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Notebook: February 7, 1996
PEI Finds New Home
PEI Finds New HomeInstitute promotes an interdisciplinary approach to environmental problemsDecember 1995 marked a turning point for the Princeton Environmental Institute (PEI), when its faculty and staff moved into the bottom floor of Guyot Hall after a million-dollar renovation. The change puts the institute's management under one roof for the first time since PEI's inception in April 1994. On December 14, PEI announced a formal relationship with the new $20 million Heinz Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment, a Washington-based organization named for the late Senator H. John Heinz III of Pennsylvania. PEI Director Simon A. Levin, a professor of biology, will be a member of the Heinz Center's board. The events signal a higher profile for environmental scholarship at Princeton, where courses in the subject date to the 1960s. The institute's mission is to promote interdisciplinary approaches in both natural and applied sciences. Ecologists, geologists, chemists, and engineers will collaborate with researchers from the humanities and social sciences. Their goal is not only to invent better tools for preventing air pollution or treating water, for instance, but also to overcome economic, political, and cultural barriers to an environmentally safer world. Efforts to bring ideas from the lab into government policies-and public consciousness-are a major part of the university's plan for the institute, according to M. Elizabeth Perlin, the institute's director of outreach. Research at PEI is organized into four clusters: CEES, which concentrates on energy policy and disarmament issues, as well as fusion, fission, and alternative energy sources; Environmental Sciences and Technology, which includes the PEI Research Initiative in Science and Engineering; Global Change and Biodiversity, which includes the Carbon Modeling Center, focusing on the greenhouse effect, among other problems; and Social Dimensions of Environmental Problems, which deals with transportation issues, population, and the links between business and economic issues and the environment. Students can earn a certificate in environmental studies by writing a senior thesis that incorporates an environmental issue and taking part in a seminar in which students present their thesis topics to the group. PEI expects to make some changes in the curriculum, offering students more choices and getting them enrolled in introductory-level courses by sophomore year, said Steven R. Brechin, PEI's assistant director for undergraduate instruction and senior lecturer in public and international affairs. This story was adapted from one written by Mary Caffrey for the Princeton Weekly Bulletin. Snow Blankets Campus, University ClosesThe blizzard of '96 dumped about two feet of snow in Princeton and brought normal life to a halt. (The governor banned unnecessary travel from state roads for a day and a half, and area airports were closed.) The university was closed on Monday, January 8, the first day of reading period. Because some students had trouble traveling back to campus, university officials moved back the deadline for junior papers two days and Dean's date, the deadline for final papers, three days, to January 19. This was the first time in at least 20 years that Dean's date had been postponed, said Associate Dean of the College Richard G. Williams *72.Tyson Connects Cosmic Phenomena to Daily LifeLecturer in Astrophysical Sciences Neil De Grasse Tyson just might have more "students" than anyone else on the faculty. A half-time member of the research staff, Tyson is also half-time acting director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City, which serves about 400,000 people a year. "Our visitors range from preschoolers to senior citizens, so the opportunities for bringing science to the public are unbounded," says Tyson. The Hayden Planetarium, which is part of the American Museum of Natural History, is perhaps best known for its Sky Theater, a circular room seating 650, with an 80-foot diameter domed ceiling that arches 40 feet above the audience. Celestial phenomena are re-created on the dome by an elaborate projector that is "a system of lenses and lights with two globes, one for the northern hemisphere and one for the southern," explains Tyson. The planetarium's current sky show, playing through June, is "Cosmic Mind Bogglers: A Tour of Astronomical Extremes," for which Tyson wrote the script. To engage the planetarium's varied audience, he explores "connections between concepts of science and everyday life experiences." Keeping up with the technological expectations of today's public is a challenge, Tyson acknowledges, but "We rely on the ability of the planetarium to immerse the viewer. Our imagery covers the entire dome, so viewers have a 360-degree experience." In the planetarium's favor is the fact that "most of our visitors have never seen a true night-time sky," Tyson points out. "When the theater lights dim, and the stars appear, there is always a gasp from the audience." In addition to the sky shows, the planetarium has special children's shows, courses in astronomy, meteorology, and other subjects, and public lectures, some taught by Princeton professors. In addition to publishing research in astrophysical journals, Tyson addresses nonscientists in "Universe," a monthly column in the museum's Natural History magazine, which circulates to half a million people. Tyson believes astrophysics is more accessible than most scientific disciplines, "because you only have to look up to become inspired. . . . There's a general sense of wonder that enables us to bring astrophysics to the public." In addition, he observes, astrophysicists use ordinary language to describe the phenomena they observe. "If there's a big red star out there we call it a red giant." Tyson, a 1980 Harvard graduate, has long engaged the public in scientific matters. While earning a PhD in astrophysics from Columbia, he wrote a monthly column for Stardate magazine, answering questions from the general public about astronomy and space. He came to Princeton in 1991 as a postdoctoral fellow in astrophysical sciences. He accepted a joint appointment at the planetarium and at Princeton in 1994-the same year in which he published Universe Down to Earth (Columbia University Press), which uses household analogies to bring complex astrophysical concepts to the lay reader. Tyson became acting director of the planetarium in June. Tyson feels that his two positions complement each other. "It's research and teaching that bring energy to my work at the planetarium. And working at the planetarium makes me an infinitely better teacher, because every day I'm thinking about better ways to explain the cosmos so people will understand." -Caroline Moseley |