The James S. Riepe University Professorship

James S. Riepe

This Penn Integrates Knowledge (PIK) University Professorship was named in honor of James S. Riepe in 2015. A University Trustee Emeritus, Mr. Riepe served with distinction as Chair of Penn’s Board of Trustees from 1999 to 2009 and Chair of the Penn Medicine Board from 2009 to 2011.

Mr. Riepe earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Wharton. He is the former Vice Chairman of the T. Rowe Price Group and has held numerous board and volunteer leadership positions at Penn since 1990. Through his generosity and dedication, Penn and Penn Medicine have developed significant new resources for scholarships, professorships, and enrichment programs. Mr. Riepe was recognized with an honorary degree from the University in 2010. He and his wife Gail Petty Riepe, an alumna of the College, have contributed to many areas of the University, including the creation of Riepe College House and, most recently, funding one of three President’s Engagement Prizes. At Penn Medicine, the Riepes established the Arthur H. Rubenstein Endowed Scholarship Fund in honor of the former Dean.

The PIK Program was launched by President Gutmann in 2005 as a University-wide initiative to recruit exceptional faculty members whose research and teaching exemplify the integration of knowledge across disciplines and who are appointed in at least two Schools at Penn.


 

Michael L. PlattCurrent Chairholder
Michael L. Platt, PhD

Michael L. Platt, PhD is the James S. Riepe University Professor, Professor of Neuroscience, Professor of Psychology, and Professor of Marketing. He is on the faculty of the Wharton School, the School of Arts and Sciences, and the Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Platt received a BA from Yale and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, both in anthropology, and did a post-doctoral fellowship in neuroscience at NYU. He has been supported by the NIH, the Klingenstein Foundation, the McDonnell Foundation, the Broad Foundation, the Simons Foundation, the U.S. Department of Defense, and others. He has authored over 130 papers, which have been cited over 4,000 times. Dr. Platt is the Director of the Wharton Neuroscience Initiative, former president of the Society for Neuroeconomics, former Director of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, and former Director of the Duke Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. He is the winner of the Williams Research Prize and the Master Teacher Award from the Duke University School of Medicine. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and National Geographic, as well as on ABC TV, NPR, CBS, BBC, and MTV.