Princeton University has established the Princeton University Relief Fund to provide additional direct support to community organizations that are working to alleviate economic distress related to COVID-19 among individuals and businesses. The initial University commitment to the fund will be $1 million. “Many local families, service organizations and businesses are struggling as a result of  the pandemic. Princeton has been actively engaged in early efforts to alleviate pressing needs, and we believe there will be an opportunity to continue to do so over the long term as the response continues,” said President Christopher L. Eisgruber. “The University is proud to be a member of the local community. At this critical time, we want to find ways to support those who serve our closest neighbors.”https://www.princeton.edu/news/2020/04/29/princeton-university-relief-fund-established-advance-local-community-efforts

Ian Ochs, a graduate student in the Program in Plasma Physics, has won a Porter Ogden Jacobus Fellowship, the most prestigious of the honorific fellowships that the University awards annually for academic excellence. The award goes to only one student in each of the four graduate school divisions — humanities, social sciences, natural and physical sciences, and engineering. Ochs captured this top honor in the physical sciences division for the 2020-21 academic year.https://www.pppl.gov/news/2020/04/graduate-student-pppl-ian-ochs-wins-top-princeton-university-fellowship 

• Trustees approve eight faculty appointments

• Board approves faculty promotions

• Malka Himelhoch ’21 awarded prestigious 2020 Truman Scholarship

On April 15, Malka Himelhoch ’21 was awarded the Truman Scholarship, making her one of 62 college students nationwide to join the 2020 cohort of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation’s prestigious annual fellowship.https://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2020/04/truman-scholar-princeton-himelhoch-2020

More stories about Research and Faculty: 

• The New Yorker: The Black Plague

• Princeton Alumni Weekly: PAWcast: Professor Ashoka Mody on COVID-19’s Impact on World Economies

• The Chronicle of Higher Education: Anatomists of Melancholy in the Age of Coronavirus

• NPR: ‘Deaths Of Despair’ Author Discusses How Economic Crises Can Worsen Mortality Rates

• PPPL: Graduate student at PPPL Ian Ochs wins top Princeton University fellowship

• Office of the Dean for Research: Novel technology aims to improve treatment of neurological diseases

Funding from the National Science Foundation will support the work of a Macrofinance Lab at the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy & Finance (JRCPPF), which is based at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. The project will develop an open-source textbook and data-sharing platform to promote teaching and research about the linkages between finance, debt, and macro-level outcomes. The textbook will help disseminate new micro-empirical techniques and datasets, grounding each topic in a discussion of its theoretical foundations.http://wws.princeton.edu/news-and-events/news/item/macrofinance-lab-receives-national-science-foundation-funding

An international team led by atmospheric scientist Meiyun Lin found the surprising chain of causes: As global climate change leads to more hot and dry weather, the resulting droughts are stressing plants, making them less able to remove ozone from the air. In a new study published today in Nature Climate Change, Lin and her colleagues demonstrated that vegetation feedbacks during drought worsen the most severe ozone pollution episodes.https://www.princeton.edu/news/2020/04/20/princeton-scientist-solves-air-quality-puzzle-why-ozone-pollution-persisting-europe

Jonathan Levine, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology (EEB), is the 2020 recipient of the Ecological Society of America’s Robert H. MacArthur Award, the most prestigious mid-career accolade from the world’s largest professional organization of ecologists, representing more than 9,000 scientists around the world.https://www.princeton.edu/news/2020/04/17/levine-receives-prestigious-ecological-research-award

In this video by The Daily Princetonian, Heather Howard, a lecturer at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, former New Jersey Commissioner of Health, and member of the Domestic Policy Council during the Clinton administration, discusses how her courses have changed (1:03), the national response to the pandemic (5:45), the lines along which the novel coronavirus seems to discriminate (7:28), and her opinion on Princeton’s optional P/D/F policy for the semester (12:57).https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPZpkKU1zXM&feature=emb_title

Last month, Jacob N. Shapiro, co-director of Princeton University’s Empirical Studies of Conflict Project(ESOC), asked ESOC research specialist Jan Oledan to look at misinformation narratives concerning the coronavirus. Since then, the effort has grown into a full-fledged research project and collaboration between ESOC and Microsoft Research. “Our ultimate goal is to contribute ground truth on narratives so that researchers can develop better knowledge about who shares misinformation and its impact. This also will help industry partners like Microsoft develop better tools to prevent their systems from spreading it,” said Shapiro, professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.http://wws.princeton.edu/news-and-events/news/item/princeton-research-covid-19-misinformation-fuels-partnership-microsoft

Paul Lewis and Guy Nordenson have been awarded a research grant by the Princeton University Funding Program for Rapid Novel and Actionable COVID-19 Research Projects fund to help propel the duo’s work on “Manual of Urban Distance: Strategies for Reconfiguring the City,” a guide that investigates “the challenges of physical distancing in urban settings and [explores] strategies that minimize the effects of potential resurgences of COVID-19 and other future pandemics.”https://archinect.com/news/article/150194254/princeton-soa-manual-of-urban-distance-awarded-covid-19-research-funding

A county-by-county analysis of the United States by Princeton University researchers suggests that rural counties with high populations of people over 60 and limited access to health care facilities could eventually be among the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) that has so far killed more than 100,000 people worldwide.https://www.princeton.edu/news/2020/04/16/princeton-researchers-map-rural-us-counties-most-vulnerable-covid-19

Princeton recently endorsed new guidelines aimed at accelerating the transition of the University’s COVID-19 discoveries into solutions to protect health care workers and prevent, diagnose, treat and contain the pandemic. The newly adopted principles aim to reduce barriers to developing COVID-19 research and innovations into products and services for the global health response. Princeton is one of the first signatories to the new guidelines, which were developed by the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) and are being adopted by universities across the country.https://www.princeton.edu/news/2020/04/17/princeton-university-endorses-guidelines-aimed-rapid-transfer-covid-19-solutions

Embedded in the state’s response to the pandemic is Henri Hammond-Paul MPA ’19, a senior advisor with the N.J. Department of Health. In this Q&A, he provides an overview of the progression of the state’s actions, its highest priorities, long-term policy considerations, and how his Princeton education prepared him for his role in this crisis.http://wws.princeton.edu/news-and-events/news/item/keeping-new-jerseyans-safe-qa-nj-department-health’s-henri-hammond-paul

In the current COVID-19 crisis, Trenton Health Team—led by Princeton alumnus, Greg Paulson, the executive director of THT since 2015—has brought together the right people to implement the following: a walk-in (rather than drive-thru) COVID-19 testing site in Trenton; a health data exchange system that integrates COVID community-based testing and prescribed treatment data; and a strategy for communicating health information to a segment of the population lacking the language skills and/or technology to receive important COVID-19 directives.https://centraljersey.com/2020/04/15/loose-ends-4-17-the-trenton-health-team/

Forty-four readers, with several filling multiple shifts, took part in the CJL’s annual 24-hour name reading of Holocaust victims in observance of Yom HaShoah — Holocaust Remembrance Day. Each volunteer read aloud the names, ages, birthplaces, and places of death of child Holocaust victims over the CJL livestream until the next volunteer came to take their place.https://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2020/04/holocaust-name-reading-cjl-zoom

The Princeton University Special Activities and Resources Group (SARG) continues to receive proposals from Princeton Faculty & Staff to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Special projects led by Princeton faculty members and staff are actively engaged in the production of needed supplies by safely using on-campus materials. These projects are driven by the rapidly changing needs of the State of New Jersey’s Office of Emergency Management, local health care and emergency services providers, and neighboring municipal institutions in central New Jersey. Our approach to responding to emergency requests is based on both the safety of our campus community and the efficient coordination of available resources. In this vein, all faculty and staff members currently employing on-campus University resources for voluntary production of materials are asked to contact SARG@princeton.edu as soon as possible to register your project. To learn more about current volunteer opportunities—including sewing cloth face coverings for donation or participating in upcoming blood drives—please visit SARG’s webpage.  Please contact Erin Metro with any questions about serving as a volunteer at emetro@princeton.edu. https://ehs.princeton.edu/covid19-response-activities

Last Friday on “We Roar” we heard from representatives of two very different governments: former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist ’74 and Undergraduate Student Government President Chitra Parikh ‘21. Wednesday, April 22, in honor of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, the latest episode of “We Roar” highlights reflections by Shana Weber, Princeton’s director of sustainability.  “With much of human activity coming to a halt as a result of social distancing and shelter-in-place orders, we’ve found ourselves in a ‘Silent Spring’,” she said, calling to mind the 1962 book of the same name by Rachel Carson, whose work on pesticide use inspired the environmental movement that led to the creation of Earth Day. “We’re in this extraordinary moment where the silence — the human silence — is allowing other voices to come forward and be noticed,” said Weber, who is also a lecturer in the Princeton Environmental Institute. “So bird calls, for example — they’re not being drowned out by other sounds.”http://weroar.princeton.edu/7-rethinking-earth-day-amid-covid-19-a-different-silent-spring?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=communications

Princeton’s Mike Brown, Assistant Manager, Purchasing, discusses how he’s doing his part “in ensuring that the students and staff at Princeton University who depends on Campus Dining for support in nourishing their minds through daily meals, are cared for with love.” He writes, “I cannot say enough how proud and grateful I am to be part of a team, who although is not on Campus at times, still has the trust of parents, students, and our leadership to continue providing services that we all love to render.”https://dining.princeton.edu/news/careconnectioncommunity-mike-brown 

With unprecedented changes to nearly every aspect of our personal and professional lives due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the graduate community is at the forefront of leading innovation that will shape the future. The goal of the GradFUTURES Virtual Forum is to accelerate connectivity among and between graduate students, faculty, staff, alumni, and leaders from a diverse array of fields. This forum, hosted by the Graduate School on April 29-30 and May 1, will encourage attendees to forge deeper connections, build community and explore opportunities for leadership and meaningful professional development within all fields of endeavor. https://gradfutures.princeton.edu/Forum2020