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Shirley M. Tilghman:
Princeton is a particularly good university to focus on energy and the environment because we already have enormous strengths in this area.

Shirley M. Tilghman:
To begin with, we are the home of the most important fusion research laboratory in the country, at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.

Shirley M. Tilghman:
If you think in 50- to 100-year timeframes, fusion energy is one of the most promising sources of alternative energy.

Shirley M. Tilghman:
We also have on the Forrestal Campus one of the most important climate change groups in the country: the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory,

Shirley M. Tilghman:
which is funded by NOAA and includes a hundred scientists, who are working on computer modeling of climate, so that we can begin

Shirley M. Tilghman:
to understand both what is happening today and what needs to happen in order to ensure that we are not going to have the devastating effects

Shirley M. Tilghman:
that are often predicted as a result of the burning of fossil fuels.

Shirley M. Tilghman:
We also have in the Princeton Environmental Institute a remarkable interdisciplinary group of scientists, engineers,

Shirley M. Tilghman:
policy experts from the Woodrow Wilson School, who are collaboratively
working together in order to identify some of the most important issues

Shirley M. Tilghman:
and approach them from both scientific engineering and policy
perspectives.

Shirley M. Tilghman:
So we already have the nucleus of what I believe is going to be a very
powerful intellectual presence

Shirley M. Tilghman:
in the country for addressing issues of energy and the environment.

Shirley M. Tilghman:
And perhaps the most exciting thing that we have at Princeton is this
enormous commitment to teaching in the area of environmental sciences.

Shirley M. Tilghman:
We have this wonderful project called Grand Challenges, which is an
attempt to combine the teaching and research in these areas

Shirley M. Tilghman:
in a way that students get experiential learning in these areas,
and hopefully even for those who do not go on to work

Shirley M. Tilghman:
in this area professionally, they will retain a commitment to
the importance of these kinds of issues.