Princeton University senior Sofia Quinodoz conducted two thesis projects: uncovering how bacteria communicate to coordinate group behaviors, and exploring the impact of Argentina's Dirty War.
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Speaking to a capacity audience in Dodds Auditorium, Burns outlined what he views as the three interconnected elements needed for positive change in the Middle East: support for democratic change; economic opportunity; and regional peace and security.
Princeton professors Scott Burnham and Peter Schäfer have received the University's Howard T. Behrman Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Humanities.
A roughly 3.5-mile high Martian mound that scientists suspect preserves evidence of a massive lake might actually have formed as a result of the Red Planet's famously dusty atmosphere. If correct, the research would have important implications for understanding Mars' past habitability.
Researchers have demonstrated that 3-D printing is an effective strategy for interweaving tissue with electronics.
The U.S. electric utility industry faces a critical juncture as new technology and declining prices allow a more "distributed" system of small-scale generators, renewable energy installations and energy-efficiency strategies, according to a group of high-level energy industry executives and regulators who met at Princeton University recently.
The U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, which is managed by Princeton University, has completed a major first step in the $94 million upgrade of its experimental fusion reactor, the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX).
Princeton University's Council for International Teaching and Research has selected faculty proposals to create global networks to allow scholars to focus on interdisciplinary research in the humanities and experimental methods in political economy.
Three Princeton University students with diverse interests in computer networks, machine learning and the basic physical processes of the brain were among 15 recipients of this year's Hertz Fellowship for graduate studies in the sciences.
A collaboration of researchers in the physical and biological sciences seeks a better understanding of the physical and chemical forces that shape the emergence and behavior of cancer.
Two Princeton University research projects — a new tool for visualizing drug therapy in the brain and a method for aiding the search for planets outside our solar system — have been selected to receive grants from Princeton's Eric and Wendy Schmidt Transformative Technology Fund.
Carlos Brody, a neuroscientist at Princeton University, explains his research on decision-making.
Graduate student Brian Ell speaks about his research on small RNAs as novel therapeutics for the treatment of bone metastatic cancer.
Christopher L. Eisgruber has been appointed Princeton University's 20th president.
The Princeton Neuroscience Institute is home to worldclass research on the study of the brain.
Princeton University's School of Engineering is unique in combining the strengths of a world-leading research institution with the qualities of an outstanding liberal arts college.
Caroline Shaw, a graduate student in composition in the Department of Music at Princeton University and a New York-based musician, today won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for music for "Partita for 8 Voices."
Located at the center of campus, the Museum is free and open to the public and hosts a dozen temporary exhibitions each year, many motivated by the collections and coordinated with the University curriculum, but presented for the benefit of a broad public.
Some 360 young women from seventh to tenth grade spent the day immersed in science and technology at the Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Lab's Young Women’s Conference on March 22 at Princeton University.
Princeton University researchers suggest that the brain may actually work from subconscious mental categories it creates based on how it considers people, objects and actions are related.
Princeton researchers assess the probable Antarctic contribution to 21st-century sea-level change.
MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry interviews a roundtable of neuroscience experts including Princeton's Sam Wang. View the video.
Princeton University has appointed as dean for research Pablo Debenedetti, a longtime Princeton engineering professor and vice dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science. He succeeds A.J. Stewart Smith, who will become the University’s vice president for the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
In a paper published online in January by the American Journal of Political Science, "People Power or a One-Shot Deal? A Dynamic Model of Protest," Princeton politics professor Adam Meirowitz and New York University politics Professor Joshua Tucker lay out a theoretical model that helps answer a real-world question: Why do people who take on the considerable costs and risks of protesting to change the type of government in their country sometimes stay off the streets when the new government turn
Graduate student Carlee Joe-Wong's work as an undergraduate has led to new ways that wireless companies could reduce congestion by varying their prices depending on the time of day.
"The Mathematics of Magic Tricks and Games" explores the mathematical principles behind games and magic tricks. Students then use those principles to create and master their own tricks and games.
With a growing global population comes new challenges – ranging from access to health care to changing migration patterns. These are among the issues being addressed by researchers at the Office of Population Research (OPR) at Princeton University.
Results from a team including a Princeton University scientist offer a possible solution that uses the bacteria's own byproducts to destroy them.
Princeton University researchers contributed extensively to the Planck space mission that on March 21 released the most accurate and detailed map ever made of the oldest light in the universe, revealing new information about its age, contents and origins.
Polyakov was one of three winners of the foundation's 2013 Physics Frontiers Prize from which the recipient of the Fundamental Physics Prize was chosen. Polyakov was selected by the nine recipients of the inaugural Fundamental Physics Prize awarded in 2012, four of whom are faculty members at the Institute for Advanced Study.
Using a database containing detailed measurements of the men's haywire immune responses to the drug, researchers at Princeton University created an unprecedentedly clear model for how immune signals called cytokines interact with each other.
Mung Chiang, a Princeton University engineering professor who uses innovative mathematical analysis to simplify and strengthen the design of wireless networks, has been awarded the National Science Foundation's highest honor for young researchers, the Alan T. Waterman Award.
Mark Zondlo, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, and a team of researchers are mapping Earth's atmosphere from pole to pole in search of the most comprehensive picture yet of greenhouse gases and how they affect climate.
Three winning technologies were announced Tuesday, March 12 at the Princeton University Keller Center Innovation Forum. The Forum offers University researchers the opportunity to compete for prize money aimed at moving laboratory discoveries into the product development stage.
The National Cancer Institute has awarded a new $2.4 million research grant to a team led by Joshua Rabinowitz, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton University, and Eileen White, associate director for basic science at The Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ) and professor of molecular biology and biochemistry at Rutgers University. Read more at MyCentralJersey.com.
New results from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) indicate that the particle detected last summer is looking more and more like the Higgs boson, the particle thought to be essential for giving mass to the universe.
The Mamdouha S. Bobst Center for Peace and Justice supports research on civil strife mitigation, regional and global conflicts, and strategies for reconciliation.
Greg Kaplan, an assistant professor of economics at Princeton, and Sam Schulhofer-Wohl, a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, argue that the shifts in migration patterns are better explained by changes in the labor market and the ways people learn about faraway places.
Three Princeton Engineering faculty members are part of a newly announced $194 million government-industry initiative called the Semiconductor Technology Advanced Research network (STARnet), a consortium of six new university research centers whose mission is to maintain U.S. leadership in microelectronics.
Research that spans the globe in Discovery: Research at Princeton
Energy research is featured in Discovery: Research at Princeton.
A team of five Princeton engineering graduate students is leading a yearlong field research project using new laser sensors to measure pollutants with unprecedented sensitivity.
Princeton University researchers developed a model that can identify the prospects for nearly any disease-causing parasite as the Earth grows warmer, even if little is known about the organism.
State supreme court justices who don't face voters are generally more effective than their elected counterparts, according to research led by Princeton University political scientists.
The genetic factors behind many human diseases and characteristics remain unknown, but new research from Princeton University suggests ways this "missing heritability" could be found.
The Princeton Energy and Environment Corporate Affiliates Program, a consortium of industrial partners working with Princeton University, has awarded grants to two projects: Turning municipal solid waste into fuel and reducing greenhouse gases emitted in making concrete.
David Botstein, Princeton University's Anthony B. Evnin '62 Professor of Genomics and molecular biology and director of the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, was among 11 recipients of the inaugural $3 million Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.
Awarded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the $50,000 fellowships recognize promising early-career scientists who have been nominated by their colleagues.
A possible Higgs boson of cancer and steps to give natural biodiversity a fighting chance were among the topics Princeton University researchers discussed during the 2013 AAAS annual meeting.
The Princeton Physical Sciences-Oncology Center (PPS-OC) is an interdisciplinary research center aimed at exploring the physical laws that govern the emergence and behavior of cancer.
Three Princeton researchers will join a mission to study dark energy and dark matter as participants in the European Space Agency's (ESA) planned Euclid space telescope project. The Princeton astrophysicists will work as part of team led by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif.
By studying the common fruitfly, Stas Shvartsman's lab in the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics is learning how cells signal each other in order to grow from the simple structure of an embryo into a full-grown, complex creature.
A large-scale field experiment conducted during the December 2011 parliamentary elections in Russia suggests that fraud had a significant impact on the results. The research marks an advance in efforts to quantify vote fraud.
Starlings strike an optimal balance between the work of responding to social cues from their neighbors and the need to conserve energy. This trade-off yields a special number: seven.
The finding has implications not just for unlocking the mysteries of coordinated animal movements, but also for the field of robotics, in which engineers seek to emulate nature's efficiency in coordinating the activity of many individuals in uncertain environments.
Edward Felten, a Princeton University professor of computer science and public affairs, was among 69 researchers nationwide elected to the National Academy of Engineering.
On the eve of Dec. 20, 2012, while the international news media were reporting on the alleged "end of the world" predicted by the ancient Maya calendar, six Princeton students and their professor were in Guatemala to experience the phenomenon firsthand.
TAG Optics, a company based on technology developed at Princeton University, has won the prestigious Prism Award for Photonics Innovation, which recognizes products that improve life through the application of light-based technologies.
A mathematical framework developed at Princeton University strips away the differences between classical and quantum mechanics to reveal how the ideas are compatible.
Nine new technologies with promising societal or commercial applications will get a boost from a Princeton University program aimed at bridging the gap between the laboratory and the marketplace.
The Lewis Center for the Arts, now celebrating its fifth anniversary, was founded on the principle that exposure to the arts, and particularly to the experience of making art, is fundamental to understanding ourselves and the world around us.
A new data archive project makes it easier for academics and the general public to access information gathered by governments and other sources about global conflicts, including those in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and other nations.
At Princeton, engineering and art often intersect, creating something new and entirely unexpected.
The Princeton Neuroscience Institute (PNI) is exploring the physical underpinnings of emotions, learning, memory and other neurological functions.
Extreme financial hardship can lead to reckless borrowing even among people who know better, according to research by Eldar Shafir, Princeton's William Stewart Tod Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs, as quoted in the New York Times.
Princeton University researchers report in the journal Science that facial expressions can be ambiguous and subjective when viewed independently.
Princeton University has established a strategic partnership with Humboldt University in Berlin that will support research and teaching collaboration spanning the disciplines.
Princeton Professor Jorge Sarmiento studies the vital role Earth's oceans play in the complex biochemical process through which carbon is exchanged among water, soil and atmosphere.
This virtual 3-D walkthrough of four principal buildings uncovered during Princeton University's archaeological excavations in Cyprus is part of the Princeton Art Museum's City of Gold exhibit. The animations were created by graduate and undergraduate students under the direction of Joanna Smith, a lecturer in art and archaeology, and Szymon Rusinkiewicz, a professor of computer science.
In an article published last month in the scientific journal Nature, Bogucki and his fellow researchers explain that the presence of milk byproducts found in the pottery provides compelling evidence that farmers used the perforated pots to separate cheese curds from whey.
Three teams led by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have won major blocks of time on two of the world’s most powerful supercomputers.
Princeton University has signed a memorandum of understanding with the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC).
Two Princeton University professors were among 18 researchers nationwide recognized by the National Academy of Sciences in 2013 for their achievement in the physical, biological and social sciences.
A series of recent droughts from Australia to the United States has led some scientists to warn that global warming has already begun to increase worldwide drought. But new research from Princeton and the Australian National University in Canberra has found that this might not be the case.
Princeton mathematician Manjul Bhargava was profiled in liveMint.com.
President Obama named Princeton psychology professor Anne Treisman as one of 12 recipients of the National Medal of Science on Dec. 21, 2012. Awarded annually, the Medal recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to science and engineering. The Medal is considered the country's highest honor for scientists.
A new study reveals that bacterial cells can contain internal compartments, indicating that the single-celled organisms are more complex than previously thought.
The findings shed light on how organisms handle non-essential DNA.
Only a few regions contain the correct form of iron needed to sustain the growth of phytoplankton.
Emily Carter, founding director of the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment at Princeton, talks about why she decided to devote her career to energy research.
innovation triples the efficiency of organic solar cells
The Princeton Center for Theoretical Science is dedicated to exploring the frontiers of theory in the natural sciences.
An enhanced approach to capturing changes on the Earth's surface via satellite could provide a more accurate account of how ice sheets are changing as a result of natural and human factors.
A new study published in the journal Science demonstrates that people rely on body language rather than facial expressions alone when determining how other people are feeling. The study by Hillel Aviezer, psychology professor at Hebrew University in Israel, and Alexander Todorov, professor of psychology at Princeton University, as featured on NPR. Listen to the broadcast.
The Princeton University Board of Trustees has approved the appointments of four assistant professors.
In recognition of a lifetime of breakthroughs that have shaped our understanding of the brain, John Hopfield has been awarded the Society for Neuroscience Swartz Prize for Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience.
The United States could eliminate the need for crude oil by using a combination of coal, natural gas and non-food crops to make synthetic fuel, a team of Princeton researchers has found.
Climate change could cause larger and more frequent hurricane storm surges in New York City, according to a study published in June by Princeton University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers in Nature Climate Change. Read more in The Atlantic.
An efficient, high-volume technique for testing potential drug treatments for Alzheimer's disease uncovered an organic compound that restored motor function and longevity to fruit flies.
The Symposium offers fascinating scholarship extending across the humanities, social and natural sciences, and engineering.
The Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, known as PIIRS, is dedicated to furthering interdisciplinary, international research and teaching at Princeton.
Fusion will transform how we energize our society, argues Stewart C. Prager, the director of the Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and a professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University, in the New York Times blog, Dot Earth.
Princeton University and Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory researchers Emily Carter, Choong-Seock Chang, William Tang and Jeroen Tromp are among the recipients of the Department of Energy’s 2013 Innovative and Novel Computational Impact of Theory and Experiment (INCITE) multi-year award.
Researchers from Princeton University, the Bank of England and the University of Oxford applied methods inspired by ecosystem stability and contagion models to banking meltdowns and found that large national and international banks wield an influence and potentially destructive power that far exceeds their actual size.
A study published in the journal Nature finds that global drought has changed little over the past 60 years, casting doubt on the view that climate change has led to more incidents of drought. The research by Justin Sheffield, a research scholar in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University, and Eric Wood, Princeton's Susan Dod Brown Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was featured in New Scientist magazine. Read the article.
Princeton University President and molecular biologist Shirley M. Tilghman urged a new approach to science education that involves tackling big questions in tandem with learning the basics. She spoke Tuesday at Harvard University.
Recent research suggests that a short-term focus on immediate needs might lead individuals to borrow too much at high cost.
A private-market approach to bringing affordable malaria treatments to people in Africa has increased access to care.
The American Mathematical Society selected 19 Princeton professors to be among its inaugural class of Fellows. The class includes 1,119 researchers from more than 600 institutions worldwide.
Princeton neuroscientists have been awarded a $4 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation to explore how the human brain enables us to pursue goals and juggle priorities in an environment full of distractions.
New research suggests that just one or two individual herpes virus particles attack a skin cell in the first stage of an outbreak, resulting in a bottleneck in which the infection may be vulnerable to medical treatment.
Ilana Witten, a new assistant professor in psychology and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, received the NIH Director's New Innovator Award for 2012.
Every four years, Princeton neuroscientist Sam Wang successfully predicts the outcome of the presidential election. Find out how he does it in this article in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Evolution, often perceived as a series of random changes, might in fact be driven by a simple and repeated genetic solution to an environmental pressure.
How do protozoans take out the trash? By marking trash DNA with special methyl markers. The study, published in Genome Biology, refutes previous findings that these single-cell organisms have methylation-free DNA. The work was conducted in the laboratory of Laura Landweber, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton University.
Princeton researchers found that elephants' widely spaced hairs draw heat away from the skin, helping the animals cool down.
New laser sensors use quantum cascade lasers to perform chemical fingerprinting of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane and water vapor, as well as ammonia and carbon monoxide, which are related to air quality. These trace gas sensors were developed in laboratories that are part of Princeton's Mid-InfraRed Technologies for Health and the Environment (MIRTHE), a center funded by the National Science Foundation.
Microorganisms that crashed to Earth embedded in the fragments of distant planets might have been the sprouts of life on this one, according to new research from Princeton University, the University of Arizona and the Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) in Spain.
Why do elephants have hair? The answer can be found in the research of Elie Bou-Zeid, a Princeton University assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering and his colleagues. "Hair works as an insulator when it covers the skin," said Elie Bou-Zeid, in a Princeton news release on the report, which appeared in the journal PLoS One. Read the CNN article.
Princeton chemistry professor Paul Chirik makes iron function like platinum in chemical reactions. Read about Paul Chirik, Princeton's Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Chemistry, in the New York Times.
Crucial next steps on the roadmap to developing fusion energy will be the focus of more than 70 top fusion scientists and engineers from around the world who will gather at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) this month.
Catalyst could have uses in drug discovery and development.
Can science be crowdfunded?
Yes, according to Ethan Perlstein, a fellow at Princeton University's Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, and colleague David Sulzer at Columbia University.
View their outline of a proposal to crowdfund a project to discover how amphetamines such as crystal meth work, or read a description in a Scientific American blog on Oct. 5, 2012.
Perlstein's research focuses on cell biology, personalized medicine and quantitative evolutionary theory &ndas
A center based at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) has won a highly competitive $12.25 million grant to develop computer codes to simulate a key component of the plasma that fuels fusion energy.
Topics related to water are explored in the most recent issue of EQuad News, the magazine of the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
Topics include:
A trip to Nevada's Lake Mead provides a stark reminder of dramatically changing drought patterns.
Global changes mean a complex future for tropical storms.
Trends in "virtual water" trade.
Dams on Mekong River could spell disaster for fisheries.
Cutting through the clouds to re
As countries such as China stretch their water supplies, they turn to countries with more abundant water supplies for food.
Discover Magazine spoke with Tullis Onstott, professor of geosciences at Princeton University, for the magazine's July-August 2012 edition. Onstott describes his trip to a South African mine and tells how what we learn about these environments could assist our understanding of the planet Mars. Read the article in Discover.
Planet-hunter Bakos talks about using a network of small telescopes to search outside our solar system.
Four student teams presented their enterprise concepts to venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and business people from the Princeton area and beyond.
Princeton ranks 5th among U.S. universities in the amount of income generated from the licensing of research innovations, according to a survey by the Association of University Technology Managers. Read the article at Inside Higher Education.
Princeton University’s Cooperative Institute for Climate Science will receive $3 million to create detailed models of the earth's climate and gain a better undestanding of how climage change affects life on earth. Read more on NJ.com.
A video game designed for predatory fish addresses lingering evolutionary questions about group formation and movement in animals, according to a new paper in Science
Researchers report in the journal Science that an area of our brain called the pulvinar regulates communication between clusters of brain cells as we focus on the people and objects that need our attention
Duncan Haldane, Princeton's Eugene Higgs Professor of Physics, was one of three researchers to be awarded the Dirac medal from the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy for their work on topological insulators. Read more at Physicsworld.com.
The second in a series of profiles of graduate students and post-docs in the Department of Chemistry across the spectrum of specialties: organic, inorganic, physical, chemical biology and theoretical. This profile features postdoctoral researcher Kevin Welsher in the physical chemistry group of Associate Professor Haw Yang.
Climate change could almost completely wipe out the eastern Pacific leatherback sea turtle by the end of the century, according to a new study led by Princeton and NOAA researchers.
Four Princeton University faculty members have been selected as Simons Investigators in the inaugural year of a prestigious program aimed at supporting research by mathematicians, theoretical physicists, and theoretical computer scientists.
Two Princeton University professors have received the 2012 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their research careers.
A new telescope capable of surveying large areas of the sky and increasing our understanding of dark energy and dark matter is one step closer to construction.
A new technology allows data centers to substitute flash memory for the more expensive and energy-intensive RAM, potentially reducing data storage costs. The technology is being commercialized by flash memory-maker Fusion-io and is under evaluation by other industry partners.
A team of Princeton University physicists and students have made major contributions to the hunt for the Higgs boson, a particle much smaller than an atom theorized to be crucial to understanding the nature of the world around us.
New supercomputers, operating at a speed called the "exascale," will produce realistic simulations of dazzlingly complex phenomena in nature such as fusion reactions, earthquakes and climate change.
Molecular biologist and Princeton University President Shirley M. Tilghman explains why biomedical graduate level training needs renovation. Tilghman serves as chair of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Biomedical Research Workforce Working Group.
Researchers found that the oral-facial component of human speech mirrors the rhythm, development and internal dynamics of lip smacking, a friendly back-and-forth gesture performed by primates such as chimpanzees, baboons and macaques.
Mothers living within 30 kilometers of a hurricane's path during their third trimester were 60 percent more likely to have a newborn with abnormal conditions, a Princeton study found.
Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment is dedicated to environmental protection and conservation, the study of sustainable energy, and tackling the issues related to our use of non-renewable fuels.
A Princeton University-led team of scientists has shown how electrons moving in certain solids can behave as though they are a thousand times more massive than free electrons, yet at the same time act as speedy superconductors.
Scientists around the globe are searching for ways to store, dispose of, or prevent the formation of the greenhouse gas, which is a major driver of global climate change.
View from top (left) and side (right) of nanopillars
New research reveals that nervous system viruses, such as herpes, sabotage nerve cell and commandeer their mitochondria to spread.
Taking their cue from the humble leaf, researchers have used microscopic folds on the surface of photovoltaic material to significantly increase the power output of flexible, low-cost solar cells.
Rocks preserved in the Earth's crust reveal that a steep decline in the intensity of melting within the planet's mantle brought about ideal conditions for the period known as the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE) that occurred roughly 2.5 billion years ago.
Day-to-day weather variations are growing more erratic and more extreme for at least one-third of the global climate.
Bogdan Bernevig, the Eugene and Mary Wigner Assistant Professor in Theoretical Physics in Princeton's Department of Physics, is among 11 researchers nationwide to receive a 2012 Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists from the New York Academy of Sciences
Male baboons that have a high rank within their society recover more quickly from injuries and are less likely to become ill than other males, according to a study by a team from University of Notre Dame, Duke University and Princeton University.
Considered the father of computer science, Turing earned his Ph.D. in mathematics from Princeton in 1938.
Watch the video.
Princeton's Michael Bender explains how tiny bubbles trapped for centuries in Antarctic ice, can reveal the history of the Earth's climate. Read the article in Climate Central.
Iain Couzin, assistant professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University, studies collective animal behavior.
Building relationships between the researchers and students of Princeton University and education institutions around the world.
An unique research collaboration blossomed when a Princeton University researcher took her dog Jessy for cancer treatment at the University of Pennsylvania
A nitrogen sensor that can monitor environmental change, a "no-frills" quantum computer and a laboratory small enough to fit inside a single cell are the three technologies selected to receive support this year at Princeton University from the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Transformative Technology Fund.
Comparing wages across countries can be challenging. To address this, Orley Ashenfelter came up with the Big Mac Index, a measure of the number of minutes it takes for a McDonald's worker to earn enough money to buy a Big Mac sandwich.
Research within the Center for African American Studies (CAAS) is interdisciplinary in nature and part of a broader endeavor to understand history and experiences of African Americans.
Members elected in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.
The Carbon Mitigation Initiative is a 15-year joint project of Princeton University, BP and Ford Motor company with the goal of finding solutions to the carbon and climate problem.
Researchers at Princeton University have created a removable tattoo that adheres to dental enamel and could eventually monitor a patient’s health with unprecedented sensitivity.
A new report released by Princeton University and the Brookings Institution found that the most common disabiliteis in children have shifted from physical disorders toward mental health and behavioral disorders.
Immersive 3-D sound developed at Princeton University makes its way into a new product, the Jawbone Big Jambox.
Taking their cue from the humble leaf, researchers have used microscopic folds on the surface of photovoltaic material to significantly increase the power output of flexible, low-cost solar cells.
Princeton researchers Andrew Gallup and Ian Couzin studied street crowds to identify what makes us follow the gazes of perfect strangers and look up at something that everyone else seems to be watching. The researchers found that, contrary to research conducted in the 1960s, the copying of other people's actions is much less strong than was observed in those early studies, and people do not reach a "tipping point' at which everyone starts to look. The work was covered in Discover Magazine's blog
A massive expansion of hydropower planned for the Mekong River Basin in Southeast Asia could have a catastrophic impact on the river's fishery and millions of people who depend on it, according to a new study by researchers including scientists from Princeton University.
Student engineers win $90,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to further develop and implement a portable energy generator intended for use in remote or disaster-torn regions. project.
Researchers at the Combustion Energy Frontier Research Center (CEFRC) are finding ways to enhance combustion efficiency, reduce emissions, explore carbon-neutral fuels and contribute to the formulation of fundamentally new fuels and engines.
Princeton University researchers have found that the expectation that life — from bacteria to sentient beings — has or will develop on other planets as on Earth might be based more on optimism than scientific evidence.
A study in yeast cells sheds light on antidepressant drug effects.
The two-day meeting of the Carbon Mitigation Initiative explored policies and technologies for addressing greenhouse gases and climate change.
Two Princeton University professors are among the noted scientists elected as fellows of the Royal Society in 2012. David MacMillan, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry and chair of the department, was among 44 scientists around the world to be named a fellow of the Royal Society. Bonnie Bassler, Princeton's Squibb Professor of Molecular Biology, was one of eight researchers named foreign members of the society.
Texas' policy of admitting the top 10% of graduating high school seniors to its public universities coincided with a drop in the proportion of Hispanic student admissions at the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University, found a study by Princeton's Angel L. Harris, an assistant professor of sociology, and Marta Tienda, a professor of sociology and public affairs. The 10% policy was created after race-conscious admissions were banned by a federal judge. The findings were
The secret to the development of fusion as a clean and abundant source of energy for producing electric power could lie in the destruction of bubble-like islands that appear in the hot, charged gases.
The Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics (PACM) is home to researchers who create innovative and quantitative approaches and apply them to today's unsolved problems in science, economics, and engineering.
There is more than one route to success, says Jeanne Altmann, Eugene Higgins Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Emeritus, Princeton University in Scientific American Blogs.
A.J. Stewart Smith, who has served as Princeton University's first dean for research since 2006, will assume a newly created position as vice president for the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) to serve as the University's primary liaison with DOE.
Student research suggests a potential new chemotherapeutic approach for treating certain cancers.
As featured in CNN, US News & World Report, Education Week and many other outlets, young girls growing up in difficult home and family situations were at increased risk of becoming obese by age 5. These challenges challenges include a mother's mental illness or substance abuse, intimate partner violence, housing or food insecurity, or a father's incarceration. The study was conducted using data from Princeton University's Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study and was published online in the
Princeton's Program in Latin American Studies (PLAS) brings together scholars, artists, students and experts to explore the many facets of Latin America.
At the forefront in providing research to guide policies that protect consumers and enable secure technologies for voting, commerce and many other applications.
The study found that household income alone accounts for more than half of the racial imbalance among both men and women, while more than a quarter of the gaps can be attributed to educational differences alone. Surprisingly, marital status was significantly more influential in extending life expectancy for men than for women.
A metal lining inside a fusion reactor could make all the difference in the quest to produce clean and abundant energy.
A sensor embedded in a tooth could monitor your health. The sensor, developed in the lab of Princeton's Michael McAlpine, is featured in the Daily Mail.
In 2010-2011, the Pace Center offered more than 1,680 opportunities for civic engagement.
Results from neutrino experiments in China by international team enable search for antimatter
New collaboration to study plasma physics.
Research that enhances the fundamental understanding of natural climate variability and human influence on climate.
Twitter traffic on movies doesn't predict box office success, found Felix Ming Fai Wong, a graduate student in Mung Chiang's lab at Princeton University
The device can heat a spot of foil to 30,000 degrees Centigrade in less than a billionth of a second.
Elusive kSZ effect found, could provide insight on dark energy and dark matter.
With an emphasis on quantitative approaches, the Bendheim Center for Finance attracts the world’s leading experts in finance from academia, government and the private sector.
Princeton neuroscientists followed the brain activity of mice as they navigated a virtual reality maze, uncovering new information about the neurons involved in making memories.
Students meet with faculty members in physics and integrative genomics
With a focus on health and wellbeing, exploring how public policies can influence health and quality of life, and training future leaders in health and health policy.
The 7th Annual Innovation Forum showcased eight exciting concepts for novel products or start-up companies.
Spanning the traditional disciplines of science and engineering, PRISM brings together academia and industry to advance material science research and educate the next generation of leaders.
A Princeton University-led research team raises questions about how tropical forests might respond if they were to become exposed to additional nitrogen through water and air pollution.
Princeton University-based researchers have found that a "universal" vaccine could for the first time allow for the effective, wide-scale prevention of flu by limiting the influenza virus' ability to spread and mutate.
Princeton's Edgar Choueiri and his team seek to create a 3-D sound experience so realistic that it could revolutionize entertainment.
Educating leaders for a technology-driven society
A study led by researchers at Princeton University has yielded insights into how liquid spreads along flexible fibers, which could allow for increased efficiency in various industrial applications.
Researchers find that allowing cattle to graze on the same land as wild animals can result in healthier, meatier bovines by enhancing the cows' diet. The findings suggest a new approach to raising cattle that could help spare wildlife.
Hurricanes and tropical storms could become far more common in low-lying coastal areas, according to a new study by researchers from Princeton University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Dedicated to improving children's lives, the Center focuses on research and policy in fields such as education, child health, economic insecurity and neighborhood quality.
The Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics is dedicated to an interdisciplinary approach to the study of modern biology.
Vorbeck Materials, a startup company founded on discoveries made at Princeton University, has been named as one of three winning startup companies in the U.S. Department of Energy's America’s Next Top Energy Innovator Challenge.
At Princeton, high-performance computing resources are available to researchers from all academic departments and disciplines.
Five Princeton faculty teams are the new recipients of support from a University fund designed to help propel promising discoveries out of the laboratory into products and technologies that can benefit society.
A family history of psychiatric conditions such as autism and depression could influence the subjects a person finds engaging, Princeton researchers find.
Survivors of Hurricane Katrina have struggled with poor mental health for years after the storm, according to a new study of low-income mothers in the New Orleans area.
The study's lead author, Christina Paxson of Princeton University, said that the results were a departure from other surveys both in the design and the results. The researchers were able to collect data on the participants before Katrina and nearly five years after the August 2005 storm, finding a persistence of po
EQuad News (Winter 2012) offers a snapshot of health-related research at Princeton Engineering.
Princeton technologies and the inventors behind them were featured at an annual event honoring faculty members and investment partners.
Lyman Page, chair of the Department of Physics, was selected to present the Kavli Foundation Plenary Lecture at the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting in Austin. The Kavli Foundation Plenary Lectureship recognizes a recent research topic of great importance.
A rare and exotic mineral, so unusual that it was thought impossible to exist, came to Earth on a meteorite, according to an international team of researchers led by Princeton University scientists.
The Princeton Research Symposium is an annual opportunity for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers to present their work to a broad audience of fellow students, faculty members, alumni and community members.
Researchers at Princeton have found a way to extend their control over the spins of billions of electrons for up to 10 seconds.
The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) is getting an earlier-than-expected start on a $94 million project as the next stage of its mission to chart an attractive course for the development of nuclear fusion as a clean, safe and abundant fuel for generating electricity.
Contrary to the ideal of a completely engaged electorate, individuals who have the least interest in a specific outcome can actually be vital to achieving a democratic consensus. These individuals dilute the influence of powerful minority factions who would otherwise dominate everyone else, according to new research published in the journal Science.
A Princeton University-based research team reports Dec. 16 that this finding — based on group decision-making experiments on fish, as
In an effort to accelerate innovation in sustainable energy and environmental technology, a collaborative network known as the Princeton Energy and Environment Corporate Affiliates Program has been created at Princeton University to engage a wide range of businesses.
Princeton University alumnus Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive officer of Amazon.com, and alumna MacKenzie Bezos, are donating $15 million to the University to create a center in the Princeton Neuroscience Institute. The gift will establish the Bezos Center for Neural Circuit Dynamics, which will be led by institute co-director David Tank.
Jeff Bezos was an electrical engineering and computer science major at the University who graduated from Princeton with highest honors an
Normally used to spot where people live, satellite images of nighttime lights can help keep tabs on the diseases festering among them, too, according to new research.
After several years of planning and more than a year of construction, Princeton University's High-Performance Computing Research Center opened its doors this week. The facility gives researchers on campus new capacity to tackle some of the world's most complex scientific challenges.
Researchers report this month in the journal Science a technique using robotics to perform more than 1,000 chemical reactions a day with molecules never before combined. In a single day of trials, the Princeton researchers discovered a shortcut for producing pharmaceutical-like compounds that shaves weeks off the traditional process.
Science deans and educators from universities and colleges around the state came to Princeton University to discuss ways to revive the state's economy and create jobs through programs in science, technology, engineering and math.
Princeton researchers reported this month in the journal Science that savanna wildfires, combined with climate conditions, maintain the distinct border between savannas and forests in many tropical and subtropical areas. But climate change, road construction and fire-prevention measures threaten to disrupt this balance.
A new policy approved this fall by Princeton faculty members gives the University and faculty members rights to republish scholarly articles.The policy is intended to make the faculty's scholarly articles, published in journals and conference proceedings, available to a wider audience.
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) are conducting experiments on a process known as "magnetic reconnection," one of the most common but least understood phenomena in the universe.
Princeton University researchers have developed a new model that can not only more accurately simulate the seismic fallout of such an impact, but also help reveal new information about the surface and interior of planets based on past collisions.
Seeking to better understand the level of death and destruction that would result from a large meteorite striking the Earth, Princeton University researchers have developed a new model that can not only more accurately simulate the seismic fallout of such an impact, but also help reveal new information about the surface and interior of planets based on past collisions.
Princeton researchers created the first model to take into account Earth's elliptical shape, surface features and ocean dep
Princeton University professor Christopher Sims has been awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in economics along with Thomas Sargent, a New York University economist who is a visiting professor at Princeton, for developing tools to analyze the effect of monetary policy on the economy.
A giant Jupiter-like gas planet has been revealed to be the most light-thirsty object in the known universe -- a finding that may help astronomers better understand a mysterious characteristic of similar planets found outside our solar system.
Benjamin Garcia of Princeton's Department of Molecular Biology and Amit Singer of the Department of Mathematics have received the 2010 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their research careers.
The American Physical Society announced today, Sept. 26, 2011, that Professor Robert J. Cava of Princeton University will be the recipient of the 2012 James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials sponsored by IBM.
A course in the responsible conduct of research is required for all federally funded students and postdoctoral researchers in the natural sciences, mathematics, engineering and the social sciences.
A team of researchers from Princeton and New York University have unveiled a ready-made method for detecting the collision of stars with an elusive type of black hole that is on the short list of objects believed to make up dark matter.
Princeton research reported in the Sept. 13 issue of the journal PLoS Medicine shows for the first time that people recovering from a serious injury -- regardless of age, gender or previous health -- exhibit similar gene activity as their condition changes, which doctors can use to predict and prepare for a patient's deterioration.
Frick Chemistry Laboratory — the new home of the University's Department of Chemistry — presents the perfect staging area to break scientific ground, to engage students by actively involving them in cutting-edge work, and — according to the department's leader — to provide "the best education in undergraduate chemistry in the world."
Problems in energy systems analysis require making decisions in the presence of different sources of uncertainty.
The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, which is managed by the University, is devoted both to creating new knowledge about the physics of plasmas -- ultrahot, charged gases -- and to developing practical solutions for the creation of fusion energy. Through the process of fusion, which is constantly occurring in the sun and other stars, energy is created when the nuclei of two lightweight atoms, such as those of hydrogen, combine in a plasma at very high temperatures. When this happens, a burst
Real-world scenes, such as cityscapes or mountain vistas, are cluttered and contain many different objects. The capacity of the visual system to process the information that is present in these scenes is rather limited, so the brain has developed neural mechanisms to select the information that is most relevant for guiding current behavior.
In our research published in the Journal of Political Economy, we considered an urban revitalization program implemented in Richmond, Virginia, which subsidized housing investments in poor neighborhoods. The magnitude and scope of the measured housing externalities indicates that the social value of this policy was positive and large. It also suggests that the current wave of foreclosures is probably reducing the value of urban land in the U.S. way beyond its direct effect on foreclosed homes.
Founded in 1994, the Princeton Environmental Institute (PEI) is the interdisciplinary center of environmental research, education and outreach at Princeton University.
As research becomes increasingly interdisciplinary and complicated, international partnerships are crucial for finding answers to pressing societal challenges, maintaining Princeton's status as a leading research university, bolstering American competitiveness, and providing critical educational opportunities and international experiences to Princeton students who will become the leaders of tomorrow's increasingly global world.
Mathematics professor Manjul Bhargava and graduate student Arul Shankar are shaping the understanding of elliptic curves. Beyond advancing the subject of number theory in general, a heightened understanding of elliptic curves also has important implications in coding theory and cryptography. Encryption schemes, such as those used to protect our privacy when transmitting information online, often centrally involve the use of elliptic curves and the connect-the-dots construction.
Discovery: Research at Princeton University, produced by the Office of the Dean for Research in collaboration with the Office of Communications, reports on significant research endeavors and discoveries, faculty honors, notable awards, recent books and the University’s research administration. The latest edition, published in 2011, is now available.
Princeton University inventors mixed with industry representatives, investors and entrepreneurs at Celebrate Princeton Invention, an annual event that honors University researchers.
Princeton researchers have invented an extremely sensitive sensor that opens up new ways to detect a wide range of substances, from biological markers of cancer to hidden explosives.
There are few studies of how motion of the surrounding fluid affects biofilms -- sticky aggregations of microorganisms that grow on wet surfaces ranging from riverbeds to sewer pipes to human teeth. Using a combination of approaches, we found that that string-like filaments called streamers that are formed by biofilms may be much more common than previously believed and that their presence can have a major impact on various flow processes, such as how biomass accumulates in filters.
A team of researchers, including Jeanne Altmann, a Princeton University professor of ecology and evolutionary biology emeritus, has found that the slow pace of human aging is not as unique as once thought. The findings were published in the March 11 issue of the journal Science.
Alireza Shabani, a postdoctoral research associate in chemistry at Princeton University, and an international team of scientists have removed a major obstacle in the quest to engineer quantum systems that will play a major role in the computers, communication networks and biomedical devices of the future.
Warren Powell, a professor of operations research and financial engineering at Princeton University, has received $3.5 million in funding for his energy systems research over the next five years. The support comes from SAP, a major provider of business software, and is intended to help its clients in the energy industry operate more effectively.
Princeton researchers have developed a new method to better understand how an embryo's basic molecular makeup helps ensure that the embryo's development occurs reliably every time.
A team led by Thomas Gregor, an assistant professor of physics and the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton University, and Shawn Little, a visiting postdoctoral research associate in the laboratory of Professor Eric Wieschaus in the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton, has pu
In a discovery that may lead to a new treatment for breast cancer that has spread to the bone, a Princeton University research team has unraveled a mystery about how these tumors take root.
Alexander Smits and Richard Miles, professors of mechanical and aerospace engineering, and Christodoulos Floudas, professor of chemical and biological engineering, have been elected as 2011 members of the National Academy of Engineering.
Using mathematical concepts, Princeton researchers have developed a method of discovering new drugs for a range of diseases by calculating which physical properties of biological molecules may predict their effectiveness as medicines. The technique already has identified several potential new drugs that were shown to be effective for fighting strains of HIV by researchers at Johns Hopkins University.
Princeton University engineers have developed a new laser-sensing technology that may allow soldiers to detect hidden bombs from a distance and scientists to better measure airborne environmental pollutants and greenhouse gases.
CMI has received a commitment of $11 million from BP as part of an extension of their partnership first announced in October 2008.
As the nation prepares to celebrate the life and achievements of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., work by researchers at Princeton and Columbia Universities shows King's dream deferred for millions of children. The reason? A significant increase over the past 40 years in the percentage of children born into fragile families, defined as couples who are unmarried when their children are born.
A project that could enable the development of revolutionary electronics and a separate project that could dramatically improve diabetes monitoring and treatment are the first two research efforts to be supported at Princeton University from the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Transformative Technology Fund.
Matthias Kaschube, a lecturer in physics and the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton University, published results of research into the factors determining development of the brain's neural circuits in the Nov. 4 online edition of Science Express.
The Gigascale Systems Research Center, a Princeton-led consortium of dozens of researchers across 15 universities, focuses on solving a range of technical hurdles that are emerging as computing demands strain the capabilities of current processor design technology. The scientists are exploring new designs, programming techniques and applications of computing.