70 issue 37

June 10, 2024

Dear Members of the Penn Community,

I write to share an update on the timeline for launching a search for Penn’s next president.

I want to first express my immense gratitude to Interim President J. Larry Jameson for his steady, thoughtful leadership during this time of transition at Penn. We are extremely fortunate to have the benefit of his vast experience and talents as we sustain Penn’s important missions and focus on the future. I am delighted to share that he has graciously agreed to remain in the role through academic year 2026, or until we have identified a successor.

More information will be forthcoming as we get closer to launching the next presidential search, including opportunities to share your thoughts as members of the Penn community.

I was humbled to preside over this year’s Commencement for the first time in my role as board chair and found it to be a beautiful, celebratory end to what has been a challenging year. I wish all of you a restful and re-energizing summer.

—Ramanan Raghavendran Chair, University of Pennsylvania Board of Trustees

June 6, 2024

Today, we write to share two important updates about Penn’s policies and procedures for when, where, and how open expression can take place. Throughout the academic year, members of the Penn community have urged University leadership to clarify and update our guidance and policies specific to campus events and demonstrations. This request for increased clarity also emerged as a priority recommendation in the final reports from both the University’s Task Force on Antisemitism and the Presidential Commission on Countering Hate and Building Community .

First, effective immediately, Penn will adopt and implement Temporary Standards and Procedures for Campus Events and Demonstrations . In developing these temporary standards, feedback and input were sought from school deans, the Faculty Senate, and student, faculty, and staff leaders. 

The purpose of the Temporary Standards and Procedures is to reinforce and reaffirm Penn’s commitment to open expression and, at the same time, ensure that events, demonstrations, and other expressions of free speech are appropriately managed, while allowing Penn to deliver its core missions of teaching, research, service, and patient care without disruption. We encourage all members of the Penn community to review these Temporary Standards and Procedures , which consolidate, organize, clarify, and update guidelines specific to campus events, including demonstrations.

Second, a faculty-led task force will be charged with reviewing the Guidelines on Open Expression and making recommendations for revisions to the guidelines. Penn remains steadfast in its commitment to freedom of thought, inquiry, speech, and lawful assembly, and it is essential from time to time that we review the Guidelines on Open Expression to ensure they are supporting these foundational commitments.

Lisa Bellini, senior vice dean for academic affairs in the Perelman School of Medicine, and chair of the Committee on Open Expression, and Sigal Ben-Porath, MRMJJ Presidential Professor of Education in the Graduate School of Education and faculty director of the SNF Paideia Program, will co-lead the task force. Additional members will soon be appointed, and the task force will begin its work this summer.

The task force’s work will follow the historical precedent for reviewing the Guidelines on Open Expression, which last occurred in 1989. This review will include the task force providing recommendations for consideration by the Committee on Open Expression (COE). The COE, in turn, will present recommendations to the University Council. The University Council will then present final recommendations to the Interim President. As part of this effort, the task force will also be charged with reviewing the Temporary Standards and Procedures for Campus Events and Demonstrations. 

These are important steps forward for our campus community, and we look forward to sharing additional updates as this work progresses over the summer.

Sincerely,   —J. Larry Jameson, Interim President —John L. Jackson, Jr., Provost —Craig R. Carnaroli, Senior Executive Vice President —Sara S. Bachman, Dean, School of Social Policy & Practice —Sarah Banet-Weiser, Walter H. Annenberg Dean, Annenberg School for Communication —Jonathan A. Epstein, Interim Executive Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System & Interim Dean of the Perelman School of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine —Steven J. Fluharty, Dean and Thomas S. Gates, Jr. Professor of Psychology, Pharmacology, and Neuroscience, School of Arts & Sciences —Andrew M. Hoffman, Gilbert S. Kahn Dean of Veterinary Medicine, School of Veterinary Medicine —Erika H. James, Dean and Reliance Professor of Management and Private Enterprise, Wharton School —Vijay Kumar, Professor and Nemirovsky Family Dean, Penn Engineering —Sophia Z. Lee, Dean and Bernard G. Segal Professor of Law, Penn Carey Law School —Frederick Steiner, Dean and Paley Professor, Stuart Weitzman School of Design —Katharine O. Strunk, Dean and George and Diane Weiss Professor of Education, Graduate School of Education —Antonia M. Villarruel, Professor and Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing, School of Nursing —Mark S. Wolff, Morton Amsterdam Dean, School of Dental Medicine

Interim President J. Larry Jameson and Provost John L. Jackson, Jr. announce the creation of Penn Washington, a physical and programmatic home for the University of Pennsylvania’s engagement in the nation’s capital. Penn Washington will enrich the connection between federal and global policy makers and Penn faculty, students, and staff; expand educational and academic programs connected to Washington; identify and promote opportunities for Penn scholarship to inform and engage policy; and reinforce the essential contributions that one of the world’s greatest universities can make to the structure and function of democracy and global affairs.

In announcing the initiative, Dr. Jameson reflected that the new program embodies the directions and imperatives of the University’s strategic framework, In Principle and Practice , “to address truth, trust, and democracy as one of the great challenges that command our attention, to deepen connections with neighbors and the world, and to foster leadership and service.”

Penn Washington is located at 101 Constitution Avenue, adjacent to the Capitol Building, at the seat of the federal government. The program will initially comprise three functions:

• The Penn Franklin Initiative, a new set of programs to focus on domestic policy, through curriculum, scholarship, and convenings.
• The Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy & Global Engagement , since 2018 a set of Penn engagements focused on global policy, in collaboration with Penn Global , Perry World House , and related Penn programs.
• A platform for the University of Pennsylvania in Washington, supporting the longstanding undergraduate Penn in Washington program from the School of Arts and Sciences and other ongoing and new school and center initiatives, annual lectures, student courses, executive education, research opportunities, and events.

Penn Washington will collaborate with faculty from all 12 schools on activities and programs to generate new insight and knowledge.  Vice Provost for Global Initiatives Ezekiel J. Emanuel will serve as the initial faculty director, with Associate Vice Provost Amy Gadsden as deputy director. Provost Jackson reflected on these initial appointments: “Zeke has an inside knowledge of Washington that is exceptionally strong, and his record of entrepreneurship and institution-building at Penn make him an ideal candidate to launch this important new initiative. And Amy has time and time again proven her ability to develop and execute Penn’s strategic initiatives and work with school and center partners to project them brilliantly into new locations.”

Penn Washington will be the University’s home in the nation’s capital.

In making the announcement, Craig Carnaroli, senior executive vice president, praised Ms. Washington for “her exceptional leadership skills, experience, and commitment to the mission of higher education.”

As vice president, Ms. Washington will oversee talent acquisition and management, compensation, benefits, employee relations, wellness and quality of work life programs, and professional development. She will also lead and manage Human Resources’ strategic and operational direction.

Since 2019, Ms. Washington has served as the senior vice president of human resources at the University of Southern California, where she provided leadership that impacted 28,000 faculty and staff members as well as 47,500 students. She was instrumental in forming the Human Resources, Equity, and Compliance Division and implementing USC’s first university-wide policy on prohibited discrimination, harassment, and retaliation, covering all community members.

Before her tenure at USC, Ms. Washington served as vice chancellor for workforce strategy, equity, and engagement at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Ms. Washington holds a BA from the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill and a law degree from the University of Virginia. She has led an extensive career in higher education and private practice, including her role as a partner at the law firm of K&L Gates LLP. Ms. Washington has served on several boards and committees within various academic and professional communities, including the North Carolina Medical Board and UNC Board of Trustees.

Tom Sontag, executive director of human resources, will serve as interim vice president for the two months until Ms. Washington’s arrival at Penn.

The University of Pennsylvania has named Brigitte Weinsteiger the H. Carton Rogers III Vice Provost and director of the Penn Libraries, effective June 1. Provost John L. Jackson Jr. announced the appointment following a national search.

Ms. Weinsteiger has served as the Gershwind and Bennett Family Senior Associate Vice Provost for Collections and Scholarly Communications since September 2022 and as interim director of the Penn Libraries since September 2023. In this capacity, she oversees the libraries’ $30 million budget for collections, its 10 million print and electronic volumes, 350,000 journals, and a rich array of digital resources. She leads the collections and scholarly communications division of the Penn Libraries, ensuring that the selection, acquisition, management, and preservation of the libraries’ collections meet the diverse needs of the Penn community, and she oversees outreach, teaching, and research support to faculty and students at Penn, in Philadelphia, and beyond.

“Brigitte has been a visionary and dynamic leader of the Penn Libraries for more than 16 years,” said Provost Jackson, “placing a high priority on engaging our campus and our community, advancing diversity and inclusion across our collections, and promoting open communications both internally and externally. She will be a great partner for all of us in advancing the values of In Principle and Practice in the years ahead, accelerating interdisciplinary inquiry across campus while deepening our connections with local neighbors and with the wider world through research and scholarship. I am very grateful to Deputy Provost Beth A. Winkelstein and the members of the consultative committee that she chaired, who helped us to arrive at this outstanding result for our university.”

In her 16-year tenure with Penn Libraries, Ms. Weinsteiger has overseen a wide range of departments, including the 11 departmental libraries situated in academic and cultural buildings across the university’s campus, among them the Fisher Fine Arts Library and the recently renovated Holman Biotech Commons. Leading 115 highly experienced staff, along with hundreds of student employees and interns, she has launched initiatives that advance the Penn Libraries as a whole, including Diversity in the Stacks, and the transformation of Penn scholarship to make it freely available to the world. She also led the formation of the new Center for Global Collections and defined a set of strategic priorities for the libraries’ special and global collections that emphasize building distinctive collections that create an enduring contribution to history and global understanding.

“I see my role as a library leader to connect vision, partners, resources, and strategy,” Ms. Weinsteiger said. “Libraries are not just about books or buildings; they are also about people. A central aim of the libraries will be to engage and partner with university and community stakeholders in furthering the University’s academic and societal mission, including effective communication and collaboration with partners, a pragmatic resolve to inspire a culture focused on practical outcomes and engagement, and an ethos of entrepreneurship to find opportunities across campus and beyond.”

Ms. Weinsteiger comes to this role with a master of science in library and information science from Drexel University and a master of arts in liberal arts with a focus in medieval studies from the University of Pennsylvania, along with two bachelor of arts degrees from Penn State, one in medieval studies and one in integrative arts.

The Bantwal Family Goldman Sachs Presidential Professorship was endowed by Vivek J. Bantwal, W’99 and Sarika Singh Bantwal. The Bantwals were inspired to establish this fund as a tribute to Vivek Bantwal’s late father, Jayawant D. Bantwal.

“Professor McDonnell is known for exploring the nature of organizations and how complex and interwoven forces shape their actions,” said Interim President Jameson. “By drawing from a variety of fields and integrating them into her scholarship, she offers vital insights that explain a foundational aspect of our modern world. We are deeply thankful to Vivek and Sarika for endowing this professorship, which positions Professor McDonnell to continue investigating these important dynamics and their impact on our world.”

Dr. McDonnell joined the Wharton School as an assistant professor of management in 2015 and held the Clarence Nickman Assistant Professorship from 2019 to 2020. She was promoted to associate professor of management with tenure in 2020. In 2023, Dr. McDonnell also became faculty co-director of the Zicklin Center for Governance and Business Ethics. Along with her primary appointment as the Bantwal Family Goldman Sachs Presidential Professor, Dr. McDonnell has secondary appointments in both Wharton’s legal studies & business ethics department and in the sociology department of Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences.

In her research, Dr. McDonnell uses organizational theory and sociology to explore the relationships and interactions between politics, corporations, and the stakeholders of both institutions. Dr. McDonnell’s recent publications investigate topics such as organizational misconduct and dealings among governmental agents, social activists, and businesses.

“I am filled with gratitude for Vivek and Sarika’s philanthropy and dedication to Wharton, which is exemplified through the creation of this presidential professorship,” said Dean James. “Since Vivek’s graduation in 1999, he has been a committed alumnus, giving generously in many ways, including his current service on Wharton’s Undergraduate Executive Board. I am delighted the Bantwals have made it possible to further recognize Professor McDonnell’s impactful research and leadership.”

Vivek Bantwal is currently a partner and global head of the financing group at Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. He has been an active member of Wharton’s Undergraduate Executive Board since 2019 and was the 2024 Wharton undergraduate graduation speaker.

On the motivation behind creating this professorship, Vivek and Sarika Bantwal said, “looking back on Vivek’s experience as a student at Wharton with fondness and gratitude, we are proud to be able to support Wharton faculty and their pedagogical knowledge and practice today. It is an even greater honor to be able to establish this professorship to commemorate a beloved family member who made the pathway to Vivek’s Wharton education possible.”

“Fayyaz Vellani, across 15 years at Penn has been one of our most strongly committed, thoughtful, and empathetic community members in advancing support and mentoring for our first-generation and/or lower-income students,” said Provost Jackson. “He is deeply experienced at connecting student resources with the wider campus missions of undergraduate teaching, research, and campus life, especially for students from historically underrepresented backgrounds, and has worked around the world with students from a wide range of global areas, including Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. We are deeply grateful to Camille Charles for her extraordinary service as an inaugural faculty co-director of P1P from the program’s founding five years ago—as well as to ongoing Bozza Family Penn First Plus faculty co-director Russ Composto, executive director Marc Lo, and the outstanding P1P staff for their work in sustaining P1P’s invaluable mission on our campus.”

Penn First Plus, founded in 2018, provides support, resources, and community-building for undergraduate students who are the first in their families to pursue the baccalaureate and/or come from limited or modest financial means. It includes the Shleifer Family Penn First Plus Center in College Hall; the Pre-First Year Program, an intensive four-week summer program for select incoming first-year students; and the College Achievement Program, which offers comprehensive support services that continue throughout students’ undergraduate experiences at Penn.

Dr. Vellani—trained as a geographer with specializations in geopolitics, disability studies, and sustainable development—is the author of Understanding Disability Discrimination Law Through Geography (Routledge, 2016) and the novel Tea With Ms. Tanzania (Red Sea Press, 2022) about life in Tanzania in the tumultuous 1960s. His article, “Engagement with Place: Cairo as Classroom,” which analyzes events and discourses related to the Arab Spring in the early 2010s, won the International Award for Excellence from the International Journal of Diversity in Organizations, Communities, and Nations. As faculty director of the College House Undergraduate Research Program, he mentors undergraduate research fellows drawn from each college house and across all four undergraduate schools, who receive academic and financial support to pursue a one-year interdisciplinary research project of their own design.

Dr Vellani served from 2010-2013 as head of graduate studies at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London and has been associate director of critical writing at Penn, director of admissions and financial aid at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, and associate registrar of the Yale Law School, among other positions. He received a PhD in geography from Royal Holloway, University of London; an MA in higher education administration from New York University; and a BES with honors in environment and resource studies from the University of Waterloo.

Ms. Furxhi has served at the Wharton School as the chief of staff to the deputy dean since 2021, where she was the primary administrative lead to the deputy dean, providing comprehensive support on all academic matters and overseeing faculty affairs and institutional research.

Ms. Furxhi’s previous experience also includes two roles at Harvard University. As assistant dean for the division of arts and humanities in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences there, she managed faculty-related procedures and policies for a division comprising approximately 400 ladder and non-ladder faculty across 21 departments and 14 centers and museums.

Before that position, Ms. Furxhi served as director of administration in the department of epidemiology at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.

“Ellen brings with her a distinguished career in higher education administration and leadership that positions her well for this critical role as a senior advisor to the dean and key partner in the planning and execution of high-level priorities and initiatives,” said Steven J. Fluharty, dean of the School of Arts & Sciences and the Thomas S. Gates, Jr. Professor of Psychology, Pharmacology, and Neuroscience.

Ms. Furxhi succeeds Allison Rose, who is retiring after a 34-year Penn career that has included 27 years in the School of Arts & Sciences Dean’s Office.

“Allison’s deep knowledge about Penn and SAS, and her skilled management of a broad range of school-wide planning and administrative activities, have made her a highly valued member of the SAS senior leadership and a tremendous asset to each of the deans she has served,” said Dean Fluharty.

Two newly soundproofed recording studios in the Albrecht Music Library’s Ormandy Music and Media Center provide expanded opportunities for the Penn community to make recordings of their creative work.

As a response to an ongoing need on campus for recording spaces available to students, two studio spaces in the Glossberg Suite, located on the fourth floor of Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, are being outfitted with soundproof tiles and doors this semester. Once complete, the studios will reopen for all Penn students, faculty, and staff to reserve.

“We are incredibly happy to be able to enhance the Glossberg Suite to provide more recording space for the Penn community,” said Liza Vick, head of the Otto E. Albrecht Music Library. “The University of Pennsylvania’s new strategic plan calls us to be interwoven and inventive, and our studios enable this creative practice across the disciplines by allowing musicians and podcasters to create in our space and with our collections.”

The studios come equipped with the fundamental tools needed to create a high-quality recording, including microphones, headphones, and computers with editing software.  

Both spaces can be used to record the spoken word for podcasts, video voice-overs, and interviews. The Glossberg Recording Room, the older of the studios, has been a popular choice for campus podcasters for several years, including #OurWharton, Amplify Nursing, and The Lauder Podcast, and podcast hosts will now benefit from the studio’s enhanced soundproofing.

The newer studio—Recording Room 424.6—is specifically outfitted for music recording, ideal for enthusiasts looking for a small-scale recording area outside of their home or office. “Our campus is full of students who love music and are passionate about their work, but aren’t necessarily earning a degree in music,” Ms. Vick noted. This studio features broadcast microphones, small diaphragm condenser mics, stands, cabling, and a four-channel Audient interface.

Other spaces for recording and media production in the Penn Libraries include the Hechtman Recording Studio, which supports video, audio, and photo production. The Music Library also lends musical instruments, hosts vast collections of scores, books, and other reference materials, and provides access to streaming audio and video.

Bookings began on June 3, 2024. To request a reservation, visit the web pages for either studio: Recording Room 424.6 (suitable for recording music and spoken word) or the Glossberg Recording Room 424.2 (suitable for recording spoken word).

Born in Elmira, New York, Dr. Espey graduated from Hamilton College, then went on to earn his master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University and his PhD in English from the University of Michigan. He spent two years in Morocco as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the early 1960s, which gave him a deep appreciation of other cultures and perspectives and inspired his love of teaching. Dr. Espey received Fulbright senior fellowships to teach in Morocco, Turkey, and Japan. 

In 1979, Dr. Espey joined Penn’s faculty as assistant dean of the College of Arts & Sciences and as an academic advisor in the school. In 1984, he became a coordinator in the department of English, and nine years later, he became director of the department. During his time at Penn, he also served as a lecturer in the English department and in the College of General Studies (the precursor of today’s College of Liberal & Professional Studies) and directed the English department’s freshman English program. In 2006, Dr. Espey earned a teaching award for his lectures in CGS ( Almanac April 18, 2006 ). “In courses on topics ranging from travel writing to modernism,” said his write-up upon receiving the award, “he has garnered high marks from his CGS students, one of whom writes, ‘In attending Prof. Espey’s class, I found inspiration and a burning love for poetry!’” He retired from Penn in 2007.

Dr. Espey loved traveling, hiking, reading, and gardening. He cared deeply about issues like literacy, poverty, and international health, and donated to and volunteered for various non-profit organizations, including serving as a board member of the Eastern Service Workers in Philadelphia.

He is survived by his wife, Molly Tobin Espey; his children, Daniel J. Espey and Claire Tobin Espey; his sisters, Libby Reider and Margaret Iaconelli; his brother, John Espey; and many nieces and nephews. A celebration of Dr. Espey’s life will be held later this summer. Donations can be made to the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania ( https://www.pennmedicine.org/cancer/giving ). 

Dr. Trachtenberg was born in Philadelphia and grew up in nearby Wynnefield, attending Overbrook High School and receiving a full scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated from the School of Arts & Sciences in 1958 and participated in the Christian Association. He went on to serve as a dentist in the U.S. Coast Guard in Groton, Connecticut, then returned to Penn to complete his training in prosthodontics, earning a dental degree from Penn in 1963 and a medical certificate in 1967.

Dr. Trachtenberg joined Penn Dental Medicine’s faculty in 1967 as an associate professor in the crown and bridge department, the precursor of today’s department of preventive and restorative sciences. In 1975, he became an associate clinical professor in the department of histology, a position he held until 1992, when he became an adjunct professor in preventive and restorative sciences. He retired from Penn in 2007. Dr. Trachtenberg also ran his own dental practice from 1976 to 1999 (and practiced for several years afterward in other offices), specializing in periodontology and prosthodontics.

He loved nature photography, writing, playing folk and bluegrass music on his guitar and banjo, telling stories, and spending time with family and friends. “Don wanted the best of everything for those he loved and even for people he just met, and couldn’t believe that wasn’t always possible,” said his family in an online tribute. 

Dr. Trachtenberg is survived by his daughters, Julie and Jennifer; and his granddaughter, Janey Hecht. A memorial and reception were held on December 23, 2023. Donations in his memory may be made to the American Indian College Fund, Planned Parenthood, or the Environmental Defense Fund.

To Report A Death

Almanac appreciates being informed of the deaths of current and former faculty and staff members, students and other members of the University community. Call (215) 898-5274 or email [email protected] .

The stated meeting of the Board of Trustees was held on Friday, June 14, 2024, at the Inn at Penn. Reverend Charles Howard, vice president for social equity and community and university chaplain, gave the invocation.

Board chair Ramanan Raghavendran's report included the following resolutions, all of which were approved:

• Memorial for Claire Muriel Mintzer Fagin
• Appreciation for William P. Lauder and designation as Trustee Emeritus
• Re-election of Julie Beren Platt as vice chair of the Board of Trustees
• Election of the executive committee and the investment board

Vice chair Julie Beren Platt presented a resolution to re-elect Ramanan Raghavendran as chair of the Board of Trustees, effective July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025, which was approved.

Interim President J. Larry Jameson lauded a “picture-perfect” commencement ceremony on May 20 and an outstanding Alumni Weekend attended by more than 10,000 alumni. He thanked members of the University Task Force on Antisemitism and Presidential Commission on Countering Hate and Building Community for their work. He also expressed gratitude to the Board of Trustees for their support and said he looks forward to working with them over the next two years.

Interim President Jameson presented the following resolutions, each of which was approved:

• To appoint Thomas P. Sontag as interim vice president for human resources from July 1 through August 31, 2024
• To appoint Felicia Washington as vice president for human resources, effective September 1, 2024

Provost John L. Jackson, Jr., presented the academic report. He noted the appointment of Brigitte Weinsteiger as the H. Carton Rogers III Vice Provost and director of the Penn Libraries, effective June 1, 2024, and thanked her for having served in an interim role since September 2023. Provost Jackson indicated that searches had been launched for a vice provost for climate science, policy, and action and a vice provost for the arts. Each vice provost will be a member of the standing faculty and will likely begin in the fall. A resolution on faculty appointments and promotions was approved.

Senior Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli presented the financial report. For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2024, total net assets for the consolidated University are forecasted to increase $1.1 billion to $30.9 billion ($21.5 billion for Penn’s academic component, $9.4 billion for the health system). An increase in net assets from operations of $686 million is projected for the consolidated University.

The health system is projecting an increase in net assets from operations of $314 million and the academic component is projecting an increase in net assets from operations of $372 million. Cash is projected to decrease $107 million to $3.1 billion for the consolidated University ($2.0 billion for the academic component, $1.1 billion for the health system). The change in cash includes forecasted capital spending of $1.1 billion and $320 million of University investments into the Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF), partially offset by returns on cash balances and lower levels of mRNA patent revenue.

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, total net assets for the consolidated University are budgeted to increase $1.2 billion to $32.1 billion ($22.2 billion for the academic component, $9.9 billion for the health system). An increase in net assets from operations of $407 million is budgeted for the consolidated University, with the health system budgeting an increase of $303 million and the academic component budgeting an increase of $105 million. Cash is projected to decrease $242 million to $2.9 billion for the consolidated University ($2.0 billion for the academic component, $895 million for the health system), primarily due to planned capital expenditures of $1.2 billion and lower levels of mRNA patent revenue, partially offset by proceeds from a planned debt issuance and cash from operations.

Jonathan A. Epstein, interim executive vice president of the University of Pennsylvania for the health system & interim dean of the Perelman School of Medicine, gave the Penn Medicine report. He congratulated the 2024 MD, PhD, and master’s degree graduates and described his recent meetings with alumni and other groups. There is a focus on implementing new therapies for patients that come from new discoveries, in line with In Principle and Practice.

E. Whitney Soule, vice provost and dean of admissions, reported that 65,235 applications were received for the Class of 2028. Just over 3,500 applicants were accepted, for a target class of 2,400 students.

The Board of Trustees received reports from the committees on academic policy; audit & compliance; budget & finance; development; facilities & campus planning; local, national and global engagement; and student life. Sixteen resolutions from the budget & finance committee were approved.

Michael Barrett, president of Penn Alumni, honored Gloria Twine Chisum on the 50th anniversary of her appointment as the first Black woman to serve on the Board of Trustees. Dr. Chisum is also the co-founder of Penn Alumni's James Brister Society. Mr. Barrett also announced the 2024 alumni award winners.

Mr. Raghavendran presented resolutions on appointments to Penn Medicine and other advisory boards, which were approved.

The next meetings of the Board of Trustees will be held on September 26, 2024.

Dr. Compher is an advanced practice clinical dietitian specialist with the Clinical Nutrition Support Service at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where she works with the home parenteral nutrition team and leads dietetics research.

“When I think about the goals and values of the Rhoads Research Foundation, I cannot think of anyone who personifies these more than Dr. Compher,” said her Penn Nursing colleague and newly elected ASPEN vice president Sharon Irving. “Throughout her distinguished career, Dr. Compher has furthered nutrition research by collaborating with teams of diverse scientists from multidisciplinary specialties and shares her enthusiasm and clinical acumen with Penn students. She is renowned and respected for her knowledge, teaching, and supportive mentorship. We look forward to her leadership as the president of the Rhoads Research Foundation for ASPEN.”

“The foundation will be in very skilled hands,” said ASPEN clinical practice specialist Ainsley Malone. “There are numerous examples of Dr. Compher’s leadership, including the six years she served as editor-in-chief of ASPEN’s Clinical Guidelines. While ASPEN president, Dr. Compher inspired global efforts to standardize the diagnosis of malnutrition in adults. She is a core leader with the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) and led a systematic review of validation of the Academy-ASPEN Indicators of Malnutrition (AAIM).”

To date, the Rhoads Research Foundation has awarded $2.78 million in funding dollars to 139 investigators, clinicians, trainees, and graduate students whose research includes basic investigations aimed at improving scientific understanding of nutrient regulation in different disease states, as well as clinical and translational research to determine how the practice of nutrition support can continue to be refined and individualized to optimize clinical outcomes.

“The dedication I feel for the foundation stems in part from the pivotal role it has played in my own academic career,” said Dr. Compher. “My doctoral research was funded in part by a dietitian’s research grant from the foundation. Applying for and being awarded this grant was my first experience with grantsmanship and a source of great satisfaction and skill development. My research enabled me to enter the academy at Penn Nursing while maintaining a clinical practice at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. I have had many opportunities in these roles to conduct research and collaborate with and mentor promising young investigators.”

Each year, roughly 25 recent and forthcoming law school graduates across the country who have demonstrated special leadership in their work with ACS’s student chapters are selected as NGLs, joining a small group of law students guiding the future of the organization.

The leadership program from the progressive legal organization, whose membership includes more than 250 chapters of students and lawyers nationwide, provides the chance for participants to engage in meaningful career development opportunities while accessing vast networks of progressive lawyers and changemakers throughout the country.

Cara McClellan, director of the Advocacy for Racial and Civil (ARC) Justice Clinic and Practice Associate Professor of Law in the Penn Carey Law School, who nominated Ms. Hufford-Bucklin for the 2024 Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA) Outstanding Team Award, said, “Annamarie has gone above and beyond throughout the semester in her thorough representation of clients. In addition to getting to know her as a clinic student, she also served as my research assistant and demonstrated the same commitment to excellence.”

Ms. Hufford-Bucklin began working with ACS in 2019 as a Network Advancement Fellow with ACS’s Pro Bono and State Attorney General projects. As co-president of Penn Carey Law’s ACS chapter during the most recent academic year, Ms. Hufford-Bucklin has worked diligently to help expand the chapter’s campus presence while also connecting with the Temple University chapter and other Philadelphia area student and lawyer ACS chapters to foster a growing network of cooperation and collaboration.

“Annamarie helped lead the chapter through a very successful year of events that ranged from advice on 1L exams, to Supreme Court Reviews, to visits from judges, DAs, and state SGs,” said Kermit Roosevelt, the David Berger Professor for the Administration of Justice and Penn Carey Law’s ACS faculty advisor. “The chapter’s programming helped students understand the legal world that confronts them. I’m delighted to see Annamarie get the recognition she deserves for her leadership in supporting Penn students and the mission of ACS.”

Six hospitals in the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) have earned perfect scores as part of Penn Medicine being named a 2024 LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Leader by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation. The 16th annual Healthcare Equality Index (HEI) surveyed 1,065 participating institutions, scoring them based on how many LGBTQ+ inclusive policies and practices they have in place in four different criteria areas: the foundational elements of LGBTQ+ patient-centered care, patient services and support, employee benefits and policies, and patient and community engagement.

Based on these criteria, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Chester County Hospital, Lancaster General Hospital, Princeton Health, and Pennsylvania Hospital each received the top score of 100 points.

“We are proud of our continued recognition, as it represents our ongoing commitment to providing high quality care for LGBTQ+ patients across the system,” said Kevin Kline, an assistant professor of family medicine and community health in the Perelman School of Medicine and Penn Medicine’s inaugural medical director for LGBTQ+ Health.

The Healthcare Equality Index is a project of the Health & Aging Program at the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. The Health & Aging Program researches, develops, and advocates for LGBTQ+ health and aging initiatives at the federal, state, and local levels, and provides support to institutions seeking to enhance LGBTQ+ well-being via education, policy, research, and technical assistance.

Penn Nursing Dean Antonia M. Villarruel has been recognized by Modern Healthcare as one of the 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives for 2024. The profiles of all the honorees are featured in the June 10, 2024, issue of the magazine.

This award honors licensed clinicians in executive roles who are deemed by their peers and the senior editors of Modern Healthcare to be paving the way to better health through their executive responsibility, leadership qualities, innovation, community service and achievements inside and outside of their respective organizations.

“Our 2024 honorees work in all corners of the industry and at organizations and companies of all sizes,” said Mary Ellen Podmolik, editor-in-chief at Modern Healthcare . “Yet one thing they share is a commitment to improving their organizations inside and out. They are leading workforce strategies, expanding access to care and improving the bottom line. At the same time, our 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives also are finding time to be part of their communities, a critical part of understanding the patient’s needs and redefining healthcare.”

Andrew Zahrt, an assistant professor of chemistry in the School of Arts & Sciences, is a member of one of seven teams of early career researchers that have won Scialog funding for automating chemical laboratories. Dr. Zahrt’s team’s project is called Automated Workflows to Assess Physical Constraints in Neural Networks for Molecular Property Prediction.

The awards are given through Scialog: Automating Chemical Laboratories , a three-year initiative that aims to accelerate innovation and broaden access within the chemical enterprise through advances in automated instrumentation and artificial intelligence. Individual awards of $60,000 will go to 17 researchers from several institutions in the United States and Canada. The awards are funded by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA), the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, and the Frederick Gardner Cottrell Foundation.

Scialog is short for “science + dialog.” Created in 2010 by the RCSA, the Scialog format aims to accelerate breakthroughs by building a creative network of scientists that crosses disciplinary silos, and by stimulating intensive conversation around a scientific theme of global importance. Participants are selected from multiple disciplines, approaches and methodologies and propose high-risk, high-reward projects based on innovative ideas.

In a paper titled “The Politicization of Climate Science: Media Consumption, Perceptions of Science and Scientists, and Support for Policy,” published May 26, 2024, in the Journal of Health Communication , researchers probed the associations between media exposure and science-consistent beliefs about climate change and the threat it posed to the respondent.

Expanding on earlier work associating Fox News consumption with doubts about the existence of human-caused climate change, a team of scholars affiliated with Penn’s Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) found that exposure to Fox News and far-right media was negatively associated, and centrist and science media exposure positively associated, with belief in anthropogenic climate change, perceptions of the personal threat posed by climate change, and support for a carbon tax.

The research team included Yotam Ophir, an assistant professor of communication at the State University of New York at Buffalo and a distinguished research fellow and former postdoctoral fellow at APPC; Dror Walter, assistant professor of digital communication at Georgia State University and an APPC distinguished research fellow; APPC’s Annenberg Health and Risk Communication Institute director Patrick Jamieson; and APPC Director Kathleen Hall Jamieson.

“The results of this study suggest that climate science scholars and advocates should pay more attention to the complex media diets of individuals and specifically of partisans to better understand the possible influence of messages and narratives about climate science and scientists circulating in the American media environment,” the authors wrote. In short, said Dr. Ophir, the lead author of the new study, “a lot of research was asking people if they watch Fox News and if they believe in climate change. But there’s more to the story.”

For this study, the researchers asked people about their use of far-right, Christian, alternative health, and science media in addition to mainstream media (liberal, centrist, and conservative). To assess climate beliefs, the researchers asked participants whether they thought climate change poses a personal threat to them—“One of the challenges with climate change is that people don’t feel vulnerable. There is some vagueness to the impact,” said Dr. Ophir—and whether they support a carbon tax. “We wanted to go beyond just acceptance of the science into behavioral intentions,” said Dr. Ophir.

The study found that perceptions of science and scientists mediated the relationship between exposure to media and a set of dependent variables, including belief in anthropogenic climate change, risk perception, and support for a carbon tax. Among the team’s findings are that far-right media have an even stronger relationship with rejection of the scientific consensus around climate change than do more mainstream conservative outlets like Fox News. They also found that exposure to right-wing media in general is associated with lower perceptions of threat from climate change and lower likelihood of supporting a carbon tax. “Consumption of right-wing media is associated not only with your views on climate change,” said Dr. Ophir. “It is associated with more negative views of the scientific endeavor as a whole, and that affects your views on climate change.”

The findings have important implications for how climate science scholars and advocates move forward trying to understand resistance to climate science and policy, and crafting messages aimed at countering that resistance.

Adapted from a Annenberg Public Policy Center article , June 10, 2024.

A new study published in Medical Care showed that substituting registered nurses (RN) with lower-wage staff (e.g. licensed practical nurses, unlicensed assistive personnel) in hospital care is linked with more deaths, readmissions, longer hospital stays, poorer patient satisfaction, and higher costs of care.

The study, by the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research (CHOPR) at Penn’s School of Nursing, comes at a time when hospitals are struggling to recruit and retain RNs in hospital care because of poor working conditions. “Nurses in hospitals provide care for the sickest patients. It’s high stakes care. The findings show that replacing RNs with non-RN staff is dangerous to patients,” said lead author Karen Lasater, an associate professor and the Jessie M. Scott Term Chair in Nursing and Health Policy.

Though hospitals often cite a low supply of RNs as the reason they cannot hire enough, the latest research shows there is no evidence of an RN shortage in the US. Thus, there is no justification for substituting less qualified staff for RNs.

The researchers studied the outcomes of over 6.5 million Medicare patients in 2,676 general acute care hospitals across the U.S. They found that:

• Even a modest substitution in RN care is associated with poorer patient outcomes. A 10-percentage point reduction in the proportion of RNs was associated with 7% higher odds of dying in the hospital; as well as higher odds of readmission, experiencing a longer length of stay, and poorer patient satisfaction.
• Substituting RN care is associated with avoidable patient deaths. Researchers estimated that if every U.S. hospital reduced RN care by 10 percentage points, nearly 11,000 avoidable deaths among Medicare patients could occur annually.
• Alternative hospital staffing models yield a poor return on investment for hospitals. Hospitals substituting lower-wage staff for RNs will not save money because longer lengths of stay will erase their labor savings. 
• Medicare risks spending millions of dollars annually on avoidable, preventable hospital readmissions. The thousands of preventable readmissions associated with a 10-percentage point reduction in RNs translates to $68.5 million in avoidable costs paid by Medicare.

“The public has no way of assessing the adequacy of hospital RN staffing, and in all but two states (California and Oregon) there are no regulations establishing minimum safe RN staffing requirements in hospitals to protect the safety of patients,” said senior author Linda Aiken, professor of nursing and Founding Director of CHOPR. “Rather than replacing RNs with less qualified staff, hospital leaders should focus on improving their work environments to retain RNs.”

“With roughly half of hospital RNs reporting high levels of burnout, hospitals should focus on fixing the root causes of their burnout—chronic understaffing and poor work environments—not replacing RNs with lesser trained nursing staff that the evidence shows is likely dangerous to patients,” said Dr. Lasater.

Adapted from a Penn Nursing news article , June 10, 2024.

Bruce Lee, a doctoral student in Penn Engineering’s department of electrical and systems engineering, works to identify how robotic systems learn to perform different tasks, focusing on how to tell when a problem may be too complex—and what to do about it.

Mr. Lee, who is advised by Nikolai Matni, an assistant professor of electrical and systems engineering and member of the Penn Research in Embedded Computing and Integrated Systems Engineering (PRECISE) Center, studies how robotic systems learn from data, with the goal of understanding when robots struggle to learn a dynamic system, and what approaches might be effective at combating those challenges. His work offers insights into the fundamental limits of machine learning, guiding the development of new algorithms and systems that are both data-efficient and robust.

Ultimately, the goal is to create robotic systems that can better serve humanity, contributing to advancements in various fields including transportation, healthcare, and beyond. One case study that Mr. Lee is currently considering is a project by Google that aims to help robots learn general control policies from data. The generalist policies are intended to help robots perform new tasks with a limited amount of training data by leveraging similarities to tasks that have been conducted during the training phase.

“New results in machine learning, such as ChatGPT, Midjourney, diffusion models or deep learning in general, are very exciting and are enabling new capabilities we haven’t seen before,” said Dr. Matni. “However, despite this exciting progress, they are still unreliable and data-hungry. While this is not a problem when applied to chatbots or image generation, it can be catastrophic when applied to safety-critical systems that interact with the physical world, such as self-driving cars.”

One key takeaway from the research, Mr. Lee said, is that sometimes the problem is just too difficult. Control system engineers and researchers often think their job is to design an effective control system for a specific system facing a specific challenge, but this isn’t always the right approach. Mr. Lee’s results can also help to guide the design of systems that are easier to control.

Mr. Lee, who is expected to graduate in 2025, is also studying how researchers and practitioners can work around the fundamental limits of what robotic systems can do. One approach to doing so is strategically designing systems to make them as easy to learn as possible. Another is to supplement the data collected from any system of interest with data from related systems, leveraging the similarity between the two to continue to learn while using less data from the system of interest. “Many outside the field think machine learning can solve almost anything. My work helps to show that it cannot,” said Mr. Lee. “Our results show that if we have complicated systems with a high number of states, then learning an adequate control system from scratch will require an exorbitant amount of data to be collected from the world, which may be impossible for physical robotic systems.”

Adapted from a Penn Engineering Today article by Liz Wai-Ping Ng, June 10, 2024.

Fitness & Learning

6/18     Juneteenth 2024: Celebratory Learning Event at Weitzman ; a unique learning experience about the history of Juneteenth: participants will create original artwork for reflection and display to raise awareness of this national holiday’s communal value; lunch provided; 11:30 a.m.; Upper Gallery, Meyerson Hall; register: https://upenn.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3C31PkH8tQtDc3A (Weitzman School).

Center for Undergraduate Research & Fellowships

Online webinars. Info and to register:  https://curf.upenn.edu/events .

6/20     Introduction to the Fulbright U.S. Student Program ; noon.

            Penn Libraries: What is Information Literacy? 4 p.m.

Graduate School of Education

Online webinars. Info and to register: https://www.gse.upenn.edu/news/events-calendar .

6/20      Penn Chief Learning Officer Virtual Information Session ; noon.

Morris Arboretum & Gardens

In-person events at Morris Arboretum & Gardens. Info and to register: https://www.morrisarboretum.org/see-do/events-calendar .

6/20      Sunrise Solstice Stroll ; welcome in the sun on the summer solstice, the longest day of the year; bring a blanket and enjoy coffee and donuts; 5:30 a.m.; registration: $5/members, $10/general.

This is an update to the Summer AT PENN calendar , which is online now. To include events in a future AT PENN calendar or weekly update, send the salient details to [email protected] .

Division of Public Safety University of Pennsylvania Police Department Crime Report

About the Crime Report: Below are the Crimes Against Persons and/or Crimes Against Property from the campus report for June 3-9, 2024 . The Crime Reports are available at: https://almanac.upenn.edu/sections/crimes . Prior weeks’ reports are also online. –Eds.

This summary is prepared by the Division of Public Safety (DPS) and contains all criminal incidents reported and made known to the Penn Police, including those reported to the Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) that occurred within our patrol zone, for the dates of June 3-9, 2024 . The Penn Police actively patrol from Market Street to Baltimore Avenue and from 30 th Street to 43 rd Street in conjunction with the Philadelphia Police.

In this effort to provide you with a thorough and accurate report on public safety concerns, we hope that your increased awareness will lessen the opportunity for crime. For any concerns or suggestions regarding this report, please call DPS at (215) 898-7297. You may view the daily crime log on the DPS website .

Penn Police Patrol Zone Market Street to Baltimore Avenue and from 30 th Street to 43 rd Street

Philadelphia Police 18th District Schuylkill River to 49th Street & Market Street to Woodland Avenue

Below are the Crimes Against Persons from the 18th District: 6 incidents were reported for June 3-9, 2024 by the 18 th District, covering the Schuylkill River to 49th Street & Market Street to Woodland Avenue.

The Division of Public Safety offers resources and support to the Penn community. DPS developed a few helpful risk reduction strategies outlined below. Know that it is never the fault of the person impacted (victim/survivor) by crime.

• See something concerning? Connect with Penn Public Safety 24/7 at (215) -573-3333.
• Worried about a friend’s or colleague’s mental or physical health? Get 24/7 connection to appropriate resources at (215) 898-HELP (4357).
• Seeking support after experiencing a crime? Call Special Services - Support and Advocacy resources at (215) 898-4481 or email an advocate at [email protected]
• Use the Walking Escort and Riding services available to you free of charge.
• Take a moment to update your cellphone information for the UPennAlert Emergency Notification System
• Download the Penn Guardian App which can help Police better find your location when you call in an emergency.
• Access free self-empowerment and defense courses through Penn DPS.
• Stay alert and reduce distractions; using cellphones, ear buds, etc. may limit your awareness.
• Orient yourself to your surroundings. (Identify your location, nearby exits, etc.)
• Keep your valuables out of sight and only carry necessary documents.

The following holidays will be observed by the University in the upcoming fiscal year (July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025) on the dates listed below:

Independence Day , Thursday, July 4, 2024 Labor Day , Monday, September 2, 2024 Thanksgiving , Thursday and Friday, November 28 & 29, 2024 Christmas Day, Wednesday, December 25, 2024 New Year’s Day , Wednesday, January 1, 2025 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day , Monday, January 20, 2025 Memorial Day , Monday, May 26, 2025 Juneteenth , Thursday, June 19, 2025

Each year, the President, Provost, and Senior Executive Vice President assess the feasibility of observing Penn’s traditional Special Winter Vacation. Thus, the Special Winter Vacation granted to faculty and staff will be on December 26, 27, 30, and 31, 2024. If an employee is required to work to continue departmental operations for part or all of this period, the Special Winter Vacation can be rescheduled for some other time.

Staff members who are absent from work either the workday before a holiday, the workday after a holiday, or both days will receive holiday pay if that absence is charged to pre-approved paid time off or to sick time substantiated by a written note from the staff member’s health care provider.

Vacations and holidays for hospital employees or those staff members in collective bargaining units are governed by the terms of hospital policies or their respective collective bargaining agreements.

—Division of Human Resources

The Office of the University Registrar is pleased to announce the release of the 2024-2025 University Catalog for the University of Pennsylvania.

This edition of the University Catalog includes all degree granting programs, many certificates offered across the University, and courses at all levels associated with these programs. The catalog also includes the Pennbook, the Faculty Handbook, and many academic policies and resources.

This edition introduces an exciting new feature that shows users the courses associated with attribute requirements, making clear which courses will count toward program requirements. 

Many thanks to everyone who contributed to the work of compiling and publishing this latest catalog. The University Catalog can be found at https://catalog.upenn.edu . Please send all questions and comments to [email protected] .

— Margaret Kip, University Registrar

The Water Center at the University of Pennsylvania is currenting accepting applications to the 2024-2025 Regional Network Collaborative for Water Leadership cohort. This nine-month program aims to build a collaborative network that will provide support, opportunity, and inspiration for mid-career water-related professionals. 

We are looking to bring together a cohort of participants that reflects the broader social, political, geographic, and economic diversity of the region. Ideal participant characteristics include:

• Mid-career individuals from organizations intersecting with water issues including water utilities, watershed/environmental organizations, private industry, and the regulatory sector.
• Women, people of color, and LGBTQIA+ individuals are strongly encouraged to participate.
• We are focused on recruiting in the Greater Philadelphia region, including Philadelphia, Delaware, Chester, Montgomery, and Bucks Counties in Pennsylvania; Camden, Gloucester, Burlington, Mercer, and Salem Counties in New Jersey; and New Castle County in Delaware.

If you or someone you know is interested in participating in the 2024-2025 Leadership Collaborative, fill out the application form here no later than July 15, 2024. For more information, visit https://watercenter.sas.upenn.edu/news/2024/06/07/call-applications-regional-network-collaborative-water-leadership .

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Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) Program

2024 program dates:  may 28–august 2, 2024, application deadline: february 19, 2024 .

The Eberly College of Science Summer Undergraduate Research Experience is a 10-week summer training program designed to give motivated Penn State undergraduates in the college the opportunity to engage in full-time (40 hrs/wk) research and related professional development activities. Our goal is to offer students experiences that will help them determine if they want to pursue a career in research while they develop skills for success at Penn State and beyond. 

Students selected to participate in this training program will be paid ~$4,800 gross on hourly wage. Eberly College of Science faculty research mentors may receive up to $500 in discretionary funds.

Though all Eberly College of Science undergraduates are encouraged to apply, preference will be given to students:

• In their second and third year at University Park or students who have changed campuses,
• With a cumulative GPA of 2.5 or higher,
• Without significant research experience, e.g., a full-time summer research experience or 2 semesters of part-time research,
• NOT  in the Schreyer Honors College, 
• Willing to commit to research with the same mentor after the summer program, and
• Proposing to conduct research with Eberly College of Science faculty mentors ($500 support to Eberly College of Science faculty only). 
• Proposing to conduct STEM research with any faculty member at University Park (students will receive stipend support $4800; no faculty research funds if faculty member is outside the Eberly College of Science)
• Students should contact faculty early in the spring semester to build relationships and discuss their serving as a mentor if the student is awarded a spot in this program.

Because summer undergraduate research fellows must commit at least 40 hrs/wk to the training program, fellows are not permitted to engage in any activities that may interfere with program activities.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Is housing provided? No. Students will need to make their own housing arrangements either on or off campus. 

Do I need to have a research faculty member identified and agreeing to take me in their lab for the summer? Yes! You need to have identified your faculty member who you will work for over the summer. 

I just met the faculty member, are they my letter of reference? As I don't know my research faculty member that well, as I just met them. Yes, think of the letter of reference more as a letter of collaboration, that they are agreeing to take you in their lab for the summer and are excited that you will be part of their team. 

Question about the SURE Program? Contact Tiffany A. Mathews at tam276 'at' psu.edu

Program Links: Use the instructions document to draft your application and then submit using this form .