Featured Stories Archive – November, 2009
Visualization Lab helps make data come alive
By Kitta MacPherson · Posted November 30, 2009; 09:57 a.m.
If patterns of globalization over decades could be plotted on a world map, what might they look like and what deeper insights might they reveal, wondered Miguel Centeno. Adam Burrows, confronted with a massive data set representing a simulation of the last moments of an exploding star, speculated that he could learn so much more if he could really just "see" it. Centeno and Burrows may hail from different departments and disciplines. But they have become equally convinced of the importance of scientific visualization as a cutting edge research tool, and they have sought out the same new place on campus -- the the Princeton Institute for Computational Science and Engineering's Visualization Laboratory -- in which to launch their queries.
Class snapshot: 'Italy: The Land of Slow Food'
By Eric Quiñones · Posted November 23, 2009; 04:00 p.m.
Pietro Frassica, professor of French and Italian, and his students discuss "Topics in Contemporary Italian Civilization -- Italy: The Land of Slow Food," a class that combines an analysis of Italian literary texts with works of visual art to explore the art of cookery in relation to people's environment and history.
Students 'break out' from campus to learn about civic action
By Eric Quiñones · Posted November 19, 2009; 11:52 a.m.
In the wake of a tornado that leveled Greensburg, Kan., in May 2007, local residents forged an ambitious plan to rebuild the small agricultural town with a focus on sustainability. For a group of Princeton students who traveled there over fall break, this effort became an important lesson both in environmental awareness and civic engagement.
Creating opportunity: Engineering course empowers Princeton's social entrepreneurs
By Hilary Parker · Posted November 16, 2009; 10:04 a.m.
The laboratory course taking place in the basement of Princeton's Friend Center is not a traditional one -- in lieu of microscopes, there are discussions of microfinance, and students seek to create not chemical changes, but social ones.
Ceremony notes reopening of architectural landmark
By Ushma Patel · Posted November 11, 2009; 03:07 p.m.
A ceremony celebrating the reopening of Whig Hall -- the home of the nation's oldest collegiate political, literary and debating society, the American Whig-Cliosophic Society -- is set for 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 14, at the building. Whig recently underwent a major overhaul to modernize the building, which had not been renovated in nearly 40 years.
Legendary photographer Gowin celebrated in exhibition
By Staff · Posted November 9, 2009; 12:21 p.m.
The Princeton University Art Museum is celebrating photographer and faculty member Emmet Gowin's legacy as an artist and educator with an exhibition titled "Emmet Gowin: A Collective Portrait," which is on view through Sunday, Feb. 21.
Perspective on: Freud and Mexico, via Vienna
By Karin Dienst · Posted November 4, 2009; 10:05 a.m.
Rubén Gallo, a scholar of modern Spanish America who is spending the fall in Vienna as a guest of the Sigmund Freud Foundation, discusses the noted psychoanalyst's relationship to Mexico.
Mind matters: Oppenheimer takes inventive approach to examining decision-making
By Jennifer Greenstein Altmann · Posted November 2, 2009; 10:06 a.m.
In unearthing discoveries about how the human mind works, Princeton psychologist Danny Oppenheimer has mined insights into how people react to catchy stock-market symbols, overwritten essays and charitable donation choices.