Amanda Mott, Penn Today
Top row: Dennis Discher, Michael Correa-Jones, and Cherie Kagan. Bottom row: Sophie Rosenfeld and Susan Weiss.
Five faculty at the University of Pennsylvania have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an honorary society and independent research center founded in 1780. They are Dennis E. Discher of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, Michael Jones-Correa of the School of Arts & Sciences, Cherie Kagan of the School of Arts & Sciences and Penn Engineering, Sophia Rosenfeld of the School of Arts & Sciences, and Susan R. Weiss of the Perelman School of Medicine. They are joining the nearly 250 new members honored in 2025, recognized for their excellence, innovation, leadership, and broad array of accomplishments.
Dennis E. Discher is the Robert D. Bent Professor at Penn Engineering. He is director of the Physical Sciences Oncology Center at Penn, supported by the National Cancer Institute, and holds a secondary appointment in the Graduate Groups in Pharmacology at the Perelman School of Medicine. A member of both the U.S. National Academy of Medicine and the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, Discher has been part of the Penn community since 1996. His research lab has published over 250 papers, covering topics such as how physical forces affect stem cells and tumors, how the immune system recognizes the body’s own cells, and how specially designed nanoparticles can help treat disease.
Cherie Kagan is the Stephen J. Angello Professor in the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering with secondary appointments in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Penn Engineering and the Department of Chemistry in the School of Arts & Sciences. She is widely recognized for her pioneering research on nanostructured materials and their use in advanced devices for electronics, photonics, and sensing. Kagan directs the National Science Foundation-supported Engineering Research Center for the Internet of Things for Precision Agriculture. Since joining Penn in 2007, her lab has explored how to design and integrate materials with unique optical, electrical, and mechanical properties into functional technologies. She is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and several major scientific societies and has received numerous honors, including the Alexander von Humboldt Research Award and the Heilmeier Award.