WHAT KILLED the DINOSAURS? Paleontologist Gertakeller Has Her Own Theory
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00paw0606_CoverNOBOX_00paw0707_Cov74 5/29/12 5:51 PM Page 1 Scientist and humanist: Princeton Erez Lieberman Aiden ’02 Alumni Questions for Krugman Weekly Political campaigns: June 6, 2012 An expert’s view WHAT KILLED THE DINOSAURS? Paleontologist GertaKeller has her own theory Web exclusives and breaking news @ paw.princeton.edu SR_IVYLEAGUE_AD.pdf 1 3/29/12 1:10 PM COMPETITIVE C M Y CM MY CY CMY K 120532_SpartanRace.indd 1 3/29/12 2:40 PM 01paw0606_TOCrev1_01paw0512_TOC 5/22/12 11:26 AM Page 1 Princeton Alumni Weekly An editorially independent magazine by alumni for alumni since 1900 JUNE 6, 2012 VOLUME 112 NUMBER 14 President’s Page 2 Inbox 5 From the Editor 6 Campus Notebook 14 Erez Lieberman SAM Popular majors • Ban on freshman Aiden ’02, page 26. OGDEN Greek affiliation to begin in fall • Class of 2016 • Incom i n g grad students • Students seek committee to oversee Renaissance man 26 investments • Google Chairman Eric In the decade since he graduated, Erez Lieberman Aiden ’02 has Schmidt ’76 speaks on campus • Cornel West *80 retires with a splash • Faculty proved many things, including: A scientist can be a humanist, too. retirements • More • PAW ASKS: Paul By Jocelyn Kaiser ’88 Krugman, about the Fed • ON THE CAMPUS: What I wish I learned • Stu - The dissenter 32 dents win engineering competition • Most paleontologists are convinced that the impact from an asteroid FROM PRINCETON’S VAULT: Reunions buttons was the sole cause of the mass extinction of the dinosaurs. Princeton’s Sports 23 Gerta Keller has a different theory. Swimmers train for Olympic trials • By Joel Achenbach ’82 EXTRA POINT: Competing in grad school • Men’s lacrosse update • Sports shorts A Moment With 40 Journalist and campaign observer Kathy Kiely ’77 What’s n ew @ PAW ONLINE Perspective 41 AFRICAN A CAPPELLA Gregg Lange ’70’s New nation, old traditions Watch and listen to Rally ’Round the Cannon By Sandya Das *08 Umqombothi, a new addition A column Alumni Scene 42 to the student music scene. about time, Mary Solanto ’73 develops program for time cap- ADHD • STARTING OUT: Eric Salazar ’11 • REUNIONS 2012 sules, and TIGER PROFILE: Robert Root-Bernstein ’75 View slide shows of the passing along *80 finds science and art do mix • festivities, beginning June 4. wisdom to READING ROOM: The life of an independ- future Tigers. ent doctor • New releases • Website helps alumni find jobs ART-SCIENCE CONNECTION Class Notes 46 Take Robert Root-Bernstein PAW on iTunes ’75 *80’s survey for scientists Listen to Rally ’Round Memorials 65 who create art. the Cannon as a podcast. Princeton Exchange 70 Final Scene 72 ALUMNI BLOGS Our list of blogs by ON THE COVER: Photo illustration by Sean McCabe. Photograph Princetonians includes more of Gerta Keller by Peter Murphy. than 200 links. THE PRESIDENT’S PAGE New Approaches to Engineering rinceton has long held that the study of engineering Today, the engineering school is more likely to frame its should be firmly embedded in a liberal education work in terms of four broad areas of social need — energy, the and that prospective engineers should have broad environment, health, and security — than to define its mission exposure to the humanities and social science dis- using departmental metrics. While its departments continue Pciplines before they graduate. Conversely, in recent years, the to provide our faculty and students with an intellectual and University has made a concerted effort to increase the techno- administrative home, they are less a retreat than a jumping logical literacy of non-engineers, not least through the work off point — one that leads to some of the most exciting courses of the Keller Center, which was established, in part, with the and research projects on our campus. To give you just a taste, goal of teaching such students “about concepts in engineer- Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering Bruce Koel ing and science and instilling in them a solid understanding has brought his expertise in surface chemistry to the Princeton of technology and how it affects the world.” At Princeton, we Plasma Physics Laboratory, where he and his colleagues are expect our undergraduates to think deeply, but we also want endeavoring to develop a reactor lining that will sustain the them to roam widely, exploring a broad range of questions super-high temperatures required by the fusion process and and approaching them from as many angles as possible. the clean and abundant energy it promises. Molecular biology This cross-pollination has been facilitated not only by major Shivani Sud ’12 has been working with Professor of our relatively small size and single faculty but also by far- Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Wole Soboyejo to reaching changes in how Princeton — and academia as a develop a simple screening system for cervical cancer with whole — pursues the discovery and dissemination of knowl- the goal of improving detection in developing countries. And edge. Although our basic organizing principle remains the this spring, a record number of students enrolled in Technol- academic department, be it English, chemistry, or politics, ogy and Society, a course jointly developed by Professor of teaching and research are no longer coterminous with indi- Electrical Engineering Sharad Malik and professors of history vidual disciplines. For all Michael Gordin and Angela Creager and Associate Profes- their value in ground- SKI sor of Sociology and Public Affairs Betsy Armstrong *93. In W ing students in specific this class, engineers have an opportunity to weigh the social ways of thinking, these implications of their disciplines, while non-engineers can fields — once largely develop a fuller appreciation of technology’s power and limita- self-contained — have tions — from nuclear energy to genetically modified organisms developed highly porous to Internet regulation. FRANK WOJCIECHO borders. And nowhere To nurture such ventures, the school has created six major is this more apparent interdisciplinary centers in addition to the Keller Center: than in our School of the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, the Engineering and Applied Center for Information Technology Policy, the Combustion Science. Energy Frontier Research Center, the Gigascale Systems Re- Indeed, were we to search Center, Mid-Infrared Technologies for Health and the establish a school of this Environment, and the Princeton Institute for the Science and kind today, I doubt we Technology of Materials. Their creation reflects the complex- would recreate its six de- ity of the challenges our faculty and students are address- partments, whose length- ing — challenges that can only be successfully confronted on a ening names attest to the Mechanical and aerospace engineering collaborative basis. One of the biggest, of course, is developing widening scope of their graduate student Ismaiel Yakub and sustainable energy sources and uses that both meet the world’s civil and environmental engineering activities. The Depart- major Megan Partridge ’14 join forces requirements for economic growth and preserve our fragile ment of Chemical En- to demonstrate a ceramic filter system global ecosystem. I am happy to report that some 90 members gineering, for example, that promises to remove pathogenic of our faculty, including representatives of all six engineering became the Department bacteria from African drinking water departments, are working on this monumental problem under cheaply and effectively. of Chemical and Biologi- the umbrella of the Andlinger Center. Similarly, the Center cal Engineering in 2010, much as civil engineering added for Information Technology Policy has brought together some “environmental” to its title and mechanical engineering added of the best minds in the engineering and Woodrow Wilson “aerospace” in previous years. The convergence of biology and schools to further research on and find practical solutions to a engineering reflects significant changes in both disciplines, be host of critical concerns relating to everything from electronic it the introduction of high-throughput computation in the for- voting machines to technology-informed government transpar- mer or the development of organic electronics in the latter, but ency to the relationship between digital technology and social this “meeting of minds” is by no means unique. Throughout inequality. the Engineering Quadrangle and across the University, our And this, I predict, is just the beginning of the blurring faculty and students are working at the intersection of many of disciplinary boundaries, both inside and outside the engi- fields, often under the aegis of joint appointments or inter- neering school. disciplinary certificate programs. In the words of Dean Vince Poor *77, “The most inventive and effective solutions often come from unexpected interactions between disciplines.” THE ALUMNI WEEKLY PROVIDES THESE PAGES TO THE PRESIDENT The Possibilities are Endless “For me, the best part of Princeton is access to the faculty members. I get to sip tea with Nobel laureates and other experts in their fields, joining the global debates on ethics, energy, and everything in between. Through these interactions, I have grown as a critical thinker and as a world citizen.” CHRISTINA CHANG ’12 AUSTIN, TX A summer internship abroad was a defining experience for Christina, who discovered that she could serve society by combining her interests in chemistry and public engagement. For her senior thesis, Christina is examining bio-inspired catalysts to purify water. Christina founded the Women in Science Colloquium and the Princeton University Chemical Society, and volunteers at Community House teaching science to underserved children. Next year, she will attend Imperial College London and Cambridge University as a Marshall Scholar to conduct inorganic chemistry research and Photo: Bentley Drezner study sustainable energy. ” Your support of Annual Giving helps sustain the Princeton experience today and for future generations. This year’s Annual Giving campaign ends on Saturday, June 30, 2012. To contribute by credit card, please call our 24-hour gift line at 800-258-5421 (outside the U.S., 609-258-3373), or use our secure website at www.princeton.edu/ag.