A $10 million gift from Louis Simpson, an alumnus of Princeton’s Graduate School, has established the Louis A. Simpson Center for the Study of Macroeconomics in the University’s Department of Economics.

Read more about Louis A. Simpson Center

Valerie Smith, Princeton University’s dean of the college, has been named the next president of Swarthmore College. Swarthmore’s Board of Managers approved her appointment Feb. 21. Smith, who is also the Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature and a professor of English and African American studies, will remain at Princeton through June 30, the end of the academic year. On July 1, she will assume office at Swarthmore, a top-ranked liberal arts college near Philadelphia.

Read more about Valerie Smith’s appointment

More than 1,000 Princeton University alumni, students, faculty and friends marked the 100th anniversary of Alumni Day on Feb. 20-21, recognizing alumni achievements and celebrating the centennial with academic, arts and other events across campus.

Read more about Alumni Day

A new video series features the work of Princeton University graduate students and a postdoctoral researcher working in Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park, one of the world’s most biologically rich habitats. The videos show how the park provides researchers with invaluable and unforgettable field experience, as well as an opportunity to revive a vast wilderness in critical need of help.

Watch the video on postdoc research in Mozambique

Musician, musicologist, bibliophile and philanthropist William H. Scheide, a 1936 Princeton University alumnus who died in November at age 100, has left his extraordinary collection of some 2,500 rare printed books and manuscripts to Princeton University. With an expected appraised value of nearly $300 million, it is the largest gift in the University’s history.

Read more about Scheide donation

At Princeton’s Bendheim Center for Finance, researchers are strengthening connections between the often separate disciplines of finance, economics, engineering and public policy — an inclusive approach that helps bring clarity to today’s rapidly evolving economy.

Read more about BCF’s pioneering work

Chairs and members have been chosen for the steering committee and three working groups that are part of the Council of the Princeton University Community (CPUC) Special Task Force on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Read more about the CPUC special task force

Princeton University research suggests that termite mounds can help prevent the spread of deserts into semi-arid ecosystems and agricultural lands. The results not only suggest that termite mounds could make these areas more resilient to climate change than previously thought, but could also inspire a change in how scientists determine the possible effects of climate change on ecosystems.

Read more about termite research and desertification

Enlisting the help of computer scientists and librarians, Associate Professor of English Meredith Martin began in 2011 to build the Princeton Prosody Archive, a full-text searchable database of more than 10,000 digitized records published between 1750 and 1923. Currently in beta-testing, the Prosody Archive will be accessible to the public this year, with full access to the archive by 2017.

Read more about the prosody archive

Students in the course “Social Psychology” called on concepts from the course about the way people think about, feel and behave in social situations to tackle questions from a range of New Jersey nonprofit groups.

Read more about the “Social Psychology” course

Two new online resources are available for anyone wanting to learn about the Princeton University campus planning effort to establish a framework to guide the evolution of the campus from 2016 through 2026, and beyond.

Learn more about the Campus Plan

Princeton University trustees Jan. 31 approved the University’s operating budget for 2015-16, which includes a 7.4 percent increase to $140.2 million in the undergraduate financial aid budget for next year. The University’s pioneering financial aid program provides the assistance necessary to make sure that any student who is admitted and needs financial aid can attend. The aid comes in the form of grants, which do not need to be repaid.

Read more about the financial aid budget