The career of Eugene Wong '55 *59 has taken him from Berkeley, Calif., where he profoundly influenced the field of computing, to Washington, D.C., where he helped craft policies that smoothed the growth of the Internet. To encourage others with technical expertise to engage in public service, he has established the Eugene Wong Fund for Engineering and Policy at Princeton's School of Engineering and Applied Science.
Archive – July 2007
Andrew Persily was appointed vice president of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers at the society's annual meeting in June.
Audrey Ellerbee has been selected as a AAAS Congressional Science and Engineering Fellow for 2007-08.
Thomas Truskett will receive the 2007 Allan P. Colburn Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers at its annual meeting in November in Salt Lake City.
The New Jersey Professional Engineers in Construction presented the Sol Seid Award of Excellence Scholarship to Kira Schiavello, a senior majoring in civil and environmental engineering.
Despite a January freeze in California responsible for $1 billion in lost orange crops, a team of Princeton students has managed to earn more than $1 trillion in the orange juice business this year.
The student team, Jin & Juice, made their record-breaking profit during a competition unique to Princeton known as the "Orange Bowl."
Focus on fundamentals yields broad societal benefits
Why is an aerospace engineer who developed control systems for a lunar module investigating the genetics of cancer? How did an expert in statistical finance come to identify genes involved in childhood tumors?
In part, these unexpected combinations reflect the interdisciplinary approach that is increasingly common in academics: Solving complex problems often requires collaborations among people with different perspectives. At Princeton, ther
Revolutionary cancer treatments. Potent HIV drugs. Diabetes-fighting stem cells.
Princeton engineers are bringing new and often unexpected perspectives to bear in developing these and an array of other medical breakthroughs, while advancing the basic understanding of biology. They are the vanguard of an emerging discipline that links engineering and biology -- with human health as the beneficiary.
Bacteria have to work to earn their keep in the lab of David Wood, assistant professor of chemical engineering.
Designed to respond to human hormones, the busy bugs may help identify new compounds to treat endocrine problems, including Graves' disease and estrogen-related disorders.
Celeste Nelson is out to determine the rules that govern normal development so she can stop the cancer cells that don't play by them.
Currently studying mammary gland development and breast cancer at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Nelson is funded by a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award at the Scientific Interface. She will join the University faculty in the fall as an assistant professor of chemical engineering.
When faced with a decision, does the brain go for speed, or accuracy -- or some combination of the two?
It depends on the situation, but in simple cases an optimal combination can be found. Philip Holmes, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and applied mathematics, is working as part of the Princeton Neuroscience Institute to study this and similar questions. The work could ultimately advance the diagnosis and treatment of a host of psychological problems.
"We have millions of times more biological data now than we did just a few years ago," says Olga Troyanskaya. "But we don't know millions of times more about biology -- at least, not yet.
The assistant professor of computer science and genomics is doing her part to change that by designing computer systems that analyze massive amounts of genetic data. The freely available systems are providing researchers throughout the world with the ability to generate new insights into cancer and a multi
Mikko Haataja, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, views cell membranes as "very complicated beasts." As the beasts can't always be explored experimentally, he uses computer simulations to probe deep into their structure and function.
Flexible electronics being developed in Sigurd Wagner's lab are supple not only in form, but in function. The pliant systems -- first developed for bendable video displays -- have applications in brain injury research, tissue engineering and the development of next-generation prosthetics.
Medical devices that require nothing more than a single breath to instantaneously detect a number of ailments, including diabetes and kidney disease, are just what the doctor ordered.
And, they are exactly what researchers are developing as part of the Center for Mid- Infrared Technologies for Health and the Environment (MIRTHE).
Claire Gmachl
The vials of fruit flies that line the shelves of Stas Shvartsman's lab would be expected in a biology lab, but Shvartsman is a chemical engineer. His approach to developmental biology -- as unconventional as his lab -- has promising implications for the prevention and treatment of birth defects and cancer.
Fundamental approach targets practical problem
Designing effective drugs and vaccines to combat and prevent disease is only half the battle—they also have to be formulated effectively for shipping and storage, which is where Pablo Debenedetti and Athanassios Panagiotopoulos come in.
The chemical engineering professors use a combination of theoretical, computational and experimental techniques to explore how proteins behave in the presence of certain sugars that are often used as stabiliz
Mona Singh doesn't use the maps in her office to get from point A to point B -- she uses them to find meaning hidden in biological data, which may help advance the understanding of disease at the genetic level.
There are medical benefits to be found at the intersection of music and technology, according to Perry Cook. He should know -- he lives there.
Powerful proteins that are able to kill bacteria and viruses already exist in nature, but Kyle Vanderlick wants to make them even stronger.
The chair of the chemical engineering department, Vanderlick conducts research on antimicrobial peptides -- short proteins that destroy disease-causing bugs by breaking down the membranes that surround them. The work, done in collaboration with biologists at the University of California, Irvine, could ultimately lead to the development of powerful new mic
Advances in medical imaging have added a new dimension, literally, to the research of Peter Ramadge, chair of electrical engineering.
Rather than working with two-dimensional videos from cameras (his longtime area of expertise), Ramadge is analyzing three-dimensional movies of brain activity that are collected by a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner. His work, in collaboration with the Center for the Study of Brain Mind and Behavior of the newly created Princeton Neuroscienc
In a roundabout way, propellers advanced Julie Young's latest project—a new and improved heart valve replacement.
"The blades of a propeller look very much like the leaflets in a mechanical heart valve," said Young, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, who studied propellers for her Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Texas at Austin. "The same principles apply on a much smaller scale."
Engineer Ron Weiss' knowledge of circuits and biologist Ihor Lemischka's expertise in stem cells are a potent combination -- one that may lead to medical breakthroughs for diabetes and spinal cord injuries.
Szymon Suckewer needs eye surgery, but he's not going under the knife just yet -- he'd rather wait until no knife is necessary. Having recently developed an incision-free eye surgery technique, he's confident that will soon be an option.
Chemical engineer Christodoulos Floudas is rather like the proteins he studies -- able to perform a variety of functions that have major implications for human health. His current research promises to advance the understanding and treatment of cancer, HIV and diabetes, among other diseases.
Ten years ago, it would take ten days for Princeton biologist Edward Cox to separate a million base pair fragments of DNA by size -- soon, he may be able to do it ten seconds, thanks to micron-sized devices being developed by a team of engineers, biologists and physicists.
The bookshelf of Jianqing Fan, the Frederick L. Moore Class of 1918 Professor in Finance, is filled with books about finance, treatises on econometrics -- and massive tomes on cellular biology and biochemistry.
It might seem easy to visually distinguish between a kitchen and a beach, but Fei Fei Li recognizes the inherent complexity in telling sink from sand. Her research to understand the brain processes involved may ultimately enhance treatments for visual impairments and brain damage.
Aerospace engineer Robert Stengel remembers the day he realized that the theories and analyses that make space travel possible may also lead to better understanding and treatments of cancer and HIV.
A failure to invest in science and engineering education could have dire consequences in today's global economy, said corporate leaders from Xerox Corp. and Amazon.com in separate April addresses at Princeton.
One of the most coveted prizes in architecture was awarded in March to a team of Princeton architects and engineers for an ambitious plan to transform the Upper Bay of New York Harbor.
The Latrobe Prize, a $100,000 purse awarded every other year by the American Institute of Architects, went to Princeton’s Center for Architecture, Urbanism and Infrastructure. The winning project team is led by Guy Nordenson, professor of architecture and affiliated professor of civil and environmental engi
Computer scientist Ken Steiglitz is happy to admit that he is an eBay addict. For starters, his pre-dawn "grazing" on the popular Internet trading site has yielded a trove of ancient bronze coins to add to his personal collection. Even more, he has discovered a wealth of information to advance the field of auction theory, which lies at the intersection of computer science, economics, mathematics and psychology.
Computer scientist Ken Steiglitz is happy to admit that he is an eBay addict.
For starters, his pre-dawn "grazing" on the popular Internet trading site has yielded a trove of ancient bronze coins to add to his personal collection. Even more, he has discovered a wealth of information to advance the field of auction theory, which lies at the intersection of computer science, economics, mathematics and psychology.
Alexander Smits will become chair of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering as of July 1, returning to the position he held from 1998 to 2004.
Engineering students won several of the nation's and Princeton's top academic honors this year, including Marshall and Goldwater scholarships and the highest student prize in the field of computer science.
