Penn IUR Co-Director Dr. Eugénie Birch honored longtime friend and collaborator Dr. Elaine Simon, Past Co-Director of the Urban Studies Program, presenting her with an Urban Leadership Award at the annual Urban Doctoral Symposium and Poster session, hosted on May 17 by Penn Institute for Urban Research (Penn IUR) and the Penn Urban Studies Program.
“Every year Penn IUR honors urban leaders around the world, and today we want to honor an urban leader we have right here in our midst,” Birch said. “Elaine Simon has grown Urban Studies into a truly interdisciplinary program that prepares urban scholars and practitioners to take on climate change, homelessness, failing infrastructure, and other pressing challenges of our time.”
Simon also collaborated with Penn IUR to develop the doctoral symposium as a way of documenting and sharing new ideas in urban research across campus and beyond, encouraging cooperation and collaboration on urban issues between many disciplines.