It’s Official: Joe Biden Is a Penn Professor

Vice President Joe Biden, pictured with Penn’s Amy Gutmann, launches a “moonshot” initiative to hasten a cure for cancer at Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center in Philadelphia on January 15th, 2016.

Joe Biden is now a Penn professor.

Penn officially announced on Tuesday what had been reported and rumored and talked about on an open mic by Biden himself: that the former vice president would join the faculty as the Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice Professor and lead the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, which will be located in Washington, D.C., and have an office on Penn’s campus.

“At Penn, I look forward to building on the work that has been a central pillar of my career in public office: promoting and protecting the post-WWII international order that keeps the United States safe and strong,” Biden said in a release. “The Penn Biden Center and I will be engaging with Penn’s wonderful students while partnering with its eminent faculty and global centers to convene world leaders, develop and advance smart policy, and impact the national debate about how America can continue to lead in the 21st Century.”

Biden’s spokesperson told the Inquirer he’ll also have a role at the University of Delaware, and isn’t sure how much time he’ll spend on campus. At Penn, Biden will hold joint appointments in the Annenberg School for Communication and the School of Arts and Sciences, with a secondary affiliation in the Wharton School. Yes, Biden went from zero professor jobs to three professor jobs just at Penn in one day.

“Joe Biden is one of the greatest statesmen of our times,” said Penn president Amy Gutmann. “In his distinguished career of service to our nation, he has demonstrated a unique capacity to bring people together across divides and to craft constructive responses to some of the toughest and most important policy challenges of our day. His unsurpassed understanding of diplomacy and far-ranging grasp of world issues make him an ideal fit to further Penn’s global engagement — including the work of Penn Global and Perry World House, signature initiatives to develop innovative interdisciplinary global strategies and programs that distinguish Penn as a global agenda setter in higher education.”

Penn says the Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement will open its offices in D.C. sometime later this year.