Internship Program Strengthens Links Between Work Inside ...web.princeton.edu/sites/pei/pdf/PEI_News_FW09_v10.pdf · neutral recycled paper [Cover Story] ... (white pants) at the

Fall/ Winter 2009

Princeton Environmental Institute: The center for environmental education, research, and outreach at Princeton University

Also featured inside:

PEI News speaks to Professor Bernard Haykel

Food Security: A Growing Concern in the Gulf Region

Princeton Sustainability: Convergences

ENV Program Freshman Open House

Internship Program Strengthens Links Between Work Inside and Outside the Classroom

Cover: Ming Lu and Molly O’Connor collect soil samples for laboratory analysis in Botswana during their Develop-ment Grand Challenges summer internship. For details, please see article on pages 4 and 5. This page: Photo of Dubai (left): http://www.iacsit.org/icfte/img/Dubai.jpg (courtesy of Eckart Woertz) Right: Photo courtesy of the University Office of Communications, Denise Applewhite and Brian Wilson.

PEI News is published twice a year by the Princeton Environmental Institute

Guyot Hall Princeton University Princeton, NJ 08544-1003Telephone (609) 258-5985http://web.princeton.edu/sites/pei

Stephen W. Pacala Director

Katharine B. Hackett ’79 Associate Director

Carol H. Peters Managing Editor/Writer Assistant Manager, Communications and [email protected]

Sandra C. Lam Events/Communications [email protected]

PhotographerCarol H. Peters

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[Cover Story] Internship Program Strengthens Links Between Work Inside and Outside the Classroom The PEI/Grand Challenges Summer of Learning Symposium showcased the work of 107 interns on challenging environmental problems outside of the classroom.

PEI News speaks to Professor Bernard HaykelA PEI News exclusive interview withone of the world’s leading scholars of the Middle East.

Food Security, A Growing Crisis in the Gulf Region Dr. Eckart Woertz is an economist whose work focuses on food security in the Middle East.

Meet Dr. Kate Hadley Baker Dr. Kate Baker, BP geologist, is PEI’s fall 2009 BP-Vann Visiting Fellow.

ONE PICTUREThe Stamp Act Sycamores

Princeton Sustainability: ConvergencesShana Weber, Princeton’s Sustainability Manager, summarizes the University’s campus sustainability initiatives.

PEI Research and Center News

Grand Challenges HighlightsNews from Grand Challenges: Energy, Development and Health. Research of Trenton Franz, conducted in Africa with support from the Walbridge Fund, is highlighted.

ENV Program Open HouseThe Environmental Studies (ENV) Program draws freshmen.

PEI’s Class Day 2009 PEI celebrates the Class of 2009: a look at Class Day celebration in June.

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Fall/ Winter 2009

PEI News Fall/Winter 2009 3http://web.princeton.edu/sites/pei

At PEI we are approaching 2010 with a fresh sense

of optimism. The Institute is strong and vital, as

this issue of PEI News clearly illustrates. Inside are

articles that reflect the scope and vigor of PEI’s

research programs, campus collaborations, and the

extraordinary opportunities PEI offers Princeton

students to augment their capacity to address

global environmental problems in and beyond the

classroom and campus laboratories.

The PEI/Grand Challenges Internship Program

has expanded during the last two years, evolving

from a program of 27 interns in 2007 to more than

100 sponsored interns this year. This amazing

growth, coupled with the remarkable and varied

internships held by students around the world,

serve as a testimony to the program’s success.

This news is reported in “Internship Program

Strengthens Links Between Work Inside and

Outside the Classroom.”

Professor Bernard Haykel, Professor of Near

Eastern Studies and Director of the Siebel Energy

Grand Challenge sponsored Program in Oil, Energy

and the Middle East (OEME), discusses his

incredibly important teaching and research. Begun

in 2005 by a handful of faculty in Near Eastern

Studies and PEI, it has now become, through the

efforts of Professor Haykel, a robust community of

scholars who are leading the world in cutting-edge

research on complex issues surrounding energy

resources, conflict and culture in the Middle East.

To further illustrate PEI and OEME’s breadth

of scholarship on oil and the Middle East, visiting

colleagues Dr. Eckart Woertz and Dr. Kate Baker

discuss their work. Dr. Woertz, Visiting Research

Scholar, is an economist from Dubai who is con-

ducting ground-breaking research on food security

in the Middle East. Dr. Baker, BP geologist and

Vann Visiting Fellow, taught “Topics in Energy

and the Environment: Introduction to Petroleum

Engineering,” a new Environmental Studies course

cross-listed with Geosciences and Civil and Envi-

ronmental Engineering.

Efforts to “green” the Princeton campus con-

tinue. The University has recently released its first

Sustainability Progress Report, which includes

references to education, research and civic engage-

ment with a sustainability focus. The University’s

Sustainability Manager, Shana Weber, provides an

update on great progress in these efforts.

PEI’s Program in Environmental Studies con-

tinues to play a critical role in the education of

Princeton’s undergraduates. This is evident in the

stories and photos captured at PEI’s class day

celebration in June and at the freshman open

house in September.

During this unprecedented period of economic

strain at the University, I am proud to state that PEI

remains as solid as ever. For this we are indebted

to our sponsors and friends. Their ongoing commit-

ment to PEI and its mission ensure PEI’s continued

success as a world leader in environmental educa-

tion, research and outreach.

Note from PEI’s DirectorStephen W. Pacala, Frederick D. Petrie Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

PEI Director, Steve Pacala, teaching coral reef ecology to Princeton juniors in Panama in March of 2009.Photo by Maria Echeverry

PEI News Fall/Winter 20094 http://web.princeton.edu/sites/pei

hen the more than 100 students who completed internships this summer through the Princeton Environmental

Institute and the Grand Challenges Program returned to campus, they had at least one more commitment.

As a culminating experience, they were required to report on what they learned during their experi-ences with faculty, research labs, governmental

agencies, nongov-ernmental organi-zations, nonprofit

organizations and industry enterprises in more than 20 coun-tries. On two Fridays this fall, the students participated in the Princeton Environ-mental Institute/Grand Challenges Summer of Learning Symposium.

“I have come to appreciate the importance of practical work in one’s educational experience,”

said senior Fatu Con-teh, a chemistry major who spent the summer working on a self-

initiated project to establish five hand-dug wells in Ethiopia as a Development Grand Challenge intern. “I got the opportunity to put faces to the problems I discussed in the classroom.”

The PEI/Grand Challenges internship program stresses faculty mentoring of students as

they engage in summer work that complements their academic studies. The internship application process and debriefing of students upon their return to campus in the fall is an important ele-ment in shaping the summer experience in the context of the students’ academic program. By linking the summer internships to the classroom experience, students can enrich and extend the knowledge they gain at Princeton and beyond, according to Katharine Hackett, associate director of the Princeton Environmental Institute/Grand

Challenges, who directs the internship program.

“The internship program

serves a unique role in our stu-dents’ educational program,” she said. “It allows Princeton under-

graduates to leverage their classroom experience and intellectual capacities in real-world settings and through practical contributions.”

The scope of the PEI/Grand Challenges internship program is broad, and it reflects the diversity of student academic backgrounds and their interests in environmental topics. These include energy, climate, infectious disease, global health, sustainable development, conservation and envi-ronmental justice. One-third of the interns worked on faculty-led research projects. Half of the assig-ments were in foreign countries, including Botswa-na, China, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Ghana, India, Italy, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique,

Internship Program Strengthens Links Between Work Inside and Outside the ClassroomBy Carol H. Peters

This page: Melecia Wright ‘11 making the artificial substrate she and Thinh

Vu ‘12 devised during their Development Grand

Challenge internship in South Africa; Thinh Vu and

Dr. Tony Booth in South Africa; Fatu Conteh ’10

(white pants) at the site of one of the wells with some of the workers in Ethopia.

W

ENERGY DEVELOPMENT HEALTHGRANDCHALLENGES


the Netherlands, Peru, Saint Lucia, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Thailand. Students from 25 academic disciplines participated—a reflection of the interdisciplinary nature of the program.

The Summer of Learning Symposium panels were organized around Grand Challenges topics in energy, health, development and sustainability. Hosted as two day-long events, the symposiums enabled students to share the details of their internships and research projects, preview their papers and discuss future research and indepen-dent work. The panels were moderated by faculty and others with research or professional expertise in the subject areas.

Panel topics were selected and grouped to en-sure that students who had worked on similar top-

ics, but from different academic perspectives, presented together so

they could learn from each other’s findings and experiences. Several students expect to extend their summer research as they develop their senior theses. A number reported on upcoming publications or policy briefs to which they had contributed. Some left the villages in which they worked better places for local inhabit-ants, and others were able to conduct graduate-level research alongside faculty in lab and field research.

In the area of health, interns studied disease microbials, therapeutics, antibiotic recognition, drug resistant strains, and policies aimed at disease spread and prevention with particular emphasis on malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. Development Grand Challenge panels ad-dressed sustainable challenges facing the African continent, with students discussing issues such as resource scarcity, biodiversity preservation and poverty in rural Africa. Specific projects focused

on issues at the intersection of water, land, climate, human populations and biodiversity.

Energy and climate change panelists discussed a range of technical projects, including work on fuel cells, hydrogen purification, water diffusion and solar cells. Several students traveled to Bermuda to study the effects of climate change on corals, reef sediment microbiology and human waste pollution. Additional internships addressed sustainability issues on a local to global basis. Sev-eral students contributed to campus sustainability initiatives, including work with the Butler College green roofs and University Dining Services’ purchasing metrics. Others examined energy ef-ficiency dynamics for low income residential prop-erties in Trenton and made contributions to local land conservation and invasive species eradi-cation projects.

Hackett said, “The Grand Chal-lenges program was founded with a vision

of combining the best of Princeton’s research and teaching for a broader impact on influencing solutions to the world’s most intractable environmental chal-lenges. There is evidence through our students’ internship experiences that we are doing just that.”

The PEI/Grand Challenges internship program is a signature program of environmental studies at Princeton and the Grand Challenges Initiative. Grand Challenges was launched by PEI in 2007 in cooperation with the Woodrow Wilson School and the School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Internship opportunities available through PEI/Grand Challenges including an archive of past internship projects can be viewed online.

To see the full article, please go to: http://

www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S25/56/

13C37/index.xml?section=featured

Yin Liang ’11 at the State Key Lab of Material Syn-thesis, Wuhan University of Technology in China, where she was a Siebel Energy Grand Challenge intern; Fatu Conteh ’10 shown meeting with the residents of Jorit and listening as Hassen Yesuf ’10’s father explains to them the purpose of their visit; Molly O’Connor ’11 follows a root as part of the mapping process, the spatial distributions of root systems will be compared between sites of different mean annual precipitation.

ernard Haykel is Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Director, Institute for Transre-gional Study of the Contemporary Middle

East, North Africa and Central Asia, and Director of the Oil, Energy and Middle East (OEME) Ini-tiative. In addition, he is a PEI associated faculty member. PEI News interviewed Professor Haykel regarding his plans for the OEME Initiative this year, his teaching and research.

What inspired you to lead the OEME Initiative?

This initiative was started in 2005 by Professors Michael Cook (Near Eastern Studies), Shivaji Sondhi (Physics), Stephen Pacala (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Director of PEI), and Robert Socolow (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering), before I arrived in Princeton. Their motivation was the debate surrounding the ques-tion of “Peak Oil,” namely whether the world was running out of hydrocarbon resources because the claimed quantities of proven reserves in the Middle East were in fact vastly inflated. After my arrival in Princeton in 2007, I agreed to direct this initiative because I believe that the energy resources in the Middle East and the ways these are utilized and exploited have critical significance for the environmental, economic and political future of the planet. Princeton must be a world leader in the debates and research surrounding these resources.

How has the collaboration between PEI and

OEME helped make this initiative so successful?

PEI has been the principal benefactor and aca-demic supporter of this initiative. Without this support it would be impossible to do the cutting edge research and teaching we are engaged in. Furthermore, PEI’s support is helping my depart-ment, Near Eastern Studies, to gain new academic expertise, and hopefully we will be able to make the case for a permanent faculty member in the field of energy studies and the political economy

of the Persian Gulf region. In the study of the Middle East, these are sorely understudied fields despite their inordinate importance for the region as well as the world.

What are your goals for the program this year?

In addition to teaching two new undergraduate courses and continuing with our highly subscribed course “Oil, Energy and the Middle East,” OEME hopes to complete and publish two major studies. The first has to do with the new industrialization projects in Saudi Arabia that are likely to change the energy consumption and landscape of this im-portant oil producing country. The second study will detail and assess the new food security policies of the Gulf oil-producing countries. This last issue is important because it involves questions of eco-nomic development in the third world, commodity prices and trade practices as well as fundamental questions surrounding the political sovereignty of nations. We will publish some op-ed pieces and hopefully a major article on Saudi energy policy in the journal Foreign Affairs. We also intend to holda major conference on the issue of how oil is priced.

Do you collaborate with academic, business or

governmental colleagues in the Arab world to

enhance the program? Yes. We recently concluded a research trip to the Gulf where we met with of-ficials in the Saudi oil ministry, executives at Saudi Aramco, and members of the newly founded King Abdullah Center for Energy Studies. We hope to collaborate with our Saudi colleagues on projects of mutual interest. Another institution we have created links with is the Gulf Research Center in Dubai, and one of our research fellows this year, Dr. Eckart Woertz, is from this center and will be working on the food security study at Princeton.

What is the most compelling aspect of your

work? Understanding the environmental, political

“PEI has been theprincipal benefactor

and academic supporter of this

initiative. Without this support it would

be impossible to do the cutting edge

research and teaching we are engaged in.”

—Bernard Haykel

PEI News Interviews Professor Bernard Haykel

PEI and the Oil, Energy and the Middle East Initiative Collaborate to Solidify Princeton’s Role as World Leader in this Field

By Carol H. Peters

B


and economic dimensions of energy reserves in the Middle East is like being given a map to a secret cave full of treasure. The valuables here are the insights I obtain into the problems and pos-sible solutions that these massive reserves pose to the countries and societies of the region as well as to the rest of the world. I am now convinced that the earth’s environmental greenhouse problem will not be resolved without adopting policies that take into account the hydrocarbon resources and policies of the Middle East. The producers of the Middle East will have to be partners in the solution(s), otherwise policies and technologies will need to be devised to sidestep them entirely which will prove exceedingly difficult. The reserves, some 60% of the world’s, are too huge and too cheap to exploit to be ignored.

Did you continue the OEME lecture series

during the fall, and if so, whom did you invite to

speak? Absolutely. Our speakers’ series has been very popular and well attended. We had some great names speak this fall. These included Leonardo Maugeri, Senior Executive Vice President (Director), Strategies and Development, Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi (ENI), Antoine Halff, Deputy Head of Research at Futures Broker Newedge and adjunct Professor of International and Public Af-fairs, Columbia University, and James Hamilton, Professor of Economics, University of California.

What are the most important messages you

strive to communicate through your scholar-

ship, teaching, and outreach activities?

Oil is a commodity that touches every aspect of our lives. Understanding how it does, its history, pathologies, and what it makes possible is impor-tant for all of us to understand. The history of oil is intimately linked to the Middle East without whose resources the world we live in, and the way we live, would be very different indeed. At the most basic level, we would have seen many fewer wars in the region and we would be driving much smaller cars and many fewer miles.

What research projects are you currently pur-

suing, and why? I am interested in the economic and industrial development that is being pursued in the Persian Gulf and the effects this is going to have on the domestic consumption and export

capabilities of the region and the consequent political implications for the rest of the world. Saudi Arabia is the biggest producer in the region and it is here that I am concentrating my attention. A second line of inquiry has to do with the domestic subsidies of the oil producing countries and the wasteful consumption habits these foster. I am interested in studying what it will take for these countries to reduce their energy subsidies and for them to become less wasteful.

Please describe your collaborations with some

of the other OEME scholars at Princeton, for

example, Roger Stern and Steffen Hertog.

The OEME initiative has run a visiting fellowship program for three years and we have had with us some stellar scholars who have done very important work. Steffen Hertog has studied some of the national oil companies in the Middle East and described their histories, looking at their efficiency, professionalism, corruption, etc. Roger Stern has done work on the Iranian energy sector and I have recently written with him a short article that out-lines a strategy for managing, or rather containing Iran now that a hardline leadership has empow-ered itself more fully in Tehran.

Do you hope to inspire your students, and if

so, how? In addition to teaching them about the multiple dimensions of the energy and oil sector in the Middle East, I try to show our students how intertwined all our lives are with the hydrocarbon reserves on the other side of the world and the political pathologies these create for all of us. The study of oil in the Middle East is full of great and illuminating stories too, and these are very useful for conveying fundamental information about the way the world is structured, for better or worse.

The Gulf Cooperation Council Paradox:Resource Nationalism and Political Liberalization in the Gulf

ANTOINE HALFFDeputy Head of Research at Futures Broker Newedgeand adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs,Columbia University

Tuesday, October 27, 20094:30 p.m.100 Jones Hall

Oil, Energy Middle Eastandthe

Sponsored by

Princeton Environmental Institute, Department of Near EasternStudies, and The Institute for Transregional StudyFall 2009 Lecture Series

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“The Gulf countries might engage in

strategic food deals where stable long term

supplies of oil are tied to stable food supplies in

some form or another...”

—Eckart Woertz


he Gulf region relies upon foreign sources for 60% of its food supply. Agriculture in

this region is declining due to lack of water, while simultaneously the popu-lation is increasing. The Gulf region’s ability to provide its citizens with an ample supply of affordable food is an issue of growing concern known as “food security,” and it is the focus of Eckart Woertz’s research.

Woertz, Research Associate with the Oil, Energy and the Middle East Program and PEI, who is visiting this year, is a German economist who heads the Economics Department at the Gulf Research Center (GRC) in Dubai/ UAE, the leading think tank of the Gulf region. His research on food security focuses on questions surrounding ways the Gulf countries use their oil revenues, and the energy issues surrounding food production and transport.

As Eckart explains, “Grain production equals water and in the Gulf, water used for agriculture comes from non-renewable sources deep down beneath the desert (called fossil water). In the cities, the water supply comes from desalinated sea water. Water therefore equals energy, because of the energy required to desalinate it. Desalinated water is not used for agriculture because it is too expensive. However, the fossil water being used for agriculture is rapidly running out.

“At the beginning of the 1990s, Saudi Arabia was the sixth largest wheat producer in the world. Now Saudi Arabia plans to completely phase out wheat-growing by 2016, due to water short-ages. It never made sense for this country to grow wheat for export; because wheat growth requires so much water they were basically exporting water when they exported wheat. That’s called ‘virtual water export,’ and it required heavy government subsidization. Therefore, while phasing out wheat growing is not a lost income, it does increase the

country’s food dependency.”The Gulf region has more than enough

money to buy the imported food they need, notes Woertz. But food security considerations in exporter countries could lead to less available sup-plies on world markets. When supplier countries to the Gulf like Argentina, Vietnam or Pakistan implemented export restrictions in the wake of global food price hikes in 2008, this rang alarm bells with the Gulf countries. They were looking at a future scenario where they might not be able to secure enough supply at any price on tight global food markets.

Can the Gulf region use its power as the world’s foremost energy suppliers to strike deals for food? Woertz explained, “The Gulf countries might engage in strategic food deals where stable long term supplies of oil are tied to stable food supplies in some form or another. However, instead of interpreting this situation as a possible confrontation, it can be seen as an opening for cooperation between these countries. They need each other. Energy independence for many coun-tries is an illusion, and the Gulf ’s food indepen-dence is an illusion. It is time the countries involved recognize this and work together.” To read the full article, please go to http://web.

princeton.edu/sites/pei

Circular fields in the Middle Eastern desert. Credit:

http://www.eosnap.com/public/media/2008/11/

agriculture/foto-circu larfields-full.jpg. Photo

courtesy of Eckart Woertz.

Leading Economist and PEI Visiting Research Associate Dr. Eckart Woertz

Food Security, A Growing Crisis in the Gulf RegionBy Carol H. Peters

T


Kate Hadley Baker, BP Vann Visiting Fellow, is in

residence at PEI for the fall 2009 semester. A

native of Texas, she is Director, Well Planning and

Geotechnical Operations at BP.

Dr. Baker’s current research interests include:

special projects at the intersection of drilling and

subsurface characterization, reducing geoscience-

related drilling non-productive time, leading the

well planning and geotechnical network, and pro-

moting organizational capability of the component

communities and take-up of standardized technical

practices to reduce major accident risk associated

with geoscience-led exploration and production

activities.

PEI News asked Dr. Baker what inspired her

to come to Princeton, the goals she has set for

herself while here, and the message she hopes to

convey to students.

As Baker explains, “A Princeton Ph.D. in Geol-

ogy, James D. Hedberg, came to teach petroleum

geology for a semester at my alma mater, MIT,

when I was in my final year of graduate studies. He

was on loan from what was then Esso Exploration

Company. His course opened my eyes to a fasci-

nating set of technical challenges to which I had

previously had no exposure and out of which I have

made a great career. It’s payback time.

“Teaching is only one aspect of the Vann

Fellowship opportunity, albeit a significant means

of connecting to campus life. I seek ways to

strengthen the BP-Princeton relationship, especially

outside of the Carbon Mitigation Initiative (CMI),

which I think is already well cared for. There are

many Princeton programs that potentially inform

BP’s thinking — e.g. STEP (Program in Science,

Technology and Environmental Policy), and Oil,

Energy and the Middle East, as well as many ad

hoc opportunities. The oil patch also knows a few

things, so I seek to make that knowledge body

more accessible to Princeton faculty. Finally, I

hope to build on the base laid by Ian Vann (former

Vann Fellow), so that subsequent BP Fellows can

be even more productive than we two.

“It’s unlikely that a Princeton student would

choose to investigate a career in the oil business

based on the experience of a single course, but

I hope that by presenting the subject matter of

petroleum engineering, even in a very cursory way,

the students who get that exposure will become a

more informed electorate. They will have a

better idea of what is physically possible and what

is not with reference to the oil and gas pieces of

the energy pie. They can interpret posturing on all

sides of an issue mindful of the underlying science

and engineering. As Jefferson said: ‘I know no safe

depositary of the ultimate powers of the society

but the people themselves; and if we think them

not enlightened enough to exercise their control

with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to

take it from them, but to inform their discretion by

education.’”

BP Vann Visiting Fellows is named as a tribute to

BP’s most renowned exploration scientist, Ian Vann.

The BP-Vann Visiting Fellows Program gives BP’s

most talented and fast-rising executives the op-

portunity to explore the frontiers of knowledge in

science, engineering, and public policy while tapping

into the vast resources of Princeton University. The

program was funded in 2006 with a $1.2 million gift

to PEI from BP.

While at Princeton, visiting fellows have the

opportunity to work closely with distinguished

Princeton scholars and researchers, as well as

Princeton undergraduate and graduate students.

The program opens the door for an on-going ex-

change and future collaboration in areas of common

interest.

The program greatly enriches discussions of

complex energy and environment-related issues

cutting across multiple disciplines.

In addition, the BP-Vann Visiting Fellows

Program expands on BP’s commitment, along with

that of Ford, since 2000 to support the Carbon Miti-

gation Initiative program at Princeton. CMI faculty

and research affiliates are addressing global climate

change and developing low-carbon energy sources.

The first Vann visiting fellow was Ian R. Vann,

who was in residence at PEI during the winter of

2007 and 2008.

“I seek ways to strengthen the BP-Princeton relation-ship, especially outside of the Carbon Mitigation Initiative (CMI), which I think is already well cared for. There are many Princeton programs that potentially inform BP’s thinking...”

—Kate Hadley Baker

Profile: Fall 2009 BP Vann Visiting Fellow

Meet Dr. Kate Hadley BakerBy Carol H. Peters


ONE PICTUREPhoto by Carol H. Peters

The Stamp Act SycamoresAccording to the Princeton University guide, The Trees of Princeton University, An

Arboreal Tour of the Campus, in 1765 the trustees planted

this pair of Buttonwood Sycamores. Still standing

in front of Maclean House, they are the oldest trees on campus. Legend has it that they were planted

in commemoration of the Stamp Act’s repeal in 1766. Native to the United States,

sycamores can thrive for 600 years in a healthy environ-ment. Global warming may shorten the lifespan of the buttonwood sycamore, by

causing an increase in the number and duration of sum-

mer droughts and floods.

The Trees of Princeton University, An Arboreal Tour of the Campus: Text based

on articles that appeared in the Princeton Alumni

Weekly and were written by J.I. Merritt ’66. Illustrations by Heather Lovett. Design by

Mahlon Lovett. Editing by Kathy Boehringer.


“Measurements of other trees on the Princeton campus have shown that trees can store an average of 5 to 7 times the amount of carbon that is in the atmosphere above them. These sycamores have been storing carbon for 244 years.”—Henry Horn, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, PEI Associated Faculty Member and Member of the ENV Executive Committee.


here are key moments in the past decade that seemed to galvanize sustainability into a field with substantial professional, social

and political traction. I think of these as convergence events, when multiple factors collide to indicate a change in direction. The first moment that caught my attention was a culture shift in facilities organiza-tions when the U.S. Green Building Council devel-oped its LEED certification system for buildings.

The burgeoning science of climate change was also a key turning point, resulting from the convergence of data and accumulated scientific

knowledge from the world’s foremost climate researchers, some of whom are here at Princeton.

From the necessarily tentative modeling predictions of the earliest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report in 1990, we now see reports demonstrating a level of scientific certainty that is essentially unassailable in its mes-sage that humans are impacting the global climate in dramatic ways. The import of this message was significant enough to garner a Nobel Prize for the IPCC (and Al Gore) in 2007. (Editor’s note: Eight PEI associated faculty members contributed to the 2007 IPCC report: Mike Celia, Isaac Held, Denise Mauzerall, Michael Oppenheimer, Venkatachalam Ramaswamy, Jorge Sarmiento, Robert Socolow and Robert Williams).

The timing of Al Gore’s movie “An Inconve-nient Truth” created something of a tipping point for many students, who came to Princeton in the fall of 2006 wanting to be involved in solutions and to adjust their career paths.

The convergences continue. More recently, on October 5, 2009, President Obama released an Executive Order outlining “Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Perfor-mance.” This EO defines a policy for all federal agencies to adopt aggressive sustainability measures in all areas, with particular focus on greenhouse gas emission reduction, measurement, verification, and transparency. The policy is very much in line with the goal of realizing systemic shifts in everyday behavior sought by many institutions of higher education, including Princeton.

On November 3, 2009, Princeton released its first Sustainability Progress Report in response to the adoption of its comprehensive Sustainability Plan in February 2008. An effort driven by a coalition of partners from across campus, this 2009 Report is the first of a progression of reports track-ing progress toward goals primarily anchored to a 2020 deadline. (To see the report, please go to www.princeton.edu/sustainability). This report is afoundational document. We will surely see progress and setbacks in the future compared to this base-line. But more important than any one success or

shortfall will be the overall strength of the synergies that form across campus programs over time.

Program convergences show signs of surging at Princeton. Long-standing and new individual efforts are bumping up against complementary projects, at a faster pace and with potentially broader impact than before. The Sustainability Office was created in part to help build a framework for foster-ing effective partnerships. For example, Outdoor Action has infused its program with sustainability operations and curriculum over the past two years, thanks in large part to Princeton’s High Meadows Sustainability Fund. It seeks to drive the principles of sustainability learned by students on the trail into the everyday campus life experience. The stu-dent EcoReps are developing curriculum for the Residential Education Program for all incoming freshman. The objectives of Outdoor Action and the EcoReps are uniting, and they are exploring a potential partnership. There are other examples. Seeking collaborations among student groups is now part of the regular duties of environmental club officers through the Princeton Environmental Network (PEN) — something that was not the case three years ago. More Princeton faculty researchers are partnering with Facilities to investigate sustain-ability using the campus as a laboratory. (A good example is PEI’s Butler green roof study. To read about this, please go to PEI’s website: http://web.

princeton.edu/sites/pei). These activities indicate a shift in how we, as a campus, are practicing what it means to integrate sustainability into our core functions.

T

“There are key moments in the past decade that

seemed to galvanize sustainability into a

field with substantial professional, social

and political traction. I think of these as con-vergence events, when multiple factors collide to indicate a change in

direction.”

—Shana S. Weber



During this Outdoor Action Program, which made sus-tainability a focus, Ryan Ellis (upper left) and George Che climbed rock faces; A group of Princeton engi-neering students have worked with Isles to improve the energy efficiency of the Trenton-based nonprofit agency’s future headquarters in a vacant factory; The University has purchased six electric vehicles to replace gas-powered trucks and vans as part of its sustainability efforts. The two-passenger vehicles, which are similar to small pickup trucks, are powered entirely by electricity, so they produce no carbon emissions; With support from the High Meadows Foundation, the Student Environmental Communica-tion Network has been working to better tell the story of sustainability to a wider audience; Ruthie Schwab, a member of the class of 2009, tended the summer squash in the organic garden students created in summer 2008 north of Forbes College. With help from several University departments and funding from the High Meadows Foundation, the students expanded from the previous year’s 12-by-55-foot pilot plot to a 1.5 acre lot filled with a variety of vegetables and herbs; New, customized bicycles are managed by the student-run UBikes program to rent to students and to loan to staff members for quick trips around campus. Photos courtesy of The Office of Communi-cations, Denise Applewhite and Brian Wilson.


PEI News Fall/Winter 2009 http://web.princeton.edu/sites/pei14

Carbon Mitigation InitiativeCraig Arnold, associate professor of MAE,

becomes acting co-director of CMI while

Rob Socolow is on sabbatical during

2009–2010.

CMI announces new members of the CMI

Advisory Council Dallas Burtraw, Senior

Fellow, Resources for the Future; Michael

A. Levi, David M. Rubenstein Senior Fellow

for Energy and the Environment, Council on

Foreign Relations.

Princeton faculty Catherine Peters,

Michael Celia and George Scherer

awarded $2M by DOE to develop a frame-

work for examining carbon capture and

storage investment decisions in light of

uncertainty in CO2 leakage risks, potential

subsurface liability, and the associated

losses in carbon credits. Please see full

article: http://fossil.energy.gov/news/

techlines/2009/09059-DOE_Selects_

CO2_Monitoring_Project.html

Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL)by Maria Selzer, Communications Officer, GFDL

International Meeting of Aerosol

Scientists at GFDL

AeroCom, an international initiative of

scientists working to advance our under-

standing of global aerosol and its impact

on climate, held its 8th annual Workshop

at Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory

(GFDL) from October 5th to 7th, 2009. The

event brought together nearly 90 scien-

tists from ten countries around the world,

featuring seminars and posters related to

aerosol research.

AeroCom has enabled scientists to

assemble a large number of observations

and results from a global model intercom-

parison, in order to obtain reliable esti-

mates of the present and future aerosol

impact on climate and air quality. GFDL

scientist Paul Ginoux, also a Lecturer

in Geosciences and Atmospheric and

Oceanic Sciences, organized the workshop

this year, with colleagues from Max Planck

Institute, the Laboratoire des Sciences du

Climat and de l’Environment, and NASA.

This workshop featured new develop-

ments in aerosol modeling, reports on the

progress of standing AeroCom working

groups, and pressing topics in preparation

of the fifth assessment report (AR5) of

the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change. Much of the discussion focused

on the recently released emission invento-

ries which will be used by climate models

for AR5; model and satellite-based evalu-

ation of the direct and indirect aerosol

effects; and the state of understanding of

aerosol microphysics.

Princeton University was well rep-

resented among the 32 posters and 41

seminars offered. Postdoctoral Research

Fellow Brian Magi from the Atmospheric

and Oceanic Sciences Program (AOS)

opened the workshop with the very first

talk. He also presented a poster, as did

Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dilip

Ganguly (AOS), and graduate student

Fuyu Li (AOS). Associate Professor

Denise Mauzerall (Woodrow Wilson) and

graduate students Ilissa Ocko (AOS),

Yang Zhang (CEE), also attended.

AeroCom is supported by Centre

National d’Etudes Spatiales (France),

Max-Planck Institute (Germany), and NASA

(USA). Their 9th annual workshop will be

hosted by the University of Oxford, from

September 28th to October 1st, 2010.

Center for BioComplexityPrinceton Postdoc Miguel Fortuna

Receives the Horst-Wiehe Award

Dr. Miguel Fortuna, a postdoctoral

research associate in the Center for

BioComplexity, received the Horst-Wiehe

Award from the Ecological Society of

Germany, Austria, and Switzerland for

Miguel Fortuna (right) with recipients of other Ecological Society awards and the President of the Ecological Society, Dr. Volkmar Wolters (middle). Photograph courtesy of the Ecological Society of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

GFDL hosted international scientists whose work advances our understanding of global aerosol and its impact on climate, in October.

http://web.princeton.edu/sites/pei PEI News Fall/Winter 2009 15

outstanding scientific work in the field

of ecology. The Horst-Wiehe Award was

presented to Fortuna at a formal ceremony

held in Bayreuth, Germany on September

16, 2009. Fortuna’s research involves ap-

plying the framework of complex networks

to identify the spatial scale of ecological

processes.

Princeton University Hosts Conference on

the Antigenic Evolution of New Pandemic

Viruses On August 4, the Center hosted a

conference entitled “Strategies to Predict

the Antigenic Evolution of H1N1pdm,”

sponsored by Princeton with the help of a

grant from the Defense Advanced Research

Projects Agency (DARPA). The meeting

was a consultation that brought together a

select group of leaders from the academic

community and government agencies in

the US and UK, to help shape strategies

for dealing with the current pandemic, with

an emphasis on the potential for change

in the virus in the Fall and following years.

Participants included high-level represen-

tatives of most of the agencies in the US

charged with managing the response to

H1N1. Presentations and discussions

focused on the new and historical H1N1

strains; viral evolution in a pandemic; im-

munity, antigenic evolution, and vaccines;

and experimental and theoretical strate-

gies for predicting antigenic evolution.

DARPA Awards Princeton University

New Grant to Explore Adaptability and

Robustness The Defense Advanced

Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has

awarded Princeton University’s Center

for BioComplexity $5.2 million to initiate

a new grant, led by Simon Levin, and

entitled “Predictive Biology: Adaptability,

Robustness and the Fundamental Laws of

Biology.” This will build on the results of

an existing project, entitled ”Microstates

to Macrodynamics: A New Mathematics of

Biology,” which will be completed this year.

In the new award, Levin and an interdis-

ciplinary and multi-institutional team of

biologists, mathematicians, physicists and

computer scientists will concentrate on

uncovering those principles that underlie

the robustness and adaptability of bio-

logical systems in the face of stochastic

perturbations.

The Cooperative Institute for Climate Science (CICS)The sudden, catastrophic break-up of sev-

eral ice shelves located along the Antarctic

Peninsula have clearly demonstrated an

important mechanism leading to an Ant-

arctic impact on global sea level rise over

the next century. Collapse of Larsen B Ice

Shelf in early March 2002 resulted in the

speed-up and thinning of glaciers previously

buttressed by this ice shelf. Understanding

of physical processes and triggering

mechanisms of disintegration of the ice

shelves is crucial for the sea-level rise

prediction. CICS scientist Olga Sergienko

with colleagues, Peter Bromirski (Scripps

Institution of Oceanography) and Douglas

MacAyeal (University of Chicago), have

proposed a triggering mechanism based

on effects of infra-gravity ocean waves

(long-period waves created by nonlinear

interaction of wind waves in coastal

regions). Analysis of satellite images and

ocean storm data revealed large storms

along the southern Patagonia coast prior

disintegration of the Wilkins Ice Shelf in

June 2009. Spectral analyses of seismom-

eter observations on the Ross Ice Shelf

near its seaward edge (shown in photo)

demonstrate that ice shelves are highly

susceptible to effects of the long ocean

waves. Using these data Olga Sergienko

has developed a model simulating effects

of ocean waves on ice shelves. This model

is an important component of a devel-

oping GFDL/CICS large-scale ice sheet

model that provides information about the

ice-shelf stress regime and determines

stability of the ice shelf. The GFDL/CICS

large-scale ice-sheet model is aimed

to simulate behavior of Greenland and

Antarctic ice sheet under changing climate

conditions.

seismometer station

Ross Sea (cloudy)

Ross Ice Shelf

photo: Joe Harrigan

HIGHLIGHTSENERGY DEVELOPMENT HEALTHGRANDCHALLENGES

PEI News Fall/Winter 2009 http://web.princeton.edu/sites/pei16

This summer, the Siebel

Energy Grand Challenge

supported 20 undergrad-

uate student interns who

explored energy technol-

ogy, energy policy and climate science

through placements with faculty research

labs, NGOs, government agencies and

for-profit enterprises. Sara Peters ’11,

interned as a science writer at The New

York Times where her contributions to

Green, Inc. can be found at http://green-

inc.blogs.nytimes.com/author/sara-

peters/ and Dmitri Garbuzov ‘10, who

interned at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics

Laboratory with Paul Ginoux, Lecturer in

Geosciences and Atmospheric and Oce-

anic Sciences, focusing on implementing

a dynamic parametrization of dry aerosol

deposition that could be used for aerosols

and various gaseous species based on

a previous work. From his work with Dr.

Ginoux, Dmitri is planning on publishing an

article. The Siebel Energy Grand Challenge

also put much energy into the Oil, Energy,

and the Middle East series of lectures and

conferences this past year with speakers

such as Paul Stevens, Senior Research

Fellow (energy) at the Royal Institute of

International Affairs who spoke on “The

Coming Oil Supply Crunch” and “Ending

Dependence: Hard Choices for Oil-Export-

ing States.” The very popular Ethics and

Climate Change Lecture Series continued

with its deep exploration of the ethical

implications of climate change. One such

lecture, “The Ethics of Climate Change,”

presented via video conference by Robyn

Eckersley, a Professor and Head of

Political Science in the School of Social

and Political Sciences at the University of

Melbourne, was cited as a strong example

of how videoconferencing can enhance

faculty use of technology for research and

teaching in “It’s Academic,” a blog for and

about Princeton University’s use of current

technologies.

One of the four University Latsis Prizes

for 2009 was given to Elie Bou-Zeid,

Assistant Professor of Civil and Environ-

mental Engineering and Associated Siebel

Energy Grand Challenge faculty, on October

5th. He has been recognized for his work

done on numerical simulations of the outer

layer of the atmosphere. The Latsis Prize is

awarded annually on behalf of the Geneva-

based Latsis Foundation by the Swiss

National Science Foundation (SNSF) and

honors the outstanding scientific achieve-

ments of a research scientist under the

age 40 working in Switzerland.

Catherine Peters, Associate Profes-

sor of Civil and Environmental Engineering,

will be the Acting Director of the Siebel

Energy Grand Challenge for the 2009-2010

academic year while Robert Socolow,

Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace

Engineering, is on sabbatical.

The Siebel Energy Grand Challenge

“Ethics and Climate Change Lecture

Series” attracts thousands on iTunes U,

UChannel and YouTube.

The spring 2009 Ethics and Climate

Change (ECC) Lecture Series appeared

on iTunes U, UChannel, and YouTube, and

over 10,000 people viewed or downloaded

the lectures from these sites. Donna

Liu, Director of the UChannel Project at

the Woodrow Wilson School, posted the

lectures at the series organizer’s request.

Liu noted the series even appeared on the

front page of iTunes U for a week. Accord-

ing to Liu, from March 15 to April 15, “At

least 1,659 ECC lectures were downloaded

from iTunes U. This represents about 5%

of UChannel’s total downloads from iTunes

U for that month. In addition, 4,000+ ECC

lectures have been downloaded directly

from the UChannel website since the

beginning of this year. We also distribute

on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/

uchannel), and the ECC lectures registered

an additional 5,000+ views there.”

In collaboration with the

Health Grand Challenge,

the Development Grand

Challenge provided fund-

ing to support the final

year of a project using community-oriented

theater and marketing to strengthen HIV/

AIDS prevention and education in Kenya.

The project, “Provoking Hope and Prevent-

ing HIV/AIDS in Kenya,” is led by Principal

Investigator Mahiri Mwita, Lecturer,

Comparative Literature (Swahili) and the

Program Director of Princeton in Dar es

Salaam. The project sought to identify,

recruit, train and engage a theatrical-based

educational narrative as the basis for com-

munity-wide tailored communication cam-

paigns to engage and empower individuals

and rural communities in discussing and

solving the threat of HIV/AIDS through lo-

cal and sustainable solutions. The project

replicates and incorporates best practice

approaches in Theater for Development,

health literacy, and social marketing from

Dr. Mwita’s earlier research to mobilize

people in rural and low-income commu-

nities to overcome taboos, customary

practices and values that stigmatize HIV/

Now in its third year of funding, the Grand Challenges Initiative, administered by PEI in

collaboration with the Woodrow Wilson School and the School of Engineering and

Applied Sciences, has created a diverse research and scholarship endeavor. Below are

a few recent highlights from each of the Grand Challenges:

Trenton Franz Awarded Funding from Walbridge FundThis past spring, Trenton Franz, a third year Ph.D. student in the Department of Civil

and Environmental Engineering, was awarded a $10,000 grant from the Walbridge

Fund Graduate Award in Energy and Environmental Research. Franz’s research focuses

on the interplay of vegetation, climate, wildlife, livestock and

humans in the Laikipia-Samburu region of central Kenya. Franz

is using the award for further travel to central Kenya to conduct

fieldwork investigating the interactions between vegetation

patterns and hydrological processes in dryland ecosystems.

“The Walbridge Fund was critical for my return to Kenya this

past summer, where I was able to continue my work on using

geophysical instruments to map spatial patterns of soil moisture.

In collaboration with Dr. Elizabeth King of EEB and PEI, we

studied the spatial patterns of rainfall infiltration around patches of a highly invasive

plant species. The goal of the project is to understand how the invasive species is

using water with the hope of rehabilitating historical pasture lands of the Maasai

people,” stated Franz.

Franz’s research is part of the Development Grand Challenge’s “Water, Savannas

and Society” project. Working with PEI Associated Faculty Mike Celia, Professor of

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Kelly Caylor, Assistant Professor of Civil and

Environmental Engineering, Franz’s goal is to shed light on how the interplay between

vegetation and hydrological processes influence rainfall and climate change which

both affect the pastoral societies in this area of Kenya. In addition to his fieldwork,

Franz has created a video diary of his work which can be viewed at http://www.

princeton.edu/engineering/video/player/?id=536.

2009 Walbridge FundGraduate Award in Energy and Environmental Research

The Walbridge Fund Graduate Award in Energy and Environmental Research, offered

only during 2009, provided research funding to one or more Princeton University

graduate students pursuing innovative research on climate change, climate policy,

energy, or related topics. For more information, please go to http://web.princeton.

edu/sites/pei/graduate.html

HIGHLIGHTS

http://web.princeton.edu/sites/pei PEI News Fall/Winter 2009 17

AIDS, preventing community members

from seeking AIDS-preventative services.

On a related note, the Health Grand Chal-

lenge Daniel Echelman ’11, was sup-

ported by the Health Grand Challenge this

summer as he worked with TEARS Group in

Kenya. TEARS is an NGO based in Nakuru,

Kenya which uses theater as a means of

affecting behavior change as it relates to

HIV/AIDS and implementation of a breast

cancer awareness pilot project.

Although U.S. local water

authorities often treat

water supplies with fluo-

ride to promote dental

health, another side

to the story is that too much fluoride in

drinking water can cause irreparable harm.

Some 200 million people drink ground wa-

ter containing levels of fluoride beyond the

World Health Organization guidelines. High

fluoride levels in drinking water cause fluo-

rosis, which deforms bones and damages

teeth. The Health Grand Challenge funded

a two-year project, commencing in the

spring of 2009, to study “Endemic Fluoro-

sis in Rural Villages of Northeastern India:

Development of a Robust Water Treatment

Technology, Field Implementation, and its

Health Effects.” Led by Principal Investiga-

tor, Peter Jaffe, Professor of Civil and

Environmental Engineering, the Health

Grand Challenge and the Woodrow Wilson

School’s Center for Health and Well-Being

are both providing funding for this cross-

cutting research. The researchers’ goal is

to develop and deploy a simple and robust

technology to remove fluoride from drinking

water at impoverished villages in India.

Elephants crossing the Ewaso Ngiro River in Samburu National Reserve. Photo courtesy of Trenton Franz.

Trenton Franz


he Program in Environmental Studies (ENV) held its Freshman Open House on September 15. Filling the ENV lab to

capacity, the enthusiastic students were eager to learn how to incorporate environmental studies into their undergraduate coursework. The students listened to presentations from one of the program’s founders, Henry Horn, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Dr. Eileen Zerba, Director of the ENV Undergraduate Laboratories, Dr. Xenia Morin, who leads the ENV Senior Colloquium, and Lynne Johnson, Academic Program Manager for the ENV Program.

Three seniors, who are working toward certificates in environmental studies and majoring in Architecture, Politics and the Woodrow Wilson School, also addressed the freshmen. Together they explained how they have grown from their experi-ences in the ENV certificate program and how their other affiliations with PEI have enriched them. The 2009 Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Visiting Professor in the Environment and Humani-ties, Steven Cosson,

also attended the session and briefly described his course.

“The goal of the freshman open house is to reach students early in their academic careers, to make them aware that Princeton offers an excep-tional interdisciplinary undergraduate program in environmental studies,” said Lynne Johnson, Aca-demic Program Manager. Dr. Eileen Zerba added, “The undergraduate environmental studies labs are unique in that they provide opportunities for students to work on local environmental projects that focus on regional and global environmental issues.”

Top: Freshmen learn about the Environmental Studies

(ENV) Program from ENV senior Carolyn Edelstein (WWS); Dr. Xenia Morin,

who leads the ENV Senior Colloquium, spoke during

the open house; Henry Horn, Professor of Ecology

and Evolutionary Biology and PEI Associated Faculty

Member, discusses the ENV Program with a student. Photos: Carol H. Peters

The Environmental Studies (ENV) Program Freshman Open House Draws Engaged StudentsBy Carol H. Peters

T


On June 1, 2009 PEI held its 15th annual Class Day

celebration. Henry S. Horn, Professor, Ecology and

Evolutionary Biology and Acting Director, Program in

Environmental Studies, welcomed the students and

their families.

Stephen W. Pacala, PEI Director and Professor

of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, awarded prizes

to seven undergraduates. Prizes were awarded

for thesis and academic work, to juniors for senior

thesis research, and for environmental work on

campus. This year a new prize, the T.A. Barron

Environmental Leadership Prize, was awarded for

the first time.

Following the presentation of prizes, 38 under-

graduates were acknowledged as Environmental

Studies Certificate recipients. The students’ majors

represented diverse disciplines, with 17 majoring in

the social sciences, 11 in the natural sciences, 8

in engineering, and 2 in the humanities. Prizes were

awarded to the following students:

The Peter W. Stroh ’51 Environmental Thesis Prize

The Stroh Thesis Prize was established in 2003 as

a memorial to Peter Stroh, an active and effective

member of the Princeton Environmental Institute’s

Advisory Council and a strong supporter of the

Environmental Studies Program. PEI awards this

Prize annually to the senior from any department

who has written the best thesis on an environmental

topic. 2009 winners:

Mark B. Smith, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Thesis title: “New Approaches to Hydrogen and

Methane Production from Aquatic Phototrophs.”

Robert M. Weiss, Woodrow Wilson School

Thesis title: “Towards U.S.-China Cooperation on

Climate Change Mitigation: Overcoming Political,

Economic, Energy and Trade Obstacles.”

Becky Colvin ’95 Memorial Award

The Colvin Prize was established in memory of Becky

Colvin ‘95, an Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

(EEB) major who was strongly committed to field

ecology and environmental studies. The Fund provides

an annual grant to support undergraduate environ-

mental field research projects for the senior thesis.

Juniors in the ENV Program or EEB major are eligible

for nomination. 2009 winners:

Sarah E. Chambliss ‘10, Ecology and Evolutionary

Biology

Josephine G. Walker ‘10, Ecology and Evolutionary

Biology

Environmental Studies Thesis Prize

Princeton Environmental Institute awards this prize

to the ENV senior who has written the best thesis in

the broad area of Environmental Studies (especially

theses that address both the technical or scientific

and human aspects of environmental issues). 2009

winners:

Jennifer S. Palmer, Economics Thesis title: “The

Unintended Consequences of Environmental Regula-

tion: An Empirical Analysis of the Changing Structure

of the United States Industry.”

Holger J. Staude, Honorable Mention, Economics

Thesis title: “The impact of the Clear Air Interstate

Rule of 2005 on Electric Utilities: Evidence from the

Stock Market.”

T.A. Barron Environmental Leadership Prize

This prize was established to recognize that member

of the senior class who has distinguished himself or

herself by demonstrating exceptional dedication to

environmental concerns, not only in formal classes

and in independent academic work, but also by

leading and encouraging other activities among

fellow students and in the community at large. 2009

winner:

Ruthie B. Schwab, Ecology and Evolutionary

Biology. Thesis title: “From Wild Apples to Modern

Cultivars: Chemical Profile Changes of Sugars,

Acids, and the Phenolics Over Selective Time.”

From the top: Stephen W. Pacala and T.A. Barron; Members of the class of 2009, (photos: Carol H. Peters) T.A. Barron and Ruthie Schwab (photo: Lynne Johnson)

PEI 2009 Class Day Ceremony

PEI Awarded Seven Environmental Studies Prizes and Named 38 Environmental Studies Certificate Recipients on Class Day By Carol H. Peters

http://web.princeton.edu/sites/pei

Guyot Hall, Princeton University Princeton, New Jersey 08544-1003

A glance at the Princeton campus on a chilly day in

October. Photo by Carol H. Peters

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