Patricia Fernández-Kelly, a professor of sociology at Princeton, has received the 2020 ASA Distinguished Career Award for the Practice of Sociology from the American Sociological Association (ASA).
Historian Kevin Kruse is mining the newly opened John Doar Papers at Princeton’s Public Policy Papers for his next book, which will reconsider the civil rights era through the life and legacy of Princeton alumnus John Doar, an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division from 1960 to 1967.
Traditionally, engineering students have learned about the thermodynamics of gas turbines by studying diagrams and solving equations, but this year they also donned hard hats, safety glasses and ear plugs to tour a plant that produces electricity for half a million homes.
Princeton’s Laurence Ralph has focused his research on police violence against black and brown people. His new book, “The Torture Letters: Reckoning with Police Violence,” examines a particularly dark chapter in Chicago history: the torture of people of color at the hands of police from the mid-1970s to the early 2000s.
Could the division of labor in an anthill be driven by the same social dynamics governing the gap between liberals and conservatives? That was the surprising question tackled by Princeton biologists Chris Tokita and Corina Tarnita.
https://www.princeton.edu/news/2020/01/08/ants-and-men-ant-behavior-might-mirror-political-polarization-say-princeton
Have you ever played with a baby and felt a sense of connection, even though they couldn’t yet talk to you? New Princeton research suggests that you might quite literally be “on the same wavelength,” experiencing similar brain activity in the same brain regions.
https://www.princeton.edu/news/2020/01/09/baby-and-adult-brains-sync-during-play-finds-princeton-baby-lab
Princeton University will join with community organizations on Monday, Jan. 20, to support the Arts Council of Princeton’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day community event.
https://www.princeton.edu/news/2020/01/13/mlk-day-program-be-held-arts-council-princeton
Princeton seniors Gabriela Oseguera Serra and Yousef Elzalabany, and University of Oxford student Matteo Parisi have been named recipients of the Daniel M. Sachs Class of 1960 Graduating Scholarship, one of Princeton University’s highest awards.
Princeton climatologist Michael Oppenheimer appeared on CBS’s “60 Minutes” on Jan. 12, speaking with John Dickerson about the threat that rising sea level poses to Venice and other cities.
https://www.princeton.edu/news/2020/01/13/sea-level-rise-speeding-says-princeton-climatologist-michael-oppenheimer
A Princeton-led team of astrophysicists has shown that the exoplanet WASP-12b, located 600 light-years away in the constellation Auriga, is spiraling in toward its host star, heading toward certain destruction in about 3 million years. https://www.princeton.edu/news/2020/01/07/planet-wasp-12b-death-spiral-say-scientists
Understanding the human psyche is complex, for ordinary people and scientists alike. Now, researchers at Princeton University have created a new tool for social scientists to study human psychology through a series of fun, thought-provoking activities. https://www.princeton.edu/news/2020/01/07/no-laboratory-needed-person-project-mines-social-science-data-secure-online
A new system that uses artificial intelligence to track animal movements is poised to aid a wide range of studies, from exploring new drugs that affect behavior to ecological research. The approach, developed by Princeton researchers, can be used with laboratory animals such as fruit flies and mice as well as larger animals. https://www.princeton.edu/news/2020/01/08/ai-based-motion-capture-system-animals-has-applications-drug-development-ecology
Irvin Glassman, a leading authority on combustion and propulsion who served on the Princeton faculty for 49 years, died Dec. 14, 2019, at his home in Princeton. He was 96. https://www.princeton.edu/news/2020/01/02/irvin-glassman-grand-old-man-combustion-dies-96
Building on his lab’s expertise in human liver pathogens, Princeton’s Alexander Ploss and his team have pioneered new screening platforms and new methods to evaluate therapeutic candidates against hepatitis B and E viruses, which cause life-threatening infections. https://www.princeton.edu/news/2019/12/31/identifying-new-drugs-cure-hepatitis-b-and-e-virus-infection
This past summer, six Princeton students from different academic backgrounds embarked on the inaugural year of the language immersion program in Pisa, Italy. For four weeks, students explored various themes, ultimately improving their Italian language proficiency while simultaneously gaining a deeper understanding of the country’s rich and diverse cultural heritage. https://www.princeton.edu/news/2019/12/23/immersive-italy-princeton-launches-summer-program-pisa
To explore issues of social stratification and poverty and their connection to identity formation, students in the “Identity in the Hispanic World” course traveled to Guatemala over fall break to participate in a service-learning program at a nonprofit organization that addresses education, health care and housing in towns near Antigua. https://www.princeton.edu/news/2019/12/23/students-explore-identity-hispanic-world
Artist Maya Lin was recently on campus to celebrate the completion of two major public art commissions for the University. https://www.princeton.edu/news/2020/01/06/maya-lin-connecting-art-and-environment
On Jan. 2, 2020, a collection of 1,131 letters from Nobel laureate and renowned writer Thomas Stearns Eliot, better known as T.S. Eliot, to his lifelong friend Emily Hale opened for research at Princeton University Library. Dating from 1930 to 1957, the letters are the largest single series of Eliot’s correspondence and among the best-known sealed literary archives in the world. Media coverage from The New York Times, The Guardian, The Daily Mail, BBC, CNN and Slate.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/02/ts-eliot-hidden-love-letters-reveal-intense-heartbreaking-affair-emily-hale
