Featured Stories Archive – July, 2007
Materials academy tackles multiple societal challenges
By Hilary Parker · Posted July 30, 2007; 01:28 p.m.
A little clay and sawdust went a long way at Princeton this month when a group of Trenton-area high school students used the simple materials to create effective, low-cost water filters. The project was part of the Princeton University Materials Academy outreach program for underrepresented minorities and low-income students, offered each summer by the Princeton Center for Complex Materials.
Tigers prowl around the Princeton campus
By Jennifer Greenstein Altmann · Posted July 25, 2007; 04:03 p.m.
Tigers in a variety of moods -- ferocious, smiling, serene and roaring -- can be spotted on and around buildings all over the Princeton campus. The tiger took hold as the University's mascot in the late 1800s, when sportswriters started to refer to players as "tigers" and carved stone tigers began appearing on campus buildings. "The Tigers of Princeton University: A Campus Safari and Photo Essay," a book produced by the Office of Communications, provides a tour of the numerous tigers on Princeton's campus.
Satellite system may give ecologists a bird's-eye view
By Hilary Parker · Posted July 23, 2007; 02:58 p.m.
Aerospace engineering professor Jeremy Kasdin usually designs space systems to search for distant planets, but his latest endeavor is on the lookout for creatures close to Earth. Kasdin and Martin Wikelski, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, have collaborated with faculty colleagues and students to develop an innovative satellite system to track the migratory patterns of small birds. The researchers are now seeking support to launch the project.
Exhibition highlights vintage travel photos
By Staff · Posted July 19, 2007; 10:00 a.m.
An exhibition mounted by the Department of Art and Archaeology offers a look at vintage photographs from the second half of the 19th century, during the concurrent development of photography and tourism.
Summer institute puts teachers in role of students
By Eric Quiñones · Posted July 16, 2007; 01:40 p.m.
For a group of teachers spending two weeks as students on the Princeton campus, fairy tales and other children's stories are a serious topic of discussion. Participants in the Teachers as Scholars Summer Institute, which runs July 9-20, are delving into works such as "Cinderella," "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Jungle Book" in seminars led by Ulrich Knoepflmacher, a professor emeritus of English who developed Princeton's first courses on children's literature. Some two dozen teachers are participating in the program, which enables K-12 teachers to conduct research and develop programs for use in their classrooms.
Undergrads get taste of graduate student life
By Jennifer Greenstein Altmann · Posted July 12, 2007; 11:52 a.m.
This summer college student Christine Ho is getting a taste of what it's like to study for a Ph.D. at a major research university like Princeton. Ho, who is going to be a senior at the University of Texas-Austin this fall, is spending nine weeks at Princeton researching the role of women in post-colonial Algeria. She meets once a week with Princeton professor Simon Gikandi, an expert in the culture and literature of Africa, to discuss the reading she has done and talk about the direction in which her research is heading.
PPPL summer program empowers next generation of plasma scientists
By Chad Boutin · Posted July 9, 2007; 12:11 p.m.
The future of nuclear fusion and its promise of limitless, clean energy has arrived at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in the form of 28 budding scientists, many of them still in their teens. This contingent of top-notch university and high school students from across the country has gathered for a summer of intensive lab work in plasma physics, the field that could someday provide a way to create power the way the sun does -- by pressing two uncommon forms of hydrogen together until they combine to form helium atoms, releasing a burst of energy in the process.
Frontiers of health: Advances in medicine emerge at intersection of engineering and biology
By Hilary Parker · Posted July 2, 2007; 10:50 a.m.
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.