January

Alan Greenberger, the new head of Westphal’s Department of Architecture Design & Urbanism, was recently awarded the Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture by the American Institute of Architects.

A poll asked a panel of business school professors to grade Lyft and Uber, app-based, ride-hailing services, on their reactions to Donald Trump’s executive order barring visitors and refugees from seven predominantly Muslim countries to the United States. Lyft was quick to oppose the ban and donated $1 million to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) while Uber was more equivocal and continued to operate despite the publicized Taxi walkout.

Drexel senior Darian Ehya’s graphic design internship with one of the country’s largest public art organizations gave him a front-row seat to witness what goes into making murals with a social mission.

The largest public housing authority to implement comprehensive smoke-free policies, the Philadelphia Housing Authority, is seeing significant positive results related to secondhand smoke exposures.

Back in the day, Drexel was just one building surrounded by a tuberculosis ward, a candy factory, a bank and many other buildings that would later become a part of the University.

Catch up on all the Drexel news from the first month of 2017, including new closures to Korman Quad and a recap of President John A. Fry’s town hall.

The College of Computing & Informatics has found a new leader in Dean Yi Deng, PhD. He’s only been on campus for a short while, but he’s brimming with ideas about how to grow the college and its impact on the University.

Chef Brian Lofink, of Sidecar Bar & Grille, offers weekly lessons in cooking healthy food. Free and open to the Drexel community and neighborhood residents, the program fits right in with the Dornsife Center’s mission.

The role of a chef is always expanding. National food issues and trends are transforming how America eats and drinks. On March 5 – 6, the 2017 Philly Chef Conference will bring together the big names and rising stars in the Philadelphia-area restaurant scene for a food-focused, academic- and career-minded series of discussions—from developing and retaining talent in the kitchen to restaurant analytics and the current state of food law—in hopes of preparing chefs to face these ever-evolving set of challenges.

Violence increases in areas where there are high densities of stores where alcoholic beverages can be purchased and carried out, according to a new study by Drexel University researchers partnered with the City of Philadelphia.

Awarded $12 million by the Wellcome Trust as part of the its new Our Planet, Our Health initiative. The research network led by Drexel’s Ana Diez Roux will explore the impact of urbanization and urban policies on the health and environmental sustainability of Latin American cities and how lessons learned there can be applied to cities worldwide.

The seventh annual event, set for Feb. 4 in the Bossone Research Enterprise Center, will offer visitors hands-on demonstrations and workshops to stimulate curiosity about materials science and engineering.

The Haitian Coalition of Philadelphia honored three Dragons at their annual gala, recognizing the humanitarian work that the University has accomplished during study abroad courses.

The University aims to bring together first-generation college students and faculty to talk about shared experiences and life lessons through a series of talks.

First introduced on campus in the 1920s, Drexel’s Homecoming has changed and yet retained its traditions through nine decades and three revivals.

St. Lucifer Foods Co. LLC. headed by two Philadelphia-based culinary entrepreneurs, created their company’s first spice blend with a broad goal to make anything it seasoned, taste better. Creators Ted Ebert and Tom Hewell aimed to portray ‘The Glory of Hot’ – and their masterful blend of garlic, salt, vinegar and fiery habanero peppers, achieved just that. But, as a single spice blend, getting adequate space on the grocery shelves became a problem. To build out their spice family, they turned to students in The Drexel Food Lab and Drexel University’s Center for Hospitality and Sport Management to turn up the imagination, testing and creation process of their second spice blend.

The Drexel Collection’s newest exhibit, Plakat Polski: Selections from The Frank Fox Polish Poster Collection and Kenneth F. Lewalski Polish Posters Collection, will be on display to showcase the best of Soviet-era Polish poster art.

The University’s new initiative aims to find the technologies and methods fueling creative approaches to education. It will feature a series of conversations on learning, a national survey of innovative spaces and pilot programs to put ideas into practice.

Drexel University’s Alison Young, executive director of the Institute for Strategic Leadership in the LeBow College of Business, was one of 20 U.S. leaders from government, business and civil society to be selected as a 2017 Eisenhower Fellow. The fellows are some of the leading minds in education policy, consumer protection, agriculture, diplomacy, defense, education, health, media, immigrant integration and public service.

More than 200 volunteers showed up for a day of service on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to clean and paint the school. The volunteers included Drexel students, staff and faculty, as well as Mantua community members and McMichael families.

The 30th Street Station District Plan, which is a collaboration between Drexel, Amtrak, Brandywine Realty Trust, PennDOT and SEPTA, just won a 2017 Institute Honor for Regional & Urban Design from the American Institute of Architects.

A study of viewing audiences shows that the television programs most effective at imparting an educational message about social behaviors are the ones that keep people watching engaged and coming back for more.

What will toys look like in five years? Westphal senior Gina Lerman took a glimpse at the future of play during a six-month co-op with toy designer Hasbro.

On Jan. 11, President John Fry led a candid town hall discussion with faculty and staff to discuss Drexel’s strategies and initiatives for the next several years.

As public awareness of the need for water conservation, and new water-saving technology, have become increasingly effective at stemming excess water use, new questions are surfacing about how our plumbing, which was built to handle a regular flow of water, might now be a risk factor for bacterial and chemical contamination. In hopes of preventing future public health crises related to the systems that carry and treat our water, the Environmental Protection Agency is tasking a team of researchers, led by Drexel University, with a $2 million project to bring together existing and new experimental data onbuilding plumbing—the stretch of pipes that takes water from main to tap—into a risk assessment tool that can guide new water use and safety regulations.

Drexel University is preparing to field its first intercollegiate team in cybersecurity. A dozen students have been in training since the summer, coached by professionals from Susquehanna International Group, LLC, to ready themselves for the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition—a national contest that pits students against hackers and a variety of digital dilemmas they might face in the cybersecurity field. Drexel and SIG are partnering to enter a team in the competition for the first time.

The Emerging Graduate Scholars Conference will give students a chance to present their research, discover opportunities for collaboration and sharpen their skills for future national and international conferences.

A new study from the College of Medicine shows that a common antibiotic exacerbated cognitive problems in pediatric animal models.

A new study found that the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, helped improve access and utilization of health care for Latinos, but the benefits varied by heritage group and persistent disparities remain.

If you're looking to get involved during the University holiday on Jan. 16, DrexelNow has compiled a list of several ways to volunteer and get engaged with the West Philadelphia community.

The Raymond G. Perelman Center for Jewish Life recently won praise in the news for its remarkable architectural layout.

Polarization in the Senate was displayed in a recent study that found a 67-percentage- point split between Democrats and Republicans when it comes to voting for public health policies endorsed by the American Public Health Association.

Anthony J. Drexel founded Drexel University, of course. But there are other institutions now ingrained in Drexel’s DNA — like the College of Medicine and the Academy of Natural Sciences — that were founded by other innovators in the 19th century.

A Westphal sophomore worked with some of the biggest stars in the entertainment industry during her co-op at Jay-Z’s company.

Smoking bans in restaurants and bars are especially effective among those with college degrees, but also were associated with higher quit attempts by people with low incomes, according to a new Drexel University study.

A Drexel University-led study found that significant increases in cardiovascular disease was linked to black residents of neighborhood with lower socioeconomic status and higher levels of violence and disorder.

When the Environmental Protection Agency finalized the Clean Power Plan in 2015 it exercised its authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions to protect public welfare. The Plan, now the focus of escalating debate, also put the nation on course to meet its goals under the Paris Climate Agreement. Given that other pollutants are emitted from power plants—along with carbon dioxide—research has shown that carbon emission standards for the power sector benefit human health. New research released today shows that they would also benefit crops and trees.

It has been widely thought that brand search volume — the counts of queries that a search engine receives from users that include specific brand names, like “iPhone” — can predict sales for that brand. Google makes this information available to marketers for free through Google Trends, an application that allows anyone to see how frequently popular brand names are searched, and it has become a valuable tool for marketers. But new research from Drexel University, Brigham Young University and Google shows there is a lot more to consider when looking at the large number of queries that include brand names.

A bundle of historic documents and items dating back to the late 1950s was recently found in the cornerstone of the Korman Center during construction.

In honor and celebration of Drexel University’s 125th anniversary, the Leonard Pearlstein Gallery will present a new exhibition showcasing the influences of art, science and industry that have shaped the university’s past and continue to inspire its future. The exhibit, ‘125 Years: Drexel & the City’, will run from Jan. 12 through March 19 – with the opening reception taking place on Jan. 12, from 5-7 p.m. in the Pearlstein Gallery (3401 Filbert Street).