Dinner with Gregory

DwG is yet another informal House event flush with free food, but this one has a rewarding twist—a Penn faculty member, other prominent campus figure or interesting Penn alum joining us for dinnertime conversation.  Discuss academic research, political, cultural or social issues, state-of-the-art technology, exotic travel, or noble undertakings, all over hoagies, Chinese, Indian, or other generous dinner portions from local restaurants.  DwG takes place every few weeks; don’t miss this opportunity to get to know Penn’s world-renowned professors outside of the classroom, or to get inspired by Penn alums making their mark in the world.

DwG

Recent DwG guests have included:

  • Max Mintz, Professor of Computer and Information Science, whose work involves developing robust algorithms for decision-making under uncertainty with applications to machine perception and robotics
  • Bart de Jonge, Assistant Professor of Nursing, whose research focuses on the nutritional, physiological, neuronal, and cellular signaling controls of energy balance with relevance to obesity, type 2 diabetes, and chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting
  • Ralph Rosen, Professor of Classical Studies, author of Making Mockery: The Poetics of Ancient Satire and Old Comedy and the Iambographic Tradition 
  • Nakia Rimmer, Associate Director of Undergraduate Mathematics
  • Charlie Johnson, Professor of Physics and director of the Nano/Bio Interface Center and researcher for graphene research
  • Andrew Sullivan, Wharton MBA student and former reporter for the Wall Street Journal Washington Bureau
  • Jane Dmochowski, Assistant Director of the Earth and Environmental Science undergraduate programs, whose work studying magnetic paleointensity, earthquakes, plate tectonics and marine seismology has led her on excursions across the world including Mexico, Chili, New Zealand, throughout the South Pacific Ocean, and Antarctica.
  • Amy Gutmann, 8th President of the University of Pennsylvania, Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Professor of Communication in the Annenberg School. 
  • Joseph Libonati, Associate Professor of Nursing, whose research focusing on determining the putative mechanisms by which exercise training benefits the heart in a host of cardiovascular diseases including: hypertension, myocardial infarction, and doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity.
  • Robert Ghrist, Professor of Mathematics, specializing in topology applications of math and in systems.
  • Rebecca Stein, Director of the Microeconomic Principles Program in the Economics Department
  • Julien Siggers, Director of the Penn Museum
  • Feride Servet Hatiboglu, who played a crucial role in developing Turkish language instruction at Penn
  • Everett Gillison, Penn Alum and Former Chief of Staff and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety of Philadelphia
  • C.J. Taylor, Professor of Computer and Information Science, whose research interests lie primarily in the fields of Computer Vision and Robotics and include reconstruction of 3D models from images, vision-guided robot navigation and smart camera networks
  • Heather Love (pictured), Associate Professor in the English Department at Penn, author of Feeling Backward: Loss and the Politics of Queer History, and longtime Faculty Director and House fellow in Gregory. 
  • Dennis DeTurck, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Robert A. Fox Leadership Professor and Professor of Mathematics
  • Arjun Raj, Assistant Professor of Bioengineering, working to develop a quantitative understanding of molecular underpinnings of cellular behavior
  • Michael Gamer, Associate Professor of English and author of Romanticism and the Gothic: Genre, Reception, and Canon Formation
  • Daniel Taylor, Assistant Professor of Accounting, whose research focuses on financial reporting in capital markets and how managerial incentives affect financial reporting
  • Jerry Kazdan, applied mathematics and computational science, a a mathematician noted for his work in differential geometry and the study of partial differential equations. 
  • Santosh Venkatesh, associate professor of electrical and systems engineering, whose interests include sensor networks, pattern recognition, neural computation, learning theory, and information theory
  • Luca Bossi, Senior Lecturer in Economics, whose areas of research are macroeconomics, public economics, consumption theory and political economy
  • Janet Monge, Adjunct Professor of Anthropology and the Keeper of the Skeletal Collections at the Penn Museum
  • Peter Decherney, Associate Professor of Cinema Studies and English and author of Hollywood and the Culture Elite, How the Movies Became American and Hollywood’s Copyright Wars: From Edison to the Internet
  • Daniel Garofalo, Penn's first Environmental Sustainability Coordinator
  • Phil Nichols, Associate Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics, and the Faculty Master of Stouffer College House.
  • David Kazanjian, Professor of English and author of The Colonizing Trick: National Culture and Imperial Citizenship in Early America
  • Van Tran, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholar researching the integration of immigrants in the post-1965 U.S. society, focusing on the socioeconomic, civic and political implications of ethnic and racial inequality.
  • Jonah Berger, Assistant Professor of Marketing, well known for his class "Contagious: How Products, Behaviors, and Ideas Catch On"
  • Tsitsi Jaji, Assistant Professor of English, who has published articles and book chapters on Nafissatou Diallo, Édouard Glissant, Maryse Condé, Toni Morrison, Derek Walcott, and most recently Keorapetse (Willie) Kgositsile and is working toward a book on Comparative Black Acoustic Imaginaries In Poetry And Film From Ghana, Senegal And South Africa
  • Philippe Met, Professor of Romance Languages and former Gregory House Fellow, currently completing a manuscript on the esthetic and phenomenology of poetic notebooks and researching ghost cinema and representations of childhood in horror films.
  • Mark Devlin, professor of astronomy and astrophysics, whose research interests focus on experimental cosmology and whose projects to study the formation and evolution of stars and galaxies using BLAST (Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope) have been featured in a documentary (BLAST!) and on the Colbert Report.
  • Harris Sokoloff, professor in the Graduate School of Education and Director for the Center for School Study Councils and the Penn Project on Civic Engagement, whose areas of expertise include civic engagement and deliberative democracy, school/community relations, central office leadership, negotiation and conflict resolution, and strategic leadership.
  • David S. Barnes, Associate Professor of Health and Societies, currently writing a book about America's oldest quarantine station, which happens to be next door to the Philadelphia Airport.
  • Jason Schnittker, undergraduate chair of the Sociology Department, whose research interests include Medical Sociology, Social Psychology, and Stratification Methods.
  • Lance Wahlert, Assistant Professor of Bioethics and Health Policy and Director of the Masters of Bioethics Program in the Perelman School of Medicine.  Current Gregory House fellow and former Graduate Associate.
  • Fernando Chang-Muy, Thomas O'Boyle Lecturer in Law at the Penn School of Law, where he teaches Refugee Law and Policy.
  • Eric Jarosinski, Professor of Germanic Language and Literature, who has taught courses on Marx, Nietzsche, Kafka, Thomas Mann, literarary theory, the Frankfurt School, German Modernism, postwar German literature and comptempory German consumer culture.
  • Rebecca Bushnell, former Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and Professor of English, whose books include Prophesying Tragedy: Sign and Voice in Sophocles's Theban Plays; Tragedies of Tyrants: Political Thought and Theatre in the the English Renaissance, and Green Desire, a study of early modern English gardening books.
  • Erin Wilson, current State Director for US Senator Casey and formerly the Northeast Political Director for the Democratic National Committee (the DNC).
  • Allison Bassman, Director of Talent Development for Saxby's.
  • Len Podolsky, Vice President of Veterinary Practice Partners. 
  • Natalie Wiltshire, Chief Operating Officer of KIPP Philadelphia Schools, a not-for-profit charter management organization responsible for five Philly schools.
  • David Meaney, Solomon R. Pollack Professor and chair of Bioengineering. He is currently involved in research aimed toward understanding the pathophysiology of traumatic brain injury. 
  • Ricardo "Liberato Kani," a Quechua rapper and composer heavily involved in the Quechua Hip Hop movement in Peru. His music challenges the stereotypes on Indigenous Languages, usually seen as outdated. He is an inspiration for many young people who want to reclaim their Indigenous heritage.
  • Chaojun Wang, current Gregory Faculty Affiliate and assistant professor of Finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, whose research focuses on over-the-counter financial markets, market structure, and market design.