Princeton Alumni Weekly Blog

Moving Day

noreply@blogger.com (PAW staff) — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 15:17:00 +0000

Beginning Sept. 26, 2007, new editions of The Weekly Blog will be posted at blogs.princeton.edu/paw. Please change your bookmarks and click here to see our new home.

To return to PAW's main site and view Web exclusives, click here.

noreply@blogger.com (PAW staff) — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 17:11:00 +0000

Deconstructing America’s founders

Historians in Europe may explain national legacies in terms of sweeping social or political movements, but in the United States, collective explanations do not resonate. “We think of individual actions by individual actors,” said Alan R. Gibson, a professor at California State University, Chico, who spoke at Robertson Hall Sept. 18 as part of Princeton’s commemoration of Constitution Day. For America’s founding fathers, reverential best-selling books are only part of the story. Detractors tend to view the founders, particularly those who owned slaves, as hypocrites or worse. Some academics have taken sides in the debate, Gibson said, selectively framing the stories of figures like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington to support specific viewpoints. To get past divisive debates, Gibson urged taking a comprehensive view of the founders and understanding the context of their words and actions. Some details, such as Jefferson’s writings on race, may be unsettling, but they cannot be ignored, Gibson said, invoking the words of Immanuel Kant: “Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.”
The James Madison Program and the Program in American Studies co-sponsored Gibson’s talk as well as a Sept. 17 lecture by Professor Stanley Katz of the Woodrow Wilson School titled “Who’s Afraid of Senator Byrd? Constitutionalism, History and Academic Freedom.”

Headless no more

When Herb Hobler ’44 snapped a picture of wife Randy, center, in Magdalena Abakanowicz’s sculpture Big Figures outside the University Art Museum last spring, his camera picked up one detail that the artist hadn’t intended. Hobler does not know the identity of the young man planting his face on the shoulders of the figure on the right and has no idea how he got there. “We didn’t even see him at the time,” Hobler writes.

Faculty in the news

New York Times “Economics Scene” columnist David Leonhardt spotlighted economics professor Orley Ashenfelter in a Sept. 16 book review about how statistical analysis tends to draw skepticism in fields that typically eschew numbers. Ian Ayres’ new book, Super Crunchers, features several examples, including that of Ashenfelter, who developed a method for predicting the quality of Bordeaux wines by using weather data. … In the wake of the Minnesota bridge collapse, architecture professor Guy Nordenson dissected the structure of bridges in an August broadcast of NPR’s “Studio 360.” Bridges have “bones” (towers) and “muscles” (cables), he said. “Without the muscles, the skeleton is a heap,” Nordenson explained. “It has to do with the fact that there is compression and tension. The compression goes into the bone and the tension goes into the muscle.” … Uwe Reinhardt, the James Madison Professor of Political Economy, wrote an Aug. 28 opinion piece for Forbes about solving the problems of America’s healthcare system. … Chemical engineering professor T. Kyle Vanderlick will become the first female dean of engineering at Yale University, the New Haven Register reported Sept. 7. Vanderlick, who has taught at Princeton since 1998, will begin her new job Jan. 1.

Tiger time

Football fan Lauren Nigro ’09 shows her stripes during Princeton’s Sept. 15 opener against Lehigh. The Tigers, who shared the Ivy League championship with Yale last year, got off to an inauspicious start when tailback R.C. Lagomarsino ’09 fumbled the ball on the first play from scrimmage. Princeton would commit three more turnovers in the first half – two interceptions and another fumble – and fall behind 23-0. The Tigers recovered with three touchdown drives in the second half, but it was too little too late. Lehigh won, 32-21. Defensive back Dan Kopolovich ’10 called the Lehigh game a “real eye-opener” in a Sept. 19 press conference. “Everyone is eager to get out on the field now to show that what happened Saturday isn’t consistent with how Princeton plays football,” he said. Princeton faces Lafayette Sept. 22 at 6 p.m. in Easton, Pa.

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

More at PAW online

Revisit Reunions 2007 through PAW’s exclusive video clips and slide shows. Student filmmaker Noah Arjomand ’09 and photographers Ricardo Barros, Beverly Schaefer, and Frank Wojciechowski captured the color and tradition of Reunions and Commencement, from alumni sporting events and the P-rade to the procession of graduates.

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, Princeton Alumni Weekly

noreply@blogger.com (PAW staff) — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 18:55:00 +0000

First and 10: What you need to know about Princeton football in 2007

A Weekly Blog Summer Special

1 – Princeton loss in 2006. Cornell topped the Tigers 14-7 at Schoellkopf Field, and coach Jim Knowles expects another competitive game when his team comes to Princeton for a Friday-night showdown Oct. 26. “We match up pretty well against them,” Knowles said in August. “All three years that I’ve been [at Cornell], they’ve been really close games. There’s a nice rivalry there.”

2 – Starting running backs returning. Fullback Rob Toresco ’08 and tailback R.C. Lagomarsino ’09 accounted for a third of Princeton’s offensive attack last season. The two combined for 779 rushing yards and caught 49 passes for 491 receiving yards.

3 – Passes thrown by Bill Foran ’08 last season. The new starting quarterback is a former sprinter on the Princeton track team who excelled as a kick returner and part-time wide receiver in the last three years, but he disputes the notion that he’s a running quarterback. “I think that’s a little unfair,” Foran said. “Just because you’re fast doesn’t mean you’re a runner. As a quarterback you have to be both [a runner and a passer]. … I can make all the throws.”

4 – Princeton games decided by a field goal or less last season. The Tigers won all four: 27-26 at Colgate in overtime, 31-28 over Harvard, 31-30 over Penn in overtime, and 34-31 at Yale. “Our largest lead [last season] was 14 points, and that was in the very last game,” head coach Roger Hughes said. “We got to enjoy that lead for two minutes.”

5 – More yards between the kicker and the far end zone. Kickers will start at their own 30-yard-line, instead of the 35. The NCAA made the change to prevent touchbacks and encourage more returns, but offensive coordinator Dave Rackovan is not sold on that logic. “I think it’s going to create injury situations,” Rackovan said, noting that players will have five more yards to build up speed before colliding. “It’s not a great rule, but we have to live by it.”

6 – Uniform number of wide receiver Brendan Circle ’08. Jeff Terrell ’07 slipped 56 passes into the sure hands of number 6 last season, and Circle finished the year with a league-best 835 receiving yards. “He doesn’t have great speed,” Hughes said of Circle, “but he has great savvy and great football sense and understands how to get open.”

7 – Princeton wins in its last seven games against Lehigh, Lafayette, and Columbia. The Tigers have played well against this year’s September opponents in the last three years. With wins over Lehigh and Lafayette in 2006 (the Patriot League’s top two teams), Hughes joked that the Tigers could have staked a claim to the Patriot title.

8 – Ivy championships for Princeton in the league’s 51 seasons. By splitting the title with Yale last year, the Tigers ended a 10-year drought. Princeton celebrated the achievement by including a picture of its Ivy championship ring in the corner of each page of the 2007 media guide.

9 – Starters lost: four on offense, four on defense, plus punter Colin McDonough ’07. Recent graduates J.J. Artis ’07 and Tim Strickland ’07 both were first-team All-Ivy defensive backs last season, and replacing them will be a significant challenge for defensive coordinator Steve Verbit. The punting job likely will go to Princeton-native Ryan Coyle ’09. “He stepped in for two games last year when Colin was hurt and has really shown a lot of promise,” Hughes said.

10 – Games, starting this Saturday. The complete schedule:
Sept. 15 LEHIGH, 6 p.m.
Sept. 22 at Lafayette, 6 p.m.
Sept. 29 COLUMBIA, 3:30 p.m.
Oct. 6 HAMPTON, 3:30 p.m.
Oct. 13 at Brown, 12:30 p.m.
Oct. 20 at Harvard, 12:30 p.m.
Oct. 26 CORNELL, 7 p.m.
Nov. 3 at Penn, noon
Nov. 10 YALE, 1 p.m.
Nov. 17 at Dartmouth, 12:30 p.m.

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, Princeton Alumni Weekly.

noreply@blogger.com (PAW staff) — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 16:10:00 +0000

Reunions 2007

At Reunions, the class returning for its 25th takes center stage, with a position of honor at the front of the P-rade. But being in the spotlight does not mean you can’t let loose and party, said Scott Oostdyk ’82, a reunion co-chairman for his class. The nearly 600 class members in the ’82 contingent adopted a Mardi Gras theme, tossing beads to the crowd as they marched through campus wearing brightly colored shirts and blazers. The costume, Oostdyk said, gave a nod to Princeton’s traditional orange and black while also catching the class’s “fun and frivolous” side.

Reunions 2007, May 31 through June 3, drew more than 20,000 alumni, family members, and guests back to campus. Visitors caught up with college classmates, filled lecture halls for educational panels and programs, and celebrated into the night at class dinners and tent parties. Hot, humid weather in the daytime and Friday-night thundershowers did not dampen the festivities. In fact, the rain seemed to rally the crowd at the Class of 2002’s fifth reunion, according to reunion co-chairwoman Kate Serafini ’02. “You can’t really go wrong once everyone’s muddy,” she said.

Reunions photos by T. Kevin Birch

Raising the Bard

It’s hard to cover 37 plays in an hour-and-a-half and even harder to keep your wig straight in the process, but Max Miller ’08, left, and Lovell Holder ’09 try to keep up with the challenge as they perform “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: Abridged!” in the East Pyne courtyard for a Reunions weekend audience May 31.

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Alumni in the news

Wall Street dealmaker Bill Hambrecht ’57 faces long odds as he plans to challenge the NFL with the United Football League, a new pro league that he hopes will kick off in 2008, according to an article in PLAY, a quarterly sports magazine published by The New York Times. Recent NFL challengers like the USFL and the XFL have been short-lived, but Hambrecht told the magazine that patient investors could make his new league viable. … Computer scientist Michael D. Smith ’83 was named dean of the faculty of arts and sciences at Harvard University, The Harvard Crimson reported June 5. Smith has taught at Harvard since 1992. … Historian Michael Oren *86, a senior fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem and an expert on the Six-Day War, was interviewed by several news outlets covering the war’s 40th anniversary, including Time magazine, The Jerusalem Post, and NPR’s “Morning Edition.” … Encouraging lifelong bonds between classmates has rewards, according to a story about Princeton Reunions on American Public Media’s “Marketplace” radio show. Reunions turnout and alumni giving rates make Princeton the envy of fundraisers at other institutions, the report said.

More at PAW Online

Under the Ivy – Carl Fields became the University’s first black administrator against long odds; Gregg Lange ’70 tells who helped behind the scenes.
On the Campus – In a class on entrepreneurship, Tim Ferriss ’00 promised a round-trip plane ticket anywhere in the world to the student who contacted the most hard-to-reach person with the most intriguing question. Adam Gottesfeld ’07 describes what happened.
Good books – Alumni authors make recommendations for summer reading.

Summer hiatus for The Weekly Blog

With Reunions and Commencement complete and the campus calendar slowing to its summer crawl, PAW’s regular blogging year will end with this post. Occasional updates may be added in the summer months, and The Weekly Blog will return Sept. 19, as fall semester classes begin. The cover date for PAW’s final print edition for the 2006-07 academic year is July 18.

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, Princeton Alumni Weekly.

noreply@blogger.com (PAW staff) — Wed, 30 May 2007 16:05:00 +0000

Moving out

Su Wang ’09, left, and Amanda Bowers ’09 carry some of their dorm room furniture out of Blair Hall May 26, the day that Princeton undergraduates completed spring term exams. Commencement for the Class of 2007 will be held June 5.

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Rowing for gold

The Princeton men’s heavyweight, men’s lightweight, and women’s lightweight crews will compete at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships May 30 through June 2 on the Cooper River in Camden, N.J. The lightweight women look to be the Tigers’ most promising crew this spring. They were undefeated in the regular season and finished second behind Wisconsin at the Eastern Championships May 13.

Alumni in the news

Filmmaker Deborah Fryer *93’s latest documentary, SHAKEN: Journey into the Mind of a Parkinson’s Patient has won awards at several festivals, including Best Documentary at the SCINEMA Science Film and Multimedia Festival and Best Short Documentary at the Annapolis Film Festival. Information about the film, which profiles patient Paul Schroder, is available at www.lilafilms.com. … New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is showing works by Frank Stella ’58 in two exhibitions: “Painting into Architecture” and “On the Roof.” The shows, which run through July 29 and Oct. 28, respectively, mark Stella’s first solo presentation at the Met. Stella's extraordinary works of 1958 were featured in PAW’s Nov. 8, 2006, issue. … The Associated Press chronicled ABC News anchorman Charles Gibson ’65’s rise to the top of the network news ratings. Gibson was profiled in PAW’s April 4 issue.

Just around the corner

Reunions 2007 begins May 31, and the Weekly Blog is providing a final look back at Reunions 2006, as captured by the lens of student filmmaker Thomas Bender ’06. This short shows the 30th annual Dante Reunion, where former students of Bob Hollander ’55, professor of European literature and French and Italian, emeritus, gather to relive – or continue – one of their favorite Princeton courses.

For more videos of Reunions 2006, visit PAW Online.

Don’t miss the 2007 Reunions Guide

If you’re coming back to campus for Reunions, be sure to pick up a copy of PAW’s 2007 Reunions Guide at the registration desk. This year’s guide features cover art by Detroit News editorial cartoonist Henry Payne ’84, an essay by Washington Post columnist Joel Achenbach ’82, a crossword puzzle from Stella Daily ’00, a feature story about the late sculptor Joe Brown, an alumni trivia quiz, a map of this year’s P-rade, and more. UPDATE: PAW's 2007 Reunions Guide is now online.

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, Princeton Alumni Weekly.

noreply@blogger.com (PAW staff) — Wed, 23 May 2007 11:30:00 +0000

Laser light show

Scott Howard, an electrical engineering graduate student and teaching assistant for ELE 102, “New Eyes for the World,” sets up a homemade laser May 18 in the undergraduate optics laboratory. the course introduces non-science and interdisciplinary students to modern topics of engineering optics that they encounter in daily life.

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Alumni authors swing for the fences

Going to a baseball game can be a confusing experience, even for longtime fans. Does the infield fly rule apply when two fielders collide and drop the ball? And where can you get a decent slice of pizza in Yankee Stadium? Two alumni authors have set out to answer questions like these in new books released this spring.

Michael Morse ’91 explores the rules of the game in All New Baseball Brainteasers (Sterling 2007), a 60-question quiz covering real-game scenarios. Question 42, for instance, covers a 2004 game in which Minnesota Twins infielders Michael Cuddyer and Doug Mientkiewicz collided on an infield fly with the bases loaded and one out. Though the ball dropped to the dirt, the batter was called out, correctly, due to the infield fly rule. The confused runner on first was tagged out as well when he strayed from the bag. Morse calls on his training as an umpire as well as his experiences sitting in the bleacher seats at Yankee Stadium to write puzzling but entertaining questions.

John Buchanan ’87 and his brother Andy focus less on the rules and more on the ballpark experience in their “Wise Guide” books about famous Major League stadiums. So far, the pocket-sized guidebook series includes volumes on Wrigley Field, Fenway Park, and Yankee Stadium, covering everything from food and drink to ballpark music. In the Bronx, the authors note, you can count on hearing “YMCA” at the end of the fifth inning and Frank Sinatra’s version of “New York, New York” after a Yankee win. The Buchanans also are big on ballpark trivia. Fenway’s “Green Monster” in left field, they say, began as a wooden wall, was later covered in tin, and since 1976 has been coated in hard plastic. Information about the “Wise Guide” series is available at www.fansherpa.com. For information about other books by alumni and faculty, visit New Books at PAW online.

Alumni in the news

Brad Smith ’81, senior vice president and general counsel for Microsoft, is a prominent figure in the company’s efforts to draw royalties from the distributors and users of certain free software, according to a feature in Fortune’s May 28 issue. … Bob Bradley ’80, who was profiled in PAW’s March 7 issue, was named head coach of the U.S. men’s national soccer team May 15. Bradley’s team had won three international matches and tied a fourth in his four months as interim coach, and New York Times columnist George Vescey wrote that Bradley “earned this job by never acting like an interim coach.” … Princeton religion professor Cornel West *80 discussed Don Imus, the n-word, and the future of hip-hop in a May 19 Billboard interview. Though West has been critical of some rappers, he said he keeps an open mind about the future. “50 Cent may be another Malcolm X and turn out to be a serious progressive,” he said. “You just don’t know. That’s why I’m not giving up on him, the Game and other rappers. I’m just trying to respectfully challenge them and make them accountable.” West is both an observer and a participant in the genre: His new album, “Never Forget,” is due in stores June 19.

Track standouts travel to regional meet

More than a dozen Princeton athletes in men’s and women’s track and field will compete in the NCAA East Regional Meet in Gainesville, Fla., May 25 and 26. Top competitors for the Tiger men include David Nightingale ’08 (5,000 meters), Justin Frick ’10 (high jump), and Andrew Park ’07 (pole vault). All three posted season-bests that ranked in the top five in the region. On the women’s side, Princeton’s strength lies in the distance events. Catha Mullen ’07, Jolee Vanleuven ’09, and Christy Johnson ’10 will run the 5,000 meters, and Caroline Mullen ’07 and Liz Costello ’10 will run the 1,500 meters. Those five runners helped the women’s cross country team finish 23rd at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in November 2006.

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, Princeton Alumni Weekly.

noreply@blogger.com (PAW staff) — Wed, 16 May 2007 16:48:00 +0000

Sculptural setting

Graduate student David Hsu enjoys the late-afternoon sun May 12 as he sits below the Jacques Lipchitz sculpture, Song of the Vowels, between Firestone Library and the University Chapel.

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Caps, gowns, and Princeton alumni

Graduation at the University of Pennsylvania had a Princeton feel this year, with Princeton philosophy professor K. Anthony Appiah speaking at the baccalaureate ceremony May 13 and former secretary of state James A. Baker III ’52 delivering the commencement address May 14. Baker called on his experience in government service to talk about the qualities of good leaders. “History will judge you, the Class of 2007, based on your leadership,” he said, according to The Daily Pennsylvanian. “In fact, it will judge all of us based on our leadership.”

Penn was not alone in turning to a Princeton graduate to impart words of wisdom. More than a half-dozen alumni have addressed or are slated to address this year’s mortarboard-clad grads. May 13 ceremonies included speeches by author Eric Schlosser ’81 at Pitzer College in California, former U.N. ambassador Richard Holbrooke *70 at Salve Regina University in Rhode Island, and Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito ’72 at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. Alito also will address St. Mary’s (Ind.) College’s class of 2007 May 19. Tom Kean ’57, the former New Jersey governor and chairman of the 9/11 Commission, will be the commencement speaker at the State University of New York, New Paltz, May 20. Teach for America founder Wendy Kopp ’89 will address Mount Holyoke College graduates May 27, and ABC News anchor Charles Gibson ’65 will be speaking at Union College June 17.

New Jersey verses

In his first published collection of poems, Bridge and Tunnel (Turning Point, 2007), John Hennessy ’87 draws on childhood and adolescent experiences in his home state of New Jersey, capturing images of the industrial skyline in passages like the opening stanza of “The Polish Question,” which describes “Merck’s brick chimneys,/ Exxon’s clear blue flames,/ dirt causeways to the public works,/ the slackened jaws of loading cranes…” Hennessy brings “highly musical truth-telling, wonder, and humor to the unbeautiful industrial landscape,” according to poet Mary Jo Salter, the Emily Dickinson Senior Lecturer in the Humanities at Mount Holyoke College. For information about other books by alumni and faculty, visit New Books at PAW online.

Back in the race

After losing five seniors from last year’s undefeated varsity eight and starting this season with two losses, the Princeton women’s open crew found its rhythm in April and May, winning a four-team race at home April 21 and taking home a bronze medal at the Eastern Sprints May 13. The Tigers’ strong finish was rewarded May 15 when the NCAA Rowing Committee selected Princeton as one of the 12 teams that will compete in all three events at the NCAA Championships May 25-27 at Melton Hill Lake in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Ivy League rivals Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard, and Yale also will be racing, along with last year’s overall national champion, California. Princeton won the varsity eight national championship in 2006 and finished third in the overall standings.

Alumni in the news: The Time 100

Two Princeton graduate alumni were selected for Time magazine’s May 14 list of the world’s 100 most influential people. Gen. David Petraeus *87, America’s top commander in Iraq, was profiled by Sen. John McCain, who called him “bright, studious, morally committed, physically brave, [and] willing to carry a ‘heavy rucksack’ without complaint and with clear-eyed resolve.” Petraeus was profiled in PAW in January 2004, when he was working to preserve peace in Mosul, a city on the Tigris River in northern Iraq.

Princeton geosciences professor Tullis Onstott *81 also earned 100-most-influential status for his innovative work discovering rare organisms in extremely harsh climates like polar ice or miles beneath the earth’s surface. Such finds could aid astrobiologists searching for life on Mars. PAW took a closer look at Onstott’s research in October 2004.

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, Princeton Alumni Weekly.

noreply@blogger.com (PAW staff) — Wed, 09 May 2007 14:55:00 +0000

A veteran professor walks the plank

At Maitland Jones Jr.’s 8:30 a.m. organic chemistry lecture May 4, the audience was unusually large, with faculty colleagues seated in the rear of the auditorium and a collection of family members on hand, wearing T-shirts that featured a photo of the professor in happy repose on a field of green grass. Jones, one of 14 professors taking emeritus status this year, joked, “There’s more widespread interest in the Fischer proof than one might think.”

The lecture, covering Emil Fischer’s work with glucose, was to be Jones’ last at Princeton, and the professor began by pouring his customary mug of tea before picking up a stick of chalk and working his way across the wide, eight-paneled blackboard. He paused in the middle to introduce emeritus professor Walter Kauzmann, who hired Jones 42 years ago. When Jones erased the board to start the second section of his lecture, he urged his students to remember the needs of professors and include funds for fresh erasers and chalk when they make donations to the University as alumni.

Soon after that comment, Jones’ lecture was cut short when a group of former students dressed as pirates rushed the aisles and staged a mutiny of sorts, presenting Jones with a treasure chest that included a hat, two T-shirts, and – as if on cue – generous supplies of erasers and chalk, wrapped in gold foil. But the prizes came with a price: the students tied Jones’ hands and took him outside to the fountain next to Robertson Hall, where they forced him to walk the plank. Jones did not go quietly, freeing one hand and playfully jousting with a plastic sword, but he eventually obliged, plunging ankle-deep into the water.

While the pirate party drew smiles from most, not all were pleased with the brevity and levity of Jones’ lecture. John Fleming, an emeritus professor of English and comparative literature who delivered his own farewell lecture a year ago, deadpanned, “I wanted to learn what the Fischer proof is.”

Photos by Jesse Platt ’07

Physics never sounded better

On April 21, a group of Princeton students set aside their work in particle physics, condensed matter and the like to turn their attention to works by Chopin, Mozart, and Handel at the physics department’s 19th annual recital. Nearly two dozen graduate students, undergraduates, staff members, faculty, and friends of the department performed in this year’s two-and-a-half hour program, which drew a full house at Taplin Auditorium. Other artists from physics displayed paintings and photographs at a post-concert reception in Jadwin Hall.

The recital is the brainchild of Laurel Lerner, the assistant to the physics department’s director of graduate studies, who is a musician and piano teacher. Nearly 20 years ago, after hearing about the musical talents of several graduate students, Lerner organized a talent show for physics students at a rehearsal studio in Woolworth Hall. In the years since, the event has grown, thanks in part to planning help from friend and fellow staff member Eva Zeisky.

Lerner said many believe there’s a link between musical acumen and talent in math or science, and Princeton’s students have supported that theory. The first-year graduate students in physics this year seem particularly strong, and Lerner is hoping for repeat performances next year. While it may be difficult for busy students to find time to practice a musical instrument, she said that many try to incorporate hobbies in their schedules. “It’s very healthy,” Lerner said, “and [the recital] brings us all together.”

Tracing the lives of teens

For his latest play, Done, theater and dance lecturer R. N. Sandberg ’70 interviewed more than 100 teenagers to find out more about their lives and their social dynamics. The project initially was commissioned by the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, N.J., and intended for a school touring program, Sandberg told the Rhode Island magazine Lifebeats. “As I developed the play from my interviews with young people, teachers and administrators told me ‘Are you crazy? We can’t show that kind of stuff in schools!’” Sandberg said. “So I wrote the ‘school play,’ [called In Between] but it became clear that there was a bigger, more dangerous play I wanted to write that was really true to the kinds of things I heard and saw in the lives of the teenagers I was talking to.”

Done found a home at the Providence (R.I.) Black Repertory Company, where it opened April 20. The show’s run continues through May 20. For information and tickets, visit http://www.blackrep.org.

Beach break

Liz Williams ’09 returns a serve during an impromtu volleyball game on the sand court in Rocky-Mathey courtyard on May 4, the last day of spring term classes. Spring exams for undergraduates begin May 16.

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Lacrosse teams open postseason on the road

The Princeton men’s lacrosse team will travel to Georgetown for a first-round matchup against the sixth-seeded Hoyas in the NCAA Championships May 13. The game, which starts at noon, will be broadcast live on ESPNU. The Princeton women’s lacrosse team will face third-seeded Virginia in Charlottesville at 1 p.m. May 13.

The Tiger men, led by standout goalie Alex Hewit ’08, allowed the fewest goals in Division I during the regular season while posting a 10-3 record, including a 5-1 mark in Ivy League games. Princeton’s women, who are making their 10th consecutive postseason appearance, were 10-6 this year.

More at PAW Online

Work and family – A 25th reunion survey about life after Princeton answers some questions and raises others, Cynthia King Vance ’80 writes.
Under the Ivy – Gregg Lange ’70 writes about Paul Robeson’s Princeton roots and wonders what might have been.
On the Campus – Laura Fitzpatrick ’08 drops in on a new campus art studio and the International Festival Gala.

Princeton’s Web entrepreneurs

Do you know of alumni who have started Web-based companies in the past year? PAW would love to hear about them, for possible inclusion in a story for the magazine. Write to PAW and let us know.

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, Princeton Alumni Weekly.

noreply@blogger.com (PAW staff) — Wed, 02 May 2007 14:50:00 +0000

International flair

Victoria Laws ’08 and Oscar Castro ’09 of the student dance troupe Ballet Folklorico de Princeton perform April 28 during the annual Communiversity celebration, which brings together the University and the town for a variety of festivities.

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Back on track

After posting several solid performances at last weekend’s Penn Relays, including a gold-medal finish by the team of Liz Bergold ’08, Christy Johnson ’10, Catha Mullen ’07, and Liz Costello ’10 in the college division 4-by-800-meter relay, the Princeton women’s and men’s track and field teams will return to competition at home this weekend as they host the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships, March 5 and 6 at the Weaver Track and Field Stadium. Tigers to watch include Mullen, who finished second in the 3,000-meter run a year ago, and Alex Pessala ’09, the defending Heps champion in the men’s hammer throw.

Princetonians in the news

Virginia Postrel ’82, author of The Substance of Style, spoke about the city of Los Angeles' plans to replace some if its iconic palm trees with oaks or sycamores in an April 27 radio segment on American Public Media’s Marketplace. The palms, she said, are a symbol of Los Angeles, in the same way that the Empire State Building and the Brooklyn Bridge are symbols of New York City. … President Tilghman spoke about encouraging students to pursue science and engineering in an interview on CNN’s In the Money April 28. While Tilghman said there are several reasons for declining interest in the sciences, she highlighted one compelling reason for rejuvenating that interest: “[T]he motivation has got to be that you want to spend your life discovering things and creating new things. In fact, creating economic prosperity. If you looked at the last half of the 20th century, it’s been estimated that 70 percent of the economic prosperity that was created in the United States was created by scientists and engineers, their innovation, their creativity.” … Computer science professor Ed Felten spoke to senators about botnets – “coordinated computer intrusions, where the attacker installs a long-lived software agent or ‘bot’ on many end-user computers” – at an April 25 briefing in Washington. Felten wrote about the briefing on his blog. … Three alumni received notable professional awards in April. Former Lockheed Martin chairman and CEO Norman Augustine ’57 *59 earned the Bower Award for Business Leadership from the Philadelphia-based Franklin Institute. John Thompson III ’88, the men’s basketball coach at Georgetown, was named coach of the year by the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. And Woodrow Wilson School Dean Anne-Marie Slaughter ’80 received the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Law at the University of Virginia.

One month ’til Reunions

As alumni look forward to Reunions 2007 (May 31-June 3), the Weekly Blog looks back at Reunions 2006, as captured by the lens of student filmmaker Thomas Bender ’06. This short shows scenes from the Old Guard luncheon, a time-honored tradition that includes the presentation of the Class of 1923 Cane to the oldest returning alumnus. Last year, centenarian Malcolm Warnock ’25 received the honor.

For more videos of Reunions 2006, visit PAW Online.

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, Princeton Alumni Weekly.

noreply@blogger.com (PAW staff) — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 14:52:00 +0000

Understanding Virginia Tech

A desire to change one’s image in the face of others often serves as the driving force for the violence of school shooters, according to Katherine Newman, a professor of sociology and public affairs, who spoke about the Virginia Tech shootings at McCormick Hall April 23. Newman’s research on previous school shootings indicated that warning signs preceded almost all shootings, but that people were often reluctant to act on those signs. “There isn’t a single rampage shooting that wasn’t preceded by a whole litany of signals,” said Newman, who wrote the 2004 book Rampage: The Social Roots of School Shootings.

In the cases of earlier shootings, people who interacted with the shooters were reluctant to report disturbing behavior out of a concern for their own reputations, Newman said. The Virginia Tech case is especially troubling because people reported the shooter’s alarming behavior, she said.

Keith Whittington, a politics professor who also spoke at the April 23 event, said the Virginia Tech shootings would not cause gun control regulation to change in a significant way. The shooting may, however, spur “more funding to make existing gun control laws work better,” he said.

Johnson ’97 brings ‘ownership, pride’ to men’s basketball

As a basketball player, Sydney Johnson ’97 played a key role in several memorable Princeton victories, including an overtime win over Penn in the Ivy League playoff in 1996 and the Tigers’ upset of UCLA in the NCAA tournament less than a week later. But the game that teammate Jesse Rosenfeld ’97 remembers when he thinks about Johnson came two years earlier.

Late in the 1993-94 season, Princeton squared off against Penn with the Tigers’ Ivy title hopes on the line. Johnson, then a freshman, scored a team-high 17 points and did an admirable job covering Jerome Allen, the Penn star who would be that year’s Ivy Player of the Year. But Princeton lost by 10, and afterward, Rosenfeld said, Johnson was nearly inconsolable. “It showed that sense of ownership and pride,” Rosenfeld said.

This week, when Johnson was introduced as Princeton’s head coach, he stressed pride in the program and in the University, calling Princeton a “unique and special place.” Johnson said that he was surprised when Joe Scott ’87 left the program in March and thrilled to be chosen as Scott’s successor. “I just knew that this was the right place for me,” Johnson said at an April 23 press conference. “There wasn’t much hesitation.”

Johnson, who captained Princeton’s team for three seasons, played professionally in Spain and Italy before becoming an assistant coach at Georgetown in 2004. Working under John Thompson III ’88, Johnson helped the Hoyas win the Big East and reach the NCAA Final Four in 2007.

Princeton in bloom

The colors of spring are in the air as Brian Strom ’06 jogs along University Place April 20.

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Men’s volleyball takes on Penn State

Princeton men’s volleyball topped Juniata in an Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association quarterfinal match April 22 to reach the league semifinals for the first time in four seasons. The team’s reward? An April 26 matchup with powerhouse Penn State in State College, Pa.

The Nittany Lions, ranked No. 7 nationally, were undefeated in EIVA regular-season matches, and they placed five of six starters on the league’s All-East first team. The young Tigers understand who they are up against, but they are looking to make the most of their opportunity. “With only two seniors starting, it will be a good experience,” head coach Glenn Nelson said in a news release. “Penn State is very good, but we’ll go up there, give them a fight, and see what happens.”

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, Princeton Alumni Weekly, with reporting by Alex Gennis ’09.

noreply@blogger.com (PAW staff) — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 16:02:00 +0000

A Princeton portrait

H. Vincent Poor *77, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and his predecessor as dean, Maria Klawe, were on hand as Klawe’s portrait was unveiled during a reception April 13 at the Friend Center. Klawe is president of Harvey Mudd College.

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Wilde ‘West’

Director Davis McCallum ’97, a former lecturer in Princeton’s theater and dance program, will stage his latest work, “West Moon Street,” starting April 21 at New York City’s Hudson Guild Theatre, 441 West 26th Street. The play, written by Rob Urbinati, is based on Oscar Wilde’s “Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime,” and it will be presented by the Prospect Theater Company, which was founded by five Princeton alumni, including Cara Reichel ’96 and her husband Peter Mills ’95. For more information visit www.ProspectTheater.org.

Princeton in the Ivy League: A 50th Anniversary Countdown

In 2006-07, the Ivy League is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its start as an athletics conference and the 51st season of Ivy sports. To mark the occasion, PAW has selected a few notable numbers for Princeton’s top teams and athletes in the last half century. If you have other favorite numbers for our list, please send them to us.

51 – Consecutive years in which Princeton has won at least one Ivy championship, a feat matched only by Harvard.
47 – School record for consecutive wins, set by the women’s swimming team from 1998 to 2004.
42 – Uniform number worn by Bill Bradley ’65 during his illustrious basketball career, and before that, by football’s lone Heisman Trophy winner, Dick Kazmaier ’52. Though the University does not officially retire numbers, no men’s basketball or football player has worn 42 since Bradley and Kazmaier.
’39 – For 1939, the year in which PAW first tried to explain the term “Ivy League.” That fall, football was scheduled to play seven consecutive games against “Ivy” schools – Cornell, Columbia, Brown, Harvard, Dartmouth, Yale, and Navy. Penn and Army were also considered Ivies, according to PAW.
38 – Varsity sports currently offered at Princeton. Among the Ivies, only Harvard fields more teams, with a national-best 41.
’33 – For 1933, the year New York Herald Tribune sportswriters Stanley Woodward and Caswell Adams first use the term “Ivy colleges,” and later “Ivy League,” during football season to refer to a cluster of prestigious institutions in the northeast.
30 – Points scored by football running back Ellis Moore ’70 (five touchdowns) in a 1967 win at Harvard.
26 – Regular-season wins for men’s basketball in 1997-98. The Tigers beat UNLV in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, lost to Michigan State in round two, and finished the year 27-2.
22 – Career interceptions for football defensive back (and television Superman) Dean Cain ’88. The mark remains a Princeton record.
19 – Consecutive wins by Princeton’s women’s lacrosse team after losing its first game in 2002. The Tigers avenged that early loss to Georgetown, beating the Hoyas in the national final to win the second of the program’s three NCAA titles.
16 – Ivy championships for Princeton softball, in 27 seasons.
15 – Ivy championships for Princeton field hockey, in 28 seasons.
14 – Wins, without a loss, by Princeton’s men’s lacrosse team in 1997. The Tigers won the NCAA title with a 19-7 win over Maryland in College Park, Md. From 1992 to 2001, Princeton won six national championships and nine Ivy championships.
4 – Seconds remaining (actually, 3.9) when men’s basketball’s Gabe Lewullis ’99 scored a backdoor layup to beat defending-champion UCLA in the 1996 NCAA tournament.
1 – Men’s squash player who has won four individual national championships: Princeton’s Yasser El Halaby ’06.

More at PAW Online

Under the Ivy – Was Princeton’s 1966-67 basketball team its best ever? Gregg Lange ’70 thinks so. Read why and write to PAW to make your case for other top Tiger teams.
More from Baker – Read an extended version of PAW’s interview with James A. Baker III ’52.

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, Princeton Alumni Weekly.

noreply@blogger.com (PAW staff) — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 15:35:00 +0000

Welsh trio

From left, Michael McMillan ’09, Dan Kublick ’08, and Steve Pearson ’09 are shown in a scene from Theater-Intime's performance April 7 of Dylan Thomas’ “Under Milk Wood.” The play details a day in the life of a small Welsh village.

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Not-so-friendly skies

In an interview in PAW’s April 4 issue, Walter F. Murphy, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, emeritus, mentioned that he has been placed on a terrorist watch list and he believes it is because he spoke out against President Bush in a lecture at Princeton. This week Murphy, a retired Marine Corps colonel, detailed his recent experiences with air travel in a post on the legal blog Balkinization. “I presented my credentials from the Marine Corps to a very polite clerk for American Airlines,” Murphy wrote. “One of the two people to whom I talked asked a question and offered a frightening comment: ‘Have you been in any peace marches? We ban a lot of people from flying because of that.’ I explained that I had not so marched but had, in September 2006, given a lecture at Princeton, televised and put on the Web, highly critical of George Bush for his many violations of the Constitution. ‘That’ll do it,’ the man said.”

Princetonians in the News

EBay chief executive Meg Whitman ’77 has been making a strong impression in politics with her work as a national finance co-chairwoman for Mitt Romney’s 2008 presidential campaign, according to Forbes.com. Whitman helped the Romney campaign raise $23 million in the first quarter of 2007, tops among Republican candidates. … Woodrow Wilson School professor Michael Oppenheimer, a lead author on the report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change April 6, spoke on PBS’ News Hour about the consequences of global warming, including changes in agriculture, sea level, and public health. “Those are all things that start to happen at relatively low warming, and this presents policymakers with some stark choices,” he said. “How much warming are we going to accept? In fact, how much is inevitable? And where are we going to stop it?” … Former Iowa congressman and current Woodrow Wilson School lecturer Jim Leach ’64 interviewed fellow alum Bill Bradley ’65 about his new book, The New American Story, on “After Words,” a weekly C-SPAN books program, April 7. Video of the interview is available at BookTV.org. Bradley, a three-term senator from New Jersey and onetime presidential candidate, also stopped in at a bookstore a few miles from campus March 28 on his book tour and appeared on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show April 9, where he joked about Princeton-area turnpike exits with host Jon Stewart, a native of nearby Lawrence Township.

Play ball

Princeton’s lone major leaguer, San Diego Padres pitcher Chris Young ’02, opened his season with two solid starts, picking up his first win of the year against the San Francisco Giants April 9. In minor league towns across the country, several Princeton baseball alumni are vying to join him on professional baseball’s highest level.

Pitcher Ross Ohlendorf ’04, recently acquired by the New York Yankees, began the year with the triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, where he pitched five innings in a 5-3 win April 7. In the Padres’ system, outfielder Will Venable ’05 has moved up the ladder to the double-A San Antonio Missions, batting .313 in the first five games of the young season. Tim Lahey ’04, a catcher at Princeton who has become a relief pitcher in the pros, picked up his first save for the double-A New Britain Rock Cats (Minnesota Twins) against the Portland Sea Dogs April 9, allowing no runs after entering the game with the bases loaded and two outs in the eighth inning.

Other alumni in the minors include Thomas Pauly ’04 and B.J. Szymanski ’05, teammates on the Cincinnati Reds’ single-A team in Sarasota; Brian Kappel ’05 of the single-A Tacoma Rainiers, a Seattle Mariners affiliate; and Pat Boran ’02, who is slated to play for the Somerset Patriots in the independent Atlantic League.

Spring-loaded weekend

This weekend promises to be a busy one for sports on campus, with six varsity teams competing at home. Men’s tennis starts the action against Dartmouth at 2 p.m. April 13 and faces Harvard at 2 p.m. Saturday. Women’s track and field takes on Penn and Yale April 14, and men’s golf hosts the Princeton Invitational at Springdale Golf Club April 14 and 15. The baseball team will face Columbia in a pair of doubleheaders April 14 and 15, with the first games of each set starting at noon. The four games could prove important in the race for the Ivy League’s Gehrig Division title.

Women’s and men’s lacrosse headline the action at Class of 1952 Stadium April 14. The Princeton women, coming off a tough 6-5 loss to Yale in its last Ivy game April 7, will try to bounce back against Harvard at noon. Men’s lacrosse takes on the Crimson at 3 p.m. The 7-2 Tigers have won their last five games, including an impressive 12-8 victory over Syracuse April 7.

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, Princeton Alumni Weekly

noreply@blogger.com (PAW staff) — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 16:25:00 +0000

Picture of concentration

Freshman Ross Staine is set to deliver a pitch against Rutgers March 28 at Clarke Field. Staine was the third of four pitchers for Princeton as the Scarlet Knights won, 12-4.

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Men’s lacrosse set to face off with Syracuse

Princeton men’s lacrosse relied on stifling defense and an outstanding performance in goal by Alex Hewit ’08 (14 saves) to beat Yale, 5-3, March 31. With a 5-2 record, the Tigers are ranked No. 5 in the Nike/Inside Lacrosse Division I poll, and they will face No. 15 Syracuse (3-4) April 7 at 3 p.m. in Princeton Stadium.

Men’s and women’s track and field also will be in action this weekend, hosting the Sam Howell Invitational April 6 and 7. The softball team, which posted a perfect 4-0 record in its first weekend of Ivy League games, will host doubleheaders against Harvard and Dartmouth, April 7 and 8 respectively.

Victory in Vermont

In July 2006, Sports Illustrated senior writer Alexander Wolff ’79 wrote an essay in PAW about his latest project: launching a minor league basketball franchise called the Vermont Frost Heaves. The team, named after the bumps in Vermont roadways that form when the moist soil freezes, had a reasonably smooth road in its first season, winning 30 games and reaching the playoffs. Last week, the Frost Heaves defeated the Texas Tycoons 143-95 to win the American Basketball Association championship. “[I]n a league where the entire season’s payroll is capped at $120,000, no player will get rich,” Wolff wrote on the team’s Web site, “and for that very reason all have to figure out something non-monetary to take away from the experience. It might as well be a title —and that’s why minor-leaguers are more responsive to coaching than their NBA counterparts.”

Princetonians in the news

Physics professor Robert Socolow and ecology and evolutionary biology professor Stephen Pacala, the co-directors of Princeton’s Carbon Mitigation Initiative, were highlighted as “innovators” in Time magazine’s recent cover story on global warming. Socolow and Pacala’s novel approach to addressing climate change involves “not chasing a single magic bullet but harnessing seven different categories of reduction, using available technology.” … Aerial photographer David Maisel ’84 was featured on the nationally syndicated public radio program Studio 360 March 30. A slideshow of Maisel’s work is available on the Studio 360 Web site. … Former Princeton basketball standout and coach John Thompson III ’88 reached the NCAA Final Four as head coach of Georgetown’s men’s basketball team. The Hoyas lost in the semifinals to Ohio State, but their postseason success turned some of the basketball spotlight to the “Princeton offense” and Thompson’s mentor, former Princeton coach Pete Carril. Carril, who has a dozen former players and assistants now coaching in college and the pros, told The New York Times that he was thrilled to see Thompson on college hoops’ biggest stage. “The measure of any teacher,” he said, “provided he’s not an egomaniac, is to see anybody that he taught do better than he did.” … In the April 2 issue of New York magazine, Peter Hyman recounted the “other March madness” – the college squash individual championships – in a short but colorful piece that covered the “passionate attack style” of Princeton sophomore Mauricio Sanchez, this year’s runner-up and dubbed former champion Yasser El Halaby ’06 “the Michael Jordan of college squash.” … Kimberly Rogers ’05 was crowned Miss Philadelphia March 31. The pharmaceutical marketing consultant from suburban Philadelphia told The Philadelphia Inquirer that in her new post, she hopes to work toward preventing and addressing depression in young people.

Two months ’til Reunions

As alumni look forward to Reunions 2007 (May 31-June 3), the Weekly Blog looks back at Reunions 2006, as captured by the lens of student filmmaker Thomas Bender ’06.

For more videos of Reunions 2006, visit PAW Online.

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, Princeton Alumni Weekly

noreply@blogger.com (PAW staff) — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 12:30:00 +0000

Exploring the magic of science

Like any good magician, chemical engineering professor Richard Register allowed his audience to inspect his props – a plastic cup, a tiny scoop of white powder, and a container of water – before beginning his routine. Register added the powder to the cup and poured in some water, nearly filling the cup to its brim. Moments later, when the powder soaked up the water, forming a dense gel, he held the cup upside down and began explaining the properties that enabled the powder, an absorbent polymer called sodium polyacrylate, to do its impressive work. Sodium polyacrylate has several uses in commercial products, he added, most notably in diapers.

Register’s audience, in this case, was a cluster of wide-eyed middle school students attending Princeton’s Science and Engineering Expo (SEE) March 22. The program, now in its fourth year, attracts about 1,000 students from local schools who learn about interesting applications of biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering from faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, and experts from industry and other universities. Daniel Steinberg, the outreach director for the Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials, said that the expo aims to “reinvigorate” an interest in the sciences that sometimes wanes during students’ middle school years.

At the 50 tables, or “exploration stations,” inside Dillon Gymnasium, the students found plenty of hands-on examples of science and engineering at work. They carefully folded paper airplanes, trying to create designs that would stay in the air as long as possible (one student set the standard with a flight time of 7.68 seconds). They stood in their socks while measuring the coefficient of sliding friction of their sneakers. They built batteries powered by the acid of lemons, tasted ice cream made with the aid of liquid nitrogen, and saw models of the Mars rovers, courtesy of NASA’s educational outreach group. Students also visited Princeton laboratories. In the photo above, eighth-grader Janhavi Gawde, left, received tips from chemistry major Sebastian Urday ’08 while working on an experiment at Frick Lab.

PLOrk, the Princeton Laptop Orchestra, set up four laptops attached to a central bank of speakers at the Dillon Gym expo site – enough for a “chamber ensemble,” according to Ge Wang, a graduate student in computer science. PLOrk members stayed nearby to answer questions, but for the most part they let the tech-savvy youngsters make their own music. “We didn’t have to teach them much,” Wang said. “They just sit down and start jamming.”

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Back on the diamond

The Princeton baseball season reaches full swing this week as the Tigers begin their home schedule with a March 28 game against Rutgers and host Brown in a pair of doubleheaders to open the Ivy League season March 31 and April 1. Princeton already has played 14 games, all on the road. The Tigers were swept by Houston in three games, went 1-2 in three-game sets against Elon, UNC-Greensboro, and Longwood, and picked up another win in two games at Davidson.

Princeton, the defending Ivy champion, returns four pitchers who have significant experience as starters in league games: Christian Staehely ’08, Eric Walz ’07, Gavin Fabian ’07, and Michael Zaret ’07. Catcher Sal Iacono ’07 (.411 batting average, 13 runs batted in) and left fielder Greg Van Horn ’10 (.388 batting average, 15 runs scored) have led Tigers at the plate so far this year.

More at PAW Online

Under the Ivy – It’s the bicentennial of the Great Riot of 1807; Gregg Lange ’70 describes what happened in his Princeton history column.
On the Campus – P.G. Sittenfeld ’07 writes that for some students, February meant Mardi Gras in New Orleans; for others it meant ice skating on Lake Carnegie.

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, Princeton Alumni Weekly

noreply@blogger.com (PAW staff) — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 15:05:00 +0000

Coaching change for men’s basketball

After posting two losing seasons in three years as Princeton’s head coach, Joe Scott ’87 has decided to leave the Tigers to become the men’s basketball coach at the University of Denver, according to news reports from the Associated Press and The Times of Trenton. Scott “gave a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to Princeton basketball,” athletics director Gary Walters ’67 said in a statement to the AP. “Unfortunately, it might not have worked out the way he had hoped. We wish him the best at Denver.”

Scott, who worked as an assistant coach at Princeton under Pete Carril and Bill Carmody, got his first big break in college coaching in Colorado, where he led a remarkable turnaround at the Air Force Academy. In 2003-04, his Falcons won 22 games (then a school record) and reached the NCAA Tournament. But his time at Princeton was marked by a series of low moments, including a December 2005 game against Monmouth in which the Tigers managed to score just 22 points; a loss to Division-III Carnegie Mellon, also in December 2005; and a last-place finish in the Ivy League in 2007. His teams were 38-45 in three seasons.

Last blast of winter?

Bill Pierce, left, and Brian Pinney of the University grounds and building maintenance department shovel snow March 17 from the steps of Blair Arch after a late-winter storm dumped a mix of snow and sleet on the campus.

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Athletes break for warmer climes, fencers head to nationals

Baseball in North Carolina, men’s golf in Arizona, softball and women’s golf in Florida, and women’s and men’s tennis and women’s water polo in California. It can only mean one thing: Princeton’s spring break has arrived.

But while the spring-season Tigers start their schedules in warm sunshine this week, a handful of winter-season competitors will wrap up their year in New Jersey, not far from campus. Seven fencers will compete at the NCAA Championships at Drew University in Madison, N.J., March 22-25. Sara Jew-Lim ’07 and Jocelyn Svengsouk ’10 will fence in the women’s foil and two-time All-American Erin McGarry ’07 and Jasjit Bhinder ’09 will compete in the women’s epee. Three Princeton men qualified for the national meet as well: Alejandro Bras ’07 (foil), Tommi Hurme ’08 (epee), and Thomas Abend ’10 (sabre).

Alumni in the news

Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Robin Givhan ’86 of The Washington Post will receive the 2007 Eugenia Sheppard Award for journalism from the Council of Fashion Designers of America, Women’s Wear Daily reported March 12. … Stephen Feinberg ’82’s company Cerberus was included in Fortune’s list of America’s top-10 private equity firms March 5. The magazine called Feinberg, Cerberus’ founder and principal, an “anti-elitist,” making note of his bare-bones office and his unpretentious mode of transportation, a Chevy pickup truck. … Gary Walters ’67, chairman of the NCAA men’s basketball committee, was in the spotlight when the committee announced the NCAA Tournament’s field of 65 teams March 11. This year included its share of perceived snubs, and Walters was asked at a press conference whether expanding the field might remedy the situation in future years. “I’m personally convinced that if we expanded the field, you would still have the same kind of issues that arise with regard to bubble teams who are either in or out,” he said. “People that are on this committee are committed to doing the best possible job they can. It’s a labor of love.” … March 15 marked the passing of Bowie Kuhn ’47, who served as commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1969 to 1984. He was 80. Kuhn led the national pastime during a period of remarkable growth and fought, unsuccessfully, the rise of free agency. In Kuhn’s obituary, The New York Times wrote that he “viewed himself as a lifelong fan determined to uphold the integrity of baseball, promote competitive balance and enhance the game’s marketing, all the while bemoaning sharply rising salaries that he claimed imperiled the sport’s financial viability.”

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, Princeton Alumni Weekly.

noreply@blogger.com (PAW staff) — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 15:30:00 +0000

Crash through the lines of blue

“The Princeton-Yale Game Increases in Intensity,” a 6-foot-square quilt by Phyllis Kluger, was put on permanent display at the Frist Campus Center in the fall. Phyllis is the wife of Dick Kluger ’56, who wrote in the March 7 class notes: “It’s a great thrill for her (and me) that a large sample of her work will be within daily view on the PU campus, where we met 52 years back.”

Spring break on campus

Many of Princeton’s spring sport teams will be traveling south for Spring recess next week, but women’s lacrosse will be using the break from classes to host two key games in the friendly confines of Class of 1952 Stadium. The Tigers will face Penn State March 17 at 2 p.m. and play at home again March 21 against Loyola at 7 p.m. Holly McGarvie ’09 scored an overtime goal in Princeton’s first home game, March 3, as the Tigers edged Johns Hopkins 11-10.

Alumni in the news

New York Magazine profiled Richard Stengel ’77, the managing editor of Time magazine, in its March 12 issue. “Stengel has already given Time magazine a narrower and sharper editorial profile,” New York reported, “with more covers about war and politics than usual and almost no pop culture (Anna Nicole Smith didn’t make the cut) or soft social reporting (like the ever-popular Jesus Christ covers). … Jonathan Safran Foer ’99, author of the novels Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, was selected as one of the best American novelists under age 35 by Granta, a British literary magazine. Also on the list was Gabe Hudson, a visiting fellow and creative writing instructor at Princeton. … Woodrow Wilson School Dean Anne-Marie Slaughter ’80 and colleague Thomas Wright, a senior researcher for the Princeton Project on National Security, examined the penalties for nuclear trafficking in a March 1 Washington Post op-ed piece. “Current efforts to close down the nuclear black market have an Achilles’ heel,” they wrote. “[C]ertain states will not cooperate and will even protect nuclear criminals.” Slaughter and Wright recommended making the trafficking of nuclear materials a crime against humanity, because it endangers so many people, and allowing the International Criminal Court to prosecute those involved in the crime.

The mystery next door

In Roberta Isleib ’75’s new book, Deadly Advice (Berkley Prime Crime), the author, a clinical psychologist turned mystery writer, draws on her own experience in private practice. The book is Isleib’s first in a new series based on the main character, Dr. Rebecca Butterman, a psychologist and advice columnist. When Butterman returns home to find her young neighbor, Madeline, dead by apparent suicide, she can’t believe that she missed the signs and can’t help herself from hunting for the truth. She finds Madeline’s blog, a chronicle of her dating adventures. When Butterman’s editor asks her to write a column on the modern singles scene, she retraces her neighbor’s steps into the dating world, looking for clue’s to Madeline’s death. Isleib has also written a mystery series based on professional golfer Cassie Burdette. For information about other books by alumni and faculty, visit New Books at PAW online.

Posted by W. Raymond Ollwerther '71, with reporting by Brett Tomlinson and Katherine Federici Greenwood.
Princeton Alumni Weekly

noreply@blogger.com (PAW staff) — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 17:16:00 +0000

Hart critiques ‘crusader mentality’

Religious revivals have been common in the United States, former Sen. Gary Hart told an audience in Dodds Auditorium March 6, but except for Prohibition, no revival has been as politicized as the one that has taken place in the last 15 to 20 years. Hart, a Colorado Democrat and onetime presidential candidate, delivered a tough critique of the influence of the religious right on the Republican Party. He said that it represents a threat to separation of church and state, has co-opted dissent, and “flies in the face of the very basic principles” this country has operated under for 220 years.

Hart’s topic was “God and Caesar in America,” taken from the title of a 96-page essay he published in 2005. Hart said a blending of evangelical Protestant fundamentalists and political neo-conservatives resulted in a strong intensity of belief and “a position of political superiority.” This has had consequences both domestically and in foreign policy, Hart said, where it has led to “a crusader mentality, an avenging angel mentality” and the threat of creating “a religious empire.” Until recently, Hart said, he was afraid that the religious right’s ascendance was “a permanent change.” But the results of the November election and the collapse of support for the war in Iraq show that “America is beginning to wake up,” he said.

What we eat and what it means

There are patterns in the way we have consumed food, especially meat, throughout history, according to Ruth Reichl, the editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine and former restaurant reviewer for The New York Times. She spoke to a full auditorium in McCosh 50 March 6 as the J. Edward Farnum lecturer in the University Public Lecture Series. Food, Reichl said, reflects characteristics of society. As societies become wealthier, food becomes less recognizable. While our ancestors “tried to put animals right on the table,” Americans are consuming huge quantities of meat but “don’t want to see its form,” she said. What we’re eating is so disguised, she explains, that a simple muffin can be “a calorie bomb.” Reichl is the author of three books and a former restaurant owner.

Naacho takes the stage

Samira Farouk ’07, right, a member of the Indian dance troupe Naacho, performs during the group's appearance March 2 at the Frist Campus Center.

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Skating farther, swimming faster

Princeton men’s hockey will face Dartmouth in Hanover this weekend in the quarterfinal round of the ECAC Hockey League playoffs. Princeton’s last trip to the quarterfinals came in 1999. The Tigers, fresh off a third-period comeback win in the decisive third game of their series against Brown last weekend, fared well against the Big Green in the regular season, tying Dartmouth in Hanover Nov. 24 and winning 3-0 at home Feb. 10.

At this weekend’s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships, divers Stuart Malcolm ’07 and Michelle DeMond ’07 will compete in the platform events, and freshman standout Alicia Aemisegger will swim the 400-yard individual medley, the 500-yard freestyle, and the 200-yard breaststroke.

More at PAW Online

On the Campus – Christian R. Burset ’07 tells why the Undergraduate Honor Committee was giving out cheeseburgers and why a Chapel service ended with “Happy Trails.”
Under the Ivy – Do you have a copy of Carmina Princetonia? If not, find out what you’ve missed, as Gregg Lange ’70 recalls past editions of the Princeton songbook.

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, with reporting by W. Raymond Ollwerther ’71 and Fran Hulette.
Princeton Alumni Weekly

noreply@blogger.com (PAW staff) — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 17:37:00 +0000

Coles *66, Sarbanes ’54 honored at Alumni Day

“I feel like I’m really back home with a family,” Africare president Julius Coles *66, pictured at the Richardson Auditorium podium, said in the preface to his lecture on Alumni Day. “Princeton is truly a family to me.”

Coles, a Woodrow Wilson School graduate who went on to work in international development and in academia, was on hand to receive the James Madison Medal, the University’s highest honor for graduate alumni. The gathering had the feel of a family reunion, with both honorees – Coles and former Sen. Paul Sarbanes ’54, the Woodrow Wilson Award winner – supported by members of their extended families and classmates from Princeton.

After receiving his award from President Tilghman at the Alumni Day luncheon, Sarbanes recounted a story about his father, Spyros, a Greek immigrant who with Sarbanes’ mother, Matina, operated a restaurant on Maryland’s eastern shore. For his first visit to campus, Spyros Sarbanes baked a ham for then-President Harold Dodds *14 as a token of thanks. He delivered it to Prospect House, Dodds’ residence, and a member of the kitchen staff, after receiving the ham, located Dodds and mentioned that a parent of one of the students had come to visit. Dodds invited the elder Sarbanes inside, and the two discussed Greek philosophers over tea. On subsequent visits, Spyros Sarbanes would often stop by to check in with his friend, Mr. Dodds.

“I can’t tell you how grateful I am to President Dodds for that enormous courtesy to my father,” Sarbanes said. “I think it reflects Princeton.”

At Baker Rink, a baker’s dozen

With wins against Clarkson and St. Lawrence Feb. 23 and 24, Princeton men’s hockey completed the regular season with 13 wins and entered the postseason playing some of its best hockey, according to head coach Guy Gadowsky. “But you certainly can’t rest on that,” he added. “We want to get better this week.”

For the first time since 1999, the Tigers will have home ice in the quarterfinal round of the ECAC Hockey League playoffs. They will face Brown March 2, 3, and 4 (if necessary) in a best-of-three set. Both of this year’s meetings between the Tigers and Bears went into overtime, with Princeton winning 3-2 Jan. 12 and settling for a 1-1 tie Feb. 2.

Sounds of Princeton

Reginald Jackson, a graduate student in East Asian studies, performs Feb. 23 at Richardson Auditorium as part of the annual “This Is Princeton” talent showcase. The event features students, faculty, staff, and alumni, with proceeds benefiting youth arts programs in the Princeton area.

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Princeton blog watch

Feb. 24 – The Ivy League’s swimming blog chronicled Princeton’s winning performance at the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League men’s championship meet. … Feb. 21 – Lee Silver, professor of molecular biology and public affairs, issued a challenge to readers of his scientific blog: identify five chemicals commonly used to enhance mental performance, based on illustrations of their structure and a few hints about their properties (answers are in the comments section of his blog). … Feb. 12 – The E-Quad News blog chronicles the adventures of Andrew Appel ’81, the latest Princeton professor to investigate the security of electronic voting machines.

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, Princeton Alumni Weekly.

noreply@blogger.com (PAW staff) — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 17:25:00 +0000

North Korea expert expresses cautious optimism

Speaking just a week after six-party talks yielded a new agreement to shut down North Korea’s nuclear program, former State Department official Evans Revere ’76 said in a Feb. 20 campus lecture that the United States would be well advised to “keep expectations low.” Revere, who visited North Korea seven times while posted in South Korea and Japan and talked informally with North Korean counterparts on numerous other occasions, noted that U.S. diplomats have been down the same path before. “There have been lots of ups and downs in this process, and there may be lots more,” he said. “But there are some very good signs that have come out of this dialogue and the recent agreement.”

Revere is the president of the Korea Society, a New York-based group that studies Korean politics and business affairs. He said that with an agreement in place, this is a good time for officials on both sides to reflect on the process that led to this point and ask questions about the future. Is the United States working to prevent policy gaps that the North Koreans could use to drive wedges between the United States and its allies? Has North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons enhanced its security? Is the six-party process up to the task of addressing all of the issues on the table? On the latter question, Revere said that the United States must consider direct, one-on-one engagement at the highest levels of leadership, because that interaction “might be the clincher” for a long-term diplomatic solution.

On track

Bryan Sharkey ’09 is in the lead on his way to victory in the mile with a time of 4:14.42 in the Princeton Invitational Feb. 17 at Jadwin Gym. The Tigers placed seven runners in the top 10 in the race.

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Ice action on Alumni Day

The Princeton men’s and women’s ice hockey teams will host key games at Baker Rink on Feb. 24 as the University celebrates Alumni Day. At 3:30 p.m., the Tiger men, who are aiming for their first home playoff series in eight years, play ECAC Hockey League powerhouse St. Lawrence in the regular season finale for both teams. And at 7 p.m., the Tiger women face Colgate in the second game of a best-of-three ECAC Hockey League quarterfinal playoff series. Princeton reached the eight-team women’s NCAA tournament last season.

Alumni in the news

On Feb. 15, The Boston Globe ran a story about a Princeton connection that helped the Boston Red Sox land Japanese star pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka. Stanford professor Dan Okimoto ’65 and Red Sox CEO Larry Lucchino ’67 were friends as undergraduates, and Okimoto served as a valued adviser during Boston’s recruitment of Matsuzaka. … Charles Zukoski *85, vice chancellor for research at the University of Illinois, was named to the National Academy of Engineering, according to the Feb. 12 issue of Chemical & Engineering News. … “Labyrinth,” a painting by Frank Stella ’58 that measures about 12 inches by 12 inches, sold for £288,000, or about $563,000, at a London auction Feb. 8, the International Herald Tribune reported. … “A Year on Earth,” a Discovery Kids documentary produced by Katie Carpenter ’79 and John Heminway ’66, earned an Emmy nomination in the children/youth/family special category, Broadcasting & Cable reported.

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, Princeton Alumni Weekly.

noreply@blogger.com (PAW staff) — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 16:24:00 +0000

The religion gap

Are Democrats really “anti-religious”? Harvard economist Richard Parker, the son of an Episcopal minister and a co-founder of Mother Jones, examined the question in this semester’s first installment of the Crossroads of Religion and Politics Lecture Series at Robertson Hall Feb. 13. The idea that Democrats have a “God problem” is widely acknowledged, Parker said. But he raised doubts about the significance of the issue, partly by using data from same paper often used to back claim, the Pew Research Center publication “Do the Democrats Have a ‘God Problem’?: How Public Perceptions May Spell Trouble for the Party.” Three quarters of voters in the last presidential election were not regular church goers, Parker said, and while Democrats have less homogenous viewpoints on religion than Republicans, members of both parties overwhelmingly say they believe in God (about 80 percent of Democrats and about 90 percent of Republicans).

“While there is some kind of a God gap between the two parties, it’s just one of many gaps between the two parties today,” said Parker, who added that other issues, including the war in Iraq, proved more significant in the 2006 midterm elections.

The Crossroads series, sponsored by the Center for the Study of Religion, will include two more installments in March: former Sen. Gary Hart will speak about “God and Caesar in America” March 6 at 4:30 p.m., and former U.S. Ambassador to Israel and to Egypt Daniel Kurtzer, the S. Daniel Abraham Professor in Middle Eastern Policy Studies, will address “Ethical Issues and Dilemmas in the Formulation of National Security Policy” March 27 at 4:30 p.m. Both lectures will be held in Bowl 016 at Robertson Hall.

Ice hockey, lake style

The ice on Lake Carnegie swelled the ranks of hockey players at Princeton on the sunny afternoon of Feb. 10. At center, with his eye on the puck, is Scott Mildrum, a data research analyst in the economics department.

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

February’s finest

This week’s PAW online columns highlight Princeton’s take on two February holidays. On the Campus writer Bridget Reilly Durkin ’07 looks at the joys of Valentine’s Day, from the simple romance of sledding with a special someone to students sharing a “Crush” for a cause. In his Under the Ivy column, Gregg Lange ’70 marks the 275th anniversary of Washington’s birthday with a look back at the first president’s connections to Old Nassau.

Making a splash

Princeton women’s swimming will try for its second straight championship and its seventh title in eight years at the Ivy League Swimming and Diving Championships Feb. 15-17 at DeNunzio Pool. The Tigers return several talented swimmers from the team that edged out Harvard last year, but their most important contributor may be a newcomer to the Ivy meet, Alicia Aemisegger ’10, who won three individual events in the annual H-Y-P meet earlier this month and has been piling up school records all season. The Ivy League will provide a live blog of the women’s swimming championships at psychesheet.blogspot.com.

From print to film and back to print

Richard Powell ’30’s novel The Philadelphian, touted as an exposé and indictment of blue-blooded Philadelphia society, was immortalized on the screen in the 1959 film The Young Philadelphians, starring Paul Newman and Robert Vaughn. Now, 50 years after the book’s release, Powell’s daughter has worked with Plexus Publishing to republish the novel, originally printed by Charles Scribner’s Sons. The saga of a family of humble origins climbing the Philadelphia social ladder spans four generations, starting with the immigration of a poor Irish girl in 1857 and ending with her great grandson, a young defense lawyer, in a climactic courtroom scene. Powell, who died in 1999, was a prolific writer, and several of his novels were made into feature films. For information about other books by alumni and faculty, visit New Books at PAW online.

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, with reporting by Katherine Federici Greenwood.
Princeton Alumni Weekly

noreply@blogger.com (PAW staff) — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 17:17:00 +0000

Mat action

Princeton wrestler Jesse Palermo ’07, left, grapples with Harvard's J.P. O’Connor during their 149-pound bout Feb. 2 in Dillon Gym. Harvard beat the Tigers, 36-7, in the Ivy League opener for both teams.

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Women’s basketball, men’s and women’s squash face key weekend

On Feb. 3, women’s basketball star Meagan Cowher ’08 scored her 1,000th career point in the Tigers’ 69-51 win over Brown (video available at goprincetontigers.com). Cowher has averaged a league-best 27.2 points per game in Princeton’s five Ivy contests, and the Tigers are 4-1, tied for first place, as they leave for what historically has been the league’s toughest pair of road games. Princeton plays at 4-1 Harvard Feb. 9 and at 3-2 Dartmouth Feb. 10. Last season, the Tigers swept their road games against Harvard and Dartmouth for the first time in 24 tries.

Men’s and women’s squash also face Harvard and Dartmouth this weekend, hosting the Big Green first (Feb. 10, men at noon, women at 2 p.m.) and the Crimson the following day (Feb. 11, men at noon, women at 2 p.m.) in the final matches of the Ivy season. Both Princeton teams are undefeated, but both Harvard squads are unbeaten as well, so Sunday’s results likely will determine this year’s Ivy titles. After the Princeton matches, the Crimson complete their Ivy slate against Yale Feb. 14.

Markowitz ’74 pens second murder mystery

In A Minor Case of Murder: A Cassie O’Malley Mystery (Five Star), Jeff Markowitz ’74 adds a new adventure to the career of rag sheet journalist and amateur sleuth Cassie O’Malley. When Andy MacTavish brings minor league baseball to White Sands Beach, near the New Jersey Pine Barrens, not everyone welcomes the club. Birders are upset that the ballpark will upset nesting areas. So after a woman dies at the ballpark during the final game of the season, MacTavish asks O’Malley for help in solving the murder. A Minor Case of Murder was nominated for a Readers’ Choice Award in the Best Traditional Mystery/Amateur Sleuth category at Love is Murder, a mystery writers conference held in Chicago in January. For information about other books by alumni and faculty, visit New Books at PAW online.

Alumni headline theater projects

Dana Wieluns ’91 is performing in Kabara Sol, a production of Ziggurat Theatre Ensemble at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, through Feb. 11. Wieluns performs the roles of a male drug lord, a voluptuous torch singer, and a mysterious disabled girl without a past. Wieluns wrote in an e-mail, “Set in the seedy underworld of a fantastical oriental port in the ’30s, Kabara Sol explores the theme of identity through the hallucinatory weaving of three lives: those of an opium kingpin, a drug-addled chanteuse, and the deformed amnesiac with powerful attachments to both. … Kabara Sol is a spellbinding fable of murder and redemption.” For information and tickets go to www.fordamphitheatre.org . Wieluns is a founding member of the Ziggurat Theatre Ensemble.

The latest musical by Prospect Theater Company, Tock Tick, opened Feb. 5 and runs through March 4, at the West End Theatre in New York City. Recommended for ages 10 and up, Tock Tick is about a 12-year-old girl, Chelsea Tickerman, whose mother has cancer. “As the clock in the front hall steadily marks each passing moment,” a release about the production said, “Chelsea can see the dragon of her mother’s death, hovering. In a bold move, she embarks on a fantastical quest to slay this dragon and save her mother.” Prospect was founded by five Princeton alumni, including Cara Reichel ’96 and her now-husband Peter Mills ’95. For more information go to www.ProspectTheater.org.

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, with reporting by Katherine Federici Greenwood.
Princeton Alumni Weekly

noreply@blogger.com (PAW staff) — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 16:05:00 +0000

Nobel laureate examines embryonic science

In the preface of his Albert Einstein Memorial Lecture, delivered Jan. 30 at Robertson Hall, Nobel laureate and Princeton molecular biology professor Eric Wieschaus spoke about the everyday joys of laboratory science. “What drives us, often, is not just intellectual curiosity, and it’s not just the great social goals and the good that science can bring,” he said, “[but also] the inherent human pleasure that scientists take in doing things with your hands in the lab.”

Using examples drawn from the hands-on experimental work of his colleagues, Wieschaus examined what scientists have learned in the last two decades about how embryos develop in fruit flies, frogs, and mammals. He also said a “sea change” in embryology is underway, with the field turning its focus to the logic and circuitry that generates patterns in the development of embryos. Future embryologists will need to be fluent in computational biology, he predicted, because these molecular circuits “may be better described in the language of physics and math.”

Wieschaus, a winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Medicine, was the 13th Nobel laureate to deliver the Einstein Lecture. The event is presented annually by the Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce.

On the scene: Brrrr

It may have been 21 degrees outside, but nothing stops the Orange Key tour guides. Sarah Harrison ’09, left, leads a group of hardy visitors Jan. 26 on a brisk walk across campus.

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Alumni in the news

Michelle Obama ’85, the wife of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, was profiled in a Jan. 21 Chicago Sun-Times article. The story included quotations from her sociology thesis about Princeton’s black community, in which she wrote, “I have found that at Princeton, no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my White professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus, as if I really don’t belong.” … Former Congressman Jim Leach ’64 joined the Woodrow Wilson School faculty Jan. 24, accepting a three-semester appointment. The 15-term Republican from Iowa told the Iowa City Press-Citizen that in addition to teaching, he plans to write and reflect on his career in public service. … Gayle Delaney ’72 was featured in a Newsday article about dreamwork – “a more nuanced, personalized meditation on one’s dreams” – on Jan. 29. … Judson Wallace ’05, a professional basketball player for Germany’s Eisbaren Bremerhaven, scored 15 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the victorious North team in the German league all-star game Jan. 29. … The NFL’s Dallas Cowboys added Jason Garrett ’89 to their coaching staff Jan. 25 but declined to designate his job title. The Associated Press reported that Garrett is a candidate to become the Cowboys’ head coach, but if another head coach is hired, he will be the team’s offensive coordinator. Garrett won the Asa S. Bushnell [’21] Cup as the Ivy League’s top football player in 1988 and played in the NFL for 12 seasons, including seven with the Cowboys.

A day to play

Princeton athletes will celebrate National Girls and Women in Sports Day Feb. 3 with a program that includes an interactive sports fair for girls, run by women on the lacrosse, rowing, softball, and soccer teams, and three Ivy League varsity contests. Women’s swimming and diving completes its two-day meet against Harvard and Yale at noon at DeNunzio Pool, women’s hockey hosts Yale at 4 p.m. at Baker Rink, and women’s basketball faces Brown at 7 p.m. at Jadwin Gym.

Sigman ’89 *98 explores ‘breaking and healing’

Choreographer and dancer Jill Sigman ’89 *98’s new show, RUPTURE, will debut in New York City Feb. 8 at 8:30 p.m. at Danspace Project, 131 East 10th Street. The multi-media dance also will be performed Feb. 9 and 10 at 8:30 p.m. and Feb. 11 at 7:30 p.m. According to Sigman’s Web site, thinkdance.org, the show is “set in a charged landscape that includes hundreds of broken eggshells” and it explores “breaking and healing on personal, architectural, and global scales.” Sigman was profiled in PAW in January 2006.

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, Princeton Alumni Weekly

noreply@blogger.com (PAW staff) — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 17:12:00 +0000

Crunch time

The intensity of preparing for fall term final exams shows on the face of Melissa Saiontz ’10 as she studies in Frist Campus Center on Jan. 20. At left, with her back to the camera, is Ivana King ’08.

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Returning to the court

Princeton men’s basketball will be back in action Jan. 29, playing Seton Hall at the Continental Airlines Arena in the Tigers’ first game after the first semester exam break. The Tigers struggled in an 0-2 start in Ivy League games, but they have played well against non-league opponents, posting a 9-4 record. The game will mark the first time that the two schools have met since 1988-89, the same year that the Pirates reached the NCAA Final Four. Seton Hall leads the all-time series, 8-3.

Now available at PAW Online

PAW’s Jan. 24 special issue, Global Princeton, is now online, with feature stories about American University of Beirut president John Waterbury ’61 , the relationship of American universities with their counterparts in China, alumni involved in international affairs, where Princeton alumni make their homes around the world, the teaching of Woodrow Wilson School lecturer and former German foreign minister Joschka Fischer, and Princeton’s international campus.

PAW Online also includes the following web exclusives:
On the campus – Student interest is spurring Princeton to enhance its offerings in less familiar languages, Joy Karuga ’09 finds.
No path to citizenship – Ilya Shapiro ’99 tells how U.S. immigrations laws keep foreign professionals from serving their adopted country.
Under the ivy – When new buildings replace the old on campus, something is lost, Gregg Lange ’70 writes.

Princeton blog watch

Jan. 24 – Princeton computer science professor Ed Felten examines a new Wikipedia feature aimed at fighting spam. … Jan. 20 – Jon Solomon of the Princeton Basketball News blog covers John Thompson III ’88’s recent trip to New Jersey with his Georgetown men’s basketball team. The Hoyas beat Seton Hall, Princeton’s next opponent. ... Jan. 15 – Lauren S. Necochea *06 of the Princeton AIDS Initiative takes a closer look at a recent study that uses economic principles to examine the African AIDS epidemic.

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, Princeton Alumni Weekly.

noreply@blogger.com (PAW staff) — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 16:49:00 +0000

Just in time

On Jan. 16, Princeton students celebrated Dean’s Date, the biannual deadline for turning in end-of-semester papers, with a 5 p.m. gathering on Chapel Drive that included music from the Princeton Band and tacos and hot chocolate provided by the University. This semester’s last-minute finishers included walkers, runners, a mountain biker, and a half-dozen sneaker-clad streakers who sprinted across McCosh Courtyard at 5:07 p.m.

Cowher shines in Ivy action

Women’s basketball star Meagan Cowher ’08 earned her second consecutive Ivy League Player of the Week award after scoring 31 points and 35 points, respectively, in a Jan. 12 win against Columbia and a Jan. 13 loss to Cornell. Cowher, who is averaging a team-best 19 points and 7.6 rebounds, is now 34 points shy of becoming the 11th Tiger woman to score 1,000 points in her career. With 11 games remaining, she also is on pace to break Sandi Bittler ’90’s single-season scoring record, set in 1988-89. The women’s basketball team returns to action Feb. 2 and 3 with home games against Yale and Brown.

Young scientists at work

Eighth-grader Varnika Atmakuri and eighth-grader William Ying team up during the tower-building event of the N.J. Science Olympiad Jan. 9 at the University. Looking on are post-doctoral student Mark Dobossy, left, and Roland Heck, associate dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science. More than 500 middle school and high school students took part in the competition.

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Earth, through the eyes of teens

Alumni Katie Carpenter ’79 (producer) and John Heminway ’66 (executive producer) recently released a two-part documentary, A Year on Earth, which debuted on the Discovery Kids Channel in December and will be screened at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (Jan. 27 through Feb. 4). The film follows three teenagers as they travel to five continents to “take the pulse of our planet and report back to their generation,” according to the film’s Web site. Carpenter, who was a Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton last spring, said students in her documentary filmmaking course had a chance to see the project’s rough cut and “gave excellent notes.” The producers also solicited feedback from experts at the Princeton Environmental Institute. Discovery Education is distributing copies of A Year on Earth to 70,000 schools, and the film is expected to air again on the Discovery networks early in 2007. Check local listings.

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, Princeton Alumni Weekly

noreply@blogger.com (PAW staff) — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 17:15:00 +0000

Switching jobs: Alumni in the news

Two Woodrow Wilson School alumni made national headlines by taking new jobs in Iraq last week. On Jan. 5, President George W. Bush selected Lt. Gen. David Petraeus *87 to be America’s chief commander in Iraq, and three days later, the president named Ryan Crocker, a former Wilson School mid-career fellow, to replace Zalmay Khalilzad as ambassador to Iraq. In one report, NPR took note of Petraeus’ Princeton background and the topic of his Ph.D. thesis: "The American Military and the Lessons of Vietnam.” Petraeus was featured in a 2004 PAW story and a 2002 PAW interview. … Several New York newspapers reported the appointments of incoming Gov. Eliot Spitzer ’81, which include at least two Princetonians. David Nocenti ’80, who was Spitzer’s counsel in his time as New York’s attorney general, was named counsel to the governor. Anthony Shorris *79, a Wilson School lecturer and former director of Princeton's Policy Research Institute for the Region, will be the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. … And elsewhere in New York, former Tiger baseball star Ross Ohlendorf ’05, a minor league pitcher, was one of four players traded to the New York Yankees Jan. 9 in a deal that sent Yankee star Randy Johnson back to the Arizona Diamondbacks. New York Daily News columnist Bill Madden highlighted Ohlendorf as the key prospect in the trade, reporting that he could find his way into the Yankees’ bullpen in 2007 or 2008.

Wedding smiles

Alexis Chiang ’98 and Tim Colvin ’97 of New York City take advantage of the mild weather for outdoor photos after their wedding ceremony Jan. 6 at the University Chapel. Temperatures were in the 70s as the couple posed near Whig and Clio halls.

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Before exams, Ivy tests

In the last weekend before the first semester exam break, several Princeton winter sports teams will face Ivy League opponents in key games. On campus, women’s basketball and men’s hockey are the headliners. Women’s basketball beat Penn Jan. 6 in its Ivy opener as Meg Cowher ’08 (22 points) led Princeton in scoring for the 11th time in 15 games. The Tigers host Columbia Jan. 12 at 7 p.m. and Cornell Jan. 13 at 7 p.m. At Baker Rink, the men’s hockey team will try to rebound from last weekend’s loss to Quinnipiac, facing Yale Jan. 12 at 7 p.m. and Brown Jan. 13 at 7 p.m.

Princeton men’s basketball will start its Ivy season on the road with games at Columbia Jan. 12 and at Cornell Jan. 13. At 9-4, the Tigers are off to the best start of the eight Ivy teams, but they are taking nothing for granted entering the weekend: The Lions and the Big Red each split their games against Princeton last season.

Math and card tricks converge

Longtime Princeton faculty member and Plasma Physics Laboratory scientist Martin Kruskal died Dec. 26 at age 81, but his contributions will live on in applied mathematics – and in a card trick that bears his name.

The “Kruskal Count,” employed by amateur magicians, is a trick that uses a standard deck of 52 cards and the mathematical principle of Markov chains. The magician asks a subject to pick a number between 1 and 10, which the person does not reveal. Using that number, the subject works his way through a deck of cards using the following rules: Count off the secret number of cards to get a “key card”; in the example below, the subject’s number is 7, so the first “key card” is the four of spades. Then, use the number on the key card to count to the next key card. Aces are worth one and face cards are worth five. The subject's sequence is shown with blue dots below, and the subject is asked to reveal the cards evenly, as not to tip off the magician. At the same time, the magician follows the same counting process, shown with yellow dots, starting with his own secret number. (It helps to use 1, as in the example below.) When the subject reaches his last key card, the magician can identify it because it is the magician’s key card as well. The chains have converged.

The Kruskal Count works about five out of six times using the rules above, according to a 2001 paper by Princeton Professor Robert Vanderbei and two colleagues. “But if it fails,” Vanderbei noted, “the magician must fall back on his own wits to entertain the audience.”

America’s long relationship with the Middle East

In Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present (W.W. Norton), historian Michael Oren *86 explores the history of America’s involvement in the Middle East from George Washington to George W. Bush. Drawing on a range of government documents, personal correspondence, and the memoirs of merchants, missionaries, and travelers, Oren reconstructs the diverse channels through which the United States has interacted with the Middle East. Oren, a historian of the Middle East, lives in Israel. For information about other books by alumni and faculty, visit New Books at PAW online.

Princeton Alumni Weekly Blog

Moving Day

Beginning Sept. 26, 2007, new editions of The Weekly Blog will be posted at blogs.princeton.edu/paw. Please change your bookmarks and click here to see our new home.To return to PAW's main site and view Web exclusives, click here.

Deconstructing America’s founders

Headless no more

Faculty in the news

Tiger time

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

More at PAW online

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, Princeton Alumni Weekly

First and 10: What you need to know about Princeton football in 2007

A Weekly Blog Summer Special

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, Princeton Alumni Weekly.

Reunions 2007

Reunions photos by T. Kevin Birch

Raising the Bard

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Alumni in the news

More at PAW Online

Summer hiatus for The Weekly Blog

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, Princeton Alumni Weekly.

Moving out

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Rowing for gold

Alumni in the news

Just around the corner

Don’t miss the 2007 Reunions Guide

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, Princeton Alumni Weekly.

Laser light show

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Alumni authors swing for the fences

Alumni in the news

Track standouts travel to regional meet

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, Princeton Alumni Weekly.

Sculptural setting

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Caps, gowns, and Princeton alumni

New Jersey verses

Back in the race

Alumni in the news: The Time 100

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, Princeton Alumni Weekly.

A veteran professor walks the plank

Photos by Jesse Platt ’07

Physics never sounded better

Tracing the lives of teens

Beach break

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Lacrosse teams open postseason on the road

More at PAW Online

Princeton’s Web entrepreneurs

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, Princeton Alumni Weekly.

International flair

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Back on track

Princetonians in the news

One month ’til Reunions

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, Princeton Alumni Weekly.

Understanding Virginia Tech

Johnson ’97 brings ‘ownership, pride’ to men’s basketball

Princeton in bloom

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Men’s volleyball takes on Penn State

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, Princeton Alumni Weekly, with reporting by Alex Gennis ’09.

A Princeton portrait

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Wilde ‘West’

Princeton in the Ivy League: A 50th Anniversary Countdown

More at PAW Online

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, Princeton Alumni Weekly.

Welsh trio

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Not-so-friendly skies

Princetonians in the News

Play ball

Spring-loaded weekend

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, Princeton Alumni Weekly

Picture of concentration

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Men’s lacrosse set to face off with Syracuse

Victory in Vermont

Beginning Sept. 26, 2007, new editions of The Weekly Blog will be posted at blogs.princeton.edu/paw. Please change your bookmarks and click here to see our new home.

To return to PAW's main site and view Web exclusives, click here.

Posted by W. Raymond Ollwerther '71, with reporting by Brett Tomlinson and Katherine Federici Greenwood.
Princeton Alumni Weekly

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, with reporting by W. Raymond Ollwerther ’71 and Fran Hulette.
Princeton Alumni Weekly

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, with reporting by Katherine Federici Greenwood.
Princeton Alumni Weekly

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, with reporting by Katherine Federici Greenwood.
Princeton Alumni Weekly