University Of Pennsylvania

PHILADELPHIA - Nearly 30 years after its last major construction project added dormitories, the student bookstore and a new research center, the University of Pennsylvania is in the midst of two major building and renovation projects that will again reshape its campus.One of them, called Sansom Common, will include in its first phase a 250-room hotel, shops and a new bookstore at an estimated cost of $73 million. The site is at the heart of the campus on a block bounded by Walnut, Sansom, 36th and 37th streets that for years has been a 2-acre parking lot.The second phase will include the creation of a new north-south street linking the hotel entrance to Chestnut Street, a major artery leading to downtown Philadelphia.

SYKESVILLE'S MAIN Street has undergone a gradual transformation over the past decade or so from a sleepy small-town street to a bustling place of revitalized businesses, antiques shops and eateries.Now Main Street will be home to a coffeehouse.Alley Cats' Cafe will soon occupy the second floor of the Warfield Building, and entrepreneur Kim Lopes has big plans for food and entertainment in the 1,200-square-foot space.Lopes plans to offer 40 kinds of coffee along with pastries during the morning and sandwiches and other light fare at lunch and in the evening.

PHILADELPHIA -- The truth of the past can disappear as easily under a blanket of assumptions as under the dust and debris that accumulates in the physical world.What sort of pots did a group of people cook in? What did their homes look like? What were their stories, their beliefs? The realities of life as it was lived can become a stew of historical tidbits, misconstrued truths, and outright-imagined facts.Robert L. Schuyler, a teacher and archaeologist at the University of Pennsylvania, was among the first in his field to become interested in the real experiences of early African-Americans.

Too much? The mega-salaries that some CEOs make may reflect poor corporate governance, according to researchers at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. The researchers say some board and ownership structures in companies seem to enable CEOs to influence directors in order to win compensation that is excessive for the company's size. They also say corporate governance tends to be weaker when one person is both CEO and chairman.Before you go: Fast Company magazine has some advice for high-tech business travelers: Be sure your office or home PC is set up so you can dial in from afar.

PHILADELPHIA - University of Pennsylvania scientists are growing a garden full of weeds, tending them with the kind of loving care usually reserved for prize begonias.The weeds are part of a $12 million research project designed to identify every gene in the cells of the plant arabidopsis, much the way the $3 billion human genome project will map the genes in human cells.Researchers say this plant genome project, headed by Penn biologist Joseph Ecker, will hand humankind new power to alter the plant kingdom at will, creating strains of wheat and other grains that can grow in the desert or resist drought; tomatoes whose ripening can be orchestrated so they hold up during shipping but turn juicy and ripe on supermarket shelves; roses that don't wilt for weeks; bizarre new plants that produce plastic or other chemicals; and even plants that soak up toxic waste.

New positionsGordon is chosen CFO of Ginger CoveGinger Cove selected Patricia L. Gordon as chief financial officer with responsibility for the daily financial operations of the Annapolis retirement/life-care community. A certified public accountant and graduate of the University of Maryland, she was most recently the organization's director of financial services.Tepperman to head KCI hazardous waste unitKCI Technologies, the Hunt Valley-based environmental-engineering firm, announced the appointment of Mark S. Tepperman as senior associate and head of its hazardous waste division.

Andrew BednarzikSchool: Calvert Hall College High SchoolHometown: ColumbiaAge: 17Andrew, a senior in the McMullen Scholars Program at Calvert Hall, has a 4.0 grade point average. The scholarship is awarded to students who score high on an entrance exam and meet other requirements, such as taking Latin and humanities classes and doing a thesis in their senior year. Andrew's thesis is on economics and the change in the work force from an industrial to a service-oriented society.Andrew's mentor is his father, Robert, an economist with the U.S. Department of Labor.

Jody Lumpkin, a 6-foot-8 center from Columbia, S.C., who was recruited by Maryland, has made an oral commitment to attend Rice University, his high school coach said yesterday."

Henry P. Bowman, 74, who flew missions over North Africa and Italy during World War II as one of the Tuskegee airmen and who broke racial barriers as a black sports official in the Big 10 after the war, died of heart disease Sept. 16 at his home in Los Angeles.Besides his achievements as a fighter pilot and sports official, which led to appearances in three films, he had a long career as a personnel executive. He retired in 1962 as a captain in the Air Force, and he held positions with the University of Illinois and Hilton Corp.