Archive – August, 2007
Blue and Green campus shuttles modify routes
Posted August 31, 2007; 12:56 p.m.
In response to input from the University community, the Blue and Green lines of the campus shuttle system have modified some of their routes and stops, effective Sept. 4.
Memorial service for Dahlen set, Sept. 7
Posted August 30, 2007; 06:35 p.m.
A memorial service for Francis Anthony (Tony) Dahlen, a Princeton professor of geosciences, is being planned for 2 p.m. Friday, Sept. 7, in the University Chapel.
Providing neuroscientists with a window to the brain
Posted August 30, 2007; 10:11 a.m.
When Princeton neuroscientists want a close-up view of the brain, they need look no further than Green Hall's magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner.
Verdu recognized for information theory work
Posted August 29, 2007; 09:18 p.m.
The Information Theory Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers has recognized electrical engineering professor Sergio Verdu with its most prestigious honor, the 2007 Claude E. Shannon Award, for his "consistent and profound contributions to the field of information theory."
Proposals sought for 'Grand Challenges' funding
Posted August 27, 2007; 10:30 p.m.
Princeton faculty members have been invited to submit proposals by Monday, Sept. 17, for seed grants for projects under a new teaching and research program focused on important issues that share dominant environmental, political, social and engineering dimensions.
Orange and black -- the history of Princeton's colors
Posted August 27, 2007; 04:43 p.m.
For more than a century, students and alumni of Princeton University have worn orange and black to signal their allegiance to the school.
Professor, students earn ACLS fellowships
Posted August 27, 2007; 08:53 a.m.
The American Council of Learned Societies has awarded fellowships to Princeton faculty member Benjamin Elman and four graduate students to support their research in the humanities and humanities-related social sciences.
Teiser awarded French academy prize
Posted August 23, 2007; 07:49 p.m.
Princeton scholar Stephen Teiser has been awarded the Prix Stanislas Julien, a prestigious prize from the French academic society Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres that recognizes Western-language scholarship on the Asian humanities.
Students win Fulbrights to study abroad
Posted August 23, 2007; 07:39 p.m.
Six members of Princeton's graduating class of 2007 and six graduate students have been awarded Fulbright grants to study abroad for the 2007-08 academic year.
Camp sparks a lasting love of computers
Posted August 23, 2007; 12:00 p.m.
Michael Lapointe stood hunched over a computer where four youngsters were electronically composing a song. Lapointe, who will be a junior at Montclair State University in September, was instructing the group of middle-school students attending this summer's Community House computer camp in the finer points of computerized music.
Debenedetti earns award for research on liquids
Posted August 21, 2007; 07:09 p.m.
Chemical engineering professor Pablo Debenedetti has been named the 2008 recipient of the Joel Henry Hildebrand Award in the Theoretical and Experimental Chemistry of Liquids.
New summer program draws undergraduates to brain science
Posted August 20, 2007; 12:00 p.m.
Five Princeton undergraduates are taking a good look inside the brain with some of neuroscience's latest tools and techniques during a nine-week internship program the University initiated this summer. The goal is to attract the next generation of researchers to one of science's fastest-growing and most challenging fields.
d'Aprile-Smith joins arts center staff
Posted August 20, 2007; 09:00 a.m.
Marguerite d'Aprile-Smith has been named director of communications of the University Center for the Creative and Performing Arts.
Princeton scientists confirm long-held theory about source of sunshine
Posted August 20, 2007; 05:00 a.m.
Scientists are a step closer to understanding sunshine. A monumental experiment buried deep beneath the mountains of Italy has provided Princeton physicists with a clearer understanding of the sun's heart -- and of a mysterious class of subatomic particles born there.
Magazines put Princeton at top of rankings
Posted August 17, 2007; 05:00 a.m.
The latest college ranking conducted by U.S. News & World Report has again listed Princeton University as the top school for undergraduate students, while a separate annual ranking compiled by Kaplan and Newsweek also selected Princeton as a top school.
Venerable lecture hall reaches century milestone
Posted August 16, 2007; 03:00 p.m.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of McCosh Hall, which was built, according to former Princeton President Woodrow Wilson, as a "noble memorial to our beloved one-time leader" James McCosh, who was the 11th president of Princeton.
Chiang honored for world-changing work
Posted August 15, 2007; 02:58 p.m.
Princeton electrical engineer Mung Chiang has been named one of the world's top 35 innovators under the age of 35 by Technology Review magazine.
Cities incite thunderstorms, researchers find
Posted August 15, 2007; 11:39 a.m.
Summer thunderstorms become much more fierce when they collide with a city than they would otherwise be in the open countryside, according to research led by Princeton engineers. Alexandros Ntelekos and James Smith of Princeton University's School of Engineering and Applied Science based their conclusion on computer models and detailed observations of an extreme thunderstorm that hit Baltimore in July 2004.
Princeton's self-driving car selected as semifinalist in DARPA competition
Posted August 13, 2007; 03:16 p.m.
Princeton undergraduates who have engineered a self-driving car designed to navigate city streets without human help have been selected as semifinalists in a hotly contested Pentagon competition with top prizes worth $3.5 million.
Garden Project aims to educate campus about food choices and sustainability
Posted August 13, 2007; 02:00 p.m.
Ruthie Schwab, Ben Elga and Diana Bonaccorsi are spending their summer among rows of aromatic herbs, lines of leafy greens and mounds of sprouting vegetables, all contained in a small patch of land behind the University's Forbes College. While many of their fellow Princeton classmates work in air-conditioned offices, conduct research in sterile labs or travel to far-off places, the students sweat under the summer sun planting, watering and weeding the 55-by-12-foot garden they hope will provide the campus with more than just nourishment.
Italians sample science and America at Gran Sasso summer program
Posted August 9, 2007; 02:00 p.m.
Far from their homes in the mountains of central Italy, a group of 22 high school students are spending three weeks on the Princeton campus, plunging deeper into science and American society than they ever have. Now in its fourth summer, the Gran Sasso-Princeton Physics Summer School draws promising young talent from the Italian region of Abruzzo, which is also home to the Gran Sasso National Laboratory.
Students swim waters of discovery in college prep program
Posted August 6, 2007; 12:00 p.m.
Two dozen high school students who are spending the summer at Princeton University gathered on a warm July afternoon in front of a large kiddie pool filled with what looked like an immense batch of Elmer's Glue. The experiment they were about to undertake would invest them with a sense of wonder at the marvels of the physical world. The project was part of a physics class in the Princeton University Preparatory Program, which brings 70 students from Princeton, Trenton and Ewing who are academically talented and from disadvantaged backgrounds to campus for three summers of intensive academic experiences.
Seminars offer teachers a fresh look at history
Posted August 2, 2007; 11:48 a.m.
"Despot" and "tyrant" are not terms generally associated with Abraham Lincoln. Yet in his efforts to preserve the Union as the Civil War erupted, Lincoln took drastic measures that were criticized as overstepping the limits of executive power.
Lincoln's controversial exercise of presidential wartime authority -- a familiar subject in today's political environment -- was the focus of a recent seminar for New Jersey high school teachers enrolled in a program at Princeton that aims to bolster their knowledge of American history and provide fresh perspectives to bring back to their own classrooms.
Construction of Roberts Stadium for soccer begins
Posted August 1, 2007; 09:00 a.m.
Princeton University has begun construction of a new, state-of-the-art soccer stadium, made possible through a recent $8.4 million fundraising effort by alumni and friends of Princeton soccer. The new facility, slated to open for the 2008 season, will be named Roberts Stadium in honor of Thomas S. Roberts, a member of the class of 1985 and a former record-holding goalkeeper on the men's soccer team. He and his wife, Kristen, were the leading donors to the project.