Scientists supposed that the ecosystem’s high annual precipitation would result in greater tree growth. Yet a 2011 study found that the more instances of heavy rainfall a savanna received, the fewer trees it had. To this ecological riddle, Princeton University researchers might have finally provided a solution.

Asian and Asian American alumni from around the world gathered on the Princeton University campus Oct. 15-17 to celebrate their significance to the Princeton community.

Started in 2005 as the Center for Innovation in Engineering Education, the center was renamed in 2008 in honor of educational innovator Dennis Keller, Class of 1963, and his wife, Constance Keller, when the couple gave $20 million to endow the center. Now students, faculty and alumni from all parts of the University take part in Keller programs each year — attending one of the center’s 15 courses, participating in any of 60 events, obtaining an internship to explore engineering beyond Princeton, participating in its eLab entrepreneurship program, or taking advantage of the services offered by the University’s new Entrepreneurial Hub.

Meandering paths, sunken courtyards, trees, flowers and shrubs weave through the sculptural complex of gray brick and glass that has risen at the eastern edge of the Princeton University campus. After over three years of construction, the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment is about to open its doors, ushering in a new phase for the center’s goal to develop solutions to ensure our energy and environmental future.

Princeton University professor Angus Deaton has been awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in economics for his contributions to understanding consumption at the individual level and in aggregate.

The Office of Communications has begun preliminary analysis of visitor data that will be used to develop a new design for the princeton.edu website. This week, a small percentage of visitors to the website began receiving a “popup” notice asking them to voluntarily identify themselves by category, such as undergraduate student, faculty member, prospective graduate student, job seeker, and so forth. The data from these anonymous visitors will be aggregated to determine how members of various groups use and navigate the site.

Casey Lew-Williams, an assistant professor of psychology at Princeton, has a doctorate in developmental psychology from Stanford University and a growing list of academic publications that focus on the ways young children’s experiences and cognition interact to shape their learning — and their future.

The public service papers of Paul A. Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, are now part of the permanent collection of Princeton University, where the economist earned his undergraduate degree in 1949. These documents, which include correspondence, speeches, reports and memos, are housed in the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, a division of the Princeton University Library’s Department of Rare Books and Special Collections. 

Princeton University’s endowment earned a 12.7 percent investment gain for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2015. The endowment value stood at $22.7 billion, an increase of about $1.7 billion from the previous year.

The third annual Princeton-Fung Global Forum next month will bring together researchers, scholars, policymakers and health officials to examine West Africa’s Ebola outbreak as a case study of a modern plague.

Watch the video feature about the Princeton-Fung Forum.

Marina Rustow, the Khedouri A. Zilkha Professor of Jewish Civilization in the Near East and Professor of History at Princeton University, has been awarded a 2015 MacArthur Fellowship. Rustow is among 24 scientists, artists, scholars and activists who each will receive $625,000 no-strings-attached grants over a five-year period from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The MacArthur Fellows Program awards unrestricted fellowships to talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction.

A monumental new glass, steel and bronze sculpture by leading contemporary artists Doug and Mike Starn has been placed on the lawn of the Princeton University Art Museum. The newly commissioned work, weighing nearly eight tons, is constructed of six 18-foot-tall vividly colored glass panels and two cast bronze forms resembling tree limbs. Titled “(Any) Body Oddly Propped,” it was designed by the Starns specifically for the site and continues the artists’ long fascination with energy systems found in nature.

Princeton University continues to broaden its online teaching and learning efforts and has become a charter member of the edX Consortium. As a result, millions of learners will have the opportunity to take free classes offered by Princeton faculty on the edX online platform.

A recent survey of Princeton University students found a sizeable majority knows where to go on campus for help following an incident of nonconsensual sexual contact, and nearly half of the students surveyed think they can do something about sexual violence on campus.

A compliance review of Princeton University’s undergraduate admission process by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in the U.S. Department of Education has been concluded with a determination that the University did not discriminate against Asian applicants on the basis of race or national origin.

Lake Carnegie, which bounds the south end of campus, is one of Princeton’s most open and natural spaces, a resource to the University and the local community as well as a home to wildlife.

Carl Schorske, the Dayton-Stockton Professor of History, Emeritus, at Princeton University and an authority on the intellectual and cultural history of 19th- and 20th- century Europe, died Sunday, Sept. 13, 2015, in Hightstown, New Jersey. He was 100 years old.

Princeton University has launched a comprehensive initiative called UMatter aimed at empowering students, faculty and staff to promote a healthier and safer community. UMatter unites health, well-being and safety efforts across campus, allowing the University community to easily find resources and learn skills to better care for themselves and others.

Starting next year, students entering Princeton University will participate in a unified orientation program that will encompass Community Action and Outdoor Action events as well as a new program for first-year athletes in fall sports. The new model for orientation will have all freshmen arriving on campus on a single weekend for a more unified experience in transitioning from high school graduates to Princeton students. 

Princeton organizes numerous orientation events that help freshmen become familiar with one another, the University and the community they’ll live in for the next four years. From Sept. 2 until the first day of classes on Sept. 16, incoming students move in to campus, rough it with Outdoor Action, work on social issues in off-campus locations with Community Action, meet with faculty including President Christopher L. Eisgruber, and enjoy parties, cookouts and games on campus. Orientations also are held for new faculty, graduate students, and graduate and undergraduate students from overseas.