Sam Wang: The Princeton Election Consortium - A First Draft of Electoral History PDF - February 11,
Lunch 'n Learn presentation: How we experience political races is dominated by opinion polls. Polling data can be confusing because of their sheer number. In 2008, hundreds of polls were released during the Presidential campaign. Is there a way to cut through the resulting noise?
Four years ago Dr. Wang devised a statistical approach to analyze state polls to get a single, easy-to-understand snapshot of the race, viewed from the point of view of the Electoral College. In 2008, this approach mad
Betty Leydon, Emily Carter, Jennifer Rexford, Olga Troyanskaya: Women in Research Computing - March
Lunch 'n Learn presentation: Princeton University's Vice President for Information Technology and CIO, Betty Leydon, moderates a panel of three "women in research computing." The panelists, Emily Carter (Arthur W. Marks '19 Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Applied and Computational Mathematics), Olga Troyanskaya (Assistant Professor of Computer Science and the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics), and Jennifer Rexford (Professor of Computer Science), summarize th
Women in Theatre conference: "Issues for the 21st Century" – September 26, 2009
Women artists continue to be excluded from positions of power and visibility in the American theatre industry. Recent research, including a provocative study by Princeton alumni Emily Sands, indicates that plays by women are less frequently produced now than they were at the turn of the 20th century. More women have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in recent years, including Suzan-Lori Parks (Top Dog/Underdog) Paula Vogel (How I Learned to Drive) and this year, Lynn Nottage (Ruined), but very fe
Women in Theatre conference: "Issues for the 21st Century" – September 26, 2009
Women artists continue to be excluded from positions of power and visibility in the American theatre industry. Recent research, including a provocative study by Princeton alumni Emily Sands, indicates that plays by women are less frequently produced now than they were at the turn of the 20th century. More women have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in recent years, including Suzan-Lori Parks (Top Dog/Underdog) Paula Vogel (How I Learned to Drive) and this year, Lynn Nottage (Ruined), but very fe
The Future of Conservatism - October 12, 2009
This panel discussion among four conservative thinkers will address the role of conservatism in the current political arena—where it fits in the major parties, what role it may play in the next election, and what will happen to the right and far right. Ross Douthat is an author and blogger. Formerly a senior editor at The Atlantic, he is the author of Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class (Hyperion, 2005) and, with Reihan Salam, Grand New Party (Doubleday, 2008). In 2009 he
The Future of Conservatism - October 12, 2009
This panel discussion among four conservative thinkers will address the role of conservatism in the current political arena—where it fits in the major parties, what role it may play in the next election, and what will happen to the right and far right. Ross Douthat is an author and blogger. Formerly a senior editor at The Atlantic, he is the author of Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class (Hyperion, 2005) and, with Reihan Salam, Grand New Party (Doubleday, 2008). In 2009 he
The Role of Europe in a Multilateral World - November 19, 2009
In his lecture, “The Role of Europe in a Multilateral World,” Romano Prodi will examine the benefits and challenges presented by the European Union’s expansion. Although the enlargement of the union has had significant impact on the democratic transition in eastern Europe and has extended European markets, there is no unanimity on issues of security, energy, and foreign affairs. Prodi maintains that if the EU aims to play a key role on the world’s political stage, it will need to develop
The Role of Europe in a Multilateral World - November 19, 2009
In his lecture, “The Role of Europe in a Multilateral World,” Romano Prodi will examine the benefits and challenges presented by the European Union’s expansion. Although the enlargement of the union has had significant impact on the democratic transition in eastern Europe and has extended European markets, there is no unanimity on issues of security, energy, and foreign affairs. Prodi maintains that if the EU aims to play a key role on the world’s political stage, it will need to develop
The Politics of Homosexuality - February 18, 2010
On the topic of homosexuality, Andrew Sullivan has stated “There are as many politics of homosexuality as there are words for it, and not all of them contain reason. And it is harder perhaps in this passionate area than in any other to separate a wish from an argument, a desire from a denial. This fracturing of discourse is more than a cultural problem; it is a political problem. Without at least some common ground, no effective compromise to the homosexual question will be possible. Matters m
The Politics of Homosexuality - February 18, 2010
On the topic of homosexuality, Andrew Sullivan has stated “There are as many politics of homosexuality as there are words for it, and not all of them contain reason. And it is harder perhaps in this passionate area than in any other to separate a wish from an argument, a desire from a denial. This fracturing of discourse is more than a cultural problem; it is a political problem. Without at least some common ground, no effective compromise to the homosexual question will be possible. Matters m
Alumni Day: Woodrow Wilson Award Recipient
National Endowment for the Humanities Chair Jim Leach, a longtime former U.S. congressman, was given the Woodrow Wilson Award, the highest honor for undergraduate alumni.
Leach, who earned his A.B. in politics with honors from Princeton in 1964, began a four-year term in August as chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent grant-making agency of the U.S. government dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation and public programs in the humanities.
In his 1
Alumni Day: Woodrow Wilson Award Recipient
National Endowment for the Humanities Chair Jim Leach, a longtime former U.S. congressman, was given the Woodrow Wilson Award, the highest honor for undergraduate alumni.
Leach, who earned his A.B. in politics with honors from Princeton in 1964, began a four-year term in August as chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent grant-making agency of the U.S. government dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation and public programs in the humanities.
In his 1
'I Am Kinda': Reflections on the Culture of Imperialism Famed linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky delivered a lecture titled "'I Am Kinda': Reflections on the Culture of Imperialism" at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 8. Chomsky, a professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a renowned public intellectual who has written and lectured widely on linguistics, philosophy, intellectual history, international affairs and U.S. foreign policy. The lecture's title refers to a woman named Kinda who int
'I Am Kinda': Reflections on the Culture of Imperialism Famed linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky delivered a lecture titled "'I Am Kinda': Reflections on the Culture of Imperialism" at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 8. Chomsky, a professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a renowned public intellectual who has written and lectured widely on linguistics, philosophy, intellectual history, international affairs and U.S. foreign policy. The lecture's title refers to a woman named Kinda who int
An App A Day: Tasty Apps for iPhone and Android - February 24, 2010
Lunch 'n Learn presentation: Smartphones are the new platform, and apps are the core. At the start of the new decade, Apple reported that the App Store for iPhone users has surpassed 100,000 applications, and users have downloaded over 2 billion apps -- not bad for a new market that was created only a year and a half earlier. Meanwhile, Google's Android Market doubled over the last quarter to around 20,000 apps.
In this talk Doug Dixon explores the range of apps being developed for these new pl
Simulations at the Petascale and Beyond for Fusion Energy Sciences - March 10, 2010
Lunch 'n Learn presentation: Major progress in magnetic fusion research has led to ITER – a multi-billion dollar burning plasma experiment supported by seven governments (EU, Japan, US, China, Korea, Russia, and India) representing over half of the world’s population. Currently under construction in Cadarache, France, it is designed to produce 500 million Watts of heat from fusion reactions for over 400 seconds with gain exceeding 10 – thereby demonstrating the scientific and technical fea
Simulations at the Petascale and Beyond for Fusion Energy Sciences PDF - March 10, 2010
Lunch 'n Learn presentation: Major progress in magnetic fusion research has led to ITER – a multi-billion dollar burning plasma experiment supported by seven governments (EU, Japan, US, China, Korea, Russia, and India) representing over half of the world’s population. Currently under construction in Cadarache, France, it is designed to produce 500 million Watts of heat from fusion reactions for over 400 seconds with gain exceeding 10 – thereby demonstrating the scientific and technical fea
The Current State of the Economy
Matthew Taibbi, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, and Gillian Tett, the U.S. managing editor of Financial Times, will talk about the causes and possible outcomes of the current financial crisis.
Taibbi, a 1991 graduate of Bard College who finished his studies at Leningrad Polytechnical University, has worked as a freelance reporter in the Soviet Union and Uzbekistan. In 1997 he and writer Mark Ames founded a Moscow-based, English-language newspaper, the Exile, which reported on corruption
The Current State of the Economy
Matthew Taibbi, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, and Gillian Tett, the U.S. managing editor of Financial Times, will talk about the causes and possible outcomes of the current financial crisis.
Taibbi, a 1991 graduate of Bard College who finished his studies at Leningrad Polytechnical University, has worked as a freelance reporter in the Soviet Union and Uzbekistan. In 1997 he and writer Mark Ames founded a Moscow-based, English-language newspaper, the Exile, which reported on corruption
Avi Wigderson, Institute for Advanced Study: Part 1 - "Algorithm: A common language for nature, man,
"A Worldview through the Computational Lens III", part 1. From Google to Genomics, the notion of an algorithm underlies much of the "computational universe" we live in today. The algorithm is the fundamental object of study in theoretical computer science. The power and limits of efficient algorithms hold the key to such diverse questions as "What can we know about the world?", "What is intelligence?", and "Can poker be played over the telephone?" A Louis Clark Vanuxem Lecture (cosponsored by
