Notebook: November 22, 1995

Commemorating the First 250 Years
New Math and Science Courses
In Memoriam

Commemorating the First 250 Years

Illustrated book richly details the high points of Princeton's history

Don Oberdorfer '52 is a busy man. Since he retired from the Washington Post after 38 years as a journalist, he has been writing articles and books-including a contemporary history of Korea-that involve a lot of research, a lot of travel, a lot of work.
When Oberdorfer got a call in 1993 asking if he would write the text for a book to mark the 250th anniversary of his alma mater, he admits, "It wasn't the most convenient thing in the world. But I can't turn down Princeton. I was honored to be asked."
The book has just been published. In 272 pages with nearly 500 illustrations, Princeton University: The First 250 Years presents the history of the university from its founding in 1746 to the present-and a look beyond, in an interview with President Shapiro and a group of students on Princeton's future. Interspersed among the text are short segments on such topics as "The Princeton Tiger," "The Vanished Campus," and "Things Named After Princeton."
"From the beginning," says Oberdorfer, "the book was conceived not as a comprehensive, scholarly tome but as a more readable, journalistic treatment of the 'hot spots' of Princeton history-about half text, half pictures; half focusing on the years before World War II and half on the modern era."
"The images were intended to complement the text and expand on it," says J. T. Miller '70, the illustrations editor, "to maintain contact with the text and also to tell some stories that are purely visual."
The book sells for $69.50 and is available at the University Store or by calling 1-800-777-4726.

This story was adapted from an article in the Princeton Weekly Bulletin by Sally Freedman.

New Math and Science Courses

For the AB students who happily left math and science behind when they finished high school, two new courses designed specifically for nonscience and nonengineering students may make them change their minds.
Math 199: "Math Alive" and Science and Technology Council (STC) 198: "Origins and Beginnings: Origins of Life" will be offered next spring. STC 199: "Origins of the Human Condition" will be offered next fall.
STC 198 and 199 will provide students a new option for satisfying the two semesters of lab science required of all AB students.
Molecular-biology professor Shirley M. Tilghman, chemistry professor Maitland Jones, Jr., and physics professor David T. Wilkinson developed the interdisciplinary courses, because they felt students didn't have enough "attractive" options in fulfilling the science requirement. "We're worried that the science requirement does more to turn students off to science, permanently, than illuminate it," said Tilghman, one of the four professors who will teach the two-course series.
The first half of the series, STC 198, taught by Jones and Wilkinson, begins with the formation of the universe and its organization. It then moves to the development from individual atoms of macromolecules, the basis for the evolution of biological structures.
STC 199, taught by Tilghman and Rosemary Grant, a lecturer in ecology and environmental biology (who with her husband, Peter, was profiled in the January 25 PAW), will focus on human evolution.
Math 199, which will fulfill the new quantitative-reasoning requirement, is "designed for students in humanities and social sciences who don't want to take a regular math course but want to understand the application of mathematics in the real world," Eva R. Gossman, an associate dean of the college, explained.
The course was conceived by Ingrid C. Daubechies, a professor of applied and computational mathematics. She will teach it in conjunction with Phillip J. Holmes, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.

This story was adapted from one written by Dune Lawrence '97 for The Daily Princetonian.

In Memoriam

Leslie L. "Bud" Vivian, Jr. '42, a former associate secretary and director of community affairs for the university, died of prostate cancer October 18 at his home in Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts. He was 76.
Beloved by many people in the university and the greater Princeton community, Vivian retired from Princeton in 1986. Upon his departure, the local press lamented the loss of the university's "ambassador of goodwill."
Vivian joined the university administration in 1948 and served in a number of positions: administrative officer for Project Squid, a Princeton-based jet-propulsion program; assistant to the chair of the physics department; assistant executive officer of the Committee on Project Research and Inventions; and associate director of the Office of Research and Project Administration. In 1967 he was named executive director of university relations, responsible to the president for coordinating all fund-raising activities, alumni affairs, and public relations, including community relations.
In 1970 he assumed the newly created post of director of community and regional affairs. Under Vivian's aegis, the university made the symbolic gesture of keeping the FitzRandolph Gates permanently open.

paw@princeton.edu