Summer Recap | U. announces ninth and 10th PIK profs

This summer, University President Amy Gutmann and Provost Vincent Price announced Karen Glanz and Shelley Berger as the ninth and 10th Penn Integrates Knowledge Professors, respectively.

Glanz's appointment is the first in the School of Nursing, and will be shared between Nursing and the School of Medicine. She will lead a new center focused on research and training in health behaviors, according to a University press release.

Glanz's work focuses primarily on the impact of behavior on health, spanning the fields of psychology, epidemiology and disease prevention. Most recently, she has worked to find solutions to the growing national problem of obesity, as well as new methods of cancer prevention and detection.

"Dr. Glanz epitomizes the interdisciplinary problem-driven research and teaching that we're looking for in our PIK professors," said Gutmann.

Berger will hold appointments in the School of Medicine's Department of Cell and Developmental Biology and the School of Arts and Sciences' Department of Biology.

Known for her research in epigenetics - the study of genetic changes caused by factors other than genes - Berger will draw from both genetics and biochemistry to study critical diseases in her new role as the Daniel S. Och University Professor, a position endowed by Jane and Daniel Och, an '82 Wharton alumnus.

"Shelley Berger's tremendously exciting work keeps Penn at the cutting edge of medical discovery," said Price in a statement.

The PIK program was implemented by Gutmann in 2005 as a University-wide initiative to recruit faculty members whose research and teaching span multiple disciplines. All PIK professors hold joint appointments between two schools at Penn. Glanz and Berger are only the second and third women, respectively, to hold the positions.

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