A new Drexel study suggests that social behavior evolved very differently in the brains of social insects than in vertebrate animals such as mammals, birds and fish.

With the support of a $234,400 grant from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, Drexel University will host acclaimed French choreographer Boris Charmatz for a performance of his renowned Levée des conflits—co-presented by FringeArts in September 2016—and a series of workshops available to the Philadelphia dance community and general public.

Drexel University’s Thomas R. Kline School of Law celebrated the class of 2015 at its seventh commencement ceremony that took place at the Kimmel Center for Performing Arts (300 S. Broad Street) on Thursday, May 21 from 2 to 5 p.m.

Graduating seniors in Drexel's product design program have created prototypes of products that can solve problems in the world around them. 

According to a new study from Drexel University’s Center for Labor Markets and Policy, despite the nation’s job growth, the fraction of teens at work has barely budged. After five full years of jobs recovery, the teen employment rate has increased from a low point of 25 percent to 29 percent – still far below its 2000 level of 45 percent. The study also found that urban teens fared worse than their suburban peers, with urban Black teen males faring worst of all. Only one in 10 young Black males in Philadelphia had a job in 2012-2013, among the lowest rates of all big cities in the nation. Entitled “Left Behind: Jobs Recovery By-Passes Philadelphia Teens,” the study was conducted by Paul Harrington, PhD, director of Drexel’s Center for Labor Markets and Policy, and Neeta Fogg, PhD, and Ishwar Khatiwada, PhD, labor economists in the Center. A follow-up study about disconnected youth will be released by the Center in October.

Hospitality 3, a hotel development company with an impressive resume of hotel projects worldwide, held its official groundbreaking ceremony today on The Study at University City, a 212-key hotel rising on the campus of Drexel University in Philadelphia’s dynamic University City district. Slated to open in fall, 2016, the new hotel expands the innovative Study Hotels concept developed by Paul McGowan of Hospitality 3 to deliver high-quality, full-service lodging to university markets and cultural centers.

Located at the heart of Drexel University’s campus, the Korman Center has been a University landmark for decades. With a generous commitment of $8 million from the Hyman Korman Family Foundation the 1958 building will soon get a complete makeover. After matching the Foundation’s gift with another $8 million, Drexel will proceed with plans to expand and repurpose much of the building as well as create the classic campus green in the open space—a popular student hangout known as the “Quad”—in front of and around the Korman Center.

Students who are passionate about applying science to the development of safer, healthier food products will now have the opportunity to learn from world-class experts in the sensory science of taste and smell, thanks to a new partnership between Drexel University and the Monell Chemical Senses Center, the premier sensory science research institution. The partnership will position Drexel to become a leader in sensory science of food education.

Only three weeks remain to see the “enormous, beautifully detailed figurative paintings and three-dimensional installations” (Philadelphia Inquirer) of Storylines, an exhibition at Drexel University’s Leonard Pearlstein Gallery (3401 Filbert Street) in the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, featuring the work of Lithuanian-born artist and illustrator Ray Bartkus. The exhibition will be on display through Sunday, May 24. The gallery is free and open to the public Tuesday – Sunday, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.

As the United Nations celebrates its 70th anniversary, DrexelNow checked in with Ambassador (Ret.) Joseph M. Torsella, distinguished visiting fellow in the Center for Public Policy in Drexel University’s College of Arts and Sciences, who formerly served as the U.S. Representative to the United Nations for U.N. Management and Reform. From 2011-2014, he was responsible for leading efforts to make the U.N. a more efficient, accountable, respected and effective organization. On Wednesday, May 13, Torsella will give a public discussion at Drexel on “The U.S., the U.N. and U.N. Reform: Why its So Hard...and So Important.” The event will take place from 1:30 – 3 p.m. in the Bossone Research Enterprise Center’s Mitchell Auditorium (32nd and Market Streets, Philadelphia).

Creating a symbiotic relationship in which historic sacred spaces, such as churches, help to alleviate performing artists’ need for space could benefit both groups and better integrate them into the community, according to a new study from Drexel University. However, an intermediary is needed to help facilitate these relationships, the study found. The study was led by Neville Vakharia, an assistant professor and research director of arts administration in Drexel’s Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, and Partners for Sacred Places, a national organization dedicated to the stewardship and active community use of historic sacred spaces.

Students, faculty and staff from Drexel University will help make the fifth anniversary of the Philadelphia Science Festival one of the biggest citywide celebrations to date. More than 200 regional partner organizations from museums to cultural centers and educational institutions will present over 100 events across the city during the nine-day celebration intended to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers. 

Autism does not end when children reach adulthood—yet most public awareness, public policy and research about autism focus on the needs of children. A new national report from the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute answers critical questions about the experiences and outcomes of young people on the autism spectrum with transition planning, living arrangements, social participation, employment, postsecondary education, health and mental health, safety and other domains.

The ceremonial opening kick of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Sao Paolo, Brazil, which was performed—with the help of a brain-controlled exo-skeleton—by a local teen who had been paralyzed from the waste down due to a spinal cord injury, was a seminal moment for the area of neuroscience that strives to connect the brain with functional prosthetics. The public display was a representative of thousands of such neuroprosthetic advances in recent years, and the tens of years of brain research and technological development that have gone into them. And while this display was quite an achievement in its own right, a Drexel University biomedical engineer working at the leading edge of the field contends that these devices are also opening a new portal for researchers to understand how the brain functions. 

Notorious gangsters Al Capone and Carlo Gambino were famously done in by tax evasion charges. John Gotti, the “Teflon Don” was given up by a confidant. While the criminal masterminds of today are conducting their nefarious business online, the key to taking them down depends on understanding how they organize and where to squeeze them. Researchers from Drexel University’s Privacy and Security Automation Lab are searching for that pressure point by studying the activity of cybercrime forums. Their findings could guide the next generation of “Untouchables.”

On Thursday, April 30 from 6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m., Taiwanese-American artist Candy Chang will speak on  “Better Cities: Transforming Public Spaces Through Art & Design” at Drexel University’s Mandell Theater (33rd and Chestnut Streets) as the fifth lecturer in the College of Arts and Sciences' annual Distinguished Lecture Series.

A groundbreaking new book, Living in the Crosshairs: The Untold Stories of Anti-Abortion Terrorism (Oxford University Press, 2015), examines how those associated with abortion care are harassed, threatened, stalked, picketed, sent hate mail and otherwise terrorized on a daily basis, and how these incidents are drastically increasing

Drexel public health researchers published a review of the state of the science on which policy and infrastructure changes have a real impact on obesity prevention.

In a public discussion, entitled “Renewing the American “We”: What We Owe James Wilson,”
Ambassador Joseph M. Torsella (Ret.), distinguished visiting fellow in the Center for Public Policy in Drexel University’s College of Arts and Sciences, will share his thoughts on how we can – and why we must – renew our sense of American community in polarized times and what “forgotten founder” and Pennsylvania native James Wilson has to say about our current situation. The event will take place at the National Constitution Center’s Kirby Auditorium (525 Arch St., Philadelphia) on Wednesday, April 1 at 6:30 p.m.

Storylines, a new exhibition at Drexel University’s Leonard Pearlstein Gallery (3401 Filbert Street) in the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, presents the work of Lithuanian-born artist and illustrator Ray Bartkus. Creating immersive environments, Bartkus’s monumental, figurative paintings embrace and engulf viewers, projecting them into compelling, mysterious domains. Shown for the first time in the United States, much of this work has been seen internationally in Lithuania, Poland, Austria Japan and the Netherlands. The exhibition will be on display from Tuesday, April 7 – Sunday, May 24.