Finance | Princeton Magazine

Into the Blue

Audience members (opposite) explore the 2018 Power in the Pines Open House and Air Show May 6, 2018 at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. U.S. Air Force photo by Brad Camara.

The U.S. Air Force Reserve Turns 70

By Donald H. Sanborn III

McGuire is a fantastic example of what the Air Force Reserve can, and should, be,” asserts Col. Robert Dunham, a graduate of Princeton University. “McGuire is an associate unit, meaning that reservists share the same hardware with their active-duty counterparts. That is a model that has worked very well.” more

The Annenberg Effect: 25 Years Later

Photos Courtesy of The Peddie School

A Look Back at an Epochal Turning Point in One School’s History

Twenty-five years since Walter H. Annenberg bestowed his historic gift on Peddie School in Hightstown, N.J., the school is an example of how philanthropy can transform a school — and how a school can transform thousands of lives as a result.

On Father’s Day, 1993, Annenberg gave $100 million to Peddie — along with $265 million to the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California and Harvard University — as an endowed fund designed to expand financial aid, institute innovative programs, and recruit exceptional faculty. It was the largest cash gift ever given to an independent school, and it brought instant fame to Peddie. more

A Home Away From Home

Photos Courtesy of Butler’s of Far Hills, Inc. Photography by Laura Moss

Vacation homes are a boon to New Jersey’s economy and beyond

By Wendy Greenberg

Second homes represent a lifestyle change, an investment, and sometimes several years of exploring myriad locations. But often, the second home becomes as beloved as the first home, and many times the homeowners don’t want to go home. They ARE home.

As Spring Lake realtor Cindy Napp says, “Life is short. Buy the beach house.” more

Microsoft’s Brad Smith on the Power and Perils of Technology

Photo courtesy of Princeton University, Office of Engineering Communications, Andrea Kane (2018)

By Donald Gilpin

“Data Fallout at Facebook,” “Americans See AI as a Threat to Jobs,” “Digital Cash Made Easy (Fraud Too),” “Self-Driving Car Accidents Will Keep Happening,” “Russian Election Meddling,” “The Rise of Cyber Surveillance,” “Can Democracy Survive Big Data?”

The headlines overflow with ominous warnings about the unintended consequences of the rapid growth of technology in the 21st century. Our romance with artificial intelligence (AI) and our faith in its potential to improve our lives have clearly hit a rough patch. A self-driving car kills a pedestrian; Facebook accounts look like more of a liability than an asset to our personal lives and relationships, our freedom, and the stability of our political systems; our jobs are disappearing; and though our smartphones often bring us together and help to educate our children, they can also create more loneliness, less actual human contact, and more closed-mindedness. more

Princeton Neuroscience Institute the Interdisciplinary PNI Takes a New Approach to Studying the Brain and Behavior

Princeton Neuroscience Institute (Photo by Michael Moran/OTTO)

By Wendy Greenberg

It may seem to some that the Princeton Neuroscience Institute has always been part of the Washington Road landscape, nestled between Roberts Stadium and South Drive. But there was a time, only about 10 years ago, when the site of the Princeton Neuroscience Institute (PNI) and Peretsman-Scully Hall, which houses the Princeton University Psychology Department, was a parking lot. more

Iran Entanglements Ignite Two Rallies, In Town and at P.U.

By Donald Gilpin

American politics continues to interweave and often clash with Iranian politics, and last week those entanglements precipitated two rallies in Princeton.

The first took place in Hinds Plaza on Wednesday to protest against President Trump’s announcement that the United States would be withdrawing from the nuclear agreement with Iran; and the second was held on Friday evening at Princeton University outside Frist Campus Center to show support and solidarity for Xiyue Wang, a Princeton graduate student who has been imprisoned in Iran for almost two years. more

US Sen. Cory Booker Selected as 2018 Class Day Speaker at Princeton University

United States Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey has been selected to deliver the keynote address at the University’s Class Day ceremony on Monday, June 4.

Written by Princeton University’s Office of Communications

Class Day, which takes place the day before Commencement and is held on historic Cannon Green, is being organized by members of the graduating class and is one of Princeton’s oldest traditions. The ceremony also includes remarks by class members, the recognition of seniors for their accomplishments, and the induction of honorary class members. more

HHH in ’68

Heather Howard’s Journey in Politics and Policy

By Donald Gilpin

Images courtesy of Heather Howard

Readers old enough to have been politically aware in 1968 will probably recognize the slogan “HHH in ’68!” Hubert H. Humphrey lost his bid for the presidency that year to Richard Nixon. But Humphrey was not the only triple H political figure on the scene then. Princeton Councilwoman Heather Harding Howard, lecturer at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, faculty affiliate of the Center for Health and Wellbeing, and director of State Health and Value Strategies, was born that year. And she owns a couple of “HHH in ’68” posters to commemorate that fact. more

Robert P. Langlands Is Awarded the Abel Prize, a Top Math Honor

Photo Credit: Dan Komoda/Institute for Advanced Study

In 1967, Robert P. Langlands set out a road map to prove a “grand unified theory” that would tie together disparate areas of mathematics.

The conjectures of Dr. Langlands, now 81 and an emeritus professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., have proven fertile ground for mathematical advances in the past half-century. more

President Eisgruber Issues Annual ‘State of the University’ Letter to Community

Written by Princeton University’s Office of Communications

Princeton President Christopher L. Eisgruber sent his second annual “State of the University” letter to faculty, students and staff Wednesday, Feb. 7, recounting advances over the past year and focusing on priorities for the year ahead.

Eisgruber will summarize the letter and invite questions at open meetings this month: the annual Town Hall meeting of the Council of the Princeton University Community from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Feb. 12 in 101 Friend Center, and a town hall for University staff from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Feb. 20 at Richardson Auditorium in Alexander Hall. more

Fracking Impacts Infant Health, New Study Reveals

Photo Source: Princeton University

By Donald Gilpin

A recent study, co-authored by Princeton University Economics Professor Janet Currie, reveals significant increases of health risks for infants born to mothers living within two miles of a hydraulic fracturing (fracking) site.

“Given the growing evidence that pollution affects babies in utero, it should not be surprising that fracking, which is a heavy industrial activity, has negative effects on infants,” said Currie, who directs the Center for Health and Wellbeing at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. more

Understanding Iran—Princeton University Pursues a Long-Standing Relationship

By Donald Gilpin

The relationship between Princeton University and Iran goes back a long way—at least 110 years to 1907 when Howard Baskerville, Class of 1907, went to Iran to teach science and English. He died at age 24 fighting alongside his students for constitutional democracy, but his memory lives on for many Iranians, and his grave is preserved in the northwestern Iranian city of Tabriz. more

Genetic Testing For Breast Cancer Advances Bring New Challenges

By Anne Levin

With a mother and two paternal aunts who died of breast cancer, the two sisters knew it was important to get tested to see if they carried the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene. Should the test come back positive, their risk of developing breast and/or ovarian cancer would be higher than average. And preventive measures-most likely mastectomy and/or hysterectomy-could be in order. more

Incredibly Exciting, Beyond Fascinating – The Promise of “Living Drugs”

By Ellen Gilbert

Recent strides in the field of genetic engineering are generating tremendous excitement. Long in the works at university and company laboratories, the implications of this treatment are far-reaching.

The rapidly emerging immunotherapy approach is called adoptive cell transfer (ACT); it collects and uses patients’ own immune cells to treat their cancer. There are several types of ACT, but the star of the show right now is CAR T-cell therapy, which made medical history this last August when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first genetic therapy for widespread use. Called Kymriah, it is being marketed by Novartis, a global healthcare company based in Switzerland. more

A Thirst For Change – WorldWater & Solar Technologies of Princeton

One thousand gallons of water a minute rise up 300 feet to irrigate this farm in San Diego, powered by solar energy alone.

By William Uhl

Walking with Quentin Kelly, founder and CEO of WorldWater & Solar Technologies, Inc., you can tell he is enthusiastic about what he does. The walls of his office in Princeton are decorated with maps of third-world countries like the Philippines, with red dots for each solar-powered water pump and purifier installed. Low-rise cubicles have pictures of flowing water and green crops in Haiti, Afghanistan, Darfur, and other places. And the boardroom has a row of photos of solar-powered farms in San Diego and the San Joaquin Valley. But WorldWater didn’t come into existence to fuel agriculture. more

Trenton-based Nonprofit Isles to Celebrate Mill One Social Profit Center With Fall Fest

OLD MILL, NEW LOOK: A view of the interior of Isles’ Mill One facility, a historic mill in the final stages of renovation, that will serve as the home of the organization’s Social Profit Center. (Photo courtesy of Isles, Inc.)

By Doug Wallack

On Saturday, October 21, Trenton-based nonprofit Isles will hold its first ever Fall Fest fundraiser in the new Social Profit Center at Mill One in Hamilton. The event will feature food and drink from local restaurants and vendors, along with performances and works from area musicians and artists. The Fall Fest is meant to showcase the greater Trenton community and to celebrate the renovation of Mill One — the historic mill building on the Hamilton-Trenton border that Isles purchased in 2006. more

Peter Baker Discusses Obama’s Legacy, Trump’s Divisiveness, Polarized Country

OBAMA AND TRUMP: New York Times White House Correspondent Peter Baker, author of the recent book “Obama: The Call of History,” spoke to a full house Monday night at Princeton University’s Arthur Lewis Auditorium, Robertson Hall, on the subject of President Obama’s legacy in the current Trump era.

By Donald Gilpin

Peter Baker is still trying to figure out who is Barack Obama, and what exactly will be the substance of his legacy?

Chief White House correspondent for the NYTimes since 2008, Baker told a full-house gathering of about 200 at Princeton University’s Arthur Lewis Auditorium, Robertson Hall on Monday that he wrote his new book, Obama: the Call of History (June 2017), to try and tackle those questions. more

Autism in New Jersey

PCDI teacher Melissa Edwards and Ginny.

A spectrum of challenges and hopeful possibilities

By Donald Gilpin

Autism now affects one in 68 children and one in 42 boys in the United States. New Jersey, with one in 48 children and one in 28 boys, has the highest rate of autism in the country. More children will be diagnosed with autism this year than with AIDS, diabetes, and cancer combined, and the cost of supporting an individual with autism during his or her lifespan can be upwards of $2.4 million.

Celebrating JFK’s 100th Birthday

By Doug Wallack

Quoted in the December 1963 Life article in which she famously coined the “Camelot” epithet for her late husband’s presidency, Jacqueline Kennedy says, “Once, the more I read of history, the more bitter I got. For a while I thought history was something that bitter old men wrote. But then I realized history made Jack what he was.” She goes on to outline a vision of a young John F. Kennedy for whom history was a great repository of heroes and role models—a catalyst for his own idealism. more

Physicians From Lowest-Ranked Schools Prescribe More Opioids, PU Study Says

Prof. Janet Currie, Henry Putnam Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University and Director of the Center for Health and Well-Being.

By Donald Gilpin

Every day more than 140 people in the United States die from an opioid-related overdose, and deaths from opioids continue to increase, almost quadrupling since 1999.

Opioids such as suboxone are commonly prescribed by doctors to patients suffering from drug addiction and are thought to be quite beneficial to them. So, they are quite beneficial in many cases. However, opioids are sometimes prescribed by physicians to relieve the pain of a patient suffering from back pain or an injury. These frequently result in patients becoming addicted to the drug and eventually overdosing. This is why it has become so divisive.

Responding to the report of a special commission chaired by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, President Trump recently declared the opioid epidemic a state of emergency. more